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December 27, 2017:
JOSEPH JACOWITZ, founder of FIRST LOVE Publications & one of two pastors of Christ Bible Church of Pleasanton, CA, who will address:
“The SUFFICIENCY of SCRIPTURE”
Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. Now here's.
Our host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth. We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you a happy Wednesday on this 27th day of December 2017. I'm delighted to have returning to the program someone who has been an excellent guest in the past, Joseph Jackowitz.
He is founder of First Love Publications and one of two pastors at the Christ Bible Church of Pleasanton, California. Today we are going to be addressing the sufficiency of Scripture, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Joe.
Jackowitz. Great to be with you, Chris, and we're looking forward to wrestling with this burning issue that we're talking about today. And before we go into the topic at hand, once again, for those.
Of our listeners who have not heard you before on this program, who may be unaware of you because we have new listeners, it seems, joining us every day on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, tell us about, first of all, Christ Bible Church of Pleasanton, California, where you serve as pastor.
Christ Bible Church is a Reformed Baptist church founded in 1990, East Bay area. At the beginning for many years, but congregation, and we reach out with the gospel studies under the publications ministry where we print and distribute many different topics and categories, doctrinal, devotional, evangelistic, apologetics, and pastoral, and we distribute them worldwide.
We have a website, also First Love Missions. We distribute literature free, and the seminars are free. And First Love Media is in the works right now, which I really can't get into because it's in a...
Those are the main ministries. We have a local and an international dimension to our...
And God willing, this January, from the 17th through the 20th, Pastor Joe and the folks at First Love Publications will be joining me with their own exhibitors booth at the G3 conference in Atlanta, Georgia, and I'm very excited about that.
And once again, this is my second time manning an exhibitor's booth at the G3 conference, and I just was blown away the last time I was manning an exhibitor's booth because not only did I get to meet a lot of listeners in the Iron Sharpens Iron radio audience whom I had never met before face-to-face, some of whom I was aware of through their correspondence by email and their questions that they submitted by email to my guests, but also I met a number, quite a number, a large number of people who listened to the program but I had never heard from at all in any way from all over the world, different parts of the world, including England and other areas, and it was just such a blessing, and also to meet for the first time face-to-face men that I have already interviewed by phone.
That was the first time I had ever met face-to-face Phil Johnson, the executive director of John MacArthur's ministry, grace to you, and had the privilege of interviewing him for the first time face-to-face, even though I have been interviewing him on the radio since 2005, and we have been corresponding very often all of these years, but I had never had the privilege to meet him.
So if anybody wants to register for that conference, it's g3conference .com, g3conference .com, and I'll be repeating this later, but I just want to let you know that James White will begin the English portion of the event on Wednesday night, January 17th.
He is debating a Muslim. That's Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. Then on the 18th, the actual conference, the actual English-speaking conference begins on the 18th, and that lasts through the 20th, and the speakers include Stephen Lawson, Vody Baucom, Phil Johnson, Keith Getty, H .B. Charles Jr., Tim Challies, Josh Bice, James White, Tom Askell, Anthony Matheny, and Michael Krueger, David Miller, Paul Tripp, Todd Friel, Derek Thomas, who's going to be my guest this Friday, Martha Peace, Justin Peters, and Stephen Nichols, who is the president of Reformation Bible Church, I'm sorry, Reformation Bible College, the college started by R .C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries.
So go to g3conference .com if you want to register for either a personal attendance registration, or if you want to register for your own exhibitors booth, like Joe Jakowicz and myself will be manning.
G3conference .com, make sure you tell them that you heard about the conference from Chris Arnsen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And this topic, the sufficiency of scripture, is really one of the key pillars of the Reformation.
It obviously hinges on a sola scriptura, which means that scripture alone is our sole, inerrant, infallible rule of faith for the church. And the two major areas of disagreement with Rome during the Reformation that the reformers had were on sola scriptura and sola fide.
The others that follow from that, sola gratia and sola Christus and sola Deo Gloria are natural products of these two. And the Catholic Church may try to confuse the issues with a smoke screen by giving some kind of lip service to the others that I mentioned.
But the sufficiency of scripture and sola fide are not two of them. They are openly in opposition and do not mince their words in their opposition to the sufficiency of scripture and also sola fide, that we are justified by faith alone.
But if you could, Joe, tell us why it was that you had a burning desire to address this specific issue today.
You said it's at the infallibility itself, infallible. There is not an object than anything interpreted as being from God. And we do not have an objective infallible state that undergirds the second Timothy 3, 15 through 17, where we read, and that from childhood, you have known the Holy Scripture to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, is given by inspiration of God.
And of God may be teaching the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture to make us perfect, equip us, not from most good words. Before in verse 3 that the scripture is the Bible, is what we need being together, is completion in life.
After that, this is the case. This is to teach God's truth or the answer. To add, there's no Talmud, there's no church tradition, has any merit, teaches. Now, there are a lot of problems today which challenge the doctrine of in our daily life when we're teaching.
Well, the churches defending this very important doctrine of the sufficiency of the scriptures. There are many teachings out there which on the surface, like you suggested, Roman Catholicism, a strong belief on scripture as an antidote to identifying important doctrines.
And this doctrine is the sufficiency, that is, is the antithesis, first of all, of authority. And, in fact, the thing that's bizarre about that is that.
The Roman Catholic Church not only agrees with us that the scriptures are inerrant, but they agree with us that only scripture is God-breathed. And the thing that's very bizarre about that is that even though they recognize that only scripture is God-breathed, they still believe that the traditions of their church are on the same par, even though they even act as if they are above the scriptures, very often, if not most often.
But it makes no sense that they would recognize that scripture is God-breathed, and scripture alone is God-breathed, and the traditions of the church are handed down by mortal men, they still hold them on an equal par.
And I know that they will say that we are in unsafe territory because we don't have an infallible magisterium interpreting the scripture, but the reason why that is a farce is because they don't have an infallible interpreter for their alleged infallible interpreter.
There are many disagreements by different wings of the Roman Catholic Church, because it's not monolithic, as they claim. There are many disagreements on what the Pope is saying in his encyclicals, even in his ex cathedra pronouncements over the centuries.
So this is this big boon they think they have, this area of superiority that they believe they have, is just a farce. And I think that many conservative and traditionalist Roman Catholics know that this would be a very difficult thing for them to defend with the coming of Pope Francis, their most liberal pope in history.
But I'm sorry, I digress there.
That's a problem, because the doctrine of the sufficiency of scriptures, in fact, most evangelicals will just accept it outright and not understand that if you look at minutia tradition and the three authorities will identify lie for today, especially teaching ministries of sound doctrine, the fundamental and which solus scripture efficiency of the scriptures alone to guide us as the only rule of faith and practice in the Christian life is a very critical teaching.
Because if we cannot agree on the source of our authority, Chris, everything else from this doctrine in the daily life tradition has to the church and our worship in the spit out the bone is never our authority and traditions for the church by way of tradition not command began to worship on the first day of the week from the dead.
Well, what makes tradition as long as tradition does not violate scripture nor contradict it, the Bible's authority, the doctrine of their teaching churches rejects scriptural authority, Chris, but tradition, especially the high church, national or worldwide denominations, many of them have abandoned the sufficiency of the scriptures a long time ago, teaching a week and change society or the opinion of the teacher.
And it's interesting that the Catholic Church will acknowledge that the the letter to Timothy that the Apostle Paul wrote, which is included in the canon that they agree with that part of the canon because obviously the Catholics disagree with our Old Testament canon, but the second Timothy 316 versus 17 that you were reading before all scripture is inspired by God and and some translations I have heard from those who know the New Testament Greek Koine Greek will say that actually means God breathed all scriptures.
God breathed and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for trading in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work. And if the Catholics were consistent and they were were to claim this as God's truth just breathed directly out from God through Paul.
If they were consistent in their belief that that is true how could they possibly believe that praying to Mary is a good work. That praying to images statues and paintings and icons of Mary and the saints.
How could they believe that those are good works. How could they believe that worshiping the elements of the mass is a good work. And there are so many things that the Roman Catholics the Roman Catholic Church teaches and has even dogmatized that are nowhere to be found in scripture.
And yet they would have us believe that they are a good work or good works.
Even though they're not in that God breathed scripture that Paul speaks of professing Christian. And you got into a conversation with them and they began to say well God told me this.
And God told oh yeah obviously those are typically not exclusively but they are typically charismatic or Pentecostal Christians that say that but I have experienced even just run-of-the-mill evangelicals who don't necessarily believe in the continuation of signed gifts saying things like.
That right. Well hazardous mysticism. Where because we're living in a in in a day where the generation of Christians you make and choices in your life you suggest it must have been from God. We're. But too often people they assume that what they feel is spiritual and that the only spirit.
17 says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. To provide a counter what is true is from God around every corner and under every tree or expecting to hear the voice of God looking for that in every personal experience.
I would say since I talk with talk like this they've incorporated this terminology into their conversational language. God told me this and I felt things seems to be on mystical experiences and feelings rather than the word.
Of God in fact don't you think that. And I'm I'm fairly certain you've experienced this is that sometimes it comes under the guise of false humility and and what I mean by that and I'm not even necessarily saying that the person is conscious of the fact that they are lying.
But you will hear things such as I've even heard this from Christian authors. Wow. This is a interesting book you wrote here. Well I don't take any of the credit. This is all from God. This is uh oh well really.
Then why don't we staple it next to revelation if that's the way you feel about it. Um and you know it could be a number of things. It could be a song that somebody wrote. Oh I don't know. I don't deserve any of the thanks.
This all came from God. They they have this humble approach to answering that question and what they are really doing.
Is exalting what they have done to a status of God breathed. Yes he described connecting with it. But my point is why are we looking for something more. Has caused a lot of instability a lot of confusion and a lot of we many believers.
Many Christians bounce from one God told me experience to the next really God that's speaking to them. And the Bible is clear that we must test the spirits whether they be God from God. If they speak not according to there is no truth.
No truth in them. The third point that I would bring up is by psychological philosophies that know nothing of God and biblical truth. Problems of the human heart a lack of self-esteem. Local notion of slavery to sin that's what happened.
And therefore environment sin problem. The idea of psychology's approach to the human condition is not found in scripture. And when we adopt the psychological method of solving problems we deny the truth that the Bible is sufficient to describe our problems and we limit our ability to understand and apply its solutions.
If we use the man-invented psychology to diagnose our problems we'll inevitably end up yet devise the solution that will get man.
We have to go to it we have to go to a break right now so pick up where you left off there on that point of psychology. And if anybody wants to join us our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com.
Chris arnzen at gmail .com. If you have a question chris arnzen at gmail .com please give us your first name your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside the usa and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.
Don't go away. We'll be right back with joe jacobs. And the sufficiency of scripture right after these messages from our sponsors. Tired of box store christianity of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert.
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So please tell them that. And that will help us remain on the air in a big way. And we are now back with our guest joe jackowitz. I think i accidentally called you jacowitz. And you may still hear me call you jaco.
It's from time to time by mistake. It's jackowitz. Correct. Correct. Right. I'm sorry about that brother. Okay. And we are uh discussing the sufficiency of scripture. We already have an anonymous listener from new york state who asks in your condemning of psychology.
Are you ruling it out altogether. Is there any proper use of it for the born-again christian. In your opinion that would not violate the sufficiency of scripture. No i was going to.
Address that they're psychological and there is a play medical problem for us but it is indeed a rare. And uh we'll pick up where you left off uh before the break. On psychology. Yeah. Well point on some of the switches we see today from we looked at tradition and wanted to touch on celebrity preached by god to understand the bible.
To explain the bible. To take too often christian the authority when we challenge them uh their condition. That sir theologian says such and such a thing why even bother. Search the scripts is not our authority nor his teacher.
Why the scriptures are sufficient. The bible says that we are to uh testers. And that's why pastors and teachers are given and the bible and to explain it and to apply it through expository word of god unto great edification of the believers and the members of the church.
But we need to keep in mind that men are followed tested by the scriptures to see whether their teachings are true. We should not give the bible to no matter how the numbers in their churches are. We would never you know.
Goes back to um the roman catholic issue. Uh the roman catholic church will often claim that sola scriptura or the sufficiency of scripture is our achilles heel because they will say you say that the scriptures are sufficient and the scriptures themselves don't even say that.
And they don't even say that they are the sole infallible authority of the church. Well the fact that they are identified as god-breathed should be sufficient to come to that conclusion. Because it reminded me uh of an analogy.
Let's say you are camping in the woods with a friend. Your friend gets bit by a rattlesnake. And you you say uh don't worry i have this manual that was written by a physician and also an expert on snakes on what to do in this circumstance.
And then one of your other buddies with you says don't worry about it i've got an old family remedy passed down from my grandmother's grandmother. All throughout our family lineage i know how to take care of this snake bite.
Well you would probably be much uh more secure in using the writings of a researcher of snakes who is a physician an expert in this area. Now you you multiply that millions of times over when you have god-breathed truth why does there even need to be an explanation that any tradition outside that cannot possibly be on any level even close to the authority of scripture.
Is what i said. Does what i said make sense to you.
Yes absolutely correct and the bible itself however good some of these external helps are an aid in supporting the bible or lending more no matter what it who god is the other source and self-confirm them contradictions and moses identifying people's minds and their conspired the writers of writers.
And the fourth actual doctrines of essential doctrines of bible doesn't need any outside sources its reliability. We do have a listener.
And i know that uh my instincts are to pronounce this versailles kentucky as it would be pronounced in france but in i think in kentucky they call this for sales don't they. Uh we we have been in versailles kentucky.
And he says what is the best approach to share the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture in missions when dealing with someone unfamiliar.
With the gospel first of all you need to start there. You need to start with the scriptures. You cannot really share the gospel and evangelize and make progress with someone in bringing the good news of salvation to them without first agreeing that the bible is the word of god.
To promote the sufficiency of scripture of all need to be people of the bible. We need to understand the bible ourselves very trends of the christian christian doctrine is enough. We need we need to have be first from other religions who will try to be a model.
Bible teaches. And we need to go beyond mourning in the middle of the milk the meat of the word and studying and meditating upon this to our minds and hearts. So we need a regular appetite on the meat and the milk of the thank you.
Ben keep spreading the word about iron trap and zion radio in versailles kentucky and beyond. You know the roman catholic church once again um they have called or some who are apologists among them have called uh sola scriptura a blueprint for anarchy because they believe that without an infallible interpreter of the scriptures we will be in chaos.
And apparently in contrast they are allegedly supposed to be some kind of united uh monolith which is ridiculous. I mean their uh alleged uh infallible interpreter the the papacy and the magisterium have not preserved some kind of uh biblically sound uh unanimously agreed uh monolithic church.
They there are all kinds of roman catholics that have not been disciplined or excommunicated who are teaching in seminaries and writing books. There are ultra left-wing catholics who are communists and marxists and who have uh very unbiblical uh acceptance of homosexuality and all kinds of things.
And you have cultic roman catholics on the other end of the spectrum say the vacantists and lefeverites and all kinds of uh ultra right-wing uh traditionalist catholics. So this is in no way has protected them from schism and from division and all that.
But um the uh the fact of the matter is that the the uh other churches that would profess to be christian as well such as uh cults uh mormons and jehovah's witnesses and others uh they do not adhere to sola scriptura.
And in fact i can read i could still vividly remember marcus grodi who is the host of the journey home uh radio program or television program i should say a catholic television program may also be on radio as well.
And uh he said that sola scriptura has led to the forming of cults like the jehovah's witnesses and the mormons. That's absolutely absurd because the jehovah's witnesses do not permit people to be berean and just uh study the scriptures and uh follow their convictions of what the scriptures say.
You have to go by the watchtower uh uh track society i believe it's called their headquarters for the kingdom hall. And you have to go by their interpretations of the bible and the mormons don't even hold to the one book of the scriptures.
They uh of course which is 66 books but they they do not contain all of their inspired writings in the scriptures. They have the pearl of great price. They have the uh doctrine and covenants they have outside sources of what they would believe are uh god breathed authority outside of the scriptures.
So those two examples are to give them as examples.
Of what can arise from sola. Scriptura is pure nonsense. Am i right. Yes it has come up with the fact that i think it's amazing. While the cult uh belief is not only writing right now we're fighting a losing battle and we need christians more than ever before.
True believers to become educated. Take the time to make of learning what the bible is. People to read and study the bible. People in our churches may not naturally think to spend time reading the bible at home are not encouraged more to study the bible as spreading throughout emphasized from the scripture.
So we're out there as believe in our and i think the basic doctrines of the christian faith strengthening their understanding of the sufficiency of the scriptures memorizing scriptures and scripture references.
I need to get out there of god's word rely sources of knowledge and reading christian novels and into the image of christ. And to help us grow we need to desire the pure and we have to go.
To our midway break right now. It's a longer break uh than normal because grace life radio 90 .1 fm in lake city florida requires a 12-minute break. So please be patient with us and please take this opportunity to write in your questions.
Our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com. Chris arnzen at gmail .com. Don't go away we'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors. Tired of box store christianity of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert.
Do you long for a more traditional and reverent style of worship. And how about the. Perhaps you've begun to think that in-depth biblical exposition has vanished from long island. Well there's good news.
Call them at 631 -929 -3512 for service 631 -929 -3512 or check out their website at wrbc .us. That's wrbc .us. I'm james white of alpha omega.
Ministries. The new american standard bible is perfect for daily reading or in-depth study. Used by pastors scholars and everyday readers the nasb is widely embraced and trusted. As a literal and readable bible translation the nasb offers clarity and readability while maintaining high accuracy to the original languages which the nasb is known for.
The nasb is available in many editions like a topical reference bible. Researched and prepared by biblical scholars devoted to accuracy the new topical reference bible includes contemporary topics relevant to today's issues from compacted giant print bibles.
Find an nasb that fits your needs very affordably at nas bible dot com whichever edition you choose trust discover and enjoy the nasb for yourself today.
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And before i return to our interview i just have to let you know that coming up in just a couple of weeks from january 17th through the 20th the g3 conference returns to atlanta georgia on the 17th it begins with a debate between reformed baptist apologist and theologian dr james r white of alpha omega ministries and a muslim apologist.
Then on the 18th of january through the 20th the english-speaking conference begins and that's on the theme uh knowing god a biblical understanding of discipleship. The speakers include stephen lawson vody baucom phil johnson keith getty hb charles jr tim challis josh bice james white tom askew anthony mathenia michael kruger david miller paul trip todd friel derrick thomas who's my guest this friday martha peace justin peters and stephen nichols.
If you want to either register to attend the conference or to register for an exhibitor's booth uh like the ones that i am going to be manning for iron trip and xyron radio and my guest joe jackowitz is going to be manning for first love publications.
If you want to register for your own booth go to g3 conference .com as well and please mention chris arnzen and iron trip and xyron radio. Last but not least i know you may grow wearisome over me begging you for money now every day something i resisted doing for years for years i never made one single public appeal for a donation for iron trip and xyron radio.
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That's chris arnson at gmail .com. Well now we are finally back uh with joe jackowitz who is founder of first love publications and he is one of two pastors at christ bible church of pleasanton california.
We are discussing the sufficiency of scripture. And uh one of the things i wanted to bring up to you right now joe are some of the stereotypes that people have in regard to what means or even the sufficiency of scripture.
There are christians uh there are uh some fundamentalists and other bible believing christians who mock those of us especially those of us who are theologically reformed or calvinistic because they will say that we are violating one of the very pillars of the reformation that we claim as our own sola scriptura.
Because we are known for having very large libraries in our homes we are very well known for going to bible conferences and breaking our backs carrying out the very heavy load of books written by great men of god throughout the ages.
And because of the fact that very often are the sermons that are preached by our pastors uh will not only obviously contain the scriptures which are the most important of all things to be featured in a sermon and that sermons should be based on but they are very often these sermons are very often bolstered by quotes of great men of god.
And and this is not a violation.
Of sola scriptura or the sufficiency of scripture at all when rightly handled. I think they're well meaning. I think there's zeal see to them. They have picture. But let's back up a little bit and let's remember how god teaches how to get has raised.
He gives them but he gives them rightly. Divide the. He gives them the holy spirit. He also gives these men uh not only understand the maturity in the christian faith. This is a gift that god plants within the hearts and minds of pastors and teachers.
These men have many different personalities but the one thing they have in common on this point is that they're gifted by god to present truth to the congregation. Clarity christ. This is beings like past living god in a supernatural way where they actually love god more.
They serve god more diligently. Grace and knowledge of god. It's an amazing. Any believer who has given any gift from god. Teaching is not as important as the gift itself that ultimately results in the edification of the church.
And there are two primary methods of teaching. It is and teaches the word of another way by god. A gift by god to come. Organized way of books as when you come. How do we learn reading. We learn books are not inspired by god like the original autographs the original scriptures are.
But these men who are given a gift of tea are gifted by god to organize in such an edifying way as to cause that books written by people cannot have the same impact in in terms of the edification. Yes and the fact that these scriptures.
Uh require certain uh things for a a man to possess uh in his life in his godliness and so on uh in order to be qualified for the the role of a teacher. Uh the very fact that there is a mandate for us to have teachers and that they are there it can't be just anybody.
These are men that need to stand uh head and shoulders above the crowd in in many ways. And uh the very fact that this exists in the god-breathed and errant scriptures. We would be foolish not to make use of great teachers from the past.
They don't have to be living teachers. Uh we'd be foolish to totally ignore because these men who say that i'm just using the bible i am not going to be using uh john calvin or martin luther or charles spurgeon or all these men.
I'm just using the bible. Well that's actually disingenuous because they aren't just using the bible. They're using themselves and the bible. And there is a level of arrogance and haughtiness and sinful pride for a man to think that he doesn't need any assistance at all.
Uh to more accurately follow the scriptures. Am i stepping over bounds here.
In saying that are purporting to have a direct line to god by way and dangerous direction. Cds or like your programs. In many different ways in many different forms. As long as we are accurately embracing the by the scriptures many different forms and methods to edify as many people who god.
But god himself has a church as a primary means of growth and maturity for believers. Teachers as long as they edification as well. And we have so many enemies against us that we need to take advantage.
We need to be hard advantage meditating on them is the primary means. And we need to make sure we don't substitute the scriptures for something else. Constant meditation of scripture prayer walking with god.
Even when we use every means available for our sanctification that god has given to us. The bible says we barely save scare. Teachers. I need every every means i can possibly use. Legitimately you know uh.
And also we have to be careful not to confuse people. We do.
Believe as reformed protestant bible-believing christians uh in the perpiscuity of scripture. We do not believe that the scriptures are so difficult from cover to cover uh so difficult to understand in any way that they require some elite clergy to uh rightly handle the scriptures.
I mean we are to be berean. And the scriptures are plain enough that the things we need to know in order to inherit eternal life uh are easily understood. But that. But in saying that not everything in the scripture is easy for us to understand am i adequately or accurately.
Explaining the perpiscuity of scripture is that the bible can be understood and correctly interpreted by anybody like you said. Push along baby. The bible says that god's given us a mind from the holy war the holy spirit teaches you all things.
Now he's not suggesting that we don't need earthly teeth himself and by saying in first timothy three and titus one that past that is god gives them grace and knowledge of god. Uh no. Mental faculties.
Our intellect our memory and developing and cultivating our mental gift so that we can also given us the holy element of our bible study that we cannot illuminate our minds to understand the spiritual input the mental ritual bible study spiritual meaning of scripture and to help us apply it to our lives.
So the perpiscuity of this mental fact anybody from as long as we can read. Yes uh. Hence.
What jesus christ declared uh in john chapter 10 my sheep hear my voice and i know them and they follow me that supernatural awakening that christ true sheep true sheep have by his grace have received by his grace uh we are following the voice of the shepherd through the preaching and teaching of the word.
Today obviously jesus christ is not walking physically among us or he's not audibly communicating with us. But today we are hearing the voice of the shepherd through the preaching and teaching of the word.
And even if we do not have the uh the gifts or the requirements to be an official teacher in the church we certainly have a responsibility unless we are mentally impaired in some way uh to be studying the scriptures as the bereans did.
And therefore that's where the the perpiscuity uh really comes home uh to bear on what we're talking about uh the scriptures are not so above the comprehension of the average person that we are to just say when we are hearing a preacher a teacher i'll take your word for it.
I don't know what you're talking about but you know you're a lot smarter than me. So i'll just trust in what you're saying because you have credentials and all that. And unfortunately that is the way throughout the centuries and even today you'll have many roman catholics and i am a former roman catholic uh who don't ever pick up their bible because they know well the priest knows that stuff.
I don't need to know that stuff. I can't even understand it. I don't i'm not even going to waste my time but as long as the priest knows what he's talking about as long as i'm faithful to the church i don't really need to know what the priest is talking about.
That is unfortunately the attitude of many. And of course that's not confined to catholicism alone but it's obviously extremely uh notorious in catholicism. And even roman catholic apologists admit that uh that's true.
And protestant and evangelicals in fundamental some will turn their minds over to their pastors and rely exclusively with the bible for them authorian past and what the past interpretation of scripture is the own but not to the power law that's being checked scrutinized in his teaching to make sure that the things he teaches are so and believers understand.
The meaning and application of scripture sometimes grows beyond biblical boundaries in some churches. And the pastor dominates and controls the lives of the congregation in a way beyond his need to think for themselves.
Yeah they're to respect and applicate the word of god. Just need to keep in mind is that the with gentle willing to yield so any pastor that stands up like a hitler in the church like a diatrophies and begins to demand that the members attitude his demeanor.
And i taught at the church that way there's interpretation. And believers there were very too knowledgeable and that would go counter to uh their. Well we have to go to our final break right now if you.
Want to join us. Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. In fact let me take one question and have you. I'll read the question to you and you can answer it when we come back. This will give you a time to mull it over in your mind and look at your own catalog because the uh susan margaret in dauphin county pennsylvania uh says could you give me a list of books that you publish from first love publications that are the best titles to give to unbelievers.
Very good question and we'll have you answer that question when we return from our break if you have. If any uh anybody else in the listening audience has a question. Our email address is chris arnson at gmail .com.
C h r i s a r n z e n gmail .com. Don't go away. God willing we'll be right back after these messages with more of pastor joe jackowitz and the sufficiency.
Of scripture paul wrote to the church at galatia for am i now seeking the approval of man or of god or am i trying to please man. If i were still trying to please man i would not be a servant of. Hi. I'm mark lukens pastor of providence baptist church.
We are a reformed baptist church and we hold to the london baptist confession of faith of 1689. We are in nofolk massachusetts. We strive to reflect paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how god views what we say and what we do than how men view these things.
That's not the best recipe for popularity. But since that wasn't the apostle's priority it must not be ours either. We believe by god's grace that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man and to be vessels of christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us and to build up the body of christ in truth and love.
If you live near nofolk massachusetts or plan to visit our area please come and join us for worship and fellowship. You can call us at 508 -528 -5750. That's 508 -528 -5750. Or go to our website to email us listen to past sermons worship songs or watch our tv program entitled resting in grace you can find us at providence baptist church ma .org.
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To the pastor's study. Because everyone needs a pastor welcome back. And i want to wish a very happy birthday to someone who is a dear friend of not only my guest uh pastor joe jackowitz but has become a very favorite uh guest of mine on iron trip and xyron radio.
And i have the honor and privilege of having interviewed him for the very first time ever on this program which absolutely amazed me considering the fact that many in reform baptist circles consider him a legend and actually a quite a historic figure among us.
I'm speaking of pastor bill downing of sovereign grace baptist church of silicon valley in california. Today is his 77th birthday so i want to extend to him my birthday wishes and the fact that i am praying that the lord grants him many more years of faithful service and laboring in his kingdom for the spread of the gospel.
And we just thank god for gifts to the church like pastor bill downing what a very rare unique and.
An incredible man he is. Am i right. Pastor joe. Don't get me started on that. Yes indeed he is. He's not only appreciated at my ordinate years ago but uh in many other. We've we've. But i would take this opportunity amen.
And for those of you listening uh if you live near silicon cal.
Silicon valley california or if you're planning to visit there or if you have family friends loved ones or acquaintances that live near there. The website for more information is s g b c s v dot org. That's s g for sovereign grace b c for baptist church s v for silicon valley dot org.
And uh i cannot uh more highly recommend the preaching and teaching ministry of pastor bill downing known by many as mountain man bill because until his health and age began to prohibit it he was quite an avid hunter.
A a boar a wild boar hunter. And uh i can't help but repeat a humorous story that a friend of mine dave dykstra many years ago told me. He said uh i was having a conversation because dave dykstra is an avid hunter.
He said. I was having a conversation with bill. Downing said what do you like to hunt. He says. I hunt wild boar. He goes. What do you use. Dave said what do you use. And pastor bill said i use a knife.
And he said well i'm not talking about butchering it. How do you hunt with it. He said a knife i hide in a tree when i see a boar roaming around beneath me i leap out of the tree onto its back and stab it to death.
Now that is a mountain man. That is not an exaggerated uh nickname yeah but his hunting.
Days he would tell you are over. Yes he told me that. So to pray for him i i encourage your listeners to pray for pastor downing because we need many more years. But bless his heart. Preaching and writing.
Uh get from him from his writing ministry through his writing and preaching.
Ministry. Well as you know before the break i read a question from susan margaret in dauphin county pennsylvania who wants to know what are the best books that you publish from first love publications that are best suited for giving to unbelievers.
And and of course this is a great way to dovetail on the sufficiency of scripture because this proves since you are leading a ministry that publishes books uh extra biblical extra canonical books written by uh great teachers of the faith yet mortal men not uh writing god-breathed uh instructions for us but at the same time who have written many wonderful and useful books throughout the centuries.
You do not see that at all as an inconsistency with the scripture uh with the uh the doctrine of the.
Sufficiency of scripture. No i don't i i think through missionaries radio television even fulfilling that the knowledge of the lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the back of christ. And then of course in matthew 24 and other passages that all the world and then the end shall come.
So both things getting worse will decay throughout the world while simultaneously the truth of god's word will be readily available and will be spreading uh through various formats. And to do that you have about three that would be ideal to give command is a book and to not only give to an unsafe person because it's written in simple english but also for one-on-one bible studies or discipleship sessions with unsaved people.
Small group is in length. Why was i born. What is my purpose in life. Just instinctive questions that unsaved people ask. Uh unconsciously lines that and you could sit down and cover one chapter at a time with again.
The format of the book is the author takes one page in the gospel it's about a 50 page booklet. People first lie that is addressed is intellectual suicide. And then the answer from colleges and universities.
But also just to give the unsafe people in the world eight lies you will hear it deals with a lot of misconceptions unsafe people have but it also gives them the gospel in the process. And then a track called are you born again is an excellent one for the non-christian as well are you born again written by jc rye.
And then are you again written by jc rye in your evangelistic outreach. Also one of our more prolific title but robert jones wrote this book and to encourage believers in their evangelistic endeavors.
Uh the last track i'll mention is called what crisis are you facing. Very short two-page track but addresses people go through crises constantly. So it's an excellent track uh my past of nigeria facing again written one word dot org.
And you can order these track cart and we will send them to you post. Well praise god for that. And once again the.
Website for first love publications is first love publications dot org. First love publications dot org. And uh it is quite a remarkable thing that you're doing. I mean i have seen and own some of the books that you publish that you give away for free.
And these are top quality bindings and covers. These are not cheap ugly things. I mean no matter how uh beautiful and true the contents of books are very often if they are published or printed in a cheap fashion.
And i recognize that there is certainly a at times a need for that. It's far better that books when they are good and biblically faithful. It's far better that they are distributed even if printed cheaply than not distributed or purchased or received at all.
But you uh just go above and beyond the call of duty by having these books really uh published in in the same quality as the finest and most renowned of of publishers uh produced their own material. Can you explain.
That uh that it's important to give a quality it's not extravagant. And we don't we don't uh spend a lot of money. As a matter of fact we not only have a quality product but we work hard at trying to find the cheapest printed in india.
Southern one-fifth to one-tenth in the united states. Get their papers the cheapest paper and the highest quality paper i guess a probably.
Better phrase would be least expensive paper because it's just not cheap paper it's not.
Garbage cheap with my jewish background i should have said it that way. Uh anyway so yeah we we've never designed that as well as a true we've never had praise god for that. And um why don't you uh.
Other than the ones that you listed for susan why don't you tell us about some other books that you have in print that that might be of interest even to the seasoned christian or the pastor among us.
Well we have five categories that are evangelistic and we have an apologetics category that um come up and and then we have other apologetic topics. Um i'm on my website right now going through it. Um we've got books on dr downing whom you mentioned earlier has written spieler book we distribute is titled catechism on bible doctrine.
It's a library in ancient faith not every doctrine exhaustively but every major doctrine of the explained and taught should an answer for on the doctrinal says dr downing's two-volume book. Want to or want more information on uh mission's life.
Uh that's the best. And then we have a booklet that's very popular called the devil in the church by e .m bounds. Most people know him as the author of chapters on how the devil works and local church disunity and focuses showing.
And then on revival of dr downing again. And then we just printed the classic book called the sovereignty of pink i know you're familiar with uh that's that's a classic going back almost 100 years between the law and the gospel called trinity and triunity.
We have other books in the doctrinal category dr downing just finished about a month or is available and again that book is free of charge. And then we have a our largest category god robert jones 12 on the topic of revival element.
That's a wonderful book in encouraging believers to go deeper in their heart. A book on redeeming the time we've uh occasion i've ever read. I'm i'm going through it right now if you want to learn faculties.
Well we are out of time and i want to make sure that uh our listeners have all of your contact information. Uh once again the website for christ bible church uh is christbiblechurch .org christbiblechurch .org and that is in pleasanton california and then also the first love publications website is firstlovepublications .org firstlovepublications .org.
Do you have any other.
Contact information that you care to give to serve in short-term missions for a week or more. We have a missions organization called first love missions but the love .org. On that website you'll see our missionary worker.
Uh just fill out the form and we'll be in touch with you.
Missionsfirstlove .org. Thank you so much uh joe jackowitz. I look forward to your return to iron sharpens iron radio. Uh sorry to our listener chuck we did not have time to answer your question on the sabbath but try to uh keep listening and the next time we have a program on that subject please submit a question and next time please give us the city and state and country of your location because you failed to do so when you wrote in today.
I want to thank everybody who listened especially those who wrote questions and i want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that jesus christ is a far greater savior than you are a sinner.
Make sure you stay tuned tomorrow for josh bice and next monday we have the aforementioned pastor bill downing on iron sharpens iron radio. God bless you all.