April 22, 2021 Show with Geoff Thomas on “Definitive Sanctification: New Relationship, New Purity, New Character & New Resources”

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April 23, 2021

April 22, 2021 Rev. GEOFF THOMAS, who, beginning in 1965, served for over 50 years as pastor @ Alfred Place Baptist Church of Aberystwyth, Wales, & author of many books, including his latest: “The LEGENDARY CASEY JONES & OTHER AMERICAN FOLK TALES”, who will address: “DEFINITIVE SANCTIFICATION: New Relationship, New Purity, New Character & New Resources”

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01:00: Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,
01:10: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
01:20: This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Thursday on this 22nd of April, 2021.
01:30: I am always thrilled to have a regularly featured guest on this program.
01:36: He is regularly featured because I absolutely love this man. I love his preaching and teaching and writing, and I just love hearing him speak about the things of God on this program.
01:47: His name is Jeff Thomas, who, beginning in 1965, served for over 50 years as the pastor of Alfred Place Baptist Church, a
01:56: Reformed Baptist congregation in Naboris with Wales, and he is the author of many books, including those published by the
02:05: Banner of Truth and Reformation Heritage Books, and today we are going to be addressing a theme,
02:13: Definitive Sanctification, New Relationship, New Purity, New Character, and New Resources.
02:20: It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Jeff Thomas. Well, thank you very much,
02:26: Chris. It doesn't seem you hardly yesterday that I was enjoying being with you on Iron Sharpens Iron once again, and I hope that what
02:40: I say will be helpful to everyone listening. Amen, and if anybody would like to call, not call, if anybody would like to email, we used to have a call -in show, but we strictly have emailed questions these days.
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03:16: Well, this is quite an important subject today because there are, tragically, many professing
03:25: Christians, and I emphasize the word professing because I am not confident that many of these that believe what
03:34: I am about to say are Christians at all. I'm not going to rule out all of them, but I think that there is quite a bit of mischief, as it were, in the professing evangelical church, and there are some, in fact there are many, evangelical
03:53: Christians who teach that sanctification is an option.
03:59: It's a good thing, but it's not necessary. It may happen, it may not happen, but you'll still go to heaven.
04:06: A tragic lie from the pit of hell. Wouldn't you agree that that is certainly a dangerous teaching?
04:12: Yes, certainly. That is absolutely satanic. And today we're going to be discussing definitive sanctification.
04:20: So if you could, please define what you mean by definitive sanctification.
04:27: Okay. Let's compare sanctification with justification.
04:34: Sanctification is the act of sanctifying the world. People think of justification as an instantaneous and irreversible moment.
04:42: It's a status which God gives us. He bestows upon us the righteousness of Christ.
04:52: It's a declaration that God makes about us. Sanctification is then taught to be a progressive and an ongoing experience.
05:06: So the jargon here, the buzzwords are that justification is an act, whereas sanctification is a work.
05:17: And there's a certain value in such a distinction, but it can't be maintained rigidly in the light of New Testament teaching, because we find in the
05:29: New Testament that sanctification is very, very often defined as a moment, as an act.
05:40: It's what I'd call, if you bear with me with another buzzword, punctilia.
05:47: It's point. What I mean is that when men speak of progressive sanctification, they're viewing it as a line.
05:57: It is linear. It goes progressively on and on. But I'm saying now this afternoon that very often in the
06:08: New Testament, sanctification is a point, punctilia. It isn't a line.
06:15: It's a moment. And I want to deal with what that means.
06:23: And so I've chosen as a text, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 11.
06:30: He talked about the prior wickedness of the
06:36: Corinthians before they heard and believed the gospel and followed Jesus Christ. And they were thieves and covetous and drunkards and so on.
06:47: Such were some of you, he says. And then in verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 6, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the
07:03: Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
07:09: Amen. Some of the sweetest words I can ever hear. They are here.
07:14: What a blessed statement that is. So it is saying sanctification is a momentary transition of a
07:23: Christian believer. Such were some of you, but you are washed.
07:31: NIV says, you were washed. You were sanctified, but you have been sanctified.
07:46: You have been justified. He's looking at their lives and that conversion bifurcated, it divided them.
07:54: What they were before in their past and now what has been finalized at the moment when they trusted in Jesus Christ and they were sanctified.
08:08: So it is exactly parallel to justification. You have been justified.
08:17: You have been sanctified. So just as the transition from condemnation to vindication and acceptance was at a point, completed at the point of conversion, at sanctification there was a moment in your conversion, absolutely parallel, coordinate with being justified.
08:43: They both lie in the past as moments, as points in a completed experience.
08:51: God looks at the believer and he says justified. God looks at the believer and he says sanctified.
08:59: It's not in a process to be improved. It's something perfect and complete.
09:08: And that's why believers are referred to as saints. In fact, you know how the letter to the
09:17: Corinthians begins that they are verse two sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints.
09:27: They've been sanctified and so they are already saints. It isn't saying one day they'll become saints, but the moment they become
09:37: Christians, that moment, they have become saints in Christ Jesus because of their union with the
09:47: Holy Lamb of God. And if we were to examine, for example,
09:54: Paul's teaching in Romans chapter six, we'd find that with massive reiteration, he gives us the same kind of doctrine.
10:04: He refers to a past transformation in terms of which we died to sin, in terms of which we put off the old man.
10:16: Our old man was crucified with Christ, the unbeliever that we once were.
10:24: He's dead. He's buried. We were planted in the likeness of Christ's death.
10:31: We rose again in the likeness of his resurrection. We've risen to newness of life.
10:39: So Paul is saying that in that past, in the personal life of these
10:47: Corinthian Christians there's been a great and a decisive moment of transition where we have cut ourselves off radically from our own past and we've entered upon a wholly new lifestyle.
11:03: So I want to look at the privileges of Christian definitive sanctification.
11:13: And so the first point I want to make is that it means a new relationship.
11:23: That is, if we go to the Old Testament, we find that before holiness ever became a matter of morality or character, holiness was a matter of relationship, especially of relationship to God.
11:45: So in the Old Testament, we find that there was a holy land and a holy city and a holy building and holy people.
11:59: Now it couldn't possibly mean that those vessels and those utensils had undergone some spiritual change or that some place, a city, had gone through some spiritual change.
12:19: It meant this, that those vessels and utensils and buildings and land has now been dedicated to God, consecrated to God.
12:34: It's become God's possession. It belongs to Jehovah. It's for God's use.
12:43: These things have been set apart. They've been separated. So that's the clue.
12:50: And in the same way the believer as a saint stands in that peculiar relationship with God.
12:59: It's not first of all that he is different in character. It is that he is the possession, the property of somebody else.
13:12: The church is God's special people. You know how children are so very conscious about possessions.
13:21: That's mine, they will say. He's got mine. Give me what's mine, they say.
13:30: So here are people in the Old Testament and they're a purchased possession.
13:38: They're in a new relationship. They've been separated to God and they belong to God.
13:43: Separated from the world's values and attitudes. Separated from the common or the in crowd.
13:53: Separated from the profane. We have become the possession of God.
14:01: God's vessels unto honor for the Master's use to honor
14:07: God in everything. We are there for God to use.
14:14: God has chosen a clay pot, an earthen vessel, indistinguishable from hundreds of other clay pots.
14:24: God has chosen yet now he has separated them to himself and he says this is my clay pot.
14:32: We no longer belong to the world. We no longer belong to ourselves. We have a new relationship.
14:39: We are servants for the Master's use. We are
14:45: God's property. We've been sanctified unto God.
14:54: So that is the first thing that I want to use to explain how sanctification is definitive.
15:07: A once for all event. We have been separated to God.
15:14: To a new relationship with God. We belong to him.
15:21: We are God's people. The man of God. The woman of God.
15:28: God's property. God's peculiar and distinct possession.
15:37: So that is the first way in which sanctification, being set apart, is unique and significant in that henceforth we are
15:51: God's people. Amen. And don't we have to be very careful when it comes to this very important subject not to fall into the errors, the heretical and damning errors of Rome that combines or makes interchangeable sanctification and justification and also avoid the error of those within evangelicalism who think that the reformed understanding of sanctification is the same as Rome's and therefore they avoid it altogether as a necessity.
16:37: Yes. Absolutely. And yeah, that there is a confusion there.
16:45: Alas. And that is partly of what
16:50: Luther saw and part of what the 95 Theses were that he nailed up.
16:59: That it was not doing repentance, doing penance, but now it was a people who had turned away from the world.
17:07: They had turned from their sin to God. They belonged to God.
17:14: They were separated to God from now on. And the foundation is the relationship.
17:23: But then it's what you said, the second thing. The second characteristic of definitive sanctification is that it's a new purity.
17:35: So in this text that I've read, it shatters any idea that you could belong to God and then go on living like any unbeliever.
17:52: He says, you were washed. You'd been washed.
17:58: You've been cleansed. You've been purified.
18:05: He's looking back again to a great event in the past of these Christians when they were converted and he's saying to them, remember what happened?
18:15: Once and for all, you were washed, weren't you?
18:21: He's talking of the defilement of sin. When we sin, we feel dirty.
18:29: A man once rung the bell in the months in which
18:34: I lived and I said, can I help you? He said, can you baptize me?
18:42: And he told me then when we came in and sat together, he told me how he lived with a woman and she got pregnant.
18:53: She'd without telling him had gone and had an abortion and he felt defiled.
19:01: Wow. He felt dirty and guilty and couldn't sleep and the months went by and he thought, ah, if I could be baptized perhaps because I'm contaminated, my soul is dirty.
19:20: And I told him, well, baptize me. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward spiritual cleansing that has to take place in which
19:32: God washes your soul and cleanses your conscience.
19:38: It's like a fountain that sprinkles you from heaven of the clearest pure water.
19:44: It flows from the throne of God and it washes you and it washes you inwardly, your conscience.
19:52: And your heart is washed away.
19:58: And that's what Paul is saying here. He's saying that the filth has been cleansed away.
20:07: Your sins, though they were as scarlet, are now as white as snow, red like crimson.
20:15: Now they're like washed wool. And the great explanation of how this is possible is in a very, very important verse of scripture which says, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin.
20:40: Nothing too defiled, nothing too dirty. You think of how
20:47: King David behaved, washed and cleansed when he, in Psalm 51, acknowledged and confessed his sin to God.
21:00: He was washed. There was, ah, about 50 miles away from Aberystwyth there is a nuclear power station.
21:15: And occasionally there are certain leaks. And there are certain leaks. And they have a
21:20: Geiger counter and they check if it's bleeping. Check your hands if you've touched anything.
21:26: And they give you then a special hard soap. And it doesn't lather.
21:36: But you wash and wash and wash. And then the Geiger counter checks. And then you go to this special soap.
21:43: And then the Geiger counter registers that every molecule of it has a been removed.
21:52: And so it is when you come as a sinner. And you can't look up. And you look down.
21:58: And you beat your breast. And you say, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And God has never heard that prayer from the heart of a man and not answered it comprehensively.
22:14: All the guilt. All the defilement. Makes the believer clean every whit.
22:24: There's a lovely conversation in John 13, before the Passover, when
22:29: Jesus takes a jug of water and a basin and towels.
22:35: And he begins to wash 24 feet. And wipe them. Get the donkey dung off them.
22:43: A wonderful dialogue ensues as the men feel guilty. Peter says, Lord, you wash my feet.
22:52: Jesus says, what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. You'll never wash my feet.
23:01: Peter says, and Jesus says, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part of me.
23:11: Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus says, he that is washed needs not save to wash his feet.
23:25: He's clean every whit. And ye are clean.
23:32: You've been washed. It's when we visit someone, we, oh, they welcome us in and they say, oh, would you like to go to the bathroom?
23:41: They say, and they don't mean for us to have a bath, do they?
23:48: They say, would you like to wash your hands? They say, it's a figure of speech.
23:55: We know what they're talking about. Well, when we've been washed by Jesus Christ in the laver that's opened up on Golgotha, sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
24:15: Hallelujah. So Peter, you don't need to be washed again.
24:26: You've been washed. You're clean. Well, understand, the
24:35: Christian life is like that. You've been washed once for all.
24:42: For the whole of your past, all the crimson sins, the scarlet sins of the past are now in the sight of God as white as snow.
24:55: Amen. And we have to get to our first break, brother, and let's pick up right where you left off there. Lovely.
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37:56: Jeff Thomas, a well -known author, primarily with the Banner of Truth and Reformation Heritage Books and also
38:03: Day One publications. And today we are addressing definitive sanctification, new relationship, new purity, new character, and new resources.
38:13: And right before the break, Jeff, you were quoting from John chapter 13, where Jesus is about to wash
38:21: Peter's feet, and Peter said, Never shall you wash my feet. And Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no place with me.
38:30: And Peter said back to Jesus, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.
38:37: And why don't we pick it up where you left off there? Yeah. Yeah. So the comprehensive cleansing that comes through the cross work of the
38:50: Lord Jesus Christ and once and for all, all our past, all the most scarlet sins are washed away.
39:07: And now we are our coward, our status in the sight of God as white as snow.
39:14: No need to keep bathing, keep showering, another sauna, another way.
39:21: They've gone. They've been dealt with.
39:27: Lady Macbeth sees this great spot and she says,
39:34: All great Neptune's oceans can't cleanse the spot.
39:40: And that's the position. If you say no to my Savior, if you reject the accomplishment of the
39:50: Lamb of God who came now no longer in symbolic form in the thousands and millions of lambs and goats and pigeons and heifers that were slaughtered through the old covenant period.
40:05: Now, all that preparation, all those signposts that were pointing to his work that he would do, he would wash us and cleanse us.
40:17: It's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
40:27: Now just a little daily washing like we do of our hands and feet, sins of today.
40:35: If we confess them, he is faithful and just because of what Jesus has done to forgive us.
40:43: So Jesus tells Peter, understand now Peter, he that is washed needs not save to wash his feet, but he's clean every whit and you are clean.
41:00: When we stand before the Lord, our faith has been in him.
41:07: And when we feel, oh, our unworthiness to be there, he will smile and he will say, you are clean.
41:18: The devil would remind us of what we once were, what we did, what we said, all the past, all the scarlet sins.
41:27: And he will say, you need to do penance. You need to scourge yourself. You need to take cold baths and purify yourself.
41:38: No, Jesus says, you are clean. Once an
41:44: Amon had dipped himself in Jordan seven times, he could go back to Syria and he never needed to make a pilgrimage all the way from Syria to the
41:56: Jordan to wash again because he was cleansed.
42:02: Once and for all perfect, complete, purged, no need of a purgatory.
42:09: He's been purged. A new purity and a new relationship.
42:17: Those are the first two things that characterize definitive once for all sanctification.
42:26: Okay, we have a question for you. We have Bobby in Hartsdale, New York, who says,
42:34: I agree with everything that you have said, but is not sanctification also a lifelong process?
42:42: It never ends, even though at the same time it is a once and for all act.
42:47: Obviously, people are rarely the same in their state of holiness and walking with Christ from the day they were first on their knees crying out to him and on the day when they perhaps are in their nineties dying in their beds.
43:06: Obviously, if there is no growth during that long period of time, one would have to wonder if they are truly regenerate.
43:14: So is not a process expected and not everything to be accomplished at once?
43:21: That's terrific. Yes, of course. I totally agree with you. There is the progressive nature of sanctification as well.
43:33: I had a friend, Terry, and Terry was in the same seminary I attended in Philadelphia, and then he was called to a
43:40: Reformed church in Grand Rapids. The pattern in that church was that the elders came and the leading elder shook hands with him.
43:52: He went into the pulpit and took the service. After the service was over he came down and he stood in front of the pulpit and the elders one by one walked past him and shook hands with him.
44:07: If an elder refused to shake hands with him it was because he felt that some error had been present and so they had to talk together afterwards to find out what the error was, and one day this happened and he wouldn't shake hands with Terry.
44:27: So Terry and he met together afterwards and Terry said, Oh, what was wrong?
44:32: What did I say wrong? And he said to Terry, You taught progressive sanctification.
44:40: And of course Terry had and I have and every
44:46: Christian must because although sanctification is a definitive and once for all event, it is also progressive.
45:01: For example, the last words of Peter, But grow in grace and in the knowledge of the
45:09: Lord Jesus Christ. And you're growing then, you're growing in Bible knowledge, in Bible understanding, in the way that the truths of the
45:20: Bible are influencing your thinking, your emotions, you are growing in evangelistic concern, you are more and more anxious.
45:35: Oh, that the world might taste and see the riches of His grace, the arms of love that compass me would all mankind embrace.
45:44: That is a progressive longing and you volunteer to take part in evangelistic outreach in the church.
45:54: There's progress, there's progress in putting to death those sins that most easily beset you, to give them no tidbits, to spare them no indignities, to reject them and always to confess them and ask
46:15: God for help and increasingly then finding deliverance from those things.
46:22: You increase in prayerfulness, you increase in the reality and depth of your private times.
46:33: It's a battle always. And the last chapters of Romans and the last chapters of Ephesians and Colossians, they deal, all of them, with making progress.
46:50: I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I've kept the faith.
46:56: He finished the course. He made progress of it. So yes, I do agree with you that sanctification is also progressive.
47:10: But I think that we know that more instinctively. And the wonder of this doctrine is that it is also a once and for all event.
47:22: You are sanctified. You are washed. You are set apart. You have a special new relationship with God and you then are washed.
47:34: Let's hold the two in nice creative tension. We have a question for you that is not quite on the subject, but it is not far afield from the subject because obviously the death of Christ is inseparable from our sanctification because no one will be sanctified unless Christ has died for them and all for whom
48:06: Christ died will be sanctified. That is what we who are Reformed believe anyway. Obviously we are unique in Christendom to believe that second statement.
48:19: I think it is legitimate to ask the question, especially since he, I believe, is a first time questioner.
48:28: Gregory, who is from Middle Island, St. Kitts in the West Indies, he says in 1
48:35: Corinthians 15, verses 1 -3, it seems to say that Paul told the
48:41: Corinthians before they were saved that Christ died for their sins. In verse 3, if that is so, then how could
48:50: Paul have told the Corinthians before they got saved that Christ died for their sins if Jesus died for the elect only?
48:59: I think he may be jumping to a conclusion about something there, but go ahead.
49:05: Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't think in evangelism in the
49:13: New Testament the phrase Christ died for your sins is addressed to the world.
49:22: I'm not sure about that. But you see, it's the way we state it.
49:31: We state it like this. You've sowed your wild oats.
49:37: You are tasting the bitterness of a wasted life.
49:44: You feel such grief. You're suicidal in despair.
49:50: Oh, God, be merciful to me. What a rotten sinner I am.
49:56: Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then you hear of the life of Jesus, his righteous life, how he died as the
50:04: Lamb of God to take away your sins. And you cry to him, take away my sins, you say to him.
50:16: And you've said it in a context there of the love of God that has brought this man now to know about Jesus Christ, to know something of the
50:31: Bible story, to know about his righteous life and his atoning death.
50:38: He's loved this man so much that this man now has come to believe that there may be mercy for him, that he can trust in him.
50:53: And so you can say it's for your sins he died.
51:02: You who are convicted, you who are suicidal and despairing.
51:09: But, ah, there it is. Now, I can't believe that he ever shed his blood in vain, that there are people being punished in hell for their sins who were once punished for those sins in Christ.
51:29: God can't demand a payment twice for the same sins for once in the blood of Christ and the atonement.
51:41: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well, I've forsaken you because the sins of a company of people more than any man can number have been laid upon you.
51:52: And I'm condemning their sins in you. And then he punishes them again when full atonement has been made.
52:05: And so we, because you either limit the power of the blood of Christ or you limit the purpose of the blood of Christ.
52:14: And the purpose was to save a vast company of people. Thou shalt call his name Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins.
52:21: That's why he came into the world. And so redemption is accomplished by Jesus Christ for all these people.
52:30: You either limit the purpose or you limit the power. You say, well, you know, he died for their sins, but that couldn't save them from hell.
52:40: And though Christians would be horrified at that, that a drop of the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse a universe of its sins.
52:56: So that's how I would go about beginning. If you were sitting with me, we could chat about this.
53:03: And we have to go to our middle break right now. Please be patient with us folks, because the middle break is longer than the other breaks because grace life radio 90 .1
53:13: FM in Lake City, Florida requires of us a longer break because the FCC requires them to localize geographically iron trip and Zion radio to Lake City, Florida.
53:22: And therefore they air their own public service announcements and other local things during this midway break while we air our globally heard commercials, please write down as much of the information as you can that our advertisers provide so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them and respond to them at the very early at the very least, please respond to them by thanking them for sponsoring iron shop and Zion radio, even if you can't purchase anything or use their services.
53:48: But please respond to them in some way, at least to thank them and also send in questions to Jeff Thomas, to Chris Arnson at gmail .com.
53:55: Chris Arnson at gmail .com. We'll be right back after these messages. So don't go away. I'm James White of Alpha and Omega ministries.
54:08: My friend, Chris Arnson, host of iron sharpens, iron radio, and I are headed down to Atlanta, Georgia once again for the
54:15: G3 conference. This year's G3 will be held Thursday, September 30th through Saturday, October 2nd on the theme.
54:23: Christ is supreme over all. I'll be joined by over 20 other speakers and musicians to lead in the worship of God through preaching, teaching and singing, including
54:32: John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Conrad and Bayway, Daryl Bernard Harrison and Virgil Walker.
54:38: For details, visit G3 conference dot com. That's G3 conference dot com. Chris Arnson and I hope to see you
54:45: September 30th through October 2nd at G3 21. This is James White reminding you that Christ is supreme over all.
54:59: Chris Arnson, host of iron sharpens, iron radio, announcing a new website with an exciting offer from World Magazine by trusted source for news from a
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55:27: I believe you'll also find world to be an invaluable resource to better understand critical topics with a depth that's simply not found in other media outlets.
55:37: Armed with this coverage, world can help you to be a voice of wisdom in your family and your community.
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56:08: That's W for world and for news G for group dot org forward slash podcast.
56:26: This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.
56:33: Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpens Iron radio financially.
56:42: Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers who strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our
56:54: Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the end of which we strive is the glory of God.
57:01: If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes or you are visiting this area or you have friends and loved ones nearby.
57:12: We hope you will join us some Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.
57:24: Our website is Grace Church at Franklin dot org. That's Grace Church at Franklin dot o r g.
57:32: This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign
57:38: Lord, God, Savior and King Jesus Christ today and always.
57:48: When Iron Sharpens Iron radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the
57:54: New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the
58:02: Iron Sharpens Iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the
58:07: NASB. I'm Dr. Tony Costa, professor of apologetics and Islam at the
58:12: Toronto Baptist Seminary, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Jeff Downs of Knox Reform Presbyterian Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and the
58:22: NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Mark Romaldi of Grace Reform Baptist Church of Long Island in Merritt, New York, and the
58:31: NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Scott Pasolo of the
58:37: Masters Church of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and the NASB is my
58:42: Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Kevin Venue of the Bible Church for Washington, New York, and the
58:48: NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Andrew Smith of Christ Reformed Community Church in St.
58:55: Augustine, Florida, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Clint Leiter of Highway End Chapel Sedalia, Missouri, and the
59:05: NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep
59:11: Iron Sharpens Iron radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart?
59:17: Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron radio.
59:26: Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.
59:40: I'm Dr. Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.
59:46: I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,
59:52: Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.
59:59: It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God, like the dear saints at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Coram, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in his holy word, and to enthusiastically proclaim
01:00:17: Christ Jesus the King and his doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.
01:00:24: I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love, as I have.
01:00:33: For more information on Hope Reformed Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.
01:00:40: That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.
01:00:49: That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York, that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.
01:01:10: Here's what Gary DeMar, President of American Vision, had to say about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio recently.
01:01:17: Good to be back, Chris. I always enjoy our time here. I have to tell you, you're one of the better interviewers out there, and I've been doing this for 30, more than 30 years.
01:01:27: Wow, that's some compliment. How much do I owe you for that? You don't have to owe me anything.
01:01:34: We're in good shape. I'm glad you said it on the air, so I don't have to brag about myself.
01:01:40: Tell your friends and loved ones about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, airing live Monday through Friday, 4 to 6 p .m.
01:01:48: Eastern Time, at ironsharpensironradio .com. Hi, this is
01:01:54: John Sampson, Pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona. Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnzen and the
01:02:02: Iron Sharpens Iron podcast. I consider Chris a true friend and a man of high integrity. He's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big, penetrating questions, while always defending the key doctrines of the
01:02:14: Christian faith. I've always been happy to point people to this podcast, knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the
01:02:20: Internet where folk won't be led astray. I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide.
01:02:26: This is a day of great spiritual compromise, and yet God has raised Chris up for just such a time.
01:02:32: Knowing this, it's up to us as members of the Body of Christ to stand with such a ministry in prayer and in finances.
01:02:39: I'm pleased to do so, and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting
01:02:44: Iron Sharpens Iron financially. Would you consider sending either a one -time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry?
01:02:53: I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris, if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com,
01:03:00: where you can click support. That's ironsharpensironradio .com. Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor.
01:03:11: Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio has had a long -time partnership with our friends at CVBBS, which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.
01:03:21: They specialize in supplying Reformed and Puritan books and Bibles at discount prices that make them affordable for everyone.
01:03:28: CVBBS has been a family -owned book service since 1987, operating out of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
01:03:34: They seek to bring you the best available Christian books and Bibles at the best possible prices.
01:03:40: Unlike other book sites, they make no effort to provide every book that is available or popular, because frankly, much of what is being printed is not worth your time.
01:03:50: That means you can get to the good stuff faster. It also means you don't have to worry about being assaulted by the pornographic, heretical, and otherwise faith -insulting materials promoted by the secular book vendors.
01:04:02: Browse the pages at ease, shop at your leisure, and purchase with confidence at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.
01:04:09: Order online at cvbbs .com. That's cvbbs .com.
01:04:16: Or you can order by phone at 1 -800 -656 -0231.
01:04:21: That's 1 -800 -656 -0231. Please let our friends at CVBBS know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.
01:04:38: Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts,
01:04:47: Long Island Youth for Christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need Jesus. We are rural and urban and we are always about the message of Jesus.
01:04:56: Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ.
01:05:04: Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959. We have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.
01:05:18: Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above.
01:05:25: For details, call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333.
01:05:32: That's 631 -385 -8333. Or visit liyfc .org.
01:05:41: That's liyfc .org. If you love
01:05:55: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers.
01:06:02: One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Hansen is doing is
01:06:08: Daniel P. Patafuco, serious injury lawyer and Christian apologist.
01:06:13: Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission?
01:06:20: To foster belief in the credibility of scripture as the written word of God. They go to various churches, schools, and institutions to publicly display a rare collection of biblical texts along with a fascinating presentation by Mr.
01:06:35: Patafuco demonstrating the reliability of scripture. To advance the cause of the gospel, they created a beautiful, perfect facsimile of the genealogy of Jesus Christ from the original engravings contained in a first edition 1611
01:06:52: King James Bible. This 17th century hand engraved chart shows the family tree of Jesus Christ going back to Adam and Eve.
01:07:03: This book is complete with gorgeous full -size illustrations of Noah's Ark and the
01:07:09: Tower of Babel and an explanation of why the genealogy of Jesus is so important for his claims to the throne of the universe.
01:07:18: Originals of this work are in museums and nobody has ever made it accessible to the public in a large book form before.
01:07:26: You can have your own copy of this 44 page genealogy book for a donation of $35 or more.
01:07:34: Visit historicalbiblesociety .org. That's historicalbiblesociety .org.
01:07:41: Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,
01:07:53: Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted.
01:08:01: He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own.
01:08:07: You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the
01:08:13: Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.
01:08:26: Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God -centered, Christ -exalting books for all ages.
01:08:33: We invite you to go treasure hunting at Solid -Ground -Books .com.
01:08:39: That's Solid -Ground -Books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past to present you can unearth from Solid Ground.
01:08:48: Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. And we are honored that Solid -Ground -Books .com
01:08:56: thinks so highly of Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio that they use a portion regularly of their hard -earned income to keep this program on the air through their advertising dollars.
01:09:09: We want to thank Mike Adosh, the founder of Solid -Ground -Books .com for his faithfulness and his generosity in sponsoring this show ever since we relaunched from our new
01:09:22: Pennsylvania studio in 2015. And we look forward to many years to come of a fruitful and mutually lucrative partnership for the gospel.
01:09:33: In fact, Mike Adosh has been raving to me how many people are contacting him to thank him for the fine literature he publishes and they have been mentioning thankfully, very faithfully, that they have heard about Solid -Ground -Books .com
01:09:50: on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. I want to thank all of you who have been doing that. You don't know how much that means to me.
01:09:56: And remember folks, whenever you purchase books from Solid -Ground -Books .com, you're not only doing them a favor and you're not only going to be doing us a favor by keeping one of our primary advertisers happy, you're going to be doing yourself an enormous favor and anybody for whom you are purchasing gifts from Solid -Ground -Books .com.
01:10:17: They have nothing but the finest in Christian literature from centuries ago going all the way back to the Reformation and even modern books by such distinguished authors as Dr.
01:10:27: James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. And our guest today, Jeff Thomas, has even written endorsements for some of their books and I know that you have a very high regard for this ministry, don't you
01:10:36: Jeff? Yes, it's a wonderful ministry. We are living in great days for huge books and very helpful books for children and for unbelievers.
01:10:53: Yeah, what a time to be a reader. Amen. And so remember, keep somewhere handy where you look every day, whether it's a post -it note on your laptop screen or whether it is a piece of paper with a refrigerator magnet on it.
01:11:13: Wherever it is that you look frequently, please have Solid -Ground -Books .com all over your house so that you remember to order from them frequently and purchase from them generously.
01:11:24: At Solid -Ground -Books .com, always remember to tell them that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen and I Am Sharpened Zion Radio.
01:11:31: Before we return to our discussion with Jeff Thomas and if you just tuned us in, we are speaking with Jeff today about definitive sanctification, new relationship, new purity, new character and new resources.
01:11:45: We just have some special and important announcements to make. First of all, you have been hearing quite frequently on our program that the
01:11:56: G3 Conference is coming up September 30th through October 2nd. I will be there,
01:12:02: God willing, manning an exhibitor's booth for I Am Sharpened Zion Radio for the fourth year in a row.
01:12:09: They have one of the finest and longest and most impressive rosters of speakers
01:12:15: I have ever seen anywhere at a conference and not one of the most impressive, actually the most impressive rosters
01:12:23: I have ever seen at any conference. Over 20 speakers and of course you have been hearing in many of the ads that Votie Balcom is one of the scheduled speakers.
01:12:34: Well, there is a question mark there now because as many of you already know,
01:12:40: Votie had a health setback and had quadruple bypass surgery recently. He is recovering and seems to be doing fine and we will keep you updated on his progress but we do not know for certain if he will be speaking.
01:12:55: Obviously, we do not know for certain if any of us have tomorrow to look forward to but as far as someone who is scheduled to be speaking, the situation renders it uncertain that it would be
01:13:10: Votie due to his health. So let us pray for Votie's rapid and full recovery.
01:13:16: Pray that he can still speak at the G3 Conference this fall and also more importantly that the
01:13:23: Lord spares his life and gives him a long future to enjoy with his family and to bless the body of Christ with his extraordinary gifts in preaching, teaching and writing.
01:13:36: We are praying for you Votie and we look forward to hearing good news from you soon and we look forward to you returning as a guest on Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio.
01:13:45: Mark your calendars because tomorrow a colleague of Votie Baucom's and Votie Baucom's pastor at Kibwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa, Conrad Mbewe, will be our guest tomorrow.
01:13:59: That will be tomorrow the 23rd of April, 4 to 6 p .m.
01:14:06: Eastern Time. Please mark your calendars and spread the word. If you have never heard Conrad Mbewe preach before, you have got to do whatever it takes to hear him preach.
01:14:17: Obviously you can hear him on sermon audio and other places on the Internet, but nothing is like being physically in the presence of a fine, biblically solid, powerful preacher.
01:14:28: Conrad Mbewe, as I have repeated many times, is my favorite preacher on the planet Earth. He is so extraordinary and so make sure you mark your calendars for tomorrow and tune in to hear him.
01:14:42: He will be speaking on God's Design for the Church. God's Design for the
01:14:47: Church, which is also the title of his latest book. Also, folks, if you love this show and you don't want it to disappear from the airwaves, please go to Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio dot com, click support, then click, click to donate now.
01:15:00: You can donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion. If you prefer snail mail, you can also mail a check via the
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01:15:14: If you prefer that, a physical address will appear on your screen also when you click support at Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio dot com.
01:15:23: Also, if you would like to advertise with us, as long as whatever it is you are promoting is compatible with what we believe, send me an email to chrisarnsson at gmail dot com and put advertising in the subject line.
01:15:35: I would be thrilled to help you launch an ad campaign because we are in urgent need of your advertising dollars.
01:15:41: As I try to remind you every day, please don't siphon money away from your regular giving to your own local church where you are a member in order to give to Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio.
01:15:51: Please never do that. In other words, don't punish your own church financially by blessing Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio financially.
01:15:57: And also, please don't put your family in financial peril or jeopardy if you're really struggling to survive by giving to Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio at this time.
01:16:10: Those two things are commands of God in scripture, providing for your church and providing for your family. Providing for Iron Shepherd's Iron Radio is nowhere to be found in scripture as a command, obviously.
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01:16:39: We have between 30 ,000 and 40 ,000 people downloading this program every month.
01:16:47: And yet, only a tiny handful, a very generous handful of people that I thank
01:16:55: God for every day, people whom I am so grateful for, I cannot even describe it in the
01:17:00: English language, who have been giving some of them since, or should I say some of you, since we first launched on Long Island, New York in 2005.
01:17:12: And some of you are brand new donors. I thank God for all of you.
01:17:17: Your generosity just blows me away. But comparatively, when you compare it to 30 ,000 to 40 ,000 people every month, a small handful are donating.
01:17:26: Please, if you love the show, join those that have been giving if you want us to stick around.
01:17:32: And that's IronShepherd'sIronRadio .com. Click support, then click click to donate now. Also, if you are not a member of a local
01:17:39: Bible -believing church, please, I have extensive lists of Biblically -faithful churches all over the world.
01:17:47: I may be able to help you find a church no matter where on the globe you live. I've already helped many people in our audience find churches, sometimes right around the corner from where they live, in all parts of the planet
01:17:56: Earth. That may be you, too. So send me an email to ChrisArnsett at gmail .com. ChrisArnsett at gmail .com,
01:18:03: and put I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address to send in a question for Jeff Thomas. And once again, our subject is definitive sanctification, new relationship, new purity, new character, and new resources.
01:18:18: That's ChrisArnsett at gmail .com. ChrisArnsett at gmail .com. And just for the sake of our last listener, who contacted us from St.
01:18:31: Kitts in the West Indies, I believe his name was Gregory.
01:18:37: I can't seem to find his question right now, but I know what it was. Gregory, if you reread the text that you have cited, 1
01:18:45: Corinthians 15, 1 through 3, it is obvious that Paul believes those to whom he is speaking are
01:18:55: Christians. You were saying that he was telling them that Christ died for them before they were saved? Well, it says right in Paul's words here in that passage,
01:19:03: Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you, which you, or should
01:19:09: I say, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word of truth which
01:19:24: I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. Obviously, he's got a mixed audience.
01:19:29: Some of them, he's not saying that he could read their hearts and minds. Some of them may be false professors.
01:19:36: But he is basically speaking a general truth that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.
01:19:46: He's speaking to an audience he believes is saved because they've made a profession, but obviously there may be some lost people in the mix.
01:19:53: Would you agree with that I just told? Oh, yeah, that sums it up. It's there, isn't it?
01:20:00: He's writing to Christians, you know, writing to Nero of the Sanhedrin.
01:20:07: He's writing now to the people for whom Christ died.
01:20:13: Christ, our sins, according to the Hebrews. Us, that's what he identifies himself with.
01:20:22: He wraps his arms around them. Me too, he says. He died for me. Hallelujah.
01:20:30: Well, why don't we pick up where we left off and continue on with this glorious subject that we are discussing, definitive sanctification.
01:20:40: We come to the third point then. It means definitive sanctification.
01:20:45: It means a new character. An irreversible change in character.
01:20:54: Affected by definitive sanctification, you're a new character. That's Romans 6, isn't it?
01:21:00: We're broken with our past. We don't continue as we were. We've put off the old man, that unbelieving person that we used to be.
01:21:13: He no longer exists. He's dead. He's gone. The guy's in the bar.
01:21:20: He says, where's Joe these days? I haven't seen him around. Oh, he's gone. He never comes here anymore.
01:21:26: No, we don't see him. He goes to church these days. He's in the prayer meeting on this
01:21:32: Thursday night. The old and regenerate carnal,
01:21:37: Satan -controlled self no longer exists. That old man, he was put to death.
01:21:48: He's been executed with Christ. We died, Paul says to the church in Colossae.
01:21:54: You died if you're a Christian. Your life is hid with Christ in God. There's a death which is not the dying of our day -to -day mortification, not feeding tidbits to remaining sin to keep it alive, but there's an irreversible putting off of the worldly unregenerate sin -dominated self.
01:22:21: I have been crucified with Christ. It's made a radical and irreversible difference to that man, to his character.
01:22:33: It's delivered him from sin in this sense. Sin no longer dominates the
01:22:40: Christian. It doesn't. Once it did, sin said, never listen to iron sharpens iron.
01:22:48: The unbeliever says, yes, sir. If you happen to tune in and you listen to it and you think that it's religious, turn it off straight away.
01:22:57: Yes, sir. Find something to criticize. Yes, sir. Don't think about your soul.
01:23:05: Don't think about death. Don't think about eternity. Don't think about Jesus speaking of a heaven to win and a hell to avoid.
01:23:14: Yes, sir. I won't think about it. Sin is in the believer, in every believer, but it doesn't reign in anyone.
01:23:24: It's not in control. And when the
01:23:30: Holy Spirit comes into our lives at regeneration, we are no longer spiritually impotent people.
01:23:39: We are no longer utterly incapable of loving God and loving our neighbors and doing spiritual good.
01:23:48: Now we can repent because the Spirit of God is within us.
01:23:54: Now we can trust in Jesus Christ. Now there's brotherly love.
01:24:01: The tyranny of king sin over us has been broken.
01:24:08: It's not been totally eradicated. But its reign over us has ended.
01:24:18: And God has actually given us an aversion to sin. When we sin, we groan afterwards and we say, Oh, what
01:24:25: I do I hate doing. I hate it. Oh, I'm fighting against it.
01:24:36: There's a struggle in me now. There's no total victory yet. It's not been eradicated yet.
01:24:43: But, oh, I've got an aversion to it. In my pre -Christian days,
01:24:51: I used to be out with the boys and with the women and drinking liquor.
01:24:59: That man, he doesn't exist any longer. He's dead. And that's the great change that definitive sanctification does from the moment a person has become a
01:25:12: Christian. The moment Paul became a Christian on the Damascus road, as soon as he had his sight, he was down at the synagogue in Damascus telling the
01:25:25: Jews there, his fellow countrymen, of the wonderful change. What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart.
01:25:35: He was telling them things like that. He's been delivered from the sin which is unto death, which is unbelief, the rejection of Christ.
01:25:53: That mortal sin, I've been delivered from that.
01:25:58: I can commit all the sins that David committed and that Peter committed.
01:26:06: That all the warnings of the Bible tell me about, I can commit. As a Christian of 60 years standing,
01:26:13: I can commit those sins still. I put a guard against those sins. There's one sin that the
01:26:21: Lord says to me that I'm not going to commit.
01:26:29: And that is one which takes me to hell, which is the rejection of my
01:26:35: Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about people who make decisions and as easily pick up Christ, as easily as they drop him when things get tough.
01:26:50: I'm not saying Christians don't backslide and grow cold and wander away.
01:26:57: But I do say the prodigal son was kept in the distant city.
01:27:05: The prodigal son came to himself in the distant city when he was eating pig swill.
01:27:13: And he said, I shall return to my father's house. Because he was kept by the power of God unto salvation.
01:27:21: God keeps us, keeps us coming back. He stops us from giving up on Christ.
01:27:32: We get frustrated and we are hurt. And we're asking, why has
01:27:38: God allowed this to happen to us? But our pastor talks to us and helps us and prays with us.
01:27:48: We have a new character to repent of our foolish words.
01:27:56: And we are restored again and again. Because we are new people in Christ Jesus.
01:28:02: We are new characters. That's the third point I wanted to make. We have an anonymous listener who said,
01:28:11: A dear precious loved one of mine passed away. And although this loved one made a profession of faith in Christ many years ago, and for many years was an active church member and participant in many church -related activities, and eagerly going to Bible conferences and Bible studies, a depression set in for over a decade, which left this person basically a hermit and not going to church at all.
01:28:46: Would I be still in my right mind for having confidence this person is awaiting me in heaven?
01:28:54: Or should I believe that this person was not a true believer because they gave up on church attendance for over a decade?
01:29:03: What a wonderful question. What a scenario you described there. So familiar to us all.
01:29:11: How sad. We haven't come to the end of that story yet, have we?
01:29:20: That person is still alive. And that person still has a conscience.
01:29:26: Actually, the anonymous listener said that the person passed away. Oh, he passed away. Yes. Well, with many then.
01:29:33: Let's say with many. We don't know. And then on their deathbed, we don't know what's going on.
01:29:44: We pray with them. We speak words of the gospel to them. And we don't know what's going on in their minds at this time.
01:29:55: There's the famous story I've told before, and I love to tell it, on the island of Lewis in the
01:30:00: Hebrides, where there are many fine Christians. There was a man who'd heard the gospel all his life, never professed faith.
01:30:07: He was a farmer. His farm was on the cliff edge. And he was riding in the horse and cart along the edge of the field at the top of the cliff.
01:30:17: And the cliff suddenly gave way. And he and the horse and cart all fell down and down.
01:30:23: And as he was in flight, as he was in midair, he cried to God, God have mercy on me and save me.
01:30:33: And he finally landed on a huge pile of seaweed and sand.
01:30:39: It cushioned his fall. He was winded. But he recovered and staggered to his feet.
01:30:47: And from that moment on adorned the gospel. He was a changed man.
01:30:53: And the point that he would make is this. If he'd landed on rocks and blown his brains out and died, people wouldn't have known that while he was in flight up in the air, he was trusting in Jesus Christ and asking for mercy from Christ.
01:31:13: They would have said, ah, poor jock. He died in his sins and he's in hell.
01:31:19: They wouldn't have known what's happening. And he would say, you don't know what's happening in the hearts and lives of your loved ones while they are on their deathbeds and while they're dying and you are speaking to them and all the memory of the past is there.
01:31:41: And that's the great encouragement that we have, that you have at a time like this.
01:31:47: Someone who once ran for a while and then fell away. And who knows?
01:31:56: We say there have been many surprises in heaven. And one thing, there's no frustration.
01:32:05: No wringing of our hands eternally. Our minds in heaven will be brought wholly into harmony with the mind of God.
01:32:14: And we will be at peace with all of God's decisions. And that's all that was lovely about our loved ones.
01:32:26: Because they were made in the image and likeness of God. God has kept them.
01:32:31: God has been good to them. There's a common grace around which shows itself. The Hebrew shows tells us how it shows itself in experiential fears of God and so on.
01:32:46: But in eternity, we won't know those people.
01:32:56: In hell, those people won't be lovely and beautiful and full of trust and kindness.
01:33:07: That's there because of an earlier grace that they knew in Jesus, that their parents and grandparents, that their land knew in revivals in the past.
01:33:19: And none of that will be in them or in hell.
01:33:26: And God will do right. Right for you and give you peace and joyful surprises.
01:33:39: Amen. And the anonymous listener did not say that his or her loved one cursed
01:33:49: God or abandoned the faith. So I would encourage them to hold on to that confident hope.
01:33:58: Because if Christ died for all the sins of all his people, he died for that person's forsaking the assembling of the brethren.
01:34:07: And so obviously that's a sin. And one should not be confident that they are in a right relationship with God if they habitually and routinely ignore the body of Christ and abandon the body of Christ.
01:34:23: But there was an element in this anonymous person's question that the deceased fell into a deep state of depression that lasted a decade.
01:34:39: So we don't know the circumstances behind it. No, no, no. Well, thank you so much for contacting us.
01:34:46: And if you are indeed a first -time questioner, you will receive a free
01:34:52: New American Standard Bible, compliments of the publishers of the NASB, and compliments of Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com.
01:35:00: So let us know if you were indeed a first -time questioner, and obviously your identity will not be revealed over the air.
01:35:08: Thanks so much. I'm going to read a question for you. It's another question that is really off topic, but it's such an important question for someone like you,
01:35:22: Jeff, because of your history of being a pastor for over half a century in one church.
01:35:31: I usually don't give the full names of listeners who send in questions, but in this case, he is a fine pastor of a church that I highly recommend.
01:35:42: And I've also already referred a listener in the past who has contacted me asking for a church recommendation in Oregon.
01:35:52: Or Oregon, however it's supposed to be pronounced. And I passed on the information about this church to that listener.
01:36:01: We have Christopher Cookston, who is senior pastor of Prineville Community Church in Prineville, Oregon.
01:36:10: He says, you've served for over 50 years as a pastor at the same church. I'm 15 and a half years in at the same church.
01:36:20: I'm curious, how have you managed to remain for 50 years? Any advice for pastors like me who want to do the same?
01:36:29: Obviously, we could do a whole week's worth of programs on this one issue. But anything that you could say before we go to the final break?
01:36:38: We have a few minutes. You could give any thoughts you have on this. Well, they were wonderfully patient with me, weren't they?
01:36:45: And for the people who weren't sympathetic theologically with me, the full pews, the giving was transformed in those first few years.
01:37:06: We would have up to 50 students coming along. There was a new spirit of anticipation there.
01:37:17: And so I had then that restless grouping were accepting my ministry there.
01:37:36: And then the women in the church loved my wife. And she had such a good relationship.
01:37:44: They never had a pastor's wife like her before. And the women were all on my side.
01:37:51: And people came. And I could have. You know,
01:37:57: I did a Dr. Lloyd -Jones expository series in the morning and in the evening.
01:38:06: And I felt I should have, if I'd been wiser and had better examples.
01:38:13: I would have done the spiritual. I would have preached on the big text of the Bible at one of the services.
01:38:19: And then I would have given a little taste of the Beatitudes or the life of Elijah.
01:38:26: Or I would preach the first chapter of Galatians and 1
01:38:31: John and 1 Thessalonians. Those wonderful opening chapters. And then said, now you read the rest and here's a commentary that will help you.
01:38:39: I would have done that. But it was a lovely place. It's a resort.
01:38:45: The church was a block from the sea. It's a university town.
01:38:53: And so of 20 ,000 people, 10 ,000 students. It was bilingual.
01:38:59: And we were a bilingual family. The schools were good in their education.
01:39:04: My children loved it. And so all those reasons were reasons for staying in Aberystwyth for all that period of time.
01:39:17: I don't think many people have the gift to do that or should make that a desire.
01:39:29: If God calls them, I never had a call anywhere else. If God calls you to a significant church which is wavering and needs a ministry like your biblical ministry, then you must take that call very seriously.
01:39:48: But the church kept saying to me, continue to preach. Continue to minister to us.
01:39:55: And so I did. It was God's will to keep me there. Praise God.
01:40:01: By the way, I was very happy to hear, I can't remember how long ago, but several weeks ago,
01:40:07: I was so delighted to hear from Pastor Christopher Cookston that the listener,
01:40:13: I believe his name was Mitchell, that I referred to Prineville Community Church in Prineville, Oregon, joined the church and has become a very beloved and vital active member of that church.
01:40:28: So what a joy to hear that. If anybody wants to know more about that church, prinevillecommunitychurch .org
01:40:36: is the website. P as in Peter, R -I -N -E, vill, communitychurch .org,
01:40:42: prinevillecommunitychurch .org. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing that, but I'm pronouncing it the way it's spelled.
01:40:52: By the way, Pastor Cookston, if you are a first -time questioner, and I think you are, make sure
01:40:58: I have your full mailing address because you have also won a New American Standard Bible, compliments of the publishers of the
01:41:06: NASB, and compliments of Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service at cvbbs .com.
01:41:14: We'll be shipping that out to you at no charge to you or to us. We're going to our final break. It's going to be a lot more brief than the other breaks.
01:41:22: If you have a question for Pastor Jeff Thomas, send it in immediately, please, because we're rapidly running out of time.
01:41:28: That's chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of birth.
01:41:37: Hello, dear ones.
01:41:46: My name is Justin Peters, and my friend Chris Arnzen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I are frequently blessed to share great times of fellowship with one another at conferences all over the
01:41:57: United States. We'll both be enjoying more fellowship together at the G3 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday, September 30th, through Saturday, October 2nd, on the theme,
01:42:09: Christ is Supreme Over All. I'll be speaking there, along with over 20 other speakers, including
01:42:16: John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Votie Balcom, Joel Beakey, and James White.
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01:42:37: This is Justin Peters reminding you that Christ is supreme over all. Fellowshiping with the family.
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01:51:55: Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. Welcome back, and Jeff Thomas, before we take any additional listener questions, if you could give us your final points on this very important subject today on definitive sanctification.
01:52:12: Yeah, yeah. Well, the last point, of course, God has given us new resources, new aspirations, new objectives, new priorities.
01:52:22: He's given us new strength because he's rooted us in Christ. We're a branch in the great vine, and he's given us the spirit to indwell us, and he's given us illimitable access to himself.
01:52:41: He's come to dwell in our hearts, and that's, you know, people can speak about me as Christians, but how ordinary are we?
01:52:52: We are men and women in Christ, joined to him. Our roots go right down into the vitality of a risen
01:52:59: Savior. We're indwelt by the Spirit of God. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith.
01:53:08: Christ is praying all the time that we might be filled with all the fullness of God.
01:53:14: That's the crowning glory of definitive sanctification. The resources that God has made over to us, all such newness.
01:53:28: Paul makes this astonishing claim in Philippians, for I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.
01:53:42: And, well, what a privilege that is. What a promise.
01:53:49: I can bear any burden. I can endure any pain. I can overcome any temptation.
01:53:55: I can climb any mountain. I can ford any river. I can do all things in the one who strengthens me.
01:54:03: And as we face today the challenges of our own providence, as we face the onslaught of Satan, as we face the demands of the law of God and the stringency of God's imperatives, we're not facing such things as mere human beings, frail and fallen, but people whose whole personalities have been altered.
01:54:28: People who've died to sin. We're not what we once were. We're new people with new resources.
01:54:35: And it's that confidence and it's that inspiration that impels us by the dynamic of those promises.
01:54:46: It seems to me that if we face today the challenge of the Ten Commandments, as mere men and women, fallen, depraved, then the law stands before us only as a mockery.
01:55:01: If we face the great teaching of the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount, as mere fallen men and women, that sermon is only jeering at our weaknesses.
01:55:12: If we face the terrifying challenge of Ephesians 5 and 6, in the native strength of our own humanity, then again that teaching is only a derision of our claims to be
01:55:26: His disciples. But if we face the Decalogue and the Sermon on the
01:55:31: Mount in Ephesians 5 and 6, as new men, who are renewed irreversibly and definitively by the power and grace of God, if we face these challenges as those indwelt by the
01:55:46: Triune God who can do all things through Christ, who strengthens them, then we face the challenge with hope that by God's grace we can climb that mountain.
01:55:59: We can live on that level of attainment, a level of patience, a level of contentment, a level of praise and serenity that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 5, being thankful always in all things.
01:56:19: And that's why it's so important for us to experience the constraint of the tremendous things
01:56:25: God promises us about ourselves, to see ourselves as those who have been sanctified by the
01:56:33: Spirit of God, who have been washed, who are new characters, new resources, and everything is absolutely, totally new.
01:56:44: And that person, seeing the Christian life by the light and power of the promises of God, we can live with more patience and obedience and long -suffering.
01:57:03: The life I live can't be explained by naturalistic terms, by any psychological or biological language.
01:57:12: It can only be explained by the grace of God. So we don't keep harping back to the sins of the past.
01:57:21: We can do all things through Christ, it's newness of life. It's not good intention religion, but it's
01:57:30: God's grace washing and sanctifying and making everything new.
01:57:37: And that's the challenge. Now, if you're still listening, is your life new? Is there something in your life that can only be explained by this?
01:57:46: If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed away.
01:57:52: Behold, all things become new to those who are transformed with a new relationship, a new purity, a new character, a new resources.
01:58:08: All of what God has done, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think.
01:58:17: That's the privilege of the Christian life. Amen. We have time for one more quick question.
01:58:25: An anonymous listener again wants to know, I've been told that if you are truly born again, you will not doubt your salvation, but I doubt my salvation frequently.
01:58:34: What should I think of these comments that truly regenerate people should never doubt their salvation?
01:58:41: Well, it's a strange thing to say. Isn't it a strange thing to say? That there's one thing that a
01:58:49: Christian doesn't do, we never doubt. Why do we need to put on all the armor of God?
01:58:57: Why do we need to... The first thing we put on is the belt of truth, and then we have the shield of faith to destroy all the fiery dots and quench them.
01:59:12: That's because doubts are the common way that Satan seeks to destroy our peace and our comfort and our joy in Jesus Christ.
01:59:29: So, no, I think that those people aren't thinking deeply enough and haven't really fought the fight and felt something of Satan's hot breath in face -to -face conflict.
01:59:47: Amen. And we're out of time. I want to thank you so much, Jeff. I look forward to your frequent return to the program, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater