December 1, 2020 Show with Geoff Thomas on “Growing in Grace: God-Breathed Counsel from Peter’s Final Words in 2 Peter”

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

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

Proverbs chapter 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 with whom we converse and directed to have a view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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

Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon

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.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this very first day of December 2020 and today is day number two of our two -day discussion with Reverend Jeff Thomas.

I love the fact that we have started a tradition with Jeff where when he comes on this program we schedule him for two days in a row.

I really love that and yesterday was the first day, today is the final day at least for now.

Of course we'll try to get him back on in the near future for two days in a row but today we are addressing a growing in grace,

God -breathed counsel from Peter's final words in 2 Peter and Reverend Jeff Thomas, beginning in 1965, served for over 50 years as pastor of Alfred Place Baptist Church in Everest with whales.

He is very well known to those who know and love the Banner of Truth because he has written for the

Banner of Truth and has also spoken at many Banner of Truth conferences and he has been not only published by Banner of Truth but also by Reformation Heritage Books and we will be providing those websites so you can find out more about Jeff's books from them later on in the program.

But it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back for day number two of our two -day discussion, Reverend Jeff Thomas.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your warm words of welcome and the kindness and support of this program.

It seems long, two hours, and yet it flies by. Amen, it sure does.

And for those of you who are interested in finding out more about Alfred Place Baptist Church in Everest with whales, even though our guest today is retired from the ministry there, his grandson is now the pastor there and if you want more details you can go to alfredplacechurch .org

.uk, alfredplacechurch .org .uk. Well, if you want to, since this is a sequel, basically, from yesterday's program, perhaps if you could summarize what we discussed yesterday before we launch into these final words of Peter in 2

Peter. Yeah, I'd love to do that. These are the last words of our loved ones, they're very precious to us, aren't they?

I remember hearing Ernest Kevin, who was the first principal of the London Bible College 70 years ago, and he said how his father was a godly man and that his last words were,

The great truths of the gospel I have believed all my life,

I believe them yet. And it's lovely to die with that assurance that one's kept the faith.

And here then at the end of 2 Peter, he's given us eight chapters of wonderful teaching and then he ends saying,

Now grow in the grace and knowledge of our

Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He says that because I know the single greatest moment in the life of any human being is when he becomes a

Christian and that's what we looked at yesterday, that moment when his whole position is radically and irreversibly altered.

His heart is renewed, his prospects are completely changed.

Three things I stressed. Firstly, he's given complete forgiveness of all his sins, the minor sins, the sins of omission, the great vile sins, all forgiven.

Then secondly, he's given a new status. He's made a child of God.

He's adopted into the family of God. He's joined to Jesus Christ.

He's put in Christ forever and ever. He is part of the body of Christ and the body and the head can't be separated from one another.

And then thirdly, he's given then a wonderful provision. God supplies all his needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

And we looked at that and the decisiveness, the momentousness of that particular change.

That's where we ended with our joy and wonder yesterday.

And the reason that you, the primary reason that you wanted to specifically address

Peter's final words today, they are, they're basically his marching orders to the church, aren't they?

They are that, Chris, yes, because from what I've said, that's only the beginning of our soul salvation.

When we go just as we are to him, just as he is a loving, welcoming savior, that's not the completion of the work of redemption.

It's the first step. We are said goodbye to the city of destruction and we're on pilgrimage and we're traveling through many dangers, toils and cares to the celestial city.

And we are facing all the struggles of the Christian journey as we move to the new

Jerusalem and all the obligations that form our new life in Christ.

And that is emphasized in so many ways in scriptures, isn't it? Our lives are compared to a marathon race.

They're compared to a war. It's the process that's begun for us and all that is at the back of Peter's mind in this text.

And the seed has been, the acorn of grace has been sown, but all that oak tree of glory must grow and grow and be very, very fruitful.

And we must see it. That's why we have this great directive.

Now you grow in grace. It's an imperative that's addressed to every single believer for the last 2 ,000 years, that every day we should be making progress in the

Christian faith. You keep growing, that's what he says, in grace. You see to it that there's no stagnation.

You see to it that there's continued progress day by day in the great life of Christian discipleship.

And so I want to just seize that theme and isolate these words and reflect upon them for a little.

And to begin by asking what the Apostle means by this directive, grow in Christ's graciousness and Christ's knowledge.

That's what he's saying, isn't it? We see gracious people,

I mean the folk on television who present the news and edit morning programs, and a man and a woman and they're so tender and witty and thoughtful and gracious people when they interview people who come there.

I don't know if many of them are Christians at all, but they have a graciousness of manner.

That's not what Peter is speaking of here. He is speaking of growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The graciousness which is molded and shaped and suffused with the spirit of Jesus Christ.

So that you grow in this way, his love, his joy, his peace, how fair, how holy, how kind he is.

And that we are plugged into that and we are receiving grace for grace day by day.

Let your graciousness be controlled by your knowledge of Jesus Christ and his grace.

Graciousness includes sweetness and gentleness and attractiveness of character and loveliness and meekness, interest in other people.

It means all of these. But it means more,

Chris, doesn't it? It means something more majestic. What is a gracious character?

What would be the symptoms of becoming from day to day more gracious?

If we're praying to God now, listening to this message and we're saying, oh,

I'm poor. I wish I had grown more in grace. What is it that makes us more gracious?

What exactly are we praying for? And I want to open up maybe four or five elements to begin with as to what

I mean by this. Great. And let me just give our listeners our email address first in the event that they'd like to join us on the air with their own question.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

And you may continue, brother. The first thing

I think growing in grace would show itself as is a genuine progressive growing concern for the needs of others.

I think that's the first thing. Love your neighbor as yourself.

You know, you listen to some Christians and some Christian communicators, and it's all about themselves in the minutest details.

You are to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

So you're not interested in you. But there is a genuine concern.

So that, how is it with you? How is it with you, Chris? Can I help?

Are there some fears? Are there some worries? What can I do? And in the congregation where you are a member, do you know where the struggles are,

Chris, and where the doubts are? Do you know those who are close to giving up?

And you say, well, the elders don't. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. The minister knows. He doesn't know everything.

We are concerned for others. Jesus spoke about a seed, a corn of wheat.

And the choice that faces that corn of wheat, it can be put in a bottle on a mantelpiece above the fire with a cork in the top of it year after year, and it abides alone there.

Or it can die. That is, it's buried, and it changes.

There's a metamorphosis, and it produces much fruit. And that choice faces everyone.

Am I number one? Does everything revolve around me? Must everybody be interested in me?

There was a famous convert to the Roman church, Evelyn Waugh, a great writer.

And in 1945, bananas arrived when the war ended.

And he had three, and he brought them to the table, and there was his son and daughter.

They'd never seen a banana before. And he got his knife out, and he cut it open, and he cut pieces off it, and he ate one banana, and the children were looking.

And then he came to the second banana, and he cut the end off, and he tore the skins away, and he ate the second banana.

The children were looking on, astonished. And then thirdly, he did the same thing with the third banana.

He ate the lot. The greedy blighter ate the lot.

Well, there are Christians who are keen to tell you everything about their blessings and what they've achieved, but they don't seem to be interested in others.

They're not denying themselves and taking up their cross. Like Jesus, he laid down his life.

He laid down his reputation, and he humbled himself. And I'm to be like him.

Has grace constrained me to give my life for others? Well, how is it with you and me?

Do we have a growing concern for us? At mealtimes, now, do you notice when you have visitors in and friends in?

Oh, can you help them? Can you serve them? Do you need anything? Can you pass anything to them?

When you go into a room, do you immediately hurry to the comfiest chair? What concern is there for others?

When you're driving a car, do you let others come in? Do you wave to them? Do you give them the benefit of the doubt for mistakes?

When there are family choices, your wife, does she have an input into the choices?

Your children, do you ask them? Are you interested in them, in your congregation?

It's a very sad life if it's centered on you. And the Christian develops a mindset, a mindset of a servant.

I am here to serve. I'm to be thoughtful and considerate and concerned for others, like the

Lord Jesus Christ was. And so that's the first thing I want to say, would be a mark of growing in grace.

It would be that you really are interested and know about and concerned for others.

And then there's a second thing. Growing in grace involves, and that is a growing progress in knowledge.

I can take that in the simplest possible sense. A literal mental grasp with our minds of the teaching of the

Bible, Holy Scripture. And it may seem very elementary, and yet it is absolutely basic.

The first thing that believers put on is the girdle of truth. And the first thing they must attend to in terms of spiritual growth is progress in their grasp of the truth, their familiarity with the teaching of the

Bible, with the system of Christian doctrine, with the catechism.

And it's all very well to talk of all the perils of a dead orthodoxy. It's a real peril.

There are people, and their interest in truth is not interest in the great foundational doctrines, but they're interested in the conundrum of theology.

And let's avoid that. There are others, you know, their interest is in the great controversial doctrines that divide believers.

They're only interested in the doctrines that men fight about and disagree about. And let's watch that spirit too.

But we are bound as Christians to make conscience of growing in our grasp of the contents of the revelation of God.

God has taken such great pains to give us a word and a revelation that we can understand.

And it's our obligation entirely to use that revelation and soak ourselves in it and steep ourselves, marinate ourselves in the truth so that they're utterly familiar to us.

You know, every Christian should know, should know intimately and readily, the doctrines relating to the person of Jesus Christ.

We should know of his deity and his humanity. We should know of his incarnation. We should know of his states, preexistent, humiliation, exalted.

We should know of his offices, prophet, priest, king. We should know the great doctrines of God's sovereignty, of justification, of adoption, of sanctification.

These are not intended for theologians and seminary staff. They are the stuff of believing meditation and doxology.

They constitute that great body of truth that sanctifies. And if we are going to be growing

Christians, we are going to be growing intellectually. We're going to be growing theologically.

We're going to be growing in our grasp of the great foundational doctrines.

And what's more, we're going to be growing in love for those doctrines and growing in our emotional response to those doctrines.

That the word of God lives in us and that we're moved by it.

And as we are moved, then we see more the glory of the person of Jesus Christ.

And we're stirred by all that we have come to understand about him.

To gratitude and joy. It's Psalm 1, isn't it? Blessed is the man, happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, but his delight is in the law of the

Lord. And in that law he meditates day and night. So that's the second great feature.

That we grow in our apprehension of truth and our love for the truth. And our obedience, that we are doers of it.

And we've got to examine ourselves even at a level as elementary as that.

Are we growing in the most basic of all levels in connection with knowing

Christian truths? Have we got a little library? Are there

CDs we have? Are we on the web and going to those fine sites that are there?

Because we love the truth. And before we go to that third point, we'll go to our first station break.

And if anybody would like to join us in the conversation with a question of your own, again, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Please give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence, if you live outside the

USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. In fact, I think I'm going to ask you one question from a listener before we go to the break.

And you could answer it when we come back from the break. And then after that, you could continue with point number three of your discussion of your theme.

This is an anonymous listener who says, one of the things that gives me great grief and does not give me peace in the loss of a late spouse is that this late spouse was so wounded by someone many years ago in church that for over a decade she stopped going to church.

And she departed from this earth having been someone who didn't enter the door of a church for over a decade and I am fearful that she was not a true believer primarily because of that.

Are my fears misplaced? Can I still have great hope and confidence? She will be in glory waiting for me when

I depart this earth. She never renounced Christ and she remained a believer but she refused to attend worship services.

Now I'll have you answer that when we come back. And don't go away, we'll be right back after these messages.

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And always mention Chris Arnzen of Iron Trip and Zion Radio. And before we go to point three of our discussion of growing in grace

Jeff, you may recall that before the break an anonymous listener was very, very depressed and grieving because he fears his wife who has passed is not saved because for over a decade she did not go to church even though she never stopped professing belief in Christ she never renounced her faith it had something to do with being wounded by someone

I'm assuming emotionally in church and she just could not get over that and never returned should that be something that absolutely convinces this man that his wife is lost?

Ah, what phantoms we are as Christians Oh dear, how we can take offense and a root of bitterness can go down and down it's so sad and then she was wrong to stop going she shouldn't have given up on them because God hadn't given up on her there have been people who've just not found a church home

Arthur Pink is the great example of this a wonderful man of God and yet there on that island through the war years a

Gaelic speaking community and he felt alone and failed then to overcome those feelings of resentment a wonderful helpful

Christian author so we don't know what goes on in our loved ones lives and how the last years they have spent and their relationship with the

Lord and so we do know that the Lord's justice will totally satisfy us there will be no bitterness on the day of judgment of anything that he decides we will be totally at peace with what he decides about everyone and so look to the future like that the vastness of his mercy and be at peace

Amen, and Christ's blood paid the penalty for all the sins of the elect and that would even include something like that like neglecting the assembling of the brethren so we will pray for our dear brother listening anonymously and that he comes to a perfect peace over the situation

I'll take one more question and then we'll go to point three of your topic we have Murray in Kinross Scotland who asks would the first point

Jeff Thomas made of caring for others be based on Peter's encouragement be a lesson

Peter himself learned from our Lord feed my lambs, tend my sheep hmm, very good yes, certainly that's a brilliant introduction of those three responses do you love me

Peter? do you love me more than these? do you really love me Peter? and if you do, you show it in your concern for the lambs and the sheep your concern for others thank you very much for sending that in I'll make a note of that and make sure that if ever

I speak these words again that I'll remind them of John 20,

John 21 and the Lord Jesus challenging Peter wow,

Murray, what a privilege to know that Jeff Thomas is going to use one of your illustrations in his next sermon on this subject by the way, have you ever been to Kinross Scotland where our listener is from?

I don't think so well brother I'm sorry brother?

there's time for me to do it, yeah I'm right at the south of the country and down in London but we're all under so many hindrances with COVID -19 and I'm not moving around as much as I have

I've got no plans to go to Scotland yet but that can change in a phone call and by the way

Murray, I happen to have fallen in love with Haggis my former pastor at Grace Baptist Church who took a call to North Preston Evangelical Church in the northern

England David Campbell he told me how much he loved

Haggis so I just had to try it and I ordered it from a company in New Jersey of all places called the

Scottish Gourmet and I love the way they made it anyway but thank you for listening

Murray and keep spreading the word about the program in Kinross Scotland and beyond ok, if we could now pick up at point three of your discussion brother yes,

I've got these five points what are the marks of growing grace and then I've got to close then three exhortations that will help us to growing grace that's in my mind if we don't get time to go through them but that's how

I see the next hour developing ok, the third point growing in conscientiousness that is growing in our responsiveness and obedience to our consciences we have within us

God's great monitor of our conduct how is it between us and our consciences are we infinitely particular about paying attention to what these consciences say are we careful to educate those consciences because you know our conscience can be darkness there are many

Christian consciences which Thomas Boston's phrase is so funny to pernickety he said they condemn what

God's word does not condemn and we must educate that conscience and there are other consciences and they let everything pass they let pass what

God's word condemns they're less sensitive than they should be they're much too broad, too open and so our conscience must stand constantly under the scrutiny of God's word constantly correct it so that it commends what

God commends it condemns what God condemns let's suppose we've enlightened our conscience what allegiance do we show to those consciences are we careful to obey it when we are emotionally disinclined when we lie as we sometimes do in the depths of depression when we wallow in self -pity when we know there's a duty to attend to but it's very unpleasant and very unattractive very unwelcome have we the maturity to stand on our emotions and in the face of our reluctance and aversion to attend to what

God commands us to do when we are emotionally totally disinclined there's no greater peril in the

Christian life than to make our emotions the touchstone of our duties that is to wait for the moment of inspiration before we pray before we do what

God commands us to do when we say to ourselves well I couldn't be expected to witness

I couldn't be expected to pray at a time like this and time and again we have to stand at ourselves and insist that although we lie virtually on the emotional floor of despondency and depression pick yourself up attend to what

God commands us to do are we conscientious in the face of emotional disinclination in the face of the tremendous obstacles and difficulties that providence may often place in the way of doing our duty are we conscientious again in small things it's one of the surest signs of growing in grace that we pay careful attention to matters of detail in the

Christian life and the Lord's highest commendation falls upon men who are faithful in little things and it's at that point so often that we are losing this particular struggle it might not seem much to you that you have to do of a particular church at 11 o 'clock on Sunday or on Tuesday or Wednesday night at half past seven only a small thing to attend certain meetings only a small thing to write certain letters only a small thing to keep certain promises yet it's in these small things that our graciousness our growth our growth is being severely tested and we must learn to make conscience of these things so, one, concern for others two, knowledge and three, conscientiousness great, and we'll have you pick up on four and five after our middle break

I just have another question from a listener we have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania who says,

I keep hearing from preachers and pastors and even just your ordinary

Christians who are not Reformed that we who are Calvinists are wrong by constantly bringing up things that are theologically deep in sermons and when we evangelize such as the doctrines of Calvinism and I have constantly responded to them that if you want your hearers to grow in grace that they should not be kept dumb by an infantile presentation of the scriptures but they have to have something to reach for now

I understand fully that there is a time and place to bring up things like an unconditional election and that it is not perhaps the main focus of attention during every time that we evangelize the lost especially but at the same time

I am very opposed to this idea of dumbing down messages treating everybody in the room as if they are spiritual infants and I think that we have to in order for them to grow in grace give them the meat of the word now if you could respond to that listener before we go to our break

I agree of course entirely with what this brother has said

I think a lot of worship and a lot of speaking is addressed to an imagined person who doesn't know anything so he didn't live in a world in which

God spoke to us where there had been great grace in the past which has influenced people so that they know much more than they profess that they know and I do believe that when we look at the

Bible here is Rome and Rome has been devoid of the

Christian faith and some Christians had gone there it wasn't the

Apostle Paul and they had preached there and they built a church and that church was one which could receive 16 chapters of the letter to the

Romans 11 chapters of the deepest highest richest doctrines they were beggars they were illiterates they were soldiers they were women they were slaves and yet by a walk with God by the blessing of the

Holy Spirit by the companionship of Jesus Christ Paul could confidently write this letter which was read to the people there and they would memorize it and learn it off by heart and that was one of the reasons why the

Roman Empire dissolved and the emperors were no more but the preachers of the gospel filled that empire from Scandinavia down to North Africa by the preaching of the word and by godly living and by a life of prayer and that's what we ask for preachers and thank

God that's what we can get and hear these days in many places

Amen and I find it interesting that Jesus Christ himself he actually was not all that concerned that he maintain large massive groups of followers and he very often thinned out the herd if you will by saying things that were very unpopular and that would include something we who are

Calvinists uniquely believe in the church today I'm not even sure how non -reformed people interpret this but in John chapter 6 as you may recall we have a scene where let's see

I think it's in verse let's see verse 50 let's see let's go back even further than that he says in I'm sorry in 57 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood is eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him as he as the living father sent me and I live because of the father so he who eats me he also will live because of me this is the bread which came down out of heaven not as the fathers ate and died he who eats this bread will live forever these things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum therefore many of his disciples when they heard this said this is a difficult statement who can listen to it but Jesus conscience that his disciples grumbled at this said to them does this cause you to stumble what then if you see the son of man ascending to where he was before it is the spirit who gives life and the flesh profits nothing the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life but there are some of you who do not believe for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray them and he was saying for this reason

I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the father that's the verse that is uniquely calvinistic

I don't know how arminians interpret that or exegete that or should I say exegete that and then as a result of this many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore so even though Jesus knew that that would turn people away that deep truth that no one comes to Jesus unless it is granted to them of the father from the father even though he knew that would turn people away he preached it anyway we're going to our midway break right now and if anybody would like to join us on the air our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com

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Welcome back, and before we return to our guest Jeff Thomas to discuss Growing in Grace, just have a couple of announcements.

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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 residence.

And Jeff, if you could pick up on your fourth point in this discussion. My fourth point is in this matter of growing in grace, what it means.

Fourthly, it means growing in victory over besetting sins.

And that's a great reality of our Christian lives, that so often we are held in the grip of a particular spiritual abnormality.

And if we are growing, then it means victory over those besetting sins.

Now the great problem is this. It's perfectly possible to be virtually completely normal in our

Christian lives, in our emotions, in our affections, in our will. Everything seems to be in order, except at one point.

We're in the grip of one temptation. We're being dominated by one lust.

We're being entangled in the meshes of one particular sin.

Now we can find in the world around us, we can find men who suffered from what is known as monomania.

They're perfectly sane in every area of their lives, except in the area of one detail.

And there are Christians in the same position. Indeed, I'm sure we all know what it is to be in that position, to be in the grip of one particular sin.

And we may say to ourselves, there's something very mysterious about this fact that I'm not growing.

Ah, is it so mysterious? Haven't we need to ask, is the reason why

I'm not growing, is that my spiritual life is diseased? Because I can look at this part of my life and that part of my life, no signs of disease.

We can say to ourselves, out of a hundred components of our Christian lives, 99 parts are in perfect working order.

And yet, there's a disease in one part. And it's vitiating and corrupting the whole.

And all our resources must be directed to the elimination of that, to victory over that particular sin.

It's a matter for your conscience and mine. Is there such a phenomenon in my life?

And if there is, what is it? Whatever it is, it's going to prevent my progress.

This diseased area, this part of my spiritual life, which is completely out of joint, and I have to deal with it.

I must deal with this besetting sin, because I'm not going to grow, except as I grow by the elimination of those things, worldliness, prayerlessness, irritability, ego, impatience, aggressiveness, what have you.

I must deal with this besetting sin. So that's the fourth way in which we are to grow in grace.

We have another listener who has a question for you before we go to the fifth point.

Let's see here. I was just looking at it a moment ago. Oh, here.

RJ in White Plains, New York. RJ asks, Do you think that it is a failure to force someone to grow in grace when they experience and demonstrate great pride and arrogance and short -temperedness with their brethren, even if they have mastered the contents of theology and doctrine in the

Scriptures? They may even know many portions of Scripture by heart. They may be brilliant, and they may be great orators, but they have failed in these key areas of life that were very perfectly demonstrated in the life of our

Lord Jesus, humility and patience and compassion and love.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. That's how the happy attitudes, the beatitudes, that's how they begin.

And you are describing a phenomena that I believe is rare amongst the people of God, but that it does exist.

You could call it dead orthodoxy. I don't know whether it is orthodoxy at all, but there's a deadness there that has failed to mortify the sin that so easily besets us, and that's the sin of pride and self -elevation.

And, yeah, that's got to be dealt with, or there's going to be little fruit and little usefulness in the service of our

Savior. Yeah, and unfortunately, from what I have heard from many in the body of Christ, that is not all too uncommon to see those things demonstrated even in the lives of very well -known and highly respected brothers who are authors and conference speakers, and we could go on and on with the many things they've accomplished.

It's sad when humility is lacking in folks like that. And it seems like a very rare thing when you have somebody that is extremely gifted and humble, like you, brother.

I think that you demonstrate both of those sides of the coin very well. I don't mean to swell your head, but that's true.

You don't know me. Okay, if you could go on with the fifth point now.

My last point, my fifth point on progress and growing in grace is growing in evangelistic earnestness.

You know, the young convert, such a great sense of the love of God and the greatness of his deliverance, such a sense of the world's need and controlling awareness that Christ is a great savior, a man, a young man, a young Christian, aflame for God, who wants to speak the word for Christ.

And yet, what happens so often is that the more mature of us, we smile, we may even sneer in cynicism, and we look at what we think are the evidences of immaturity.

And of course, so much of it was immature. So much of the witness was unwise and indiscreet, ineffectual, and even carnal.

And yet, does that justify the fact that as many Christian lives mature, the vision of the world's lostness disappears, concern to say a word, to nail your colors up for Christ, disappears?

That is a maturity we would be far better without. It's come to a situation in many places where so often it's expected that only the young will be engaged in this work.

And the young are not the people for it. They haven't the wisdom, they haven't the experience, they haven't the equipment, they're great helpers, but they're not leaders.

And as we grow, we are to ask ourselves, are we growing here? I've got to ask myself, and you've got to ask yourself,

Chris, is it with you as once it was? In terms of evangelistic concern.

And I've got to ask, am I as prepared as I used to be to get involved in every evangelistic cause?

Am I prepared to support it? Am I prepared to pray, to give, to cooperate, to involve myself in the labor of personal evangelism?

Am I concerned to say a word for Jesus as the opportunity affords itself?

Now there's no question, but in the church today there's a great deal of misplaced evangelism.

A great deal of misdirect and blind and unbiblical zeal.

And we have absolutely no right simply to stand back from it in criticism. We have the right only to involve ourselves in biblical evangelism.

And it's a sad day for any Christian, for me, for you, if that vision is gone.

The vision that beheld the city and that wept over it.

So progress, growth, and grace implies many things.

I've highlighted five. The growing concern for others.

The growing knowledge of the Bible. A growing conscientiousness.

Obeying what our consciences tell us. Growing victory over the sin that troubles us and besets us and weakens us.

And growing evangelistic earnestness.

And that is what I believe Peter's great concern at the end of his writing life was about.

Praise God. Let's see, we do have some listeners waiting to have their questions asked and answered by you still.

We have Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. And Ronald says,

Since grace is unmerited favor and it is something bestowed upon us by God due to his own good pleasure, how can we grow in grace with our own activity?

Even as Calvinists, is there not something that we can do to help ourselves grow in grace?

I am not saying anything, I believe, that violates the doctrines of sovereign grace or Reformed theology.

But after all, we are not hyper -Calvinists and we do believe that God uses his people to be involved in their own sanctification, if I am correct.

You are absolutely correct. And I want to close the next half hour by bringing three answers to the question,

How can this be achieved? How can we grow in grace?

And I'll then more comprehensively, if you will be patient and keep listening,

I will give you some thoughtful answers to this great question that you've asked me.

Great. And I have another anonymous listener. And it sort of dovetails on a previous question,

I believe. But this anonymous listener says, I was wondering what you think about a decision

I made not long ago to leave a church that I agree with nearly 100%, theologically and doctrinally, to go to a church that I do have more disagreement with, but the leaders are more tender -hearted, humble, compassionate and loving shepherds.

I know that I should not just go where I feel good and that kind of thing, but it was such an overwhelming burden upon my heart and the other church where I was that it stunted my growth in Christ and left me in a constant state of depression.

Please give me some counsel and give me some thoughts on my decision.

Oh, my brother, what a dilemma. Two alternatives that you were confronted with.

One, orthodoxy, but tension and a feeling of barrenness and that you were not growing.

In another, a more shallowness of a presentation of historic, confessional, biblical

Christianity and weak there. And that's a sober thing because we need that kind of Christianity to be laid upon us week after week and to encourage and build us up week after week.

But here, the presentation of the

Christian faith, they were baby Christians. They were sweet.

They were tender. You felt there was a possibility of some growth there, that they would blossom.

And you went there with some wisdom and some patience that you would give them some tapes when you got to know them, some

CDs, I mean, and some books. And you would tell them about certain broadcasts that they would find helpful.

And you would seek in every way to build on the spirituality of those in leadership.

And you would be wise in explaining to the men there in that leadership and be open with them what you were doing.

And you didn't want to undermine their place in the church, but that you wanted to see a deeper, a stronger grasp of the

Christian message. And the Lord bless you in doing that. They'll miss you in your old church.

And I pray that you'll be a blessing in the one you've gone to. Amen. And I assume that you would agree that it would be very wise for him to even communicate very honestly and clearly with the leaders of the former church.

Who knows? They may repent of anything that they were truly guilty of. We don't know this person who is anonymously sent in this question, and it could be, and believe me, listener,

I'm not saying that this is the case, but it could be that you misunderstood some things. But if you certainly were a victim of harshness and cruelty or indifference or whatever the case was, don't you think,

Jeff, that that is certainly a different thing than somebody who leaves a biblically sound church just to get to another one because they like the music and they like to be entertained?

That sort of thing. God's hopeless. But, you know, a man

I greatly admired left Westminster Chapel, left

Dr. Lloyd -Jones, and he told me, well, I've had five years of his ministry. It's been wonderful.

But I think I want more now. And I think

I've had all that Dr. Lloyd -Jones can give me.

And he told me the church he was going to is a really fine church and a fine minister. And that's how he felt.

He felt a restlessness then. And I couldn't say, no, you must stay.

God has compassion on us, doesn't he? I don't know all that that man was going through.

But he certainly wasn't going for a superficial reason. He was going because his soul longed for more than he was getting at the present time.

And I think that's probably the one justification. If you haven't got a place of responsibility and a linchpin holding a church together, then you can go.

Well, thank you, brother, for that. And we're going to go to our final break. It's going to be a much more brief break. If you want to join us on the air with a question of your own, please do it quickly because we are rapidly running out of time.

Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least.

City and state and country of residence if you live outside the USA. Only remain anonymous if it's a question that is about a personal and private matter.

Don't go away. We'll be right back with Jeff Thomas after these messages. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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Welcome back and Jeff Thomas, if you could now begin with some points of application on how we can grow in grace?

Yes. Yes, I have three exhortations to encourage us to achieve these things.

Firstly, it must be our priority. It's the greatest thing in our lives. God is the greatest thing in our whole lives.

There's nothing more important than our relationship with him. It's not something for which we find time in the midst of other engagements, other preoccupations, other concerns.

Our relationship with God controls our lives. It's built around.

Our lives are built around him and our greatest longing is to fit ourselves for the service of our

God. This one thing I do, said the Apostle Paul. He said, to me to live is

Christ. So, all of us listening to this program have got to look at ourselves and ask, is it one thing that the years have done to change my skill values and my sense of priorities?

It's terribly easy to react against what one may call extreme religionism.

A person who will talk about religion and won't talk about anything else, there's something unbiblical in that.

But there's a far greater peril than that and that is the reduction of religious aspirations, their demotion, their relegation, so that they're not primary.

They don't control our lives. We look back at what we were and we laugh and mock ourselves.

We thought we knew everything then. We say, it's a great mistake, it's a great sadness, and things that should be secondary.

Our business and our family and politics, those things become more and more important to us.

And we're not going to grow unless these five things are a priority for us.

And I think in recent years that slackness and sloppiness has come into every area of evangelical

Christianity. We're no longer prepared to say we're poor for the middle is the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so we've got to be restorers of these priorities and to say that our chief end is the glory of God.

And if you don't, you know you face a most hopeless and appalling future.

So that's the first thing. And then the second thing, if you're to grow in grace, you must always remember your religious lives are not going to take care of themselves.

You can't say to yourself, okay, so look after yourself now, provide for yourself.

You have to see to it, as Peter says, that you're growing. That applies to every form of life.

You've got a garden. Your plants need nutrients and cultivations.

You've got indoor plants and you ask a member of your family or a neighbor if while you're away on vacation they nourish their water.

And our intellectual lives can grow only by what we're reading what we store in our minds, how we exercise our intellectual faculties.

Our bodies won't look after themselves. Our minds won't look after ourselves, themselves and our souls.

There must be a deliberate concern, a program of care, of detailed, meticulous provision.

Or we're not going to grow. We are reading scripture.

We are praying. There's the personal growth in grace.

And then there is Sunday services, sitting under the best ministry we can hear.

There are people, Peter says, in verse 17 of this chapter, they're being led away with the error of the wicked.

They're neglecting their souls. They're forgetting about it. And they're becoming wealthy.

There's, you know, there's two ways of destroying a building.

You can put a bomb inside and blow it up. Or you can take it down brick by brick.

And that's how the devil works. And we just say, well, it won't matter so much if I give up this.

Or if I don't do that any longer. Or if I'm not serious about this. And we've been carried away by the world.

You're neglecting your soul. You'll end up with a form of godliness, but denying its power.

John's terrible problem. They went out from us because they were not of us.

They fell into apostasy. And that's the great thing then.

Churches like that. And so I must look after my soul. I mustn't be so busy, so preoccupied, proving

I'm not a puritan. I'm not narrow -minded. I'm not hard. I'm the person who believes in Christian liberty and freedom of conscience.

And we're spending far too much time trying to show that we're not all that unworldly.

And it would be well for us if some of that energy were being poured into the great, fascinating undertaking of putting our spiritual lives together.

So it must be our priority. And then we must be aware that our souls won't look after themselves.

And then I have a third and final principle. I have to make every effort.

Verse 14. Be diligent. N -I -V. Make every effort. And well, that's diligence.

Where do we find it? Seeking food for your souls.

Searching for the truth which can nourish you. The sincere milk of the word.

Fall in love with the Bible again. Learn to search it. Learn to ransack it.

And hunger and thirst for the truth and for good preaching. And fall in love with talking about it amongst ourselves.

Meditating on Scripture. About every point of view.

The soul isn't going to grow without food. And there is no food for the soul like the word of God.

And then we've got to seek the face of God. We want to be like God. We want to go into His presence.

You seek in every way to be sure of the grace that God has shown to you.

And grow in community with your fellowship.

With the mysterious influence that one Christian has over another.

That's the way that faces us. That's the way ahead for us to go.

Seek food for our souls. Seek the face of God. Seek with diligence the society and fellowship of our brethren.

Seek the blessing of God upon all the means of grace.

Because all the reading and Bible studies and church attendance will not avail unless God blesses us.

Amen. We have another listener. We have

Christian in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Christian asks,

Do you think it might be a good idea to ask those that we know and love very well who we witness as being those that have grown very much in grace and truth and are among the finest

Christians that we know, the question as to whether or not they think we have grown in grace since the days that they have known us.

And also, when should we be bold enough to comment to a dear friend or loved one that they are lacking in that growth?

Yeah, how wise we have to be in this field of interpersonal relationships, don't we?

Especially the gentle answer, the gracious rebuke, the suggestion, perhaps this might help you, how we say it.

And bring it to God and pray much about it and ask

Him to help you because we are so sensitive. I'm sensitive.

And we do need help in that area.

The Lord give you much wisdom in that area. Let me say, as I close, my wife is having a hip replacement on Saturday.

And we were going to go and stay with my daughter. And yesterday my daughter called me.

She says, she's 48, my daughter. I've got coronavirus and my husband.

And you can't come to our house. So we've been frantic. Now, working on something else, where can we stay so that I deliver her to the hospital at 7 .30.

It's a hundred miles away. And you pray for me that my wife will have a really successful hip replacement.

Everyone says how useful those operations are. And she'll be in hospital for five days and I'm not allowed because of coronavirus to visit her.

And that you'll pray for my third daughter that she'll recover well from the coronavirus.

And her husband who's got it too. Amen. Dear listeners, please pray for all of those items that our dear brother

Jeff has brought to you very honestly and openly. And I will do the same.

Jeff, if you could, just briefly, there's one part of the question you didn't address about us asking others about how we have grown in grace.

Is that a wise idea? It depends on the person, isn't it?

Some people love us so much they think the world of us and they will say, oh, you mean so much to me, and so on.

And then there are the other people. Who are you going to choose? These people are not very close to us.

And are you going to ask them to give their opinion of you?

Or I would find that a very difficult question. A very difficult decision to come to.

I'm hoping that my preacher every Sunday is going to bring those challenges to me.

That he will encourage me but he will also, Christian, the

Bible is profitable for rebuke and instruction, correction in righteousness, and may it be like that for you next

Sunday. Amen. And I want to repeat the websites that carry, that publish also,

Jeff Thomas' books, BannerOfTruth .org, BannerOfTruth .org, and HeritageBooks .org,

HeritageBooks .org. I want to thank you so much, Jeff Thomas, for always being such a wonderful guest.

I look forward to your return. I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who took the time to write. And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater