February 28, 2020 Show with Sydney Kombe on “The Zambian Church”

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

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Carlyle, Pennsylvania It's iron sharpens iron This is a radio platform in which pastors

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Christian scholars and theologians Address the burning issues facing the church and the world today

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

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage We are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation

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To make one another wiser and better It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours

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And we hope to hear from you the listener with your own questions, and now here's your host

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Chris Arnzen Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Lake City, Florida and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live -streaming at iron sharpens iron radio .com

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This is Chris Arnzen your host at iron sharpens iron radio wishing you all a happy Friday on this 20th day 28th day of February 2020 before I introduce my guest and topic for today.

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I have some Bad news and some wonderful news And those things very often come together in the lives of Christians But as we know in Romans 8 28, we have a promise from our sovereign

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Lord That he told us through the Apostle Paul But he promised us through the Apostle Paul that all things work together for the good

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For those who love God and are a called according to his purpose Well, if you listen to iron sharpens iron radio with any regularity, you know that I have among my

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Four siblings five of us in total a brother in Texas who is not a believer

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Who has been battling? critical stage emphysema And I have been asking you all to pray that he would be willing to meet a friend of mine

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Who I've interviewed on this program a number of times pastor Mac Tomlinson Of the got of the

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Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas and my brother for several years now has

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Rejected my urgings to allow pastor Mac to visit him

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Well, the bad news is is my brother was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday because he was having difficulty breathing he is in a hospital in Texas that is

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About ten minutes away from where pastor Mac Tomlinson lives and ministers so instead of asking from permission from my brother

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I just had Mac show up unannounced this morning at the hospital and my brother very surprisingly

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Much be to the praise honor and glory of God. He very warmly welcomed the visit from pastor

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Tomlinson and They chatted they exchanged phone numbers my pastor

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Mac prayed over my brother and my brother gave a hearty amen to the prayer and pastor

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Mac Intends to visit tomorrow and hopefully even after my brother gets discharged

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He's going to be visiting him at his home. God willing and he's going to be more direct with a clear gospel message

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Now that a bridge has been built Between pastor Mac and my brother.

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So I just wanted to Give that praise report because I'm so thrilled about it and I know that many of you in the iron sharpens iron radio audience judging from your emails and your

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Facebook messenger Messages you have been encouraging me that you have been praying for my brother and I do also have another brother locally in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in a nursing home who is

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Not a believer and I appreciate your prayers for him too. Those are my two oldest brothers in their 70s, but Thanks be to God.

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This is such good news to me and continue to pray for the ministry of pastor

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Mac Tomlinson at Providence Chapel Denton, Texas With my brother

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John my oldest brother Well now I'm going to introduce you to somebody that I met this past Wednesday during our midweek worship services at Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where I am a member and He gave a presentation there that evening.

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His name is Sidney Combe. He is pastor of Emanuel Baptist Church of Mpika -Muchinga

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Province, Zambia, Africa and He is going to be addressing today how

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God saved Sidney Combe and We're going to hear praise reports and challenges facing the church in Zambia But it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to our interpreters iron radio

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Pastors Cindy Sidney Combe almost called you Cindy That that doesn't go over well with Reformed Baptist searing pastor

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I can hear that, but thank you so much brother Chris for having me on your program

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It is such a rare privilege that you can extend such a platform to me, especially all the way from Zambia and That in the providence of God you'd want to know even learn something about Not only

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Zambia, but especially the church that I pastor and thank you so much for this opportunity

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Oh, the pleasure is all mine, and I might as well Announce this now and I will repeat it later on God willing but a mutual friend of ours.

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Dr Conrad M. Bayway, who is the pastor of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa And he is also is he still the vice chancellor of African Christian University because I know that he had changed

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Titles and roles there. I just want to keep up to date here. Is he still vice chancellor? Yeah, I think there would just be need to make a follow -up because changes really like you mentioned up or card he used to be the vice chancellor and I think currently they should be or the dentist to wear it from Lusaka Baptist Church I'm I stand to be corrected

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But I think that's that's that should be my understanding Yes, I know that he is a lecturer there and Apparently from what he had said once before I don't think in Africa it is

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Protocol it is proper protocol for a chancellor to also teach or something like that Yeah, something like that.

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Yeah, no, um, I Still need to make a follow -up and just get the proper information

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Because I know that changes have occurred and Haven't really been well -versed with the

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Sun. Well Dr. Conrad Mbewe is going to be for the very first time ever my guest speaker at the

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Sharpens iron radio pastors luncheon. I hold these twice a year.

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These are events that began from the brilliant mind of my precious late wife

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Julie in the 1990s in New York and I held the those events for quite a number of years in New York and when she went home to be

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With her Lord God Savior and King Christ Jesus for eternity after several years hiatus from my radio program

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I Moved to Pennsylvania relaunched my radio show and also relaunched the pastors luncheons in her honor and memory and also first and foremost

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First and foremost in tribute to our Lord God Savior and King Christ Jesus But I am so thrilled that Dr.

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Mbewe quickly accepted my invitation to speak at the luncheon and I've known him since 1995 the church where I was formerly a member on Long Island grace reform

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Baptist Church of Long Island, New York And Merrick was the very first American church where dr.

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Mbewe preached it was during his very first visit to the United States in 1995 and I am so thankful to God that we have maintained a friendship all these years

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So if you are a man in ministry leadership, you can't be a pastor Cindy But if you are a man in ministry leadership whether you are a pastor an

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Elder and I happen to believe those are the same office Some churches don't a deacon a parachurch leader

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Send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com if you would like to attend this event, which will be held in Carlisle, Pennsylvania We are still sorting out the details on the exact venue

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The Carlisle fire and rescue banquet hall was already booked for that date and it is the only date

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Well, we can have dr. Mbewe come speak for us. So I'm in the process of trying to arrange another venue

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So please pray about that as well But send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com Chris arnson at gmail .com

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if you'd like to attend it's absolutely free of charge. Not only will you hear dr Mbewe preach and I've specifically asked him to preach and not lecture

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So he's going to preach because he is the most powerful preacher on the planet Earth as far as I'm concerned but you're also going to get the free meal and you're going to get a ton of free books donated by Very generous

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Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom So if you can make it to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

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and that's Friday May 29th from 11 a .m. To 2 p .m

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But by the way, Pastor Sidney Did I do a better job?

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pronouncing your name and the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Empika then Pastor John Miller of Grace Baptist of Carlisle Did I do a better job at pronouncing you from those words?

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Actually, you're doing excellent I remember being in seminary one of my lecturers was from from the

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States and He actually had a lot of struggle to pronounce my surname

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Colbert he used to call me combi and They they have these minivans and the minivans are called combi

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So I think he was very comfortable to refer to me in that regard So hearing you pronounce my name so nicely

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It's a great encouragement to me that I can even go back if chance be given to help him pronounce my name

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You're doing a good job Thank you very much. And Dr. Bayway has always said the same thing about my pronunciation of his name

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Well Before we have you give your personal testimony, which is something that we always do when we have a first -time guest

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On I'm sharpens on radio. Why don't you tell our listeners some details about Emmanuel Baptist Church of Empika?

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Mochinga Province Zambia Africa All right Emmanuel Baptist Church is a computational reformed

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Baptist Church. It was started in June 1995 and by God's grace, it was established under Lusaka Baptist Church and the whole reason why this church was birthed was

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People used to travel from Lusaka to Empika to do some work And most of those were brothers from Lusaka Baptist Church and other reformed

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Baptist churches around Lusaka To the extent that they did not find churches where they could, you know go and fellowship

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So they ended up staying away and there was a consent rate and there was a need for them to start something

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Of an English service in the service to the Lord and one of the brothers, especially who was from Lusaka Baptist Church I was doing some work with World Vision and Then the chief the village chief

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Asked him because he saw there was an element of piety in his life and even in the way was handling issues

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He questioned him whether he was a Pentecostal You know member of some church and that's when he mentioned that actually he was from Lusaka and was a reformed

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Baptist To that effect the chief questioned him further if at all that church was in existence in his chiefdom and To that response he said it wasn't in existence and then the chief gave him a green light

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That if it were possible for him to start something he was very much, you know welcomed in his chiefdom

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So him that's brother Chiwele, I know the names won't matter much to you

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But brother Chiwele started now organizing the men and the women who are working in Empika And that's how the church started from the house group level they rented out some school room and then eventually bought a piece of land and Started erecting the church building and that's where we are currently meeting

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Of course, this church has been there since 1995 and it has seen three pastors.

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In fact, I'm the third pastor Saving the Lord in that rural part of Zambia Currently the church has the membership of 33

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And on a Good Lord's Day We have in attendance about 80 people

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And on a day that you know, we will term humanly that it's not a good day we have about 40 to 50 people in attendance and In the recent past we started the

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Bemba service and Bemba is a native language Of the area where the church is is established

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So the past two and a half years we have been running Bemba service alongside the two other services so the

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Bemba service starts early in the morning as early as or 830 and then The English service follows thereafter at 1015 and then the other

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English service at 13 hours All these meetings they run, you know concurrently a reason being people leave quite far from where the church is located and We try as much as we can to return the people when they come for morning service

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They don't go home until the very last meeting is held That's when they they go away

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The church is faced with various ministries within it We have men's, women's and the young people's ministry and Sunday school the junior or children's ministry.

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So the in the recent past as a leadership we we thought of channeling our energies toward evangelizing the children and indoctrinate them with sound you know truth that as they grow they are exposed to the truth of God's Word and the reason why we saw that this was quite important is that the area itself is as much of the presence of Roman Catholic In fact

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Roman Catholic was somewhat the very first church to be established in Muchinga province specifically in Pika Followed by another church called

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United Church of Zambia So most of the older people they are already established in these two churches and others like Jehovah's Witnesses So it becomes a bit difficult even to like have them come congregate with us

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But they allow their children to come and attend meetings at our church So we have a program we call literacy class which caters for the children who are unable to write or read and We are using that platform to reach out to the parents to these children

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We also have the orphans and vulnerable children's ministry and We are using the same platform as I mentioned to evangelize

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You rather have access to the the parents to these children. So all in all the church is evangelistic driven and We desire to see that the gospel of Christ Gets preached especially to everyone living in Pika and praying that even beyond It is our prayer that the

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Lord would grant these wishes of our hearts Praise God and you mentioned a church that I think if I'm not

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Remembering this incorrectly But we had a visitor who was a speaker at Grace Baptist Church.

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Not that long ago um, palo kunane of a Reformed Baptist Church in Johannesburg, South Africa And I believe he mentioned one of the churches that you mentioned alongside the

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Catholic Church a Zambian church, that is a Theologically and spiritually dangerous cult.

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Is that the church that you were referring to? I wouldn't say so.

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Um, I Think what in Malillo referred to was Zion Christian Church. Okay, that's it.

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I'm sorry That's that's why I did not repeat the name of the church because I wasn't No, it's okay brother

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This is I would say it's the United Church of Zambia streams from The protestant movement that had come into Zambia.

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They started on a good base when the church came In fact the Church of Scotland if I'm not mistaken

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When the missionaries came into into Zambia, they are the ones who established the United Church of Zambia Just like how in fact the

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Roman Catholic had already been there way back around the 1730s You know back then you see

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Zeta United Church of Zambia came around the 1818 stages 1850s so it's quite a

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Then a long time check that has been existence rather for for for a long time but Zion Christian Church is different from United Church of Zambia However Similarities if I can just fish out one or two points from the same night

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I listen to Malala Malala as he explained about the uniform they put on and the certain practices which they do

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With this one in Zambia, they try as much as they can of course preach the gospel Of course the gospel is so much like man -centered

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Every now and then to be crystal centric, but for the most part is man -centered They also put on uniforms

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And Yeah, I mean for the most part they They are not so much inclined toward Zion Christian Church of South Africa.

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Yeah Well, as long as they are wearing uniforms that have the iron sharpens iron radio logo on them

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I'm fine with that Listeners the website is

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EBC for Emmanuel Baptist Church dash Empika M as in Michael P as in Peter IKA dot wix site w ix sit e .com

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forward slash EBC and Pika Yes, and if anybody correct if anybody wants that repeated you could email me at Chris Arnzen at gmail .com

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and I will Send you all the details that you need on this Wonderful church and one thing that you mentioned.

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I know that many of my Reformed Baptist listeners may be rolling their eyes because I'm repeating something that I Say almost every time

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I have a guest that mentions that their church is confessional And I wanted to make sure that you define that because obviously those who are unfamiliar with reformed theology may wrongly immediately think about Roman Catholicism and the correct in the heretical dogma of penance or Yeah Confession to a priest and obviously that has nothing to do with what you are talking about if you could explain that Yeah basically confessional

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Reformed church is a church that holds them to a reformed doctrine

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That has a document that has summarized the biblical teachings and That document guides and governs how the church is run alongside what the scripture says

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So like for instance the 1689 confession London Convention of Faith is the one which most of the

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Reformed Baptist churches ought to so we have a very leveled base and the conviction of faith that is defined from this very confession document which we hold them to So we are not necessarily trying to align ourselves with You know the thing of penance as the

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Roman Catholicism, but we stream our history from Martin Luther's of the day or the

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John Calvin's of the day in fact even going back to you know Augustine of Hippo with the doctrines of predestination that were

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Propagated by them and in fact discovered by them and then over the years The other theologians kept on waking and rewaking them and refining them forth and then finally we have a document

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Compiled for us. It's basically a summary of the entire the six books of the Bible But we have this real document which contains those teachings and we hold them to that as confessional

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Reformed Baptist churches now the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Those who are in the

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UK and even the United States Who are reformed that is typically do not have a negative knee -jerk reaction to that at all

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But I was just wondering out of curiosity Yeah, is there any negative reaction to what might?

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appear to local folks local Citizens residents of Zambia look upon this as remnants of imperialism they

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Want to view themselves as a more independent Nation as well as being more independent and their perhaps denominational affiliation or church

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Identification and is there any kind of a negative reaction even perhaps especially to those outside your congregation?

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I'm assuming there wouldn't be much inside your congregation I think we've seen my congregation and other

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Reformed Baptist churches are within Zambia. They there isn't a negative reaction to it

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Of course, there can be one or two, you know people that might express recessiveness in the sense that they might think and feel that by virtue of the church holding on to these confessional faith

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We are trying to replace the Bible, you know, such arguments have been raised every now and then trying to replace the

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Bible But again, we argue that no we are not trying to replace the Bible this in here is a summary of what the

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Bible teaches So yeah, they could be one or two that express a little bit of you know recessive

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But going outside the confines of the reformed Churches I'm pretty sure we

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They could be reaction in the sense that this is our document which identifies us to be different from Who they are and I'm pretty sure they also have their own documents where they delineate their teachings and everything

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So I think my understanding would be if I were to go and present this document to someone in Zambia Who may be from Jehovah's Witness?

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They will definitely not accept it because as you know, the Jehovah's Witnesses would rather give you their material unlike accepting materials from you

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The same with United Church of Zambia. They will accommodate my teaching and even their exposure to this very document

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But to a greater extent it won't mean they will embrace it with their hearts because that's not what their church teaches

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So there's just these varied reactions to the same And I haven't come across any name -calling with regards those that hold on to the 1689

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Confessional Faith Not that I know of As much as I can

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I can think of. I haven't come across anyone who has expressed Concern Except those selected few from within our churches

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Yeah Well when we return from our first station break

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We're going to have a pastor Sidney give his personal testimony of salvation as I had mentioned earlier

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We always do that. Well, at least we typically do that When we have a guest on Iron Sherpins Iron Radio for the very first time so Have your questions ready.

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We would love to hear from you at Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com and as always give us your first name at least your city and state of residence and Your country of residence if you live outside the

26:47

USA and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter Don't go away. We'll be right back with pastor

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Sidney Combe right after these messages from our sponsors This Is pastor

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Bill Sousa Grace Church at Franklin here in the beautiful state of Tennessee Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

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Dividing Line webcast here Although God has brought me all over the globe for many years to teach preach and debate at numerous venues

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Some of my very fondest memories are from those precious times of fellowship with Pastor Rich Jensen and the brethren at Hope Reform Baptist Church Now located at their new beautiful facilities in Coram, Long Island, New York I've had the privilege of opening

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God's Word from their pulpit on many occasions Have led youth retreats for them and have always been thrilled to see their members filling many seats at my

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New York debates I do not hesitate to highly recommend Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island to anyone who wants to be accurately taught

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Discipled and edified by the Holy Scriptures and to be surrounded by truly loving and caring brothers and sisters in Christ I also want to congratulate

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For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church go to HopeReformedLI .net

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That's HopeReformedLI .net or call 631 -696 -5711

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That's 631 -696 -5711 Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island that you heard about them from James White on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Welcome back.

31:32

This is Chris Arnzen If you just tuned us in our guest today for the very first time ever on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio is

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Pastor Sidney Combe. He is the pastor of Emanuel Baptist Church And that is located in Mpika in the

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Muchinga province of Zambia, Africa Right now we are at the point in our conversation where he is going to give his personal salvation testimony

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And if you would like to join us on the air, we have an email address for you ChrisArnzen at gmail .com

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ChrisArnzen at gmail .com Give us your first name at least your city and state of residence in your country of residence if you live outside of the

32:10

USA and A Pastor Sidney What kind of religious atmosphere if any were you raised in to kind of set the stage for your personal salvation testimony

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Yeah You see that United Church of Zambia was what

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I would call The family church and that means that you are I was brought up religious person

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Having been exposed to church growing up and that just benefited me morally

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Of course growing up in this eyes of the world like an upright person

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Yet, I was not a Christian until the age of 17 In fact up to the age of 17.

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I lived under this deception thinking that by virtue of me going to church You know my parents also were ever attending

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Church, in fact all of us going to church was one of those things and then non -negotiable, you know issue but until the age of 18

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There was a time I was watching, you know, the the show about in fact in enacted about Christ and I think that was the very first time

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I came, you know face -to -face with the reality depicted of what

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Jesus Christ had done you know, his life was portrayed from birth the time he died on the cross and I kept on asking myself a question like why would this you know, seemingly good man, you know would subject himself to such

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Cruelty even as he was greatly you were treated I had no idea that that was a depiction of the

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Son of Man God Jesus Christ himself but I was like this one is an innocent man and he's being treated to this extent and I could not find any answer anyway but the beauty was at the very end of this same show the presenter of the show came forth and He proclaimed the one who proclaimed the gospel.

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In fact, he firstly Started by imploring me I took it very personal that I needed to be reconciled with God and I was like Why should

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I be reconciled with God? What is it that I've done against God that I should be

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Reconciled to him and again went on citing 2nd Corinthians 5.

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That's 22 20 through 21 Especially this 21 where he said he made him, you know seen

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To be seen that we might become the righteousness of God and I was still asking what does it mean seen?

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What is seen? What is the righteousness of God? And then he carried on is like this

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Jesus died for your sin citing 1st Corinthians 15 1 through 4 again and He was urging me

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I took it very personal he was urging me to realize that The life which

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I lived under the guise of being upright, you know in the eyes of the world

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I actually was not upright. I was dead in sin and trespasses I was an enemy of God and Say that it was explained that truly

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Not only was I seen I was dead No matter how much good

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I tried to do that wasn't going to bring me even access to stand accepted before you know

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The righteous God so I was filled with so much fear in my heart but at the same time this

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Presenter guided me where he pointed the fact that I don't need to present myself before God in my own filthy

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Righteousness, but rather placing my trust in what Jesus Christ did on the cross He died for me if I repented of my sin if I placed my trust in him

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God was so faithful through his son to forgive my sin and accept me as one of his his own

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But I can't remember how the whole thing happened, but I found myself on my knees, you know

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Sobbing and pleading and praying that the Lord would be gracious to me In fact one of the the verses which brought so much fear

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Well the fact that at the end of the day no matter my commitment to church no matter whatever

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That Did we not prophesy?

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Did we in your name? Did we not cast demons in your name? Did we you know do many things in your name this 23 and I will say to them

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I never knew you you workers of lawlessness when those words were uttered to me

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I really was shaken in the sense that these men were claiming to know

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God did something for God and There I was I just used to attend church and priding myself in my my own made righteousness and What what was

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Jesus going to say about me? About him not knowing me and that's the place.

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I didn't want to find myself that I'm not known by God and by God's grace

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I went down on my knees and I pleaded for mercy for forgiveness That would wash me clean with his

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Precious blood the blood that never loses its power and I do remember in 1998 in December that's when the

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Lord by his grace found me and he said and Immediately after my salvation

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I I got involved in a church the charismatic church the same church that used to come to my place and They tried to mean for the gospel to me and I kept on you know, like just telling them to go away

38:40

I didn't want to have anything to do with them because charismatic by them was not well accepted within our community and For them to come and try to convert me to charismatism

38:54

I did not want to have anything to do with them But after the conversion, this is the church that I fell in love and I started attending and I was there from 1998

39:07

For 10 years, I was not only a member but an active, you know member of the church to the extent that even

39:14

The pastor of the church considered me like the right -hand man, you know to him

39:21

I was becoming more like an associate to him by the year 2002 2003

39:28

I started, you know Experiencing this urge within me of entering ministry.

39:34

By the way, I wanted to become a chef But after the Lord converted me the desire to become a chef just became the thing of the past Preaching the gospel seeing people, you know come to the knowledge of Christ.

39:48

It became so meaningful to me To the extent that I started having this deeper conviction within me that there's nothing else that I would rather do than being in ministry

39:59

In 2016 I enrolled at a Morningstar Bible College, which is a

40:05

Presbyterian -based Bible College and I started okay But there was some clash theologically, you know being a charismatic young man quite energetic

40:17

And then I go to this Presbyterian Bible Church where like, you know

40:24

Heavy doctrines were being taught and especially that I wasn't taught in that way I just could not you know, you didn't sit well with so after a year

40:34

I quit and the reason why I had to quit was this particular doctrine of election

40:40

Because the church I used to attend they used to regard the doctrine of election as the doctrine of the devil

40:46

That's that's how you know, daring they were the doctrine of the devil because we believed then that salvation there is a contribution from man and Even remaining said you still had to do certain things.

41:03

You need to pray. You need to fast You know, you need to live a disciplined life. And if you find yourself

41:10

Even telling a lie, it's like you've lost the whole thing that will be building up over the years

41:17

So going into the Bible College and discovering that you know doctrine of election was to some extent

41:23

Some of the brothers who were there misapplied the doctrine itself where they were claiming that if they were saved

41:32

Regardless how they live they will still end up in heaven now to me. That's not how

41:37

I was instructed I needed to walk righteously and I didn't need to compromise

41:44

So I said if this is what the doctrine of election can do to someone I would rather have nothing to do with it

41:51

And I would rather have nothing to do with the Bible College itself. So I stopped I stayed about a year without being in in any tertiary institution until 2008

42:03

That's when I came across a seminary in South Africa Christ seminary and I did apply this thing and in fact the application form came with the doctrinal statement and I rise to obviously, you know,

42:17

I went I went to read where election was explained And I became very comforted

42:23

Because the doctrinal statement I will be paraphrasing Emphasized on the doctrine of election that in the providence of God God has elected his own and If we are elect and you are saved

42:37

You have to live a life that which reflects your saved state

42:42

And if you begin to live otherwise, it's like what the Apostle Paul was saying in Romans 6 Should we continue sinning so that the grace may abound?

42:52

So the seminary itself and their doctrinal statement was emphasizing the fact that Firstly when you are elected and you realize that by God's grace you are saved as an elect that should bring a lot of humility

43:04

So basically a lot to you're contrasting the difference between people thinking that that they are meriting even in part their salvation through the good deeds and Yeah on the other end of the spectrum viewing them as necessary evidences that you are truly justified

43:23

Yes, and there's a big is a huge gulf of difference Wherein why the difference between heaven and hell actually?

43:31

That's true. That's true Also by God's grace, I enrolled and I started studying from there.

43:37

So I was there from 2008 through 2011 and now you can imagine

43:42

I was coming from this background of being a nominal Christian Coming from my family that was not mom up to now

43:53

She's not safe, you know, few of my three of my siblings are not said but the rest are saved to 13 as a whole

44:01

Three of my siblings passed and dad also died But the remaining only three are the ones that are not saved but the rest

44:11

In fact, I even have a brother was a pastor as well I can imagine coming from the homestead that was religious

44:18

Then entering the charismatic sphere and I was there for 10 years

44:23

Then leaving that persuasion I entered into the baptistic alphanistic, you know well thinking it was really really a struggle and by God's grace being in seminary and Having the the

44:37

God -fearing lecturers. They really helped me greatly to reshape my theology my understanding and I did even my internship

44:47

Austin seminary from 2010 to 2011 and Pastor Tim Cantrell of Antioch Bible Church in Rundberg, South Africa and Once I was done with my my schooling on my seminary studies

45:03

That's when I got connected with Pastor Conrad Mbewe through Pastor Tim So I moved from South Africa Came to Zambia and Kawata Baptist Church housed me for the whole year of my internship

45:18

At Kawata Baptist Church, so I did internship with two churches Kawata Baptist Church and Dr.

45:24

Conrad Mbewe as well as Lusaka Baptist Church and Pastor Califungwa Ronald and All this time it was a process of shedding off of reshaping of getting repositioned and Getting refined

45:43

Theologically and even in the area of ministry So all in all I'm so grateful to God that he has seen me through it's been a journey

45:52

And I still continue learning by God's grace and I pray that I will be a useful

46:00

Instrument in his hands for his glory and for the good of his church Amen, so instead of becoming a chef you now prepare a feast that your congregation receives through their ears and into their hearts a spiritual of spiritual feast the spiritual banquet and Thank God as good as you were at At the the duties of a chef,

46:26

I'm thrilled that you are actually in the gospel ministry one thing I wanted to ask you about is one thing that Reformed Christians sometimes unfortunately have a habit of doing is that when we refer to our charismatic friends family neighbors

46:45

Brothers in Christ we we can broad brush them all together as if they are all in The worst form or worst

46:53

Manifestation of that movement, which would be the word of faith name it and damn it health wealth and prosperity movement

46:59

What was what was the charismatic church like that you were involved in for over a decade? Was it that extreme or was it more biblical because I have a number of charismatic and Pentecostal friends

47:12

Some of whom even agree with us Soteriologically, but even if they don't they are far more

47:20

Humble and biblically based and God -centered than those who are severe

47:25

And heretical and damning movements that would be under the umbrella of charismatic Yeah When we talk about charismatic, especially

47:36

I'll speak about Zambia in particular and maybe try to Extend it a little bit to Africa as a whole

47:45

You Know first and foremost, you know, the charismatic movement is somewhat an imposed

47:52

Idea on on Zambia and other African countries by that I mean someone from Africa Gates connected with someone from from the

48:04

States and before they for his for instance continuous Copeland and He releases his ministerial documents that if you want to work with me you have to do a

48:17

BCD in other words, you have to model your church after the church here in the States and To the greater extent you cannot do otherwise other than doing exactly

48:29

What your masters if I can use that term loosely expect of you?

48:34

now To me it's quite concerning like speaking from an experiential point of view

48:42

I love scripture brother ends in and even the church that I belonged to the ten years

48:48

I used to go to my pastor every now and then he would preach on on the Lord's Day They would say something that He would read a text and there's something say something that is not in line with the text then

49:00

I would go back to him and ask and He used to every now and then tell me know the letter kill it, but the spirit gives life

49:07

So I never used to understand what he meant by that in other words when you begin to think critically

49:14

To him it seemed like you cease to be spiritual So to be spiritual you have to face so much in emotional reason

49:23

It's like you have to flow with whatever prevailing wind at that particular time

49:29

So in Zambia, yes, we have the waste kind of charismatic movement

49:37

They are people that run on the wagon of competition

49:43

It's like someone has to Have to certain things, you know They need to to do something that blows someone's mind in order for them to return more people in their congregation

49:57

I know that there's some who Sound biblical, but they're in a wrong place or together

50:07

Which I feel that they need To follow what the scriptures expect of them.

50:13

So yes, we have the word of faith movement in Zambia They name it and claim it. It's there and Others even dare to raise the dead.

50:23

In fact, I was one of those as well who try to do that I mean, it's that daring The Pentecostals, I mean in years back you could distinguish between the

50:35

Pentecostals and the charismatics this time around you really cannot draw a very

50:42

Distinctive line between the two. It's like one is trying to out to do what the other person is doing was able rather to do

50:49

And I just feel like it's very impossible For one to run the

50:55

Church of Christ that way So yes, we have the influence coming from this end

51:02

Like for instance my pastor used to be called the Benihim of Zambia and especially that very

51:08

Area where where we have a church was in in Chambish Now when someone says the

51:14

Benihim of Zambia, obviously, you know what that Are you saying Benihim of Zambia?

51:21

Yes, okay. Well, I much prefer the nickname that our mutual friend. Dr. Conrad and Bayway has the

51:27

Spurgeon of Zambia The Spurgeon of Africa much better Yeah But I'm just talking about the pastor that I used to sit under for the 10 years

51:40

Because of the certain practices that he does which To the greater extent are not even in line with the scriptures

51:49

He I Mean you do these weird things Which you can't even find from scripture.

51:55

So yes, I know that there are some sober charismatic brothers and They are really trying as much as like they can probably to help the church where they belong to be on the right track

52:08

But like I said, they are just in the wrong boat altogether, right?

52:14

Yes, I have a friend who's in heaven now for eternity, but he was an Assemblies of God pastor on Long Island, New York and he over the years became a full -fledged five -point

52:25

Calvinist and he was an overseer in the Assemblies of God believe it or not and Wow, and he just viewed himself as a

52:37

Non cessationist, he didn't believe he didn't believe that the sign gifts were as rampantly available as many

52:46

Pentecostals and charismatics claim but He was a fascinating brother.

52:52

In fact, he watched the live streaming of John MacArthur's strange fire conference that dr.

53:00

Mbay was was a part of and And he told me this is prior obviously to his going home to be with the

53:07

Lord After a horrific car accident, but he told me that he agreed with 99 % of the things that were said at the strange fire conference

53:16

Amen, amen. I mean we need we need such sober mind To me

53:22

I'm looking at like the current charismatic movement in April with exception of those brothers who are really sober and Thinking through, you know things biblically

53:34

I'm looking at the current charismatic as a following which has embraced religious ignorance and In fact, you picked up where you left off right when we come back from our midway break because we have to get our midway

53:48

Break right now. All right, brother, and if anybody would like to join us on the air, we do have some people

53:55

Waiting for their questions to be asked and answered So, please be patient as you continue to wait if anybody else wants to get in line

54:03

Our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com chris ar n z e n gmail .com

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01:06:27

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. And before we return to our interview with Pastor Sidney Combe, we just have some important announcements to make

01:06:39

First of all coming up in May Friday, May 29th iron sharpens iron radio has

01:06:47

Featured as our guest speaker for the very first time ever in the history of the iron sharpens iron radio pastors luncheons

01:06:54

Which began in 1990s? We have dr. Conrad M. Bayway Pastor of Kibwata Baptist Church in Lusaka Zambia Africa.

01:07:02

He's also a professor or lecturer at the African Christian University And I am so thrilled that he is going to be our speaker because in my opinion

01:07:11

He is the most powerful preacher alive on the planet Earth and that is no exaggeration coming from me

01:07:17

I think he's absolutely monumental if you are a man in ministry leadership, you would like to attend.

01:07:23

It's absolutely free Send me an email to Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com

01:07:29

and Just say that you want to register for the iron sharpens iron radio pastors luncheon you could even just put pastors luncheon in the subject line and If you can make it to Carlisle, Pennsylvania where the event will be held

01:07:43

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01:07:49

Send us an email to Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com for the 2020 spring

01:07:56

Pastors luncheon of iron sharpens iron radio and once again, everything is free of charge

01:08:01

Not only your meal, but also hearing dr. M. Bayway preach and You will be getting a ton of free books as well from major Christian publishers all over the

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United States in the United Kingdom who donate these books for the pastors that attend my Luncheons every single year twice a year actually because I have these events twice a year

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01:09:37

We are now back with our guest Pastor Sidney Combe of the

01:09:44

Emanuel Baptist Church of Empika in the Mochinga province of Zambia, Africa And if you have a question, our email address is

01:09:53

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Now I have a listener who's remaining anonymous who claims that I That I said

01:10:05

Kenneth Copeland Was the Spurgeon of Zambia I did not say I Said if in fact,

01:10:14

I perhaps my guests pastor Sidney can Back me up on this. I said our mutual friend.

01:10:20

Dr. Conrad and Bayway has a much better nickname than the

01:10:25

Benny Hinn of Zambia which was pastor Sidney's past former pastors nickname

01:10:32

Pastor Conrad and Bayway for decades has had a nickname the Spurgeon of Africa and I believe

01:10:39

I did use his name Dr. Conrad and Bayway when referring to that nickname. Did I not or am I or is my listener correct?

01:10:47

I Think you clarified I was making a reference to my former pastor who was called

01:10:54

The Benny Hinn of Africa and you said you would prefer, you know, the Conrad II They were of Africa rather Spurgeon of Africa as being referred to Conrad in there

01:11:04

However, Kenneth Copeland was not brought into the pictures in reference to dr

01:11:09

Conrad if they were not and now my list I was listeners complaining that I Misquoted her

01:11:14

I meant I don't know. I meant to I meant to say the Benny Hinn which was Not I'm getting confused here.

01:11:23

She she said that I said that The your former pastor was the

01:11:34

Well, you said that your former pastor is the Benny Hinn of Africa and I said I would rather The nickname be given to me that is has been enjoyed by dr

01:11:46

Conrad and Bayway for decades the Spurgeon of Africa. Well, I'll listen to the recording later and if she's right,

01:11:52

I will apologize to her No, you know you did not know but yes

01:12:00

All right, we have a question from Mary and Cork Ireland and Mary asks

01:12:11

Good day Pastor Combe and Chris. I am interested to know if your church holds

01:12:18

Sunday school classes for adults if not, then why and She also wants to know if you ever did a study on the attributes of God With them.

01:12:30

They are truly marvelous. I When I saw that question, I I thought she was talking about a

01:12:36

W pinks book Yeah, the attributes of God. She's not specifically referring to that.

01:12:42

She is In a just a more broadly biblical sense addressing the dog. Okay, so you could yeah, you could answer

01:12:49

Mary and Cork are all right Yes Yes, we do have

01:12:56

We don't call our adult group a Sunday school

01:13:02

We have a doctrinal class which we call adult Bible class So what you would call in the

01:13:10

States a Sunday school? That's what we call as adult Bible class and that's on the

01:13:16

Lord's Day in the morning We have the junior Sunday school Which Comprises ages from if I can say from zero

01:13:29

Because even babies are there up to somewhere 17 18 years old and That group has been divided into two groups there's junior

01:13:43

Sunday school and there's also senior Sunday school and Going by grades probably from grade zero if you like up to seventh grade those comprise the junior

01:13:55

Sunday school then from the eighth grade up to the twelfth grade those comprise the senior

01:14:01

Sunday school and What we call adult Bible classes what you call this site

01:14:07

Sunday school and Yeah, we we have not specifically studied

01:14:14

The book by Pinch or even poser, but we have gleaned

01:14:21

Some doctrinal in fact the attributes of God from Louis Beckhoff systematic theology and we have comprised the

01:14:34

The disciplines which he conveys about God and we formulated a little booklet which we use

01:14:43

And it's basically about the attributes of God and in fact up to now, that's what you've been studying

01:14:49

We haven't finished Studying through that booklet. And yes, we we do have

01:14:55

The the meetings as you also do have at a meeting from this side

01:15:01

Atlantic I have no idea if this was the reason she asked this question, but There there is a minority of Christians today

01:15:10

Some who are even reformed who Think that having Sunday school quote -quote is a violation of the regulative principle because there's nothing mentioned in the

01:15:19

Bible about that But I think that that I think that that's stretching that That yeah that blueprint of the regular regulative principle a bit too far

01:15:30

Yeah, there are there are also some Fundamentalists and tinier groups like landmark

01:15:36

Baptists and primitive Baptists and others who Who reject that I have no idea if that's why she brought that up, but they do exist and there's also

01:15:45

Churches that don't believe in segregating the congregation by age like she mentioned adult

01:15:52

Sunday school and there are Family integrated churches. In fact,

01:15:57

I believe brother Votie Balcom adheres to the family integrated church concept where He believes that the entire family from adult the oldest adult to the tiniest infant should be in worship together, but Yeah, those are just classes in the morning, but family worship is done corporately

01:16:19

We we run like I say in the morning I do the Denver service and one of the elders run the adult

01:16:26

Bible class and other leaders do the those groups as I mentioned

01:16:32

But once those meetings are done we go into family worship corporately and Yeah, including the bed the children are there so these morning

01:16:45

Services should I call them meetings are meant to be

01:16:52

Like very much relevant to the age group You you speak to them at their level you answer questions at their level and everything the family worship

01:17:00

We have parents there if the kids can't follow along the parents That's a parent's responsibility to go and explain things to them at home

01:17:10

So that we try to do that. But again, we cannot brush aside the normative principle, you know

01:17:17

It always helps With regards how we we run we run the churches

01:17:24

But that's very helpful brother to to just guide me in that regard. I had no idea that that thing was going on Not knowing when you speak of the normative principle you are speaking of those

01:17:34

Who take the silence from Scripture as a permission rather than a prohibition on certain activities in the worship?

01:17:41

Am I right? Yes, I provide it doesn't violate the principle of Scripture Because if it's not sinful

01:17:49

Just like we are we are not taught on Giving offerings like one has to run a plate, you know across the pews

01:18:01

But we find people in various churches others run the plates a collection plate

01:18:06

Along the pews others would prefer have a basket at the back You know others would prefer, you know, you you stand as you sing your seat

01:18:17

You know have liturgical order. There are certain things that are not Necessarily like tabulated in Scripture and yet we do them

01:18:26

So it's like the pick -and -choose kind of battle if we're to go down that path that we only do what is regulated by Scripture and The normative principle shouldn't apply to me

01:18:42

I take it that if It's a place of worship on that. We are not violating

01:18:49

Anything, you know that the Scripture is silent over And that which might not even displease the

01:18:56

Lord By that's to me. I don't see the need as to why certain things can't be done and of course

01:19:07

There are those that claim to to adhere to the regulative principle that disagree with each other

01:19:14

Because you have those yeah, you have those that believe the regulative principle would require

01:19:19

That we sing acapella only and only sing the Psalms and you have others that reject that notion and they believe that You can sing hymns extra -biblical hymns with musical instrumentation and not violate the regulative principle

01:19:35

So there is there are differences of opinion even amongst those that claim that title or that Teaching of the of the regulative principle.

01:19:43

That's true. Yeah we have Let's see, we have

01:19:49

Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania and Arnie wants to know

01:19:55

Do you think that Reformed Baptists split hairs too often and divide amongst themselves?

01:20:03

Rendering us with having far less of an impact on the church at large and on society in society in general

01:20:11

Which I believe is a tragedy when we go overboard in separating over things we disagree on which are typically secondary and tertiary issues

01:20:20

Yeah, I think I won't even go further from what you're talking about regulative and normative principle

01:20:31

You'd find one would elevate one over the other and if we don't agree with this one You are not doing justice to what the scriptures say and the likes and yes

01:20:41

I feel that to some to some extent we do this service to ourselves

01:20:48

We've just been talking about the charismatic movement and the Pentecostal movement and how they attaching all the even the crevices of Africa It's because to them

01:21:02

The mission is convict as many people as possible In fact, even if they are convicted or not as long as they are within the confines of the church

01:21:11

They're able to dance. They know those are the churches that are able to entertain them come

01:21:17

Lord's Day They come they do the usual things. They go home and continue making working on the gimmicks

01:21:22

What they're doing is they are still having people come to them Even if they're being misled

01:21:30

But with us we have the truth Now because we have so much truth

01:21:35

We begin to instead of the truth, which we have bring so much humility in us

01:21:42

That we should also Help us draw as many people as possible to Christ that they they be saved

01:21:49

We begin to fight over issues which To me

01:21:54

I feel certain issues shouldn't even be extended to the church membership not until at the leadership level have been handled but if there are certain issues that might come forth and immediately streams down to the church membership and And all that I think we are doing this service to ourselves

01:22:11

So we should embrace the primary doctrine Do we agree on the deity of Christ the humanity of Christ if yes, we need to be brothers

01:22:21

Do we agree that there is heaven and hell if yes, then we should be brothers

01:22:27

Do we agree that the Word of God is inerrant and that the truth of God, you know

01:22:33

We'll never miss it. It's infallible If the answer is yes, then we need to be brothers if we go to the end times, you know eschatology

01:22:41

You'll find there are premiums There are mules if we begin to fight over such doctrinal no matter

01:22:49

How Leonard I might be if that does not even keep someone out of heaven

01:22:57

Why should we fight over such I feel that we can still have differences of opinions based on how the

01:23:03

Lord has taught us in his word One can be an army One can be a premium

01:23:10

One can be opposed to me Regardless if we are holding them to the truth of God, we can still be brothers even within the reformed, you know

01:23:19

Of course, but in fact the doctrines when they come it's not like we are perfected

01:23:26

We are we continue being perfected as the Lord continues to open our eyes We continue to learn and the more we learn

01:23:34

I feel the more we should be humble and the more we should embrace You know each other to foster, you know, the the spreading of the gospel even further a few

01:23:45

Can you imagine a doctrinal issue arises? Over the the

01:23:52

Lord's Supper for instance or even over the baptism

01:23:59

Because maybe my church baptize Just once I baptize in the name of the

01:24:04

Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and then emerge someone and then draw them out then others want to baptize in all the names in the name of the

01:24:12

Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and when you Discover that that's what my kid does and the other kid does not do the same.

01:24:20

I don't see you I don't think that that should be the platform under which

01:24:26

Divisions and squabbles and fights and differences should arise you're talking about trying immersion just like in America.

01:24:33

There are some Anabaptists who practice that they're called the dunkers

01:24:39

I believe as a nickname That's not so prevalent Here as it may be in Zambia, but yeah, so you're not talking about what is

01:24:49

Stated verbally you're talking about the number of times there don't Yes, in fact, that's that is actually a teaching in the

01:24:57

DTK A lot of people might be surprised to hear that that that's the first or the oldest

01:25:03

Available non -canonical Texts or catechism for teaching they they have triple immersion in there

01:25:14

Wow Okay, but I wasn't affirming that that's what my church does But I'm guessing that there are certain teachings, you know over which as Christians We should yes, we need to interrogate them.

01:25:28

We we we like I said, we are still learning No one would claim that they know the scriptures entirely and Yes, we've been given the scriptures before us.

01:25:39

Yes. We've been given extra materials You know, I just heard during the commission that he who does not read will never be read by Spurgeon We need to read we need to investigate further but at the same time we are in in the beat if I can use this term loosely we are in the business of winning souls for Christ Making disciples of our nation and the same disciples go and make more disciples if we are spending so much time fighting over baptism fighting over the just the

01:26:13

Lord's Supper and Neglecting the noble other things that the

01:26:19

Lord would have us do Then we are doing the service to ourselves. I don't know if I'm answering the question which my sister did pause

01:26:28

Uh was it a sister I think it was an anonymous listener, but anyway, yeah, but Actually, no, it was

01:26:37

I think Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, um, all right We have now we have an anonymous listener who has a question

01:26:45

And I'll ask you this question and I'll have you answer it when we return from our final break

01:26:50

No problem our anonymous listener asks I heard you mentioned that eschatology is not a reason for genuine brethren to divide.

01:27:00

I might agree on the insertion of the word genuine brethren but I believe some eschatological views render a person not a genuine brother or sister and that would include the heretical eschatological view of hyper preterism also known as full preterism and realized eschatology and other nicknames in Which the one who adheres to the teaching denies a future?

01:27:30

physical and visible return of Christ and a future Physical and visible bodily resurrection of the dead.

01:27:37

So we'll have you answer that when we come back And all right, if you want to join us on the air now's your time to do it because they're running out of time

01:27:45

And our email address is Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com

01:27:52

Send us an email at Chris Arnzen at gmail .com and give us your first name City and state and country of residence if you live outside the

01:27:58

USA and only remain anonymous If your question involves a personal and private matter, we'll be right back

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That's linbrookbaptist .org Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen, and this is our final segment of our interview today with Pastor Sidney Kombe of Emanuel Baptist Church in Mpika Zambia Africa and before the break as you may recall

01:39:55

Pastor Sidney an anonymous listener Asked if hyperpreterism which denies a future return bodily and visible return of Christ and also denies a future bodily resurrection of the dead

01:40:11

If a person who adheres to that eschatological view Can they be considered a genuine brother and sister in Christ?

01:40:20

I would answer I would say no to that Uh, because He's prefixed with those statements.

01:40:28

They deny the bodily resurrection they deny so I I said we need to look for the genuine brothers

01:40:38

Like what we are looking at the second coming of Christ that should sink in and in fact all these arguments come about as a result of either the misunderstanding of What that mean?

01:40:52

or What the signs the Lord Jesus Christ himself gave If we have to look at his return

01:41:00

I'm, just thinking of what Jesus Christ himself mentioned from Matthew 24 verse 36

01:41:07

No one knows exactly when he will come so all these that we have

01:41:14

They are theological arguments to help us to live in expectation of his return now if we have someone who denies that I don't think

01:41:24

We can embrace them as brothers and sisters. Just like I said, they are fundamental and primary doctrines

01:41:29

That should unite those who have called upon the name of the Lord as being brothers and sisters

01:41:35

It's like if someone can deny the resurrection of the dead If someone can deny the bodily return of Jesus Christ They might as well deny the birth of Jesus Christ because they're in the same category

01:41:51

So i'm looking at the second coming of Christ the Bible teaches that we have to embrace that we have to live in expectation of his return

01:42:01

Jesus Christ teaches concerning his second coming, you know, the first Christ will come wars and rumors of wars will come

01:42:08

Natural disasters will come persecutions of believers will come evangelizing the world will be there apostles will also be there

01:42:15

The manner of his coming is mentioned the purpose for his coming is mentioned We have the great tribulation.

01:42:22

We have the rapture itself. All these are engulfed within the teachings

01:42:28

But the arguments usually arise regarding the millennial. Where do we place the millennial?

01:42:35

the millennium rather Others look at the premillennial those who go to premillennialism they say

01:42:41

The Lord Jesus Christ will return before a thousand years They have the reason why they argue that way

01:42:48

Because they look at we are right now in a church age Then Jesus Christ will return the saints will arise then

01:42:56

Jesus will reign for a thousand years Then they are saved to be resurrected Then Christ begin to Rule eternally and those who do not know the

01:43:07

Lord will be sent to hell. That's a premium position You go to others

01:43:13

Like the post -millennialism Or Christ will return after a thousand years

01:43:19

You come to the amillennialism. They will say actually there is no literal 1000 years

01:43:25

But that is what most of the reformed, you know, baptist brethren hold on to most of them

01:43:32

Because we are right now In a millennium. Jesus is reigning on the throne

01:43:37

And we are the sons of the kingdom reigning with him What we await right now is his return

01:43:45

When he comes he will take his own home And the eternal kingdom will begin from that end.

01:43:51

So those who refuse And deny the bodily resurrection and the bodily return of Jesus Christ.

01:43:59

Those are not genuine believers I would say they are not they are not even our brothers because they are not in line with what the scripture says because Jesus when he went to heaven according to acts chapter one, what what are we taught by the angels?

01:44:15

Though the disciples were staring into heaven and he said the way Jesus has gone into heaven.

01:44:21

You see him return bodily form The dead in Christ shall rise bodily form

01:44:27

So I will not align myself With someone who denies what the scriptures teaching

01:44:33

But I'll align myself with someone who accepts these primary doctrines And I I can differ with I might

01:44:41

I might not be a post meal. I might not be a premium I am an army

01:44:47

But I still have a relationship with those who hold on to to these other eschatological arguments

01:44:56

With exception to the ones the anonymous caller of uh, uh caller, uh referred to Yes email

01:45:04

Or email. All right Uh, well now i've got to find out

01:45:11

I know that you are a godly man and a very capable speaker and a A handsome brother in christ, but how did you wrench your beautiful wife away from?

01:45:20

Residents in the united states and bring her to zambia Oh my um

01:45:27

Yeah, my wife was already um um Like immediately after I was done with seminary studies.

01:45:35

I came back home And it was during that time of my internship at what the baptist church as well as the psycho baptist church.

01:45:42

That's when I met my wife At one of the reformed family conference. In fact in 2012 the reformed family conference, um

01:45:51

That that's where my wife was and we met from there and it's an interesting story all together because There is a brother in zambia

01:46:03

Who is a pastor? And he had always been recommending To now my wife then a single young lady alone in zambia that she needed to marry a pastor so Some brother was found and they were at the point of introducing each other

01:46:25

And of course I happened to be there and the brother who was supposed to be introduced to her in fact ran away

01:46:32

So I was stuck. He ran away Yes, he did

01:46:38

Yes, he did and you know, she was stuck with a single man in need of a wife So we started speaking from that end

01:46:46

And uh, I mean the race is history now we have Three kids we had two no ceremonies one in zambia and one in In the us, uh, since my wife's family couldn't travel, you know to zambia to just observe um our

01:47:05

Ceremony that was held at the civic center In zambia, and then when we came over here, we we had

01:47:11

A celebration with with the family and the lord has blessed us with three beautiful children

01:47:18

The first born is eliana Which the name itself means god has answered us

01:47:26

And the second one is a leila That's the beauty of god

01:47:33

And then elare the joy of the lord Yeah, so I mean the the the lord is the one who led us to to each other

01:47:43

And he has remained our foundation on whom we have built Our marriage and we continue to strive

01:47:51

You know to live as a demonstration of the gospel I'm trying to be a loving husband and a good leader of my household though with so many failures and flaws

01:48:03

My wife is also trying as much as she can to be a godly woman but at the same time a wife that submits first and foremost to christ and then you know to my leadership, uh, so yeah, we are grateful to god, uh for For bringing us together and all glory to his name

01:48:24

Yeah, amen Well, let's see. We have a listener in rochester, new york

01:48:33

Named johnny and johnny. Hi johnny and johnny asks

01:48:39

Is there a lot of quote quote competition between presbyterians and reformed baptists in zambia?

01:48:46

Where it seems like they have no problem Being involved in steep in sheep stealing and this would be something that both sides may be guilty of Hmm Um, i'm trying to remember if I made reference to that uh, however um

01:49:10

I would say our churches in zambia are in such a way that uh

01:49:16

We emphasize so so much on church membership Church membership helps, uh, the the one way wants to identify him or herself with the church

01:49:28

To subscribe, uh to what the church stand for, of course, they don't do that always faithfully uh

01:49:36

But a retention of church membership is one of the safeguards that we have however, if My church is not preaching the truth as it should be as the case should be and if the truth comes from another church uh and then

01:49:56

An individual from say immanuel baptist church who was never converted because i'm not preaching the truth

01:50:03

They are very free to go join that church because they will find Safety and comfort in there and they'll grow, you know after the likeness of christ

01:50:13

Yeah, so I wouldn't say sheep stealing uh I would say

01:50:20

It's it's like one finding a safer place to plant their feet and become more active

01:50:28

Even as they serve the lord um the presbyterians in zambia and the baptists in zambia reformed baptists they

01:50:39

We we have I would say some mutual relationship that's there

01:50:45

Though we may not agree with everything But we agree on the primary doctrine

01:50:53

And because of that we are able to relate one with with the other One of the things which

01:50:58

I wanted to underscore, uh, if I still have some time Uh was you have you have about six minutes ago?

01:51:05

Six minutes. All right Uh before we went for break. I wanted to make mention of certain elements like some of the challenges that zambians faced with besides The the churches that are preaching the truth and the members who are in those churches and they're well planted

01:51:22

There are other churches where the truth of god is not really being preached And because there is an element of loyalty people would would prefer

01:51:34

Stay in that church and never offend the church leaders even when the truth of god

01:51:41

I mean, they're being deprived of the truth of god I I wanted to make make mention of that.

01:51:47

The second thing is ignorance And i'm not saying this as a blanket statement covering everyone.

01:51:54

No But there are certain certain churches and certain individuals Who besides having this blind loyalty

01:52:01

I call it blind loyalty. They are also religiously ignorant in the sense that They want to serve the purposes of the church itself and even the leader who who runs that very church at the expense of their well -being spiritually

01:52:17

Uh, that's why the churches where entertainment is so much, you know done The the teachings of of of the truth is so much focused on man and just his needs to possess material wealth and and the likes

01:52:34

People would rather be in such churches and deprive themselves of the feasts on the word of god

01:52:43

Uh, so if there's a thing that you need to be praying for or in zambia and the fact of africa as a whole

01:52:49

Is that the lord will raise a church after his own art in his own heart?

01:52:55

And that even the leaders of those churches should be men who Are called of god not that they are self -centered

01:53:02

But called of god and also that they would understand the reason why the lord called them to point people to christ

01:53:10

Not to entertain them Not to build their own ego not to extort from the people amidst whom they serve

01:53:22

But rather build the people of god in the most holy faith Uh, that's something which we will appreciate greatly and on the positive part list um

01:53:32

I just speak about negatives about zambia uh on the positive part there is an overwhelming platform of The spreading of the gospel the opportunities are there resistance is there.

01:53:46

Yes But that resistance means people are held by the powers of darkness and they need the truth of god to be delivered

01:53:53

To know god savingly The other positive thing is zambia

01:53:59

Has so many young pastors who are answering the call to ministry Uh on a daily basis

01:54:06

I can put it that way There is one man or two who are desiring to be ministry and therefore with the coming in of so many training institutions

01:54:15

We are blessed by god that men can go and be trained in those very institutions And two of in fact three that are quite prominent african christian university

01:54:27

Uh, which brother has been referring to but there's also lusaka ministerial college

01:54:33

Which cater for the people within lusaka those that? You know feel the things or and the urge to be ministry.

01:54:40

They can go there there's also copper belt ministerial college and I mean the men who desire to be ministry also can go and be uh counseled in the way, uh

01:54:53

To serve the lord effectively So in all of these we see that god is still building the church and besides I made a reference to reform family conference

01:55:04

Reform family conference is not only affecting the borders of zambia. It's gone beyond What about this church even has missionaries being sent beyond the borders of zambia?

01:55:16

There is a missionary in botswana a missionary in zimbabwe there's a missionary in in a in nigeria

01:55:25

So gradually, we are spreading our wings across as zambia

01:55:30

Sacred baptist church also has its own missionaries that have been that have been dotted across the country of zambia

01:55:37

So on the positive note despite all these, you know challenges and negatives.

01:55:43

We still see the hand of god You know being reviewed on all the his church in zambia, so would appreciate brethren if you continue praying for us that uh, the

01:55:53

Uh, the gospel of grace, you know would continue shining the light over, you know darkness, uh that the lord will serve uh his own uh

01:56:04

Diving from within africa. Amen And I think that we should distinguish between churches that are truly guilty of sheep stealing and those that Recognize the importance of being a berean where you are testing everything that you hear according to the what the bible teaches and sometimes when somebody is acting as a berean they wind up making

01:56:30

Important decisions that we disagree with but that doesn't mean that we should vilify them As long as they're remaining in the the true historic biblical faith and so on uh, and of course,

01:56:41

I think that if a member of a reformed baptist church is or a pastor especially is having lengthy conversations with a member of another church about baptism

01:56:52

They should let the other pastor the pato baptist know and of course vice versa uh, yeah, if the uh if the person who is uh

01:57:01

In a reformed baptist church is having a conversation with a presbyterian Uh, that's true of baptism.

01:57:07

They should let the pastor know of the other church Uh, that that is true.

01:57:12

I think that sadly happens Uh very rarely Yeah, it does.

01:57:18

Yeah, it does Well, um, yeah, well we we are out of time actually and I want to make sure that our listeners have your website again

01:57:26

It's ebc which stands for emmanuel baptist church Dash and pika m as in michael p as in peter ika dot wix site w i x s i t e dot com forward slash ebc

01:57:43

And pika m as in michael p as in peter. Ika And the african christian university that we've been mentioning you can find them at acu -usa .com

01:57:54

Acu -usa .com especially if you live in the united states You have another website that you can give for african listeners or those outside of the um

01:58:04

No, I think that's that but they can also if they want to write Emails, I think emails are more effective

01:58:12

But abc in pika at gmail .com Amen Yeah, abc in pika gmail .com.

01:58:20

Well, great. I I had a joy a wonderful time Interviewing you today pastor sydney.

01:58:27

I look forward to your return to iron trap and design radio Thank you. I want all of you to have a safe happy And god honoring weekend and lord's day and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives