December 11, 2018 Show with Maurice Roberts on “The Christian’s High Calling”

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

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on 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 27 verse 17 tells us, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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Now here's our host, Chris Arntzen. 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 ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this 11th day of December 2018 and it is my honor and privilege to welcome back as a returning guest one of my favorite guests to interview,

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Morris Roberts. Morris Roberts is the editor of Banner of Truth magazine or should

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I say he was the editor of Banner of Truth magazine from 1988 to 2003.

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He is the author of a number of books including The Thought of God, Great God of Wonders and Can We Know God.

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He was the moderator of the Free Church of Scotland Continuing's General Assembly in 2007 and he is a lecturer in Greek and New Testament at the

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Free Church Seminary and has been there since 2002. Today we are going to be addressing his book by Banner of Truth, The Christian's High Calling and it is my honor and privilege as I said to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Morris Roberts.

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How do you do? Nice to be listening. It's great to have you back as always brother. I always find it a thorough blessing to interview you and so do my listeners that report back to me.

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It's a great privilege to meet you, thank you. And I am very much looking forward to this as always.

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First of all before we go into the topic at hand, The Christian's High Calling, why don't you tell our listeners about the

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Banner of Truth magazine and the Banner of Truth where you served as editor of the magazine from 1988 to 2003.

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The Banner of Truth magazine was started by Ian Murray who is still writing.

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Ian has done a number of excellent books as many people would know and the Banner of Truth organization produced these books from the 1960s

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I believe it would be, right through and they're still doing it. A wonderful work in English language and he hasn't going to other languages too, doing a wonderful work and the

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Banner magazine is still going strong. I'm not the author now but doing a great work and we certainly believe that many people are benefiting by its theological emphasis.

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Praise God. I enjoy the Banner of Truth very much. Their publications are always phenomenal in regard to their biblical faithfulness and the gifts of the writers who have these works published through the

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Banner of Truth. You can never fail with a Banner of Truth book, not that they are infallible and inerrant like the

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God -breathed scriptures of course, but the Banner of Truth has such discernment and wisdom in regard to who they publish and what they publish that it is a home run every time

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I have read a book published by them. Now tell us a little about the

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Free Church of Scotland continuing. That is probably going to be the most unfamiliar aspect of your life as a minister in regard to that denomination in the

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United States because there are only a handful that I am aware of of congregations that come from the

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Free Church of Scotland continuing in the United States. Correct. So tell us a little bit about that.

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Yes, I'll say something about that. The Free Church of Scotland began in 1843.

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Its concern was to adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith and to the principle of a regulative principle of worship.

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Those things were being compromised in the 19th century and the Free Church of Scotland adhered to these principles right the way through to the year 2000 and at that point

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I'm afraid sadly as some of us in the Free Church ministry and office bearers and members we had to leave because we were of the opinion that a new change was coming into the denomination which is now no longer concerned about maintaining the principles that our forefathers loved and suffered for of old.

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So when we felt that a change was coming a number of us ministers and people, perhaps up to a thousand people in total, in Scotland and elsewhere we came to form a new branch of the

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Free Church of Scotland adhering to the good old principles of the past which our fathers loved and those principles are adhered to in the

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Westminster Confession of Faith and the regulative principle of worship. So that's why we are called the

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Free Church of Scotland continuing. Praise God and we can provide you with more information on that denomination if you would like to find out more about it after the program just by emailing me at chrisarnsen at gmail .com

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c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com. Last but not least tell us about the Free Church Seminary where you are a lecturer in Greek and New Testament.

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Well I must correct you, was a lecturer. I'm now retired but I was for a number of years a lecturer, that's right.

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It's a seminary which trains our men for the work of the ministry of our denomination and we have five lecturers.

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I used to be one of those. I used to give New Testament studies and New Testament theology but I'm no longer doing that but I'm well replaced by another brother in the ministry of the

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Free Church continuing. We meet in a nice building which is in Inverness which is in the north east of Scotland in the

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Highlands and it's the building actually which used to be the building where I conducted worship and preached the word of God on the

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Lord's day. It was a fine building we were able to buy, cost us about three quarters of a million pounds which isn't cheap, but we managed to buy it by the grace of God and it had enough room for a place of worship on the

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Lord's day and it had room also for the minister to live in and it had also space for books and for the seminary and so the lecturers who go along to teach the students from time to time they do that in this building

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I refer to in what's called West Hill Inverness the Highlands of Scotland.

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Well now let us move forward to the Christians High Calling which is the subject of our interview today and also the topic or the title of a book published by the

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Banner of Truth. First of all what was the background which compelled you to write this book?

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Right, I was at the time editor of the Banner of Truth magazine and I used to submit the first article the editorial article every month when

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I was the editor for I forget how many years was it 15 years I think it was I was editor there

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I think that's correct for memory and these initial editorial articles that were published in the magazine of the

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Banner of Truth they were looked at and a number of them were selected and put into the form of a book so there are three books the title of which you have mentioned already and one of those is the one we're talking about this evening the

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Christians High Calling Great God of Wonders is the other one and the Thought of God was the other one so these articles were written by me initially as editorial articles in the

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Banner of Truth magazine and over the years it was the wish of the Banner of Truth committee to select some of them to narrate and put them into a more permanent form these little books therefore.

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Great and by the way I want to strongly urge our listeners especially if you are pastors or deacons or somebody in authority in your local congregation who makes decisions on ordering material for either your bookshop in your in your church or perhaps just for your tract rack that you have in the northex or the lobby of the church

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I strongly urge you to order bundles of the Banner of Truth magazine to give out to your congregants and if you want more information about that you could go to BannerofTruth .org

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BannerofTruth .org and find out more about these magazines the

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Banner of Truth magazine I'm so glad that Grace Baptist Church of Carlisle where I am a member which was founded by Ernie Reisinger many years ago in the 1950s and then was pastored for quite a long time 40 years in fact by Walter Chantry I am delighted to be a member there now and we always have the

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Banner of Truth magazine available in our church lobby. Well the Christian's High Calling obviously is of utmost importance because you are addressing the very pivotal issues of being a

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Christian could you please start off with the nature of the Christian life to begin with. I would start like this by saying the

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Christian life is a way of looking at everything which differs from the view of life of the unbeliever the

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Christian view of life must first of all concentrate on the purpose of life what has given

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God given us this life for the answer is we should live to the glory of God and to enjoy

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God forever at last in heaven someone put it beautifully like this thou hast made us for thyself meaning to God and our heart is restless till we find our rest in thee in God so the proper way to look at life is to have a heavenly vision that means that material prosperity and affluence is nothing but what is important is spiritual enrichment so sadly a new morality attitude was coming into Britain perhaps also in America but I don't know for sure but in the 60s 1960s a new attitude was coming on called the new morality and this was a radical change from what our forefathers had taught and believed in the past before that date a backslidden attitude came in so my concern in writing these uh articles was to try to get people to see we need above all else to live to the glory of God in obedience to his revealed will which is the

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Bible and this vision of God is something we must strive to recover and of course that includes the vision of Christ as our blessed redeemer so that was my concern yes in fact uh you uh you exegete

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Proverbs 29 18 in regard to this where no vision is that people perish yes what do you believe our

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Lord meant by that warning that the people will perish well it means that life is short death is sure sin is the problem but only

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Christ is the cure and if people don't understand life in that light sadly they're going to perish if they don't make spiritual principles their mace to private the priorities of life then sadly they will lose their soul and what does it profit a man to have saved the whole world and to have the whole world to lose his soul so again my concern was to try to emphasize the fact we need to see what the great important principles are written down for us in the

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Bible two of these principles of course are these the first one we must know ourselves to be sinners deserving

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God's punishment and the second step is we need to see that Christ is the only answer to sin and he laid down his life upon the cross redeem us so our great concern in life ought to be to get right with God by faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ and when we are converted like that we need to live henceforth to the glory of God that would be my answer there and are those the two steps of happiness that you speak of in one of your yeah they are my the two steps of happiness yes yes and that is a interesting title because it it would sound it's strange that we who are reformed things like uh two steps to happiness seems like a foreign phrase to us uh but if but uh in reality uh the uh the

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Westminster Shorter Catechism which many reformed people use as a standard of faith uh the chief end of man is to uh glorify

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God and to enjoy him forever aren't we it is that's a wonderful statement and that's exactly the emphasis we would like to make amen i'm going to give our listeners our email address if you would like to join us on the air with a question of your own our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com

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c h r i s a r n z e n gmail .com please as always give us your first name at least your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside of the usa and please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter uh you address the issue of evangelical compassion uh in your book uh compassion uh strangely but it is true that it is a controversial issue because you have some professing christians uh who demonstrate what they view as compassion but they ignore many of the warnings and prohibitions of the scriptures when they extend compassion to others they may do so by totally ignoring unrepentant sin in others or or many other factors where on the opposite end of the scripture on the other end of the spectrum i should say you have sadly christians who are so self -righteous or at least professing christians who are so self -righteous that they withhold compassion from those that they deem to be unfit for it or less deserving of a blessing like that than they themselves are if you could address this important issue in some reform of evangelical compassion well the lord jesus christ was very strict in the things he said to the pharisees the pharisees were very very religious people but they had bad religion and it wasn't true religion and the lord jesus christ showed that he did not come into the world to condemn the world he came into the world to save the world so the great emphases of the lord jesus christ have been these and we see them of course in the four gospels as well as in other parts of scripture but our lord emphasizes we must realize how great is our need of god's forgiveness and as we as ministers and christians witness to other people we have to make it clear to people that their real problem is not lack of money or lack of happiness or lack of this and that it's their lack of the knowledge of god so we need to be straight with people we can't play about beat about the bush we must say to people your greatest need is you dear friend needs to be converted dear friend you need to repent of your sin and turn your back on the world and give your heart to god but now having said that we must point out if people say they are christians when they're living in sin and in the world we have to be straight and say to them what the bible says to them that unless our life is radically changed we have no true salvation whatsoever if we have faith without works it's dead faith it's no good and too many ministers i'm afraid in our part of the world are saying to people we want you to be happy come to church it'll make you happy but our business is not in the first place making people happy our first concern is to bring people to salvation and they need to be born again they need to have the experience of being truly changed in their life because when a person is genuinely converted they not only love god but they now hate to live according to their previous lifestyle they turn their back upon the sins of this life and we have to make it clear to people that is what genuine religion does and unless we truly turn our back upon the world we still lack the salvation the gospel offers to us you mentioned something there uh in your answer about uh people need the knowledge of god now obviously there is a knowledge that involves an intimate relationship with god but there is also a knowledge of god that involves understanding about god from what the the bible teaches about him that is where we find in an inerrant and infallible form uh teachings about god how we can know more about him grow deeper in our knowledge of him and it's interesting i i just got involved in a little uh friendly dispute with one of my biological brothers who is not a believer and he was mocking me for insisting that one cannot passionately love jesus christ and not know about him uh you need to study the word of god and learn more about him and learn as much as your human mind can possibly absorb about him of course we can never fully understand god because we that would require having the mind of god which would make us god but i was telling my brother that this this uh greeting card kind of christianity where you could say that you love jesus and know nothing about him i told him that this is a sign if you don't know anything about jesus or very little about him it is a sign you don't love him because you're not making any effort to learn about him and any time that you love a person or a even a a thing uh whether it be a hobby or a subject uh an area of study whether it's sports or whatever whatever whenever somebody says that they love something well that that reflects in their diligence to learn as much as they can about that person or thing and if you just say you love jesus but you're not reading the scriptures and studying them and going to a church where qualified ministers are preaching and teaching about him that's a sign that you really don't love him isn't it it is absolutely right personally i would emphasize to a person who was in that ignorant position who thought they loved jesus and yet had no knowledge of him i would emphasize to him that there are three persons in the godhead father son and holy spirit that jesus christ is a second person he is the son of god equal to the father in power and glory and then i would say when he came to earth he took a human nature so he is one person with two natures he is both god and man and it is absolutely essential to understand that christ is nothing less than the incarnate god and it took a human nature from the virgin mary so that the sin of adam would not be reckoned to him some people wonder how on earth could jesus take a human nature if he was god and why did he why was he born of a virgin the answer is he was born of a virgin because had he been born of two parents as we all are then the sin of adam would have been reckoned to him because adam's sin was the sin of the head of the covenant of works and adam's sin therefore is reckoned to us all that's what makes us all sinners and if jesus had taken a human nature from two parents he would also have the sin of adam imputed to him and he couldn't save us so it's important that people should see why he took a human nature from a mother but not from two parents so he's a sinless person in his humanity and therefore he can die for us and he can pay the price for our sins and so save us great we do have some listeners who are waiting for a question to be asked of you and answered by you we have mary in cork ireland and mary says good afternoon chris and mr roberts i am currently reading david brainerd's journal sweetly set on god by dustin binge brainerd speaks of his duties being prayer meditation on god's divine word fasting and affections to god preaching god's word intercession evangelism etc brainerd longs to know god's holiness more and when he does he gets an even greater glimpse of his own vile sinfulness i am thinking that the only response to a high calling of god is to relinquish all claim that our lives are our own and we humbly submit our hearts and wills to god's rule in our lives i know this is easier said than done and that the holy spirit is the one who enables us as we cooperate with him for god's glory what are your thoughts on what i said i'm very sympathetic with everything you say there it's very edifying a very profitable certain it is the more we know god and the more we know christ the more we feel our own guilt our own sin and i must say i'm a christian of over 60 years of experience now but i do feel my own imperfections and weaknesses and my own shortcomings more i believe than ever i did and it brings me to this point and i'm sure brainerd would have agreed with this that um we wonder more and more how on earth did the great and holy god ever notice our existence a speck of dust like me how could the great god ever put it within his mind to save a sinner like me from the ill deserve ill deserving and guilty of and the punishment that i'm deserving of so i'm right with you i think what brainerd says there is exactly what we need to hear and i'm sorry we don't hear enough for that emphasis however just one slight addition and i'm sure brainerd would have made it just as much as you and i do and that is we must look entirely and completely to the satisfaction which christ gives to god's justice in other words everything that we have in our relationship with god is based upon our justification christ is our righteousness and so though we can say about ourselves i deserve hellfire and eternal punishment yet thank god because christ is my righteousness i have the sure hope of eternal life that would be my answer amen and that is in contradiction to the heresies of the roman catholic church yes that uh teach that we are not only receiving christ's righteousness but our own merits cooperate with christ in order to make us worthy in the sight of god and catholics sometimes are puzzled as to why we who are bible -believing protestants are repulsed by that notion and and we believe of course obviously that god is repulsed by that notion in fact he even says in his word that our righteousness is as filthy rags to him but uh why why is that uh such an egregious and horrible thing to say well yes of course jesus christ was god uh he died on the cross for us uh he lived a perfect and sinless and obedient life uh and yet we must do something to add to his perfection and his his death in order to make us right with with his father now why is that such a horrible way to think and teach and believe well the way i'd begin to answer that point is to say when the lord jesus christ was about to die as we all know he said it is finished in greek tetelestai the debt is paid it is finished now that means that all the believers debt to god's justice is completely satisfied because what the lord jesus christ has done by his life and his death is absolutely sufficient to pay to god's justice what is needed to compensate for and to pay for our debts as sinners so the point i make there is there is no room therefore for any contribution of our righteousness supposing we had any but the second point i would make is as you made already we have no righteousness whatsoever the sinner has absolutely no righteousness whatsoever and we cannot add we cannot add one single percent to the perfect righteousness of christ and the terrible mistake is to think we can and if we imagine we can add something to christ's righteousness as implies that his righteousness is inadequate and therefore he ought not to have said on the cross it is finished because it wasn't finished so it's very clear that we must never never allow anything to be added to the righteousness of christ and this extremely important point of course brings us back to martin luther when he saw the time of the reformation that the righteousness which a believer has has nothing to do with our good works it has everything to do with christ's finished work his perfect life and his atoning death praise god and we have to go to our first station break right now and by the way thank you mary in cork ireland uh we happen to know that you have a relative in the united states who will be receiving your free book your free copy of the christian's high calling to hold on for you to hold on to for you i should say for your next return to the united states so uh thank you very much for contributing that wonderful statement for us to ponder during this program we're going to our break right now as i said and if you'd like to join us on the air please send us an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

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c h r i s a r n z e n gmail .com please as mary and cork ireland did give us at least your first name your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside of the usa and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter don't go away god willing we will be right back with maurice roberts and the christian's high calling right after these messages from our sponsors james white of alphanomega ministries if you've watched my dividing line webcast often enough you know i have a great love for getting bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity and besides that they feel so good i'm so delighted i discovered post tenebrous lux bible rebinding no radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently but i'll give it a shot jeffrey rice of post tenebrous lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan all his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goat skin tanned in italy used for my nestle all in 28th edition with a navy blue goat skin inside liner and the electric blue goat skin from a french tannery used to rebind a reformation study bible i used as a gift the silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather making whatever he rebinds a one -of -a -kind work of art for more details on post tenebrous lux bible rebinding go to ptl bible rebinding .com

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my name is steve lawson founder and president of one passion ministries as well as teaching fellow for ligonier ministries i serve as professor of preaching and oversee the doctor of ministry program at the master's seminary in los angeles i would like to recommend the church where one of my preaching students andy woodard serves as the pastor it's called new covenant church nyc they are a reformed baptist church that meets in midtown manhattan you can find their service times and location on their website which is www .ncc

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.nyc they believe in a sovereign god who commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel if you're looking for a church that believes in expository preaching which is simply biblical preaching in new york city i'd like to recommend that you visit new covenant church nyc again their information can be found at www .ncc

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.nyc have a great day welcome back if you just tuned us in our guest today is morris roberts most well known for his affiliation in the past with the banner of truth where he was the editor of banner truth banner of truth magazine and a very popular conference speaker uh he is discussing his book the christian's high calling which is a publication of the banner of truth if you'd like to join us on the air our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com

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c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n gmail .com please give us your first name 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 uh we do have a question from gordy in mechanicsburg i'm sorry yeah it is mechanicsburg i'm sorry mechanicsburg pennsylvania and uh gordy and mechanicsburg pennsylvania says how does christ's love for his people serve to encourage them to carry out this glorious calling the christian life is full of difficulties that's because of course there's a devil who hates us and we live in a world in which many people have no time whatever for god or christ or what christians believe as a consequence there are many factors in the christian's life which might lead him to become discouraged so we need to say to ourselves what are the thoughts what are the visions what are the doctrines which may be used by the christian to lift his mind out of depression and discouragement and to realize that all that he goes through of suffering in this world is nothing and there's no better way of recovering from our depression and discouragement than to realize who the lord jesus christ is and the love wherewith he has loved his people and our lord put it like this very sweetly himself greater love hath no man than this that the man should lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what i command you so when we find it within ourselves to wish to deny ourselves and to wish to put god first in our life then we realize we're encouraged to do so by the perfect example of the lord jesus christ after all christ was under no obligation to come into this world to save us by the sufferings of the cross he did that of his own free will voluntarily knowing full well how much hatred he would experience in this life so as one of the great missionaries put it ct stern he put it like this if jesus christ is god and died for me no sacrifice on my part can be too great to make for him and that i would say is my answer to the question well thank you gordy for the excellent question and since you live in mechanicsburg pennsylvania uh not far from cumberland valley bible book service cvbbs .com

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where these books are being held before they are shipped out why don't you uh spare the shipping cost of cvbbs .com

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by stopping by cumberland valley bible book service on north hanover street in carlisle pennsylvania and pick up the book from them they have the books already thanks to our friends at banner of truth uh who contributed these books to us and so just stop by there uh they're already closed i believe now but stop by there tomorrow and pick up your book uh we also have let's see here we have a listener uh arnie in perry county pennsylvania and arnie in perry county pennsylvania says i am constantly being rebuked by other christians for what they say is a narrow -minded sectarianism i do not believe i am guilty of this charge although of course i am not sinless and i may on occasion behave as if i have this mindset but at the same time i think i am demonstrating what would be known as just a historical separation from those that have false gospels and dangerous practices how do we both maintain a loving attitude and a patient attitude and a humble attitude with those that disagree without jumping the line over the modern ecumenical movement and embracing their sinful union with those that deny the true gospel well that's a very relevant question and i'm grateful to hear it my answer would be this that one of the factors which has been forgotten and overlooked or not understood by many professing christians is that the ten commandments or the moral law as we call it is not confined to the old testament the ten commandments constitute a law from god which we refer to technically as the moral law of god and that moral law is as valid for the new testament as for the old testament so when a person has become a true christian then his duty or her duty is to live by the moral law as the rule of life now let me be clear we are not saved or made converted christians by trying to keep the moral law no no we are saved by faith alone in christ alone it is the blood of christ which cleanses away our sin and that happens as soon as we believe in jesus with faith in him but now the point i'm making is when we are truly converted then the way to order our life is by strictly and carefully keeping these ten commandments in thought and word and deed and there are professing christians who are ignorant of the rule of duty which the christian has and many sadly many christians do allow themselves to live by the standards of the world and if they do that and find serious christians like the dear brother who's asking the question then what these worldly minded christians will do is they will sneer and scoff at the serious christian and they say to him he's far too strict and far too narrow etc etc but now and here's the climax of my answer jesus in matthew chapter five tells us that the moral law is not abolished in new testament times think not that they have come to destroy the law he says and then he tells us something which is very often not noticed this is matthew chapter five jesus says those who are true christians who keep the moral law will be called great in the kingdom of god and those professing christians who do not strictly keep the moral law as a rule of life will be called the least in the kingdom of god so obviously if we want to receive christ's favor and blessing and love in time and in eternity then the thing we must do is apply the ten commandments to our own private lives in thought and word and deed in order that we might have his commendation as those who were great in the kingdom of god that's matthew 5 that's my answer well thank you arnie you have also won a free copy of the christian's eye calling by morris roberts a publication of banner of truth and please get your full mailing address to us so that we can have that shipped out to you by our friends at cvbbs .com

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uh you know there is a biblical truth that you address in the book that is a very popular or at least it's a very well known uh teaching in the scriptures even i think that there are many unbelievers with that with a cursory knowledge of the bible that have heard this and the truth the biblical truth is that god's thoughts are far different from man's if you could get more in depth into that well it is an immense subject obviously because god's thoughts are infinite and our thoughts are very finite indeed but i would put it like this to be practical so god looks at the universe as something he has made now many people today look at the universe as something which came about millions of years ago by a kind of accident we call it evolution don't we there was a big bang and hello it all came into being so there you see an example of immense difference between god's way of looking at the universe and our way god knows very well he made the universe in six days out of nothing by the word of his power and that is all under his sovereign control but the average person today even many professing christians do not believe that they tend to be influenced by the world the way of thinking evolution of thinking and they therefore tend to think of the world as something which you know it's been going a long time we don't know quite what the end of it's going to be and so that attitude to this world is enjoy it as much as you can while you're here but that's entirely opposite to what god is telling us to think about the world we should look at life as very short and we should look at life as soon to end and so our great concern whilst we're living our brief life here is to do everything we can to make sure we are right with god and that's the way god looks at it he tells us what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose your own soul so a third way of looking at the world and of life is this god sees how brief our life is and how soon every one of us will be in eternity and facing jesus christ as our judge and the consequences of that judgment will be absolutely immense eternal life in glory or eternal punishment in hell fire and outer darkness no contrast could be greater than that heaven or hell are the absolute ultimates of our experience in this world and that's what god looks at and sees is in that way and he's telling us very clearly in the bible that in the light of the fact that the world is so different from the way people think of it we should make it our number one priority in life to make sure that we give our hearts to christ and we are cleansed in his blood so that when death comes and it can sometimes come very quickly without any warning all will be well and we shall be at last with god in heaven and that's the way i would answer that question you have another chapter in your book uh that deals with the question why spirituality comes first and there are those who are in the world sometimes they are openly the enemies of christianity and sometimes they are professing christians themselves who have been known to use a phrase so heavenly -minded he or she is no earthly good and if somebody is truly heavenly -minded uh not one that just spouts out bible quotes and proclaims deep truths of theology but has a life devoid of the love and compassion of jesus christ but but uh people who actually love the lord and just because of the fact that they will be very quick to evangelize and correct people when they are in error and they will speak of god's truths and they will speak of hard to understand teachings in the bible they will often be charged with being so heavenly -minded that they are no earthly good but you really can't be too heavenly -minded can you no no you can't be too heavenly -minded heavenly -mindedness is what god requires us to be and those who use that expression so heavenly -minded is no earthly good or no earthly use they use that phrase because it's easy to say and it's easy to create a smile on the unbeliever's face it sounds very clever that but in fact it's totally contrary to the scripture the reality is the more heavenly -minded a person is normally the more earthly goods they do for instance missionaries who've given their whole lives to leave home from america or britain or somewhere and they've gone to some desert island or some remote place of the world given up everything you could say they did it because they were heavenly -minded their desire was to bring the gospel of jesus to these far away people in maybe africa of old or india or china or somewhere and they did this because they were heavenly -minded and they wanted to have people in heaven now that is a perfectly valid and proper attitude of mind to have very praiseworthy attitude of mind to have so it's very far from the truth to say that so earthly -minded is no earthly good the more spiritually -minded and heavenly -minded we are that in the eyes of god we should do more good and that is what we should take as our rule in life to all the good we can to all the people we can as long as ever we can but we must expect no matter how much good we do in this world the world demand will scoff at us because he doesn't realize what real good is real good is not just simply giving people a nice football match where they can watch somebody kicking a ball around real spiritual good is when people are taught how they may get to heaven how they may have their sins forgiven and how they may have peace with god in this life and that which is to come so the expression so earthly good so heavenly -minded that is no earthly good is really completely worthless i would throw it out of the window if i were you and uh going back to your actual chapter title why spirituality comes first many people would reject that especially those outside of the faith but even some perhaps that are in religions that are connected with the false teaching of works righteousness but tell us what you specifically meant by why spirituality comes first because spirituality means being in a right relationship with god and living a life in which we are governed by principles that come from the word of god the bible so that obviously is first because doctrine is fundamental and the way we think is influenced by doctrine so when our minds are filled with christian doctrine the principles of christian doctrine that we have in our minds will control everything we do and think and say so that is why it's so important to be well structured in doctrine and to meditate on christian doctrine continually regularly there's nothing better for us to do as christians and to make sure we have the right doctrine and then when we have it sure to make sure we think about it meditate on it think of the consequences of it because this spirituality of mind will change for the better our character our behavior and the way we live our lives and spend our time so spirituality i would say is the way the soul is influenced and let me just add a little bit more if i may to say we must remember that there are five elements in the soul we have a body and we have a soul the soul of course we can't see but the soul is immortal and it's far more precious than anything else we have what shall i give in exchange for his souls as christ so the five elements of the soul are these the mind the will the emotions the memory and the conscience and that real spirituality means that we are so influenced by christian doctrine that all these five faculties of the soul will yield to the influence of christian teaching upon them our will will be determined by what we know to be will god's will for us to do and our emotions will be affected because we'll be stirred up to love the things that god loves and to hate the things that god hates and we will fill our memories with biblical principles and meditate on them at night so there's no doubt about it that spirituality is the number one and if we could all cultivate more of that it will be a far better world and many churches will be far richer than at present they are and we have to go to our midway break right now the midway break is the longer than normal break because grace life radio in lake city florida uses this portion of the show to localize iron sharpens iron radio to lake city florida by airing their own commercials and public service announcements so please use this time wisely write down the information provided by our advertisers so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them whenever possible and keep in mind that whenever you are patronizing one of our advertisers you are helping to keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air because we rely upon our advertisers financial support to exist so please patronize our advertisers as much as you can and as often as you can and also use this time wisely by writing down a question for morris roberts regarding our issue today which is the christian high the christian's high calling which is also the title of his book one of his books published by the banner of truth so that's chris arnson at gmail .com

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chris arnson at gmail .com and please as always give us your first name city and state and country of residence if you live outside the usa please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter don't go away god willing we'll be right back with morris roberts james white here co -founder of alvin omega ministries and occasional guest on iron sharpens iron radio i'm so delighted my friend chris arnson will be heading down to atlanta for the next g3 conference from january 17th to the 19th 2019 where i'll be joining a very impressive lineup of speakers on the theme a biblical understanding of missions speakers include john piper steve lawson vody baucom mark dever conrad mbewe phil johnson josh bice yours truly and many more i hope you all join chris and me for this phenomenal event for more details go to g3 conference .com

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that's g3 conference .com one sure way all iron sharpens iron radio listeners can help keep my show on the air is to support my advertisers i know you all use batteries every day so i'm urging you all from now on to exclusively use battery depot .com

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next day shipping available all products protected by 30 -day guarantees and six -month warranties call 866 -403 -3768 that's 866 -403 -3768 or go to batterydepot .com

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that's batterydepot .com every day at thousands of community centers high schools middle schools juvenile institutions coffee shops and local hangouts long island youth for christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need jesus we are rural and urban and we are always about the message of jesus our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on long island new york by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following christ long island youth for christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959 we have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world help honor our history by becoming a part of our future volunteer donate pray or all of the above for details call long island youth for christ at 631 -385 -8333 that's 631 -385 -8333 or visit liyfc .org

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that's liyfc .org one sure way all iron sharpens iron radio listeners can help keep my show on the air is to support my advertisers i know you all use batteries every day so i'm urging you all from now on to exclusively use batterydepot .com

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for all your battery needs at batterydepot .com they're changing the status quo they're flipping the script they're sticking it to the man in other words they'd like to change the battery industry for good by providing an extensive inventory of top -of -the -line batteries that are uniformly new dependable and affordable ordering from batterydepot .com

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ensures you'll always get fresh out -of -the -box batteries you can count on to work properly at competitive prices whether you need batteries for cordless phones cell phones radios pcs laptops tablets baby monitors hearing aids smoke detectors credit card readers digital cameras electronic cigarettes gps's mp3 players watches or nearly anything else you own that needs batteries go to batterydepot .com

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next day shipping available all products protected by 30 -day guarantees and six -month warranties call 866 -403 -3768 that's 866 -403 -3768 or go to batterydepot .com

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that's batterydepot .com my name is steve lawson founder and president of one passion ministries as well as teaching fellow for ligonier ministries i serve as professor of preaching and oversee the doctor of ministry program at the master's seminary in los angeles i would like to recommend the church where one of my preaching students andy woodard serves as the pastor it's called new covenant church nyc they are a reformed baptist church that meets in midtown manhattan you can find their service times and location on their website which is www .ncc

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.nyc they believe in a sovereign god who commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel if you're looking for a church that believes in expository preaching which is simply biblical preaching in new york city i'd like to recommend that you visit new covenant church nyc again their information can be found at www .ncc

01:00:11

.nyc have a great day chris arenson host of iron sharpens iron radio here i want to tell you about a man i have personally known for many years his name is dan buttafuco dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer but not the type that typically comes to mind dan cares about people and is a theologian himself recently he wrote a book titled consider the evidence for the bible ravi zacharias wrote the forward dan also has a master's degree in theology dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states he represents many christians in serious injury matters all over the country dan is an exceptional trial lawyer he wrote the test for the national board of trial advocacy and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for 1 million dollars or more and in approximately 10 different states in illinois his lawyers had the fourth largest settlement in the state's history in new york his case involving a paralyzed police officer made the front page of the law journal if you have a serious personal injury or medical malpractice claim in any state i recommend that you call dan consultations are free there is no fee unless you win dan buttafuco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878 1 -800 -669 -4878 or email me for dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail .com

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that's chrisarnson at gmail .com thriving financial is not your typical financial services provider as a membership organization help christians be wise with money and live generously every day and for the fourth year in a row we were named one of the world's most ethical companies by the ethosphere institute a leading international think tank dedicated to the creation advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics contact me mike gallagher financial consultant at 717 -254 -6433 again 717 -254 -6433 to learn more about the thriving difference we know we were made for so much more than lending faith finances and generosity that's the thriving story iron sharpens iron radio is sponsored by harvey cedars a year -round bible conference and retreat center nestled on the jersey shore harvey cedars offers a wide range of accommodations to suit groups up to 400 for generations christians have enjoyed gathering and growing at harvey cedars each year thousands of high school and college students come and learn more about god's word an additional 9 000 come annually to harvey cedars as families couples singles men women pastors seniors and missionaries 90 miles from new york city 70 miles from philly and 95 miles from wilmington and easily accessible scores of notable christian groups frequently planned conferences at harvey cedars like the navigators intervarsity christian fellowship campus crusade and the alliance of confessing evangelicals find harvey cedars on facebook or at hcbible .org

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hcbible .org call 609 -494 -5689 609 -494 -5689 harvey cedars where christ finds people and changes lives

01:04:39

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that's solid -ground -books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past or present you can unearth from solid ground solid ground christian books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of iron sharpens iron radio welcome back this is chris arnzen uh by the way i want to remind you that mike gadosh the founder of solid ground christian books suffered a very serious financial setback when he had very dangerous open heart surgery not long ago that laid him up in the hospital and during that time of being laid up and during some time of recovery he had lost quite a bit in book sales at solid ground christian books so please do all of your christmas christmas shopping or as much of it as possible by going to solid -ground -books .com

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solid -ground -books .com and order gifts for every person that you know that you intend to buy gifts for gifts that contain within their pages the gospel and the hope for eternal life as they are faithful to the scriptures and uh it will also obviously help to edify and strengthen the faith of your friends and family and loved ones that are true believers go to solid -ground -books .com

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and help replenish what was lost uh in mike gadosh's finances in regard to solid ground christian books we rely upon solid ground christian books to remain on the air since they very generously sponsor this program also i want to remind you that cvbbs .com

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cvbbs .com and of course uh you can also if you prefer ordering by phone rather than online you can call cvbbs .com

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at their toll -free number monday through friday between 10 a .m and 4 30 p .m

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eastern time and that number is 800 -656 -0231 800 -656 -0231 we just have a few very important announcements in regard to special events that are coming up that we want you to attend first of all if you are a man in ministry leadership whether you are a pastor an elder a deacon a leader in a parachurch ministry you are invited to a free iron trip and zion radio pastor's luncheon this is going to be held thursday january 3rd 11 a .m

01:08:23

to 2 p .m at the carlisle fire rest fire and rescue banquet hall in carlisle pennsylvania and we're going to be having a returning visit from my dear friend dr tony costa professor of apologetics and islam at toronto baptist seminary which is a reformed baptist seminary in ontario canada dr costa will be addressing the theme the meaninglessness of life and the destruction of western society without god as i said it's an absolutely free luncheon there will not be anything sold there there are no ulterior motives other than to bless men in the ministry with a free time of fun and fellowship and being fed not only physically but spiritually with the word of god from a very capable and blessed speaker dr tony costa this is a luncheon that began in the 1990s through the generosity of my late wife julie whose idea it was to begin an annual christmas luncheon for pastors and i took her up on her idea and we were doing it all the way for over a decade until she went home to be with the lord and then when i relaunched iron sharpens iron radio after moving to pennsylvania i relaunched the pastor's luncheon in her honor so i hope that you can attend thursday january 3rd 11 a .m

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to 2 p .m at the carlisle fire and rescue banquet hall then uh after that immediately after that friday the 4th of january through sunday the 6th of january uh the enola first church of god is going to be hosting a three -day bible conference also featuring dr tony costa of toronto baptist seminary i cannot wait for this as well this is going to be an exciting event and uh i hope that as many of you can join us in fact this event is open to everyone you don't have to be a man in ministry leadership or even a man you can be a man woman or child and you don't even need to be a christian you could be a jew a muslim a hindu a buddhist an atheist we welcome all people to attend the three -day bible conference at enola first church of god enola pennsylvania dr costa will be speaking on the theme contending for the faith the church in a post -modern world that's a bit of an update from the other theme that we had been announcing uh so contending the faith to get tending for the faith the church in a post -modern world that's uh friday january 4th through sunday january 6th if you'd like to attend this free conference open to everyone you can call 717 -732 -4253 717 -732 -4253 or you can go to the enola first church of god website and that website is enolacog .com

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that's e n as in nancy o l a c o g as in church of god enola c o g dot com forward slash bible dash conference uh and i hope to see as many of you there as possible then coming up after that later on in the month of january from thursday january 17th through saturday january 19th the g3 conference returns to atlanta georgia college park georgia to be more specific at the georgia international convention center i will be there for my third year in a row manning and iron sharpens iron radio exhibitors booth god willing the speakers include john piper james white stephen lawson vody baucom mark dever conrad and bayway tim challis phil johnson uh todd freal of wretched tv and wretched radio stephen j nichols the president of reformation bible college the college founded by the late r .c.

01:12:17

sproul and ligature ministries and many more are going to be speaking on that roster if you'd like to uh attend that conference which will be on the theme the mission of god a i strongly urge you to also uh register for an exhibitor's booth so that you uh can take advantage if you are a business owner or a pastor or a parachurch leader or you're having a special event that you want to advertise if you have an exhibitor's booth at the g3 conference they are expecting between four and five thousand people there so i would strongly urge you to take advantage of that and just like i am going to be doing manning an exhibitor's booth there at the georgia international convention center please join me there and go to g3 conference .com

01:13:07

g3 conference .com to register and banner of truth actually typically has an exhibitor's booth there as well every year then uh more towards the end of the month the deep south founders conference is being held january 24th through the 26th at the at the bethlehem baptist church in laurel mississippi that will be on the theme of sanctification i will be there for the first time god willing uh manning an iron trip and xyron exhibitor's booth the speakers include rusty reed who's going to be my guest very soon on iron trip and xyron radio uh coming up in the next uh week or so uh actually he is going to be my guest on iron trip as iron this friday rusty reed uh gerald henderson jason goodwin bobby crenshaw and again dr conrad mbewe pastor of kubwata baptist church in lusaka zambia africa and and the chancellor of african christian university uh if you want to attend this conference with me the deep south founders conference go to deepsouthfounders .com

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if you want to send us an email now to morris roberts uh on the issue that we are discussing the christian's high calling we will accept any question obviously regarding the christian faith or theology or doctrine our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com

01:15:59

c h r i s a r n z e n gmail .com please give us as always your first name your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside the usa please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter that's chris arnzen at gmail .com

01:16:17

uh well we are back now with uh morris roberts and uh brother roberts what did you mean in your book by the romance of christian faith that's an interesting title a very titillating title well i think it's a way of conveying the fact that religion is not a true religion is not simply um dry dull and heavy for the mind there is excitement associated with true religion there is emotion attaching to true religion um and all of that is part of the enjoyment of god in the soul of the believer there is such a thing as emotion in the soul which is all part of the romance of the christian's experience of god for instance the bible talks about joy unspeakable and full of glory the bible talks about peace surpasses all understanding the bible talks about the love of christ in all its length and breadth and depth and height and these things are the romance really which make the christian look beyond the visible things of this world we do not walk by sight we walk by faith we see that we live in a world in which god is supremely in control of all things and even just to think about the world in that way transforms our attitude to everything we're going down the street we see people marching up and down they're only thinking about the things of this world and then our hearts are moved to pray to cry out to god we feel compassion and all of that is part of this romance of the christian life the compassion we have we long to see sinners turn to faith in the lord jesus christ and that's the way the apostles were they had this vision of the heavenly world to come and they longed to see the experience in the emotional life of believers here and now in this world i would put it like that we have bobby in hartsdale new york who has a question and bobby's question actually is related to a chapter theme in your book bobby asks what do you believe are the bare minimum of things that must be possessed by an individual for us to deem them a genuine christian and in fact you have as i said a chapter that is titled what is a christian so it's very appropriate that we ask bobby's question what must a person have before we can be sure they're a real christian well of course we can't read anybody's heart so there's no way we can imagine that we can see inside a person's soul we can't do that so what we're looking for here are evidences of a changed life and the evidence of a changed life is this that the person who really is a genuine christian is somebody who talks about his own experience of conversion he's able to give an account of his own conversion the apostle paul of course does this over and over again in his writings in the new testament so when we meet somebody who is able to tell us how it was that he came to faith in christ that itself is one of the evidences of genuine christianity another one is this when a person talks about their longing to be in a state of glory in the world to come now a worldly person sadly has no thought about wanting to be in a state of death that's the very last thing a worldly person wants but the christian person looks at life with that romantic attitude that he knows this world is short and so a real genuine christian is looking forward to being in a state of glory in a state of death and his soul then as soon as he dies his soul immediately goes to glory and in the resurrection day when christ returns at the end of the world his body will be raised from the dead and body and soul together will be restored and brought to glory and then the christian will see christ in all his magnificence and that therefore is the romantic aspect of the christian life and it is that i think which shows is the genuine christian he claims to be he's got an experience in the past he can tell us his conversion and the other thing is he's looking forward to being with god and with christ and he's living in the light of these truths well thank you bobby and if you give us your full mailing address in hartsdale new york you have also won a free copy of the christian's high calling published by the banner of truth written by our guest today morris roberts thank you very much for participating in today's show with that excellent question uh tell us about the struggle of faith uh people very often uh who are christians may be surprised perhaps even surprised because they have been lied to by false teachers and preachers that becoming a christian makes life an extremely uh better place on this earth in every facet of our being uh whether it be a higher income uh better jobs better marriages uh better relationships with children now of course there are proverbial truths in the bible that very often will lead to those things ethics about hard work and ethics about raising children and all those kinds of things but obviously being a christian doesn't guarantee those earthly benefits because you may have a spouse that divorces you for the very reason that you became a christian and you may have children that want nothing to do with you because of that and you may lose a job because you are a christian because uh the your employer hates the things that you believe i mean we could go on and on and on but tell us about the struggle of faith well the bible says in the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer says christ i have overcome the world so we must understand that one of the reasons why the christian has troubles in this world is because it is god's way of bringing about our sanctification a christian's new birth is perfect as soon as it's over a christian's justification by faith in christ is perfect it doesn't need to be improved upon in any way it cannot be but a christian's sanctification in this life is imperfect so whereas the new birth occurs in a split second and justification by faith alone occurs the split second we believe in christ sanctification is a lifelong process and one of the procedures that god has ordained for the christian is to make use of the trials of life in order to make us more holy and the way it works is this god brings things into our life which confront our mind and challenge our will and we have therefore to say to ourselves look am i going to go through this trouble just because i'm a christian and we have to come to the point in which we say all things work together for good to them that love god and we must always put god's will ahead of our own will that's a tremendously difficult thing to do at first but that is what sanctification is it is choosing what god commands us to do as a priority over what we ourselves of our own will would wish to do so these trials are all part of the education that makes us more holy and more godly and when we look at our trials in that light then we can see that it is good for me that i have been afflicted but god says to us and this is a wonderful promise which i depend upon so much god will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able but will with the temptation make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it and it's a sure thing if we go through the trials and temptations which are difficult god will give us sufficient comfort to bring us safely through them and at last we should come out of them all into that world above where suffering shall be no more amen uh please give us your your full mailing address so we can have the book the christian's high calling by morris roberts sent to you if you have submitted a question to us and you have not yet responded with your address please make sure we get that very soon so the cumberland valley bible book service can ship that out to you as soon as possible and thanks again to our friends at banner of truth for being so generous by providing us with these books we have an anonymous listener our anonymous listener says i am a parent and none of my children are saved it is agonizing for me it robs me of sleep it robs me of peace and joy i know that children are spoken of in the scriptures as being gifts from god but sometimes as much as i love my children i wish i didn't have any because of the fact that i fear for their eternal souls i fear for them being damned how do i maintain a life of peace and joy as a christian knowing that right now anyway none of my children are born again believers well may i say first of all i'm very sorry that the brother who asked the question has had difficulty i can fully understand what the trial is must be and no christian facing that difficulty could minimize it it really is a very severe trial and of course it's so severe because the christian knows as a parent that if his children die in an unconverted state that's not just that they die but they go to another world where we would wish no one to go to a world of darkness and a world of fire the question then seems to lead to this what are the practical ways in which we can adjust our way of thinking and of course another aspect will be is there anything practical we can do to try to rescue our children from this difficult condition obviously we do not know the details about the ages of the children concerned if they're young of course then there's some hope that they might listen to our advice as parents so we explain to them carefully the teachings of the word of god and show them how serious it is to be in that condition that may people listen to us of their children if they're more grown up and under world influences of course it's more likely that they will turn a blind eye to us but one thing i would say is we must never despair and never give up where there's life there's hope i have a dear friend who was converted after me and he had a father in his late 80s i think it was 89 and the old man was not converted but my dear friend recently converted began to speak to him about the gospel and at the age of 89 the dear old man came to faith in christ so i would say show all the love you can and take every wise opportunity you can to try to bring gospel truth before them and to remind them that if they die without christ it will be better for them if they've never been born i thought easier for me to say that over the telephone but i know how problematic it can be but there's a wise way of doing everything and i would suggest be praying that god will give you a golden opportunity and do something in their lives which will stop them in their tracks and turn their minds to see the importance of coming to christ amen and i immediately uh when you were sharing uh some of what you said uh i immediately thought of my own dear mother who was a religious roman catholic for her whole life and when she was on her deathbed six weeks before she departed this earth she made it very clear that she had renounced the idolatry and superstition and false gospel of the roman catholic church and embraced the knowledge of the true gospel she put her entire confidence on her entrance into heaven after she left this earth on the death of christ wonderful to hear and i praise god for that uh she was a uh dear dear mother and it gave me such a gift of peace to know that uh god had given her this gift which she kept repeated she kept repeating for the entire six weeks before her death that she was trusting only in christ and she refused any longer to pray to mary and the saints or idols she was praying directly to christ and i i just thank god for that we have to go to our uh final break right now it's going to be much more brief than the last one if you have a question for morris roberts please send it in quickly because we're rapidly running out of time our email address is chris arnson at gmail .com

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c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n gmail .com please give us your first name your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside the usa please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter oh by the way anonymous listener i forgot to mention please give us off the air of course your full name uh your address uh so we can have cvbbs .com

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ship you out a free copy of the christians high calling by morris roberts we will not uh reveal your identity obviously on the air so you don't have to worry about that as you requested to remain anonymous but we just need your full name and address for the purposes of cvbbs .com

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shipping out this book to you the christians high calling published by banner of truth written by morris roberts don't go away we'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors paul wrote to the church at galatia for am i now seeking the approval of man or of god or am i trying to please man if i were still trying to please man i would not be a servant of christ hi i'm mark lukens pastor of providence baptist church we are reformed church and we hold to the london baptist confession of faith of 1689 we are in nofork massachusetts we strive to reflect paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how god views what we say and what we do than how men view these things that's not the best recipe for popularity but since that wasn't the apostle's priority it must not be ours either we believe by god's grace that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man and to be vessels of christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us and to build up the body of christ in truth and love if you live near nofork massachusetts or plan to visit our area please come and join us for worship and fellowship you can call us at 508 -528 -5750 that's 508 -528 -5750 or go to our website to email us listen to past sermons worship songs or watch our tv program entitled resting in grace you can find us at providence baptist church ma .org

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that's providence baptist church ma .org or even on sermonaudio .com providence baptist church is delighted to sponsor iron sharpens iron radio gotta tell you for my money chris arnson's radio program is just the best iron criticizing i think that's what it's called this is todd freel of wretched radio and tv with phil johnson of grace to you inviting everybody to come to the g3 conference which has almost instantly become one of the best conferences in the country and it is it's a great conference i love it and chris arnson was there last year he's been there i think every year it's great to see him there you and i actually did some recordings in the lobby at that place which is a highlight tons of stuff going on tons of great speakers and no matter where you are in the building you will hear chris arnson's laugh and that's worth the price of admission alone if you would like to join phil me chris and a cavalcade of great preachers so it should be a cavalcade of great preachers and me g3 conference .com

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that's linbrookbaptist .org chris arnson host of iron sharpens iron radio here i want to tell you about a man i have personally known for many years his name is dan buttafuco dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer but not the type that typically comes to dan cares about people and is a theologian himself recently he wrote a book titled consider the evidence for the bible ravi zacharias wrote the foreword dan also has a master's degree in theology dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states he represents many christians in serious injury matters all over the country dan is an exceptional trial lawyer he wrote the test for the national board of trial advocacy and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for 1 million dollars or more and in approximately 10 different states in illinois his lawyers had the fourth largest settlement in the state's history in new york his case involving a paralyzed police officer made the front page of the law journal if you have a personal injury or medical malpractice claim in any state i recommend that you call dan consultations are free there is no fee unless you win dan buttafuco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878 1 -800 -669 -4878 or email me for dan's contact information at chris arnson at gmail .com

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that's chris arnson at gmail .com my name is steve lawson founder and president of one passion ministries as well as teaching fellow for ligonier ministries i serve as professor of preaching and oversee the doctor of ministry program at the master's seminary in los angeles i would like to recommend the church where one of my preaching students andy woodard serves as the pastor it's called new covenant church nyc they are a reformed baptist church that meets in midtown manhattan you can find their service times and location on their website which is www .ncc

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.nyc they believe in a sovereign god who commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel if you're looking for a church that believes in expository preaching which is simply biblical preaching in new york city i'd like to recommend that you visit new covenant church nyc again their information can be found at www .ncc

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01:40:08

welcome back this is our final segment of our interview today with morris roberts and we are discussing his book the christian's high calling if you'd like to ask him a question by email do so quickly because we're rapidly running out of time our email address is chris arnson at gmail .com

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chris arnson at gmail .com you have an interesting uh title for one of your chapters as many of your chapters are very interestingly titled uh you have the vulnerability of true religion if you could explain that yes true religion is something which people can so readily misunderstand it's possible for people to think that true christianity is nonsense when we preach the doctrine of justification by faith only they think no no no faith alone is not enough you must have good works well we must be good if we are to get to heaven but the mystery about the bible is this that we get to heaven by faith alone in faith alone and the bible puts it like this that the things which are regarded as wisdom by this world are foolishness with god so our great duty is to make sure that all our thinking about god and about religion is based not upon our own wisdom or the wisdom of this world but based upon the teaching of the bible and the bible alone is to be our guide in the way we order our thoughts and order our lives and conduct ourselves in this present life so we must be very careful therefore to understand that true religion is vulnerable people can easily criticize it for grounds which are utterly unsustainable and jesus christ himself was crucified for this very reason and he thought he taught things which were utterly contrary to the official religion of his day which is a nominal form of the religion of his day it wasn't the genuine thing it was a religion of outward attempt to be conforming to the moral law of god but the heart was not right so that's why christianity is vulnerable our lord jesus christ was vulnerable he himself suffered crucifixion and that's what's happened all the way through history the truth is vulnerable because people do not understand that the wisdom of god is entirely the opposite to the wisdom of man and our duty therefore is to understand exactly how it is that the sinner can be saved and how it is that we can get to heaven and it's entirely different from what very often is taught justification is by faith alone in christ alone and our duty therefore is to make sure above everything else that we are those who believe in the finished work of christ we are saved by his blood and if there's something that people don't like to hear and which makes christianity very vulnerable is that expression we are saved by the blood of christ but that's the very center and heart of the gospel over and over again the bible emphasizes that point so we mustn't worry too much if people see our religion as being vulnerable we know that the wisdom of god is wiser than men and the knowledge of god is greater than that of men so stick to the bible stick to the gospel and never mind what people think because we'll get safely out of this world to heaven if we do what god commands us to do amen uh you have a chapter in your book that reminded me of one of our previous callers our anonymous caller that was so distressed and understandably so over the lost state of all of her children or his children uh and the title of this chapter is the danger of being battle weary that just reminded me of a connection between that listener's question and your theme uh tell us about the battle of the danger of being battle wear well there's some always a strain upon the mind of the christian we must expect that to be the case as we live through this world we must see that the entire mentality of the world in which we live is contrary to everything that we believe people don't believe in a true god if they believe in any god at all they don't believe in the true god they don't understand that we are sinners on our way to a lost eternity and so they're very much resented when we have to tell them these truths they're very unwelcome things to tell people and so it's really very worrisome for the christian and yet we mustn't allow ourselves to become weary because god rewards those who will speak the truth and witness for him and so the way in which to fight against our battle weariness is to remember god sees all we do god hears all we say and the day is going to come in which he will reward those who are faithful and therefore the better we serve god in this world the greater will be our reward in the world to come and the more faithful we are to god in this life the more we shall be rewarded in the life to come one of the great principles therefore i would lay down is this it's always better to suffer than to sin i would repeat that it's always better to suffer than to sin i'm speaking as a christian now and the temptation therefore is that when we find ourselves vulnerable and people criticize us and people speak against us and take action against us it is discouraging that's true but we must look beyond this life to the life to come to the day of judgment to the god who is seeing and hearing everything and he will reward everything we do for him which is right and if we suffer for doing what is right then he will certainly reward us and all these trials in the end will be over a light affliction is but for a moment and workers will have a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that's my approach we have another anonymous listener who asks something that is very much connected to another chapter title our anonymous listener says how can i find peace in god's forgiveness for my past life before i was saved i know the facts of the gospel i know that he died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin but my life before salvation was so horrific and wicked that it haunts me still i still do not have the kind of perfect peace and rest that i should expect to have embracing christ death as my soul and only way to perfect redemption can you have any advice for me and the practical ways i might be able to change my way of thinking so that i can find this rest in peace in knowing what christ did on my behalf and when i say that this reminded me of one of your chapter heading you do have a title of one of your chapters that i was just looking at it and it just disappeared it is oh the the remembrance of old sins right well i would approach this problem by referring to the subject of assurance assurance is that doctrine the bible teaches in which it is quite possible for a true christian to have certainty of forgiveness and the certainty that he is under god's pleasure and god is entirely satisfied with him now assurance is something which is not of the essence of salvation it's possible to be a genuine christian without having that full assurance but assurance is very strengthening to the soul and as the questioner implies by what he says about himself it is the means whereby we may be lifted above our anxiety for what we once were and i would say make it your desire and your effort in life to crave from god this full assurance of salvation because we're all guilty i know that some are more guilty of sins and others in their past lives but we're all guilty i wasn't a saint by any means before i was converted i was very guilty of many things and these things that i did in my unconverted days come back to me some words i used which i wouldn't dare repeat now for anything some ideas i had in my mind even as a child which were far from pure these things do trouble me at times but we must confront the temptation to be discouraged by telling ourselves christ is the whole of our righteousness that's part of the answer not the whole of it but that's part of it justification is the ground upon which we must plant our feet and see it's not what i think of myself that's important it's what god thinks of me and if i now am clothed in the righteousness of christ all my past life is blotted out it won't be recorded in the book of god it will never be brought up again and i can argue that point with myself and i can say to the devil get thee behind me satan it is written that if we are justified by faith in christ then we have nothing to fear when we come to face god now at the same time i would say something else not only do we look at justification as a ground of comfort there but we also crave from god the witness of his holy spirit with our spirit that we are the sons of god we crave experience a feeling emotion and all of this is very much a part of the doctrine of sanctity doctrine of assurance it is possible for a christian to have all these anxious thoughts about his past life but at the same time to have the witness of the spirit within his heart that he is a child of god now we can't change the past so when a devil comes to trouble us about the past we can always say to him get thee behind me satan it is written if we trust in jesus christ our sins are forgiven who can separate us from the love of christ which passes knowledge and if we see ourselves as those who had bad past lives and yet are now sanctified and justified we can say to the devil get thee behind me satan for i am in christ god will not condemn me and though i repent of my past life yet i wish now to live to the glory of god and we can speak to the devil like that get behind me satan it is written those who trust in christ are forgiven and saved and justified and on the way to glory and that should bring comfort amen in fact um we had a guest speaker at grace baptist church uh just this past sunday uh charles fitzpatrick who is the retired pastor of reber's reformed baptist church in pennsylvania or ribers i can't remember how to correctly pronounce that uh but he said something i thought was quite profound during his message he was talking about when earthly human parents adopt a child or children there is usually something that they are particular about when adopting this child or children uh usually you know they're looking for perhaps a child or children that resemble them the husband and wife they may be looking for a child or children that seems to have some kind of a connection when they visit the orphanage how much the child or children warmly greet them and embrace them and are comfortable around them or there's something usually about the children over which the parents are particular or fussy or selective and he said god is the same way he will only adopt sinners he said he has no room in his family for the righteous meaning of course that if you think you're righteous that means that you are not righteous at all in fact you are as lost as you can be but we have to really remember that that jesus christ uh came sinners to save uh he did not come for the righteous he did not come for the well uh he came for those who are rebels those who hate him those who are prisoners of sin and wretchedness and wickedness isn't that something that we should constantly remind ourselves of we must do yes we must do and of course even though we shouldn't we uh to help our guest who is plagued by the nightmares of the past sins we can look to even biblical heroes like david and and soul of tarsus who became the apostle paul who had grotesquely wicked lives and in fact the the apostle paul who wrote most of or wrote more of the new testament than any other writer uh he uh rounded up men and women to be executed for their christian faith so these people were redeemed and transformed uh by god and their past uh was not any hindrance to their acceptance into heaven yes we're new creatures in christ jesus we're not what we were amen well i'd like you now first of all i want you to come back at some future date i will give you another calendar to choose from so you could return because there's a lot in this book that we did not uh tackle there are many chapters in this book the christians high calling many different powerful and vital themes but i'd like you to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners before we go off the air right now well i would say this the need to try more and more to have our minds and our thoughts shaped by the doctrine of scripture and therefore we have to study theology the westminster confession of faith or similar doctrines the baptist confessions of faith to have these doctrines these great statements of christian truth more and more etched etched into our minds and thought because it's as we think so we are changed as a man thinketh in his heart so is he and this is where many christians go they read nice little books of one kind or another but i say primarily get christian doctrine all the rich doctrine deeply into your mind westminster confession the teachings of calvin get these things deeply into your mind and what will happen is it will transform us all and make us into the people we need to be and ought to be amen and to get your hands on the best in christian literature i once again remind you of the banner of truth their website is banner of truth .org

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banner of truth .org you can also go to our sponsors solid ground christian books solid -ground -books .com

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solid -ground -books .com and of course last but not least the cumberland valley bible book service cvbbs .com

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cvbbs .com which stands for cumberland valley bible book service and remember you can get all of the titles published by the banner of truth and solid ground christian books from cvbbs .com

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so you could go to those other two websites i mentioned make long lists of all the books that you want to purchase and then go to cvbbs .com

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to actually order them and that will bless all three of those ministries well i want to thank you so much morris roberts for being our guest if you could just hold on for a moment because i'd like to give you a proper goodbye after we go off the air i want to thank everybody who listened to our program today please make a note to tune in tomorrow two very dear friends of mine going back to the 1990s uh dr william webster who is also a banner of truth author and our mutual friend reverend david t king are going to be my guest tomorrow this is the first time that they have ever been interviewed together on the same interview and they are going to be discussing the lie of the roman catholic church that sola scriptura was an invention of the protestant reformers as their topic tomorrow wednesday the 12th of december here on iron trip design radio 4 to 6 p .m