June 7, 2019 Show with Geoff Thomas on “A Ministry of Encouragement”

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June 7, 2019: Rev. GEOFF THOMAS, who, beginning in 1965, served for over 50 years as pastor @ Alfred Place Baptist Church of Aberystwyth, Wales, will address: “A MINISTRY of ENCOURAGEMENT”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century Gospel Minister George Norcross in downtown
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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,
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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the Church and the world today.
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Proverbs 27, verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have a 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 two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
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And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,
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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth, listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 7th day of June, 2019.
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And I'm so thrilled to have back on this program one of my favorite guests, a man who
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I have become to consider a friend, and one who I love to hear preach and love to read what he has written.
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I am just so honored and delighted to have back on the program Jeff Thomas, who, beginning in 1965, served for over 50 years as pastor of Alfred Place Baptist Church of Aberystwyth, Wales, and today we are going to be addressing a ministry of encouragement.
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We'll also be announcing Sermon Audio's The Foundations Conference coming up in December, where Jeff Thomas will be on the speaking roster.
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But it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Jeff Thomas. Thank you very much.
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It's a delight for me to be on your program again. Well, I want to make sure that our listeners have our email address if they want to send in a question.
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Our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com, chrisarnzen at gmail .com. And please, as always, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence, if you live outside the
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USA. And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.
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Before we even go into the subject at hand, a ministry of encouragement, Jeff, please tell our listeners something about what you will be addressing this
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December, God willing, in New York City at the Foundations Conference. I know that the overall theme of the entire conference is prayer and preaching, the foundations of ministry, but what specifically will you address if you already know that information?
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Yes, well, I've been asked to speak as an older man, an experienced man, and encourage and talk to the younger men there about the work of the ministry and my reminiscences and lessons
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I've learned during those five decades in Aberystwyth. Great.
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Tell us something about Aberystwyth, Wales. What is it like culturally? What is the presence of the body of Christ there like?
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Are Christians an extremely tiny minority there? Tell us something more about Aberystwyth.
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You know, whenever a university moves into an area, it has not a helpful influence.
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It tends to have a cerebral influence. An academic influence on the pulpits and on Christianity.
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And so the first university in Wales was erected in Aberystwyth in the 1860s.
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And then the churches then, which were in a wholly Welsh area, built
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English chapels and churches of all the major denominations there to minister, firstly, to the tourists who came because they'd just built a railway line linking
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London and Aberystwyth. And then they also built churches for the non -Welsh -speaking students that were coming to study there.
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And we have sadly judged that in the first 50 years of the 20th century there was scarcely any gospel preaching concerning redemption through Christ, regeneration by the
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Holy Spirit, the authority of Scripture, the need for a personal walk with God and repentance of sin and trust in Christ.
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And so it wasn't until after the war when there was a rediscovery of confessional
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Christianity. And that then showed itself in the change in our congregation and then in a
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Welsh -language sister congregation that was established. And then now there are half a dozen churches where the gospel is preached in Aberystwyth.
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It's not only a town of 20 ,000, you see, Chris, 10 ,000 of whom are students.
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It's like a little New England university town. Well, praise
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God. And once again, Reverend Geoff Thomas, who has retired from the pastoral ministry now after over half a century at Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales, he is once again going to be speaking at the
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Foundations Conference, which has become one of my favorite conferences right in the heart of Manhattan.
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And what a wonderful time of year to visit Manhattan right near the Christmas season,
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December 19th and 20th, which is a Thursday and Friday. And if you want to register,
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I strongly urge you to do so very soon, if not right now, because they can only hold less than 200 people in this venue in the heart of Manhattan.
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So go to thefoundationsconference .com, thefoundationsconference .com to register, and I'll be telling you more about the other speakers involved on the roster, along with Reverend Geoff Thomas, during our midway break of Iron Trepans Iron Radio today.
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Well, I actually am very happy that you wanted to discuss today a ministry of encouragement.
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One of the reasons is I need encouragement in a big way. And I thank
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God for the brothers and sisters in Christ who have regularly reached out with me with a lot of encouragement.
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In fact, many of these brothers and sisters in Christ I have never even met face to face, but they just know about my radio program.
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And I am a widower, as you may remember, just as you are, although you are remarried.
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Praise be to God. And I have other things in life that bring me sometimes to a very deep level of depression.
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And thanks be to God, our merciful Savior never lets me wallow too long in those states of mind.
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He always does something to distract my attention in a positive way, and he brings his saints to the rescue, my brothers and sisters in Christ, who contact me and encourage me.
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But tell me why you came up with the idea of speaking on this very issue, a ministry of encouragement.
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Well, because it's a very neglected subject. In my
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NIV concordance, I think the word encourage occurs a hundred times.
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It's neglected, our obligation under God. You remember, God speaks to Moses, Deuteronomy 328, and he says to him,
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Encourage Joshua. And there's so much outright discouragement in the churches these days, so much criticism, so much doming with faint praise, so much rebuke, such little mutual appreciation.
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And there are some who seem to think that the way to motivate a church is to scold and rebuke and point out the faults and let nothing pass.
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And they imagine that that is the way to revive and motivate and get things done and to go about it in such a negative way.
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And the result is that there are some congregations whose members are wilting and some
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Christian families whose children's morale is so low and people feel that their best efforts are not at all worthwhile.
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And so people become passengers in gospel churches and people are refusing to try in case they don't measure up.
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The people are cracking up. And there is talent then that is unutilized and unapplied because of the prevalence of discouragement.
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People are afraid that they'll be put down. And those are some of the reasons why
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I believe encouragement is a most important subject to address.
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Amen. And do you think, I want us to be honest here, you and I are both Reformed Baptists.
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Do you think that the tendency to lessen the importance of encouragement may exist amongst us, our own circles of fellowship?
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Because there are many ministries, as you may be fully aware, out there that wrongly encourage people for the wrong reasons.
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You have Joel Osteen and many others who will encourage those who are still dead in their trespasses and sins and make them feel comfortable in their unrepentant state.
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They will bring nothing but a word of encouragement and something to uplift them and build up their self -confidence.
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And it seems that we who are Calvinists, perhaps in an overreaction against that kind of thing, and perhaps it might even be a historical detriment amongst us.
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Now, I immediately want to say that there are many solidly Reformed people throughout the ages, throughout history, who, if you read them, you can see their pages overflowing with encouragement.
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Charles Spurgeon is just one of the many that immediately comes to mind. But do you think that we are probably, along with our fundamentalist brethren, the most guilty on that?
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I think there is a danger in the rediscovery of these great truths that you were talking about, and that we want to protect them.
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You know, there is the story of the man who has suddenly left an old mansion, and it's in a state of disrepair.
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And people see him, he's spending a year, two years working, and he is building the walls around this mansion.
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He's pointing them, and he's restoring them. And then he finally opens the doors to let his friends in, and they discover, to their horror, that he has been dismantling the mansion itself in order to build the walls.
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And that becomes one of the snares that we are neglecting, then, a gospel centralism, a
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Jesus Christ centricity, exhorting, declaring, pleading, exalting
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Jesus Christ. And we are rather wanting to build walls around the church, afraid of all the many kinds of errors that there are, and false teachings.
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We are more concerned about locking them out than we are to elevate and show to people just how stupendous
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Jesus Christ is. Amen. And as I said in my introduction of you, you were a pastor for over half a century.
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As a pastor, when you have met with people, perhaps privately after worship service, they want to meet you for counseling, they are troubled by many things, or perhaps in their own lives a few specific things that have brought them either an ordinary kind of a depression, or some of them perhaps even to the very depths of despair, perhaps even to the point of contemplating suicide or something.
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Over that half century, can you list some of the most common things that brothers and sisters in Christ are lacking in receiving encouragement?
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Some of the areas in their lives where they are really starving and thirsting for an encouraging word and they are not receiving it.
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What would be some of those most common circumstances? Well, I think one answer to that is to consider how prominently encouragement features in Scripture, and it is a neglect of that that causes sometimes the darkness and the distress.
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For example, there is the letter to the Hebrews, and it is specifically a word of encouragement.
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I urge you to bear with my word of encouragement, he says in 1322.
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People were falling by the wayside, they were like you described, and he addresses that issue by writing a letter to them, and all his words about Jesus Christ, his person and his work, all his words about the security of God's people, and the life that lies before us, is given to us for this end, for our encouragement that we are not to fall back.
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That he wants to build up their morale, he wants to make them feel real good and secure, and he does that by showing them the greatness of our high priest,
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Jesus Christ. And then there are individuals that are brought before us in Scripture.
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Two men jumped to my mind in the Old Testament, Jonathan, in the
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New Testament, Barnabas. Jonathan, a ministry of one -to -one, an individual encouraging another man, a man under great pressure.
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Jonathan, the great example of a man who, in spite of family pressures and social pressures, loves this brother and wants to deliver him, because he's got all the marks of great gifts and future leadership, and he loves and serves
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David. And then there's Barnabas, who has more of a ministry of corporate encouragement, and he's remembered in the
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Book of Acts because he's the son of consolation, the son of encouragement, and he wasn't an evangelist or a theologian or a preacher, but he had this reputation in the churches.
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Wherever he went, he spread inspiration and renewed aspirations, and made people feel good.
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He was a man full of the Holy Ghost and faith, and he went and strengthened churches.
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He didn't move in and say, Ah, this is wrong, that's wrong, you're weak here, you're deficient there.
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He gave them encouragement. I'm sure he did it by pointing out the central facts of the
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Gospel in a fresh way. But his sole mission in life, his reputation in the churches, was he moved it.
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He built up morale. He was an inspirational teacher. And after he'd gone, people felt strong.
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They felt they could climb any mountain and carry any load. They could do anything after Barnabas had been there.
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He was the son of encouragement. And then there's Paul, and time and again you find him speaking words of encouragement, with one exception.
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Every single one of Paul's letters begins with a great word of thanksgiving, of doxology.
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For all God has done to this church and Timothy and Titus and Philemon, and he tells these churches in Colossae and Thessalonia and Corinth and Rome, whenever I think of you,
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I thank God for you. I'm thanking God for you all the time. I have you always in my heart.
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I pray to God for you all the time. Every time I pray to God, I thank God for every quality that you possess.
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And he rehearses before them, those great qualities. I think of your love for all the saints, your fellowship in the gospel, and from you going out into all the region round about, the message of the cross is going.
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And there are times when we're so frightened to say to each other, I thank God for you. I praise God for you.
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Now in our emails, we even drop the word dear when we address someone. Hi, we say, that's okay.
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We used to say, dear Chris, dear Jeff, because we loved the brethren.
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And Paul then tells churches, he thanks God for this and for that, and they do this, and he rehearses to them their graces.
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And then we think of the work of the Holy Spirit, and what he called in the New Testament, he called the paraclete, the comforter, the encouragement.
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And he sent to the churches to give them inspiration, to make God's people feel that, yes, they can do it.
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They can stand. They can overcome. It's a fascinating word. You know this, Chris, that this word comforter was applied to an officer in the
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Roman army, a person whose specific task was to build up the morale of the troops.
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And he's called the paraclete. And before they fought a great battle, these men, these orators, come and they make a speech.
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And after that speech, the troops feel they could do it. They were psyched up.
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They felt whatever the opposition, they could overcome. They could win. They had this inspiration.
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You have it today, the famous coaches of American football teams and basketball teams and baseball teams.
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And we have the Holy Spirit as our coach. Cromwell's army, you see, had great preachers,
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Baxter, Owen, Manton, in the Commonwealth army. And part of their function was to impress on men that they were fighting the
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Lord's battle because the Lord's battle, because it was the Lord's battle, they would overcome.
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And John Knox in Scotland, he had the army of the congregation. And they had these preachers in to build up morale and to make people feel they could overcome.
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And we've had all men who have been in the Navy and in the army, men like Lee and Eisenhower and Stonewall Jackson and Payton, and these men have the same quality.
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Admiral Nelson, when the great Spanish Armada with all the troops was coming to invade
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England, Nelson went out with his little fleet, and he sent up a message.
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England expects every man this day to do his duty. Just so powerful a message, and it thrilled the people.
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And then, of course, the greatest of all in leadership was
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Winston Churchill with his artillery of words, as Friedrich Wurtz writes in his collection of his speeches.
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And we had so little to fight with, and we had done such little preparation for a war, but Churchill made the people feel they could, they would, that they were somehow invincible.
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I don't think I can remember sitting on my father's lap listening to the radio, which he did and which
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I did, but he's just told me about it, and listening to Churchill make his speech.
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And then my father would go off to work in the morning, and he'd stand in the bus queue with the same group of people, half -past eight, every morning.
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And they would all turn to one another, and they would say, Did you hear Churchill speak last night?
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And, of course, they all did. The country did. We shall go on to the end.
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We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and with growing strength in the air.
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We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall never surrender.
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And with such a rhetoric then, he blew away the clouds of uncertainty in their minds, and renewed their stomachs for the fight, and instilled in them the belief that however long it would take, and whatever befell them on the way, ultimate victory was secure.
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And that's the work of the Holy Spirit. When we meet on the
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Lord's Day, and the Spirit is present there, and he helps the preacher to exalt
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Christ, and in that mysterious influence that every individual Christian has over other
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Christians that he speaks to, he is the encouragement, the paraclete, that we are persuaded we are more than conquerors, that we endure seeing him who is invisible, that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
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And so there is the Holy Spirit's encouragement of the people of God, and we are to grab it, and learn from it, and become part of the fellowship of the
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Holy Spirit in ministering to one another. Praise God. We do have an anonymous listener for you who has a question.
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This anonymous listener says, Even though I know my sins have been washed by the blood of the
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Lamb, and I am a new creation in Christ, and I will not bear the guilt of my sins committed before my born -again experience,
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I am still plagued with guilt over these sins, and at times I feel that I am in the wrong by enjoying life, by laughing, by enjoying myself, having fun with brothers and sisters and friends.
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How do I get over this way of thinking, which I am assuming is a wrong way of thinking? Yes, of course it's a wrong way of thinking, because it's doubting enormous promises, simple promises, that the
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Lord Jesus and his apostles have made to us. And we are to gather together, compress in a great, heavy, strong ball all our faith, and we are to give that ball to Jesus Christ.
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We are to lodge it in his wounded side. We are to place it in his crucified hands and say,
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This is my life, and it belongs to you, and you tell me now, nothing shall separate me from your love.
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Nothing. But if I confess my sins, you are faithful, you are just to forgive my sins.
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And I will not listen to Satan's voice when
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Satan says to me, It's too good to be true, and you have exhausted the mercy and the grace of God by confessing the same sins to God again and again.
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And you must say to him, Get thee behind me, Satan. And you must say to yourself,
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Where my sins abound, the grace of God far more abounds.
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It is super abundant, and that you can receive mercy and new mercies every morning from this
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Savior. And your calling then is not to do what you think you might do, but rather to rejoice in the
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Lord, in him. Not that you are such a poor Christian. I'm such a poor Christian.
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I'm a sinner, a doubting sinner, talking to doubting sinners today. But there is mercy for doubting sinners.
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If your faith is as thin as a spider's thread, and it is lodged in Jesus Christ, that faith will take you across the lake of fire and across the bottomless pit, and it will set you down in his presence with exceeding joy, so that when you see him, you will be like him.
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You'll see him as he is. His lovely face, the color of his eyes, his smiling teeth as he welcomes you.
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Well done. Well done. So think about him.
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For every look at your sins, take ten looks at him. Amen. Well, I'm going to pick up where you left off there when we return to our program from our first station break.
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I have a follow -up question of my own in regard to that anonymous listener's question. If anybody else would like to join us on the air, we do have a couple of people still waiting to have their questions asked and answered.
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But if you'd like to get in line, please send us an e -mail to chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.
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And please, as always, give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA, and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter.
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Don't go away. God willing, we'll be right back with Jeff Thomas and our discussion on a ministry of encouragement.
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at Solid -Ground -Books .com Also, don't forget about our friends at IRBS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, Texas, one of our very important sponsors.
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We are working on getting a repaired advertisement back on the air.
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There's something wrong with the audio file for their commercial, so I want to make sure I verbally tell you that their website is
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IRBSSeminary .org IRBSSeminary .org Don't forget there's two
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IRBSSeminary .org Dr. Jim Renahan is the president of that fine institution.
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And don't forget that August 22nd and 23rd, Dr. James Renahan will be live doing a presentation that you can interact with at IRBSSeminary .org
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So mark that down on your calendar. That's IRBSSeminary .org We are now back with Jeff Thomas and Jeff Thomas is well known to Reformed Christians worldwide perhaps especially those who love the ministry of Banner of Truth and devour the books that they have in print not only classics from the past, from even centuries ago, but also contemporary authors like our guest today
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Reverend Jeff Thomas and we here at Iron Trip and Zion Radio greatly value
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Banner of Truth. Before we go back to our discussion, do you have a few words of description for Banner of Truth that might give our listeners who are unfamiliar with this ministry more of an understanding of who the
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Banner of Truth is? Well it has taken the best of God honoring and inspirational evangelistic comforting, strengthening ministries the
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Church Fathers and then of course the Great Revival that took place in the 16th century under Luther, Calvin, Knox, Ridley, and so on and then the next century the
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Puritan Peers John Bunyan and the next century then Wesley and Whitefield and Johnson Edwards and the next century then
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Princeton Hodges Spurgeon the great missionary expansion of the
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Church going out into China and into Africa C .T. Studd and the other leaders like Hudson Taylor and then the 20th century
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Dr. Lloyd -Jones the other men like John Murray just the giants who thrilled and were under God's use to join men and women in union with Jesus Christ forever and this tradition then the living tradition of the
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Christian Church and bringing up the sermons and the theological books, the biographies the hymnology, the medical songs, all these things which are such a heritage that if we neglect it, we are poorer
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Christians and our worship is poorer as a result. Well, if anybody wants to find out more about the
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Banner of Truth, whether it be in regard to their literature that they publish or even special events that they orchestrate and host their website is banneroftruth .org
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banneroftruth .org and you can even look up our guest the Reverend Jeff Thomas G -E -O -F -F
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Thomas and there will be items there whether a book or an audio recording or a video they will have things available through Banner of Truth regarding our guest
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Jeff Thomas and let me repeat our email address if anybody wants to join us our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com
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if you have a question for Jeff Thomas especially on encouragement you can ask any theological question but we are particularly discussing a ministry of encouragement and that's chrisarnsen at gmail .com
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as always give us your first name city and state and country of residence if you live outside the USA and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter to pick up again on that question that an anonymous listener sent in for those of you who just tuned in we have a listener who is so grieved over his sin before he became a
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Christian that he finds it hard he finds it difficult to enjoy life now even though he knows that he has been redeemed by Christ and saved and that his sins will no longer send him to hell he will no longer be punished for his sins although even
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Christians are chastised by a loving father for our sins that we commit but he is so overwhelmed he even feels guilty when he enjoys life because of these sins and what
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I was going to say is one thing that has helped me when I've started to think in a similar fashion and when
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I've even begun to think of how people behind bars would benefit from this for those who have become saved even though they have committed horrific acts horrific crimes that have gotten them arrested and imprisoned there are
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I'm sure many countless of people in that circumstance who are truly born again now but I have thought to myself and I want you to comment on this and see if I have a right train of thought here
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Reverend Thomas when I get plunged into the depths of depression thinking about sins especially past sins in my life and I have felt guilt just as our listener has expressed over enjoying life and so on one thing that I have done is reminded myself that God does not want me as an ambassador in his name to be curled up in a fetal position and be immovable and be enslaved to this depression and sorrow and grief.
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He does not want me to be morbidly introspective he wants me to be an effective witness and he wants me to show the world that he has forgiven me of my sin and that I am rejoicing over his sacrifice and obviously that is going to be a far greater testimony to those in this lost world that we live in rather than me becoming a hermit behind closed doors lying in the dark in a fetal position and crying myself to sleep am
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I somewhere on the right train of thought here? Yes, of course of course you are yes,
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I when I find people who don't know if they are
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Christian or not or conscious of their sins and oh
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I don't know if I'm a believer this is what I say to them I say to them now now can you say
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I don't know if I know him as my lord and saviour
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I don't have assurance I don't have certainty that he's my lord and my saviour but I know that if I had him as my lord and saviour
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I would be safe if you can say that can you say that if you knew that he was your lord and your saviour then you would be safe and they'd say oh yes, yes, oh
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I do believe that if I had him as my lord and saviour I'd be safe then
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I say to them then you're a Christian because only a
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Christian thinks like that only a Christian would say words like that I don't know,
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I haven't got any certainty, any assurance that he's my saviour because I'm so conscious of my sins but I know oh if I had him as my lord and saviour
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I'd be safe that's a Christian and that is a ministry of encouragement that God has given me to help people who have battled all their lives through with a lack of assurance and they have tolerated being overwhelmed with memories of all the bad things that they've done, the people they hurt and so on and that's how
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I try to encourage them to think it's not your faith it's not your assurance that saves and keeps you it's his love for you that he says if you come to me
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I will in no way cast you out you come to me, just come it's a movement of your heart and mind even now as you hear my words and just come just as you are and put your trust for this world and the world to come in the loving welcoming hands of Jesus Christ our
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Savior. Amen. We have Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania who has a question and she asks,
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I know that modern evangelicalism seems to be preoccupied and consumed with the self esteem movement and sometimes we who are
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Calvinists go the other direction and speak of men only as being disgusting and vile sinners and worms and isn't there a middle ground where we can be encouraging to our brothers and sisters in Christ especially without going overboard and pouring flattery upon them which is actually false praise just to lift up the spirits and cheer up people using exaggerated compliments.
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Oh well she has expressed that very elegantly hasn't she and helpfully and you know
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Psalm 19 is the most helpful Psalm there in its estimation of man what is man that God has set his lover upon us what is man that causes us to rejoice the heavens above declare his glory day and today utter speech night and tonight reveals knowledge we rejoice in the revelation that God has given to us in the world around us and in the people around us of an earlier grace a grace that shows itself in your grandparents generation and the people you knew as a little girl and they weren't all that discerning but they they had a sweetness of character a modesty of life a loveliness of disposition they kept a day each week special they went to church they were conscious of obeying their conscience because of an earlier grace that they had received from parents and grandparents in which you spotted in them fine people and we can thank
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God for that generation that made America and made the United Kingdom a place where you needn't lock your doors at night because there was a morality and a high regard for figures of authority and an estimation of trustworthiness in professing
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Christians and in men of God and that was because there was much light and much power in the lives of these people and so we do rejoice in people we don't rubbish everyone it was
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Pharisees who heaped burdens upon other people that Jesus rebuked and called them a nest of snakes and they were people that were corrupt but he didn't do that to the common people who came he didn't do that to the twelve men young men who came and he said to them you're the salt of the earth you're the light of the world and they must have looked in astonishment at one another because they weren't experienced in suffering or in preaching when he called them apart and commissioned them to go and serve him he had confidence in them and so there is this balance the bible's doctrine of the fallenness of man the deceitfulness of his heart the corruptness of men and women and yet there is the awareness of an earlier grace which goes back to the creation of man in God's image and likeness which the evolutionists will furiously deny that since that time there has been through centuries
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God's mercy God's kindness God's goodness when Paul is on Athens he reminds men and women of this in him you live and move and have your being he tells those brilliant people in Athens he doesn't rubbish them all but he tells them that they also need to repent
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God commands he says all men everywhere to turn from their sin and unbelief and trust in Christ and that's our message to give credit where credit is due because it honors the
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God who made men and women in his image but tells them that's not enough or our savior would not be needed to have been sent to us
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I think those are the ways I would go about maintaining the balance Now this theme of our show today is a ministry of encouragement and I'm assuming that you would encourage no pun intended people who are listening to perhaps if they are aware that there are discouraged people in the congregation or perhaps they're not specifically aware of it but they just want to make sure that those that may be privately dealing with discouragement and sorrow and depression are encouraged that they might want to start a quote quote ministry of encouragement
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I'm not talking about some kind of an office bearer if they are not qualified to bear office
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I'm speaking of where somebody might say to themselves I am going to find genuine things not false compliments and flattery but I'm going to find genuine things about my brothers and sisters that they have as far as their attributes as far as their deeds their talents their gifts and I'm going to make it a point every
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Sunday or perhaps even every day to contact at least one of them and tell them
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I want you to know that I have noticed this about you and give them a word of encouragement would that not be a good start of a ministry of encouragement?
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Consider how we may spur one another on Hebrews are we considering other people do you know roughly where other people in your church stand or what their position is
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I'm not speaking about inquisitorial prying into another's I'm not talking about some censorious attitude but being aware of the needs in the congregation do you know who in the church is discouraged just now who's close to giving up who's weak who's feeble minded do you know where the problems are where the risks are do you know where people stand where the real needs are and you think well the officers know well perhaps they do but do you know consider one another he says do you know where the sorrows are and the anxieties and the dangers where people are losing heart where they're falling by the wayside and exactly what you say consider how you may spur one another on keep on brother keep on sister we need you so that you are aware of everyone in the fellowship you're called upon by God to take part in a ministry of consolation and the
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Hebrew Christians they were standing side by side with those cruelly treated weren't they they were in the stocks and so the
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Christian then got up on the platform and stood alongside them and glared at the people throwing dead carts and stones at them and showing that they stood in solidarity with this
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Christian and others were imprisoned and they went there and they took creature comforts and they weren't ashamed to go into the prison and help these people in need
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Paul says comfort one another with these words and that's the ministry just a word a stammering tongue can be used to help dry and fainting and weary Christians who are finding the correction that they are having from God not easy to bear and you were to prevent them wilting and giving up all together
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Paul speaks about the outward man perishing doesn't he that the burdens that some
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Christians have to bear are so heavy the load that they have to carry well move in move in prayerfully and help them and speak to them so it's very interesting you know there's a verse in James 1 9 where where James talks about the brother of low degree so this is the humblest person in the congregation he's literate and he's never married he's got a dog he hardly talks to anyone he slips in and he sits there and he's been a street cleaner all his life he's done nothing he feels utterly unimportant he's of low degree now this is to be your ambition to make that ignored unattractive person feel good make him feel really important make him feel proud that he's got something to boast about that God loved him before the foundation of the world that Jesus became the lamb of God and died for him that in heaven now he whispers that guy's name in the ears of his father in heaven he says father send the spirit of comfort and strength into that brother show him his high position in grace that God protects him and keeps him that the
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Holy Spirit indwells him and God is working everything together for his good let him boast in that and take pride in that and glory in that and feel good about that that's what the
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Lord wants us to do in our ministry not just to the handsome and beautiful students and teenagers or the young married couples that we envy so much because we're single but we don't ignore the humble little people who are there
01:00:14
Amen and we have to get to our midway break right now and we can pick up where you left off brother this is the longer than normal break because Grace Life Radio 90 .1
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FM in Lake City Florida requires of us a longer break in the middle of our show since they have to by FCC regulations air things that localize
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Grace Life Radio to Lake City Florida public service announcements and so on so please use this time wisely while they air their own commercials and public service announcements on Grace Life Radio and we air ours that are heard globally please write down the information provided by our advertisers so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them because we rely upon our advertisers to exist and if you patronize them they are more likely going to remain our advertisers which means that we will remain on the air
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God willing for a longer period of time so please write down that information and also please send in a question to Reverend Jeff Thomas on encouragement or any other theological issue that you care to ask about but specifically more importantly on encouragement our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com
01:01:19
chrisarnson at gmail .com don't go away God willing we're going to be right back after these messages from our sponsors
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I would like to recommend the church where one of my preaching students Andy Woodard serves as the pastor.
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It's called New Covenant Church, NYC. They are a Reformed Baptist church that meets in Midtown Manhattan.
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You can find their service times and location on their website which is www .ncc .nyc
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www .ncc .nyc They believe in a sovereign God who commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel.
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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
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New Covenant Church, NYC. Again, their information can be found at www .ncc
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Of God three years ago I discovered a poor small church outside Lusaka Zambia in a township called
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What was I to do? Could I just say God bless you and walk away? The situation of the children said heavily upon me as I was praying concerning this need it came to me
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Education and some medical services is $73 per month per child If just 50 of us would give $35 a month
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to 24 orphans Please send your gift of any amount to Bethlehem Baptist Church 838
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BBC Laurel calm again The address is Bethlehem Baptist Church 838
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Reed Road, Laurel, Mississippi 39443 or BBC laurel .com.
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Thank you Chris Sorenson host of iron sharpens iron radio here.
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Monday through Friday between 10 a .m. And 4 30 p .m Eastern Time just have a couple of announcements to make in regard to events that are coming up first of all, there is a marriage seminar that's coming up at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey and My friend a pastor
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Alan Dunn who I've known since the 1980s He is going to be speaking on this or at this conference
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Titled enjoying true love. What does the gospel have to do with it? Pastor Alan Dunn is the pastor at Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey Whose ads you just started hearing today for the first time
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They are a new sponsor of iron sharpens iron radio and we're thrilled about that but The conference is being held at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey so I hope that you will register for this event and if you want more details you can send an email to office at tbc nj .org
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That's office at tbc which stands for Trinity Baptist Church nj which stands for New Jersey org office at tbc nj .org
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If you send them an email They will send you a form to fill out to register for this conference enjoying true
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Love what does the gospel have to do with it? And this conference?
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is $80 per couple and it is a conference that lasts for several days and You will get all of that information when you send that email to Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey So I hope that as many of you will take advantage of that the exact dates by the way are
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August 30th through September 2nd August 30th through September 2nd in Montville, New Jersey and Trinity Baptist Church is located on 160 change bridge
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Road in Montville, New Jersey and The website is Trinity Montville org
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Trinity m -o -n -t -v -i -l -l -e dot org Then coming up in December The event where my guest
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Jeff Thomas will be on the speaking roster will take place December 19th and 20th, which is a
01:18:47
Thursday and Friday what a gorgeous time to visit New York City right in the
01:18:53
Christmas season and I am so looking forward to this. I always look forward to attending the foundation's conference a conference of sermon audio calm and In addition to our friend
01:19:04
Jeff Thomas The roster also includes dr. Stephen J. Lawson the founder of one passion ministry as you've been hearing his voice every day promoting
01:19:13
New Covenant Church, NYC a Church in Manhattan that sponsors iron truffles iron radio
01:19:19
Paul Washer is also on the roster My friend Armin Tamasian an extraordinary pastor that I believe will be a household name over the next decade amongst reformed
01:19:29
Christians He is that good that powerful that gifted Richard Caldwell jr. And aunt
01:19:34
Andrew Quigley are also on the roster I have not yet heard these two brethren Preach, but if sermon audio comm selected them for this conference.
01:19:43
I have no doubt that they're going to be Excellent if you want to register do so quickly because they only have room for less than 200 people at this conference
01:19:52
So go to the foundations conference comm the foundations conference comm and then after that the g3 conference is being held in January from Thursday, January 16th through Saturday, January 18th
01:20:05
And I intend to be there manning an exhibitors booth for iron trump and Zion radio again the theme is worship matters and The speakers are always extraordinary and this
01:20:16
January is no exception Kosti Hinn is on the roster He is the nephew of the notorious charlatan
01:20:22
Benny Hinn But Kosti thankfully to the grace and mercy of God has been delivered from the
01:20:28
Word of Faith heresy He has repented of it and he exposes it every chance he gets by God's grace and good providence
01:20:36
To reveal just how evil deadly and damning These heresies of the
01:20:41
Word of Faith movement are He is on the roster He's not only a
01:20:47
Reformed Baptist today and a Reformed Baptist pastor, but he is also a cessationist remarkable young man
01:20:53
Kosti Hinn David Miller is on the roster really phenomenal preacher
01:20:59
Derek Thomas if everybody listening Knows who
01:21:04
Jeff Thomas is I have a feeling they probably also know who Derek Thomas is these men are both giants of The contemporary church in the
01:21:15
Reformed Faith and when I say contemporary, I just mean the church today I don't mean that they are playing rock music churches, but The Derek Thomas is also a phenomenal preacher
01:21:27
James R. White my friend of many years is on the roster Joel Beakey another Extraordinary preacher that I've known since the 1980s and have called my friend
01:21:37
Josh Bice the founder of the g3 conference, which stands for gospel grace and glory, by the way Stephen J.
01:21:43
Lawson and Paul Washer once again, they are both on the roster at this conference as well my friend, dr.
01:21:50
Tom Askell the founder of the founders ministries or the executive director of founders ministries which is the
01:21:59
Calvinistic ministry at the Southern Baptist Convention and also Votie Balcom Another phenomenal
01:22:06
Reformed preacher. These are all of the speakers on the roster So if you want to attend the g3 conference in January from Thursday January 16th through Saturday, January 18th 2020 go to g3 conference calm g3 conference calm and I would strongly urge you if you have a business or a parachurch organization that you want to promote
01:22:30
To the body of Christ there There's gonna be over 5 ,000 people at this conference as there are every year
01:22:37
They have it at least since they moved into the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Georgia They have had well over 5 ,000 people there.
01:22:46
So I am going to be manning a booth there Hopefully you will be manning one near me if you have a business or parachurch organization that you want to promote
01:22:53
So I would register not only to attend but register for an exhibitors booth while there's still time at g3 conference calm
01:23:00
G3 conference calm and now once again I have to do something that I really don't like to do but I need to do it if you love this show
01:23:07
And you don't want us to go away. You don't want us to disappear from the airwaves Please go to iron sharpens iron radio calm click support then click click to donate now
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You could donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion If you prefer a snail mail
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You there will be an address that appears on the screen where you can send in a check made out to iron sharpens iron radio
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Please we need your donations and your advertising more than ever. We are facing some scary times, especially in July Financially, so please help us out
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Please if you love the show and don't want us to go away Please donate as frequently as you can and as heavily as you can and as generously as you can and these are the two caveats that I remind you about every day never siphon money away from your regular giving to your local church in Order to give to iron sharpens iron radio never do that and never put your family in financial jeopardy by giving to iron sharpens iron radio
01:24:01
Those two things are commands of God providing for your church and home Providing for the show is not a command of God But if you are financially blessed by God above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands
01:24:12
Please donate as frequently as you can and as generously as you can The iron sharpens iron radio dot -com click support then click click to donate now
01:24:21
If you want to advertise with us, we really do need your advertising dollars So as long as you're promoting something that is compatible with what we believe in iron sharpens iron radio
01:24:29
We will help you launch an ad campaign as quickly as possible That's Chris Arnson at gmail .com
01:24:35
is the email address where you send in That email letting me know that you want to advertise with us and put advertising in the subject line
01:24:42
That's Chris Arnson at gmail .com Please help us if you don't want us to disappear and if you are blessed above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands of providing for church and home and Also, that's the email address where you can send in a question to Jeff Thomas Chris Arnson at gmail .com
01:25:00
Chris Arnson at gmail .com give us your first name your city and state in your country of residence if you live outside the USA Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal private matter
01:25:10
Reverend Thomas we have a question for you from Cork, Ireland and Let me see here we have
01:25:21
Mary and Cork, Ireland says how would you go about encouraging some Christians who have been spiritually abused by leadership and Do not go to a church because they're afraid
01:25:32
Thank you for this refreshing and encouraging interview Well, I Couldn't send people back into a fellowship where the leadership were ignoring abusive other leaders and Unless that was properly dealt with then you couldn't say well
01:26:08
Go back You're not to be a punch bag for People who abuse their privileged office as men of God in that church who were doing what
01:26:26
The sons of Eli did so dreadfully and the judgment of God came on but there are
01:26:34
There may be other churches or those people may have been removed from office and then
01:26:42
It is possible to find grace from God to show
01:26:51
Mercy and and pardon you think of the early church and there weren't denominations and congregations
01:26:59
Then that divided from one another it was simply one church in one area here is a church and it consists of the widows and the orphans of people that Saul of Tarsus had once cast stones against and Condemned to death and They are hurting so much because of this this man is converted
01:27:38
This man confesses. He's the chief of sins he acknowledges that he did wrong and he is filled with grief about his previous life and You must stand by the grace of God Show forgiveness as you are a sinner whose sins crucified
01:28:05
Jesus Christ and God has Forgiven you for those sins and you then can forgive the lesser sins
01:28:17
That men have done against you It's it's hard It's terribly hard, but it's not impossible because where sin abounds
01:28:33
Grace much more abounds as I've said we can be more than conquerors of Hostility we can be
01:28:44
Men who and women who testify to the wonderful change that's taken place in their lives
01:28:52
That now enables them to say to these people. You're my brother. You're my sister and You have the same
01:29:03
Heavenly Father that Saul of Tarsus had and that those he heard had and You could go and find grace from him to cope with the
01:29:19
Enormous challenge of Reconciliation Forgiveness, you know don't overcome evil with evil
01:29:30
Overcome evil with good. Amen. And of course, I don't want to be
01:29:37
Insensitive to people who have been harmed by churches, especially those who've been in cults and all kinds of things that have gone on even in theologically sound churches, but at the same time
01:29:49
I'm sure that most people in those circumstances would recognize that it is sinful and wrong to broad brush and be bigoted against any group of people because of the actions of some of those people and that goes the same for the church and Just because one church has been abusive to someone doesn't mean that all churches are like that.
01:30:15
In fact, you could even look at the Apostles and Say that people would have a legitimate reason
01:30:23
To not join the Apostles in their following Christ because of what
01:30:29
Judas did now That would be obviously wrong to blame Jesus and the
01:30:34
Apostles for Judas so we have to remember that just because we might have even been harmed in in Unspeakable ways that does not mean that every church or every pastor or every
01:30:46
Christian is guilty of those sins. Am I right? Exactly that's a very good analogy and let's see here we have
01:31:00
John and Bangor Maine wants to know What kind of encouragement should we give to those who are lost?
01:31:08
Obviously, we should never give comfort to people to remain in their rebellion against Jesus Christ But at the same time,
01:31:16
I don't think that Jesus intends for us to be so cold and unlikable
01:31:21
That would be the result of us never encouraging anybody who was lost
01:31:26
The lost were obviously drawn to Jesus in ways additional to the drawing of the
01:31:33
Holy Spirit They were obviously found something Intriguing about him and the disciples that made them want to Spend time with them.
01:31:43
So how could we go about this without being? Unnecessarily and even sinfully encouraging
01:31:50
Yeah, that's a wonderful question, too There's a wonderful verse in the prophecy of Nahum chapter 1 and verse 7 where God says three things
01:32:01
He says The Lord is good That's the first thing and you can you can say that you can say
01:32:10
You've gone to a hospital to visit a relative or a member of your church and then you've gone to the next beds around that Person and lonely people there and you talk to them you can say to everyone
01:32:23
Hasn't the Lord been good to you? Hasn't God been good to you? Look at all the blessings you've had in life
01:32:29
Look at the health and long life and the happy marriage and the wonderful parents you had and the peace in our land now
01:32:38
The Lord he is the author of all these things and he's good He is good because he's covenanted not to destroy the world with a flood again
01:32:47
He's especially good to his people. The Lord is good He's been a good Lord to you and then he's a stronghold in the day of trouble.
01:32:56
This is a day of trouble You wouldn't be here in hospital If it wasn't a day of trouble for you, but there's a stronghold when
01:33:06
Mary and Martha's brother died they went and told Jesus they went to The stronghold they told
01:33:14
Jesus about it Let me encourage you then to go to Jesus and tell
01:33:20
Jesus about your worries and concerns That's the second thing you can say to the unbeliever the
01:33:28
Lord it He's a stronghold in the day of trouble because um, the
01:33:34
Lord is good It doesn't mean that there are no days of trouble and then thirdly you can say to them He knows them that trust in him.
01:33:43
He he knows that note in the Bible to know means to love Adam Knew his wife
01:33:50
Eve and that knowledge was a loving knowledge. It was a person. It was an intimate knowledge and The Lord is one who knows us and He knows those who trust in him so You encourage them then to it's a good
01:34:10
Anglo -Saxon word trust, isn't it? Faith comes from that Latin Fidei and it's rather intimidating a strong monosyllable faith but trust you trust your bedside clock to tell you it's a 21 long past your getting up time get out of bed.
01:34:41
You can trust That or you can trust everything Jesus said and everything Jesus did that's what we can say
01:34:48
This is an eminently Trustworthy Christ and so there are three things there in name one seven that you can tell anybody in the world
01:34:58
Amen We have a listener Bobby in Hartsdale, New York who wants to know
01:35:06
Should we ever be embarrassed to take things to the Lord in prayer? That to most others might appear to be trivial matters
01:35:15
Things that are small with when compared to the major problems in this world
01:35:20
But at the same time they are things that are thorns in our flesh things that bring about depression and discouragement
01:35:27
Even though they are tiny Yes, quite. So there's a controversy a theological controversy going on in Britain at the present time of People who say they don't believe in the micromanagement of God they believe in his
01:35:46
Macromanagement these in charge of the planets and of the nations of the world, but They don't believe in his micromanagement of all the tiny things that happen, but Really isn't
01:36:05
Aren't we tested most of all in the little things doesn't The Lord speak to us about people being faithful in the little things
01:36:16
Don't you see I'm so often out of the most little decisions you make you you'd go along to a certain meeting and you met your husband there or You were listen to some advice or you read a little track that someone had gave and your whole life
01:36:37
Changed as a result of it the very hairs of your head are all numbered
01:36:43
Here's a God who determines when the sparrow shall fall to the ground. So there's nothing too little that you can take to God and tell
01:36:54
God about and And Give him thanks for and ask him to help you with the perplexities that little things cause in our lives
01:37:05
Amen, and I'm assuming you would also agree that if you are conscious of the fact that you might be consumed with many little things and it is causing you to prevent a
01:37:18
Fuller wrote more robust and important prayer life, especially for those other than yourself
01:37:24
You might want to pray that the Lord makes you less anxious and consumed with those little things.
01:37:30
Would I be wrong in saying that? Yes, of course Chris, of course
01:37:36
Do we shouldn't be? Yeah. Yeah that we how little we know about the kingdom of God when a window is open when somebody comes and speaks to us when they share with us their life of the life of their church or The situation far away and we think how broad how
01:37:58
Magnificent is the church and what am I worried about these little things for and and We that that encourages us to get some perspective on our troubles.
01:38:11
Amen. We have to go to our final break right now It's much shorter than the last break. So Please send in your question immediately because they're rapidly running out of time.
01:38:21
If you have a question, it's Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Don't go away.
01:38:27
God willing. We're gonna be right back after these messages with our final segment of today's interview with Jeff Thomas on a ministry of encouragement
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I would not be a servant of Christ. Hi. I'm Mark Lukens pastor of Providence Baptist Church We are a reformed
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Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do
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Than how men view these things that's not the best recipe for popularity But since that wasn't the
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You Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen and Reverend Jeff Thomas before we go off the air I'd like you to summarize in the next few minutes
01:49:57
What you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners in regard to encouragement Good Delighted to do that.
01:50:06
I just wanted to say to people that You don't need to go to a seminary or to a
01:50:15
Bible College in Order to have a ministry of encouragement
01:50:22
The exhortation say first Thessalonians 511
01:50:28
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you are doing
01:50:35
So don't stop The church has done this for 2 ,000 years every born again
01:50:41
Christian go on Encouraging encourage the timid help the weak be patient with everyone
01:50:50
First Thessalonians 514 all of you go on doing it.
01:50:56
It's a ministry. We owe to one another you Need just to be a
01:51:02
Christian in union with Christ. You just need Access to the indwelling of the
01:51:10
Holy Spirit Knowledge of the Word of God and of human nature That's what we need and we owe it to each other to bear before God is delightful responsibility of being encouragers of one another amen, and We do have an anonymous listener who asks how do we receive encouragement when we have had very close loved ones?
01:51:37
perish without the knowledge or Acceptance of Jesus Christ This is especially true with children who have gone on before us
01:51:48
Who have died without Christ how on earth can we possibly be encouraged? We have no idea what goes on in the hearts and minds of men and women in those last hours as they feel their weakness and And I'm great need we don't know we say to one another there'll be many surprises when we get to heaven and so you you trust
01:52:18
God when you See Jesus Christ, you will be like him your heart and mind will be brought into total harmony
01:52:27
With his heart and mind you will love the things he loves you will hate the things he hates and so In that confidence
01:52:38
You can face the future and know that the God of the world of the world
01:52:45
This world and the world to come always does well Have that confidence in him heaven will not be a place of eternal perplexity and bitterness he will make
01:53:02
His will our perfect delight Amen, yes many of us
01:53:09
Act as if we are omniscient when somebody that we know dies Especially if we were not there when they were gasping their last breath and if they were not cursing
01:53:21
God while they were Speaking their final words. We don't know what we if we have brought them the gospel if others have brought them the gospel
01:53:29
We we don't know they may have come to embrace those things by God's mercy Before they left this earth without our knowledge
01:53:36
Have I got a minute? Yes, you do There was a farmer on the island of Lewis But he was in his horse and cart and he was
01:53:46
Going along the edge of the field on top of the cliffs and the cliff gave way and he fell down and down and down with a horse and cart and As he was falling he was crying to God for mercy and he landed on a big pile of seaweed and sand that Cushioned his fall so that he lived for many years and he lived in all those years adorning the gospel and He would say if he had dashed his brains out on a rock and had died
01:54:21
They would not have known that as he was in midair and falling he was seeking mercy and Finding mercy from God and he would say would you have just said that we don't know in what state a man
01:54:37
Breathe their last breath and we have to trust God That the judge of all the earth will do right and he will hear and answer our prayers
01:54:48
Amen, and we have a final question that we have time for we have
01:54:54
CJ in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York who says we who are Calvinistic are often ridiculed for being so dark and gloomy and Unencouraging and I am sure that that can very often be the case.
01:55:09
But at the same time Is not the gospel we preach and proclaim the most encouraging because we give the bad news as well as the good news you cannot really appreciate how
01:55:21
Wonderful and good the good news is unless you know about the bad news first. Yeah, I think that's a excellent point
01:55:29
And and in fact as you are well aware in first Corinthians pastor
01:55:36
Jeff you have some very sobering and Frightening words.
01:55:43
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who submit
01:55:52
To or perform homosexual acts or thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor verbal abusers nor swindlers
01:55:58
Will inherit the kingdom of God and that is what some of you were but you were washed you were sanctified
01:56:05
You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God there You have both the bad news and the good news
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And I think the good news is much more appreciated in contrast to those dark frightening words, aren't they?
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They are indeed. I was longing for you to come after all those horrible
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Disfigurations of our humanity were displayed and declared by the
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Apostle But then those words, but you were washed you were sanctified you were justified
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How wonderful the grace of God, of course Let's rejoice in the Lord always
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That's again. He says it doesn't he that that is the characteristic
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Grace that God gives to us The God of hope filled you with all joy and peace as you believe in him
01:57:04
Amen. Well Jeff Thomas. It is such a joy to have you on the program again I look forward to many more visits from you as many as the
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Lord will allow and I hope that you share my Enthusiasm over your return to the program
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By the way, I don't know if this is just providential or if the folks at Reformation Heritage books were listening
01:57:24
But during our interview, I got an email that you have a booklet Published by Reformation Heritage books called.
01:57:30
How can I please God in everything by Jeffrey Thomas? If you want to purchase that book go to CV bbs .com
01:57:37
CV bbs .com How can I please God and everything by Jeffrey Thomas? Perhaps we can have you back on the show to discuss that booklet
01:57:44
I want to thank everybody who listened don't forget folks the foundations conference where Jeff Thomas will be speaking is this
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December 19th and 20th Thursday and Friday in New York City and The website to register and find out more information is the foundations conference calm the foundations conference calm also, even though our guest today is retired from the pastoral ministry at Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth Wales if You have a family
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Member or a friend or a loved one or perhaps you yourself lived in that area or if you're vacationing there
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The website there is Alfred Place Church org UK Alfred Place Church org
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UK And don't forget about obviously the banner of truth website banner of truth org Banner of truth org to find out more about Jeff Thomas and things
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He has written and also sermon audio calm you can you can hear the sermons of Jeff Thomas at sermon audio calm
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Do you have any other final? Contact information that you care to give Reverend Thomas. No Except that my grandson, of course followed me and he's been two years
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And they love him and the church is growing and he has had some remarkable Providences all that would encourage any
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Christian If he could sit down and hear of what
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God is doing In the world today. Amen Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful and safe and blessed and happy weekend and a
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God -honoring Lord's Day And I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater