July 10, 2018 Show with Jeffrey Johnson on “The Pursuit of Glory: Finding Satisfaction in Christ Alone” (Part 2)

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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.

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We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this 10th day of July 2018.

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First of all, for those of you who were wondering what happened to the

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Alistair Begg interview that we had advertised a month or so ago that was supposed to take place yesterday, well

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Alistair had to reschedule to next Monday, July 16th, so mark your calendars for the

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Alistair Begg interview for Monday, July 16th, and I happened to air a rerun yesterday.

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It was very providential that Alistair rescheduled because we were having internet problems yesterday that were resolved after the 4 p .m.

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Eastern Time when we usually begin our show, so it was very providential that that occurred and that I aired a rerun.

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But today I'm so delighted that we have as a returning guest on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Jeffrey D.

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Johnson, founder of Free Grace Press and pastor of Grace Bible Church in Conway, Arkansas, which is the home of Grace Bible Institute.

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And today we are addressing part two of The Pursuit of Glory, Finding Satisfaction in Christ Alone, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Jeffrey D.

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Johnson. Yeah, thanks Chris for having me back. It's always a great pleasure to be on the show.

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Praise God for that. And for the sake of our listeners who, again, are, just as we did last time, for those who have not ever heard you on this program before, they don't know anything about Free Grace Press, they don't know anything about the

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Grace Bible Church of Conway, Arkansas, or the Grace Bible Institute, why don't you tell our listeners about those things?

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Yeah, the things I'm involved in, first, as you mentioned, is the Free Grace Press. It's a publishing company that I started about five, six years ago.

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We started with about one or two books, but since then we've been adding titles, and this week, in fact,

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I just received them today. We just got the new book by Tom Nettles on the history of the doctrine of preaching.

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It's an excellent old book, and so we're happy to be publishing a book by Tom Nettles. We've also have a verbal agreement with Joel Beakey to publish one of his next books, and so we're excited about some of the authors we're able to get a hold of and publish a work, and we've got several good titles that if your listeners are interested in, they can go to freegracepress .com

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and check out the books that we have. And make sure that you let me know all that information about that Tom Nettles book and the

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Joel Beakey book so I can get them on Iron Sherpa Design Radio to discuss them. Yeah, I sure will.

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That would be wonderful. And I'm also a pastor of Grace Bible Church, as you mentioned, here in Conway, Arkansas.

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I'm privileged to live in Arkansas. I'd love to stay here, but more privileged to be pastor in such a good group of believers.

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We're a Reformed Baptist Church that started in my living room a little over 18 years ago, and we've been pressing on for many years, and we're growing, and we're thankful for that.

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And we were able, two years ago, to start a seminary here in the state of Arkansas, Reformed Baptist Seminary, that brings in different professors around the country.

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We just had Joel Beakey. We've had Tom Nettles. We've had Bodie Balcom come.

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Next month, we're going to have Steve Lawson come and teach on expository preaching.

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And so we're able to bring some of the best theological bonds to the state of Arkansas, and we offer a program that's very affordable and convenient.

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It has, I believe, the robust academic training that you would get in all the other seminaries, but with a much more affordable price.

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And all of our classes are in the evening, so it allows for a lot of people to stay plugged into the local churches and continue to work and provide for their families.

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So we're thankful for the opportunity to have a seminary here in the state of Arkansas, and it's growing.

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We now have 10 students, which is very exciting for us. Now, I don't know, because I couldn't clearly understand everything you've just said due to the connection we have, but last time you said that this is the only seminary in the state of Arkansas, and that is quite an interesting thing for the

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Arkansanians to know. Is that a way to describe somebody living in Arkansas, or did

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I just make that up? Oh, you made that up. But that's okay.

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Yeah, if anyone's listening in the state of Arkansas, I'd really love to hear from you if you're interested. In fact, you wouldn't have to live in the state of Arkansas to attend our program, though commuting to our church three times a year would be necessary if you want to be a full -time student.

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And, sorry about that, I was just distracted by an email coming in, but this book that you have written, which we are going to enter now into part two of discussing it.

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In fact, the last time that we were on with you, we had a very lively discussion that was, in fact, filled with listener questions, but we actually only got to about three of the pursuits out of all the pursuits that you list in the book.

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But give our audience, once again, an overview of why you wrote this book and the summary of what this book is about.

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Yeah, thanks, Chris. I wrote this book because I've done a lot of counseling over the years.

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I've done almost 18 to 20 years of counseling. I used to work for a counseling center here in the state of Arkansas.

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And by the way, I want to let our listeners know, just to repeat the title of the book, it's The Pursuit of Glory, Finding Satisfaction in Christ Alone.

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I'm sorry. Right, right. And so I wrote this book with a lot of the experience that I had with counseling.

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And a lot of times when you counsel someone, you love to give them some material to take home and read. And when

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I couldn't find something that I thought reached some of the issues I was dealing with, I thought

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I would write one. And what this book does, it addresses a lot of the typical emotional problems that people deal with on a daily basis.

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And like I've told a lot of our people that I've counseled, you have a problem, then you have a real problem.

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And the real problem is not the external problem of having a flat tire or having trouble or sickness or disease or hardships.

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Those are objective problems, but the real problem is in how we handle the problem.

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And so what this book does is it deals with topics such as depression, anxiety, stress, and seeks to answer these things in a broader perspective, dealing with the overall desires that we have given to us by God.

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I believe, like I put in the book, that there's at least nine innate desires of the soul.

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And these desires are desires that constantly desire to be fulfilled, such as the desire to be happy, the desire for companionship, the desire for freedom, the desire of meaning and purpose.

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These things we cannot help but want. In fact, these pursuits are pursuits you can't turn off.

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You cannot say, I don't want to be happy or I don't want to have purpose. I don't want to have meaning.

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I don't want companionship. These things we may think that we don't want, but even when we attempt not to want them, it's our way to fulfill them through the back door.

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And so this book is addressing the innate desires of the soul and explains why often we feel frustrated and even miserable or depressed or we feel unfulfilled in life.

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And the basic reason for that, Chris, is that we're seeking to fulfill the desires of the soul by feeding the appetites of the body.

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And so this book gets back to saying the things of this world, though they can bring a moment of temporal satisfaction or a moment of temporal happiness, cannot ultimately bring us joy or happiness in our soul because they're not able to satisfy that eternal whole, that infinite whole that God has made in us that can only be fulfilled by God himself.

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I'm going to read a couple of the endorsements of the book that I did not read last time so our listeners could get an even further clear or more clear picture of what the book is about.

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First of all, Lance Quinn, Senior Pastor at Bethany Church, Thousand Oaks, California.

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Used to be, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, on the staff there at Grace Community Church where Pastor John MacArthur serves as the pastor.

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And Lance Quinn says, Author Jeffrey Johnson concludes in The Pursuit of Glory that we are all searching for something.

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He is right. Every person who has ever lived is on a journey to find something of meaning and value in life.

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What are you pursuing? Happiness, freedom, companionship, truth.

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The key to this search, as you will read in this book, is much more than what you are looking for.

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Actually, the who of your search is all important. If you are honestly searching for the meaning and value of life as it is truly to be lived, read this volume from cover to cover.

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It will point you to finding glory in knowing Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who will give you purpose for your life now and hope for eternal life to come.

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And we also have Brian Borgman, author of Feelings and Faith.

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Brian Borgman says, Jeffrey Johnson has provided a marvelously helpful little book that focuses on the real heart issues of life.

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This is an excellent book to give to both unbelievers and believers. As I read, I easily saw how this book could be used in evangelism as well as in basic counseling situations.

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It is well written, straightforward, pastorally wise, and full of scripture. This book is a wonderfully useful tool in helping us get to the issues that drive our hearts and to see the all -satisfying

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Christ as the ultimate goal of all our pursuits. May the Lord use it to bring many to himself and strengthen many of his children to a closer walk with him.

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And then finally, Rick Horne, author of Get Off of My Case, Godly Parenting of an

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Angry Teen, and Get Out of My Face, How to Reach Angry, Unmotivated Teens with Biblical Counsel.

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Just out of curiosity, before I read his commendation, is Rick Horne from New York? I'm just curious. I don't think so.

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Well, Rick Horne says, What does your heart yearn for?

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What do the hearts of those you work with, live with, and serve yearn for? Jeff Johnson's Pursuit of Glory shines a spotlight on common desires that bubble up in all of us, often spill over, making a mess in our lives and in the lives of those we care about.

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He shows how the Pursuit of Glory, happiness, purpose, freedom, companionship, truth, peace, holiness, and life are created in us but can be satisfied only in Christ.

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Johnson illustrates our flawed ambitions to satisfy each of these desires from his rich background of life and ministry experience.

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He presents these so that any of us can become more keenly aware of our own hearts.

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But I see richness here, too, for caring brothers and sisters who want to help others realign their hearts and lives with God's freeing grace and suffering from the world's, the flesh's, and the devil's seductive prescriptions.

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Well, those are pretty weighty commendations. And why don't we begin again, just so our listeners have a crystal clear picture of what you're going to be talking about today.

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Explain the title, the Pursuit of Glory. Yeah, Pursuit of Glory is somewhat misleading on the surface because we often think pursuing glory is pursuing fame and fortune and things of that nature.

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But what I've tried to explain in that first chapter that carries that same title, the

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Pursuit of Glory, is that God has put that desire in us that we would pursue glory.

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And glory, according to the Scriptures, is not something that's superficial. In reality, it's not something that's temporal.

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So glory is something that's eternal, something that has weight to it or something that has much substance to it.

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And when we think of the things of the world or the things in the world, Solomon says that everything in reality is vain or vanity.

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And the word vanity means empty or there's not any real substance to it because of the temporal nature of it.

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And so in comparison to what we may see in the glory of this world, if it's, you know, 15 minutes of fame or winning the

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Super Bowl or getting some temporal accolation or people praising you for the moment, that doesn't last very long.

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It comes and it goes and it leaves us only wanting more. It makes us more and more envious of people who are more famous or more wealthy or have greater external glory than we have.

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But biblical glory is the glory that God has created us to pursue. It's actually only found in God.

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God is the only one who's truly glorious, and he's made us for a relationship with him.

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And if we want real glory and to obtain real substance that can bring us glory, we must have a relationship with God.

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And this is why we're told not to glory in our strength or to glory in our wisdom, to glory in our might or in our earthly accomplishments, but if we're going to glory according to the

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Bible, let us glory in this, that we know God. And more than that, not that just we know

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God, but that he knows us. Now that is true glory.

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Now you may know this, but we who are Reformed have been known for making fun of the typical evangelical statement, perhaps predominantly made by our

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Arminian brethren, but I was wondering if we're making fun of this statement too much. I believe that perhaps the intention behind this statement might be similar to what you are writing about, but perhaps just worded very poorly, or perhaps you don't even think it's worded poorly, but what do you make of the common evangelical credo that everyone has a

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God -shaped hole in their heart that needs to be filled? Yeah, I don't know if that's worded poorly or not, but there's something to that, that God made us for a relationship with him, and so when he made man, they were made already in this relationship with God, and God satisfied those deep longings of the soul, and that way man was made and he was complete, he was lacking in nothing, he was satisfied with that relationship with God.

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Now in the same way since sin brought death, it brought separation with God, what man had in the beginning is now lost, and so since the fall, the human race has been in search of that which is no longer there.

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It's in search of God, but we don't know we're searching for God because we're made or we don't like God because of our sinful nature, so we need

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God, but the very thing that we need we don't want, so we're searching for glory, we're searching for purpose, meaning, and happiness, and all these other things.

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We're searching for that, but because we don't want to find it in God or look for it in God, we're tempted to look for it somewhere else, and places we look for it is either in the world or in ourselves, but what's crazy is we know it's not found within because we wouldn't be looking for it if we already had it, and I hear people saying, if you want to be happy, look inside, find it within yourself, you know, but that's just foolishness, and it's folly because if I was already possessed it, already had it,

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I wouldn't be looking for it. The fact I'm looking for it means I don't have it to begin with, and so when we can't find it within, we're tempted to look for it in the world, and see, we have two sets of cravings.

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We have the cravings of the soul, which is what I'm talking about, purpose, meaning, holiness, truth, glory, these things that are appetites of the soul, but we also have physical appetites.

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We call them the appetites or the cravings, the desires of the flesh or the body. My body with the five senses loves to see things, loves to hear things, loves to touch things, and smell things, and so forth, and so my body craves things, and so we're tempted to think if I'm going to find all these internal longings and be satisfied and fulfilled, it must mean that I should look for it by satisfying the cravings of the body, but here's the problem.

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I can eat and be satisfied, but then I'm dissatisfied a few hours later.

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I can get some money, and it'll be somewhat pleasing to me, but it doesn't last.

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Therefore, I'm looking for more money later. I buy a new car, drive it off the lot. I'm satisfied for a few moments, but soon the new car smell fades away, and the new model comes out, and then

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I'm discontent all over again, and so it's like a dog chasing its tail when we try to satisfy the deep longings of the soul by fulfilling the appetite for the body.

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We're constantly going to be frustrated. We're constantly going to be miserable, and the more we feed the body, the more the body wants more stuff, and it creates a bigger monster of more discontentment and dissatisfaction along the way.

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You actually just reminded me of something that I know this may be disturbing for people to hear, but it's just a reality that very much aligns with what you were just saying.

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When it comes to those who stray outside of their marriages to pursue sexual fulfillment, they often afterwards become bored by their own marital intimacy, and it may have actually begun, the boredom and the dissatisfaction may have begun before any physical adultery or betrayal takes place where you have people looking at pornography and so on, and then when the pursuit turns physical, then even that wears off very often, and the person just has appetites that, and obviously this isn't a universally true thing, but you have appetites that become very often increasingly more sinful and even more strange, more bizarre.

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You have, like for instance, you may be aware that serial killers have often, when they are being interviewed, have confessed that they started off as teenagers viewing pornography, and the pornography got less and less fulfilling, and they had to start watching sadomasochistic pornography, and then they had to start acting out in different ways that became more dangerous and bizarre and so on.

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It shows you how when we seek to find fulfillment in a way that God has not ordained for us, we can become very sick, twisted, and evil people.

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Yeah, I just read a study the other day about how even young 20 -year -olds in their marriages are having to take male enhancement pills because they're no longer stimulated because of all the pornography, and that they view that they need help, and this kind of relates to what you're saying is that the

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Bible tells us to be moderate in all things, and He's given us all things to richly enjoy, and He's given us the context and the boundaries in which we should enjoy these things, but when we go outside of those boundaries or we overly indulge without restraint, we're only creating a deeper monster that only wants more and more.

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It's like trying to satisfy your thirst with salt water. The more salt water you drink, the more thirsty you become.

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It doesn't quench your thirst. It only enlarges your appetite, and the larger your appetite is, the less it's able to be fulfilled, the more miserable and discontent you become in the process, and so it's self -defeating, though for the moment it gives you a temporary burst of pleasure.

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We have a first -time questioner. I'm going to read the question, and I'm also going to forward it to you so you can look it over during the station break because we're going to go to a station break any minute.

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I'd rather go to the station break before you begin answering the question so I don't have to cut you off in mid -sentence, but Mauricio in Torrance, California, first -time questioner, asks, what do we do as Christians when our feelings betray us?

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On the one hand, we know that we ought to have full satisfaction in Christ, but on the other hand, we sometimes become depressed or sad when trials or tragedies come our way.

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How true is that? I mean, I'm actually experiencing this right now, not because I'm interviewing

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Pastor Jeffrey D. Johnson, but because of other things that are going on in my life that I need a steadfast prayer for, but yes, what an excellent question, and I'll send that to you.

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I'll forward it to you so you can look it over. If anybody else would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, and we already have several of you waiting to have your questions asked and answered by Jeffrey D.

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Johnson, but our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com.

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Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA, and please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

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Don't go away. We'll be right back, God willing, with Jeffrey D. Johnson and part two of The Pursuit of Glory.

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Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Welcome back, this is

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Chris Arnson. If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours with 90 minutes to go is

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Pastor Jeffrey D. Johnson, founder of Free Grace Press, pastor at Grace Bible Church of Conway, Arkansas, and home of the

32:16

Grace Bible Institute. And we are discussing part two of a discussion that we began on June 4th,

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The Pursuit of Glory, Finding Satisfaction in Christ Alone, and this also happens to be the title of Jeffrey D.

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Johnson's latest book, which is published by Reformation Heritage Books, the publishing ministry founded by our friend

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Dr. Joel Beeky of Puritan Reform Theological Seminary. If you'd like to join us on the air with a question, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

32:49

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

32:55

USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. And as you know,

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Pastor Jeff, before the break I read you Mauricio's question. He's a first -time questioner from Torrance, California, and his question is, what do we do as Christians when our feelings betray us?

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On the one hand, we know that we ought to have full satisfaction in Christ, but on the other hand, we sometimes become depressed or sad when trials or tragedies come our way.

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In fact, Pastor Jeff, as you know, our Lord Jesus Christ said in his own words that we are to be anxious for nothing.

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Interesting. It is, yes. In some sense, you know, our fear is a lack of faith.

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When we fear our circumstances, there's a lack of faith in God. When we have anxiety, it's a sign that we're not trusting the

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Lord. But there's other times when emotions that are stimulated by trials and troubles and stuff are not necessarily sinful.

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The Lord Jesus himself was very exact and sweated drops of blood when he's contemplating his own death.

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Paul doesn't tell us to condemn those who are weeping, but tells us to enter into their sorrows by weeping with them.

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And sometimes our emotions are quite legitimate and actually important. And so we don't—Christianity is not saying that the

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Christian is always constantly happy in all sense of the word. There's times for us to grieve, and there's times for us to sorrow, and there's sometimes for us to rejoice.

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And so we don't necessarily think that our negative emotions such as sadness is always wrong.

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However, the Bible does teach us that we're to rejoice in the midst of our sorrows, in the midst of our trials, because unlike the unconverted, we have something that is deeper than the temporary trial.

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We have something that's eternal that can root us with joy, and a joy that's unexpressable and full of glory.

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So the Christian can be both sad on one level, but on a deeper level, full of joy.

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And these things don't necessarily offset one another, but it provides us the mechanism or the joy in able to actually process the sorrows.

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And we can be as James 1 verse 2 says, we can count it all joy. In fact, pure joy when we encounter trials of various kinds.

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And the reason we can count it joy is because the trial is not the end. It's not the end of the story.

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It doesn't end bad for us. The trials actually have a positive result in our life.

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It produces patience, and patience produces all kinds of good spiritual fruit in our life.

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So God uses hardships, and even the sorrows that we feel in the hardships are good.

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And so the key is understanding, as a Christian, we don't sorrow as others who have no hope.

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Even in the death of our loved one, we sorrow, and we can be sad and troubled, but we have something that undergirds our sorrow, and it's the joy.

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And we can't explain it. We can't necessarily explain it to others, or even communicate it to others, but there, deep down, it's there, and that sustains us.

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It keeps us from going into complete despair with this joy that we have with Christ and the truth that we gain in His Word.

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Well, thank you, Mauricio, and not only have you won a free copy of the book we are addressing,

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The Pursuit of Glory, by our guest today, Jeffrey D. Johnson, but you've also received, since you're a first -time questioner, a free

36:55

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Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, can ship out those two things for you absolutely free of charge.

37:15

Let's see here, we have Joe in Slovenia, who says,

37:23

As you pointed out, we know from Scripture that we will ultimately find satisfaction when our search leads us to the glory of God, but so much of life is filled with what seems humdrum and routine.

37:36

Please help us with instructions about how to practice satisfaction in Christ in the midst of our everyday tasks, duties, and responsibilities.

37:46

How do we experience the glory of God within the daily mundane? Excellent question.

37:54

That is a great question. I love that question. So I appreciate your caller bringing that into our discussion.

38:01

That's a writer, not a caller. Okay, that's right. That's a great question.

38:07

In fact, I address that in my book, because, you know, that's a common complaint that we all have, because we think, okay, if I'm going to really bring glory to God and be satisfied,

38:17

I need to be a missionary to Apatow, I need to be this great pastor that's reaching tons of people.

38:24

But most Christians, the great majority of Christians are housewives and carpenters and doctors and janitors and all kinds of just regular day, regular people living a regular life, or as a writer says, doing mundane things.

38:45

But that's the beauty of Christianity, is that the simplest thing, if done unto the

38:51

Lord, if it's sweeping the floor, if it's cleaning out your car, if it's going to work, if we do these things as unto the

38:58

Lord, and the motive behind just the mundane things of even drinking a coffee or eating breakfast and whole cereals, these mundane things, if it's done in thankfulness to the

39:09

Lord and for the glory of God, they are no longer mundane. They're no longer just random things that have no eternal significance.

39:18

For the Christian, every single thing of his life can have eternal significance.

39:24

Even giving a cup of cold water to someone in the name of the Lord can give you an eternal reward.

39:31

So you don't have to be some great missionary to find satisfaction in what you do or happiness in the little things of life.

39:39

We just have to be mindful of that everything that I do is to be done for the glory of God.

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And I love how the Old Testament says that even when we think about the Lord, if we just think about the

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Lord, it would seem so insignificant that a book of remembrance is brought out by God and He writes it down.

40:03

Every time we think about God, God's up there writing it down and that won't be forgotten. For instance, there's one woman who broke a jar of perfume and poured it up on the

40:15

Lord's feet. And other people are like, what are you doing? This is a waste of valuable perfume.

40:21

We can throw that and give it to the poor. But Jesus rebukes that type of thinking and says that this woman, this act, that very act will be remembered forever.

40:32

And that same act can be done by all of us when we serve the Lord in the little things.

40:38

God's not going to forget these things. And there is, I believe, eternal remembrance for everything we do for the

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Lord. So that's how I would answer that question. Amen. And people very commonly automatically attribute that scene to Mary Magdalene, but then there's nothing in the

40:55

Bible that says that was Mary Magdalene, is there? No, not precisely.

41:01

We just know it was a woman with long hair. That could be just about anybody, any woman ever born in that era.

41:13

Well, actually, obviously there were women that did cut their hair short, which was not a very good thing to do as far as Paul was concerned.

41:26

But anyway. Well, it shows the significance of the glorious, for the woman, her glory is in her hair.

41:32

I mean, it just shows her beauty, this long hair. And she takes her glory, and the feet would be the less glorious thing on the human body.

41:42

And she takes her glory and washes the feet of Jesus. There's a symbolism, there is in that.

41:49

But that's true of all of us. When we take the best that we have, whether it be perfume, or when we take the first portion, the first fruits of our money that we get from our jobs, and we take the first fruits and set it aside for the

42:06

Lord, we're giving Him our best. And that is something that gives us purpose and meaning.

42:13

So it's a wonderful story. Gordy in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

42:45

What are some stumbling blocks in our pursuit of glory, in pursuit of God's glory, that we should be aware of?

42:53

What are some stumbling blocks in our pursuit of God's glory that we should be aware of? And by the way,

42:59

Gordy in Mechanicsburg says that he thinks you're awesome. Thank you.

43:06

Wow, that's humbling. Yeah, well, you know, I think probably the most common thing is just being distracted.

43:15

We must live by faith. A Christian must live by faith. And faith allows us to see the invisible realm, the things that are not seen.

43:21

The Bible says it's more eternal, more real, more lasting, and has more glory in it than the things that are seen.

43:28

But we're so often distracted, and we do it so easily, we don't even aware of it. We're distracted by the new car, or we're distracted by a new pair of shoes, or a new pair of shoes, or by this opportunity or that opportunity.

43:40

We become so earthly -minded so easily. And the Bible's not condemning us enjoying this world.

43:48

In fact, all things, I've already said, have been given to us to richly enjoy. I can enjoy a steak meal.

43:54

I can enjoy a hot dog. I can enjoy a new pair of shoes. In fact, I just got a new pair of Nike that I love. They're very comfortable.

44:04

I'm enjoying these new shoes. I think Christians can enjoy this world.

44:11

I'm expecting some commission for the Nike plug, I am sure. Yeah, yeah.

44:20

But you know, we enjoy these things, but that's not where our life is, either.

44:26

That's where our happiness is ultimately rooted, where the common pitfall is taking our eyes off Christ and exalting these

44:35

Mahal things, these pairs of shoes, or whatever it may be, and exalting them in our heads above Christ.

44:42

And sometimes we're not aware of doing it. It's not one particular thing. It's just a business of life.

44:49

And the Bible identifies that as idolatry. And idolatry is at the heart of all things.

44:57

Well, thank you, Gordy and Mechanicsburg. And you can pick up your copy of Pursuit of Glory by Jeffrey D.

45:06

Johnson at cvbbs .com, since they are located so close to Mechanicsburg.

45:11

Why not save them the shipping costs by heading over there tomorrow between 10 a .m.

45:17

and 4 .30 p .m. And thanks for your excellent question. I think that before the same thing that happens the last time doesn't happen again,

45:27

I think we should go to some actual chapters in your book where you have specific main points underneath the heading of Pursuing Glory.

45:41

By the way, while I'm looking this up, our email address, if anybody else would like to join us, it's chrisarnson at gmail .com.

45:50

Chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please give us, as always, your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

45:57

USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

46:04

And by the way, we will, once again, since Pastor Jeff is a pastor, if you have questions involving something that requires pastoral counsel, we will be more than happy to allow you to ask that question.

46:21

If it's something very intimate and private and personal, you can remain anonymous. But the last time we were on with you, we did address the pursuit of glory, which we actually just reiterated here.

46:34

We addressed the pursuit of happiness. We addressed the pursuit of freedom.

46:40

And we addressed the pursuit of peace. By the way, if anybody listening wants to go back to the

46:46

Iron Trip and Zion Radio Archive, you can hear part one of this discussion by simply typing in Jeffrey D.

46:55

Johnson, and he spells Jeffrey J -E -F -F -R -E -Y. There are at least three different spellings available.

47:03

But I'd like for you to address right now something that we did not have time to address last time, the pursuit of purpose.

47:13

Yeah, that's good. Well, the pursuit of purpose,

47:18

God has made us to pursue purpose. And one of the ways we find purpose is in what we do in our work.

47:25

I know some people don't like to work, and they try to avoid working and think that work is no fun.

47:31

But in reality, if we remove work from our lives, we find that there's no purpose, there's no meaning, and that work is wonderful because it gives us a sense of identity.

47:42

It gives us a sense of, I have something to do, and therefore my life's important. And so no one wants to feel like,

47:49

I'm worthless, I have no purpose, I have nothing that I can really contribute to this society or to the world.

47:54

I'm just wasting space. So work is one of the major aims that God has given us to find fulfillment, is to work hard.

48:03

He's made Adam and Eve to work. He's made us to work. And so that's why, you know, we find our identity in saying, hey,

48:10

I'm a pastor, or I'm a doctor, or I'm a teacher, or I'm this, or I'm that.

48:16

And that kind of identifies not just what I do, but identifies who I am. And that's good.

48:23

And it's a shame that, you know, in our culture there's becoming more and more laziness and more and more people are just trying to avoid work altogether, and they wonder why they're so miserable.

48:37

I talked about this one lady that I counseled for many years that was extremely obese to the point that she was not really able to leave her house.

48:48

She would sleep and wake up, and she would make her way into the living room from our bedroom and sit down on our chair, and she would sit there all day.

48:57

She'd watch TV the whole day, and I'd go and visit her, and she would...no one would come see her except me and the pizza delivery guy.

49:06

And I asked her, why don't you get out and exercise? Why don't you do something? And that she was just not wanting to do that.

49:13

She's entrapped in her own laziness, and she felt bitter. She felt like her life didn't mean anything.

49:20

She was depressed. And I recognize that much of her depression comes from the fact that she's wasting her time.

49:27

She's wasting her life. And I couldn't ever get her to get out of her house.

49:34

Well, I think a lot of people feel that. They feel like they're wasting their lives. They're wasting their time. They feel like they're not doing anything important, and they're just watching a lot of TV and playing a lot of video games.

49:45

And if you're doing that, there's a reason you feel empty. But you should get out and work.

49:54

God's made us to work, and He's made us to work hard. But though we're made to work, we also need to remember, even if we cure cancer, which would be awesome, or we climb

50:06

Mount Everest, which would be a great achievement. It would fill us with a great sense of accomplishment. I conquered the tallest mountain in the world.

50:15

That'd make us feel really good. In the end, all these things that we may do in this world is going to perish.

50:22

If I saved many people's lives as a doctor, eventually those same people are going to die.

50:29

Everybody dies, and I'm going to die. So, we can't find ultimate purpose in our jobs, because we know, in the end, our jobs and all that we do in this world is going to be burnt up the fire.

50:41

Therefore, if we're going to find ultimate purpose, we must work for the Lord. We must work for eternal riches and eternal glory, to do something that has an eternal weight to it.

50:54

And that's what we've already talked about. We do everything unto the Lord. So, even if I'm a janitor, or if I'm a king, or if I'm a doctor, or if I'm a nurse, or I'm a school teacher, or I'm in transition between jobs, it doesn't matter.

51:09

I can still find purpose in my life, because I can do the smallest task for God.

51:15

And that gives my life eternal significance. And that's what

51:21

God provides us. And outside of God, outside of Christianity, all that we have is this world.

51:27

And therefore, I think that's why most people, deep down, know there's something missing, something empty in their lives.

51:37

Excellent. We have John in West Peoria, Illinois.

51:44

And John says, I'm curious about how the Reformed standards, particularly the

51:50

Westminster Shorter Catechism, influenced Mr. Johnson's thinking on this matter.

51:56

Why don't we throw in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith as well, and the

52:02

Baptist version of the Shorter Catechism, which there are several, at least.

52:09

That's right, Spurgeon's Catechism is a good one. Yeah, the Reformed confessions have been heavily influenced in my life.

52:18

I call myself a confessional Reformed Baptist, not so much that I learned my doctrine from the confessions, as after years of studying,

52:28

I'd read these confessions and I'd go, these properly and accurately state or confess what

52:35

I already believe. And then they become a great tool to learn from, and a tool to teach others.

52:45

And so the Bible teaches us, that Catechism teaches us, that we're made to enjoy

52:53

God and to glorify God. And it puts those two things as working together, as you can't glorify

52:59

God if you're not enjoying Him. And you can't enjoy God if you don't glorify

53:04

Him. And so that has heavily influenced my thinking, and that very question is integrated throughout my book.

53:13

The answer to that question is integrated throughout my book. Well, thank you, John, and give us your full mailing address, because you've also won a free copy of The Pursuit of Glory by our guest,

53:24

Jeffrey D. Johnson. And we are going to our midway break right now. It's the longer break than normal, because Grace Life Radio in Lake City, Florida, requires of us a long break between the two main segments of the show, it's 12 minutes, to be precise.

53:45

And if you'd like to join us on the air with a question, take this time to write down your questions. The email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

53:54

chrisarnson at gmail .com. And please give us your first name, at least, your city and state, and your country of residence, if you live outside the

54:02

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Don't go away. God willing, we'll be right back after this break, with more of Jeffrey D. Johnson and The Pursuit of Glory.

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Just remember to mention Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Before we return to our guest,

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Jeffrey D. Johnson, who is pastor of Grace Bible Church in Conway, Arkansas, which is the home of the

01:05:11

Grace Bible Institute, and our topic, The Pursuit of Glory, Finding Satisfaction in Christ Alone, we just have a couple of very important announcements to make.

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First of all, we have coming up in August, which is not that far away,

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August 2nd through the 4th, we have the Fellowship Conference New England that is being held once again at the

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Deering Center Community Church in Portland, Maine, and the speakers at that event include

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Pastor Tim Conway of Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas, Pastor Mac Tomlinson, who is an author and publisher and book editor and conference speaker, and he's also the pastor of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas, and a very dear friend of mine who has very graciously, financially supported

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio along with his congregation there in Denton, Texas. Pastor Jesse Barrington, who is the pastor of Grace Life Church in Dallas, Texas, and author and pastor

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Nate Pikowitz of the Grace Bible Church in Gilmanton Ironworks, New Hampshire. They will be the speakers and there is no theme at the

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Fellowship Conference New England. They give all the speakers the freedom to address whatever topics are most burdening their hearts, so it is a very unusual conference in that way.

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If you'd like more information and you'd like to register, go to fellowshipconferencenewengland .com,

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fellowshipconferencenewengland .com, and please tell the folks there that you heard about the conference from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Then coming up in November the 9th and the 10th, the annual

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Quaker Town Conference on Reform Theology is being held. This is a conference of the

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Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, which they hold annually at Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, and once again it's

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November 9th and the 10th, and the theme this year is the glory of the cross. I will have,

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God willing, an Iron Sharpens Iron exhibitors booth there at the conference. The speakers include

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David Garner, Ray Ortland, Richard Phillips, Timothy Gibson, and Carlton Wynn. For registration and other information, go to alliancenet .org,

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alliancenet .org, click on events, and then scroll down to the Quaker Town Conference on Reform Theology.

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There's also a bunch of other events that you might want to attend if they are closer to you, but whatever event that you attend, please tell the folks at the

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Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals that you heard about the event from Chris Arnzen at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Then coming up in January, January 2019, the event that always makes me feel like a kid waiting to unwrap his

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Christmas presents. I love this conference. It's the G3 Conference, which stands for Grace, Gospel, and Glory.

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It is hosted by our friends at the Praise Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia.

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The actual event is being held at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.

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They are expecting over 4 ,000 people to attend this conference. That is going to be held

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Thursday, January 17th through Saturday, January 19th. I will,

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God willing, once again for the third year in a row, have an Iron Sharpens Iron Radio exhibitors booth there at the

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Georgia International Convention Center. Just to let you know also, if you know of Spanish -speaking ministries or bilingual ministries, there will be a

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Spanish edition of the conference on Wednesday, January 16th. The speakers at the

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English -speaking conference include Paul Washer, Stephen J. Lawson, Voti Baucom, Mark Dever, Conrad Mbewe, Tim Challies, Phil Johnson of Grace to You, the ministry of John MacArthur, Josh Bice, who is the director of G3 Conference, Todd Friel of Richard TV and Richard Radio, and many more.

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01:11:32

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01:11:40

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01:11:54

And one of the other pursuits under the heading of Pursuit of Glory that we did not get around to last time is the pursuit of companionship, and that is obviously a very, very common pursuit that many, if not most, of our listeners are aggressively pursuing, and if you could address that.

01:12:25

Yeah, I'll begin the chapter with a story that when I was 25, I had the opportunity to travel across Europe, and I got to go through Germany and see some of the castles and landmarks in Germany, and into France and Paris and all the neat things.

01:12:41

But with all the wonderful sights I had as a single person traveling through Europe, the funnest and most beautiful sight

01:12:48

I had that I got to see was in the mountains of Switzerland, and seeing the

01:12:53

Alps for the first time was so amazing. But that experience really stands out to me, because I was one way having the time of my life, and another way there's a deep sense of loneliness that I was carrying around with me, because I kept on thinking to myself, man,

01:13:12

I wish my mom and dad was here to see this with me. I wish I had someone that I could look over and just gaze at while we're gazing at the mountains, and I think that experience is common to us all.

01:13:24

You know, I remember being in college and super tired of eating college food and things of that nature, and I fixed a big meal for myself.

01:13:36

I remember cooking a pork chop and making a salad and maybe a can of corn or something like that, which for me, a college student, that was really eating good.

01:13:47

And fixing it, I made the plate and sat down there by myself, and I realized there was something empty about it, something that just wasn't satisfactory about eating a nice meal by yourself.

01:14:01

And what I was missing is a companion. I was missing someone to share that meal with. And God has made us not to live alone.

01:14:09

It's not good for man to be alone, God said. He's made us for companionship, and He's made us to enjoy the things of this world, not in a selfish way, not just for self -consumption.

01:14:22

Now, we have the ability to enjoy things. Our taste buds make food enjoyable, and we can be selfish in the fact the devil told us to be selfish in our earthly enjoyment.

01:14:34

God made us to enjoy this world by sharing the things we love with the people that we love.

01:14:40

So we're created for companionship, and that longing is intuitive in us.

01:14:47

God's made us to have that longing. And that's why it's very difficult to be single. One of the more difficult trials of life is to be alone.

01:14:57

And God can sustain us in that loneliness, but we need to recognize that loneliness is not the natural state that God's made us to live in.

01:15:10

But with that said, I talk about the natural desire for marriage and companionship and friendship, but there's an ultimate relationship that even a marriage cannot satisfy.

01:15:25

There's things about my own personal life, Chris, that no one knows about but God, and I don't even know how to communicate it.

01:15:32

My wife knows me more and better than anybody else in this world, but she doesn't know me like I know myself.

01:15:40

But I have a Savior who's my best friend. I have a companion who's my Lord who knows me better than I know myself, which is quite amazing that He knows me in a way that I don't even understand myself.

01:15:55

And that is a closeness. That is a relationship that is so close and so intimate that I know

01:16:01

Him and He knows me. That relationship is the ultimate relationship that God has made us for.

01:16:08

Of course, sin in the garden destroyed that relationship, and in a sense we've been divorced from God.

01:16:16

In fact, we've died to God. And Christ has come, and the principal purpose of salvation is not that we live holy, not that we're sourced to holiness.

01:16:28

The principal purpose of salvation is not even justification. Although salvation in Christ brings us justification and sanctification and holiness, the holiness and justification is needed so that we can have what's really important, a relationship with God, a relationship with Christ.

01:16:48

And when we have that with Christ, then we're never alone. We're never by ourselves.

01:16:54

We can be eating a meal by ourselves at McDonald's, but if we have Christ, we have a companionship, and we have that promise that He'll never leave us nor will

01:17:07

He forsake us. And so the pursuit of companionship is ultimately a chapter that's holding us back, no matter if we're married or we're single or whatever our state is in this life, or we have hundreds of friends or we find ourselves friendless, that we ultimately have a friend in Christ who is a friend that sticks closer than any brother.

01:17:31

You know, when you were talking about making that meal as a college student, I just remembered a vivid conversation, or I vividly remembered a conversation, and the person will remain nameless, but I can remember roaring with laughter, and it's funnier if people know who

01:17:56

I'm talking about, but I'm not going to say that. But he said that he invited over a couple of his friends to enjoy a couple of pizza pies that he purchased, and he said,

01:18:07

I'm so glad that, I'll just say Bob and Sue, I'm so glad Bob and Sue didn't show up, and I'm saying, why was that?

01:18:17

Because I was able to eat all of the pizza myself. So his desire for companionship did not increase the flavor or enhance the flavor of that pizza.

01:18:34

We have another heading that goes underneath the umbrella of Pursuit of Glory that we did not address the last time.

01:18:43

That's the Pursuit of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Oh, I'm sorry, that's Superman. It's just the

01:18:50

Pursuit of Truth that is the chapter in your in your book. Tell us about that, and that's something that immediately you have all the

01:19:01

Calvinist nerds out there listening. That's one thing they want to listen to that. They woke up out of their slumber, and they're perked up now about the

01:19:09

Pursuit of Truth. Right, right. I explain in the book that the unconverted person who doesn't know the

01:19:18

Lord is in a kind of a paradox. He wants to know, but he also doesn't want to know either.

01:19:23

He desires to know truth, and man's made to learn. He's made to learn, to study.

01:19:30

It's his aptitude to learn, to know. That's in us all. Even kids that don't like school, they still like to learn about the things they're interested in.

01:19:40

So you can't help but want to learn, and you can't help but try to learn new things.

01:19:46

We're constantly learning. The greatest two things that we want to know, the greatest truths out there, is the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self.

01:19:56

John Calvin says these two things are interconnected. You can't know yourself without knowing God, and you can't know

01:20:02

God without to some degree knowing yourself. These are the greatest truths that are revealed in scriptures, and it's the greatest longing in all of our hearts to know these things.

01:20:13

But here's the problem. We want to know where we come from, and who we are, where we're going.

01:20:19

We want to know more about who we are ourselves, but the more we learn about ourselves, it leads us to the knowledge of God, which because of our sin nature, we don't want to know about.

01:20:32

And the reason we don't want to know more about God, and we run from the knowledge of God, and we express the knowledge of God, is because the knowledge of God condemns us.

01:20:42

It stirs up guilt, and because the knowledge of God points us back to the knowledge of self, and the knowledge of self says,

01:20:49

I am a sinner, that I'm guilty. My conscience condemns me, and this conscience tells me that there is a personal

01:20:56

God who will judge me. So the knowledge of self points me to God, but the knowledge of God points me back to self, that this brings me to want to suppress two things without God's grace.

01:21:08

Suppress the knowledge of God and His holiness, and His power, and secondly to suppress my guilt, and to act like I'm not guilty, to justify myself.

01:21:17

And to find excuses for my guilt. And I think that's what man is constantly in pursuit of, all religious of the world, is some form of trying to suppress or answer man's guilt problem.

01:21:30

And we're not going to be able to truly accept our guilt, and embrace our guilt, until we can embrace

01:21:40

God. And we're not going to embrace God until we embrace Christ. And this book shows that really truth can be only found in Christ, because not only is

01:21:50

Christ the only way to the Father, and not only because Christ reveals God to us, but Christ gives us the answer to how

01:21:59

God can be just, and the justifier of the ungodly. And it's the goodness of God, not the severity of God, that leads us to repentance.

01:22:09

It's the goodness of God, the mercy of God. Once we see Christ crucified on our behalf, and seeing that He died for us, then we can embrace the holiness of God, the justice of God, because here

01:22:19

God can be just, and be merciful. And once we see this mercy, then we can come to the term that I'm guilty.

01:22:27

We don't have to run from our guilt, or hide our guilt, or give excuses for our guilt. We can go, search me

01:22:33

O Lord, know my heart, show me the fullness of my guilt. That way

01:22:38

I can fully and completely, to the best of my ability, repent of my sin.

01:22:45

And it's the goodness of God in Christ Jesus that allows us to embrace the true knowledge of our unworthiness, the true knowledge of our sinfulness, and that in turn gives us the ability to accept the true knowledge of the holiness of God as well.

01:23:00

And so those are the two major truths that we all want to know, but only can come to the conclusion of embracing these two truths of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

01:23:12

And something that I think is connected, obviously, with the theme of pursuit of truth, there seems to be a lack of that desire amongst many evangelicals who are far more concerned with the pursuit of a spiritual feeling, or a feeling that they deem to be spiritual, an emotional connection with God.

01:23:44

And I'm not saying that these things are never to be desired or experienced at all, because if you're not experiencing joy and peace and things like that, there's a very good indication that you're not even regenerate.

01:24:00

But there is such a high emphasis, a strong emphasis, on the pursuit of joy and a feeling of religiosity, or a feeling of being connected with Christ, which sometimes has nothing to do with what the

01:24:16

Bible says about being connected to Christ, that the pursuit of truth just disappears. And in fact, the pursuit of truth is very often looked upon as the killjoy of Christian fellowship and worship, that you are being a nitpicker, you've got to stop worrying about this doctrine and that doctrine and this theological perspective and that one, you've really just got to lift up Jesus, and of course the definition of who that Jesus is is rarely or ever given.

01:24:51

Yeah, that's completely opposite of what the Scriptures teach you. So that's basic mysticism, seeking experience without truth or transcending truth or apart from truth, and the

01:25:01

Bible doesn't teach mysticism. In fact, it teaches what we call faith. And faith, my definition of faith, is it's an intellectual conviction.

01:25:10

That's the first thing it is. It's a mental, cognitive awareness or intellectual conviction. It's a heartfelt confidence, that's the emotion, and then it's a volitional commitment in a fidelity of God's Word alone.

01:25:23

And so that aspect of faith, you can't have faith without an intellectual understanding of truth, a truth of God's Word, a truth of who

01:25:32

God is, a truth of who we are, that which is revealed in Scriptures. And that's why, you know, Paul forbade speaking in tongues without an interpreter, because he said it's absolutely of zero profit.

01:25:45

It will not encourage or benefit anyone if there's no cognitive understanding of what's being said, because truth has to come to us, and God has to be revealed to us, and we can experience

01:25:57

God only through the mechanism of the mind. And the Bible teaches us that we're to renew our mind, and faith includes that intellectual conviction of God's Word.

01:26:12

And so if we take away truth, we're undermining the very first step of faith, and there's no knowledge of God, there's no experience of God, there's no seeing the invisible

01:26:25

God, if we don't have faith. And God's revealed Himself to us through a testimony of His written

01:26:34

Word. We have another thing that I want you to start thinking about.

01:26:41

I believe we may have touched on it the first time in part one of our discussion on the pursuit of glory, but you can never talk long enough about the pursuit of holiness.

01:26:55

In fact, the Pursuit of Holiness, is that not the title of an R .C. Sproul book, or is that a Jerry Bridges book? That's Jerry Bridges.

01:27:02

Right, Jerry Bridges. Yeah. And that's one of the chapters in your book, and why don't you start thinking about that when we return from the break, our final break, we will pick up on the

01:27:13

Pursuit of Holiness, and then we will conclude with the Pursuit of Life, and we will take any questions from our listeners that care to write in at chrisarnson at gmail .com.

01:27:25

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away, we'll be right back with the final segment of our interview with Jeffrey D.

01:27:32

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Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Welcome back to our final half hour of the discussion with Pastor Jeffrey D.

01:34:39

Johnson on his book, The Pursuit of Glory. If you'd like to join us on the air, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:34:46

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside the

01:34:51

USA, and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter. We were just about to plunge into The Pursuit of Holiness, one of the subheadings under The Pursuit of Glory, and this is something, can you imagine what the planet

01:35:08

Earth would be like if more of us, who are disciples of Christ, had this as one of our greatest and most aggressively prayed about and pursued pursuits,

01:35:22

The Pursuit of Holiness? Yeah, I believe it's in every Christian's heart to want to be holy, and sometimes we strive pretty hard after it, and we get discouraged because of our failures, and kind of want to just kind of relax for a while, and it's hard to run hard and fast and furious for a long period of time if we don't feel like we're making much progress, so discouragement sets in on all of us, and we kind of just kind of put this pursuit on the back burner when we shouldn't, and the reason why we don't make more progress than we should is because a lot of times we're going about it the wrong way.

01:36:02

You know, we're like the Pharisees and the Apostle Paul was before his conversion who thought by their own strength and their own might and their own abilities and willpower that they can obey the law.

01:36:14

They could just do it by just mere determination. Sometimes I go to the gym, and I'm just like, okay,

01:36:19

I'm going to put all that I have into it, and I just work hard, and you know, we take that mentality and say,

01:36:25

I mean, I want to be the great Christian, and I can do it, you know, and I'm just going to put work into it, and we find that often we fail, and the reason why is because you can't live holy according to the

01:36:36

Bible in your own fleshly power. Just wanting to be holy is not sufficient.

01:36:43

You need outside power. You need supernatural power to live holy, and so to live holy, we have to walk in the

01:36:51

Holy Spirit. In fact, that's what Paul says. If you walk in the Spirit, that's the big if, then you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and the power is not in human power ability or making the right resolutions.

01:37:08

The real power to live holy is to walk in the Holy Spirit, and it's amazing how often we forget that.

01:37:14

We get more focused on living right than we do enjoying God and just fellowshipping with the

01:37:21

Lord and keeping our mind and our hearts and affections on things above and being spiritually minded.

01:37:28

See, it's being earthly minded that is the worst thing for us and our biggest hindrance, and so in this book,

01:37:37

I talk about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, or what does it mean to walk with the Spirit, and I talk about the importance of we're going to walk in the

01:37:43

Spirit. It's not through just obedience per se. It's through faith, that we live by faith, and without faith, we cannot please the

01:37:51

Lord. So it starts with faith, not obedience. It starts with faith, and this faith then produces obedience.

01:37:58

It's not like we're against obeying God. In fact, we want to obey God. It's just how do we do it? We start with faith.

01:38:05

We believe God. Faith is the victory. Then I talk about the role of repentance and what repentance actually looks like, and then

01:38:13

I go through several pages on giving the three steps of repentance and then lead to mortification, what it means to crucify the desires of the flesh, and then not just eliminating the things we shouldn't be doing by mortification, but how to implement the spiritual disciplines of the

01:38:36

Christian life, you know, like reading Scriptures and meditating upon the Scriptures and praying and these things, how important it is to have regular

01:38:47

Bible intake and to have a heart that prays without ceasing, and by these methods,

01:38:55

God has equipped us to put on the whole armor of God, and then we'll not only be able to resist the devil, but we're able to live in a way that's pleasing.

01:39:07

And what's the beauty of this approach, Chris, the biblical approach of living holy, it takes a lot of—I'm not saying it's not a struggle, because we fight with the flesh, and we war with the flesh, and the flesh keeps us from doing the things we want to do.

01:39:22

It is an ongoing struggle, but it becomes a joy, and it's kind of the difference between being nice to my wife, because I have to, and being in love with my wife.

01:39:37

I'm just, out of the outflow of my heart, I'm just serving her, and it's not drudgery.

01:39:44

It's just, it's fun. It's enjoyable, because I love to be around her, and the service comes naturally, and I think that's what

01:39:53

Christ is looking for in his people, and that's for his servants. He's looking for a willful service, and he's looking for a joy.

01:40:04

So we're going to find holiness to the degree that we find joy in the

01:40:09

Lord. We have a listener in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Susan Margaret, who is asking something that actually ties in a lot with what you're saying.

01:40:23

Susan Margaret says, Of course we who are Christians, in our pursuit of holiness, should be avoiding and shedding and repenting of the licentious aspects of our lives and our sin, but do you not believe that all too many people, in the name of Christ, when they are pursuing holiness, are just pursuing more ways that they think they can become superior to those around them, much like the

01:40:53

Pharisees? They may be pursuing giving up bad habits, and pursuing their memorization of scripture, and pursuing many things that will give an outward appearance of godliness, but their heart is not broken for the lost, and they have no compassion for those in need, just as the epistle of James warns about.

01:41:21

That's right. That's a good comment. There's a difference between hypocrisy and godliness, and the difference is between pride and humility.

01:41:34

And true holiness leads to humility and love for others, not superiority.

01:41:42

And you know, that's the thing about hypocrisy. You know, it has the appearance of godliness, the

01:41:47

Bible says, but it denies the power. I mean, yeah, I've memorized a hundred Bible verses, and I don't eat pork, and I don't do this, and I don't do that, and I do this.

01:41:59

These things separate me from those who don't live in the same structure that I live in, and the same rigor that I live in.

01:42:06

And that gives me some sense of pride that I'm not like the rest of the people. But that's hypocrisy, and it doesn't really produce true godliness.

01:42:16

True godliness is exhibited in law, not in pride, not selfishness.

01:42:22

It's exhibited in a brokenness and a desire to help others. It doesn't cause us to look down upon those who are weak.

01:42:31

It seeks for those who are strong. It makes us want to help and encourage and uplift those who are weak, and knowing that it's only the grace of God that separates us from anyone.

01:42:41

And so that's a good distinction. Real holiness is found in a personal, warm, emotional relationship with Christ Jesus through belief in the truth, and that leads to just a humbleness.

01:42:55

And I'm scared of pride. I deal with pride on a personal level. In fact, that's one of the sins that I face with the most as a pastor.

01:43:05

And just as a Christian, pride, I hate it. But I'm scared of pride because God's given me this promise.

01:43:11

He's given me this promise. Where pride is, there's the fall. And I've seen too many pastors fall in grievous ways, and I saw in their lives before the fall, before the immorality, before the moral failure, there was a sense of superiority and pride in our accomplishments, and that scares me.

01:43:33

And so the Bible tells me the remedy of falling in such disgrace is to humble myself.

01:43:39

And so Christians need to be constantly on their face with humility and to think better of others than they think of themselves.

01:43:47

Amen. And what you are saying and what that questioner asked, it reminded me of,

01:43:54

I know of several circumstances where wives became convicted of the truth, or at least they believed it was the truth, that women should wear head coverings during worship services.

01:44:12

And of course, let me make it clear, I am not knocking that. I have very dear friends, even

01:44:18

Reformed Baptist pastors who are friends, who believe that that is the biblical way for women to worship with head covering.

01:44:27

But in at least three of the circumstances I'm speaking about, these women, although they wore head coverings, thinking that they were being more obedient to God, they actually became far less submissive to their husbands than they used to be.

01:44:44

And in fact, one of them actually moved out of the house, because the husband wasn't as holy as she was in her mind.

01:44:53

So we have to be careful about the way that we think we're pursuing holiness, don't we?

01:44:58

We sure do. I mean, we need to fight against that type of mindset, because it's the complete opposite of holiness.

01:45:07

It may give the appearance of, like, look at what I'm doing, but it's the opposite of what holiness leads us to.

01:45:14

In fact, that's the exact opposite of the purpose of the head covering. That's exactly right, that's exactly right.

01:45:19

It's a sign of submissiveness, and I've seen that same phenomenon as well. We have a couple ladies in our church and they're very humble, submissive wives to their husbands, and we welcome that in our church.

01:45:35

We don't require it, of course, but we welcome it. But I've seen that too, where some women are just headstrong, yet they're wearing this head covering, and it's quite contradictory.

01:45:49

We have Mary in Cork, Ireland.

01:46:31

Jesus didn't yield to this temptation. He demonstrated his glory by suffering on the cross.

01:46:38

Suffering and glory went hand -in -hand. Can you please comment, Mary in Cork, Ireland?

01:46:46

Yeah, that's a very good comment, because that is true.

01:46:52

God is glorified in his sufferings, in his passions, in his great degradation.

01:46:59

He humbled himself like no one else, and it's because of that humility God has in return given him a name above every name.

01:47:09

We too are to have the same line of Christ and be willing to follow him, not just with the world's approval, but be willing to suffer a reproach for his namesake.

01:47:21

And it's in our reproaches that we experience from the name of Christ that in return will bring us the most glory.

01:47:29

It was when the apostle Paul was in prison and Thales was imprisoned, and they're basically licking their wombs from being persecuted.

01:47:39

They're in there and they're rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer for his namesake.

01:47:45

And I think that God has joined these two things together, and so the world seeks glory by exalting themselves.

01:47:55

Jesus says that's not the way it is in the kingdom of God. If you want to be first, you have to become last. You have to humble yourself and be like Jesus Christ who became the servant of servants.

01:48:06

If we want to find glory, then it comes in serving and not being served.

01:48:15

Well, thank you so much, Mary. Keep listening to Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio and spreading the word about the program in the

01:48:21

Republic of Ireland and beyond. Well, I want you to address with whatever time that we have left the other aspect of pursuing glory that we did not have time to address last time, the pursuit of life.

01:48:37

Right. That's my concluding chapter, and it's interesting that the last chapter comes back and wraps everything back around in the first chapter, which is the pursuit of glory.

01:48:49

And in one sense, you can't separate any of these pursuits, life, truth, holiness, companionship from one another.

01:48:56

They all end in the same place in Jesus Christ. But the closest two are the pursuit of glory and the pursuit of life, because we all want to live, and we don't want to just live by just having mere existence.

01:49:10

Being in a coma for the rest of our days doesn't sound that fun. Going to hell and being conscious that being under eternal punishment doesn't seem all that great.

01:49:21

We want life, but what we really want by life is not just existence or consciousness.

01:49:27

We want the abundant life. By life, we want companionship. We want love. We want purpose.

01:49:33

We want meaning. Ultimately, we want glory. But here's the life that God has purposed to give us and promised to give us.

01:49:41

He says, I come not that you might have life, but that you may have life more abundantly.

01:49:47

And if you think about it, that's what the world's looking for. They want to live the high life, if you would.

01:49:53

Now we're living when they're sitting around the campfire singing their songs and drinking beer.

01:49:59

That's the epitome of living. Well, that might have a moment of pleasure and be better than being under a lot of sorrows and tribulations.

01:50:12

But at the same time, the life that is real life is found only in Jesus Christ, who is the life.

01:50:21

And it's only when we have Christ and we're united to Him by faith that we live.

01:50:27

And thus, we're born again from death to life by being united to Christ.

01:50:33

And what I love about being united to Christ, it's not like Jesus has all these wonderful goodies, all these gifts, and He's like Santa Claus that has a bag full of stuff, and He disperses them out, and He gives some to you and some to me, and eventually

01:50:51

He runs out of stuff because He's given up. He's depleted Himself of all the things He has. That's not true.

01:50:57

See, Christ doesn't separate His gifts from Himself. He is life.

01:51:02

He is life. And if we're going to obtain these things, we must obtain the person of Jesus Christ.

01:51:10

And we become joint heirs to all that He has because we possess Jesus Christ.

01:51:17

He gives us the greatest gift. He doesn't just give us a million dollars. He doesn't just give us this eternal life of self -consciousness.

01:51:26

He gives us Himself. I tell my children, I think I only worship quite regularly, that if Christ wanted to give us the world, it would have been easy.

01:51:36

All He had to do is just speak the word. He could have gave us a million dollars, and that wouldn't be hard.

01:51:42

It wouldn't be difficult. In fact, that would be a piece of cake for God to give us such things.

01:51:48

But the one thing He gave us is the one thing that cost Him something. In fact, it's the only thing that would cost Himself something.

01:51:54

He gave us the most expensive gift of all, and that's the sacrifice of His own Son. And He gives us

01:52:00

Jesus Christ. And by obtaining Christ, we obtain

01:52:07

God. We obtain everything. And I don't see how we can't glory in anything more than knowing that I own this finite person.

01:52:19

I own, in my possession of Jesus Christ, I own glory. I own happiness.

01:52:25

I own purpose, meaning, truth, and everything else. I have Christ. That is the greatest of all things, and that's why

01:52:34

I ended the chapter on that note. Praise God.

01:52:39

We have an anonymous listener, and the anonymous listener says,

01:52:45

How can you convey to those we are witnessing to that we are not suggesting to them that we are superior to them, but it is that we are, in reality, more aware of our sinfulness, and we have discovered, by the mercy of God, the one and only hope for our salvation?

01:53:06

This seems to be, in my own life, with my friends, family, neighbors, and people that I associate with at work, that they are very often telling me that I think that I am better than them, and yet I try to tell them over and over again that this is not the case.

01:53:27

How do we have this balance of being very clear about the sins that those around us are committing, and at the same time demonstrating to them that our concern is rooted in our compassion and love for them, not some kind of feeling of superiority?

01:53:46

Yeah, that's a well -worded question, and a very thought -out question, and I appreciate that, because you thought real clear about the matter.

01:53:55

It's two things, you know. We don't want to come off as superior. We're sinners saved by grace.

01:54:00

In fact, sometimes we're even worse sinners than even the people that we're witnessing to if we look at our past.

01:54:07

We have no soapbox to stand upon when we're witnessing.

01:54:13

However, we don't need to necessarily run from the fact that our lives are a rebuke to sinners.

01:54:18

In fact, we're called to be a light to the world, and if we're going to be a light, the very light that shines from us and from our holiness and from our love for the

01:54:28

Lord will rebuke people, even if we don't say anything. I used to work at a counseling center, like I talked about, and they say that my presence as a pastor—they knew

01:54:41

I was a pastor—they said it changed the whole office space. There was gossip, a lot of nickering, a lot of cussing going on in the office, and they said at the time that I got there, they were too embarrassed to carry on in these activities, and I rejoiced in that because that light was shining in a way that brought some measure of conviction and correction in their lives, and so that we shouldn't run away from.

01:55:06

But I understand the fact that we don't want to carry the perspective that, one, that we have arrived to perfection, and two, that we're in ourselves even better than those who are unconverted.

01:55:20

And I think the way to do that is to seek to stay humble and show love and friendliness.

01:55:29

I don't think it's right for Christians to be not only arrogant, I don't think it's right for Christians to not seek to be friendly to the unconverted that we are around—our family members.

01:55:39

We need to be friendly, and it's okay for us to talk about the sports games and talk about everyday aspects of life and just show common courtesy and friendliness, but when it comes to our faith, that's when we don't need to shrink back, even if it makes them think that we're, you know, a bobble -pumper or, you know, holier -than -thou.

01:56:01

They're going to accuse us of that, but that's just false accusations many of the times. Well, if you could, in about two minutes time, summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today in regard to the pursuit of glory.

01:56:16

Oh, I would want people to leave with just a burning desire to find satisfaction in Christ alone, to look not at the things of this world that are perishing, and not to get distracted by their problems and get their eyes off of Christ, you know, but to refocus their vision and to look to Christ and know that He is everything, and with this knowledge, pursue—it's the pursuit of glory, it's the pursuit of truth, it's the pursuit of companions.

01:56:46

We're in this pursuit. We haven't yet arrived. Now, we've been apprehended by God, Paul says, but we haven't yet apprehended

01:56:54

Him who's apprehended us, and that is a lifelong pursuit of every

01:56:59

Christian. It's a journey, and we've started this race, but let's keep our eyes on the finish line.

01:57:05

Let's keep our eyes fixed upon heaven and live for not the things that are perishing, but live for the things that is eternal.

01:57:15

And if this book can just jog our memories and put us in remembrance and just encourage us to do that,

01:57:21

I'll be quite satisfied with writing this book, and if it brings any proof in that direction,

01:57:29

I'll give God the glory. Amen. Well, if you want to get more information about this book,

01:57:35

The Pursuit of Glory, you can go to heritagebooks .org. They are the publishers of the book, and the actual name of the publisher is

01:57:44

Reformation Heritage Books. Of course, don't forget that you can always purchase 99 % of the books that we talk about on Iron Sharp and Zion Radio from cvbbs .com,

01:57:57

cv for Cumberland Valley, bbs .com, and I know that cvbbs .com

01:58:02

has a lot of Reformation Heritage Books in stock there. Don't forget about Solid Ground Christian Books as well, solid -ground -books .com,

01:58:13

solid -ground -books .com, a faithful sponsor of this program. And if you want to find out more about the church where our guest pastors, you can go to gbcconway .com,

01:58:27

gbcconway .com, and the Grace Bible Institute is at gracebible .institute,

01:58:36

gracebible .institute. Do you have any other contact information that you care to share? No, it's just that if they're interested in any of the titles that we carry at Free Grace Press, you can find out at freegracepress .com

01:58:48

as well. freegracepress .com. Great, and don't forget that tomorrow, on Wednesday, we have

01:58:55

Kirk Vanderswa, who is a pastor in Greenwich Village, one of the most godless areas in the

01:59:04

United States, if not the world, actually. He is pastor of Neighborhood Church of Greenwich Village, and he is going to be discussing the challenges that they have there.

01:59:14

Then on Thursday, we have a fascinating topic with Mike Munoz, Christian Bioethics, Brain Death, and Vital Organ Donation.

01:59:24

And then after that, we have Les Lamphere on Friday, the 13th, speaking about his documentary,

01:59:31

Calvinist, and what better day to speak about Calvinism than on Friday the 13th. But I want to thank all of you for listening, especially those who took the time to write in questions, and I want to thank you, of course,

01:59:44

Brother Johnson, for being our guest again. I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater