September 28, 2018 Show with Josh Miller on “Why the Reformation Still Matters”

Iron Sharpens Iron

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister

00:06

George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors,

00:16

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

00:23

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

00:32

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.

00:46

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.

00:57

Now here's our host, Chris Arntzen. Good afternoon

01:04

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

01:14

This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 28th day of September 2018.

01:23

And I'm delighted to have back on the program a friend of mine, Pastor Josh Miller, who is pastor of preaching and teaching at Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and we're going to be addressing the theme of a conference that he is hosting featuring

01:41

Mike Abendroth on October 6th and 7th, Why the Reformation Still Matters.

01:48

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Josh Miller. Hey Chris, thanks.

01:54

It's my joy to be with you, not only on a personal level, just to connect with a friend, but also to talk about truths and topics that are precious to us and precious to the

02:04

Church. Amen, and it was a great time sharing fellowship with you at the

02:10

Firehouse Subs here in Carlisle, who happened to be the ones that sponsored my most recent

02:17

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio pastor's luncheon, and it was a great time of fellowship with you, and I am looking forward to many more times of fellowship that the

02:26

Lord enables us to have, including on October 6th and 7th. I am really determined to be out there for this conference.

02:33

I love Mike Abendroth. I've had him as a guest on this program a number of times to discuss the various topics that he has written on, and I am excited about this conference.

02:45

Well first of all, Pastor Josh, why don't you let our listeners know about Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

02:53

Yeah, so Grace Bible Fellowship Church, we are part of a smaller denomination,

02:59

Bible Fellowship Churches, about 65 churches. We have about 10 church plants in addition to those 65 particular churches.

03:08

Most of the churches are here in Lehigh Valley and Central Pennsylvania, some in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, but mostly in Pennsylvania.

03:18

But history of the denomination, briefly, we came out of kind of an Anabaptist Mennonite movement, and God, by His grace, led various leaders within our family of churches to virtually rewrite our doctrinal statement back at the end of the 50s and the early 60s, and adopted a

03:40

Calvinistic understanding of the application of salvation. Even our polity changed, our local church polity, to becoming

03:50

Elder Rule in the local churches, moving from some more lay preaching to actually having called and paid pastors, and in different forms and polity that our denomination changed in the middle of the 20th century.

04:09

But yeah, we have grown theologically and numerically since that time.

04:15

But that's kind of a brief introduction, and our church in Harrisburg has actually been in existence coming up on a hundred years,

04:23

I think, officially in 2020, we will celebrate our 100th anniversary here in the area.

04:30

Wow. What was the church theologically a hundred years ago? So it was, by default,

04:39

Arminian. Now, as far as having a doctrinal statement, it was probably fairly loose, but it would have been your classic

04:47

Anabaptist Arminian, with a strange kind of an

04:53

Episcopal -type government, where you have a hierarchical structure, but really getting part of the changes there in the middle 20th century was getting authority back to the local church.

05:03

The highest office in our church, in our family of churches, is the local elder, and we see that defended in Scripture, and so those are some of the distinctions and some of the differences from who we were prior.

05:18

Well, tell us something about Mike Ebenroth, who is going to be your speaker for your

05:24

Reformation conference on October 6th and 7th, God willing, on the theme, Why the

05:30

Reformation Still Matters. Tell our listeners something about Mike, for those of our listeners who haven't heard him on my radio program.

05:36

Yeah, so Mike is a pastor up in the Boston area,

05:42

Independent Bible Church up there. He hosts a radio show called No Compromise Radio.

05:48

I am actually not sure what radio station, if any, that he broadcasts on, but it's a fairly popular podcast that he has.

05:56

He's a graduate of the Master Seminary and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

06:03

He is just a preacher at heart, a local pastor, and has demonstrated a consistency and a fire to defend the truth.

06:13

And as a student, I know in church history and in preaching, and so we were excited to have him.

06:21

I actually have not personally met Mike, we've obviously corresponded now via email and phone conversations, but I'm looking forward to meeting him for the first time when he gets here.

06:31

I was familiar with his ministry over the last couple years, which led to us inviting him to be a part of our conference.

06:39

Yeah, just to let our listeners know a little bit more about Mike, he has written a number of books including

06:46

Jesus Christ, The Prince of Preachers, The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, Things That Go Bump in the

06:53

Church, Discovering Romans, Sexual Fidelity, and Evangelical White Lives.

07:00

I think that I've interviewed him on all of those, if not most of those books. And the church where he is the senior pastor is

07:07

Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. And if anybody wants more information on the podcast, they can go to NoCompromiseRadio .com,

07:20

NoCompromiseRadio .com, and I'm hopefully going to have Mike on the program before the conference.

07:26

I don't know that for certain because he is traveling all over the place speaking at other conferences, but I hope that he carves out a two -hour chunk of time, or at least an hour, before your conference so we can bless our audience again with his wit and wisdom.

07:44

Yes, yes. He does have both. Yes, he does. Let me give our listeners our email address if you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own for our guest today,

07:55

Pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

08:02

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

08:12

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

08:19

And once again, that's chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com.

08:25

Well, the theme of the conference, as we've already said, is why the Reformation still matters.

08:32

We have all kinds of listeners in the Orion Sherp and Zion Radio audience. The vast majority,

08:38

I believe, at least the ones that communicate with me and my guests, are believers in the doctrines of sovereign grace.

08:45

They would be fully aware of what the 16th century Protestant Reformation was all about, and they would be familiar, at least in a cursory level, on the main characters of the

08:57

Reformation, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox, and others.

09:05

But if you could, tell us in your mind, or from what you know, what is the

09:14

Reformation that you're still, that you are speaking of in this theme, that still matters?

09:20

Well, certainly formally, and when you speak of the Reformation of the Capilar, you're speaking of the movement in the 16th and 17th century, where there was a reclaiming of gospel truth, the rightful authority of Scripture.

09:37

It can be summarized in many ways. You mentioned the doctrines of grace, some would summarize it that way, others may summarize it with the unifying principles of the five solas of the

09:49

Reformation. That is, you know, sola scriptura, and the authority of Scripture alone.

09:57

Sola fide, that we are saved by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ.

10:02

Sola gratia, that our salvation is the result of God's, ultimately the result of God the

10:10

Father's unmerited favor dispensed toward the solus Christus, that He is the only mediator, that is,

10:16

Christ between God and man. And then soli fideo gloria, that we live our life and all that it is for the glory of God alone.

10:30

So some of those are the unifying principles of the grand

10:35

Reformation of the 16th and 17th century. But answering that question, why the

10:44

Reformation still matters, we can answer that on a few different levels. We can talk institutionally about still the theological divide that exists between the

10:53

Catholic Church, the institution of the Catholic Church, and Protestant belief, and you can certainly fill a conference with those distinctions, and those distinctions will continue to exist as long as, you know, you have the

11:10

Council of Trent and the various Vatican's that are still in place within the Catholic Church.

11:16

There will always be those theological distinctions between the institution of the

11:21

Catholic Church and Protestant faith. But as a pastor, you know, my concern in why this topic is, is because I still see some of the practical issues that were around at the

11:38

Reformation still at stake and still binding many within even the evangelical

11:46

Protestant churches, even those within my own congregation.

11:52

And so at the pastoral heart, that really wants to take up this topic. I guess you could say more specifically, you know, why did the truths of the

12:03

Reformation still matter? And that's kind of what the conference is taking up and really is at the heart of my desire to teach and preach and continue to proclaim the gospel.

12:18

Yeah, this is a lot more serious than a lot of people think, and I'm sure you agree with me.

12:24

This is a lot more serious than even a lot of people within the

12:29

Reformed circles that we both have fellowship in and whom we communicate with and associate with at times.

12:40

There are especially, I think, many Presbyterians, even more than Reformed Baptists, who would fall into the category of modern -day ecumenists when it comes to Rome.

12:54

And of course there are many non -Calvinist denominations who perhaps are even more aggressively involved in the modern ecumenical movement.

13:04

And it's ironic how ecumenism or the ecumenical movement used to be the darling exclusively of the liberals, the more liberal elements of the

13:19

Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant liberal churches and, dare

13:25

I say, even apostate churches. But for quite a number of decades, perhaps even mostly through the influence of Billy Graham, ecumenism or the ecumenical movement has been introduced into conservative

13:41

Bible -believing evangelical circles, those that believe in the inerrancy of Scripture.

13:47

Yeah. Those who say they believe in the true gospel, and I believe that many, if not most, of them actually do believe in the true gospel, which makes their ecumenism with Rome more puzzling.

13:58

It seems that people are basing their ecumenism, and you could correct me if I'm wrong or you can add something to this, it seems as if a lot of the conservative

14:10

Bible -believing Christians who want us to have ecumenical relationships with Roman Catholics are seeing a need for this in a day and age when we are so incredibly outnumbered by secular humanists and those in liberal -leaning religions when it comes to these social and moral issues that are plaguing our societies globally.

14:38

The gender confusion that has reached mind -boggling and insane proportions where little children are being given hormones to change their gender and people are marrying other people of their same gender even though we have had people in the presidency as liberal as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who at one time vociferously opposed same -sex marriage.

15:07

So it's interesting how quickly these things are spreading and morphing. So these ecumenists within the conservative evangelical movement are saying, look at our

15:18

Roman Catholic friends, they are our brothers and sisters and we should claim them as such and we should link arms with them because they share with us an abhorrence of abortion, they share with us an abhorrence of same -sex marriage and other things, and of course that's a broad -brushing statement because there are

15:34

Roman Catholics that are in favor of those things. But if you could respond to your own comment or your own thoughts on why there are many who have lost or abandoned the concept that the

15:49

Reformation still matters. Yeah, wow, that's a lot there. But yeah, on a noble level, let me say initially that I think the motive to be a preservation of sorts in our society, those are good motives.

16:08

When you're talking about social and political involvement, I myself have been a part of protesting abortion movement.

16:21

I have been down to local abortion clinics on a regular basis and have done kind of street evangelism and street counseling and stood side -by -side with Catholics.

16:32

Now I will concede that there's a different message when it comes to when I encounter somebody and I'm counseling them than the typical

16:40

Catholic person that I am standing next to. And so I think that there is a place for that as far as protecting dignity and protecting virtue.

16:57

I think the Church can bless our community in that way. But you're right, when a way of life and a standard of living becomes primary and you see the encroachment of worldliness and humanism as the greatest threat because it is threatening my way of life, my comfortability, then theological distinctions become secondary to the pragmatic reality of trying to preserve my comfortable way of life,

17:37

I mean, my conservative comfortable way of life. And so you're absolutely correct to say that there has been a pragmatic motivation to make those theological distinctions secondary.

17:53

The irony is that most conservative evangelicals will not,

18:01

I mean there are some that do, but most would not extend the arm of fellowship so far that they would include in that pro -life

18:11

Orthodox Jews, pro -life Mormons, pro -life

18:17

Muslims, and of course they may be involved in secular activities in opposition to those things like abortion and same -sex marriage, political activities, but they're not going to be typically having joint worship services.

18:36

Now there are some of our dispensationalist brethren that have such a high emphasis on extending love to the

18:45

Jewish people that they have really either masked or completely abandoned the concept that Jews, just like every other people group or individual on the planet, need

18:58

Christ for salvation. I like it, for instance, whenever I see the commercial for the

19:04

International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, they're feeding starving

19:09

Holocaust survivors in other parts of the world and so on, and yeah, I'm all in favor of that, but what kind of message are you leaving these dear people on the brink of death other than feeding their bellies and clothing them?

19:26

Those are absolutely wonderful and right things, just as we read in the epistles of James.

19:32

We're not just to tell people be warm and filled and, you know, let them go on their way starving to death and naked, but there needs to be an emphasis on the gospel, and it seems that just as the liberals had their social gospel of feeding the poor and doing other activities that are very worthy and noble and good and right and necessary, they've exchanged those things for the gospel itself.

19:59

We have conservatives, for the most part, exchanging the gospel for using as a litmus test of Christianity, whether you are pro -life, whether you are opposed to same -sex marriage, and whether you are opposed to perhaps licentious living like addiction to mind -altering substances and so on and other things, but if you could comment on that as well.

20:26

Yeah. The issue at hand still, as a church, with the central message is to preach, you know, repent, but the kingdom of God is at hand.

20:38

I mean, what is our ultimate focus? Is it an eternal kingdom or is it an earthly kingdom?

20:44

And those are sometimes, you know, difficult questions to ask, but always at the center of our ministry, at the heart of our ministry, is seeing souls made right with God.

20:58

How can we know God and how can we be made right with him? Those are the questions that will then create the divide between what is true and what is false, what is eternal, what is temporal.

21:13

And we must continue to ask those questions and hold out the truth. Yeah. Certainly, you give the glass of water, you give the food, you give the benevolence as the

21:23

Lord grants you opportunity. But practically, you know, stop short of and be very cautious of linking arms with those who promote,

21:39

I'll use Paul's language, the teaching of demons. I mean, there's no way around that. Yes, and our

21:46

Roman Catholic friends, at least the ones that I have, and I probably have more religiously minded

21:54

Roman Catholic friends now as a conservative

21:59

Bible -believing Calvinist Protestant than I did when I was a Roman Catholic.

22:04

I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and was an altar boy, went to Catholic school for eight years, remained a

22:12

Catholic until my late teens, but not in any... the older I got as a teenager, the less serious...

22:20

the less seriously I took the Roman Catholic Church. Although, always believing that God existed, always believing that Jesus Christ existed, not in a saving way, just in a factual way.

22:32

I never came to deny the existence of Christ or anything like that. But my friends as a

22:40

Catholic in my teen years and early 20s were predominantly nominal

22:46

Catholics, just like I was a nominal Catholic at that point. But the friends that I have now, their feelings will be hurt, typically, and they might get a little angry and sometimes very angry, depending upon the person or the situation.

23:03

When I inform them, I love them, I think highly of them, at times

23:08

I will even make sure that they are aware. I think that they, as individuals, are superior to me in many aspects of life, because I have

23:18

Catholic friends who are, you know, living what appears to be stellar lives in areas where I have personally failed and so on.

23:28

You know, there are just... we cannot deny, as Bible -believing Christians, as born -again individuals, that we are not the greatest husbands in the world at all times.

23:41

We are not the greatest siblings or children or friends or neighbors or citizens.

23:48

You know, we cannot claim that kind of superiority, because many times we fail miserably in those things. And you even have unbelievers at times, living more faithful lives according to those different roles and functions.

24:01

But I tell them, you are not my brother in Christ, or my sister in Christ, because you have a different gospel.

24:09

I am trusting in the finished work of Christ alone. You are not. You are trusting in not only

24:15

Christ's death, but you are adding to that the things that you do. You are adding to that the things that Mary and the saints have done.

24:26

You are the treasury of merit, as they call it. You are adding your own personal suffering in purgatory as a means to be purified and made ready for heaven.

24:40

So tell me about your own particular circumstances with that dilemma.

24:45

We have these people that we love who claim Christ, but because the gospel is different, we cannot claim them as brothers and sisters.

24:55

Yeah, I think you articulated the dilemma very well. I mean, it is an emotional discussion, and it comes down to those very same theological distinctions that you made, and what is your ultimate hope?

25:10

I mean, when you're talking about the central Catholic understanding of the application of salvation, when you're talking about, yeah, you talked about purgatory, and in continuing in a measure to earn your way into heaven, it steals glory from the

25:30

Lord Jesus Christ and His completed work. And this is why one of the great pastoral issues coming out of the

25:43

Reformation was comfort for the believer and comfort for the saint.

25:51

You know, one of the great documents of the Reformation, the Heidelberg Catechism, written just a few decades, well, in the middle of the 16th century.

26:02

But it was just, it was so pastorally concerned with wanting to give the true

26:09

Christian comfort, and for the Catholic, there is the true Catholic, faithful Catholic, there is no real soul comfort.

26:19

You are living a performance -based religion, and you are consistently trying to measure up to the

26:26

God's standard of righteousness. Now, there's an infused grace that they say empowers you on to righteousness, but it is still a merited righteousness, not one that is given to you by the grace of God in faith alone.

26:43

And it's only in that posture of receiving justification, that is, the declaration of being made righteous before God, by faith alone, that we can live in true comfort and joy with our

27:01

Maker. I've just been doing a little devotional here at the church on Wednesday evenings with a group of guys, but you know, just focusing in on Titus 2, 11 and 12 there, where it speaks of the saving grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness.

27:21

And we just had a wonderful discussion about the distinction between being trained by God's grace versus being trained in a performance -based system.

27:33

And that's what it comes down to, that's the issue. Are you a part of the family?

27:39

And in that family comes confidence. For now, we are trained. We haven't arrived at the ultimate level, but we are being trained and disciplined.

27:48

But it's in the realm of grace. It's under God's grace.

27:55

It's part of His family. He will never disown us in Christ. And even, yeah, so does that answer your question?

28:04

I'm about to preach a sermon and take an offering here. Well, you never need to hold back preaching a sermon on Iron Trip and Zion Radio, because I have a couple of guests that always wind up doing it, and I actually love it.

28:19

So you never have to hold back from that. But we have to go to our first station break right now, and once again, if anybody wants to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

28:34

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

28:40

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

28:46

Don't go away. We'll be back with Pastor Josh Miller of the Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, right after these messages from our sponsors.

28:59

Chris Arnsen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, announcing a new website with an exciting offer from World Magazine, my trusted source for news from a

29:08

Christian perspective. Try World Now at no charge for 90 days by going to getworldnow .com.

29:16

That's getworldnow .com. I rely on World because I trust the reporting. I gain insight from the analysis, and World provides clarity to the news stories that really matter.

29:27

I believe you'll also find World to be an invaluable resource to better understand critical topics with a depth that's simply not found in other media outlets.

29:37

Armed with this coverage, World can help you to be a voice of wisdom in your family and your community.

29:43

This trial includes bi -weekly issues of World Magazine, on -scene reporting from World Radio, and the fully shareable content of World Digital.

29:51

There's no obligation and no credit card required. Visit getworldnow .com

29:57

today. Also check out World News Group's podcast, The World and Everything in It, at wng .org

30:06

forward slash podcast. That's W for world, N for news,

30:11

G for group, dot org forward slash podcast. Hi, Phil Johnson here.

30:30

I'm executive director of John MacArthur's media ministry, Grace to You, and I'm also an occasional guest on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.

30:38

So I'm delighted that my friend Chris Arnzen and I will be heading down to Atlanta for the

30:43

G3 conference, where I'll be joining James White, Steve Lawson, Vodie Baucom, Mark Dever, Conrad Mbewe, Todd Friel, Josh Bice, and a host of other speakers to address the topic of biblical understanding of missions.

30:59

Chris Arnzen and I hope to see you all at this very important conference from January 17th through the 19th.

31:06

Make sure you stop by the Iron Sharpen's Iron exhibitors booth to say hi to Chris. For more details go to g3conference .com.

31:15

That's g3conference .com. See you there. Hello, my name is

31:24

James Renahan and I'm the president of IRBS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, Texas. The Word of God says, if a man desires the office of an overseer, he desires a good thing.

31:35

Do you have the desire to serve Jesus Christ in pastoral ministry? Twenty years ago, the

31:41

Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies at Westminster Seminary California was born. For those two decades, these institutions worked together to train men for ministry in Reformed Baptist churches.

31:52

It's been a wonderful partnership. Now we have advanced our school into an independent seminary, offering a full program of courses leading to the

32:00

Master of Divinity degree. This is IRBS Theological Seminary. We believe that the scriptures of the

32:06

Old and New Testaments are the inspired and inerrant Word of God, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who came to save sinners by his life, death, and resurrection, and that the task of the church is to honor and serve the triune

32:18

God in all things. IRBS Theological Seminary is dedicated by God's grace to preparing godly ministers who will be committed to these doctrines.

32:27

Do you sense a call to serve Jesus Christ and his church as a pastor? Why not consider IRBS Theological Seminary?

32:33

You'll find more information at irbsseminary .org. That's irbsseminary .org, two

32:40

S's in the middle. I hope to hear from you soon. God bless you. Chris Sorensen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio here.

32:49

I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years. His name is Dan Buttafuoco.

32:55

Dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer, but not the type that typically comes to mind.

33:02

Dan cares about people and is a theologian himself. Recently, he wrote a book titled Consider the

33:08

Evidence for the Bible. Ravi Zacharias wrote the foreword. Dan also has a master's degree in theology.

33:15

Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states. He represents many

33:21

Christians in serious injury matters all over the country. Dan is an exceptional trial lawyer.

33:28

He wrote the test for the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for 1 million dollars or more, and in approximately 10 different states.

33:41

In Illinois, his lawyers had the fourth largest settlement in the state's history. In New York, his case involving a paralyzed police officer made the front page of the

33:51

Law Journal. If you have a serious personal injury or medical malpractice claim in any state,

33:57

I recommend that you call Dan. Consultations are free. There is no fee unless you win.

34:04

Dan Buttafuoco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878. 1 -800 -669 -4878.

34:12

Or email me for Dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail .com.

34:18

That's chrisarnson at gmail .com. My name is

34:25

Steve Lawson, founder and president of One Passion Ministries, as well as teaching fellow for Ligonier Ministries.

34:32

I serve as professor of preaching and oversee the Doctor of Ministry program at the Master's Seminary in Los Angeles.

34:38

I would like to recommend the church where one of my preaching students, Andy Woodard, serves as the pastor.

34:44

It's called New Covenant Church, NYC. They are a Reformed Baptist church that meets in Midtown Manhattan.

34:50

You can find their service times and location on their website, which is www .ncc .nyc.

34:59

They believe in a sovereign God who commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel.

35:05

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

35:14

New Covenant Church, NYC. Again, their information can be found at www .ncc

35:21

.nyc. Have a great day. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

35:32

If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

35:43

Besides that, they feel so good. I'm so delighted I discovered Post Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding.

35:49

No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post Tenebrous Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan.

35:59

All his work is done by hand, from the cutting, to the pleating of corners, to the perimeter stitching.

36:05

Jeffrey uses the finest and buttery -soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors, like the turquoise goatskin tanned in Italy used for my

36:14

Nestle All -in 28th Edition, with a navy blue goatskin inside liner, and the electric blue goatskin from a

36:21

French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study Bible I used as a gift. The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome.

36:32

Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications, and even emboss your logo into the leather, making whatever he rebinds a one -of -a -kind work of art.

36:42

For more details on Post Tenebrous Lux Bible Rebinding, go to ptlbiblerebinding .com.

36:50

That's ptlbiblerebinding .com. Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune in to A Visit to the

37:02

Pastors' Study, every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time, on WLIE Radio, www .wlie540am

37:14

.com. We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the

37:20

Pastors' Study by calling in with your questions. Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull.

37:26

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for a visit to the Pastors' Study, because everyone needs a

37:33

Pastor. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,

37:39

Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted.

37:47

He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own.

37:52

You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the

37:59

Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future, and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.

38:12

Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God -centered, Christ -exalting books for all ages.

38:19

We invite you to go treasure hunting at Solid -Ground -Books .com.

38:24

That's Solid -Ground -Books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past to present you can unearth from Solid Ground.

38:33

Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And please remember to keep praying for Michael Gaydosh, the founder of Solid Ground Christian Books, who is still recovering from very dangerous and delicate heart surgery that he recently underwent, and he is home recovering.

38:56

He just posted an update on his recovery on his Facebook page. If you want to go to Mike Gaydosh's Facebook page, his name is

39:04

Michael A. Gaydosh, G -A -Y -D -O -S -H, and he has a most recent lengthy report on his recovery that perhaps tomorrow

39:13

I will read in its entirety. Actually, not tomorrow, tomorrow's Saturday. Maybe next week we'll read it in its entirety, but please keep him in your prayers because he still has an expected several weeks at least of recovery to go, and it has been a roller coaster ride as to its difficulty and to the level of exhaustion that he experiences.

39:34

But I thank all of you, and I know he thanks all of you from the depths of his heart, for your fervent prayers for him, especially before the surgery, because he has come out from that successful surgery unscathed, and let's pray that he becomes a healthier and stronger man physically than he has been in years, and even more importantly, a stronger and healthier man spiritually as a result of this frightening trial that our gracious and merciful

40:05

Lord has placed him in. So thank you so much for praying for Michael Gaydosh, and while you're at it, please order as much as you can in regard to Christian literature from solid -gram -books .com,

40:18

solid -gram -books .com, because he had quite a bit of a dip in sales while he was laid up in the hospital, and I know that he could use those sales more than ever, and you could use the literature as well, because he has the finest in Christian literature available at solid -gram -books .com.

40:37

Also, we have right now, we are returning to our guest today, Josh Miller, Pastor of Preaching and Teaching at Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

40:48

We are discussing the theme of an upcoming conference that he is hosting, Why the Reformation Still Matters.

40:54

This conference features Mike Ebenroth, who is Senior Pastor at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and he's the author of Jesus Christ, the

41:03

Prince of Preachers, the Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, Sexual Fidelity, Evangelical White Lies, and other books.

41:12

This conference on Why the Reformation Still Matters will be held Saturday, October 6th and Sunday, October 7th at Grace Bible Fellowship Church on 1250

41:23

Colonial Road in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the website, if you want more details, is gracebfc .com.

41:33

That's Grace B for Bible, F for Fellowship, C for Church, dot com, gracebfc .com

41:40

forward slash conference, gracebfc .com forward slash conference.

41:45

You can also call 717 -652 -5229. 717 -652 -5229.

41:53

We are now back with our guest, Pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and if you could,

42:02

Josh, what in your opinion and from your knowledge of not only theology but church history, what are the primary ways that the

42:13

Church of Rome and Bible -believing Reformational Evangelical Protestantism are still separated by a chasm of difference?

42:25

It is amazing that there are brilliant scholars on both sides who would say that the

42:32

Reformation no longer needs to exist. They will say that it has come to an end merely because persecution has flamed out, that we can live in harmony together, that we all love

42:45

Jesus and we, along with the Eastern Orthodox, stand against many of the social ills that we were talking about before, then there's no need for a

42:57

Reformation. I can understand your average person thinking that, but a biblically literate person and especially a

43:06

Bible scholar and theologian, that amazes me. It amazes me when somebody who

43:12

I still consider in many ways a hero, and I know that many of, if not most, of my

43:18

Reformed brethren also consider this brother a hero of the faith from the 20th and 21st centuries, and I'm speaking of J .I.

43:25

Packer, it is utterly breathtakingly and palpably baffling that J .I.

43:32

Packer would have an ecumenical mindset with Rome, since he clearly articulates in great painstaking detail the gospel of grace, and the importance of it, and so on, and yet he signed the

43:48

ECT document, he writes endorsements for books written by Roman Catholics like Peter Kreeft, and it's just amazing, but if you could chime in yourself on this.

44:00

Yeah, I mean, at the heart of the Reformation, the theological issue of justification by faith alone, that it still needs to be articulated, and it needs still to be held up as a distinctive between gospel truth and the truth that the

44:19

Catholic Church promotes. Certainly the authority of the Church, what is the nature of the

44:27

Church, an issue, the authority of God's Word presiding over that of creeds and councils, and the traditions of the

44:40

Church. So was it the Council of Trent that stated that all saving truths are contained in the written books and in the unwritten traditions?

44:55

I mean, that still is the stance of the Catholic Church, so when it comes to the authority of the

45:00

Church being in, you know, ultimately the priesthood, or ultimately the

45:09

Pope, or is it the Word of God? So those are still issues, theologically, that remain, but even practically, there's some major issues that I come in contact with fairly regularly, is the nature of unity, and Christian unity.

45:32

You mentioned that before, how you've seen some of your friends just willing to compromise theologically for an external unity, and so, you know, under the

45:44

Catholic teaching, you know, they really defend an institutional continuity, you know, from bishop to bishop, and trying to trace that line all the way back to the

45:55

Apostles, where the Protestant Church would hold to a gospel unity, a gospel continuity, a true

46:03

Church that holds up as a pillar and buttress of the truth. And that's where our unity lies.

46:12

So those are some still distinctions. Yeah, you mentioned the Evangelicals and Catholics Together document, was that back in the 90s, but still we have, yeah, that influence is still alive and well.

46:28

Yeah, and unless people look at us as just Bible nerds who are being

46:38

OCD on steroids, or behaving like we have

46:44

OCD on steroids, and we are just nitpicking, we are being ridiculous, isn't it because of what the

46:52

Bible teaches about the gospel, and especially I'm thinking of places like Galatians, where if the

47:02

Apostle Paul took so seriously the notion that the

47:08

Judaizers' insistence on just adding one thing to the gospel, from what we understand,

47:16

Paul does not give us a detailed explanation of the heresies of the

47:22

Judaizers. The only thing that we know of is that they wanted to insist that Gentiles be circumcised before being added to the faith, and for all we know, and I think we are safe to assume, the

47:39

Judaizers believed everything else that Paul believed, or most of what he believed, except that.

47:44

And that alone got the Apostle Paul so infuriated and enraged and righteously indignant that he declared those people spreading the the doctrines of the

48:00

Judaizers as false believers, they were to be anathematized or accursed to hell, is basically what he meant, and I think he took a little softer stance on those in the church that were at least temporarily duped by the

48:18

Judaizers because he called them brethren. He has harsher words for the teachers themselves.

48:28

But this is really, when I have had conversations with some of my Catholic friends who I love, and you know, to be perfectly honest there are

48:35

Catholics that I know whose company I enjoy much greater than some of my own brothers and sisters in Christ.

48:42

I'm just being honest, there were some of them are just such wonderful people and such fun people and you know you might have the same interests or whatever and it's just a joy to be with them, but when when they get upset or hurt that I say you're not my brother or sister in Christ, I say

49:01

I cannot be nicer than the Apostle Paul. And you shouldn't want to be nicer than the

49:07

Apostle Paul either when he says that if anyone brings to you another gospel other than the one that we have taught, which is no gospel at all, let them be anathema.

49:17

And so how am I supposed to respond to this other than the way that the

49:24

Apostle Paul did? Because if I'm responding to that in an unbiblical way, that's wrong.

49:31

Yeah, and it certainly takes a measure of wisdom and biblical discernment, because on the surface, and we can come along and, you know, reading into the situation there in Galatia, you mentioned the

49:45

Book of Galatians, but very well somebody could say, come on, circumcision's a secondary issue. I mean, this isn't even a primary issue.

49:53

We're not talking about 1st Corinthians 15 here with the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. You're making circumcision out to be a major primary issue when it's just a secondary issue.

50:05

Paul, we can we can get along here. But you know the strong language you've already alluded to it in Galatians, where he eventually gets to the point where he says, you know,

50:16

I wish they would emasculate themselves, those who preach this. But because it was the...

50:23

Unless that slipped by some of our listeners, he was, I believe, somewhat tongue -in -cheek

50:28

Paul, that is, saying that he would rather them have castrated themselves. Right. But the language is meant to be striking, the theory of which he is taking this issue, which on the surface many might say was a secondary issue, but the power that they were vesting, the importance that they were vesting into this act, this ritual of circumcision, was, in a sense, than preaching another gospel.

50:55

And it was stealing glory and the completed work of Christ and the fullness of Christ.

51:04

You know, that's the... Galatians 3, which you've mentioned already, but the, you know, who has bewitched you into this teaching.

51:15

So on an interpersonal level, with relationships or family members or friends,

51:23

I think that there's some wisdom in demonstrating caution and not quoting

51:28

Galatians 5 .12 there, with, you know, emasculate yourself. But there is moments where you will have opportunity to be clear and to articulate and explain the gospel, that you believe a different gospel if the work of Christ is not ultimately and finally sufficient for salvation.

51:54

We have another Josh, this one in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who has a question for you.

52:01

Thank you, Pastor Josh, for appearing on Iron Sherpa's Iron, and thank you, Chris, for always having great guests on this wonderful program.

52:09

My question is, should we, those of us who know the true gospel and are born again and reformed, work alongside with those who are

52:18

Catholic, Muslim, or Mormon to bring about positive social change in society?

52:23

Very good question, and I know that I think that the question would be answered differently according to the context of working alongside them.

52:33

Like, for instance, every single time you vote, you are working alongside Catholic, Muslims, Mormons, atheists, and others who are trying to bring about some kind of earthly change in the political arena.

52:49

So in that sense, you're always working with them. But if you could answer that question more fully than I did.

52:57

Yeah, yeah, I would just continue that a little bit, and this is such a matter of wisdom, you know,

53:05

I would counsel Josh to involve the Church leadership in seeking their counsel and how to best go about this.

53:12

But like I have mentioned at the outset of the show, there's opportunities that I have joined up in the sense of, you know, protesting various abortion clinics and different counseling with those of the

53:25

Catholic religion. I personally would stop short of sitting on a platform publicly, demonstrating myself in a leadership position that would provide confusion, and I just answer this, it might be a little too personal to help

53:46

Josh, but that would provide confusion to my people that I shepherd. That may be a little subjective of an answer, but that's one thing that I evaluate.

53:59

I mean, I would not stand publicly in a way that would flatten out the distinctions that I have theologically, which

54:07

I hold as ultimately important. But gone to the March for Life in DC, you know, those sorts of things you mentioned, even on a level of voting, we're somewhat joining with a preservation of culture and of virtue as best we can.

54:25

I hope that helps. Yeah, and our, well, he's my friend, I don't know if he's a friend of yours, but I'm sure you know him,

54:33

Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. He, years ago, was heavily involved in some kind of a pro -life organization that featured both

54:47

Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics, and possibly others, and he had to, he voluntarily did, but when

54:54

I say he had to, his conscience would not enable him to remain, because they told him that he was prohibited from evangelizing the

55:05

Roman Catholics that were a part of the marches and other things that they were doing.

55:11

He would witness Roman Catholics praying over their rosary beads, praying to Mary and the

55:17

Saints, and obviously he couldn't remain silent when he's in close proximity to those folks, and also giving the public a false understanding that he may be

55:31

Roman Catholic himself, or that he tolerates that kind of false, idolatrous worship.

55:37

So I think where the line has to be drawn, and I'm assuming from what you said you would agree, is that when it comes to areas of religious activity, spiritual activity, and worship, that's where we have to say, wait a minute, you know, we cannot exchange pulpits with those with a false gospel, although we should,

56:00

I think, feel very free to accept invitations to speak from behind the pulpits of false churches, as long as we are not told what we can and cannot say.

56:11

I think we can evangelize them that way, but as far as having ecumenical gatherings where we are praying and worshiping together,

56:20

I think that would be absolutely prohibited from a faithful Bible -believing Christian.

56:26

And certainly on a church -wide basis, like as a pastor I have invitations to have our church be a part of various movements or gatherings in the city to promote various moral upstanding and defending various movements, conservative movements, and I shy away from having our church name or my name alongside any other, you know, body that I would think is preaching and teaching a false gospel for those reasons.

57:00

Yes, and I think that also comes into play, and I know that even people in my own congregation, people who are

57:09

Reformed Baptists may even have different opinions on this, but there is even a very serious reason to give pause and think carefully before accepting an invitation to things like the baptism of a baby in a

57:28

Roman Catholic Church, to other religious activities, the confirmation of a child in a

57:36

Roman Catholic Church. There are some who say you should feel free to go there as a witness to the gospel if you make it clear to the family,

57:44

I do not agree with what is happening, but I just want to show my love toward you. There are some who will say no, even being there is showing your support, but we have to be very careful whether we go to those things or not go to those things, we have to be very careful that we make our position clear to those who are present, and especially,

58:03

I'm amazed when I have seen evangelicals I know who at Roman Catholic funerals have gone forward to receive the

58:13

Mass, and I've said to them, what are you doing? You're not Roman Catholic. Oh well, I'm just receiving the

58:18

Lord's Supper, and I'm like, well that's not the way they view it. They view it as a perpetratory sacrifice, a non -bloody sacrifice.

58:26

They believe that those elements are the body and blood of Christ, that they are to be worshipped as Jesus himself, and you can't just think whatever you want to think when you're doing that.

58:36

In fact, they don't want you to take that unless you are a believer that that is the literal body and blood of Christ.

58:44

Well not only that, but to partake in that context, you're also declaring your fellowship to those you are partaking with.

58:55

As we partake in the ordinance together, you are declaring your fellowship one with another as well.

59:04

So that creates a whole nother issue. Well thank you so much Josh in Mechanicsburg.

59:09

I think you may be a first -time questioner to our show, and if you send me your full mailing address in Mechanicsburg, you will receive a free

59:20

New American Standard Bible, compliments of the publishers of the NASB, and we give those to all of our first -time questioners.

59:29

So make sure you email that to us so that CVBBS .com, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, can ship that out to you at no charge to you or to us.

59:37

And we hope you continue to listen to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, spread the word about the show, and also contribute questions to us from time to time as much as possible.

59:47

We would love to hear from you. Well we are going to go to Rose in Harrisburg after our station break with her question.

59:55

In fact, why don't I ask the question now and you can answer it when we return. We're gonna go on a very long break because of the requirements of Grace Life Radio 90 .1

01:00:07

FM in Lake City, Florida. They require of us a longer than normal break in between our two major segments because they air their own commercials and public service announcements in order to localize

01:00:16

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio to Lake City, Florida. So we will be going to that longer break in a moment.

01:00:23

But here is the question from Rose in Harrisburg. I really enjoy listening to Mike Abendroth on No Compromise Radio.

01:00:31

Would you please ask Pastor Miller what topics Brother Mike will be speaking on at the conference coming up?

01:00:38

And if you could just have that list handy and then you can answer that question when we return for Rose in Harrisburg.

01:00:45

And by the way, Rose, I believe you may be a first -time questioner too. So please send us your full mailing address so that we can also have a new

01:00:53

New American Standard Bible shipped out to you by cvbbs .com. So don't go away.

01:01:00

God willing, we are going to be right back after these messages from our sponsors. Tired of box store

01:01:10

Christianity? Of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert? Do you long for a more traditional and reverent style of worship?

01:01:18

And how about the preaching? Perhaps you've begun to think that in -depth biblical exposition has vanished from Long Island.

01:01:25

Well, there's good news. Wedding River Baptist Church exists to provide believers with a meaningful and reverent worship experience featuring the systematic exposition of God's Word.

01:01:35

And this loving congregation looks forward to meeting you. Call them at 631 -929 -3512 for service times.

01:01:43

631 -929 -3512. Or check out their website at wrbc .us.

01:01:51

That's wrbc .us. I'm James White of Alpha Omega Ministries.

01:01:57

The New American Standard Bible is perfect for daily reading or in -depth study. Used by pastors, scholars, and everyday readers, the

01:02:03

NASV is widely embraced and trusted as a literal and readable Bible translation. The NASV offers clarity and readability while maintaining high accuracy to the original languages which the

01:02:12

NASV is known for. The NASV is available in many editions like a topical reference Bible. Researched and prepared by biblical scholars devoted to accuracy, the new topical reference

01:02:21

Bible includes contemporary topics relevant to today's issues. From compact to giant print

01:02:26

Bibles, find an NASV that fits your needs very affordably at nasbible .com. Whichever edition you choose, trust, discover, and enjoy the

01:02:34

NASV for yourself today. Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com.

01:02:46

Iron Sharpens Iron welcomes

01:02:52

Solid Rock Remodeling to our family of sponsors. Serving South Central Pennsylvania, Solid Rock Remodeling is focused on discovering, understanding, and exceeding your expectations.

01:03:05

They deliver personalized project solutions with exceptional results. Solid Rock Remodeling offers a full range of home renovations including kitchen and bath remodeling, decks, porches, windows and doors, roof and siding, and more.

01:03:22

For a clear, detailed, professional estimate, call this trustworthy team of problem solvers who provide superior results that stand to the test of time.

01:03:33

Call Solid Rock Remodeling at 717 -697 -1981.

01:03:40

717 -697 -1981. Or visit solidrockremodeling .com.

01:03:47

That's solidrockremodeling .com. Solid Rock Remodeling, bringing new life to your home.

01:03:57

My name is Steve Lawson, founder and president of One Passion Ministries, as well as teaching fellow for Ligonier Ministries.

01:04:03

I serve as professor of preaching and oversee the Doctor of Ministry program at the Master's Seminary in Los Angeles.

01:04:09

I would like to recommend the church where one of my preaching students, Andy Woodard, serves as the pastor.

01:04:16

It's called New Covenant Church, NYC. They are a Reformed Baptist Church that meets in Midtown Manhattan.

01:04:22

You can find their service times and location on their website which is www .ncc .nyc.

01:04:30

They believe in a sovereign God who commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel.

01:04:36

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

01:04:46

New Covenant Church, NYC. Again, their information can be found at www .ncc

01:04:53

.nyc. Have a great day. One sure way all

01:05:03

Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners can help keep my show on the air is to support my advertisers. I know you all use batteries every day, so I'm urging you all from now on to exclusively use

01:05:15

BatteryDepot .com for all your battery needs. At BatteryDepot .com,

01:05:22

they're changing the status quo. They're flipping the script. They're sticking it to the man. In other words, they'd like to change the battery industry for good by providing an extensive inventory of top -of -the -line batteries that are uniformly new, dependable, and affordable.

01:05:38

Ordering from BatteryDepot .com ensures you'll always get fresh, out -of -the -box batteries you can count on to work properly at competitive prices.

01:05:48

Whether you need batteries for cordless phones, cell phones, radios, PCs, laptops, tablets, baby monitors, hearing aids, smoke detectors, credit card readers, digital cameras, electronic cigarettes,

01:06:02

GPS's, mp3 players, watches, or nearly anything else you own that needs batteries, go to BatteryDepot .com.

01:06:12

Next day shipping available. All products protected by 30 -day guarantees and six -month warranties.

01:06:18

Call 866 -403 -3768. That's 866 -403 -3768.

01:06:27

Or go to BatteryDepot .com. That's BatteryDepot .com. Paul wrote to the church at Galatia.

01:06:38

For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man,

01:06:45

I would not be a servant of Christ. Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church. We are a

01:06:51

Reformed Baptist Church and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts.

01:06:58

We strive to reflect Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do than how men view these things.

01:07:06

That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the Apostle's priority, it must not be ours either.

01:07:13

We believe by God's grace that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man and to be vessels of Christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us and to build up the body of Christ in truth and love.

01:07:26

If you live near Norfolk, Massachusetts or plan to visit our area, please come and join us for worship and fellowship.

01:07:32

You can call us at 508 -528 -5750, that's 508 -528 -5750, or go to our website to email us, listen to past sermons, worship songs, or watch our

01:07:43

TV program entitled, Resting in Grace. You can find us at ProvidenceBaptistChurchMA .org,

01:07:49

that's ProvidenceBaptistChurchMA .org, or even on sermonaudio .com. Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor

01:07:57

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. James White here, co -founder of Alpha Omega Ministries and occasional guest on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:08:19

I'm so delighted that my friend Chris Arnzen will be heading down to Atlanta for the next G3 conference from January 17th to the 19th, 2019, where I'll be joining a very impressive lineup of speakers on the theme,

01:08:31

A Biblical Understanding of Missions. Speakers include John Piper, Steve Lawson, Vodie Baucom, Mark Dever, Conrad Mbewe, Phil Johnson, Josh Bice, yours truly, and many more.

01:08:43

I hope you all join Chris and me for this phenomenal event. For more details, go to G3conference .com,

01:08:51

that's G3conference .com. Hello, my name is

01:08:59

James Renahan and I'm the president of IRVS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, Texas. The Word of God says, if a man desires the office of an overseer, he desires a good thing.

01:09:11

Do you have the desire to serve Jesus Christ in pastoral ministry? Twenty years ago, the

01:09:16

Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies at Westminster Seminary, California was born. For those two decades, these institutions worked together to train men for ministry in Reformed Baptist churches.

01:09:28

It's been a wonderful partnership. Now we have advanced our school into an independent seminary offering a full program of courses leading to the

01:09:36

Master of Divinity degree. This is IRVS Theological Seminary. We believe that the scriptures of the

01:09:42

Old and New Testaments are the inspired and inerrant Word of God, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who came to save sinners by his life, death, and resurrection, and that the task of the church is to honor and serve the

01:09:53

Triune God in all things. IRVS Theological Seminary is dedicated by God's grace to preparing godly ministers who will be committed to these doctrines.

01:10:02

Do you sense a call to serve Jesus Christ in his church as a pastor? Why not consider IRVS Theological Seminary?

01:10:09

You'll find more information at IRVSseminary .org. That's IRVSseminary .org, two

01:10:15

S's in the middle. I hope to hear from you soon. God bless you. Chris Sorensen, host of Iron Sherpins Iron Radio here.

01:10:26

I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years. His name is Dan Buttafuoco.

01:10:32

Dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer, but not the type that typically comes to mind.

01:10:38

Dan cares about people and is a theologian himself. Recently he wrote a book titled, Consider the

01:10:44

Evidence for the Bible. Ravi Zacharias wrote the foreword. Dan also has a master's degree in theology.

01:10:52

Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states. He represents many

01:10:58

Christians in serious injury matters all over the country. Dan is an exceptional trial lawyer.

01:11:04

He wrote the test for the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for 1 million dollars or more, and in approximately 10 different states.

01:11:18

In Illinois, his lawyers had the fourth largest settlement in the state's history. In New York, his case involving a paralyzed police officer made the front page of the

01:11:28

Law Journal. If you have a serious personal injury or medical malpractice claim in any state,

01:11:34

I recommend that you call Dan. Consultations are free. There is no fee unless you win.

01:11:41

Dan Buttafuoco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878. 1 -800 -669 -4878.

01:11:49

Or email me for Dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail .com.

01:11:55

That's chrisarnson at gmail .com. Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor, frequent co -host with Chris Arnson on Iron Shepard's Iron Radio.

01:12:13

I would like to introduce you to my good friends Todd and Patti Jennings at CVBBS, which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.

01:12:20

Todd and Patti specialize in supplying Reformed and Puritan books and Bibles at discount prices that make them affordable to everyone.

01:12:28

Since 1987, the family -owned and operated book service has sought to bring you the best available

01:12:33

Christian books and Bibles at the best possible prices. Unlike other book sites, they make no effort to provide every book that is available because, frankly, much of what is being printed is not worth your time.

01:12:46

That means you can get to the good stuff faster. It also means that you don't have to worry about being assaulted by the pornographic, heretical, and otherwise faith -insulting material promoted by the secular book vendors.

01:12:59

Their website is CVBBS .com. Browse the pages at ease, shop at your leisure, and purchase with confidence as Todd and Patti work in service to you, the church, and to Christ.

01:13:12

That's Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service at CVBBS .com. That's CVBBS .com.

01:13:20

Let Todd and Patti know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. And you can call

01:13:27

CVBBS .com at their toll -free number Monday through Friday from 10 a .m.

01:13:32

to 4 30 p .m. Eastern Time at 800 -656 -0231, 800 -656 -0231.

01:13:41

Mention Chris Arnzen and Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio and order a minimum of $50 or more of merchandise and you will receive not only the book, the journalable, that is a very difficult word to say, believe me, the journalable,

01:13:56

Psalm 119, that means able to journal, Psalm 119, published by Reformation Heritage Books.

01:14:05

You'll get that absolutely free and you'll also receive free shipping on your order of $50 or more when calling or ordering online at CVBBS .com

01:14:15

and mentioning Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. Before we return to Josh Miller, the pastor of Grace Bible Fellowship Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, we just have a few special events that we need to announce.

01:14:27

The first of which is the event that we've already discussed a bit, the Reformation Conference being held at Grace Bible Fellowship Church on 1250

01:14:36

Colonial Road in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Why the Reformation Still Matters featuring

01:14:41

Mike Ebendroff, senior pastor at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and author of a number of books including

01:14:48

Jesus Christ, The Prince of Preachers, The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus, Sexual Fidelity, Evangelical White Lies, and more.

01:14:56

The conference is being held October 6th and October 7th, which is a Saturday and Sunday, and for more details you can go to gracebfc .com

01:15:06

forward slash conference. That's Grace BFC, which stands for Bible Fellowship Church, dot com forward slash conference, gracebfc .com

01:15:16

forward slash conference. You can also call them at 717 -652 -5229, 717 -652 -5229.

01:15:24

I intend to be there myself and would love to meet you there. If you are in attendance, please make sure you approach me and say hello to me.

01:15:34

I would love to meet those in the Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio audience where if they were to attend, and I typically meet them all over the

01:15:42

United States when I go to different events. Also, we've got to let you know about the event taking place next month.

01:15:51

Well, actually it's almost next month. It's November 9th and the 10th, and that is at another

01:15:59

Grace Bible Fellowship Church, this one in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, and that's the

01:16:04

Quakertown Conference on Reformed Theology. The theme is the glory of the cross, and the speakers include

01:16:10

David Garner, Ray Ortlund, Richard Phillips, Timothy Gibson, and Carlton Winn. I intend to have an

01:16:16

Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio exhibitors booth present at that conference, so please greet me during a break if you attend.

01:16:22

For more details on this glory of the cross conference sponsored by the

01:16:27

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and the Quakertown Conference on Reformed Theology, go to alliancenet .org,

01:16:34

alliancenet .org, click on events, and then scroll down to Quakertown Conference on Reformed Theology.

01:16:41

Last but not least, the event that you've been hearing advertised very frequently on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio, that is the

01:16:49

G3 Conference, which stands for Gospel, Grace, and Glory. It's going to be held this year,

01:16:55

January 17th through the 19th, which is a Thursday through Saturday, and it is going to be held at the

01:17:02

Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.

01:17:07

They are expecting between four and five thousand people there, so I would urge you not only to attend, but I would urge you to register for your own exhibitors booth that you can man right alongside

01:17:19

Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio, or at least in the near vicinity, and the speakers at this monumental conference include my friend

01:17:27

Dr. James R. White, John Piper, Stephen Lawson, Voti Baucom, Mark Dever, Conrad Mbewe, the most powerful preacher alive on the planet

01:17:36

Earth today, pastor of Cobata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa, and Chancellor of the

01:17:42

African Christian University, Tim Chalies, Phil Johnson of John MacArthur's ministry, grace to you, he's the executive director there,

01:17:51

Josh Bice, the founder and director of the G3 conference, Todd Freel of Wretched TV and Radio, Stephen J.

01:17:57

Nichols, who is the president of Reformation Bible College, the college founded by the late R .C. Sproul, Ligonier Ministries, and more.

01:18:04

For more details on registering to attend, and also to register for an exhibitors booth, if you'd like, go to G3conference .com,

01:18:10

G3conference .com. Last but not least, if you love this show, you don't want it to disappear, please go to IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com,

01:18:19

click support, then click, click to donate now. You could donate instantly that way, through debit or credit card.

01:18:26

This is the caveat that I try to remember to remind you of, never siphon money away from your regular giving that you're accustomed to, to your local church where you are a member, in order to give to IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com.

01:18:39

Never put your family in financial jeopardy by giving to IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com. Those two things are commands of God in the

01:18:46

Holy Scriptures, providing for your church in your home. But, if you are financially blessed above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands, then please donate as much as you can, and as frequently as you can, to IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com.

01:19:01

At IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com, click support, then click, click to donate now. You can send in a check the old -fashioned way, via snail mail, to the address that appears on the screen.

01:19:10

If you do not have a church where you are a member, and you are looking for a Bible -believing church, a faithful church to the

01:19:17

Holy Scriptures, then please email me, and I will help you find, when I've lists of faithful churches all over the globe.

01:19:24

You are living in enmity with God, if you are living in rebellion against God, if you are not at least prayerfully seeking for a

01:19:34

Bible -believing church near you. So, please get that rectified in your life very soon. If you'd like to advertise with us, send me an email to ChrisArnsen at gmail .com,

01:19:43

and put advertising in the subject line, as long as whatever it is you're promoting is compatible with what we believe, we would love to help you launch an ad campaign, because we truly do, desperately need your advertising dollars in order to exist.

01:19:57

And use that same email address, ChrisArnsen at gmail .com, to send in a question to Pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as we discuss why the

01:20:08

Reformation still matters. That's ChrisArnsen at gmail .com, ChrisArnsen at gmail .com. And Pastor Josh, we had

01:20:15

Rose in Harrisburg with a question about what is Mike Ebengroth speaking on at your conference, and she also corrected me, she said, no,

01:20:24

I've been a listener to Iron Sherpins Iron Radio for years, and she's written in before as well, so I don't know why

01:20:31

I thought she was a first -time questioner. I apologize, Rose, but if you could respond to her question.

01:20:38

Yeah, so the conference, as you mentioned, starts Saturday, October 6th. Our doors will open at 12 o 'clock for people to peruse the bookstore that we will have there, but our first session's at 1 o 'clock, and Mike Ebengroth will be speaking on the topic,

01:20:53

Why the Reformation Still Matters, and specifically, The Assurance of Salvation. The second session for Saturday is

01:21:01

Why the Reformation Still Matters, and then the subtitle is The Bondage of the

01:21:07

Will. On Sunday, obviously, we don't want to take you away from your regular place of worship and fellowship.

01:21:15

Ah, yes you do, yes you do. I'm sorry, what's that? I said yes you do,

01:21:21

I'm only kidding. But if you're, yeah, if you have to travel to Common, you'll be in the area on Sunday away from your regular worshiping body.

01:21:29

Sunday morning for the Sunday school hour, he'll be doing a biographical sketch on Martin Luther, part one, and he will do, then, part two in the evening, on Sunday evening, which will be at 630 p .m.,

01:21:44

and then for our corporate worship time, he will be preaching from Romans chapter 1, 16 through 17,

01:21:52

Not Ashamed of Justification by Faith Alone. So the topic's covered Assurance of Salvation, The Bondage of the

01:21:58

Will, and Justification by Faith Alone, under the title Why the Reformation Still Matters.

01:22:05

And just a little bit about the spirit of the conference. It really, the impetus behind it was to bless the local body here at our church.

01:22:15

So it's here for laypeople, we want to bless the local church. We just started it last year as kind of a celebration of the five -month anniversary of the

01:22:25

Reformation, and invited in my friend, and you mentioned already, but Phil Johnson came and did a weekend with us, and it was just a blessing, and we had the structure in place as far as the budget, and the committee set up to plan it, so we said, hey, let's do it again, and we are excited that this could be something that could develop into something further and really bless our congregation and those who are able to join us.

01:22:52

But it's free, there's no charge, so if you can only come for one session, if you're in the area and want to come for a session, feel free to do that.

01:23:02

I don't know if I mentioned this, but there will also be a question -and -answer time on Saturday.

01:23:09

We'll close out our time together on Saturday with a question -and -answer time. Great, and I did personally so much enjoy the time with Phil Johnson that you had last year.

01:23:20

I was there for the entire conference, really enjoyed not only the event, but fellowshipping with Phil personally, and I have gained,

01:23:30

I believe, a number of new listeners for Iron Sherpan's Iron Radio from the pastors that were in attendance, because I've heard from some of them from time to time.

01:23:39

So I'm looking forward to this next event, and hopefully we'll be there, God willing.

01:23:45

We have a question from Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania. Just out of curiosity,

01:23:51

Josh, how far is Perry County from Harrisburg? Well, that's the next county north of us, so you know, you can, 10 -12 miles, you're into Perry County, and we have actually members from our church that come down from Perry County.

01:24:06

Okay, because I am somewhat of a newcomer or a new resident of Pennsylvania.

01:24:12

I've been here since 2014, so I'm not very familiar with how a lot of the distances work, but Arnie in Perry County says, you mentioned that Mike Ebendroth will be speaking on assurance at your conference on the

01:24:30

Reformation. It is indeed a puzzling fact of history, however, that Martin Luther himself did believe that a genuine born -again believer could lose his or her salvation.

01:24:44

Do you have any response on how Luther could believe such a thing, in addition to baptismal regeneration, and yet claim the solos of the

01:24:55

Reformation that we all share in common as children or heirs of the Reformation?

01:25:02

Yeah, in some ways I guess that is new to me. I have to do research on my own to see exactly how

01:25:08

Martin Luther articulated that. Yeah, he did, the listener is correct. I've spoken with enough

01:25:15

Luther scholars to know that those are realities, including

01:25:21

Karl Truman and others. Yeah, and I guess just how to respond to that, how we would respond to anybody else,

01:25:32

I guess, who could believe that you could lose your salvation, is, you know, passages of Scripture that defend the certainty and the security of the believer in Christ.

01:25:45

Certainly 1 John chapter 5 comes to mind, you know, these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life.

01:25:55

I'm preaching through John 17 and maybe it's stereotypical of the pastor to answer every question with the passage he's currently preaching through, but John 17 deals predominantly with the security of the believer for whom

01:26:13

Christ is praying, those whom the Father has given to him, and the eternal security that the believer has there.

01:26:23

Certainly we know the Reformation distinction. When we start talking about eternal security, we do want to nuance that and qualify that a little bit.

01:26:34

We're talking about the perseverance of the saints, that the true saint will persevere through trial and in obedience, obviously empowered by the sanctifying work of the

01:26:45

Spirit in their life, but it will not, that preservation will not be apart from the will of the believer.

01:26:55

That there will be labor, there will be difficulty, there will be real temptation. The warning passages in Hebrews chapter 6 and Hebrews chapter 10, those are real warning passages, and the faithful take those to heart.

01:27:11

Those are one of the means by which God preserves those who are his, is by reminding them and charging them in faithfulness and reminding them of the threat of damnation that is real.

01:27:29

Yeah, we have to constantly do damage control, we who are thoroughgoing

01:27:35

Calvinists, that is, we have to do damage control when we are discussing the gospel with either

01:27:43

Roman Catholics or even members of cults like the Mormons, like Jehovah's Witnesses, other cults, who will say, well

01:27:52

I know for certain you guys who are Protestants are totally off the mark biblically because you believe you can live any way you want and you will go to heaven.

01:28:03

And unfortunately many of our brethren or professing brethren on the landscape of evangelicalism do believe that.

01:28:14

Even Charles Stanley in his book on eternal security wrote that you could become a born -again

01:28:21

Christian and then within minutes or even seconds become an atheist and that will not affect your eternal stance before God.

01:28:30

Obviously we believe that if somebody is born again they will not become an atheist. We don't believe, we don't believe in the permanent apostasy of the elect that could never happen.

01:28:42

A good tree will bear bear good fruit. Right. Those who are truly Christ's will live, not perfectly, they will live lives that have been littered with sin but we will still be marked out with being a people of repentance by getting up, dusting ourselves off, praying to God for forgiveness, repenting of our sins, moving on, and so on.

01:29:06

We're not going to wallow permanently in the sins unrepentantly. Am I right on that? Oh, absolutely.

01:29:13

You know, when you get in, you know, you mentioned Charles Stanley, but when you get into the amount of weight that's placed on a verbal articulation of belief, no matter at what stage, what age, and not seeing that backed up with a transformation of life, that verbal articulation should be questioned.

01:29:38

I mean, even we're challenged in the New Testament to question and to challenge our faith, or to see if we are in the faith.

01:29:49

And yeah, that's why that word perseverance is such a helpful term that we will press on in obedience.

01:29:59

We believe that we are new creatures in Christ and that there should be a demonstration of that in a person's life.

01:30:06

Now, sanctification is a slow road in the slow, stumbling walk in the same direction.

01:30:15

I say sometimes to my people, sometimes you're merely facing the right direction. You don't feel like you're moving.

01:30:22

But looking in the right direction is a demonstration of where you know that your hope is, but you're absolutely right.

01:30:29

There has to be a demonstration of salvation. This has ecclesiastical implications as well.

01:30:36

When you start talking about life in the Church, when you start talking about Church discipline, how can you legitimately discipline somebody from a

01:30:45

Church, and following Matthew 18, you are declaring at the congregation, we can no longer testify to your salvation.

01:30:56

Like, how can you do that if you don't have some standard of transformation, an expectation of a demonstration of a

01:31:05

Christian life? So I think there's all sorts of implications when you water down the

01:31:12

Gospel to merely a verbal declaration and not a life transformation.

01:31:19

But again, there is a call for much grace, and walking alongside people and helping them see their sin, and in growing in righteousness.

01:31:32

Well, the very fact that we who are Reformed, Five -Point Calvinists, Sovereign Grace Believers, however you want to phrase it, the very fact that we still revere

01:31:43

Martin Luther as a great hero of the Church, is proof that we do believe in a biblical ecumenism, because we share a

01:31:53

Gospel with Martin Luther in spite of any disagreements that we had or have with him.

01:32:00

And Martin Luther is sometimes a very hard person to pin down because of the fact, you got to keep in mind, he was one of the first to actually be a significant figure in the

01:32:13

Reformation and the break from Rome. There were others before him who were burned at the stake while still remaining in the

01:32:20

Church of Rome and simultaneously protesting against their heresies.

01:32:26

But Martin Luther never wanted to leave the Church of Rome, and his departure theologically from the

01:32:34

Church of Rome was gradual, and not everything that Rome held to was abandoned by him.

01:32:41

And he wasn't a systematic theologian as was, or as much of one, as was

01:32:47

John Calvin certainly. Right. And so you have a much sharper break from Rome with John Calvin, with John Knox, with Thomas Cramner and others.

01:33:03

And even more so, we who are Baptistic or Baptists, confessionally Reformed Baptists and others, we believe that we even broke further away from Rome than even our

01:33:14

Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed brethren, because we abandoned even more of what we think are trappings of Rome like infant baptism.

01:33:22

Right. Yep. Thank you Arnie and Perry County. We hope to see you at the

01:33:30

Reformation Conference, Why the Reformation Still Matters, at the

01:33:35

Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. If you want to call them for directions and other details, call 717 -652 -5229 717 -652 -5229 or go to gracebfc .com.

01:33:49

Grace B as in Bible, F as in fellowship, C as in church .com forward slash conference.

01:33:57

That's October 6th and the 7th. We are going to our final break.

01:34:03

It's a much briefer break than the last one, but if you'd like to ask us a question, please send in your question immediately before we run out of time.

01:34:11

Our email address again is chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com.

01:34:18

Please give us your first name, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

01:34:24

USA, and please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. chrisarnson at gmail .com.

01:34:30

Don't go away, we'll be right back. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

01:34:40

If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

01:34:50

And besides that, they feel so good. I'm so delighted I discovered post -Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding.

01:34:57

No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post -Tenebrous

01:35:03

Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan. All his work is done by hand, from the cutting, to the pleating of corners, to the perimeter stitching.

01:35:13

Jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors, like the turquoise goatskin tanned in Italy used for my

01:35:22

Nestle All -in 28th Edition, with a navy blue goatskin inside liner, and the electric blue goatskin from a

01:35:29

French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study Bible I used as a gift. The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome.

01:35:40

Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications, and even emboss your logo into the leather, making whatever he rebinds a one -of -a -kind work of art.

01:35:50

For more details on post -Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding, go to ptlbiblerebinding .com.

01:35:58

That's ptlbiblerebinding .com. Gotta tell you, for my money,

01:36:10

Chris Arnzen's radio program is just the best. I think that's what it's called.

01:36:20

This is Todd Friel of Wretched Radio and TV, with Phil Johnson of Grace to You, inviting everybody to come to the

01:36:27

G3 conference, which has almost instantly become one of the best conferences in the country. And it is.

01:36:32

It's a great conference. I love it. And Chris Arnzen was there last year. He's been there, I think, every year.

01:36:38

It's great to see him there. You and I actually did some recordings in the lobby at that place, which is a highlight.

01:36:44

Tons of stuff going on. Tons of great speakers. And no matter where you are in the building, you will hear Chris Arnzen's laugh.

01:36:50

And that's worth the price of admission alone. If you would like to join Phil, me, Chris, and a cavalcade of great preachers, so it should be a cavalcade of great preachers, and me,

01:37:02

G3conference .com, G3conference .com. Have you been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron Radio?

01:37:18

We remain on the air because of our faithful sponsors and because of listeners like you. There are four ways you can help.

01:37:25

First, do you know potential sponsors who may wish to advertise their goods or services on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio?

01:37:32

Second, whenever possible, purchase the products or use the services that our sponsors advertise, and then let them know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:37:43

Thirdly, you can also donate to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio by going to our website at ironsharpensironradio .com

01:37:50

and click support at the top of the page. But most importantly, keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in your prayers.

01:37:57

We hope that Iron Sharpens Iron Radio blesses you for many years to come. Linbrook Baptist Church on 225

01:38:11

Earl Avenue in Linbrook, Long Island, is teaching God's timeless truths in the 21st century. Our church is far more than a

01:38:17

Sunday worship service. It's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant.

01:38:23

It's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement. It's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people in healing.

01:38:31

We're a diverse family of all ages, enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship, play, and together.

01:38:37

Hi, I'm Pastor Bob Walderman and I invite you to come and join us here at Linbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be.

01:38:43

Call Linbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402. That's 516 -599 -9402 or visit linbrookbaptist .org.

01:38:53

That's linbrookbaptist .org. Iron Sharpens Iron Radio is sponsored by Harvey Cedars, a year -round

01:39:04

Bible conference and retreat center nestled on the Jersey Shore. Harvey Cedars offers a wide range of accommodations to suit groups up to 400.

01:39:13

For generations, Christians have enjoyed gathering and growing at Harvey Cedars. Each year, thousands of high school and college students come and learn more about God's Word.

01:39:24

An additional 9 ,000 come annually to Harvey Cedars as families, couples, singles, men, women, pastors, seniors, and missionaries.

01:39:35

Ninety miles from New York City, 70 miles from Philly, and 95 miles from Wilmington, and easily accessible, scores of notable

01:39:44

Christian groups frequently plan conferences at Harvey Cedars like The Navigators, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade, and the

01:39:54

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Find Harvey Cedars on Facebook or at hcbible .org.

01:40:03

hcbible .org. Call 609 -494 -5689.

01:40:10

609 -494 -5689. Harvey Cedars, where Christ finds people and changes lives.

01:40:19

Every day, at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts,

01:40:39

Long Island Youth for Christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need Jesus. We are rural and urban, and we are always about the message of Jesus.

01:40:48

Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ.

01:40:56

Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959. We have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.

01:41:10

Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above.

01:41:17

For details, call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333.

01:41:24

That's 631 -385 -8333. Or visit liyfc .org.

01:41:33

That's liyfc .org. Hello, my name is

01:41:45

James Renahan, and I'm the president of IRBS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, Texas. The Word of God says, if a man desires the office of an overseer, he desires a good thing.

01:41:56

Do you have the desire to serve Jesus Christ in pastoral ministry? Twenty years ago, the

01:42:01

Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies at Westminster Seminary, California was born. For those two decades, these institutions worked together to train men for ministry in Reformed Baptist churches.

01:42:13

It has been a wonderful partnership. Now we have advanced our school into an independent seminary offering a full program of courses leading to the

01:42:21

Master of Divinity degree. This is IRBS Theological Seminary. We believe that the scriptures of the

01:42:27

Old and New Testaments are the inspired and inerrant Word of God, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who came to save sinners by his life, death, and resurrection, and that the task of the church is to honor and serve the triune

01:42:38

God in all things. IRBS Theological Seminary is dedicated by God's grace to preparing godly ministers who will be committed to these doctrines.

01:42:48

Do you sense a call to serve Jesus Christ in his church as a pastor? Why not consider IRBS Theological Seminary?

01:42:54

You'll find more information at irbsseminary .org. That's irbsseminary .org, two

01:43:00

S's in the middle. I hope to hear from you soon. God bless you. Listening to Christian radio can be a big gamble spiritually.

01:43:24

Even many of the major Christian networks that include excellent biblically faithful teachers on their lineup sadly often also include the worst of doctrinally dangerous heretics.

01:43:34

If you are a lover of the doctrines of sovereign grace, you need not fear listening 24 hours a day to firstloveradio .org.

01:43:43

They feature Christ -centered programming from Reformed pastors and teachers you can rely upon for theological soundness and biblical faithfulness, such as Dr.

01:43:52

W. R. Downing, Dr. Peter Masters, Pastor Joe Jakowicz, Pastor Robert Gifford, Al Martin, Edward Delcor and more.

01:44:01

Firstloveradio .org also live streams my Iron Trepans Iron Radio program daily.

01:44:07

Please stick around on firstloveradio .org after Iron Trepans Iron Radio is over to continue being blessed by the unwavering proclamation of the gospel of sovereign grace.

01:44:18

Spread the word about firstloveradio .org. Welcome back.

01:44:31

This is Chris Arnzen and this is the last segment of today's interview with Pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

01:44:41

We have been discussing the theme of his Reformation Conference, Why the Reformation Still Matters. And that Reformation conference is being held

01:44:48

Saturday, October 6th and Sunday, October 7th featuring guest speaker Mike Abendroth.

01:44:54

Call 717 -652 -5229 for more details 717 -652 -5229 or go to gracebfc .com

01:45:03

forward slash conference. That's gracebfc for Bible Fellowship Church dot com forward slash conference.

01:45:11

And we do have a listener. We have BB in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, who has a question for you.

01:45:21

How do you respond to those of our dear Pato Baptist brothers and sisters in Christ who say that we cannot be right as Baptists because the vast majority of the brilliant minds of the

01:45:36

Reformation exegeted the scriptures as to convince them of infant baptism.

01:45:42

We are on unsafe ground when we come up with the idea of the baptism of believers only, excluding infants.

01:45:57

Yeah, that's a pretty direct statement. I don't know that I have encountered a Pato Baptist that has spoken that directly, but...

01:46:05

I have. Okay. Well, that's... So, yeah, certainly not denying the claim, but there's certainly much to agree on as far as if they believe the true gospel.

01:46:20

Certainly with my Pato Baptist friends and even fellow pastors that are

01:46:26

Pato Baptist, not at our church, but pastor friends, you know, we celebrate the truth of the gospel.

01:46:33

I guess it's somewhat connected to the comment, the question that was asked about Martin Luther, and time has,

01:46:41

I guess, proven and tested Luther's faithfulness at the heart of the gospel when it came to justification by faith alone, but you certainly try to engage in a collegial way.

01:46:58

As far as arguments against Pato Baptism, I mean, that's probably another interview, and then why

01:47:06

I have convictions regarding Credo Baptism or Believer's Baptism. But I can only answer,

01:47:13

I guess, personally how I engage is just in a collegial way, and certainly have had colorful conversations when it comes to that, and certainly

01:47:22

I wish that we could agree on this issue. I was actually just commenting this morning to somebody, it's part of the

01:47:28

Great Commission is to baptize. I just wish we can get at least the Great Commission in agreement, or be in agreement about what to do with the

01:47:37

Great Commission when it comes to those who hold to the doctrines of grace and hold to the primacy of God's Word in the gospel.

01:47:45

So yeah, I don't have a step -by -step how to engage other than, depending on the relationship you have with them as those issues come up, and trying to answer distinctly, directly, understanding your own convictions.

01:48:03

Reminded of Paul's instruction in Romans 14, where there was a division about days of worship and what to worship on and food to eat, you know, even counseled them to be even more convinced in their own mind of their position.

01:48:21

And I think through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, as you submit yourself to the Word of God and become even more convinced that the

01:48:29

Lord will seal His truth upon your mind, and it's one of the blessings of this type of disagreement, is that we are driven to our authority, the

01:48:40

Word of God. And hopefully those friends that are Pedobaptists hold up the

01:48:45

Word of God as the ultimate authority, and it can, in your discussions, it can even be a time of worship, and seeing that you both are submitting to the truth of God's Word.

01:48:58

There are implications to that, though, that are undeniable. The Pedobaptist versus Cradle Baptist, and that are heartbreaking,

01:49:08

I think, not to overstate it, but when you think of what constitutes the nature of the

01:49:16

Church, I think that Pedobaptisms and those who hold that are confused on that issue.

01:49:23

Who's a part of the Church, then? Do those who are

01:49:31

Pedobaptists, I know some would say that once you're baptized you're a part of the Church community, now do they then come under Church discipline if they are an ongoing unrepentant sin?

01:49:44

There's confusion on that, I think. Yeah, there's even confusion amongst

01:49:49

Pedobaptists. They are not all a monolith. There are Pedobaptists who, in many respects, often teach and behave like Reformed Baptists, and I hope

01:50:02

I'm not insulting Dr. Joel Beakey by putting him among that group, but Dr. Joel Beakey agrees with Reformed Baptists that children of Christians are a mission field, and that we are to view them as lost until they demonstrate from their belief and their lives that they have been born again, not the other way around.

01:50:24

Many Pedobaptists will assume or presume their children are born again, even from infancy, until they demonstrate that they are in rebellion against God, and there can be a very stark contrast in the way family life is conducted and the way children are evangelized as a result of that.

01:50:53

And as I said, they don't all agree with each other on that. Right, right. I don't know if your listener could benefit even from reading the

01:51:02

Westminster Confession of Faith on baptism, and that language in that confession is just fascinating to me, that they can move from the first two paragraphs and then conclude that infant baptism is a legitimate demonstration or symbol of what takes place in the life of a person.

01:51:29

Yeah, I'll just leave it at that, we don't have time to go through that confession, but you can check out that and see the language that's used there.

01:51:37

And my favorite method of convincing Pedobaptists of credo or believers -only baptism involves a dark basement, a chair, and a roll of duct tape, but I won't go into that right now.

01:51:52

Just kidding, of course. What I like to say when I hear Pedobaptists, or even others who say, well, how can you believe in credo or believer -only baptism when the great minds of the

01:52:09

Reformation, like Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and Knox and Cramner, all unanimously believed in pedobaptism,

01:52:19

I often respond, well, that's why I don't believe in Sola Luther, or Sola Calvin, or Sola Zwingli, or Sola Cramner, or Sola Knox.

01:52:30

I believe in the Sola Scriptura, just as they did. They were just, I believe, more inconsistent with that great watchword of the

01:52:38

Reformation, that battle cry, that pillar of the Reformation, Sola Scriptura, that the Scriptures alone are our sole, inerrant, and infallible authority and rule of life for the

01:52:49

Church. And as much as we love not only our our pedobaptist heroes of the past, and also our pedobaptist friends of the present, and how much we have learned from them, and even have them preach from our pulpits, we disagree with them on their consistency with Sola Scriptura on that end.

01:53:09

Yep, yep. And so we can say we honor them by being pedobaptists, because we are upholding

01:53:16

Sola Scriptura, a doctrine that they fought for, and many gave their life for.

01:53:22

Well, I want you to have five minutes uninterrupted right now to etch on the hearts and minds of our listeners what you want them most to remember.

01:53:32

Oh, well, certainly from the topic that we have opened up here, why the

01:53:39

Reformation still matters, I mean, my heart certainly is for those trapped in Catholicism, and having seen the beauty of salvation that has been completed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and to be received by faith alone.

01:53:59

But part of my burden, and maybe even a greater burden of my heart, is to see the necessity for Reformation in the modern

01:54:07

Church, in the modern evangelical Church, where the same issues that were necessary to be fought for back in the 16th and 17th centuries seem to be rising up again when you're talking about areas of biblical authority and sufficiency, when you're talking about areas of mysticism,

01:54:31

I mean, how the Lord communicates to us and speaks to us, and these things are issues within the evangelical movement that I think are really compromising the local

01:54:46

Church and undermining the authority of God's Word in even more subtle ways, because they carry the language of truth, but subtly are undermining the necessity of the preached

01:55:01

Word, which the Reformation recovered the pulpit in many ways. And so that's really what was driving this conference, and the reason for it was certainly the theological distinctive between Protestant faith and the

01:55:20

Catholic religion, but also the need for the modern

01:55:25

Church to be reminded again of what we are built upon and what we are to uphold.

01:55:33

We have one more question that we have time for. Harrison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania says, how do you use the absolute and utter liberalism of the current pope to witness to Roman Catholics as to the fallacy of their belief in papal infallibility?

01:55:54

That's an excellent question, because I do bring that up to my Catholic friends, and I tell them, how on earth can you view that man as a faithful shepherd when he is not only an apostate from biblical

01:56:08

Christianity from a Protestant perspective, but also an apostate from Roman Catholicism? He would certainly have been executed by, or the execution would be called for on his part by those gathered at the

01:56:24

Council of Trent. The schism that is developing within the Catholic religion now between, you know, progressives and traditionalists is, from my vantage point, is interesting, to say the least, to watch, and what is being defended by the progressives, because they don't want to lose their position to the traditionalists.

01:56:52

And the traditionalists within the Catholic religion are, you know, they're forced to defend the seat of the pope because of their theology, but not defend virtually a word that he says.

01:57:07

And even more than the pope is this whole sexual scandal. I mean, this is enormous.

01:57:14

I don't know if your listeners are familiar with Stephen Wedgworth. He's a

01:57:19

Presbyterian pastor from Canada, but his works, his writings on and exposing this is remarkable.

01:57:29

But it really comes back to the issues, again, back at the

01:57:35

Reformation, where those who could not defend themselves, they were being taken advantage of.

01:57:41

And the Catholic religion is still duping the masses and taking advantage of those who cannot defend themselves.

01:57:49

Back then, it was indulgences to fund the building of St. Peter's Basilica.

01:57:55

Here, it's sexual crime and taking advantage of the weak and the helpless and using a system to cover it up, which is undeniable.

01:58:05

And you're right, Catholics have to answer to that. And we're beginning to see why there was a

01:58:11

Reformation to begin with. Yes. And of course, the frequent reply will be, well, the pope is only infallible when he declares something ex cathedra.

01:58:22

Well, that still doesn't solve the problem of him being completely unreliable as a faithful shepherd and as a guide that you could rely upon when he has even abandoned much of Catholic theology, let alone biblical.

01:58:36

And the average Catholic is not going to know the difference. And so this is definitely a matter for a future discussion.

01:58:45

And by the way, please give me Stephen Wedgworth's contact information for a future interview. I want to remind our listeners that you can go to gracebfc .com.

01:58:55

That's Grace, B for Bible, F for Fellowship, C for church .com forward slash conference for the

01:59:01

Reformation Conference at Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Why the

01:59:06

Reformation Still Matters featuring guest speaker, Mike Ebendroff. You could also call 717 -652 -5229, 717 -652 -5229.

01:59:16

That's Saturday, October 6th and Sunday, October 7th. Pastor Josh Miller, if you could just hold on the line so I could say a proper goodbye to you off the air.

01:59:25

And I want to thank everybody who listened today, especially those who wrote in questions. I hope you all have a blessed, safe and happy weekend and Lord's Day.

01:59:34

And I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.