March 31, 2020 Show with Geoff Thomas on “Real Evangelism”

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April 1, 2020

March 31, 2020 Rev. GEOFF THOMAS, who, beginning in 1965, served for over 50 years as pastor @ Alfred Place Baptist Church of Aberystwyth, Wales, author & frequent speaker @ conferences conducted by Banner of Truth will address: “REAL EVANGELISM”

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01:10: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet
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01:20: This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this 31st day of March 2020.
01:29: And we have returning for the second day in a row today, Reverend Jeff Thomas.
01:35: He has been the pastor for over 50 years before retirement at Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales.
01:48: He's an author and frequent speaker at conferences conducted by Banner of Truth and other ministries.
01:54: And today we are going to be discussing real evangelism. And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back for the second day of our interviews,
02:04: Reverend Jeff Thomas. Wonderful to be with you again and from this little room being heard by numbers of people in lots of faraway places with strange sounding names like Aberystwyth.
02:24: Yes, and I know that right now you are in London, England. How is everyone managing?
02:31: Well, you can't obviously respond to how everyone is managing, but how are the people that you know and love, including yourself, managing with the coronavirus?
02:39: Yes. Well, one of my grandsons, he's 23, and he started to feel unwell and he's got a temperature, and they're presuming that the coronavirus has affected him.
02:55: And so that means then his father and mother, who occasionally have to go in and help out teaching in their schools, which are ministering to the children of doctors and nurses and police people and ambulance staff and paramedics and the children then, all those children need to be looked after.
03:23: But my daughter and her husband, they have to stay inside for two weeks now.
03:31: Oh dear. So that's just a little window on one family, and there are many, many like that, especially in the
03:42: London area. Now, are things similar to here in the United States, where everything has been shut down except for those things that are necessary, like grocery stores and other things?
03:58: Pharmacies, groceries, those are the two shops that you see open.
04:07: Streets are deserted, schools closed, cinemas, restaurants, some fast food places, takeaways, but that's all.
04:25: Well, I would ask my audience to please pray for not only our guest today,
04:32: Reverend Jeff Thomas, to protect him and his wife Barbara from the coronavirus, but also to minister that our great physician ministers to Jeff's grandson, and his name again is?
04:49: His name is Yuan. Okay, well, if we could ask of you to pray for him, since it is feared that he has the coronavirus, but I don't believe that it has been determined yet.
05:03: Well, real evangelism is the topic at hand today. I think it's a very vital topic, because you have those within Christendom who are involved in fake evangelism, or insufficient evangelism, and they may believe in the deity of Christ, they may believe in the
05:29: Holy Trinity, that God exists in three co -eternal and co -equal persons, they may believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
05:40: But the way that they convey what they would call the gospel to the world may be unbiblical, and we'll get into some of the ways that it's true, because that could be true not only on the left, where people present a mushy -gushy, syrupy -sweet message that is not a call to repentance, that has no fear of hell in it, no fear of condemnation in it.
06:10: Then you could have, of course, on the right, people who are really teaching a works righteousness or a legalism as a means to be right with God.
06:22: But if you could, before we even go into real evangelism and some of its counterfeits, can you define evangelism?
06:32: That might seem like a no -brainer, but there are terms that we use that sometimes we use as synonyms, but they do have differences.
06:40: Like, for instance, how would evangelism compare and contrast to preaching and teaching?
06:47: Yeah. Yeah. I think evangelism is the presentation of the
06:54: Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by your life and by your words, in such a way as to draw other people to entrust themselves to him, to believe into him, and to follow him for the rest of their lives, turning away from other lords and ending their unbelief and henceforth living with him and for him day by day.
07:39: And evangelism, unlike preaching and teaching in a formal sense, in the church, a preacher and a teacher in the church are actually offices in the church, whereas evangelism is something that everyone, man, woman, and child in the church, is supposed to be involved in, am
08:03: I right? Of course. Of course you see that, don't you, in the New Testament when persecution came and the
08:12: Christians were scattered abroad and then all of them, wherever they were, were anxious to use this providence to explain to people who they were and why they were serving
08:30: Jesus Christ and how magnificent and beautiful he was.
08:36: I remember John Blanchard speaking to me once and saying to me that all that we've got today, everything that the
08:46: New Testament Christians had, don't we, he said, we have
08:51: Christ -like living, we have illimitable personal access to the indwelling
09:01: Holy Spirit. We have the energy and the strength that he gives to us to live the beatitude life, to be poor in spirit, to mourn for our sins, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers, to suffer for him.
09:29: We live like that. It's from that kind of lifestyle that a message comes.
09:39: And then we pray like they did. We believe what James says, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
09:51: And Paul tells people, pray for me now, pray that a door will be opened that Paul needed to pray,
09:57: Jesus prayed. And we pray to the same God by the same spirit of prayer.
10:03: And then we have the Word of God. They slowly started to have Gospels and letters.
10:10: Well, we have 27 New Testament documents and all
10:16: God -breathed, and we've got that. And then we can, in every circumstance, then we can give a reason for the hope we have.
10:32: Through with meekness and reverence to anyone who asks us, why in such despairing days are you so cheerful and have such confidence?
10:45: That's what they did, and that's what we can do today, every one of us. That's real evangelism.
10:53: And from what I have witnessed for the over 20 years that I have been...
11:01: Actually, wow, it's going on... Let's see. It's going on 40 years.
11:07: What am I saying, 20? I forget how old I am sometimes. But the approximately 40 years since I have been saved...
11:16: Actually, no, 30 years. The thing that I have witnessed, not only working in Christian media, but also just seeing and witnessing
11:31: Christians, pastors, evangelists, televangelists communicating what they would call the
11:37: Gospel on television and radio and so on, and in popular books, it seems to me that a desire to win over people, to like them, and to not be offended in any way, to not have their feelings hurt, these things seem to reign supreme and override what is most important.
12:05: Number one, glorifying God and obeying Him. But also, number two, the actual genuine love that we are to have for the lost that would compel us to warn them about their fate, their eternal destiny, their condemnation and their damnation should they reject
12:27: Jesus Christ and His only way of salvation, which was
12:32: His death on Calvary. So would you say that it is men -pleasing and the fear of men over the fear of God that has caused a lot of the problems in the way many people, especially the very popular evangelists, so -called, attempt to evangelize?
12:50: Oh, I wholly agree with you. You summed it up very well indeed,
12:56: Chris. That has been a cause for people to distrust and feel suspicion about this adorable, gentle, and holy, and sane, and uninventable man,
13:18: Jesus Christ. And they sense fakery, don't they?
13:26: When I talk about real evangelism, my concern has been, firstly, with the health and wealth heresy.
13:42: Oh, yeah. That the enticement for people to believe is that then they're going to have a
13:55: Cadillac and a big house and a condo in Florida, and they're never going to have any illnesses or sicknesses, and to become a
14:09: Christian for purely material and fleshly reasons.
14:18: And that, it seems to me, is such a horrible error.
14:26: And that isn't real evangelism at all.
14:34: But then to go one step further and more at home in our own circles,
14:43: I'm sorry that there is a limited offer being made by us of what
14:52: God will do for you if you follow and serve the
14:59: Lord Jesus Christ. I heard a young man preaching in a daughter's church a month ago.
15:06: Well, he was grand. Oh, he had one theme and one text, and he returned to it, and he addressed the congregation with it, and he laid it on them, and he went back to it.
15:19: Oh, 40, 50 minutes even. But in the end, there was only one thing that he was offering to them, and that was that they could have forgiveness for their sins if they trusted in Jesus Christ.
15:37: And for the young people that were there, there wasn't a lot of them who felt they had many sins to be forgiven.
15:48: And it was such an unlimited bargain that they were to give up now being their own masters and lords and choose their life, and they were to follow
16:02: Jesus Christ, and then what they would get was forgiveness of sins. And, ah, there is so much more, so much more that we need to be offering to men and women.
16:19: For example, you could know God. If you trust in Jesus Christ, if you've seen
16:26: Jesus Christ, you've seen God. If you know Him, you know who
16:32: God is and what God is like because I and my
16:38: Father are one, Jesus says. And so who is
16:43: God? How do we know Him? Well, we know Him because He has sent His prophets to speak to us,
16:49: Moses and Elijah and David and all those men, but most of all in these last times,
16:55: He has sent Christ and His apostles. You can know God, and then you can know yourself, who you are.
17:06: Kermit the Frog was interviewing Peter Sellers, and he was speaking to Peter Sellers.
17:12: Kermit the Frog, did you say? Kermit the Frog, yes. And he said,
17:22: Kermit the Frog said to Peter Sellers, now, you know, who is the real
17:27: Peter Sellers? Peter Sellers just collapsed and broke down.
17:32: He said, I don't know. I don't know who I am. And there are so many people who don't know who they are.
17:42: What is this person? Who am
17:47: I? What is a man? What is a woman? And this is eternal life, to know
17:55: Jesus Christ and then to know yourself, because in knowing
18:02: Christ, you have something to bounce off to understand who you are.
18:08: And then you can have all your sins forgiven, and that is phenomenal.
18:18: You just gasp in wonder at that. And as the years go by, you see the ugliness of remaining sin, and you feel the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of your life, and God knows them all, and all our sins laid on Christ, all our past sins, all our present sins, all our future sins, are all forgiven.
18:49: That's what comes. And Jesus could say to a man, your sins are forgiven you.
18:56: And then hopefully you could have all things working together for your good. Imagine that. Everything that happens in your life, you know, there's a great book by Thomas Watson.
19:05: It was called The Divine Cordial, and now it's called All for Good.
19:12: And in that book, the first half of it says, our best things work for our good.
19:18: And in the last half of it, Thomas Watson writes and says, our worst things work for our good.
19:27: Do you want that? Surely you want that. All things working for your good. And then
19:33: God says, he will supply all our needs, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
19:40: We sing in greetings of faithfulness. All I have needed thy hand hath provided, great is thy faithfulness,
19:47: Lord, unto me. So that we can have everything that touches our lives as gently as a mother's kiss when she wakes up a little girl from an afternoon nap, or as an earthquake shaking a prison where in stocks
20:06: God's children are in a dark, damp dungeon. It works for our good.
20:13: And then God supplying all our needs, helping us, watching over us, physical needs, material needs, spiritual needs, needs to overcome testings and temptations.
20:30: And then God says, we can learn contentment in whatever circumstances we are in.
20:38: And we learn contentment by understanding the will of God, knowing his sovereignty, and saying to him, thy will be done.
20:49: I'll be at peace as long as I know this is your will.
20:54: And then you have the possibility of becoming incomparably wiser and stronger.
21:03: Paul prays for the church at Ephesus and he wants them to be filled with the might of his spirit in their inner man, that God will fill them with wisdom and understanding and knowledge.
21:18: Don't you want that for your future? That instead of becoming more foolish and self -centered in the years to come, this great offer that God will make you a wiser and stronger person?
21:35: And then that you can know your purpose in life. What are we in the world for? What's it all about?
21:42: And we can learn that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
21:49: That's why we're in this world. And we can learn from then the preaching that we hear every
21:57: Sunday and the Bible and the books that we read. We can discover what the purpose of life is all about.
22:09: And then we can belong to the best and happiest people on earth, that is God's people. God's own children, his sons and daughters.
22:20: We can run into his presence and we can say, Abba, Father. And we can have him to help us and keep us day by day.
22:31: And they are the people we live with and we go on vacations with and we speak to on the phone and we meet them in a midweek meeting.
22:41: We meet them on a Sunday and we find help and comfort from them. We've got a group of people that really care for us.
22:50: I'm thrilled when we confess Jesus Christ is Lord. And then finally, we have hope at the end.
22:59: When we're dying, we can have hope that the grave is not going to be the end.
23:07: We're not going to be snuffed out, but that we are going to an inheritance of incorruptible and defiled, a new heavens, a new earth.
23:17: We're going to see Jesus. We're going to be like him. We're going to meet with all those that have gone before us who loved and served the
23:25: Lord Jesus. I mean, those are the offers that we make to men and women,
23:32: Chris, aren't they? We don't just say to them, you're going to have your sins again. All of these things happen to the mere believer, to the person whose trust is in Jesus Christ.
23:44: All these blessings become yours. And so that's real evangelism for me.
23:52: And that's what I want to hear when I go to church on Sunday. I want to hear all the blessings of the mind and to be reminded of them and to learn about them
24:03: Sunday by Sunday. Amen. Well, I want to make sure that our listeners have our email address if they have a question.
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25:04: Would you believe that it is legitimate to approach evangelism in different ways according to the people to whom you are evangelizing?
25:17: Let me give you an example. You move into a neighborhood or a new neighbor moves next door to you.
25:24: You greet them over the fence. You say hello and you invite them over for a barbecue or something.
25:31: And you know that this person, barring some unforeseen thing that God has ordained to happen in the future, but you're assuming that this person is going to be living right next door to you for a long time.
25:46: And so you want to let them know who you are and really win them over as a friend and let them get a sense of why they should trust you as a person and so on.
26:02: And then gradually get firmer and firmer in the way that you discuss with them or declare to them the gospel and the penalties for rejecting it.
26:15: As opposed to sitting on a bus, on a train or in a train, in a plane, in a waiting room where you're pretty sure you're never going to see this person that you're sitting next to again.
26:30: And you might want to right out of the gate be immediately, or at least soon after the conversation begins, more direct and really spell it out, the whole story of salvation versus damnation, because this person may be hearing the gospel for the first and last time that they are on this planet.
26:57: Of course. Oh, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I've moved in now two years to London and after we've been living here a year, then the person downstairs moved out and a new young couple moved in.
27:15: And we are trying then in acts of kindness and generosity to build up a relationship with them.
27:26: We're going to be neighbors and we put out the rubbish bins together and do various things like that.
27:36: He's an engineer, she's a doctor. Super young couple. And yeah, it's like I say to students who are converted and they're from a home when nobody goes to church and the parents haven't been inside a church except for a funeral or a wedding, ever.
28:00: And now their son is going twice on a Sunday. And I say, don't say anything, all right?
28:09: You've got your Bible at the side of the bed and they know you're reading that and now you're going to church twice on a
28:16: Sunday. Don't push anything. Make them curious.
28:21: Make them ask questions. Why this change?
28:28: And just gently give them a well -thought -out, kind, and loving answer that you had so much from them but now you've found in Jesus Christ who
28:46: God is and that you've experienced something of the meaning of life and the purpose of God.
28:57: And of course in the New Testament you have the woman of Samaria. Oh, I want to meet her in heaven.
29:04: What a wonderful person. And how Jesus dealt with her dealt with her very differently from how he dealt with Nicodemus or the rich young ruler who came to him and he preached the law to one and he talked about the new birth to the other.
29:23: He talked about her, about her past and about her guilt and explained something of her mixed -up, muddled
29:35: Samaritan theology to her. And so yes, oh, you've got to be flexible, haven't you?
29:42: There's no one formula. If you've only learned formula evangelism then when someone asks you a question outside the formula, outside the reversed answer you haven't got it.
30:02: So you've got to learn to trust in the Holy Spirit and to know something of the graciousness of Jesus Christ in what you say.
30:13: And we have to go to our first break right now and actually before we go to the break I'm going to read a question from a listener and have you answer it when we return.
30:23: This is from Jared in San Antonio, Texas and Jared is a first -time questioner which means,
30:30: Jared, make sure you email me your full mailing address because you have won as a first -time questioner a free, brand -new,
30:39: New American Standard Bible. So that is our standard practice for when first -time questioners email us.
30:49: But he says, My name is Jared. I'm from San Antonio, Texas. You know my pastor, Tim Conway.
30:55: Oh yes, I know him. I do, yes. I have a question for Brother Jeff Thomas in regards to evangelism.
31:01: Undoubtedly, Brother Thomas is a student of church history and obviously many saints in the past have went through pandemics like the one we are facing today, even actually much more severe.
31:14: So my question is, What can we learn from church history in regards to how we can evangelize and witness during this crisis?
31:23: Excellent question and we will have Jeff answer that when we return from our first break.
31:29: If anybody wants to join Jared on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com
31:36: chrisarnson at gmail .com Don't go away. We are going to be right back with Jeff Thomas in Real Evangelism right after these messages from our sponsors.
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41:49: There's a lot of reasons to buy gifts coming up like Easter, like wedding anniversaries, birthdays, all kinds of things coming up.
41:58: Please let solid -ground -books .com be your first avenue for purchasing gifts and also edifying yourself by replenishing your own library with the finest in Christian literature from solid -ground -books .com
42:13: Mike Gaydosh, the founder of this ministry is a mutual friend of Jeff Thomas and mine and we thank him for his financial support of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and we thank him for the extra gift he gave us this month much needed, urgently needed gift that he added on top of his advertising bill and we thank you for that Mike more than you know.
42:35: We are now back with our discussion with Jeff Thomas on Real Evangelism and we had, as you likely remember,
42:43: Reverend Thomas that before the break Jared from San Antonio, Texas asked the question undoubtedly
42:51: Brother Thomas is a student of church history and obviously many saints in the past went through pandemics like the one we are facing today so my question is what can we learn from church history in regards to how we can evangelize and witness during this crisis?
43:09: Well Jared, it's so nice that you called from San Antonio I'm missing seeing all the men there this year with all these visits to the
43:21: United States councils and I have had such sweet fellowship staying with your pastor
43:27: Tim Conway and you know he's got a terrific message at the present time on the coronavirus
43:37: Great and the all the other broadcasts that come from your church they've printed my sermon on it which is on Amos 3, 6
43:50: Wow is a disaster or is a evil in a city and the Lord has not done it but your question is now we are facing this opportunity as our brothers have in other times of the
44:07: Black Death and cold fevers that have come across and terrible flu bugs that have struck down and killed many people what an opportunity this is firstly it tells us a lot of fragility doesn't it well how aggressive and contagious this is and the words of the psalmist say the life of mortals is like grass they flourish like the flower of the field the wind blows over it and it's gone and its place remembers it no more people now are much more aware how fragile they've got friends they've got family that are sick and then this bug it's no respecter of persons the
45:01: Queen's son Prince Charles our future king he's had it Tom Hanks was a popular film star in Hollywood he's got it our
45:12: Prime Minister Boris Boris has got it as well so you might have millions you might have great health and wealth this is a great leveler it disappointed all of us one day to die and then our loss of control we can do all we can and we can take great care and wash our hands and keep apart but we love to be men of destiny but now we're being reminded of how on a breeze touching something and we've got the virus and we're ill and then there is our need of God and our need to pray
46:06: I was listening to a nurse and she was describing the situation in London very similar to New York where the beds are being filled and she said do you know we nurses we got together yesterday morning and we prayed before we went on duty we've never prayed before before we went on duty so here is a spirit of awareness of our frailty and the danger that we are in and the medical people nurses and doctors themselves who've been struck down by it and these are opportunities given to us by one way or another of bringing the gospel to bear upon people they're learning how vain their lives have been oh vanity of vanities all is vanity and they're beginning to learn that great lesson days filled with projects and works and wish lists and homes and holidays and the important thing the important thing the
47:27: God we're going to meet the God in whom we live and move and have our being that God that God says today thy soul will be required of thee he'll say that to all of us one day and we have a message of hope then a message of a
47:48: God who's in control a merciful God a God who spares us a God to whom we can pray with confidence and hope and these are the things in us which will allow us when we meet other people and they start expressing their fears and concerns that we've got something to say to them so yep that's the challenge and just walk in the spirit and trust in Jesus Christ and ask for strength and wisdom from Him day by day
48:29: Well thank you so much Jared and make sure you email me your full mailing address as I said before in San Antonio, Texas so that CVBBS Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service can ship you out a free new copy of the
48:45: New American Standard Bible and that's compliments of the publishers of the NASB and also compliments of CVBBS .com
48:53: who will be shipping it out to you at no charge to you or to Iron Trip and Zion Radio and as I typically do when
48:59: I hear about somebody contacting us from a really biblically solid church that I can affirm and I can feel comfortable spreading the word about them giving them a plug this is certainly the case again and the church where Jared has identified where he is a member where Tim Conway is a pastor a church where our guest today
49:27: Errol I was going to say Errol Hulse where our guest today Jeff Thomas has preached
49:35: Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas their website is gcc s a t x dot com that's gcc for Grace Community Church s a for San Antonio t x for Texas dot com gcc s a t x dot com thank you
49:53: Jared and we have a question from Bobby in Hartsdale, New York he said earlier in the show
50:03: Chris Arnzen said that preachers and teachers are offices in the church
50:09: I thought that pastors and deacons were the only two offices well perhaps
50:14: I should have clarified what I meant by that and perhaps our guest Jeff Thomas can chime in unlike evangelism that every
50:23: Christian is obligated if they're going to be obedient to God every single
50:28: Christian who is truly regenerative of course is obligated to evangelize whether you're a man a woman or a child obviously a child old enough to understand the gospel and to share that good news with his friends and so on but preaching is either the exclusive role of an elder or pastor which
50:53: I think is the same office and not only the exclusive role of the pastor but the those whom the elders give that privilege in the congregation to participate in that activity like for instance
51:10: I am not an office bearer in the church where I'm a member I'm not an elder or a deacon but I have been given the privilege several times a year to preach the gospel at a mission for for alcohol and drug addicted men so well there is that difference that preaching is something that as long as the elders of the church give that person the liberty to participate in that and a teacher obviously there is a difference between the role of a teacher in the church and somebody in their living room teaching something from the bible as they're evangelizing so yes you're right the only offices officially in the church are pastor and deacon and deacon or pastor and deacon so do you have anything further to say about that Jeff?
52:03: No you summed that up very very well I agree with you entirely
52:08: Chris okay and we have let's see we have
52:14: B .B. in Cumberland County Pennsylvania and B .B.
52:19: says don't you think that we who are reformed have a tendency to have too much harshness and too much condemnation and too much fear in our preaching and evangelism and I know that this is a minority in Christendom today where most modern evangelicals are only salving the consciences of lost people but at the same time don't you think that we who are reformed have to make sure that we have an abundance of grace and mercy in our presentation of the gospel ah yes
52:56: B .B. you're right we hung our heads we preach not ourselves don't we we're poor um
53:05: I've I've preached heavy sermons and um
53:11: I'm I'm ashamed I've I've not been winsome
53:16: I've not used enough um illustrations I've not had enough pathos in ah in my messages
53:24: I've not beseeched men and women to come and trust in the
53:34: Lord Jesus Christ you know Paul says as though God were beseeching you by us and it's ah it's it's the savior who weeps over Jerusalem and says ah
53:52: I'd be like a hen spreading my wings over my chicks when it sees a hawk circling overhead and um
54:00: I would protect you I would watch over you and keep you if you will come to me and um we need to have that spirit of Jesus Christ in us um but I'm itinerating and I'm hearing a lot of preaching ah
54:24: I'm hearing a lot of good preaching um I don't think there's any very great awakening preaching in Great Britain at the at the present time not in London but there's a lot of godly earnest unselfish unegotistical people who are opening up scripture and are teaching the word of God um in reliance on the
54:54: Holy Spirit and I am so pleased it doesn't seem to me now that there are huge well -known figures like Billy Graham and Martin Lloyd Jones and in the past George Whitfield and Spurgeon um
55:10: God isn't using that way God is using then um a lot of anonymous humble people uh and he's blessing their words and people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ by by those those means and uh by the way to assure you that that's what
55:36: I'm seeing in London as well as confessing there's just been a little bit too much hardness in my ministry in the past and we have to go to our midway break right now thank you so much
55:51: B .B. for that excellent question uh if anybody else wants to join us on the air please send in an email to chrisarnson at gmail dot com chrisarnson at gmail dot com this is our midway break that's longer than the other breaks because Grace Life Radio 90 .1
56:04: FM in Lake City Florida requires of us a longer break because the
56:10: FCC requires of them uh uh to localize Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and all of their programming to Lake City Florida so they have to air their own public service announcements and other things during the midway break while we air our globally heard commercials so please use this time wisely we ask of you to please write down the information that our advertisers provide so you can more frequently and successfully patronize them and to further ensure that they remain our advertisers which will further ensure we remain on the air but also write a question to Jeff Thomas at chrisarnson at gmail dot com don't go away we'll be right back as host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations a church
57:04: I've been recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington New Jersey pastored by Alan Dunn Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's
57:15: God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world they believe churches need to turn to the
57:23: Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship God in spirit and truth
57:30: Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a God centered focus reading, preaching, and hearing the word of God singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, baptism, and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship performed with faith, joy, and sobriety discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington New Jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace
57:56: .com that's gcbcnj .squarespace
58:02: .com or call them at 908 -996 -7654 that's 908 -996 -7654 tell
58:13: Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly changed our way of life, bringing so many uncertainties.
58:32: When will it end? Why do disasters like this happen? How do we deal with anxiety, fear, and the like?
58:39: Well, join us each Friday on the program Iron Sharpens Iron with your host Chris Arnzen and Pastor Joe Jakiewicz as they explore
58:48: God's word for answers to this and other of life's related issues. Tune in at firstloveradio .org
58:56: that's firstloveradio .org each Friday at 1 p .m.
59:02: Pacific, 4 p .m. Eastern. That's Iron Sharpens Iron on firstloveradio .org
59:08: Friday's 1 p .m. Pacific, 4 p .m. Eastern to hear what the Bible has to say about pandemics and how we should respond.
59:20: When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the
59:25: New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the
59:33: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the
59:38: NASB. I'm Dr. Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics in Islam at the
59:44: Toronto Baptist Seminary, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Jeff Downs of Knox Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and the
59:53: NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Mark Rimaldi of Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merritt, New York, and the
01:00:02: NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Scott Pasolo of the
01:00:08: Master's Church of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and the NASB is my
01:00:14: Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Kevin Venio of the Bible Church of Port Washington, New York, and the
01:00:20: NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Andrew Smith of Christ Reformed Community Church in St.
01:00:26: Augustine, Florida, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Clint Leiter of Highway M Chapel, Sedalia, Missouri, and the
01:00:36: NASB is my Bible of choice. This is
01:01:18: Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.
01:01:24: Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support
01:01:29: Iron Sharpens Iron radio financially. Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our
01:01:45: Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the end for which we strive is the glory of God.
01:01:52: If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe ten minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some
01:02:05: Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.
01:02:15: Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org. That's gracechurchatfranklin .org.
01:02:23: This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign
01:02:29: Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ today and always.
01:02:43: Iron Sharpens Iron welcomes Solid Rock Remodeling to our family of sponsors.
01:02:49: Serving south -central Pennsylvania, Solid Rock Remodeling is focused on discovering, understanding, and exceeding your expectations.
01:02:58: 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.
01:03:15: For a clear, detailed professional estimate, call this trustworthy team of problem solvers who provide superior results that stand the test of time.
01:03:26: Call Solid Rock Remodeling at 717 -697 -1981, 717 -697 -1981, or visit
01:03:37: SolidRockRemodeling .com. That's SolidRockRemodeling .com.
01:03:43: Solid Rock Remodeling, bringing new life to your home. I'm Dr.
01:03:56: Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary. I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,
01:04:07: Hope Reform Baptist Church in Corham, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.
01:04:14: It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Corham, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word, and to enthusiastically proclaim
01:04:32: Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.
01:04:39: I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love, as I have.
01:04:48: For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.
01:04:54: That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.
01:05:03: That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.
01:05:22: Chris Sorensen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio here. I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years.
01:05:29: His name is Dan Buttafuoco. Dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer, but not the type that typically comes to mind.
01:05:37: Dan cares about people and is a theologian himself. Recently, he wrote a book titled Consider the
01:05:43: Evidence for the Bible. Ravi Zacharias wrote the foreword. Dan also has a master's degree in theology.
01:05:50: Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states. He represents many
01:05:56: Christians in serious injury matters all over the country. Dan is an exceptional trial lawyer.
01:06:03: 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 or more, and in approximately 10 different states.
01:06:16: 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
01:06:26: Law Journal. If you have a serious personal injury or medical malpractice claim in any state,
01:06:33: I recommend that you call Dan. Consultations are free. There is no fee unless you win.
01:06:40: Dan Buttafuoco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878. 1 -800 -669 -4878.
01:06:47: Or email me for Dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail .com.
01:06:53: That's chrisarnson at gmail .com. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.
01:07:08: 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.
01:07:18: And besides that, they feel so good. I'm so delighted I discovered post -Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding.
01:07:25: No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post -Tenebrous
01:07:31: 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.
01:07:41: 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
01:07:50: Nessie Allen 28th edition with a navy blue goatskin inside liner and the electric blue goatskin from a
01:07:57: 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.
01:08:08: 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.
01:08:18: For more details on post -Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding, go to ptlbiblerebinding .com.
01:08:29: Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor, frequent co -host with Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpman's Iron Radio.
01:08:40: I would like to introduce you to my good friends Todd and Patty Jennings at CVBBS, which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.
01:08:48: Todd and Patty specialize in supplying Reformed and Puritan books and Bibles at discount prices that make them affordable to everyone.
01:08:55: Since 1987, the family -owned and operated book service has sought to bring you the best available
01:09:01: 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.
01:09:13: 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.
01:09:27: Their website is cvbbs .com. Browse the pages at ease, shop at your leisure, and purchase with confidence as Todd and Patty work in service to you, the
01:09:37: Church, and to Christ. That's Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service at cvbbs .com.
01:09:44: That's cvbbs .com. Let Todd and Patty know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.
01:09:51: And don't forget, folks, if you prefer ordering by phone, you can call their toll -free number at 800 -656 -0231.
01:10:00: 800 -656 -0231. Only call that number Monday through Friday between 10 a .m.
01:10:06: and 4 .30 p .m. Eastern Time. It's the only time, the only times, that that phone line is manned and there is no voicemail.
01:10:14: So that's 800 -656 -0231 Monday through Friday between 10 a .m. and 4 .30
01:10:20: p .m. Eastern Time. And don't forget another recommendation, or something that I request of you at least, is that you first, before going to cvbbs .com
01:10:29: or before calling them, you go to solid -ground -books .com, who is a publisher, unlike cvbbs, which is strictly a book distributor.
01:10:39: So go to our other advertiser, solid -ground -books .com, make a long list of solid -ground
01:10:45: Christian books titles that you'd like to purchase, and then go over to cvbbs .com and order them there because they carry all of solid -ground
01:10:54: Christian books titles, and if they don't have them in stock, they will order them for you. So just keep that in mind.
01:11:00: You'll keep both of my advertisers happy that way. And before we return to our guest,
01:11:06: Jeff Thomas, on Real Evangelism, we just have a couple of important announcements to make. As far as we know, so far, we are still going to be conducting our next
01:11:18: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio free spring pastor's luncheon, and this is going to be held for the very first time at the
01:11:25: Bongiorno Conference Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, God willing. And for the very first time, we will have as a guest speaker my dear friend for many years,
01:11:34: Dr. Conrad Mbewe, the pastor of Cubuata Baptist Church, Lusaka, Zambia, Africa, who is also the former chancellor and currently a lecturer at African Christian University, and I think he's the most powerful preacher on the planet
01:11:49: Earth. If you would like to register for this free pastor's luncheon on Friday, May 29th, it's absolutely free of charge.
01:11:57: Just send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put luncheon in the subject line.
01:12:04: Absolutely free of charge. Not only will you be hearing Dr. Mbewe preach for free and being fed a sumptuous lunch from the
01:12:12: Bongiorno Conference Center for free, but you'll also be getting a heavy sack of free books, brand new books specifically selected by me personally from major Christian publishers all over the
01:12:25: United States and the United Kingdom who have donated books every year for over a decade, nearly 20 years now actually.
01:12:34: This pastor's luncheon began as the idea of my precious late wife,
01:12:40: Julie, who wanted to bless the lives of pastors that I knew personally, and being in Christian radio,
01:12:47: I know many, many, many pastors, so she urged me to join her in having an annual pastor's luncheon where we treated pastors to a wonderful time of fun, food, and fellowship and also hearing an excellent message from a gifted speaker and also to get free books in their hands.
01:13:07: And I have been conducting that luncheon going back all the way to the 1990s and after my precious wife went home to be with Jesus for eternity,
01:13:16: I relaunched the luncheons after relocating to Pennsylvania and have been conducting them ever since 2015 here in PA.
01:13:26: So if you would like to attend, it's free, remember, just send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail dot com, chrisarnson at gmail dot com.
01:13:35: And also, folks, I have to do this, I don't like to do this, it's the most unpleasant part of my show, but if you love the show and you don't want it to disappear, please go to ironsharpensironradio .com,
01:13:49: click support, then click, click to donate now. You can donate instantly via debit or credit card or mail in a check the old -fashioned way via snail mail.
01:14:00: When you go to ironsharpensironradio .com and click support, there will also be a mailing address that appears on the screen.
01:14:07: Just make out the checks to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And folks, as I have been repeating every day, we are in urgent need more than ever for your donations because our two largest financial supporters had to put on hold their advertising for this program, their advertising dollars for this program because of the fact that they have been hit severely hard by the scare of the coronavirus pandemic.
01:14:37: Their businesses have been damaged financially, so they had to wait two, possibly three, possibly more months before they resume financially supporting this program and advertising with us.
01:14:50: So please, I'm urging you, if you really love the show, and if you are blessed financially above and beyond your ability to support your church and your home, because I don't want anybody siphoning money away from their church giving in order to give to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I don't want anybody putting their family in financial jeopardy by giving to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio because those two things are commands of God, and supporting my show financially is not, obviously.
01:15:19: But if you have extra money on top of your ability to obey those two commands, many of you have extra money because of the fact that you can't participate in all the recreational activities that you used to love, like going to sporting events, like going to the movies, like going to the theater, like going to fancy restaurants, or even not so fancy restaurants.
01:15:45: All those things that you have been restricted from participating in may have given you some extra money, of course, other than those who have been severely damaged financially themselves, but those who are still working and still enjoying an income, if you have that extra money, please share some of that money with Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
01:16:06: That is, of course, if indeed you love the show and don't want it to disappear from the airwaves, go to ironsharpensironradio .com,
01:16:12: click support, then click, click to donate now. And also, if you want to advertise with us, send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com,
01:16:19: and put advertising in the subject line because we certainly could use your advertising dollars. If you're promoting something that is compatible with what we believe here, you don't have to believe identically with me, but you need to be promoting something that's compatible with what
01:16:32: I believe in order to advertise. So send that email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com, put advertising in the subject line.
01:16:39: Also, if you are not a member of a local Bible -believing church and you're not even prayerfully looking for one, you've got to rectify that situation.
01:16:46: That is sin, that is rebellion against God. There are no lone wolves or maverick
01:16:52: Christians in the New Testament who are either not going to worship services at all and not submitting themselves to local elders, or they're bouncing around from church to church and not becoming members of any of them.
01:17:04: That's not a biblical way for a Christian to live. So please, if you need help finding a church, no matter where you live on the planet earth,
01:17:13: I have lists of biblically faithful churches everywhere, and I may be able to help find a church near you.
01:17:19: So send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com, chrisarnsen at gmail .com, and put I need a church in the subject line.
01:17:26: That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Jeff Thomas, the pastor for over 50 years until his retirement at the
01:17:37: Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales, and also a very well -known, especially amongst
01:17:44: Reformed people, conference speaker, an evangelist, an author with Banner of Truth and Reformation Heritage books and other publishers.
01:17:57: The theme, if you just tuned us in, is Real Evangelism. That's chrisarnsen at gmail .com.
01:18:03: Always give us at least your first name, city, and state, and your country of residence, and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter.
01:18:10: We have my very faithful and loyal listener and financial supporter of Iron Shrub and Zion Radio, Grady, in Asheboro, North Carolina.
01:18:22: And Grady has a question for you. Hello, Brothers Chris and Jeff. It's always a pleasure to hear your brother, to hear you,
01:18:31: Brother Jeff. I believe when we talk about evangelism that we forget the most important part, praying before we go.
01:18:41: I know before the Lord brought me into the kingdom, I had a mother that prayed many years.
01:18:46: That goes with a lot of us, in fact, including St. Augustine, obviously. His mother,
01:18:53: Monica, prayed for her son, Augustine, for many years. He was a wild, living, immoral individual.
01:19:05: Obviously, the Lord did a great work in his life and made him one of the greatest minds within Christendom in the history of the
01:19:10: Church. But, Jeff, if you could respond to what our listener, Grady, is saying. If you want to humble a minister, then you talk to him about his prayer life, don't you?
01:19:25: All of us just feel so inadequate, such failures.
01:19:33: Praying is the most difficult thing in the world to do. And yet, here is the
01:19:42: Lord Jesus Christ. And you would think, well, if there's anyone who doesn't need to pray, it's
01:19:51: Him. He is the incarnation of omnipotence. He can speak, the winds obey
01:19:59: Him. He can speak, devils flee from Him and fly away. He can speak, and every kind of sickness is healed.
01:20:08: He can speak, and the dead are raised. What need does He have to pray?
01:20:15: And yet, and yet, He prays. He goes away by Himself, and He prays.
01:20:23: And His praying is such that people are stirred by it, and they come to Him and they say, can't you teach us to pray like that?
01:20:33: John taught his disciples, won't you teach us? And he does, and he gives them a pattern of prayer, and he gives them parables.
01:20:43: And then, of course, he prays two prayers one night, one in an upper room, a long prayer.
01:20:55: We call it the high priestly prayer of Christ, where he prays for his disciples, and he prays then for those who will be converted and for the world, he prays.
01:21:07: And then he goes to Gethsemane. And then he, like we say, can you pray for me now?
01:21:16: My wife isn't well, or I've got a big meeting, and I don't know what to speak on.
01:21:21: And we ask people to pray for us, and we're so thankful that we've had a mother who she prayed for me.
01:21:34: So yeah, before a meeting, a nursery school would always say yes, and your preaching doesn't stop when you say amen at the end of that sermon, but you pray afterwards that God will bless the world and discriminate and apply and lay it on the careless, awaken the sleeper, and comfort the brokenhearted, and you pray.
01:22:04: And oh dear, how often we urge other people to pray and yet neglect prayer ourselves.
01:22:15: What phantoms we are. How wonderful it will be in heaven when all our lives will be in his presence.
01:22:23: We'll speak with him, and that will be a glorious day. Amen. Well, thank you so much,
01:22:31: Grady, and keep spreading the word about Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio in North Carolina and beyond.
01:22:38: We have Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, who says,
01:22:44: One book that I believe is perfectly suited to your subject is the classic by Walt Chantry, Today's Gospel, Authentic or Synthetic, that is published by Banner of Truth.
01:22:58: I was wondering if your guest knows about this book, because I highly recommend it to everybody that I know.
01:23:04: Yeah, that is an excellent book. In fact, it was published originally not long after you became a pastor.
01:23:12: This book has been around for 50 years. It's a wonderful book.
01:23:18: I loved it, and oh, I preached then. It's an exposition of the rich young ruler and how the
01:23:28: Lord Jesus Christ dealt with him and very pertinently.
01:23:39: He points out the mistakes of today's evangelism by it, but he also shows us the way to go and address the law of God.
01:23:55: My grandson who followed me and is now the pastor in the church where I was for such a long time, he read it as a student at the
01:24:04: London Seminary, and ah, he loved it and preached it himself.
01:24:10: Then he gave it to his brothers. He has four brothers, and his brothers have read that book too and have found, dear
01:24:19: Walt, so helpful. Thank you for reminding all our listeners and me of the good that Walt's book has done.
01:24:37: Amen. In fact, I believe you are a mutual friend of Bill Shishko, Orthodox Presbyterian pastor in New York, but he was led to the
01:24:48: Doctrines of Sovereign Grace, a Reformed theology, while a student at the
01:24:56: Fundamentalist College in South Carolina, Bob Jones University. This would have been,
01:25:01: I believe, in the 70s. Bill was a student there. He was not theologically
01:25:07: Reformed, and that book led him to the Reformed faith. Oh, is that so? Yes.
01:25:13: Oh, that's very good. I didn't know that. I preached for Bill when he was still a pastor in Long Island.
01:25:21: He actually is again. He is pastoring a church plant called The Haven in Deer Park, Long Island.
01:25:27: Yes. That's very good. And Walt Chantry, for those of you who don't know, was the pastor of the church where I am now a member,
01:25:35: Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for 40 years. That's a rarity.
01:25:41: Only somebody like Jeff Thomas beat that record. Well, thank you,
01:25:47: Susan Margaret, and keep listening to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and spreading the word about it in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania and beyond.
01:25:57: Going back to some of the counterfeits of real evangelism, if you could give us some elements, just like we did with singing yesterday when we wanted you to give elements that should be present in a proper and biblically sound song of praise to God.
01:26:20: Give us some of the elements that should be present in anyone's evangelism to the lost.
01:26:32: Yes. Right. Well, then, The Plight of Man and the
01:26:41: Power of God, that's the title of one of the first books Martyn Lloyd -Jones ever wrote.
01:26:49: And that title is very, very useful because it underlines, then, the bad news of why men need salvation, because of the plight that they are in.
01:27:09: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. None is righteous, no, not one.
01:27:16: Every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts are only evil continually.
01:27:22: This is the divine diagnosis. From the crown of our head to the sole of our feet, there's no wholeness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores are undemodified with ointment.
01:27:38: That is the state. When God sees us, that is how we look.
01:27:43: You remember how the angels cover their eyes. They can't look and they cry,
01:27:49: Holy, holy. Isn't he holy to one another?
01:27:56: And how different we are. Our eyes are blind.
01:28:02: Our hearts are hard. We are self -sufficient. And we need to know how stinking we are in the sight of a holy
01:28:15: God. That's the bad news. And then the power of God, what
01:28:20: God has done, not just speaking through creation and conscience, but by special revelation,
01:28:28: God speaks very carefully, taking such pains to speak through the prophets and the apostles, through his son,
01:28:38: Jesus Christ. And faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
01:28:47: So our great vocation then is to testify.
01:28:54: Well, remember Billy Graham's great phrase, the Bible says, the Bible says. And that was so powerful to say,
01:29:05: I'm not original. I'm not telling you my thinking or my thoughts, but I'm telling you what the
01:29:12: Bible says, what the Bible says about God, what he's like, what the Bible says about Jesus Christ, who he is, and what he has achieved.
01:29:23: What the Bible says about how we may be saved from our sin, and that is by entrusting ourselves to Jesus Christ alone, to be joined to him, to be in him, to flee from every other refuge and hide in him as our
01:29:47: Lord and Savior. And that's a great message of the gospel, then the plight of man and the power of God.
01:29:57: He made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, bearing shame and scoffing rude.
01:30:08: In my place condemned he stood, receiving my pardon with his blood. That's what
01:30:14: Jesus Christ has done. Amen. That all men who look to him and put their faith in him are forgiven for their sins.
01:30:26: And all the blessings that I went through, those 10 blessings, all things working for our good, learning contentment, having the fellowship and friendship of the best people in the world, and God supplying all our needs, having hope in death, that those great positive messages of the gospel of Jesus Christ should then be part of the substance of the message that we bring to men and women day by day.
01:31:00: Amen. Let's see, we have RJ in White Plains, New York, who says,
01:31:07: Can you please exegete Matthew 7, verse 6, where Jesus says,
01:31:13: Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you into pieces.
01:31:26: I have heard people that I believe misuse that text. One person in particular said that he no longer evangelizes his own parents because they have rejected the gospel too often, in his opinion.
01:31:40: But I think that that is stretching things out of their biblical context. Can you please provide some sanity here?
01:31:48: Oh, what a fine question. You know, I was taught by Professor John Murray at Westminster Seminary, Woodward Chantry.
01:31:56: We were students together there. Oh, wow. In the early 60s.
01:32:03: And when I would ask John Murray, what does this verse mean?
01:32:09: John Murray would say, Have you been set that verse to speak on or to write something on?
01:32:15: I don't want to do your homework for you. I want you to look and find out what that verse means yourself.
01:32:22: And you say, Oh, no, no. I was just wondering, can it mean so -and -so and so -and -so?
01:32:28: He'd say, Well, give me a few days. And then he would come back to you after a lecture a few days later, and he would have thought about it.
01:32:37: And he would answer, or he would even write something on a piece of paper. And that is very helpful, of course.
01:32:45: I know what it doesn't mean. I know that it does not mean don't plead with men and women who outwardly seem so severe and indifferent and contemptuous, that it doesn't mean you don't say,
01:33:08: Let me tell you about my Savior. And let me tell you what my
01:33:15: Savior has done for me and what He can do for you. But if they continue, of course, to mock you, and if they refuse to listen, we can weep over them like Jesus did.
01:33:34: And we can say, Ah, I would have taken you to heaven with me. I would have seen you with your sins forgiven standing before Jesus and like Him one day.
01:33:48: But you've rejected. And there's none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved.
01:33:57: Jesus alone says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.
01:34:03: And if you're going to reject me, then I'm afraid there's no one else.
01:34:10: There's nobody else. And so, you know, you are. Be wise and caring and sensible in your evangelism.
01:34:24: Be patient with your parents, with your children, with your husband.
01:34:29: If he refuses to listen to you, then wait for the time.
01:34:38: His heart is in the Lord's hands, and he can turn it. And one day he will, you pray, say,
01:34:46: I come to church with you on Sunday. Amen.
01:34:54: We are going to go to our final break right now. And this is a much more brief break than the last one.
01:35:01: So if you have a question, please send it in immediately because we're rapidly running out of time. Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail dot com.
01:35:09: chrisarnson at gmail dot com. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Jeff Thomas and real evangelism right after these messages.
01:35:14: O hail the power of Jesus' name.
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01:44:42: This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharp and Zion Radio. And this is our final segment with Reverend Jeff Thomas as we discuss real evangelism.
01:44:53: And our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.
01:44:58: And we have Harrison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who says,
01:45:03: What do you think about door -to -door evangelism? Is this just a wonderful idea or a command?
01:45:13: You know, all methods of evangelism, they give out 1 ,000 tracts, and perhaps 10 are read thoughtfully, and one person might be saved.
01:45:30: Or maybe one out of 10 ,000 tracts. I had a dear friend, and he stood for 40 years every
01:45:39: Saturday afternoon in the main street of Swansea in South Wales and when he was the fittest, he could give out 1 ,000.
01:45:52: But then it dropped to about 700 tracts every
01:45:58: Saturday afternoon. And he didn't know at the end of that time of a person who'd been converted by reading the tract, but he knew of a number who had been greatly helped.
01:46:17: And it's the same with door -to -door visitation. You know, you don't meet at the door people who say,
01:46:29: Oh, I've longed for a Christian to come speak to me about Jesus Christ.
01:46:36: But you do at times then in the providence of God begin a conversation with some people.
01:46:46: And that does lead as a link in a chain with numbers of others in them moving in the journey on the pilgrimage to know
01:47:00: Jesus Christ as their Lord. When I am critical of the lack of fruit from door -to -door visiting,
01:47:13: I think of the Jehovah's Witnesses that are out there and that their growth has been with a false gospel that doesn't recognize
01:47:25: Jesus Christ is Jehovah, is God. They have won many people to their faith.
01:47:35: I've got a better gospel. I've got a savior. I've got good news for men and women of forgiveness and eternal life.
01:47:46: And, well, it rebukes me. I wonder am
01:47:52: I looking for an excuse for not having some leaflets in the car ready for a hitchhiker is there at the side of the road and I can give him something when
01:48:05: I drop him off. And I feel, yes, it's not a very fruitful ministry.
01:48:19: The most fruitful ministry is friendship evangelism praying evangelism, bringing people to a local church and letting them see the living epistles of Christian men and women whose lives are sweet and holy and God -fearing who have a personal relationship with God and are unashamed of the gospel.
01:48:47: God has honored that and blessed that witness for many, many years and that's the one that we return to again and again.
01:48:59: But this, every kind of outreach, every time a man stands alone and casts himself in naked helplessness on God and says,
01:49:11: Lord, I'm so nervous. I can't speak very well.
01:49:17: Help me now. And God always has prayed again and again. You use the phrase friendship evangelism and I know folks who
01:49:30: I believe have adopted that in an unbiblical sense. They go by the motto that has been attributed to St.
01:49:42: Francis of Assisi, although I don't think anybody knows for certain whether he actually said this, but preach the gospel at all times when necessary, use words.
01:49:51: And they think it's proper for a Christian to just be a good friend and good neighbor to their neighbors and therefore your friends and neighbors will be led to Christ just by the way you behave and therefore using words is not necessary.
01:50:10: But there never would have been a martyr if they didn't use words. In fact, Jesus Christ would not have been executed on the cross if he didn't use words because it's the words that actually offend more than anything.
01:50:22: Am I right on that? Of course it is. And they are vital in addition to our words and deeds.
01:50:29: I mean, James says that our words can be empty and our faith can be dead if we don't have works and deeds, but at the same time our works can be meaningless if they don't have the words of the gospel attached.
01:50:45: I think it's foolish when people say, oh, Jesus Christ didn't come to speak.
01:50:51: He came that we might have something to speak. Well, that's nonsense. He's speaking all the time.
01:50:58: He starts his ministry. He preaches repentance. The cloak of Elijah is there, and in John the
01:51:07: Baptist he's prepared, and then he goes forth and he preaches. He preaches on the mountain, preaches from the boat, preaches sitting at a meal, preaches in an upper room, preaches from the cross.
01:51:20: Jesus is all the time speaking and preaching. It's just some clever little phrase, if necessary use words.
01:51:31: Well, of course it's necessary. Preach the word. Paul tells Timothy, he doesn't say live the life.
01:51:41: He says follow the example. Do live the life, but also preach the word.
01:51:47: Amen. And we have Johnny in Queens, New York. There are Christian professors, he puts in quotes, that have mentally acknowledged a formula for salvation like the
01:51:58: Roman's road and are confident of heaven, yet clearly do not exhibit a lifestyle or have a clear understanding of repentance and sin.
01:52:09: How would you advise that we approach... Let's see, I have to enlarge the rest of that statement.
01:52:15: Hold on a second. How would you advise that we approach evangelizing such nominal believers that are holding such a false assurance?
01:52:28: Yes, that reminds me of a preacher in Mississippi who many years ago when
01:52:33: I told him I was from New York, which is where I'm originally from, he said to me in his very thick southern accent, very gravelly deep voice, he said, you in New York got it easy.
01:52:47: You just got to get people saved. Here in Mississippi we got to get people lost and then get them saved.
01:52:56: Because of the rampant nominalism in the Bible Belt. Could you respond to Johnny in Queens?
01:53:04: Yes, of course. How Joseph speaks about being with a fraternal of ministers and they go and they sit around a table together and they have a meal and they're all chatty and in a worldly kind of way.
01:53:21: And one man says, it's easy to bring people. Let me show you how easy it is.
01:53:26: And the waiter comes around and he says three things to the waiter.
01:53:33: You know that none of us are righteous in God's sight, are we?
01:53:39: No, no, the waiter says we are sinners, aren't we? Yes, and we need a Savior. Yes, that's right.
01:53:46: The waiter is waiting for his tip. And he says to him, Jesus Christ is the
01:53:53: Savior. Come to me and I'll give you rest. So you know you can come to Jesus Christ now. You can just say to Jesus Christ, I'm trusting you as my
01:54:04: Savior. Will you say that? Yes, the man says, I'm trusting you as my Savior. There you are. Thank you, brother.
01:54:09: He shook his hand and he turned to the people and he said, now isn't it simple? Isn't it easy?
01:54:16: And it's just a formulaic rejection of caring, praying love, of an awareness that men must believe in their hearts, as well as confess with their lips that Jesus Christ is the
01:54:45: Lord. Because with the heart man believes unto salvation. And all you have there is a verbal phrase, a repetition of something that's just being given to that man by that person in hope of a reward.
01:55:05: Shameful. Oh, may it never be that our view of evangelism.
01:55:13: Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Paul suffered greatly in bringing the gospel to people around the world.
01:55:25: And we must be conscious that men love darkness rather than light.
01:55:34: Men don't want to be saved. They don't want to acknowledge that they are sinners on their way to hell.
01:55:41: And only the Holy Spirit, not a formula, only the Holy Spirit can change a man.
01:55:48: And after we've said and lived and loved and prayed for them, then still salvation is of the
01:55:57: Lord. Thou must save and thou alone. Amen. And what about the concept that nearly every non -reformed evangelical participates in, and even some reformed people
01:56:14: I think mistakenly use this verbiage, but a minority would, of accepting
01:56:22: Jesus into your heart. There seems to be no, in fact there is definitely no evidence of anything like that ever being said by an apostle or a disciple in the
01:56:35: Bible, nor did Jesus ever say it. And of course, from what we know of the scriptures, when it comes to our hearts, we are not to be inviting
01:56:45: Jesus to take residence in our hearts, we are to be asking him for a heart transplant. He's supposed to remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh in order for us to have eternal life.
01:57:01: Exactly. Paul is speaking to the women that are there at the riverside in Philippi, and there's an entrepreneur, a businesswoman who trades in purple linens and dyes, and as he speaks to her, the
01:57:21: Lord opened her heart so that she heeded the message.
01:57:27: Yes, Lydia, the silver and purple. Yep, yep. And so, yeah, we must say, have you asked the
01:57:40: Lord to open your heart? And don't stop asking him until you have an inner witness in your heart that he's heard and answered your prayers, and that he's coming into every room of your heart, that he's come into that dispositional complex, as John Murray called it, out of which are all the issues of life, and he's become the king who rules in your heart.
01:58:13: Ask him. The desire for it is an indication that God is working in you and blessing you.
01:58:22: Praise God. Well, we are now out of time. I want to thank you, Reverend Jeff Thomas, for being our guest again, and I thank you especially for being willing to be on two days in a row, yesterday and today.
01:58:37: And after we go off the air, I'm going to submit to you another calendar, because I want you to return very soon to this broadcast.
01:58:44: You are one of my favorite guests, and I just am thrilled with having you on this program every time that you participate.
01:58:53: Don't forget, folks, that the Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales, if you happen to live in Wales or are going to be vacationing there, or have family, friends, and loved ones there, the website is alfredplacechurch .org
01:59:11: .uk, alfredplacechurch .org .uk. And don't forget about Banner of Truth, the ministry for whom
01:59:18: Jeff Thomas writes, amongst other publishers, but he also speaks at their conferences, banneroftruth .org,
01:59:25: banneroftruth .org. And don't forget something that was mentioned earlier, the
01:59:30: Walt Chantry book, Today's Gospel, Authentic or Synthetic, that could be purchased from cvbbs .com,
01:59:38: cvbbs .com. I want to thank everybody who listened today, especially those who took the time to write, and I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater