May 1, 2020 Show with Joseph Jacowitz on “Pandemic Revolution: A Call to Radical Christianity” (Part 8)

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

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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

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

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

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours and we hope to hear from you the listener with your own questions and now here's your host

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Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon

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

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This is Chris Arnzen your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio wishing you all a happy Friday. On this first day of May 2020 and if you listen to this program often enough you know by now that every

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Friday for the most part there will be an exception coming up next week but for the most part every

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Friday we provide a coronavirus update on the pandemic pestilence and panic.

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What does the Bible say? We not only give statistical information about those that are infected with the virus those that are hospitalized those that have sadly perished and things like that but we also have

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Joe Jackowitz here pastor of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton California to give a biblical application on how these how

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Christians should respond to these types of calamities that from time to time even reach global proportion like this pandemic has.

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But Joe Jackowitz is also in addition to being the pastor of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton California.

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He's also the founder of First Love Radio First Love Missions and First Love Publications and it's great to have you back once again this time for part eight of our coronavirus updates

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Pastor Joe Jackowitz. I'm just so glad to be with you Chris and your listeners. We have a lot to talk about but we've got two hours.

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Yep and today specifically the theme of our weekly update is pandemic revolution a call to radical

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Christianity. If anybody wants to join us on the air with a question of your own our email address is

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ChrisArnzen at gmail .com C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com

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as always please give us your first name at least your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside the

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USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter and as I typically do

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Joe because there are people who discover you for the first time. We have new listeners it seems joining our audience every day and whenever we have

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James White as a guest we tend to get a whole group of new listeners that join our audience and I'm looking forward to his return to the program.

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But tell our listeners about Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton California. Christ Bible Church is a reformed

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Baptistic church located about 30 -40 miles east of San Francisco.

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We are nestled in an interesting community in that it's a very diverse population here in Northern California actually the whole state of California but there's a lot of hostility against the church.

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There's much from the government and from the culture of the community that is anti -christian.

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The whole world is anti -christian but it seems like we have a triple dose here in the San Francisco Bay Area and we have...

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Really? I didn't know that San Francisco was known for anti -christian behavior. As you speak with tongue in cheek.

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Yeah we've got the two capitals of liberalism here between Berkeley and San Francisco and of course

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Silicon Valley as well here just a few miles south of us. So we're in a very unique area and we've reached out for over 30 years with tracts with evangelism street preaching.

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We actually have three street preachers in our church who go out from time to time sharing the good news of salvation with those who would hear.

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We frequently go to downtown San Francisco and the famous location at Powell Street and Market Street at that intersection where the cable car starts and goes throughout the city and back again.

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By the way did you know that my landlord at one time pastored the first Orthodox Presbyterian Church of San Francisco?

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Oh really? I didn't know that. But the pastor, the former pastor of that church was a good friend of mine.

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Chuck McElhenney? Yes, yes. Yes and he wrote When the Wicked Seize the City and that was about when his church had discovered this is back in the early 70s

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I believe or maybe late 70s I can't remember right now but the church discovered that the church organist was a homosexual and they told him that he had to step down from that position until he demonstrated repentance and he said basically

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I'm not going to repent this is the way I am. So they excommunicated him and when he started spreading the word amongst the homosexual quote quote community in San Francisco they unleashed their fury on this family and started by leaving hundreds and hundreds of grotesque voicemail messages on their answering machine that's what they called them back then and threatening to kidnap their children and murder them and then they eventually while Chuck and his wife and children were asleep a group of them set fire to their home and it was a good thing that Chuck had noticed a reflection of the flames in the window in his bedroom and everybody got out to safety and there was never an arrest made and the amazing thing is

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I don't know why it's amazing I shouldn't say it's amazing it's pretty expected in this culture that we live in but the only place you ever heard about that was in Christian media and can you imagine that if some professing nut job

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Christians had burned down the home of the homosexual family you would hear about it all over the world constantly.

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Well that's part of the resistance and animosity of the world that we face is this mind blowing hypocrisy and double standard but the

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Lord has already told us that we will face that here as sheep who are brought to the slaughter and so.

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Amen well Christ Bible Church and you personally were also instrumental in founding

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First Love Radio who live streams this program and First Love Missions and First Love Publications.

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Yes well we're so blessed to have your program Iron Sharpens Iron anchor our 24 -7 radio station which is firstloveradio .org

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and I want to send my greetings to all of our listeners on First Love Radio many are listening also through your website at ironsharpensironradio .com

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but we do have a growing audience and the audience is indeed growing on First Love Radio listening all around the world

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I just got an email in a few days ago from a listener in Nigeria who expresses appreciation for Iron Sharpens Iron I was going to send you an email copy of that but I forgot anyway so we appreciate our listeners and we encourage you to invite others to join the program and the entire station actually we've got some really good lineup of preachers and teachers actually

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First Love Radio is in the process of being upgraded and improved and so we encourage you to continue to listen we have a new program

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Truth For Life with Alistair Begg being added to the lineup here in the next several days and then

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Dr. Robert Cook his program is being added here and as well as a new program that many of our listeners who are struggling with addiction or know someone that is it's called

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Pure Life Ministries with Steve Gallagher Steve is an author who has written a number of books he and his wife

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Kathy on the subject of pornography addiction and he is doing a great ministry he has a campus

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I think it's in Kentucky where they have a hundred or more live -in residential folks that they're helping they have a live -in program but they also have seminars they give and of course their books and their courses but they don't have any radio program whatsoever and I've known

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Steve for about 20 years and I used to interview him on a radio program I did on another station that's where I met him and one thing led to another in the last couple of years he and I have come back into communication and we developed a program with them they mainly developed it but it's going to be aired a couple of times a week at an hour where children are not awake because of the theme that we deal with and of course there's not going to be anything off color that would be spoken on the program and then ultimately the program will go to a daily time slot and so we're very excited about that because I think it's the biggest unspoken problem that believers are many believers most believers not most but many are wrestling with is the area of pornography and it's saturated our society our entire world is immersed with a pornographic mind and many are slaves of this wicked sin and immorality connected with pornography it's a multi multi billion dollar industry

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Steve has written some great books that have been very helpful and so we're looking forward to being the first radio ministry to launch that new program on First Love Radio and if you go to our website you can keep up with information about when at the time slot and the day that program as well as the other ones will be launched and we have additional programs coming online we also have

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Martin Lloyd Jones we have Dr. Peter Masters Albert Martin and many other great preachers and then we have a variety of genres different types of programs that are on the station you just have to listen it's at firstloveradio .org

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the website is firstloveradio .org you will find our program schedule and our playlist on the website and a lot of other information a list of our broadcasters so we trust that God will use family radio we pray that he uses family radio in the future to feed millions of hungry souls in these end times who are starving for truth and so you pray for us that the

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Lord will continue to use First Love Radio for his glory so that's our highlighting of First Love Radio as you mentioned we also have

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First Love Missions we have a missions organization where we send out missionaries and we have branches of First Love Missions in different places of the world if you're interested in missionary work please pray for us as well as you may want to inquire about our ministry and then

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First Love Publications where we've given away over 300 ,000 books since 2006 free of charge at Bibles Conferences, Pastors Conferences and just in general all over the world you can order these books on our website at firstlovepublications .org

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we also have a catalog on that website where you can read a description of each one of our titles so these are ministries of Christ Bible Church and we also have our church website at christbiblechurch .org

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that's christbiblechurch .org When you were mentioning Pure Life Ministries it really rang a bell and I looked it up on my old

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio website when I was still broadcasting it in New York and I interviewed a brother named

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Jeff Colon who was the former Executive Director of Pure Life Ministries.

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Oh okay, well I think Steve is the founder of it but he's still very active as an author, a speaker, he's still

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President of the ministry but I don't know how this other brother, he's probably in leadership, but Steve would be a really good person to interview

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I think. Yeah in fact I think I've seen their booth at the G3 Conference if I'm not mistaken or at some conference

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I'm fairly sure. Well today is the day that we dedicate, we start off the program to giving updates on the coronavirus pandemic and these things change rapidly even within the same day and sometimes within the same hour so if you could give us all your updates.

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Well I received these statistics about an hour, hour and a half ago and I'm sure they've increased just a little bit but as far as the entire world there's been 3 ,278 ,546 confirmed coronavirus cases, 234 ,021 of them have died.

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And then as far as the United States there's 1 ,070 ,620 confirmed cases and 63 ,023 deaths.

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So we've passed that 60 ,000 mark that they've been describing as the limit, around 60 ,000 so we've passed that by 3 ,000 and who knows where it will end, only

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God knows. Especially if we have a second wave of coronavirus cases, you know it seems like that number will go up drastically but let's keep praying that it won't.

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I know that many believers are praying that God would have mercy upon our nation and our world and would do away with this virus.

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But half of all Americans have been financially impacted by the coronavirus now says...

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Yeah including Iron Shepherd's on radio. Yes, including most churches as well.

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50 % of Americans say they or someone in their household lost their job or lost hours due to the coronavirus pandemic's impact on the economy.

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According to a new national Marist poll for NPR and the

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PBS NewsHour released Wednesday, the poll's release comes as the government reports that the

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U .S. economy plunged at an annual rate of 4 .8 % for the first three months of this year, the largest contraction since the

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Great Recession over a decade ago. Still, U .S. equity markets soared

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Wednesday with upbeat news about a potential coronavirus treatment from drug maker

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Gilead Sciences. And so the world's economies continue to collapse, demonstrations in the streets of major cities throughout the world continue to take place.

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The next 45 days are the most crucial period in U .S. financial history.

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There have been riots and looting in cities like Cape Town. And so there's still many negative impact or effects from the coronavirus impact.

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There's some good news though. Things are starting to flatten out in terms of the curve in many places.

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More than half a dozen states relaxed coronavirus shutdown measures.

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America is slowly but surely reopening for business. The first day of May, that's today, on Friday saw more than half a dozen states relax lockdown measures that were imposed as the coronavirus pandemic began.

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Yeah, and I was very happy to see on the map on Fox News that Pennsylvania was one of them.

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But when I heard Governor Wolf's speech today, my county was not one of them.

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Oh my goodness. Is he a Democrat or a Republican? Oh, he's a Democrat big time.

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Well, the, you know, they're starting to loosen some of these measures in certain states.

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Vice President Pence, in an interview today, said much of the coronavirus pandemic could be behind the

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United States by early June. Well, let's keep praying that that would indeed be the case.

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So that's only a little over a month away. As of this morning, the U .S. has seen more than a million coronavirus cases and more than 63 ,000 deaths, as I mentioned.

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President Trump announced a plan on April 16th to reopen the country in three phases based on the severity of the outbreak in each state or region.

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In addition, Connecticut plans to start easing its coronavirus lockdown measures on May 20th.

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And said the governor, still there's tension in some states that are slowly reopening.

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New Jersey officials reported 460 new coronavirus -related deaths

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Thursday, marking the highest single day death toll in the state. That ranks number two in infections and deaths behind New York.

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On Saturday, the Garden State plans to reopen state and county parks and golf courses.

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So there's a slow increase in opening up the nation and 50 percent of restaurants.

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Their capacity, they're letting people in, in many places. Despite the measured optimism in the

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U .S., the coronavirus could last up to two years, some doctors say, a new report by the

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Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota says. The report notes the similarities between COVID -19 and influenza pandemics, including both having asymptomatic cases and the global population having little to no preexisting immunity, which results in worldwide susceptibility.

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So that's the update, Chris. There's good news and there's bad news. The bad news is the coronavirus still has its felt effect in many places throughout the country.

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It seems like there are smaller locations that have a denser impact upon a lot of people and that there are more locations that have a lesser effect, especially in the rural areas.

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And so it would be interesting to see if doctors adjust their strategy to have a more measured approach instead of a one -size -fits -all approach with it.

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And by the way, folks, I also want to recommend a program, an interview that I did on Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio with Dr.

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Banu Ghadi, G -A -D -D -E. He is the owner and operator of three pharmacies on Long Island, New York.

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He's a Christian and an elder at New Hyde Park Baptist Church. But he did a fascinating interview with me that you can listen to later on, which is archived at ironsherpanzionradio .com

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in the past shows podcast section. And he is utterly and completely convinced that vitamin

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D3 is the best way to prevent and to eliminate the coronavirus.

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And you can hear more about that on that interview and share it with others.

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Well, I'm glad to hear that because my wife and I are in a high -risk category of people to get the virus and we take vitamin

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D3 every day, so that's encouraging to hear. Yeah, and it's amazing that nobody else anywhere in the media is talking about this.

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I just don't understand it when you have these medical experts on every station and many hours of the day and nobody's mentioning this except for Banu Ghadi.

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Well, you mentioned your website, Chris, and I would remind your listeners that your website is an absolutely excellent resource for people to go to to find topics and subjects on all different levels that people can go to to be informed and educated and biblically equipped concerning how to defend the faith on a particular issue or to just grow in Bible knowledge on a particular issue.

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You have so many podcasts on many, many important, critical, vital themes on your website.

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Many of your listeners may not know about this or have taken advantage of it yet. You can actually identify a podcast and then copy it and then paste the link in an email and send it to a friend who may need to hear the information in that podcast.

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So I would encourage our listeners to go to your website and to check out your podcast list.

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Great, and you know, instead of interrupting you mid -sentence, I'm going to go to our first break right now.

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And this way, when we come back, you could speak for a much longer length of time without being interrupted.

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And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question about not only the coronavirus specifically, but more importantly, how we as Christians should respond to this pandemic, not only in regard to our own lives and families and safety and so on, but also to taking advantage of a

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Christian opportunity to not only share the gospel with those around us, but also to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ to all who surround us.

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So if you want to send in a question, send in an email to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. And please give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

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USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter. Don't go away.

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We'll be right back with Pastor Joe Jackowitz. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

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.org www .worldnewsgroups .org www .worldnewsgroups .org www .worldnewsgroups .org www .worldnewsgroups .org The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly changed our way of life, bringing so many uncertainties.

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When will it end? Why do disasters like this happen? How do we deal with anxiety, fear, and the like?

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Well, join us each Friday on the program, Iron Sharpens Iron, with your host, Chris Arnzen, and Pastor Joe Jakowitz, as they explore

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God's Word for answers to this and other of life's related issues. Tune in at firstloveradio .org

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that's firstloveradio .org each Friday at 1 p .m.

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Pacific, 4 p .m. Eastern. That's Iron Sharpens Iron on firstloveradio .org

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Fridays, 1 p .m. Pacific, 4 p .m. Eastern to hear what the Bible has to say about pandemics and how we should respond.

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When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

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O Hail the Power of Jesus' Name This is

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Pastor Bill Sousa of Grace Church at Franklin here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

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Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

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Iron Sharpen's 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

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Lord Jesus Christ. And of course the end of which we strive is the glory of God.

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If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some

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This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our

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Sovereign Lord, God, Savior and King Jesus Christ today and always.

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And Pastor Bill Sasser will be our guest this Monday, God willing, May 4th, and we will announce as soon as we have the theme developed what that theme will be.

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And I'm sure you're going to be blessed by Pastor Bill Sasser and we thank him and the congregation at Grace Church at Franklin from the depths of our hearts for their sponsorship of Iron Trumpet and Iron Radio.

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We are now back to our discussion with Pastor Joe Jackowitz on Pandemic Revolution, A Call to Radical Christianity.

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Now that sounds pretty revolutionary. What do you mean by Pandemic Revolution? Yes, indeed, it is revolutionary, at least for the one who experiences it.

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Radical Christianity speaks to a believer who's been really restless in his or her soul.

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That's the bottom line. It's an uneasiness that we can't put our finger on.

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It's frequently elusive and a faint and weak feeling.

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And God is always calling us to go to the next level.

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Now when I talk about Radical Christianity, it's really a misnomer. But we have to use the phrase

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Radical Christianity to let people know that being on fire for the

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Lord, being dedicated and committed and faithful and living a holy life is normal Christianity.

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But we define it as radical or something that is like a super -Christian because there are masses of professing believers who are living complacent lives.

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We all struggle with weakness. None of us are strong in and of ourselves. But there's a class of people calling themselves

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Christians that have filled most of our churches. They occupy a large percentage of our churches who are either not converted or who are experiencing great weakness in their life.

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Now I'm not talking today nor addressing myself to the group of unconverted professing

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Christians in our churches. I'm addressing myself to a group of believers who are truly saved whom

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God has been working on for a while in their hearts to bring them to the next level in their relationship with God.

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We got shaking them up and waking them up to go to a greater level of radical surrender and consecration.

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I'm not talking about this idea of Christian perfectionism. There's no such thing as that even though John Wesley taught that and others throughout the history of the church.

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I'm talking about coming to a place in our lives where God uses a traumatic event to either temporarily or permanently bring in a level of freedom in serving

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God, a level of deeper commitment in serving God and being obedient to God in our lives.

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And so that's what I mean by radical Christianity. And leading up to that God works behind the scenes even unbeknownst to our senses in preparing us for that.

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And this preparation is frequently elusive and it's a very undiscernible activity in our souls.

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It's a restlessness of heart that occurs for many reasons. There's restlessness that we can't define such as general guilt or unconfessed sin or conviction of sin or the need to reconcile from an estranged relationship.

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These are just a few examples of the spiritual agitation that takes place deep in our hearts and we often can't figure out why we feel this way.

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It's an anonymous, undefinable and even frustrating feeling because of the element of mystery in it.

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But there are two additional aspects of this spiritual agitation that's undefinable that I think are growing exponentially today in particular in the hearts of many

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Christians. And I've never seen the explosion of fear and uncertainty and stress in all my years as a pastor and as a

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Christian as I have witnessed in the last few months. And two of the reasons why

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God is doing this, I believe which adds to these other examples of agitation, undefinable agitation.

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Two of the reasons why God is doing this I think number one is to cause backsliding

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Christians to return from their wilderness wandering. There's nothing like an explosion on a worldwide level or a community level which affects us personally to get our attention.

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And the pandemic, this coronavirus pandemic is a tool to shock and awaken believers from mediocrity and complacency and bring them to their spiritual senses.

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Backsliding whether it's short term or long term is not intended to be the new normal today in spite of the false teaching of the carnal

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Christian or easy believism. These notions are not biblical and those teachers who would attempt to teach these things such as the carnal

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Christian and divide Christianity into two classes that is those who are dedicated and those who are saved but they're just not living for the

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Lord have failed because the Bible does not teach such a notion. But the

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Bible does teach that there is an experience we call backsliding among believers which is not permitted by God and which the

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Word of God strongly admonishes and rebukes. And so the coronavirus,

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I believe is intended by God to awaken genuine Christians who have fallen asleep spiritually and have become desensitized to the powerful reality in our lives that we should be awakened to every day.

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The Old Testament in Proverbs describes this as the truth cries out in the streets.

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In other words, we should be living as Christians with a sense of the presence of God in our life.

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We should be living with the fear of God leading and guiding us. We should be living our lives with a very heightened sense of sensitivity to sin.

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We should be aware of the convictions and the claims of God and the weightier matters that God is concerned about concerning our spiritual lives.

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That should be normal Christianity, but unfortunately these false teachings of easy -believism have divided true

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Christianity, that is, normal Christianity of walking with God in holiness from the idea that believers can just live like they want, talk how they want, and they'll still die and go to heaven.

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Now, I'm not talking about the fact that genuine Christians backslide. That's a different...

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I mean, that we all struggle. That's a separate issue. So, the first additional purpose besides these other four things that I've mentioned where God agitates us, where we don't understand very often why with guilt or the conviction of sin and so forth to awaken us, the first one

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I wanted to focus on is backsliding, where he uses that to bring us back to our spiritual senses in terms of radical events.

42:46

So, I think God is using the coronavirus, spiritually speaking, behind the scenes, deep in the heart and minds of believers to awaken many from this soul sleep they've been in, from this temporary blindness that has arrested them for either the short term or the long term to bring them back into a close relationship with the

43:15

Lord. It's obvious to me, Chris, that the pandemic is being used by God as a tool to shock and awaken believers from mediocrity and complacency and bring them back to their spiritual senses.

43:29

And so, that's the first purpose I think God is doing.

43:34

And so, God is calling believers back to just biblical

43:40

Christianity, just the normal type of Christianity that he outlines, especially in the

43:45

New Testament, in describing the life of holiness and the life of sanctification.

43:51

The second main purpose, besides these others, is to accelerate spiritual growth in certain

43:59

Christians. What do I mean by that? Well, from time to time, as a

44:06

Christian, we kind of get stuck on a certain spiritual level and can't seem to graduate to the next level of the knowledge of God and the knowledge of Christ and spiritual growth in our lives.

44:23

And God will bring us to a place where we get so sick and tired of being sick and tired in terms of our lack of growth that he will use in a shocking event, a crisis experience, whether it be a personal crisis experience or something objective outside of ourselves, like a world event, like the coronavirus, to kind of shake some of his people and shock us into making a commitment to go to that next level that we've been wanting to go in our relationship with God.

44:57

And these are people who are genuine believers. They love the Lord. They've been stuck in the same place spiritually maybe for months or years.

45:07

They've been wanting to make permanent changes in their relationship with God. They want to go to the next level of commitment in their daily walk with the

45:16

Lord and to bring glory to God by bearing spiritual fruit. But they've just been caught in this cycle of mediocrity and limitation.

45:28

They've been wanting to break out from this straitjacket that's been on their growth. They want to go deeper.

45:34

But they've been hindered for one reason or another. And I believe that God is using the coronavirus as a statement, as a clear message that he's writing across the sky to some, not all, maybe a minority of selected believers that God is saying,

45:58

OK, I'm speaking loudly to you now. You need to trust in my son. You need to believe me and my promise for the power of God's Spirit to bring you to that place of decision and commitment where you will stop doing this and start doing that.

46:18

And you need to seek me now more diligently about this. You need to keep seeking me and keep believing my promises, trusting in my son, the

46:28

Lord Jesus Christ, until I empower you to actually make these changes and to make them permanently.

46:36

And so God uses traumatic events to accomplish these purposes, and I believe he's using the coronavirus to do that.

46:45

And so when I talk about a pandemic revolution, I am especially addressing myself to those

46:53

Christians whom God is calling to live a radical, faithful, biblical

46:58

Christian life, either in returning to God from backsliding, or to accelerate and mature in their

47:07

Christian growth on a level that God has been stirring them up to go to in their hearts for a long time.

47:16

Well, we have a listener, an anonymous listener, who says,

47:22

I must admit that I am not faring very well spiritually during this crisis, and I was wondering if this test that God is sending all believers to reveal who are truly his and who are false professors is demonstrating that I am not truly a

47:42

Christian at all. Well, only God knows that, and God wants you to find that out, because he never sends a message from his word and through providence like he is sending to many who profess

47:58

Christ and whom he's testing their relationship and he's searching their hearts.

48:05

He never does something like that except it be an act of mercy to bring us either back to a place of faithful communion and fellowship with God in our daily walk as a backslidden

48:17

Christian, or, in the case that you're referring to, to actually save some people who are churchgoers.

48:27

They have Bible knowledge, but they've never been able to make permanent changes in their hearts.

48:33

They've never repented of their sin. Oh, they may have felt sorrow. They may have made temporary changes like we read about in the

48:43

Bible's description of the parable of the sower, but they've fallen backwards and have stayed there permanently.

48:52

Wherever there is the seed of God in a person's heart, they cannot continue in a permanent way in a place of embracing a lifestyle of practicing sin.

49:06

As we read in 1 John, the seed of God remains in them and they cannot practice sin because they've been born of God.

49:14

Doesn't mean a Christian doesn't struggle and wrestle with sin every day. We do.

49:19

We have the whole duty of mortification of sin and the crucifying of the flesh under the overall theme and doctrine of sanctification.

49:29

And Christ, in His death on the cross, has provided grace and strength to believers to overcome through His shed blood, through imparted righteousness.

49:43

These are terms that need to be explained. But there is an application of the death of Christ that applies to Christians.

49:52

Jesus not only died to justify us and to impute His righteousness to our account and to provide redemption and reconciliation and adoption, but He also died,

50:04

Romans teaches, and other places to sanctify us. So there is an application and a place in our

50:12

Lord's atonement where there was made an allowance, a designed and deliberate application of His cross to empower

50:25

His people to live the Christian life in some measure where we grow periodically and incrementally.

50:35

We may have periods of stuntedness and complacency, even long periods, but the

50:43

Spirit of God, who has been deposited in our hearts, He is

50:48

God and He guarantees the sealing and the guarding of the purchased possession which

50:54

Christ died on the cross to purchase His people. And He not only acts as a sealer of our faith, but He is the one who triggers us to come back from a place of backsliding.

51:09

He also prompts us to go to that next level of growth in the knowledge of Christ and in our pragmatic, daily

51:19

Christian life, in our practical Christian living. And so, but for the unsaved person who just has religion, but doesn't love

51:30

God as he should, doesn't have a heart for the things of God, remains passive when intense spiritual activities and operations are taking place in worship, not only in the formal gathering of the saints in church, but in informal gatherings, or even in his private time with the

51:49

Lord. There doesn't seem to be a place where such a professing

51:54

Christian not only can relate to what these spiritual activities that are going on, but also enjoy them.

52:05

And so, God throughout church history has proven Himself to be so loving and so compassionate and so kind that a number of persons who have been saved and added to the church have been filled with the

52:21

Holy Spirit, have all the earmarks and traits of a Christian, have come into the church from a place of being a hypocrite, from a place of being religious but not converted.

52:34

And true Christians, genuine believers, occasionally or frequently, feel like they are one of those people because we struggle.

52:46

We struggle as genuine Christians. We lapse in and out of a state or a mindset of assurance or doubts, and we very often think to ourselves, not very often, but sometimes think, maybe

53:04

I'm not saved, and that's why I did this, that, or the other thing. And we often have to be brought back to the objective work of Jesus Christ on the cross, which is the grounds of our salvation.

53:18

And I want you to, this is very important, I want you to pick up where you left off because we have to go to our midway break, and I hope that our anonymous listener remains with us because this is some very important stuff.

53:30

And this is the longer than normal break, folks. Please be patient with us because we have to air more commercials during this break than in our other breaks because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

53:42

FM in Lake City, Florida, has to air their own public service announcements during this break to localize

53:48

Eintrup and Zion Radio to Lake City, Florida, according to the FCC regulations.

53:54

So while they air their local public service announcements, we air our globally heard commercials.

54:02

Please write down the information for as many of our advertisers as possible so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them, which will mean that we will more likely remain on the air for a longer future because we rely upon our advertisers to exist.

54:17

But also write down questions for Joe Jackowitz about something related to the pandemic. It may be something that you heard about statistical information that you want clarified, or if it's about a theological issue, a biblical issue, more importantly.

54:37

Send us an email to chrisarnson at gmail dot com. chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

54:44

And don't go away, God willing, we're going to be right back after these messages from our sponsors. Hi, this is

54:50

John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnson and the

54:58

Iron Sharpens Iron podcast. I consider Chris a true friend and a man of high integrity. He's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big penetrating questions while always defending the key doctrines of the

55:10

Christian faith. I've always been happy to point people to this podcast knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the internet where folk won't be led astray.

55:18

I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide. This is a day of great spiritual compromise, and yet God has raised

55:25

Chris up for just such a time. And knowing this, it's up to us as members of the Body of Christ to stand with such a ministry in prayer and in finances.

55:35

I'm pleased to do so and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting

55:40

Iron Sharpens Iron financially. Would you consider sending either a one -time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry?

55:49

I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com

55:56

where you can click support. That's ironsharpensironradio .com Iron Sharpens Iron Radio depends upon the financial support of fine

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Christian organizations to remain on the air, like the Historical Bible Society. The Historical Bible Society maintains a collection of Christian books, manuscripts, and Bibles of historical significance spanning nearly a thousand years.

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The mission of HBS is the preservation and public display of ancient scripture, dissemination of scripture, to provide tools equipping believers and Christian apologetics with evidence for the

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Bible's reliability, and to introduce Reformation literature and Christian art to a broader audience.

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Since 2004, HBS has toured schools and churches throughout the Northeast United States, reaching thousands of believers and non -believers alike who are hungry for knowledge of the

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Bible. HBS's founder, Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law, is committed to sharing this collection along with an inspirational historical message that will captivate you and your church.

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Come journey through their website, historicalbiblesociety .org. The collection includes a complete 11th century

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Geneva Bible, the 1611 King James Bible, and much, much more. Visit historicalbiblesociety .org

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today. Thank you, Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law, for your faithful support of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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I'm Dr. Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.

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I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,

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Hope Reform Baptist Church in Corham, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jansen and Christopher McDowell.

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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

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Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.

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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.

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For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.

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That's hopereformedli .net or call 631 -696 -5711.

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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.

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01:00:31

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know

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01:06:35

This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

01:06:42

Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially.

01:06:51

Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, non -profit, non -profit 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

01:07:03

Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the end for which we strive is the glory of God.

01:07:10

If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some

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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.

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Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org That's gracechurchatfranklin .org

01:07:41

This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our

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Sovereign Lord, God, Savior and King Jesus Christ today and always.

01:07:54

And don't forget to mark your calendars for Monday the 4th of May when

01:07:59

Pastor Bill Sasser, whose voice you just heard, will be our guest on Ion Sharpens Ion Radio. And before I return to my guest today,

01:08:08

Joe Jakowicz, for more of our update on the coronavirus pandemic,

01:08:14

I just want to add some more announcements to what I just said there. First of all, we've got on Tuesday the 5th of May, Joe Moorcraft, Dr.

01:08:26

Joe Moorcraft is returning to our program for Part 4 of a discussion we began over a month ago on With Liberty and Justice for All Christian Politics Made Simple.

01:08:42

That's the title of his book and we will be addressing that for Part 4 of our discussion.

01:08:48

Obviously, I've been finding the discussion fascinating. We've had Pastor Joe back on this will be the 4th time on this book alone.

01:08:57

In fact, we've even had him on the old Ion Sharpens Ion Radio program discussing that topic.

01:09:04

Then on Wednesday we have two days in a row on politics because we have

01:09:10

Dr. David C. Innes of King's College is going to be on the program to discuss his book

01:09:17

Christ and the Kingdom of Men I'm sorry, Christ and the Kingdoms plural of men

01:09:23

Christ and the Kingdoms of Men Foundations of Political Life That will be

01:09:29

Wednesday and then on Thursday, my dear friend who is no stranger to the Ion Sharpens Ion Radio audience,

01:09:35

Pastor Bill Shishko of the Haven in Deer Park, Long Island, a congregation of the

01:09:41

Orthodox Presbyterian Church and I do not have a topic yet for Pastor Bill and then on Friday we are going to take a brief interruption of the weekly coronavirus updates with Pastor Joe Jakiewicz and this

01:09:59

Friday May 8th, we have Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries joining us we had to accommodate his schedule so Friday the 8th he will be on and we have yet to determine a topic for him either might as well throw in the following Monday after that Monday, May 11th we have

01:10:23

Dr. Kurt Daniel returning to Ion Sharpens Ion Radio to discuss his book

01:10:29

The History and Theology of Calvinism and I'll give you a heads up if you are one of six people the first six people who write in a question good enough to be read on the air for Dr.

01:10:43

Kurt Daniel you will win a free copy of this 900 page hardback The History and Theology of Calvinism so might as well start writing the question now and folks, if you love this show as I've already hinted before in the very beginning of the show this coronavirus pandemic has affected

01:11:08

Ion Sharpens Ion Radio financially because we have temporarily at least

01:11:13

I hope it's only temporarily lost two of our biggest financial supporters because their businesses have been so negatively affected by the hysteria associated with this coronavirus and so until they get back into a firmer position financially they had to temporarily postpone supporting us so I'm asking you please since we were already on financially shaky ground before that I'm asking you please to help us out if you really want us to stick around go to IonSharpensIonRadio .com

01:11:50

click support and click to donate now and you can donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion you can also advertise with us by sending an email to us at chrisarnson at gmail dot com and put advertising in the subject line as long as whatever it is you are promoting is compatible with what we believe then we would be more than thrilled to help you launch an ad campaign immediately because we are in such urgent need of your advertising dollars and remember folks never siphon money away from your regular giving that you're accustomed to to your local church in order to give to Ion Sharpens Ion Radio especially during a time like this when churches are hurting badly financially so never siphon money away from the church to give to us and never put your family in financial jeopardy to give to us those are two commands of scripture to provide for your church and family and so never ignore either of those commands or diminish how you support your church and your your family but what you can do is with all this money that you've been saving if you haven't lost your job of course or you haven't been devastated financially but a lot of folks out there who are still employed they're saving a lot of money because they used to go to movies they used to go out fine dining they used to go to their favorite sporting event they used to go to concerts and they used to go to stage performances like plays and so on and they used to go to bible conferences with all the money that you're saving not doing those things please help us with some of that money if indeed you want us to stick around so go to ionsharpensionradio .com

01:13:45

click support then click click to donate now or you can mail in a check the old fashioned way via snail mail to the address that appears on the screen when you click support at ionsharpensionradio .com

01:13:57

and remember folks if you do not have a church that you call home a good solid bible believing church please no matter what difficulty you are having finding one

01:14:12

I can help you god willing find a church because I have lists of biblically faithful churches all over the world and I have helped many people in our audience find churches that they have either joined or visited on vacation or recommended to loved ones so please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

01:14:35

chrisarnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line that's also the email address where you can send in a question to Joe Jackowitz of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton California chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson chrisarnson to whom

01:16:17

Jesus says, Be gone, you workers of unrighteousness, I never knew you. So, finding out that you're lost can be a wonderful event in your life.

01:16:28

And, of course, you may be a Christian who is backslidden, but in a technical sense, it doesn't really matter which it is, because if you feel, or believe, is a better word,

01:16:46

I should say, that you are not in a right relationship with God, flee to Him as if it's your first time.

01:16:55

Just cry out to Him for mercy and for salvation. He's not going to penalize you if you're already saved, and you're crying out for mercy and salvation again.

01:17:05

But, Joe, do you agree with what I just said? I definitely agree with everything you just said.

01:17:11

And, if I might add, there are many church people who are really struggling with the whole matter of their salvation.

01:17:21

They have doubts, and they have fears and anxiety about whether they're saved or not.

01:17:28

Many of them live on the razor's edge of fear over their souls for a long time, and they have little or no assurance, and very rare tokens of God's felt presence in their life.

01:17:45

And the only thing they have to go on is the day -to -day fluctuating, whimsical nature of their imagination or their minds, and their very carnal way of trying to analyze and determine whether they're saved or not.

01:18:07

And this is not the way we arrive at the assurance of our salvation.

01:18:14

But as far as the good news of the gospel and your statement,

01:18:20

Chris, that there is good news to people who are in this situation, whether you're a professing

01:18:27

Christian or a genuine believer, there is good news. But if you're a true Christian, you already know that before you can appreciate the good news, you have to understand that there is bad news, and you have to respond properly to the bad news for you to be able to experience and enjoy the good news.

01:18:45

And the bad news, of course, is that we're all sinners, whether the sin would be hypocrisy or the sin of religious people or unconverted, or sins by those who are not religious.

01:18:59

But they're all in the same camp. They're not saved. They're not born of the Spirit. They've not repented and received a changed heart, a new heart, a new mind, and a new lifestyle based on the

01:19:11

Spirit of God coming into them, regenerating them, converting them spiritually, giving them new goals, new desires, a new lifestyle, because they put their trust in Jesus Christ alone to save their never -dying souls.

01:19:30

And so there's a critical verse in James chapter 1. For any of you, in whatever condition you may be in, if you're curious, you're wondering about your salvation, you're not sure, you're like the person picking the tulip, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not.

01:19:51

And one day you have assurance, and the next day you don't, and you're not sure.

01:19:57

Maybe you're a Christian, maybe you're not. There's a promise in James chapter 1, beginning at verse 2.

01:20:06

The context here is trials and tribulations. And in James 1, 2, it says,

01:20:13

Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

01:20:21

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

01:20:28

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

01:20:38

Now the context here is a person who is experiencing trials, whether it be a trial of faith, emotional, spiritual trials, or something that is a trial in the flesh.

01:20:53

And that trial, whatever it may be, is testing their patience, testing their faith.

01:21:00

It's causing them to look within, and to ask those kinds of questions that people who struggle with assurance of salvation, people that don't know where they are at with God at any given moment, to ask themselves.

01:21:17

And so God says, look, if you're not sure about anything, turn away from yourself.

01:21:26

Get your mind, first of all, off of yourself, because nothing but doubts and vacillating changes in your opinion of yourself and your salvation will continue to go on if you're looking at yourself.

01:21:43

Turn away from yourself. And God says, if you lack wisdom, especially in the area of your relationship with God, whether you're a

01:21:53

Christian or just a religious professor, God says if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

01:22:06

The words liberally and reproach here were added by God deliberately to address the doubt of the person who would say

01:22:16

God's mad at me, he won't answer my prayer for wisdom and knowledge and assurance, or the understanding that I am saved or I am not saved.

01:22:28

God says, look, if you lack wisdom, if you look to God and you are sincere and genuine in your desire to receive leading and guiding and understanding and wisdom from God, God will not grudgingly hold back as if he's dangling a carrot in front of your eyes and then will pull away that carrot.

01:22:48

God doesn't give a promise and play games with us and renege on that promise. God says, if you lack wisdom about your salvation, and that's what we're particularly talking about right now, ask

01:23:00

God, pray to God for the knowledge of whether you're saved or not, and I address myself to this listener who wrote in earlier who has doubts about his salvation.

01:23:12

Ask God, turn away from yourself, stop looking at yourself, because you're always going to have ups and downs in your opinion of yourself.

01:23:21

Go to the objective, foolproof source of wisdom, that when God gives you that wisdom about where you are at with him in your relationship with him, you will know which way to go.

01:23:34

And so God says, ask him for wisdom, but you need to have patience so that during this time of testing of your faith, you need to understand this is a blessing.

01:23:47

This is a blessing. Many souls perish every day.

01:23:53

Two to three hundred thousand people die throughout the whole world every day.

01:23:59

Many of these people profess to be saved, to profess to know

01:24:04

God, but in works they denied him, and they left this world with a superficial presumption that they knew

01:24:13

God, but they didn't know him. Based on just a cursory, superficial examination, based on a lack of knowing the

01:24:22

Bible, that assuming they're saved and they're going to heaven, but God penetrates deeply into our hearts.

01:24:31

God has the power, the ability, since he made us, to unearth and uncover all of the layers of ignorance and misunderstanding, because we always tend to put the best interpretation on our relationship with God when very often it is not that way.

01:24:51

He is able to cut through all of the darkness using his Word, and by the power of the

01:24:58

Holy Spirit, God says that the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two -edged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints and marrow, and is a searcher of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

01:25:14

So if you pray for wisdom about your relationship with God to discern whether you are saved or unsaved,

01:25:22

God will penetrate through the layers of darkness and ignorance, and he will show you.

01:25:30

Usually he uses his Word through the illuminating power of his

01:25:37

Spirit to shine the light in the darkest places of your heart.

01:25:44

He will cut through to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints and marrow.

01:25:50

He uses bone marrow as a metaphor to show that he will go to the center of your spirit, your mind, your heart, and uncover everything about this issue in terms of your relationship with God, and he'll show you.

01:26:05

And once he shows you whether you're saved or not, he doesn't torment us. He's not going to answer the prayer for wisdom about your relationship with God, give you the knowledge that you're either saved or not, and then not go to the next step with you.

01:26:20

That is, if you discover through the wisdom of God that you're not saved, then you begin seeking

01:26:29

God for salvation, trusting in his Son, believing in his Son, Jesus Christ, alone as the only basis of your acceptance with God and the work of Jesus Christ, and dying on the cross as your substitute to bear your sin in his own body on the tree, to pay your sin debt alone that you could never pay, then he will save your soul.

01:26:57

He won't give you the wisdom and then not give you the salvation when you trusted him for that.

01:27:02

Now, if you have God's wisdom and you begin to pray, Lord, I realize that I am saved.

01:27:08

You've shown me clearly from your word, and by the leading of your spirit, and by the tokens of the spirit of adoption in my heart, where your spirit has borne witness with my spirit, and you've heard my prayer of repentance as a believer, coming in as a backslidden, wandering

01:27:27

Christian from the wilderness, coming back into the sheepfold, coming back into the light and the love and the truth of knowing you.

01:27:36

He's going to also pour out the spirit of adoption afresh on your heart and give you those comforts of his spirit that all true

01:27:49

Christians have. He will not only give you the wisdom and understanding that you are saved, but he will affirm that, as he does with every

01:27:58

Christian throughout his or her Christian life from time to time, with those comforts and those tokens and that presence of God, not permanently, they come and they go, but he will bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.

01:28:14

So in either case, God will give you the wisdom, but you must trust him. You must ask in faith without doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

01:28:27

You need to believe this promise with all your heart and hang on to it as your life preserver between getting an understanding on this life and death issue or not getting it.

01:28:40

And brother, you don't want to leave this world without an understanding, a clear, clear understanding that you are truly his child.

01:28:48

The Bible says, these things have I written unto you that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the

01:28:55

Son of God, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

01:29:01

Well, as a part of your special edition of our program today, which is, as I've been mentioning, the weekly update that we do on the coronavirus, and you usually attach a special theme to that day, and you have done so again today, obviously.

01:29:29

And so, when it comes to a call to radical

01:29:35

Christianity, tell us what you mean by changed by the call.

01:29:42

Well, a call to radical Christianity, which is just being a faithful believer in the

01:29:48

Spirit, has been going out to every generation in the history of the world.

01:29:55

And those who have ears to hear this call and are humbled in their hearts to receive the call and who have the eyes of their understanding enlightened to comprehend this call back from a place of backsliding or from a place of extreme restriction in growing in the grace and knowledge of the

01:30:19

Lord, those who have these ears to hear this message of going to the next level with God in holiness and separation from worldliness,

01:30:32

God will use events. He will use crisis experiences. He will use pain.

01:30:39

He will use sickness. He will use cancer. He will use any number of devices at His disposal to get our attention and to bring believers to the next place of commitment and consecration in their relationship with the

01:30:54

Lord. You know, the Lord didn't go through all that He went through, Chris, in dying on the cross, rising from the dead, in the

01:31:01

Incarnation, becoming the God -man, just to create an unholy church and save unholy believers.

01:31:08

There's a massive amount of these people, like I've indicated earlier, that fill our churches who are hooked on worldliness and worldly entertainment and immorality and follow false teaching and they don't have a pang or a quiver of their conscience in doing so.

01:31:26

They measure themselves by themselves. They look at other people and other professing

01:31:31

Christians and they say, well, if these people are doing it, then I can do it. Whatever happened to the

01:31:37

Holy Spirit who has sealed believers, the Holy Spirit who has a totally independent, objective mind and ministry in leading believers to have convictions about Biblical truth and about a holy lifestyle.

01:31:54

If you and I have the Holy Spirit and we have temporarily bought into the lie that it's okay to say that I'm a

01:32:02

Christian and at the same time I can live like the world, talk like the world, walk like the world without any problems whatsoever, the

01:32:10

Holy Spirit is a way of breaking through all this darkness and deception and showing us the principles of God's Word on the matter of holiness.

01:32:20

And the Bible says, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. The Bible says in Titus 1, they profess to know

01:32:29

God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

01:32:36

So the ministry of the Holy Spirit is a powerful ministry, specifically in separating light from darkness, in the understanding of believers so that they can clearly comprehend what the godly

01:32:51

Christian life is, rather than getting swept up with the superficial morass and masses in these worldly churches and drowning in immorality and on the last day stand before God and have

01:33:07

Matthew 7 repeated in their hearing where Jesus will say, not everyone that says to me,

01:33:13

Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

01:33:19

For many will say to me, Lord, have we not done many wonderful works in Thy name and have cast out demons in Thy name and have prophesied in Thy name?

01:33:30

And then I will say to them, Jesus says, I never knew you who practice wickedness.

01:33:36

And so the ministry of the Holy Spirit is intended to come in and show them that their profession of faith on the one hand is a

01:33:44

Christian and their practicing wickedness without any conscience, without any second thought is incompatible with the doctrine of sanctification and holiness in the scripture.

01:33:59

And so the Lord didn't go through everything he went through to save people who are not holy.

01:34:06

Now we all struggle, we're all weak sheep, but the difference between true believers and false believers is this matter of repentance, is this matter of being brought back to the

01:34:19

Lord again and again through repentance of sin and faith in the

01:34:24

Lord Jesus Christ to sanctify me. And so we see then that, pardon me, that...

01:34:34

Well, actually, this is a good point. Let me just say this last sentence.

01:34:42

Professing Christians have no problem in continuing on in sin, but they never repent.

01:34:50

The true believer, okay, may commit individual acts of sin, but they are always grieved about it and they eventually come back to repentance and faith in Christ.

01:35:02

Amen. And now we're going to our final break. It's going to be a lot quicker than the last ones, so if you would like to send in a question, do so quickly, because we're rapidly running out of time.

01:35:15

chrisarnson at gmail .com chrisarnson at gmail .com Don't go away. We'll be right back.

01:35:31

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01:38:39

The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly changed our way of life, bringing so many uncertainties.

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When will it end? Why do disasters like this happen? How do we deal with anxiety, fear, and the like?

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01:45:33

We are now back with Joe Jakowicz with the final portion of our interview today on our coronavirus update and biblical application that should lead

01:45:46

Christians to respond biblically to this pandemic. And, Joe, we were just talking about repentance before, and I am reminded, speaking of Solid Ground Christian Books, I am reminded of the founder of that book ministry,

01:46:05

Mike Gadosz, who was my very first pastor as a born -again believer.

01:46:11

And I can remember him giving an analogy in a sermon where he was talking about professing

01:46:20

Christians who believe in what is known as carnal Christianity, that all you need to do is make a one -time commitment to Christ, and then you can immediately just return to the satanic life that you had before, and live that way for the rest of your life, and expect to go to Heaven, which is obviously a tragic, false expectation.

01:46:47

But he likened it to a man on his wedding day approaching his bride at the altar with a prostitute on his arm, and as if he is not intending to give up this prostitute just because he is getting married.

01:47:07

And I thought that was a very good analogy. Well, I agree.

01:47:13

Repentance is a mark of all those who know Christ. Repentance is not just a one -time act when a person becomes a

01:47:22

Christian. It is also an ongoing act every day in the lives of Christians as we examine ourselves and in our private prayer closets when we pray, being moved usually by the

01:47:40

Word of God, which exposes our sin. We confess that sin and repent of it.

01:47:46

We condemn that sin. We loathe it. We ask God to reveal the heinousness and the blackness of that sin to us.

01:47:55

We ask His Spirit to stir up godly sorrow that leads to a genuine repentance that is not to be easily repented of.

01:48:06

And when you look at the ministry of the Apostle Paul in the church at Corinth, a lot of the first and second letters to the church at Corinth had to deal with validating the repentance of the

01:48:22

Corinthians because they were acting carnally. They were acting worldly. Paul called them to examine themselves.

01:48:30

So there was a ministry in which Paul was seeking to separate the true believers from the false believers.

01:48:36

And he was seeking to call the true believers to a higher level of dedication and heart consecration to God in living holy lives.

01:48:48

We also see this in the ministry of John the Baptist among religious people, especially the

01:48:54

Pharisees, where he told the Pharisees every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down in the fire.

01:49:03

He says God's winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor.

01:49:09

So there is this program of testing, this ministry of searching, that the

01:49:15

Holy Spirit is constantly doing in bringing true Christians to greater levels of commitment, growth, dedication, and also in causing wandering backslidden

01:49:28

Christians to return to Him. And we started out at the onset of this program emphasizing the fact that the coronavirus, the pandemic, we could see it everywhere and signs of it everywhere.

01:49:43

God is using as a major crisis event as a tool of testing, as an instrument of chastisement, in accomplishing both of these things, in making wandering believers aware of the fear of God and God's hatred towards sin, reminding believers who have become lax and thinking they're going to go to Heaven on beds of ease like these carnal

01:50:11

Christians so -called that you described, awakening people to the fact that God is a consuming fire and He will not clear the guilty, that God comes down like Jesus did in Revelation 2 and 3 and He walks among His candlesticks and He does a ministry of testing to separate sheep from sheep.

01:50:35

In the Old Testament, God called the prophets to a ministry where they were to distinguish between sheep and sheep, that is, between false professors and genuinely converted sheep.

01:50:50

God Himself talked about this, doing this Himself in the hearts of those who profess to know

01:50:57

Him. In Ezekiel 34, He says, O my flock, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep and between ram and goats.

01:51:08

He says the same thing to Aaron in Leviticus 10. He says, look, don't drink wine and intoxicating drink nor your sons with you when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die.

01:51:24

It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations that you may distinguish between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes of the

01:51:38

Lord. God is saying to the ministry class among the Jewish nation, the

01:51:44

Levites, the priests, the whole tribe of Levi, under its father Aaron who was called to minister and his sons the things of God to the people.

01:51:57

He says to do so, your ministry, a lot of your ministry is to separate the unholy from the holy.

01:52:05

You yourselves, Aaron, and your sons must not commit these unholy things and must not practice sin.

01:52:11

But in your ministry, you're called to separate and show the distinction between what is a godly lifestyle and the fruits of true repentance and the heart of a true believer which is to constantly repent of sin and to go in growth and maturity throughout our

01:52:30

Christian lives to greater and greater levels of commitment and holiness as the apostle

01:52:36

Paul loves to describe these stepping stone processes from grace to grace, from glory to glory, from faith to faith, day by day.

01:52:48

Amen. And to complete the theme, A Call to Radical Christianity, tell us about freedom to follow the call.

01:52:57

Freedom to follow the call means that when God brings you back into the land of the living from being backslidden and when

01:53:06

God brings you to a place where you get so sick and tired of being restricted and spinning your wheels in the same place in your relationship with God and he brings you to that next level of commitment to holiness, it means that the

01:53:26

Holy Spirit provides the liberty and the power and the grace to bring you back in and when you're back in to have you graduate and promote and grow to the next level in your sanctification.

01:53:42

And it's such a freeing thing. The Bible talks about the

01:53:48

Holy Spirit in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18 is that the

01:53:56

Holy Spirit gives you the freedom and the liberty to, let me not misquote it, 2

01:54:04

Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18 now the

01:54:12

Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

01:54:22

Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the

01:54:27

Spirit of the Lord. And so if I would close with a statement Chris it would be this it is the

01:54:33

Holy Spirit who graduates you who enables you to go to that next level by faith in Jesus Christ as your

01:54:41

Lord and Savior to transform you into the image of Christ going from glory to glory just as by the

01:54:50

Spirit of the Lord. So if you've seen the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and it has powerfully gotten your attention and caused you to become much more somber and serious if it's been a wake -up call for you and I to put away foolishness and to put away entertainment as the main orientation of my identity and my happiness in this life and has riveted your attention of your need to return to Christ be encouraged because the

01:55:25

Lord Jesus is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He says to his church in Revelation 2 or Revelation 3

01:55:32

I stand at the door and knock if anyone will hear my voice and open the door I will come into him and sup with him and he with me.

01:55:40

He delights to receive returning believers into his arms.

01:55:46

He delights to hear the cries of his people Lord give me wisdom Lord bring me to that next level give me freedom and liberty and power of the

01:55:56

Spirit so I can go to that next place in my relationship with you because where I'm at right now

01:56:02

I'm miserable. The Lord loves to provide that grace we need for the freedom to live a holy life for Jesus Christ.

01:56:11

Amen. And that is a great way to conclude the program and I want to make sure that our listeners have all the information they need to get in contact with you.

01:56:22

First of all folks remember that Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California has a website

01:56:30

ChristBibleChurch .org ChristBibleChurch .org

01:56:35

and then of course Pastor Joe also is the founder of First Love Radio and the

01:56:43

First Love Radio can be found at their own website FirstLoveRadio .org FirstLoveRadio .org

01:56:50

and I want to remind our listeners to please continue to pray for my oldest brother

01:56:57

John who was discharged from the hospital after a very frightening visit there

01:57:06

I don't know if that's the right word visit but he was rushed there as you may remember by ambulance and it looked as though he was not going to leave that hospital ever again.

01:57:21

And thanks be to our gracious and merciful and loving Savior he increased the health of my brother enough where he was discharged and even more importantly than that he is showing very positive signs about being enthusiastic for Christ and I would ask you to pray that not only does the

01:57:49

Lord continue to heal his broken body from critical stage emphysema but infinitely more important that he gives him a new heart and saves his soul and that salvation is made crystal clear to me and to those who love him so that we know where he will be for eternity if he should depart this earth sooner than we would hope and so I would appreciate you keeping him in your prayers and I just ask of you to also keep praying for Iron Trumpets Iron Radio and our need financially to remain on the air and please pray that new donors come our way and begin to join the others who have very sacrificially and generously contributed to this program and new advertisers and new listeners it's always a joy every week to hear from all of you who have just discovered this program and have begun listening and have told me how much you enjoy and how much you are blessed by this program it means more than I could possibly explain to you in the

01:59:04

English language and I hope that you all have a very safe and happy and healthy and blessed weekend and Christ honoring

01:59:14

Lord's Day and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far far greater