July 19, 2021 Show with Dr. Joe Morecraft on “Proper Heroes Put in Their Proper Place in the Lives of Christians” (Part 4)

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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 ironsharpensironradio .com

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this is Chris Arnzen your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio wishing you all a happy Monday on this 19th day of July 2021 and I am always thrilled to have back on the program one of my favorite guests if you listen to this program with regularity you definitely have recognized his name by now because of the frequency with which

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I interview him and there's a reason for that I think he's one of the most brilliant and well -informed guests that I have on the program his name is

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Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III he is an author and he is the pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming Georgia we are addressing part four of a series that we began several months ago on proper heroes put in their proper place in the lives of Christians and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Dr.

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Joe Moorcraft with you Chris it's a privilege and enjoyment and I can echo those sentiments very loudly brother and tell our listeners about Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming Georgia Heritage Presbyterian Church is a small congregation it's a part of a small denomination called the

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Reformed Presbyterian Church Hanover Presbytery we are thoroughly evangelical thoroughly reformed we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture we're committed to our doctrinal statement is the original

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Westminster Confession of Faith and catechisms we're 100 % committed to the carrying out of the

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Great Commission of bringing the gospel to the nations and bring the discipline of the

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Word of God upon the nations baptizing them teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us we our people come from a variety of places some of them about a mile away from the church some of them three and a half hours from the church and we continue to draw new people and they are a loving friendly congregation that know why they're there at that particular church.

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Praise God and I can tell you in all honesty that there seems to be a growing fan club in my audience of people who view you as their favorite guest on my show

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I hear regularly especially when news gets out that I'm interviewing you again people who

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I don't even know personally who are sending me emails and Facebook posts telling me how much they appreciate you and consider you their favorite guest on Iron Triple well that's wonderful I appreciate that that's encouraging if anybody wants to find out more about Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming Georgia go to heritagepresbyterianchurch .com

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heritagepresbyterianchurch .com and I always want to take advantage of the fact that you have written an eight -volume commentary on the

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Westminster larger catechism called Authentic Christianity and I always want to squeeze into the program a promotion for that valuable eight -volume series why don't you tell our listeners about it well it took me 400 sermons to get through most of the

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Westminster larger catechism which was written in the 1640s along with the

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Westminster confession and shorter catechism and represents in my opinion biblical

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Christianity in its purest human expression and it is worth reading no matter what denomination of Christians you are you can learn a great deal by studying those documents particularly the larger catechism which is lengthy and it's a series of questions and answers questions are asked and then biblical answers are given with scores of scriptural references as footnotes and it is worthwhile to study it deals with every aspect of theology every aspect of ethics and can give somebody a consistently

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Christian worldview and you can get it on comprehend I mean where can you get it chris you could go to westminstercommentary .com

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westminstercommentary .com and there's another website called comprehensivechristianity .com

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that has a bunch of my books on it that one we just came out with last week called uh how to study the bible biblically great we actually uh did a several part interview on that subject a while ago yes sir we did uh by the way i want to just quickly read uh for those of you who have never heard this commendation for the eight volume commentary i'm sure that many perhaps even most of my listeners are very familiar with dr joseph piper president of greenville presbyterian theological seminary in taylor south carolina but he said of this commentary series every christian who is serious about the reformed faith and about the westminster standards should have and use this set it is much more than an exposition of the larger catechism it is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology and coming from somebody the likes and the caliber of joe piper that is quite a commendation sure is well i want to give our listeners our email address right away if they have questions they'd like to provide our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com

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c h r i s a r n z e n gmail .com please give us your first name at least your city and state of residence and your country residence if you live outside the usa and please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter well uh we have covered a lot of church history in the three previous episodes of our series that we've been conducting with you on proper heroes put in their proper place in the lives of christians uh it's kind of funny when i think about how when i did our first interview i was thinking maybe we would do one or two episodes on this but the the subject matter is so deep and rich and vast and wide that i think that we could continue even after today with several more interviews and in fact we could do a whole year of interviews like this and never and never exhaust the topic but uh we the last time we spoke we reached a point in history where we covered your heroes known as the covenanters uh the presbyterians who were persecuted greatly by the anglican church in scotland and if you care to say anything else about that before we move on to the uh the the uh in the 17th the 16th and 17th century god bought a great revival and reformation and spiritual renewal to scotland and in the early part of the 16th uh last part of the 16th century god transformed the church in scotland so that it was reformed and presbyterian with a small p as i when i use the word persecuted it's not with a capital p i'm not talking about denominations i'm talking about the idea where the elders of the church are elected by the people to obey and administer the word of god and holy scripture the kings of england as you can imagine hated that because they saw themselves as the head of the church and the state and so by the the uh 1600s the 16 for 60 and afterwards uh the war between the kings of england and the scottish presbyterians were at an all -time high and the kings of england decided to wipe them out and so from 1660 to 1688 thousands upon thousands upon thousands of men women and children were martyred uh exiled driven into poverty because they would not submit to the principle that christ not man is the head of the church or the king of the church so there there's great books on them and uh all kinds of names but the book first book i ever wrote read on them is a short paperback you can't get through without crying uh called fair sunshine fair sunshine by chuck purpose and so that gets us through most of the 17th century and brings us to the 18th century now after the 17th century i'll have to say i don't have as many heroes between 1700 and 2021 as i did before 1700 but there are some great heroes that we can model our lives after in the 18th 19th and 20th and 21st century and as we've said before on each program heroes are important for christians we need and our children need to have heroes in their lives men and women of great courage and sound faith who are willing to stand for christ when everybody else is caving in and when it's difficult to stand for christ so that because we're drawn to heroes and our children today and not just children but young adults are drawn to heroes out of politics and movies and celebrities that shouldn't be our heroes they're anti -heroes and uh so i've been trying in these programs which i really appreciate you doing to provide for your hearers uh models and heroes that are worthy of our admiration and we can learn from their mistakes we can learn from their strength and in the 1700s uh there were some great heroes uh one of i want to talk about i think four in the 1700s although there's more i want to recommend a book there is during our war of independence there were great heroes in the church and we don't have time to talk about all of those but there is a book that i would recommend to your people called the new england pulpit and the american revolution the new england pulpit and the american revolution and it it's about the pastors in the 1776 that preached politics resisted tyranny and founded a nation on the word of god it's written by a woman it's an older book but it's been reprinted by american vision and it's written by a woman called alice b baldwin b -a -l -d -w -i -n you can get it at american vision press but the first person i want to talk about in the 18th century is george frederick handle h -a -n -d -e -l one of my all -time favorite heroes in fact every sunday morning before i leave the house to go to church i'll listen to about an hour of george handle's music the same songs over and over again he's the one that the most famous for writing messiah which everybody knows some all christians in the english -speaking world know some uh piece of but i want to say something about uh handle that most people don't realize he he worked together with a aristocrat wealthy aristocratic evangelical named charles jennings j -e -n -n -e -n -s and jennings picked out a series of scripture passages that he wanted handle to write the music for and so whenever you hear handle's messiah produced handle wrote the music charles jennings picked the scripture passages somebody asked handle one time why he thought his oratorio messiah was so successful and he said because all the words are god's words amen and they sing about themselves and you look at these if you had a program the first time handle was performed in ireland and you look at a program it's like a gospel track if you see the flow of what song when what passages are used and it goes from point to point and it's pretty much the same uh series of points you would use when you're presenting the gospel somebody and the reason jennings and handle conspired to write the messiah the oratorial messiah was to refute the enlightenment they hated humanism they understood what the enlightenment was the beginning the last part of the 17th century handle by the way lived from the early 1700s to the late middle 1700s and that was called the enlightenment i call it the endarkenment when europe left its christian base and sought to build itself upon man as the measure of all things built itself upon the principle of revolt against almighty god it was the secular beginning of the secularization of the west and uh handle and jennings saw right through it they knew exactly what it was even though it gained the popularity so they worked together to put verses together on the most powerful music to communicate the answer to the enlightenment so whenever you listen to handles messiah understand they didn't write it just for pure pretty music they didn't write it just to entertain people they wrote it to refute secularism and to refute the humanism of the day praise god and i mean it is magnificent of course the one part of it that everybody knows about is uh hallelujah chorus hallelujah hallelujah everybody knows that but they don't know where it is in the whole piece of music normally when you get to handles with people saying handle handles messiah today they think it has to do with the second coming talked about king of kings and lord of lords and hallelujah the kingdom of this world become the kingdom of the lord and his christ and so it's usually thought of as having to do with the second coming and sometimes it's thought of as having to do with the incarnation so it's done around christmas but anybody that says that has never really thought through where it appears in handles messiah uh handle has prophecies at the beginning concerning the birth of christ then he talks about the virgin birth the incarnation and uh starts right from the beginning goes through the suffering of christ the death of christ the resurrection of christ and then he has a section in which he has songs sung about the spread of the gospel and the impact of the gospel upon the world the great land that from the psalms great is the company of the preachers and how beautiful the feet of those who spread the gospel throughout the world and he comes to song two and he has a piece on the king's rebel against christ and those who do not receive the gospel christ will destroy with his own scepter and there's no time between that and hallelujah of course it says in so many words that christ is king and he shall destroy the rebellious nations of the world hallelujah and so that's where it appears it appears right after the success of the preaching of the gospel and so handle and jennings understood exactly what they were doing this great highlight of handles messiah was sung in connection with god sending the preached word all over the world and the word having its impact upon the world and those nations that refuse to submit to it he destroyed in other words it's post -millennial through and through i was going to ask you uh was handle a conscious post -millennialist but i guess that that's on the the phrase was not even in vogue right the phrase was in vogue but he knew what he was doing in fact i have a sermon called how handle handles scripture and uh he knew hermeneutics he knew what he was doing the whole time in fact many many years ago 40 some years ago i was in a man's house and i saw on his coffee table an old book uh leather bound book of john newton that wrote amazing grace john newton sermons on handles messiah because they were sung in england at the same time he was writing uh the sermons on them so he wrote a sermon on every scripture text in handles messiah and of course that's all there is a so i moved in 40 years ago i was going to do that someday so a year or two ago i preached a sermon on every scripture text used in handles messiah and uh those are all available for free those are all available on sermonaudio .com

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for sermons on handles messiah and he was he was a lutheran was he not well he was german and so all germans are lutheran lutheran means the state church and i the the title isn't lutheran but it's lutheran in doctrine uh and yes he was but uh he also wrote music for the coronation of the british kings and queens so in the early middle 1700s he wrote a series of coronation anthems that have been used at the coronation of the english monarchs to this very day and will be used in the coronation of the next monarch i remember when i was a little boy in about 1953 or 4 when queen elizabeth's father died and this young woman named elizabeth was crowned queen of england now we had a television but it was black and white it was the only only television on our dirt road and it was black and white and i didn't know anything about history i was just about six or seven years old but throughout all my life i never got over watching that or hearing it and the greatest of the coronation hymns is based upon what happened in first kings now this i do listen to every sunday morning too gets my blood stirred uh it's called zadok the priest so it's based and panda was always taking his music from biblical stories and he understood typology and he understood the various personages and events in the old testament and how they were types of christ uh and so in the first chapter of kings nathan uh excuse me zadok who is the high priest in jerusalem and nathan the prophet he's the one that rebuked david for his immorality zadok and nathan coronated solomon king of israel and here's what it says in those verses they uh the zadok the priest nathan the prophet anointed solomon king and the people rejoice and said long live the king and the earth shook so uh handle takes those words and writes this coronation anthem and here are the words in it say dr priest nathan the prophet anointed solomon king and the people rejoiced and said long live the king and the music when the music is played at that point the earth does shake it starts out very slowly and then it reads a high point and it it when the crowning of the king takes place it just your whole being now why did uh hey hyden handle why did handle pick that particular obscure story in fact could you pick up right where you left off don't don't forget where we left off because we have to get our first break sure i won't the earth shaking um yeah if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own our email address again is chrisarmson at gmail .com

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c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n -a -g -mail .com give us your first name at least your city and state and your country of residence don't go away we'll be right back with dr joseph c moorcraft iii on part four of proper heroes put in their proper place in the lives of we'll be right back don't go away hello dear ones my name is justin peters and my friend chris arnzen host of iron sharpens iron radio and i are frequently blessed to share great times of fellowship with one another at conferences all over the united states we'll both be enjoying more fellowship together at the conference in atlanta georgia thursday september 30th through saturday october the 2nd on the theme christ is supreme over all i'll be speaking there along with over 20 other speakers including john mccarthur phil johnson vody balkan joel beaky and james white for details visit g3 conference dot com that's g the number three conference dot com please join chris arnzen and me september 30th through october the 2nd at g3 2021 this is justin peters reminding you that christ is supreme over all chris arnzen host of iron sharpens iron radio announcing a new website with an exciting offer from world magazine by trusted source for news from a christian perspective try world now at no charge for 90 days by going to get world now dot com that's get world now dot com i rely on world because i trust the reporting i gain insight from the analysis and world provides clarity to the news stories that really matter i believe you'll also find world to be an invaluable resource to better understand critical topics with a depth that's simply not found in other media outlets armed with this coverage world can help you to be a voice of wisdom in your family and your community this trial includes bi -weekly issues of world magazine on -scene reporting from world radio and the fully shareable content of world digital there's no obligation and no credit card required visit get world now dot com today also check out world news groups podcast the world and everything in it at wng .org

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that's historicalbiblesociety .org thanks for helping to keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air so as host of iron sharpens iron radio i frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations the church i've been strongly 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 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 bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship god in spirit and truth 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

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.com that's gcbcnj .squarespace .com

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or call them at 908 -996 -7654 that's 908 -996 -7654 tell pastor dunn that you heard about grace covenant baptist church on iron sharpens iron radio welcome back this is chris arnzen if you just tuned us in today is the day we are conducting part four of a series of interviews we began several months ago with dr joseph c moore craft the third the theme has been and continues to be proper heroes put in their proper place in the lives of christians if you have a question of your own our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com

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c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n gmail .com give us your first name at least your city and state your country of residence if you live outside the usa i just before we return to uh dr moore craft we're picking up on his reference to the earth shaking uh this detour may sound strange in the midst of a serious conversation but i think it is a very appropriate thing to read a very refreshing and surprising thing to read during a topic like proper heroes put in their proper place i'm sure most of our listeners are in some way familiar with the professional wrestler known as hulk hogan his real his real name is terry bolea and i may be mispronouncing that but i i would i would love to find out what is going on in his life because what he has said in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic hysteria uh is fairly uh profound especially coming from the lips of someone who is a globally known and adored celebrity uh he said in reference to the coronavirus shutdowns in three short months just like he did with the plagues of egypt god has taken away everything we worship god said god said you want to worship athletes i will shut down the stadiums you want to worship musicians i will shut down civic centers you want to worship actors i will shut down theaters you want to worship money i will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market you don't want to go to church and worship me i will make it where you can't go to church i thought that was pretty profound especially coming from somebody of the celebrity of hulk hogan man that is something i'm telling you so i thought it was a very proper thing as we discuss heroes but if you could pick up right where you left off the earth was shaking well i was talking about um the coronation anthem that handle wrote in the 1700s that every king and queen of england has been crowned uh with the music playing uh since then and the next king of england will also have that be played at his uh coronation whether he believes or not and i just want to remind everybody that it's based upon the story the first chapter of first kings where zadok the high priest and nathan the prophet anointed solomon king and then it says in the text uh the first kings it says and the people rejoiced and shouted long live the king and the earth shook that is they were so thrilled with joy and they're singing and uh praising god for the anointing of solomon was so great that the earth shook now handle knew that that was the type of christ he knew that this coronation of the king of israel who was a type of christ though not perfect that the coronation of the king of israel was a type and symbol of the coronation of christ the king when he rose from the dead and ascended god's right hand where he rules as king of kings and lord of lords and so that is what is sung at the coronation of every monarch of england upon their coronation and the reason that handle wrote it is because he was reasserting christendom in the face of the enlightenment he wanted people to remember this is a christian nation that the monarch of england must commit him or herself to distinctively christian values and institutions and so it wasn't just it wasn't a misuse of scripture at all it was a powerful testimony on the part of handle calling england to its to christ and to his kingdom and the kings and queens of england to rule in his name and under his authority and the music is so powerful it starts out very mildly but then when the crowd is placed on the monarch's head the music you better have your television turned down because it shakes the whole room and you can hear zadok the priest and watch it on youtube just go look up handle zadok the priest and i listen to it every sunday so he wrote i don't know how many operas auditorios uh many of them based upon biblical stories uh and messiah is i think the best musical presentation of gospel ever written so if i what i recommend is go get a good copy of handles messiah get the one we use every sunday we listen to every sunday uh where robert shaw of the atlanta symphony orchestra is the conductor and uh listen to it with your whole family and then after you've listened to it every few days listen to my sermon on text and then listen to the text again and the impact of of george frederick handle german who moved to uh england is just overwhelming to me and now let me tell you about john newton john newton preached a series of sermons on all the texts of handles messiah but he was always criticizing it and he wasn't criticizing the text and he wasn't criticizing the message he was criticizing people who sang it and who listened to it simply for pure entertainment sake and when i listen to choirs like mormon tabernacle choir sing hallelujah chorus i mean do they know what they're singing what they're singing is refuting everything about mormonism and a humanist a humanist saying hallelujah chorus and all the other parts of handles messiah and they don't mean what they're singing it's just a pure musical performance for which they're going in fact they're going to be held accountable as a matter of fact some of the texts that handle uses in messiah when humanists sing it they are singing curses on themselves and so i recommend handle as a hero there is a book i just got it yesterday i read pieces of it but it looks good it's i don't know the author it's called messiah a new look at the composer the music and the message by a man named or somebody named n a and his last name is spelled w -o -y -c -h -u -k w -o -y -c -h -u -k messiah a new look at the composer the music of the message and you can get all of you can listen to and watch all of handles music on the internet on youtube just uh go to handle look up handle handles music and you can listen everything and it's a great blessing to me every sunday morning for about an hour before i leave the house to go to church a little bit of trivia for those of my listeners who love listening to the late rc sproles radio program renewing your mind the theme music is sinfonia or from sinfonia which is a portion of handles messiah that's great i didn't realize that and uh also i thought i'd let you know something encouraging and you actually have planted a seed in my mind to get our mutual friend our dear dear mutual friend of many years several decades uh bill shishko formerly the pastor of the orthodox presbyterian church of franklin square long island new york now pastoring uh the haven orthodox presbyterian church plant in deer park long island new york for years i would say at least three years in a row maybe even more years than that but every christmas season when i worked for wmca radio uh a new york city affiliate of salem media which is the largest christian radio network in the world uh every year uh bill shishko and i would travel into new jersey where the studio used to be for wmca and we would record a two hour in fact i think sometimes it was three hours special on handles messiah oh that's wonderful and bill is so brilliant at uh hosting and producing radio material that i never had to stop the reel -to -reel quarter recorder which is what we used back then i was on one side of the studio uh the engineer's side behind the glass and bill was on the other side and he would just give me hand gestures when to start and stop the music that would play in between bill's narrations of what handle meant by the certain specific stanzas the main stanzas throughout the messiah and he would just gesture me to start playing the music he would gesture me to stop and by the time we were very near to the end uh bill would be saying this has been pastor bill shishko of the orthodox presbyterian church of franklin square long island new york wishing you all a very blessed and merry christmas and it was down to the second where nothing needed to be edited out never needed to stop it he's just amazing are those still available anywhere i don't know if he i don't know if he kept recordings of them or not but i will i would like to do that again that's why i said you planted a seed in my mind i think during the christmas season i will have bill do that as a special broadcast of our interpreters iron radio oh man that would be great i hope you can pull that off well you know our handle was not old when he died he was in his 50s i think maybe 59 actually uh he had just uh finished conducting the 30th his 30th performance of messiah and then i think about a week later died he's buried in westminster abbey in london and there's a statue a carving sculpture where he is buried of him holding his sheet music from handles messiah and if you look at the music if you look at the music it's the page that has the song i know that my redeemer lives wow so you can see why handle was one of my heroes another hero of the 18th century of mine was a man who lived in the middle part of the century called samuel davies d -a -v -i -e -s in the early part of the 1700s uh many of the calvinists had grown cold the calvinists some of it has become had become intellectual uh they weren't as godly as they were during the days of william bradford and the pilgrims the puritans in the 1620s and following and uh the church was not strong at all that was once strong so god brought a great revival in the 1740s to new england called the great awakening and it revived calvinism a calvinism calvinistic theology and calvinistic worldview just long enough to get the constitution written to get the declaration written and to separate from england then in the late 1700s it went on the wane again calvinism in new england but in the 1740s there were preachers the most famous preacher which about every christian i'm sure knows hopefully is jonathan edwards who is a phenomenon in and of himself but there were many preachers in the great awakening that god used to save many people and to call many people out of their lethargy and their backslidden nature but one of the greatest if that if in fact not if not the greatest preacher of the great awakening of 1740s was a virginian by the name of samuel davies he was a presbyterian in hanover presbytery and uh he patrick henry grew up under his preaching in fact that's why patrick henry who's another one of my heroes uh was such a powerful public speaker is listening to the preaching of samuel davies one of my favorite stories and if you come to my house uh you i have a book published in 1732 that was in samuel davies library the book's not that great but the reason i have the book is because in the right hand corner of the title page is the signature samuel davies that is his own signature so if you come to my house and touch that book that'll get you 20 000 years off purgatory so anyway my favorite story and there are still books available about samuel davies and on samuel davies and i would recommend you look look them up on google uh but my favorite story about samuel davies now here is a colonial virginia presbyterian preacher and he is called upon to go and preach to the court of king george of england the most powerful monarch of his day so now use your imagination you've got the royal court you've got the king and his queen sitting on their thrones you got all the lords and ladies sitting around and here's this virginia preacher in his black uh robe standing before him and preaching uh the doctrines of sovereign grace well the king gets bored and so he starts talking to his wife the queen he doesn't whisper because kings don't have to whisper and so he was talking out loud to his wife while samuel davies was trying to preach by the way that's there's a book title in there uh kings don't have to whisper i like that yeah that is good in fact in fact can we pick up right where you left off because we have to get our midway break right now of course sure if anybody would like to join us our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com

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chrisarnson at gmail .com if you have a question for dr joseph c moorecraft ii on proper heroes put in their proper place in the lives of christians and this is our longer than normal break folks so please be patient grace life radio 90 .1

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fm in lake city florida requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show because the fcc requires of them to localize their programming including iron trip and zion geographically to lake city florida and they do so with their own service announcements and other local things that they air in the midway portion of the show while they do that we simultaneously air our own globally heard commercials so please use this time wisely write down as much of the information as you possibly can for as many of our advertisers as you possibly can so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize or at least reply to our advertisers to keep them happy if you cannot patronize them by purchasing their products using their services visiting their churches or supporting their parachurch organizations which we hope many of you will do but when you can't do that at the very least please reply to the advertisements by saying thank you for sponsoring iron sharpens iron radio that should go a long way to keep our advertisers happy because remember folks we absolutely positively depend upon our advertisers and the financing that comes from them to exist if they stopped advertising if all of our advertisers stopped advertising we would go off the air permanently so please help keep our advertisers happy and respond to them also please write down your questions and send them to chris arnson at gmail .com

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for our guest joe moorcraft chris arnson at gmail .com we'll be right back so don't go away i'm james white of alpha and omega ministries my friend chris arnson host of iron sharpens iron radio and i are headed down to atlanta georgia once again for the g3 conference this year's g3 will be held thursday september 30th through saturday october 2nd on the theme christ is supreme over all i'll be joined by over 20 other speakers and musicians to lead in the worship of god through preaching teaching and singing including john macarthur phil johnson conrad and bayway daryl bernard harrison and virgil walker for details visit g3 conference .com

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that's g3 conference .com chris arnson and i hope to see you september 30th through october 2nd at g3 21 this is james white reminding you that christ is supreme overall when iron sharpens iron radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the new american standard bible were among my very first sponsors it gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the iron sharpens iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the nasb i'm author gary demar president of american vision and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor dan lebanek of west hills baptist church in huntington station new york and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm justin peters of justin peters ministries and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm reverend buzz taylor author of god's lawson and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm dr william webster pastor of grace bible church in battleground washington founder of the ministry christian resources the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor ryan galan of central isaac community church in central islip new york and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor brandon smith of trinity reformed baptist church in jackson georgia and the nasb is my bible of choice here's a great way for your church to help keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air pastors are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart consider restocking your pews with the nasb and tell the publishers you heard about them from chris arnzen on iron trump and zion radio go to nasbible .com

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that's nasbible .com to place your order this is pastor bill sasso grace church at franklin here in the beautiful state of tennessee our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support 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 lord jesus christ and of course the end of which we strive is the glory of god 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 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 our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org

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that's gracechurchatfranklin .org this is pastor bill sasser wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign lord god savior and king jesus christ today and always hi i'm buzz taylor chris arnson of iron sharpens iron radio has had a long time partnership with at cvbbs which stands for cumberland valley bible book service they specialize in supplying reformed and puritan books and bibles at discount prices that make them affordable for everyone cvbbs has been a family -owned book service since 1987 operating out of carlisle pennsylvania they seek to bring you the best available christian books and bibles at the best possible prices unlike other book sites they make no effort to provide every book that is available or popular because frankly much of what is being printed is not worth your time that means you can get to the good stuff faster it also means you don't have to worry about being assaulted by the pornographic heretical and otherwise faith insulting materials promoted by the secular book vendors browse the pages at ease shop at your leisure and purchase with confidence at cumberland valley bible book service order online at cvbbs .com

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that's cvbbs .com or you can order by phone at 1 -800 -656 -0231 that's 1 -800 -656 -0231 please let our friends at cvbbs know that you heard about them on iron sharpens iron radio linbrook baptist church on 225 earl avenue in linbrook long island is teaching god's timeless truths in the 21st century our church is far more than a sunday worship service it's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant it's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement it's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people and healing we're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our lord jesus christ in fellowship play and together hi i'm pastor bob waldeman and i invite you to come and join us here at linbrook baptist church and see all that a church can be call linbrook baptist at 516 -599 -9402 that's 516 -599 -9402 or visit linbrookbaptist .org

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that's linbrookbaptist .org here's what gary demar president of american vision had to say about iron sharpens iron radio recently good to be back chris i always enjoy our time you uh i have to tell you one of the better interviewers out there and i've been doing this for 30 more than 30 years wow that's some compliment how much joy are you for that uh you don't have to owe me anything we're in good we're i mean glad you said it on the air so i don't have to brag about myself tell your friends and loved ones about iron sharpens iron radio airing live monday through friday 4 to 6 p .m

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that's liyfc .org you hi this is john sampson pastor of king's church in peoria arizona taking a moment of your day to talk about chris arnson and the 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 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 i believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide this is a day of great spiritual compromise and yet god has raised 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 i'm pleased to do so and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting iron sharpens iron financially would you consider sending either a one -time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry i know it would be a huge encouragement to chris if you would all the details can be found at iron sharpens iron radio .com

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that's l -e -e -s drugs rx .com don't forget to ask about their discount generic drug program greetings in the matchless name of our lord jesus christ my name is bhanu gadi i am a pharmacist in new york which is the epicenter of the latest crisis the world is going through in psalm 139 verse 14 the psalmist offers praise to the lord like this i praise you because i'm fearfully and wonderfully made and wondrous are that my soul knows very well he saw god's goodness and mercy kindness and the beauty and what god has designed and he has erupted into praise in any crisis or problem brothers and sisters our only fallback position is to trust god's design and once we do there is nothing for us to do but to erupt in praise to him when the whole world is searching for a solution god in his infinite mercy has given us what we need to address this illness which can be very serious such is the beauty of his design knowing that design how can we not erupt in praise to our great god like the psalmist did may god bless you and give all of us wisdom to see greater things in his design thank you charles heddon spurgeon once said give yourself unto reading the man who never reads will never be read he who never quotes will never be quoted he will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own you need to read solid ground christian books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the prince of preachers to heart the mission of solid ground christian books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to christians in the present and future and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world since it's beginning in 2001 solid ground has been committed to publish god -centered christ exalting books for all ages we invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com

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that's solid -ground -books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past or present you can unearth from solid ground solid ground christian books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of iron sharpens iron radio and since we have mentioned during this discussion today on christian heroes handle of handle messiah's fame i thought i'd recommend that you get a hold of a book carried by solid -ground -books .com

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titled christ in song hymns of emmanuel from all ages by the great philip schaff i thought that you would be blessed by this if in fact you love handles messiah if you don't love handles messiah i would question your regeneration to be quite honest but uh look that up at solid -ground -books .com

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uh if you want to just type in philip schaff uh his last name or just type in schaff s -c -h -a -f as in frank f as in frank that book will come up also since my guest uh dr moorcraft mentioned samuel davies they also have sermons of the reverend samuel davies in three volumes at solid -ground -books .com

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just type in the search engine davies d -a -v as in victory i -e -s and also i have uh a book in mind that uh everyone should get their hands on by a guest i loved to interview a number of times on this program dewey roberts he has written a book samuel davies apostle to virginia just out of curiosity uh dr moorcraft are you familiar with dewey roberts and his books i am he's written about and i know that book very well oh great well i recommend that book to our listeners and that book you can order from cvbbs .com

01:09:45

that's cumberland valley bible book service cvbbs .com just make sure you tell them it is the book samuel davies apostle to virginia by dewey d -e -w -e -y roberts that's a hard name to forget and it is published by sola fide publications so i hope you get a hold of that as well but as far as solid -ground -books .com

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is concerned please visit that website frequently and purchase generously because they are a primary a premier a vital sponsor of this program without the continued financial support of solid -ground -books .com

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we would likely have to go off the air they are that important to us so please visit that website frequently always mention that you heard about them from chris arnzen of iron sharpens iron radio before i return to dr moorcraft to continue our discussion of part four of the series we began months ago proper heroes put in their proper places i just have some important announcements uh first of all uh continue praying for my brother john please uh 76 years old in the uh actually he's in a skilled nursing facility now he was in the hospital uh in denton texas a presbyterian hospital hospital there now he's in a skilled nursing facility he has pneumonia which is very deadly for someone in my brother's condition and age uh not only is he 76 years old but he also has critical stage emphysema and cancer so please continue to pray for not only physical healing but infinitely more important than any of that salvation i can give you the praise report that my brother has informed me that he is turning to christ in prayer daily uh which is a very positive sign that he either is born again or is at the very least being drawn by god please pray that i receive from my brother fully convincing crystal clear evidence that he has truly embraced jesus christ as his one and death burial and resurrection as his only way to enter into the presence of christ for eternity which may be in the very near future so please pray that i hear good news to that extent very soon also folks please tune in mark your calendars uh listen to this show every day if you can but tune in this thursday i think that you will be fascinated by an interview that we are going to be conducting god willing with my dear friend bill hill uh pastor william h hill uh actually is his full name uh actually i think it's william f isn't frank hill sorry about that um he is a pca pastor that is the denomination known as the presbyterian church in america and he is going to be giving his assessment on the recent pca general assembly and he was greatly encouraged by this assembly but not without some reasons for apprehension and further need of fervent prayer for that denomination he is the pastor of providence church uh in evansville indiana and that is a pca congregation so make mark it down your calendars to listen to my interview with pastor william f as in frank hill and our discussion on the pca general assembly also folks if you love this show and you don't want to disappear from the airwaves please i'm urging you i'm urging you to go to irontrepansironradio .com

01:14:20

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01:15:05

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click support then click click to donate now also if you are not a member of a local bible believing church such as heritage presbyterian church in cumming georgia and you need a church such as that obviously any christian needs to be a member of a local church or otherwise you are violating a command of scripture not to forsake the assembling of the brethren and to submit yourselves to local god -appointed elders of local churches so please if you are in a situation where you're not a member of a biblically faithful theologically sound church send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

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chrisarnson at gmail .com and put i need a church in the subject line i have helped many people all over the planet earth find churches in their area i just got an email last week from a dear lady susan i hope you're listening susan uh who lives in nairobi kenya asking for reformed churches in her area i was able to give her the details on three reformed baptist congregations and i hope she visited at least one of them well obviously she would only have had the time to visit one of them yesterday and i hope to hear a good report from her soon that she was blessed but if you are in the same situation as susan in nairobi nairobi kenya africa uh send me an email no matter where you live to chris arnson at gmail .com

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chris arnson at gmail .com and put i need a church in the subject line that's also the email address where you could send a question into our guest dr joseph c moorcraft the third that's chris arnson at gmail .com

01:19:18

chris arnson at gmail .com and during uh our discussion on proper heroes put in their proper places before the break you uttered a fantastic line that i told you should be used as the title of a book perhaps by you at some point in the future kings don't need to whisper i love that but uh tell us pick up where you left off there brother well before i do i want to talk just a second about those three volumes of samuel davy sermons that talked about a while ago i recommend those to everybody and i'll tell you a funny story about them one time i was having a weekend conference for preachers and i had this uh doctor that i dearly love to come and speak at this conference i knew he didn't share our views on eschatology and things like that but i also knew he was sad on most things and i wanted him to come and speak so i gave him a title to speak on because i knew he couldn't hurt this subject and uh it was samuel davis and the preaching of samuel davis so there he is in my church and he's teaching these preachers about samuel davis and lo and behold in the middle of it he said what made samuel davis so such a powerful preacher is that in his sermons he never referred to politics or current events well he knew where he was he knew he was right there in the midst of my church and he knew our perspective but i just smiled because i loved him so much so then afterwards during the question and answer period i said to him dr so -and -so do you have those three volume sermons on samu three volumes of samuel davis sermons he said i do i said they're great aren't they he said they are i said those first two volumes of evangelistic sermons they can't be beat can they he said no they can't and i said that third volume of sermons on politics and current events can't be beat either so he was right he was wrong then about all he could do is just sort of smile but anyway by the way i just want to repeat the website if you want to get that three volume series go to solid -ground -books .com

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solid -ground -books .com i'm sorry go ahead brother and so we were talking about the time that uh samuel davis virginia colonial presbyterian preacher was preaching at the court of king james of england and the king and his queen was there and the lords and ladies and and he was standing there at the pulpit with his black robe and was preaching the doctrines of grace and the king got bored and started talking to his wife and samuel davis didn't say anything because it was the king and the lords the ladies were sort of embarrassed but nobody could say anything and finally it just got so loud that samuel davis could not continue so samuel davis stopped his sermon and of course the king was talking to his bride so he didn't realize he stopped but all the lords and ladies were gasping what's going to happen next his preachers quit preaching and finally the king realized samuel davis had finished had quit preaching so the king stopped talking and looked at him and samuel davis looked at the king of england and he said your majesty when the lion roars the beasts of the forest tremble when the lord god almighty speaks let the kings of the earth keep solid before him amen and he finished his sermon without any further interruptions by the king courageous preaching we we need is to face down the tyrants amen and yeah i'm so sick and tired of hearing about evangelical leaders meeting with various presidents and when they refuse to challenge these presidents on things where they are miserably failing such as the presidents even tolerating infanticide and other things but yes sir i like john nox's great quote where he said resistance to tyrants is obedience to god amen i have a third hero in the 18th century and this one many of your hearers i'm sure have never heard of her name was phyllis wheatley phyllis wheatley w -h -e -a -t -l -e -y she was a black woman she was born in the early middle 1700s died in the late middle 1700s she was born in africa in east africa she was sold into slavery and uh she was uh owned by the wheatley family in massachusetts she didn't know one word of english so the wheatleys taught her english and she learned to write and speak english fluently in 15 months and they gave her a good education they taught her the bible the letter to christ she read other forms of literature she lived in america and she lived in england and she was a poet she was the first african -american poet to ever have her poetry published in a book wow this you you may be even able to buy the book but i read the original on that google you can go to google and put in phyllis wheatley and there her book is their poetry original book and you can read every poem she wrote and uh she the reason she got her book public poetry published in england is because of a very wealthy countess named countess huntington now anybody that knows the history of of the reformed faith in the 18th century recognizes the name countess huntington yeah she was also known as lady huntington wasn't she yes sir and she was financial supporter of george whitfield that's right and in fact there's a book on her that i haven't read but i'd love to if you could find it countess of huntington and so she read phyllis wheatley's books and published them i just read them this afternoon about 150 pages i just read them this afternoon they're magnificent a lot of them are poems to comfort people who have lost spouses or children or parents to show your education also a bunch of them are poems based upon old greek stories and mythology but she also has a poem on the death of george whitfield and her christianity is explicitly evangelical so there's not much we know about her but you can find information on her on google and look up the name phyllis wheatley well i hope that book is in print because i immediately know who i would like to give that book to i had a very dear friend al stein he was an assemblies of god pastor but believe it or not al over the course of a decade or so during our friendship became a full -blown five -point calvinist wonderful and one of his greatest heroes in fact i think it was his greatest hero outside of the scripture was george whitfield and i would love to give a copy of that book to his widow oh that would be great if you could find it yes just look up phyllis wheatley and hopefully it's just one book of poetry and hopefully you can find it you know it would feel such a godly man he's one of my heroes too that great awakening period i've read a great deal on him i've read his sermons and i think he's probably the greatest preacher since new testament times in terms of gifts and ability and power you know they didn't have altar calls during george whitfield's day but he preached in open fields to thousands of people led thousands of people to christ through his sermons and his voice was so powerful that he could have 30 000 people in the field and everybody at the back of the crowd could hear him even benjamin franklin was astonished by the oh he was in fact the uh the great uh oh what is the great scottish atheist named david hume uh would walk long ways to hear george whitfield preach and he was an atheist and somebody asked him one time do you believe what george whitfield preaches and he said of course not but george whitfield believes what he preaches so anyway so um as an old man he prayed one time he prayed lord today may i begin to begin to begin to be a christian that he was such a humble man and he had a young assistant there was a nobody when whitfield was already famous and his name was john wesley and john wesley uh began to preach under whitfield and whitfield mentored him and taught him then wesley became famous and wesley didn't like whitfield's calvinism and so he would attack whitfield's calvinism and not only attack his calvinism but he'd also attack whitfield with slanderous remarks and as wesley was growing in in popularity and whitfield was getting older some of whitfield's friends said you you've got to answer uh wesley you've got to answer your critics and whitfield said i'm perfectly waiting willing to be wait until judgment day to be vindicated and they said do you think you'll ever see john wesley in heaven and whitfield said no i don't i'll be so far away from god's throne and wesley will be so close i will not be able to see him for the brightness of god's glory amen in fact uh i don't know if i've ever told you this i know that my listeners may be tired of hearing this but george whitfield's letter to john wesley an election which is reprinted by chapel library and maybe other publishers since it's public domain but when i was a brand new babe in christ still wet from baptismal water i was a vehement anti -calvinist i didn't know anything about who calvin was or who george whitfield was or who john wesley was or who charles spurgeon was but it made my stomach turn to hear calvinism described to me and some uh dear friend in the church now in heaven nigel stone a brother from england said to me i understand you're having a troubled time under understanding and embracing calvinism let me give you this booklet and he gave me george whitfield's john wesley an election i read it and my first reaction was oh no this is true but i still but i still hate it but then within about within about a month or two the lord just totally radically transformed my appreciation for christ's uh death specifically for me as a recipient of his definite atonement and i just fell in love with these doctrines and uh the doctrine of election so just a little bit of trivia for you on your that is pretty good i would recommend to your hearers uh george banner truth book by dally more on george whitfield he he was such a powerful preacher on both sides of the atlantic and he was buried under the pulpit of a church in new england that is now liberal and so i'm glad it's just his body that's buried there because i hate for him to have to hear that sermon sermon to every sunday that are against the word of god amen by the way folks if you want to get that booklet go to chapel library .org

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chapel library .org and look for george whitfield's letter to john wesley on election i used to have a woman in our church she's dead now but i used to have a woman in our church who was a direct descendant of both jonathan edwards and george whitfield that's some lineage wow so george whitfield is was one of my heroes also phyllis wheatley one of my heroes and there's one more person in the 18th century that is not as famous i call general john peter muilenburg general muilenburg before he was a general in the george washington's army was a pastor in pennsylvania and then the american war of independence spoke out and he goes to virginia to raise a regiment and he pastors a church and he becomes general john peter muilenburg there is a poem about two pages long i would love to read on your show but i would never make it through without crying like a baby it's called the rising of 1776 you can get it on the internet just go and look for the poem the rising of 1776 and it's based upon muilenburg's life as a pastor he was the pastor of a church right at the beginning of the american war of independence and he's preaching a great sermon and he says christians who have been made free in christ must not only resist tyranny but must fight for their freedom and defend their freedom and he said to his congregation and i call upon you to stand for the freedom we have in christ and so he had these black robes that preachers wore on those days so he tore off his black robe and underneath the robe was a colonial revolutionary uniform and he says all of you who are for freedom follow me and he grabs his rifle walks out of the church and all the men follow him and that's how he formed his regiment now is that where the term black robe regiment comes from yes sir that is that that crowd those preachers that preached against tyranny and preached for the defense of liberty was the black robe regiment of the american war of independence so muilenburg is worth reading about but that poem particularly the rising of 1776 by the way what didn't the british refer to the war of independence as the presbyterian war presbyterian rebellion and the reason for that is there was there's two wars within a whole 150 years of each other one was king charles the first war in england in the 1640s to advance his tyranny over church and state and that war was called the episcopal war because he fought for his authority over the church and for the rule of bishops over elected elders and it was called the episcopal war and it was a war to advance tyranny so in 1776 when the king george of england's ambassador goes back to england to tell him that the colonies have uh revolted he said uh he said it was called the presbyterian rebellion not capital p but small p these are people who reject the authority of the king in any kind of totalitarian manner and they believe that christ is the head of the church of the state and the king has delegated authority and if he breaks his covenant with the people they no longer have the responsibility to keep any covenants with him hence the theological basis of the war of independence and so that's why it was called the presbyterian rebellion in fact i have heard that the british were especially ruthless and targeted presbyterian churches here in the uh american continent during that war i wouldn't be surprised if the ambassador said to the king your majesty the colonies have run off with the presbyterian parson uh we have a question uh from an anonymous listener i'll squeeze this in before the final break maybe what i'll do is i'll ask the question give you time to think about it during the break and you could answer it when we come back sure this anonymous listener says i must admit that i am displeased with some of the hymnody we sing in the congregation to which i belong i was wondering if you could think of hymns that may be famous and frequently used by the church that you would seek to dissuade christians from singing and i would seek to dissuade them yes in other words that you don't want them to sing those oh yeah i got you okay all right we're going to the final break and you could answer that when we come back okay all right and our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com

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c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com if you want to get in line and ask a question of your own before we run out of time don't go away we'll be right back hi i'm phil johnson host and executive director of grace to you the media ministry of john mccarthur i hope you plan to join me and chris arnzen host of iron sharpens iron radio for the g3 conference in atlanta georgia thursday september 30th through saturday october 2nd the theme this year is christ is supreme over all my friend chris arnzen and i will be joined by several of our other friends including voddie valcom justin peters darrell bernard harrison virgil walker and james white more than 20 other speakers will be joining us and the lineup this year includes my pastor john mccarthur for details visit g3 conference .com

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that's g3 conference .com chris arnzen and i hope to see you september 30th through october 2nd at g3 2021 this is phil johnson reminding you that christ is supreme over all when iron sharpens iron radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the new american standard bible were among my very first sponsors it gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the iron sharpens iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the nasb i'm dr joe moorcraft pastor of heritage presbyterian church in cumming georgia and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm anthony uvinio founder of the reformrookie .com

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and co -founder of new york apologetics and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor tim bushong of syracuse baptist church in syracuse indiana and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm eli ayala founder of revealed apologetics and staff member with the historical bible society and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor josh miller of grace bible fellowship church in harrisburg pennsylvania and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm joe bianchi president of calvi press publishing in greenville south carolina and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor jake corn of switzerland community church in switzerland florida and the nasb is my bible of choice here's a great way for your church to help keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air pastors are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart consider restocking your pews with the nasb and tell the publishers you heard about them from chris arnzen on iron sharpens iron radio go to nasbible .com

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that's nasbible .com to place your order getting a driver's license running a cash register flipping burgers passing sixth grade do you know what they all have in common they all require training assessments and certifications but do you know what requires no training at all becoming a parent my name is am brewster i'm the president of truth love parent and host of its award -winning podcast i've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s and what i've discovered is that the majority of christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes that's why truth love parent exists we serve god by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents god called and created them to be we produce free parenting resources trained church leaders and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness please visit us at truthloveparent .com

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that's l -e -e -s drugs rx .com don't forget to ask about their discount generic drug program if you love iron sharpens iron radio one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers one such faithful advertiser who really believes in what chris arnton is doing is daniel p puttifuco serious injury lawyer and christian apologist dan is the president and founder of the historical bible society their mission to foster belief in the credibility of scripture as the written word of god they go to various churches schools and institutions to publicly display a rare collection of biblical texts along with a fascinating presentation by mr puttifuco demonstrating the reliability of scripture to advance the cause of they created a beautiful perfect facsimile of the genealogy of jesus christ from the original engravings contained in a first edition 1611 king james bible this 17th century hand engraved chart shows the family tree of jesus christ going back to adam and eve this book is complete with gorgeous full -size illustrations of noah's ark and the tower of babel and an explanation of why the genealogy of jesus is so important for his claims to the throne of the universe originals of this work are in museums and nobody's ever made it accessible to the public in a large book form before you can have your own copy of this 44 page genealogy book for a donation of 35 dollars or more visit historicalbiblesociety .org

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that's historicalbiblesociety .org thanks for helping to keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air i'm dr 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 hope reform baptist church in corham long island new york pastored by rich jensen and christopher mcdowell 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 christ jesus the king and his doctrines of sovereign grace in suffolk county long island and beyond 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 for more information on hope reform baptist church go to hope reformed li .net

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that's hope reformed li .net or call 631 -696 -5711 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 so james white of alphanamega ministries here 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 and besides that they feel so good i'm so delighted i discovered post tenebrous lux bible rebinding no radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently but i'll give it a shot jeffrey rice of post tenebrous lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan all his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goat skin tanned in italy used for my nestle all in 28th edition with a navy blue goat skin inside liner and the electric blue goat skin from a 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 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 for more details on post tenebrous lux bible rebinding go to ptl bible rebinding .com

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that's ptl bible rebinding .com welcome back this is chris arnzen and uh dr moorcraft our last listener who chose to remain anonymous asked what hymns should the church not sing that is a great question because there's nothing that shows the immaturity and the shallowness of the 21st century church like it's singing uh that it's singing is shallow it lacks theological correctness it lacks beauty uh the words are basically repetitive and the tunes where the words are true the tunes don't have the same majesty as the words so if there's anything that shows where a church is it's the way it sings i like charlemagne charlemagne you know was uh the king of the frankish kingdom in middle ages and uh he would go all over his frankish kingdom which is now francis and he would go incognito nobody knew what it looked like even though he was the emperor and if a priest in a worship service was not enthusiastically leading congregational singing or enthusiastically reading the scripture he would fire him and send him to some monastery where he'd live the rest of his life as a result during charlemagne's reign there was a lot of good singing and scripture reading in the churches but anyway uh it is amazing to me people i don't think they think about the words because it's not the truth of the words that moves people today it's the rhythm of the song it's the beat now isn't uh one hymn that really is devoid of actual scriptural truth uh a very popular hymn known as the battle hymn of the republic you are asking the wrong guy for that hahahaha well the the hymn of the the war of northern aggression uh the battle hymn of the republic was written by a woman who was tinged by unitarianism and it's about the the destruction of the south by yankee army i'm not reading it in reading into it uh the battle hymn of the republic uh about destroying the south the armies of the lord destroying the south and uh sowing god's wrath upon us so i've never seen that even if it's sung in the church i'm visiting i refuse to sing it the battle hymn of the republic it should not even should not be in any hymn books and my opinion it should never be written but i love the melody though sir i love the melody though the melody is great we're going to have to write words to the melody because the melody is great uh my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord and the coming of the lord means the armies of the north invading the south trapping out the vintage stamping out the vintage where grapes of wrath are stored and so it's talking about the northern armies stamping out the south where the where slavery uh took place but that's another subject i don't think now there are some great patriotic songs but i don't think patriotic songs should be sung in church because patriotic songs though they're great in their place i do not have as their object god praise in a worship service is to be offered to god it's about god to god and not in praise the country i mean i love the star spangled banner my favorite song is my country tis of thee these are great songs but uh they're not to be sung in a worship service and so my country tis of thee becky said i said the wrong thing you said it right and so uh but there are other songs i was talking to somebody recently about i said now the hymns in our church when you come and visit in our church you probably never heard before because they're old he said yeah we sing old hymns too in our church back from the 30s 1930s i said no i'm talking about 1500 years old and another thing i don't like to sing hymns you can waltz to so i think waltz waltz tunes are uh and you'll have to and he walks with me and he talks with me so that's not only a waltz the the words are not true of that song i come to the garden alone and he walks with me and talks with me where's the church where's your union with other christians you come to the garden alone it's just you and jesus i will refrain from uh announcing a very famous reformed christian who actually loved that hymn he's he's in heaven now though oh well that's good now he knows better so uh there is a great hymn book i would recommend there's some great hymn books but i would recommend this hymn book to pastorians baptists hispanics methodists church of god it's called the trinity hymnal amen that's what we use at grace baptist of carlisle the trinity and all has great hymns that have been written many of them in the 20th century some in the 19th 18th 17th 16th on back some of them go all the way back to having been written by ambrose and ambrose is the man that led augustine to christ uh in the in the fifth fourth and fifth century go go and tell your people to go in the back of their hymn book to the index of authors of tunes and words and see how many of them were written by ambrose or by handle or by calvin or by martin luther we sing in our church the songs that god's people have been singing through the centuries they're full of truth they're well written and the majesty of the music fits the dignity of the words now some of the tunes the trinity hymnal sound more like funeral dirges to me but other than just a handful that is a great hymnal plus god commands us to sing psalms and i there are many churches today that have never sung a psalm in their life so also be in your hymn book in the back in indexes how many of them are based upon the psalms 150 psalms that that shows maturity in the singing of a congregation by whether or not they sing uh sounds and god owned tunes so uh we only got a minute but i'll tell you one more song that's influenced by pietism and neoplatonism neoplatonism said it's a pagan philosophy that says that the physical is dirty the only thing that spirituals are heavenly only thing that's good is the spiritual heavenly and it's sweet hour prayer now i like the song of sweet hour prayer it's in the trinity hymnal but there's two versions there's a there's a neoplatonic version that says this robe of flesh i'll drop and rise and seize the everlasting prize and shout while passing through the air farewell farewell sweet hour prayer and the image you get is a copperhead shedding a skin this robe of flesh ooh if we can just get rid of this body this physical flesh of ours and someday we'll drop this robe of flesh and just soar into the heavens well that doesn't say much for the resurrection at the end of time so the reformed version is in my immortal flesh i'll rise amen and i'm glad you asked that question that's a very important question and we have some other questions that we do not have time to ask but since we are going to continue god willing this theme uh you folks who have not had your questions asked can resend them the next time one of them involves george washington whether you believe he was a genuine christian or not because there is disagreement among christianists that's easy to answer real quick there is a big fat 600 page book called the sacred fire yeah peter peter lilbeck yes sir and the purpose of that book is to show that george washington was an evangelical christian so the argument is over okay i just want to make sure that our listeners have the website for your church heritage presbyterian church .com

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heritage presbyterian church .com please don't forget about westminstercommentary .com

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for the eight volume commentary on the westminster larger catechism by dr moorcraft and also don't forget about comprehensivechristianity .com