April 22, 2019 Show with Liam Goligher on “Redemption: Accomplished & Applied” AND “Sanctification by Grace”

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April 23, 2019

April 22, 2019: LIAM GOLIGHER, Senior Pastor @ Tenth Presbyterian Church Philadelphia, PA, who will address: “REDEMPTION: ACCOMPLISHED & APPLIED” *AND* “SANCTIFICATION BY GRACE” & announcing this week’s Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology

00:05: Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century Gospel Minister George Norcross in downtown
00:10: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,
00:23: Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the Church and the world today.
00:31: Proverbs 27, verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
00:38: 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.
00:51: 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.
00:58: And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,
01:10: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at IronSharpensIronRadio .com.
01:19: This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 22nd day of April 2019.
01:28: I hope that you all had a very blessed Easter weekend in celebration of the resurrection of our
01:34: Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Of course, we should be celebrating that every day, but it's always a wonderful opportunity to get together with family, friends, and loved ones, both those who are saved and those who are lost, so that we can share with them the good news of Jesus Christ.
01:52: And I hope that you had the opportunity to do both over the weekend, both enjoying the fellowship of the brethren and also having an opportunity to share your precious faith.
02:03: Today, we have, as a first -time guest, somebody who I've wanted to interview for quite a while, and I'm so delighted that I have the opportunity today to have him on for the very first time,
02:14: Liam Gallagher. He is the senior minister at 10th Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the late
02:22: Dr. James Montgomery Boyce was the pastor for many years. And he is very much remembered for the
02:30: Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology that he held there at 10th Presbyterian every year, which is now held in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
02:39: And we're going to be talking about this week's Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology this weekend, which
02:45: I hope to attend. And today, our actual two topics for discussion with Pastor Gallagher are redemption, accomplished and applied, both a phenomenal and amazing biblical truth, and the title of one of the best books on the atonement by John Murray.
03:06: And the second hour, we intend to discuss sanctification by grace. But it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio, Pastor Liam Gallagher.
03:18: Thank you very much for having me here. Amen. Well, why don't you, other than what I just said, for our listeners who may be totally unfamiliar with 10th
03:28: Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, we do have new believers in our audience at times.
03:34: We also have people who are not even Christians listening. So why don't you tell our listeners about 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
03:42: So we're a church in the Presbyterian Church of America. We're in Center City, in a very strategic location.
03:56: Where there's absolutely no parking, virtually. I think that's one of the reasons they moved the location, isn't it?
04:06: Of the conference. The conference, yeah. So that's one of the challenges we have.
04:11: And yet, remarkably, we have over 1 ,000 people every Sunday who manage to find their way there, and perhaps 1 ,600.
04:20: And in spite of that being a huge hurdle, nonetheless, we still manage to battle on.
04:29: God's been good to us over the years. We've managed to see ministries develop among the college students, 180 ,000 college students nearby.
04:41: In the medical community, Philadelphia is the third -largest medical community in the country.
04:48: Wow. Yeah. I think every one in five doctors goes through Philadelphia.
04:58: I had the privilege years ago at one of the Philadelphia conferences on Reformed Theology, I had the privilege of meeting
05:05: Dr. C. Everett Koop, who was a member there, if I'm not mistaken. A member and an elder, a long -time elder.
05:13: That's right, that's right. And First Sergeant General Ronald Reagan, I believe.
05:22: Yes. I knew him very briefly. He was elder than I.
05:30: First came, and they moved to be near his family. He was a very godly man.
05:37: And if you could, brother, just if you could continue to remember to keep your mouth as close to the mouthpiece of whatever you're speaking into, because sometimes you tend to drift away and get a little muffled.
05:47: I'm sorry about that. That's all right. Yeah, right now you're very good. Well, one of the things that we have a tradition of doing on Iron Trip and Zion Radio, when we have a first -time guest, we like that guest to give a summary of his or her salvation testimony, what kind of religious atmosphere you were raised in, what kind of providential circumstances our
06:13: Sovereign Lord raised up in your life to draw you to himself and save you, et cetera.
06:18: If you could, give us some of your background on how you came to know and love our
06:24: Lord Jesus Christ. So my, let me go back. My father was converted in his adult life.
06:33: I had an open -air meeting where somebody was preaching, and he met my mother.
06:39: My mother came from a fairly longstanding Christian family. My grandfather had been killed in a bombing raid on Glasgow during the
06:50: Second World War, and my grandmother regularly entertained troops,
06:56: American troops, who were coming through that area, through Glasgow, in her home.
07:03: And I grew up listening to my grandmother's stories of some of these young men who had come from all parts of the
07:11: States, and their conversions, and remarkable stories of the way in which
07:17: God had drawn them to himself. Those stories that my grandmother told were influential in my thinking, even as a little boy.
07:30: She also used to tell me about preachers who'd come through the church that she went to, which was a mission hall that D .L.
07:40: Moody had started, an American evangelist in the 19th century. And Billy Graham, before he was
07:48: Billy Graham, preached there. Before he was a feminist.
07:54: Donald Gray Barnhouse from 10th Presbyterian preached there, in fact. And she told me about his preaching.
08:02: And I found a little prayer card advertising the meetings. In 1939, in August of 1939, before war was declared in September, he was in Glasgow for the whole month preaching at my grandparents' church.
08:19: And I kept that prayer card in my Bible all of my life, actually.
08:28: And therein lies the story. The completion of that story, you can ask me later on.
08:33: But the influence of my grandmother was great, I think. And I'm one of these people who cannot remember a time in their life when they didn't love the
08:45: Lord Jesus. And I mean love the Lord Jesus. Not only love the Lord Jesus, but wanted to hear all
08:51: I could about him. I went to church. I loved
08:56: Sundays. I loved hearing, preaching our minister. It was a
09:02: Baptist church, but it wasn't like a Southern Baptist church. Not that I'm casting aspersions there, but it was far more formal than a
09:09: Southern Baptist church would be. But he would tell a children's talk every week, in which he would tell perhaps a story of a missionary.
09:16: And he would set us off to go and discover what the name of this person was, give us the life story.
09:21: And we'd go and find out who they were. Basically, I just drank in everything
09:29: I could. Because we were in evangelical circles, there was great pressure, of course, to have a conversion experience.
09:39: I would go along to these meetings, people would tell you to put up your hand and receive Christ. I put up my hand several times.
09:49: It dawned on me one day, fairly early on, that why was
09:55: I asking Jesus into my life? Since I'd never been conscious of him not being in my life.
10:02: We used to sing these hymns, as I spend in vanity and pride. Well, when you're six years of age, it's hard to remember.
10:10: You're spending years in vanity and pride. I had a very subtle conscience and kept examining myself.
10:21: I think with the help of my parents, I came to a place of peace and rest in trusting that Christ was my
10:33: Savior and Lord. At that point, there was only one issue that was in my mind.
10:39: That was the desire I had to be a preacher of the gospel.
10:47: I remember my father took me along to a tin hut that somebody had bought and was using as a start -up for a youth work.
10:59: This guy was showing films of the Billy Graham crusades or something. I remember watching the young Billy Graham, who was a really dynamic preacher.
11:09: I watched him preach that night. I went home and I re -preached his sermon to my brother.
11:15: My brother was in the top bunk, and that was the gallery. I re -preached his sermon. I was ten years of age. I managed to remember most of the sermons
11:24: I did and preach it in a North Carolina accent. As you can tell, I did it in a North Carolina accent.
11:34: Eventually, I started preaching to real people. I did initially have something of an
11:40: American twang, even though I was very much a Scotsman. Anyway, ten years of age,
11:49: Saturday night, to this thing, home practice preaching. Monday afternoon after school,
11:56: I went into the public library with my parents' tickets to the adult public section.
12:02: I got the first six books out of the religion section and took them home.
12:08: The first book was by a man called Karl Barth. It was called Evangelical Theology.
12:15: I tried to read it, lots of big words. My mother asked me if I was understanding what
12:21: I was reading. I said, well, I understand some of it. She said, what do you think it is?
12:27: I said, this man has a strange view of the Bible, which
12:32: I think for a ten -year -old was quite discerning. Oh yeah, you could detect neo -orthodoxy as a young child.
12:41: Exactly. So that was the beginning, really. At that point,
12:47: I started to prepare little sermons, started to read books. Within a couple of years, by the time
12:53: I was nearly 13, I had become reformed in my theology by spontaneously reading the
13:02: Bible for myself, basically. I was searching out books to read.
13:07: I didn't know anyone alive at the church I went to that were good, godly people, but nobody was into any kind of theology of that kind.
13:17: I tried to talk about it in my youth group. They asked me to speak. The very first time
13:23: I spoke to the youth group, I preached on definite atonement. They looked at me as if there was something wrong with me.
13:33: Were you the only Calvinist in the room when you did that? Oh yeah, absolutely. I was the only
13:39: Calvinist in the church. I don't want to just cast aspersions.
13:48: That church was a nurturing environment, and I grew up in the protection of that church family.
13:59: That church still means a lot to me today, but there was certainly no Calvinists there. But that was good, because I think that was a good preparation for some of my ministry experiences where I was the only
14:09: Calvinist as well. Did you know that you were a Calvinist, or did you just assume this is just what the Bible teaches?
14:15: When I started reading old books that I got out of the market,
14:23: I realized that what some of these dead people believed was what I believed. I didn't know
14:28: I was alive, who believed these things. Until when I was about 15,
14:33: I think I was preaching in the open air at a mission down by the seaside.
14:40: A lady who was a carpenter who went around the towns and villages selling Christian books came up to me.
14:47: She had a couple of books she wanted to give to me. She said, I listened to you preaching then. I think you're a
14:53: Calvinist, Andy. I said, well, I think I am. I said, you know what that means?
15:03: Oh yes, absolutely, she said. In fact, there's somebody coming to Glasgow that I want you to go and hear in September.
15:09: So she arranged for me and a number of others to meet up in September, and we went. This elderly man was there.
15:19: He got up to the lectern, and he said something like this.
15:25: He said, my dear friends, I want you to turn in your Bibles, don't look back. It took me a little while to adjust to the accent.
15:36: It was Martyn Lloyd -Jones. He preached for about an hour.
15:43: At the end of that period, I was sitting at the edge of my seat. I remember distinctly praying to the
15:49: Lord and saying, Lord, you can take me home now. I've heard preaching for the first time.
15:57: It was quite an experience for me. In fact, we're going to be talking about Martyn Lloyd -Jones,
16:05: God willing, this Wednesday on Iron Sharp and Zion Radio with my guest Jeff Thomas.
16:11: I'm assuming you know who Jeff Thomas is. Oh yes, I do indeed. He's going to be promoting a different conference where he is speaking, the
16:20: Foundations Conference in New York City, which is a conference run by Sermon Audio. I asked
16:26: Reverend Thomas what he wanted to speak on. He immediately said, Dr. Martyn Lloyd -Jones. I'm thrilled because I don't believe in all the years that I've done this program since 2005,
16:37: I don't think I've ever dedicated an entire two -hour program to Dr. Martyn Lloyd -Jones. I'm amazed that I haven't because he's such a vital figure in church history and surely one of the greatest minds of the 20th century.
16:55: Absolutely. Listening to Lloyd -Jones preach, there is no comparison
17:01: I can think of today in that it was an experience.
17:12: It was more than simply listening to someone giving a good exposition of a text.
17:18: There was a palpable sense of God in his preaching, which you can't reproduce.
17:33: The Holy Spirit was very powerful in working in our hearts and minds, probably that's what was going on.
17:43: I cannot think of anyone that I've heard since that has had that same sense of the presence of God, the weight of holiness, really, in his preaching as he did.
18:00: Amen. Well, I never had the privilege of hearing him live in a church or chapel, but I have heard recordings of him, and it surely is a blessing to hear the recordings, but I know that it's never a comparison when you hear somebody right there in their presence preaching.
18:18: Yeah, yeah. It's the presence of the person, I think, to some degree that makes sense.
18:25: Amen. And a lot of folks might not know this, but Dr. Martyn Lloyd -Jones was a Calvinist Methodist.
18:34: And, well, we are today not only discussing the theme of the
18:41: Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, which is being held this weekend in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to be exact, on the 26th, 27th, and 28th, that's
18:53: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but we are discussing one of the most controversial and, sadly, one of the primary issues that separates
19:09: Reformed Brethren from the rest of Christendom, and that is the issue of redemption accomplished and applied.
19:20: And, first of all, before I even go into the actual biblical concept,
19:28: I'm assuming, and perhaps I'm guessing something that I don't know about you, but I'm assuming that the great work by John Murray, a great but brief work on the
19:41: Atonement, meant something powerful to you in regard to this subject? Well, one of the earliest books
19:48: I ever bought was that book, and I think I bought that book by the age of 14 and read it about ten times.
19:56: It was very formative of the way in which I approached those particular scriptures and the whole understanding of the
20:04: Gospel, and it's shaped the rest of my ministry, really. One of the key books
20:10: I would recommend to people. Yes, if you're listening and you don't have that book, whether you are
20:16: Reformed and just want to be blessed by having something that you believe reconfirmed, or if you are
20:26: Reformed and you want to be able to be more capable of sharing and explaining the doctrine of limited atonement or definite atonement or particular redemption or substitutionary atonement with your
20:40: Arminian or non -Reformed friends, this would be an ideal book. It's also not a weighty tome, it's a very brief book, and I will give you information.
20:50: I know that Banner of Truth has an edition of it that you can get at banneroftruth .org, banneroftruth .org,
20:57: but there are other publishers that also have that,
21:02: I believe, or at least sell the Banner of Truth edition of it. But this is a doctrine, just to tell you briefly about my own discovery of it.
21:13: When I was first a born -again believer, after having been raised Roman Catholic, I came to an understanding of the true
21:21: Gospel in my mid -twenties, and I at first thought of, just as many
21:29: Arminians and non -Calvinists do, I thought of the doctrine of limited atonement and, in fact, unconditional election as well as horrible and ugly and just terrifying concepts.
21:44: But when the Lord opened my eyes to these truths, the doctrine of definite atonement personalized my faith in so much more of a radical way, my faith with Christ.
21:58: It's interesting, I don't know if you have any kind of similar thoughts, Pastor Goliger, but many
22:07: Reformed people criticize Arminianism and the church at large outside of the
22:14: Reformed faith as being too individual and personal and not stressing enough the importance of the corporate body of Christ, and I think that those criticisms are accurate.
22:26: But at the same time, when I discovered and believed the doctrine of definite atonement, it made me realize for the first time that when
22:37: Jesus Christ was breathing his last breath upon Calvary, I was actually on his mind.
22:45: It wasn't a faceless sea of humanity that he was dying for, and dying for an endless innumerable sea of humanity with just a hope that they would become redeemed.
23:01: He actually redeemed me on Calvary, and it was a sign -sealed -and -delivered mission accomplished, and it radicalized my personal understanding of God's love for me, of Christ's death for me personally.
23:17: Did you have any kind of a similar thought on that? Well, absolutely. I mentioned my very first public talk.
23:25: To my youth, fellowship was on definite atonement. One of the things that struck me from the very beginning was in my favorite chapter of the
23:32: Bible, John chapter 17, as Jesus is acting as the high priest, and he is consecrating the sacrifice that's going to be offered for the sins of his people.
23:46: As he's doing that, he says to his Father, For these
23:53: I sanctify myself, for those you have given me out of the world. They belong to you, you've given them to me, and for their sakes
24:01: I consecrate myself. That is, he is setting himself aside to be the sacrifice that will be offered on the altar of Calvary for the sins of those the
24:13: Father has given to him. It is those people that he had chosen out of the world and that belong to him that he is setting himself apart so that he might be the sacrifice that redeems them.
24:28: Amen. And every word in that section of John 17 embraces me, embraces you, embraces each individual person that God has chosen and given to Christ.
24:44: And that's beyond words, really. Amen. And my friend, you may have heard of him, he's a long -time, very close friend of mine,
24:54: Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. When he has debated on the issue of limited or definite atonement, he has focused on the
25:05: High Priestly Prayer because it is so clear in those texts.
25:12: We are going to our very first break right now. If you'd like to join us on the air with a question for Rev. Liam Gulliger on the atonement, or you could really ask any question involving the
25:24: Reformed faith, that would be fine. Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com,
25:30: C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Please give us, as always, your first name, at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the
25:39: USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Don't go away.
25:45: We'll be right back with Liam Gulliger and redemption accomplished and applied right after these messages from our sponsors.
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28:12: Steve Lawson, founder and president of One Passion Ministries, as well as teaching fellow for Ligonier Ministries.
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30:37: Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read.
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31:47: Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology in a written transcript form. They've taken the sermons from those three
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32:10: I think it would be a very valuable volume in your library from 1974, 1975, and 1976, the
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32:25: solid -ground -books .com. If you just tuned us in, our guest today is
32:30: Pastor Liam Golliger, and he is the senior minister at the
32:36: Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which began those conferences
32:41: I just mentioned. The Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, which is now being held in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
32:48: But we are discussing the theme right now of the upcoming
32:54: Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology in Bryn Mawr, Redemption Accomplished and Applied.
33:00: And if you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com.
33:09: We have a listener who says, this is Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who says,
33:16: My Arminian friends are constantly telling me that there is no biblical support for the doctrine of limited or definite atonement.
33:25: I know that you already brought up the high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ. Can you mention some other biblical texts that would support, if not outright prove, limited or definite atonement?
33:35: So when the angel is speaking to Joseph, the father of Jesus, the stepfather or official father of Jesus, he's making a reference to the naming of Jesus.
34:01: He tells Joseph that Jesus is to be called Jesus. Jesus means
34:08: Jehovah saves. And the mission that Jesus has as Jehovah saves, the mission is he will save his people from their sins.
34:30: Now the language of his people, in the global view of the
34:35: Bible, it refers to the people that God has chosen. It refers to the Israel of God.
34:40: God chooses Israel for himself. He calls them his people. He will be to them their
34:46: God. They will be to him his people. He has these people in view.
34:52: These people are going to be extended to include Gentiles. And so when
34:59: Jesus goes to the cross and dies for these people and secures their salvation,
35:06: Jesus is enacting his own name by becoming who he is.
35:12: That is Jehovah who saves. And whom did he save?
35:18: He saves his people from their sins. So the very name Jesus in itself in the way in which it's used in the
35:25: Gospels of him as the Savior has a distinguishing element to it because he comes to save his people from their sins.
35:37: So I think that that is one major line of thought behind death and atonement.
35:45: Yes, and one of the verses that I bring up as well, even though many people might not recognize this text to specifically discuss the nature of the atonement, but I think it really speaks loud and clear about it.
36:01: And that's in Ephesians chapter 5 where we have in verse 25,
36:10: Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having not spot nor wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.
36:38: To me, because of the fact that Paul is obviously telling husbands to love their wives in a unique way outside any other person or woman in the world, the fact that Christ laid down his life for her, to me, meaning the church, that it's a picture of the church, would not make sense if Christ laid down his life for every single woman or person in the world.
37:10: Am I making sense here? Absolutely. I think that's very important because in the
37:17: Old Testament, Israel, who are the people of God, is described as the wife of the
37:25: Lord, Jehovah. In the New Testament, the church is called the bride of Jehovah Jesus.
37:35: And the link in both of those is that the work of redemption is accomplished for them.
37:42: I mean, the other passage, if we're looking for another one, is in Ephesians chapter 1 itself in which
37:48: God is blessed for blessing the church that Paul is writing to and he identifies with the church in Ephesus.
37:58: With every spiritual blessing in heavenly realms, he begins with the choice of God. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
38:06: He chose us with a view to adoption as sons through Jesus, with the praise of his glorious grace, in which he has blessed us in the beloved that is in the
38:16: Lord Jesus. In him we, that is those who have been chosen, in him before the foundation of the world.
38:22: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he set forth in Christ.
38:32: In other words, if you follow the line of thinking there, Paul is speaking about the church.
38:37: He's speaking about the church in Ephesus. He's speaking about the church more broadly. He's speaking about those whom
38:43: God has chosen for adoption and the redemption of those people through the blood of Christ on their behalf.
38:51: So definite atonement runs through that entire section of Ephesians chapter 1. And do you think that very often the errors in Christendom when it comes to the atonement, they start very often with a wrong emphasis, especially when you're talking about our evangelical
39:16: Protestant friends who are not Reformed, who are Arminian, even if they wouldn't call themselves that.
39:22: They focus too much on the people for whom Christ died, rather than what
39:29: Christ did when he died. And as the theme of the
39:34: Philadelphia Conference of Reformed Theology insinuates, or boldly states more than insinuates, redemption accomplished and applied.
39:44: It's interesting that if you ask your average Arminian Christian, as I have done,
39:51: I've said, do you believe that the redemption is totally accomplished by Christ on the cross? They will say yes.
39:58: And I will say to them, well, do you believe Christ died for every single person that has ever lived and will ever live, even those that are in hell?
40:07: Yes, I do. Well, how could their redemption be accomplished then?
40:12: And I usually get a pause of silence, and then another text is brought up.
40:20: They run away from the issue of what actually happened on Calvary.
40:26: Isn't that really the most important thing to be focusing on, is what did Christ do on Calvary?
40:34: Yes, I think the driving principle is when it says that he shall save his people, question, did he, or did he not?
40:47: When it says God chose us for adoption, and in Christ we have redemption, did he redeem us or not?
40:59: And I think the answer to that is that Jesus does what he came to do.
41:07: He achieves the result that he came to achieve.
41:12: He secures the people for himself that he came to secure. And it seems to me we can say about the death of Jesus, this is the death of the
41:24: God -man. By virtue of the fact that it's the death of the God -man, it has a supreme value.
41:32: It has an infinite value and worth. But that's not saying why he did it.
41:40: He did it to secure eternally the salvation of his people. And that's precisely what we find that he does.
41:51: The people that he died for are saved. Amen. And I have had a friend of mine, and I've had others bring this up as well, but I'm thinking specifically of one pastor friend of mine who is a fundamentalist
42:07: Baptist and vehement anti -Calvinist. But I can still remember him during a disagreement that we were having.
42:16: He brought up John 1 .29, where the next day he saw
42:24: Jesus coming to him, this is John the Baptist, and said, Behold the
42:29: Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And I said to him,
42:35: Well, you're putting the emphasis on the word world. How about, Behold the
42:40: Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And if you believe that he takes away the sin of the entire world, hell would be empty.
42:51: There would be no such place as a place of eternal conscious torment.
42:58: He takes away the sin. That is, I think, the more glorious and amazing aspect of this declaration, is that he takes away the sin.
43:09: It has to mean, the only way that this makes sense, unless you are a full -blown universalist who believes everyone, including
43:18: Satan, will be in heaven, it makes no sense to view this in any other way than to believe that the world, in contrast to Israel, meaning those from out of every tribe, tongue, and people, and nation.
43:33: Maybe you have a different approach to that, if you could. Yeah, if you look at John's Gospel, it seems to me that one of the key moments in John's Gospel is in chapter 4, where Jesus meets a
43:45: Samaritan woman. What's interesting about that whole event is that the richest theology that Jesus gives to anybody in the
43:53: Gospel of John, he gives to that Samaritan woman. He teaches her about the Trinity. But the upshot of his interaction with that woman is that she goes to the people in her village and she says, this is the
44:09: Savior of the world that's come. In other words, she learned from talking to this
44:14: Jew, and Jesus was very straight with her. He told her, salvation is of the
44:21: Jews. Salvation is of the Jews. But she took it that he had come as a
44:29: Jew into her village in order that he might save her and save people in her village who were
44:36: Samaritan and not Jews. In other words, she understood the mission of Jesus on the basis of the conversation she had with him to be a mission that involved the world.
44:49: That is, as you just said, people from every tribe and nation fulfilling the promise to Abraham that through him all the nations and all the families of the earth would be blessed.
45:05: So I think if we're going to be consistent here, what is meant in chapter 4 must be the same as is meant in chapter 1.
45:16: But the world has to do with the extent of the spread of the salvation that he will accomplish for his people.
45:25: His people are going to be drawn from all the families of the earth. Yeah, I think the greater burden is on the part of those who believe in a universal atonement, that reject limited or particular atonement or definite atonement.
45:42: The greater burden is on their part to find anywhere in the scripture where Jesus, through his death, provided a hypothetical redemption.
45:52: Yes, correct. Where he was just making salvation possible, not saving anyone.
46:02: I can recall hearing a quote by a Nazarene seminary professor who rightly understood, and when
46:12: I say rightly understood, I don't mean that he correctly understood what the scriptures teach. But he rightly understood the dilemma in the fact that Armenians use the term, today anyway, they use the term equally with Calvinists, substitutionary atonement.
46:32: And this seminary professor, this Nazarene Armenian, Wesleyan Armenian seminary professor realized that that could not be true.
46:39: And he was actually chiding or chastising, scolding his fellow Armenians for using the term substitutionary atonement.
46:46: And he said, do not use that term, because if Jesus died for all, and he died as a substitute for every single person that ever lived, everyone would be going to heaven.
46:55: And that is the only way that you could logically understand it if you have a universal understanding of the atonement.
47:02: Am I right? Absolutely. Correct. Totally. He's either a successful Savior, or he's a maybe
47:14: Savior. And we can't have a maybe Savior. We need a Savior who saves the utmost.
47:22: And that is the Savior we have. And we don't need to shy away from the words like the world, or I will draw all men unto myself.
47:34: He will draw all that the Father has given unto himself. And they will come from all men, that is all kinds of men, and all parts of the world.
47:45: So that we find ourselves today, the church is actually mostly in Africa, and Asia, and South America, mostly in the northern hemisphere anymore.
47:56: But God is drawing people to himself from every part of the globe. Yes, do you think that one of the reasons why so many people, especially in Western culture, they have been raised, and Christians have been raised for centuries, is the majority of the
48:15: Christian era has been dominated by Gentile Christians.
48:22: And they forget how amazing, and even infuriating, the understanding of God's people being outside of the ethnic people of Israel.
48:36: They don't get that concept. So when the word world is being used in the
48:41: New Testament, it's a powerful thing that is lost on the
48:48: Gentile ear, perhaps. They don't understand how that would have, if somebody was an unregenerate
48:56: Jewish person who was religious, that would have made them furious. And of course they would be forgetting their own
49:04: Hebrew scriptures about that they were supposed to be a light unto the Gentiles. But that was something that annoyed and greatly infuriated people who were
49:14: Jewish, wasn't it? Absolutely. In the book of Isaiah, for example, in chapter 2, you have the nation, the
49:23: Gentiles, the Goyim, coming to a Jew and asking the way of salvation. And Jesus is that Jew who brings salvation to the
49:31: Gentile world. You have them later on in Isaiah coming like doves back to their nests, coming from all the ends of the earth, and they're coming to Zion, the city of God, and becoming part of the people of God.
49:48: When that woman of Samaria went and told those people in her village, is this the
49:55: Savior of the world? She understood herself to belong to the world that is outside of Judaism.
50:03: And for her, this was the greatest of all good news, that Jesus had come for someone like her, not only morally and so on, but because of her religious background and because she was outside of Judaism, a mixed race, whatever.
50:26: And yet he had come for her. That chapter 4 of John is a significant chapter in understanding what's going on.
50:37: And then the second chapter, the 12th chapter, where the
50:43: Greeks come seeking Jesus, and Jesus speaks to them about his being glorified through the cross and so on, and if he falls into the ground, he'll come forth and bring forth fruit abundantly and so on.
50:59: And that includes the Gentiles. That's a much bigger thing. You're quite right, that's a much bigger thing.
51:05: I think that we forget, we don't think enough of the scandal of that as it was to the people of Jesus' day.
51:13: Yes, and Charles Spurgeon has brought up in the 19th century how totally ironic it would be that Christ would die for the sins of people already in hell before he was even nailed to the cross.
51:31: And of course, I think chronologically, I believe that the lake of fire where the damned are cast into,
51:39: I think that that is a future event to us now. But obviously, after death, there is some form of hell that the lost are cast into before their bodies are raised and they are thrown, both body and soul, into hell.
51:56: But they are still in hell and it makes no sense for Jesus to have gotten up on that cross and died for those people, too.
52:02: If you believe in a universal atonement, that's the only way that you could understand that.
52:08: Even those that were already dead with no hope of salvation, he died for them as well.
52:13: It doesn't make any sense, as Spurgeon, I think, wisely pointed out. Yes, absolutely. Well, if you could, in two minutes, summarize, before we move on to our next theme, which is sanctification by grace in our next hour, if you could summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners regarding redemption accomplished in a plot.
52:36: It is that when our Lord Jesus came from heaven and was named as Jehovah Saves, it was his great mission in life to enact in his life, death, and resurrection, what his name prophesied and meant.
52:55: He was Yahweh, in other words, he was the Lord. He was himself Jehovah come to save his people.
53:03: He's the one who would come to comfort the people with the great message of comfort you find in Isaiah 40, that to proclaim that the warfare was ended, the enmity between God and man resolved, that iniquity was pardoned, and that God had come to give double mercy for all their sins.
53:25: All of that in the Lord who would come. Here he is, arrived to achieve it, and he achieves it on the cross, where he pays the ransom.
53:34: The ransom is the cost of his own life, where he redeems us from the curse, from death, from sin, from Satan, where he propitiates, turns away the wrath of God against us.
53:49: He himself feels the impact of that wrath on himself. And as he dies the death, we should have died in our place as our representative.
54:00: In doing that, what does he achieve? He achieves the bringing of many sons into glory.
54:08: Out of the agony of his soul, he achieves a full and final and complete salvation for his people.
54:18: Amen. Jesus saves. He doesn't try. Jesus saves. Yeah. And we are going to our midway break right now.
54:27: If you have a question for Liam Gallagher, we do have people waiting to have their questions asked and answered still.
54:35: But if you want to get in line and have your own question asked and answered, please send us an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com.
54:41: chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please always give us your first name at least, city and state, country of residence if you live outside the
54:48: USA, and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. This is our longer than normal station break because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1
54:56: FM in Lake City, Florida, requires of us this elongated break midway through our program because they air their own public service announcements and commercials in Lake City, Florida to localize
55:09: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio to that area of the country. They air their own commercials while we air our globally heard commercials.
55:16: So during this station break, please use this time to write down the information provided by our advertisers so that you can more successfully and more frequently patronize them because the more you patronize our advertisers, the more likely they will remain our advertisers, which subsequently means the more likely we will remain in existence because we rely on the advertising dollars from our sponsors to continue broadcasting
55:42: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. So please write down the information provided by our advertisers. Also write down questions for our guest,
55:49: Reverend Liam Gulliger, and our email address again is chrisarnsen at gmail .com,
55:54: C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Don't go away, God willing, we will be right back after these messages with more of Liam Gulliger and our theme,
56:04: Sanctification by Grace. Tired of box store
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56:20: And how about the preaching? Perhaps you've begun to think that in -depth biblical exposition has vanished from Long Island.
56:26: Well, there's good news. Wedding River Baptist Church exists to provide believers with a meaningful and reverent worship experience featuring the systematic exposition of God's Word.
56:36: And this loving congregation looks forward to meeting you. Call them at 631 -929 -3512 for service times.
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56:54: That's wrbc .us. I'm James White of Alpha Omega Ministries.
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57:45: Hello, my name is James Renahan, and I'm the president of IRBS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, Texas.
57:52: The Word of God says, If a man desires the office of an overseer, he desires a good thing.
57:58: Do you have the desire to serve Jesus Christ in pastoral ministry? Twenty years ago, the
58:03: Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies at Westminster Seminary, California was born. For those two decades, these institutions worked together to train men for ministry in Reformed Baptist churches.
58:15: It has been a wonderful partnership. Now we have advanced our school into an independent seminary offering a full program of courses leading to the
58:23: Master of Divinity degree. This is IRBS Theological Seminary. We believe that the scriptures of the
58:29: Old and New Testaments are the inspired and inerrant Word of God, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, who came to save sinners by his life, death, and resurrection, and that the task of the church is to honor and serve the
58:40: Triune God in all things. IRBS Theological Seminary is dedicated by God's grace to preparing godly ministers who will be committed to these doctrines.
58:49: Do you sense a call to serve Jesus Christ and his church as a pastor? Why not consider
58:54: IRBS Theological Seminary? You'll find more information at irbsseminary .org. That's irbsseminary .org,
59:02: two S's in the middle. I hope to hear from you soon. God bless you. Chris Sorensen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio here.
59:14: I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years. His name is Dan Buttafuoco.
59:20: Dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer, but not the type that typically comes to mind.
59:26: Dan cares about people and is a theologian himself. Recently he wrote a book titled Consider the
59:33: Evidence for the Bible. Ravi Zacharias wrote the foreword. Dan also has a master's degree in theology.
59:40: Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states. He represents many
59:46: Christians in serious injury matters all over the country. Dan is an exceptional trial lawyer.
59:52: He wrote the test for the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for $1 million or more and in approximately 10 different states.
01:00:06: In Illinois, his lawyers had the fourth largest settlement in the state's history.
01:00:11: In New York, his case involving a paralyzed police officer made the front page of the Law Journal. If you have a serious personal injury or medical malpractice claim in any state,
01:00:22: I recommend that you call Dan. Consultations are free. There is no fee unless you win.
01:00:29: Dan Buttafuoco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878. 1 -800 -669 -4878.
01:00:37: Or email me for Dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail .com.
01:00:43: That's chrisarnson at gmail .com. I'm Dr.
01:00:53: Gary Kimbrell, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Laurel, Mississippi. God tells us in James 1 -27 that pure and undefiled religion is a visit to fatherless and widows and their affliction.
01:01:02: In the providence of God three years ago, I discovered a poor small church outside Lusaka, Zambia in a township called
01:01:08: Cabanana who are taking care of 24 orphans. I found them just at the time when they had lost all their funding.
01:01:14: What was I to do? Could I just say God bless you and walk away? The situation of the children set heavily upon me.
01:01:19: As I was praying concerning this need, it came to me, I trust from the Lord, to tell the orphans' plight to a broader audience.
01:01:25: The entire need for their clothing, food, education, and some medical services is $73 per month per child.
01:01:31: If just 50 of us would give $35 a month, we could meet the need. Bethlehem Baptist Church will pay the fee to get the funds there.
01:01:38: So if you give a dollar, a dollar will get to the orphans. In this season of hope and giving, will you consider giving hope to 24 orphans?
01:01:45: Please send your gift of any amount to Bethlehem Baptist Church, 838 Reed Road, Laurel, Mississippi 39443 or donate through our website, bbclaurel .com.
01:01:56: Again, the address is Bethlehem Baptist Church, 838 Reed Road, Laurel, Mississippi 39443 or bbclaurel .com.
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01:03:24: James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries here. If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know
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01:09:55: Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology. Before I return to our guest today, who is
01:10:01: Liam Gallagher, the senior minister at the 10th
01:10:06: Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, we just have some important announcements to make regarding upcoming events that I hope that you all will attend, especially if you geographically are able to do so.
01:10:21: The first is actually an interview that I'm going to let you know about or remind you about. Tomorrow, here on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio, Jeff Kingswood is my pastor.
01:10:34: My guest, although I would love to have Jeff Kingswood as a pastor, even though I love my current pastors,
01:10:41: I'm not saying I'm going to jump ship and go to another church, but Jeff Kingswood would be a fine pastor for any
01:10:47: Christian. He is the pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church of Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, and he is going to be addressing the person and work of the
01:10:57: Holy Spirit tomorrow on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. So I hope that you listen at 4 to 6 p .m.
01:11:03: Eastern Time to hear Jeff Kingswood. Also, the conference that we have been discussing, the
01:11:10: Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology, is this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 26th, 27th, and 28th, and it is being held at the
01:11:20: Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The theme is the theme that we discussed during the first hour of our program today, redemption accomplished and applied.
01:11:31: The guest speakers at this conference are my guest today,
01:11:37: Liam Gulliger, and also D .A. Carson, a really extraordinary Baptist preacher who is also a
01:11:45: Reformed brother, Kevin DeYoung, and David Murray. I'm looking forward to,
01:11:51: God willing, hearing David Murray this weekend. He is such a gift to God's church, a professor at Puritan Reform Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who has been on this program a number of times, and David Murray was actually a personal blessing to me enormously after my precious late wife went home to be with the
01:12:10: Lord, and it was great to have David minister to me and give me his book on depression, and I will never forget him for that.
01:12:19: But if you want more information on this conference, which is being held, as I said, this weekend,
01:12:25: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the 26th, 27th, and 28th of April, go to AllianceNet .org,
01:12:31: AllianceNet .org, and then scroll down to Redemption Accomplished and Applied, and that is the
01:12:38: Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. Coming up after that, coming up in May, let's see here, we have, actually,
01:12:50: I'm sorry, it's still in this month of April. In fact, it's this week as well.
01:12:55: It's the 25th through the 27th. That is Dort 400,
01:13:02: Safeguarding the Reformed Tradition, a conference of the Protestant Reformed Church, and the speakers include
01:13:10: Ronald Kaminga, Professor Barrett Gritters, Reverend Brian Huizing, Professor Doug Kuyper, Reverend Bill Langerak, Reverend Mark Shand, and Reverend Angus Stewart.
01:13:25: And that will be held at the Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan, if you'd like to attend that conference.
01:13:34: Go to Dort400 .org, Dort400 .org, when you're spelling Dort or typing
01:13:39: Dort, don't forget there is two Ds, there are two Ds in Dort, D as in David, O -R -D as in David, T -400 .org,
01:13:48: Dort400 .org, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dort. Then we go to the month of May, which is just around the corner.
01:13:57: I am having my next Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastor's Luncheon on Thursday, April 23rd,
01:14:05: I'm sorry, Thursday, May 23rd, from 11 a .m. to 2 p .m.
01:14:11: at the Carlisle Fire and Rescue Banquet Hall in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. That's Thursday, May 23rd, 11 a .m.
01:14:17: to 2 p .m. My guest speaker is Dr. Tony Kassa, Professor of Apologetics and Islam at the
01:14:24: Toronto Baptist Seminary in Canada. He is going to be speaking on how the Dead Sea Scrolls vindicate the reliability of the
01:14:31: Holy Scriptures. That's Dr. Tony Kassa, Thursday, May 23rd, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m.
01:14:36: at the Carlisle Fire and Rescue Banquet Hall in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It's free of charge for all men in ministry leadership.
01:14:43: This is exclusively a men's conference, whether you are a pastor or an elder, and I happen to believe those are the same office, a deacon, a parachurch ministry leader, whatever kind of male leadership position you hold in the church, you are welcome to come for free, and not only is your admission free and hearing
01:15:02: Dr. Kassa's message free and the food is free, but you're also going to be getting a very heavy sack of brand new free books donated by most of the major Christian publishers in the
01:15:14: United States and the U .K. I select a title from each of these publishers, and they donate a hundred copies of each title so that every man in attendance can go home with a copy of the title that I select from each publisher.
01:15:28: So you'll be getting a couple of dozen free books, at least, when you leave that absolutely free of charge.
01:15:34: There's no hidden agenda, no ulterior motive. At the Arnie Sharpen's Iron Radio Pastor's Luncheon, this was the brainchild of my precious late wife in the early 1990s who said to me, instead of exchanging
01:15:46: Christmas gifts, let's use that money to treat your pastor friends to a free
01:15:52: Christmas lunch. And I agreed, and we did that for years. My wife went home to the
01:15:58: Lord for eternity, and I relaunched these pastor's luncheons, and they continue to grow numerically, and I just hope that as many of you can come as possible.
01:16:09: Just please, for the sake of having a head count, let me know ahead of time as soon as possible. Send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com
01:16:17: chrisarnson at gmail .com and put Pastor's Luncheon in the subject line.
01:16:23: Then, after that, the Banner of Truth East Coast Ministers Conference is being held May 28th through the 30th.
01:16:31: That's Tuesday, May 28th through Thursday, May 30th in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania at Elizabethtown College.
01:16:38: On the theme, I Believe in the Holy Spirit. Speakers include the aforementioned
01:16:45: Jeff Kingswood, who is my guest tomorrow on I Interpret Zion Radio, Terry Johnson, David Vaughn, Stephen Nichols, who is the president of Reformation Bible College, the college founded by the late
01:16:55: R .C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries, Michael Morales, and Chad Vegas. That's May 28th through the 30th in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.
01:17:03: If you would like to register for the conference on the theme, I Believe in the Holy Spirit, that's the
01:17:09: East Coast Ministers Conference of the Banner of Truth. Go to banneroftruth .org, banneroftruth .org,
01:17:15: click on Events, and then scroll down to East Coast Ministers Conference. I will be there, God willing, and so please look for me.
01:17:22: Ask around, where's Chris Arnzen of I Interpret Zion Radio, and hopefully you'll be able to find me. I want to meet as many of my
01:17:28: I Interpret Zion Radio listeners as possible at this event. Another event that I am registered for and looking forward to with bated breath is the
01:17:38: Foundations Conference in New York City, Manhattan, to be specific. This is a conference of sermon audio, and I love going to this conference.
01:17:47: It's being held this year on December 19th and the 20th, and it is featuring a really phenomenal lineup of speakers.
01:17:57: Dr. Stephen J. Lawson, who you've been hearing, advertising New Covenant Church NYC in Manhattan, one of the sponsors of this program.
01:18:04: He is founder of One Passion Ministries and one of the best preachers alive.
01:18:10: Paul Washer, another one of America's finest preachers, will be speaking on this roster,
01:18:15: God willing. Reverend Jeff Thomas, who is from Wales, a retired minister from Wales.
01:18:22: I don't think that that's actually his homeland, but that's where he's lived for many years and was a pastor up until recently and is now an itinerant evangelist and author full -time, and he is one of the finest preachers that you can ever hear anywhere.
01:18:37: He's going to be my guest this Wednesday as well, so mark your calendars for that when we speak on Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones.
01:18:44: Reverend Armin Tomasian, he is an extraordinary young man, very young pastor, but he is preaching gifts and abilities far beyond his youth, and I believe he's going to be a household name amongst
01:18:56: Reformed Christians over the next decade. He is truly extraordinary, Reverend Armin Tomasian. Reverend Richard Caldwell Jr.
01:19:03: and Reverend Andrew Quigley are two men I have not heard yet preach, but I'm looking forward to hearing them at the
01:19:09: Foundations Conference. Go to thefoundationsconference .com to register, thefoundationsconference .com.
01:19:15: Do so as quickly as you can because they can only hold about 200 people at this venue in Manhattan.
01:19:22: Remember, it's December 19th and 20th. Go to thefoundationsconference .com. Then the
01:19:28: G3 Conference is being held this January 2020, and I am already registered for that as well.
01:19:37: I am so excited about this conference this coming January, which will be on worship, and it is being held
01:19:45: Thursday, January 16th through Saturday, January 18th. The speakers include
01:19:52: Kosti Hinn, a remarkable pastor who is actually, believe it or not, the nephew of the notorious charlatan faith healer,
01:20:02: Benny Hinn. Well, Kosti Hinn has repented of word -of -faith heresies, and his mission in life is to expose those charlatans, including his own uncle.
01:20:14: He is a Reformed Baptist and cessationist now, Kosti Hinn. He is on the roster at the G3 Conference this
01:20:19: January. David Miller, who is a really fiery preacher, old -school preacher.
01:20:28: I really love hearing David Miller proclaim the gospel. Derek Thomas, what a phenomenal addition and blessing to the body of Christ he is.
01:20:37: He is on the roster. My dear friend since the 1990s, Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries will be speaking.
01:20:45: Joel Beakey, a very good friend of mine going back to the 90s as well. Josh Peiss, the founder of the
01:20:51: G3 Conference. Paul Washer, once again, he is on the roster at this conference.
01:20:57: Stephen Lawson, again, is going to be speaking there. My friend Tom Askall, president of Founders Ministries.
01:21:04: And Voie Baucom, another one of the most extraordinary preachers that we have on the planet
01:21:09: Earth today. Well, if you want to register for the G3 Conference, which I said is on the theme of worship this
01:21:14: January 2020, go to g3conference .com, g3conference .com.
01:21:20: Last but not least, if you love Iron Sharp and Zion Radio, you don't want this program to disappear, go to ironsharpandzionradio .com,
01:21:27: click support, then click, click to donate now. You can donate instantly with a debit or credit card by doing so.
01:21:34: And please don't forget that I never want anybody siphoning money away from their regular giving to their local church in order to give to Iron Sharp and Zion Radio.
01:21:42: Please don't ever do that. Don't ever put your family in financial jeopardy by giving to Iron Sharp and Zion Radio. Those two things are commands of God to provide for your church and your home.
01:21:52: Providing for Iron Sharp and Zion Radio is obviously not a command of God. But if you are financially blessed above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands, you have extra money in a benevolent fund, please give to Iron Sharp and Zion Radio as much as you can and as heavily as you can.
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01:22:15: You can also mail in a check via snail mail to the address that appears on your screen when you click support at ironsharpandzionradio .com.
01:22:22: If you are not a member of a local Bible -believing church and you're having a hard time finding one, please send me an email.
01:22:29: I can help you. My email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. And put I need a church home in the subject line.
01:22:34: I have lists of faithful churches all over the world. I have helped many people in the Iron Sharp and Zion Radio audience find churches near them.
01:22:43: And some of my listeners have asked for help finding a church where they're going on vacation. I have also helped them.
01:22:49: Remember, if you're not prayerfully looking for a church, if you are not currently a member of one, you're living in rebellion against God.
01:22:55: So please rectify that situation. Send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and say,
01:23:01: I need a church home. If you can advertise with Iron Sharp and Zion Radio also, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com
01:23:08: and put advertising in the subject line. As long as whatever it is you're promoting is compatible with what we believe, we would love to help you launch an ad campaign.
01:23:15: You don't have to believe identically with me, but you need to be promoting something that's compatible with what
01:23:21: I believe. Send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line because we really do urgently need your advertising dollars.
01:23:29: We are facing some financially scary times right now. There are some unpaid bills that we have that we really need your help to pay.
01:23:40: So please help us do that prayerfully, and we thank you in more ways than the human language can possibly convey.
01:23:47: We are now back with our guest today, Pastor Liam Goliger, the senior minister of 10th
01:23:53: Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We are now discussing sanctification by grace, and we are promoting the
01:24:00: Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology, which is being held this weekend, 26th, 27th, and 28th of April.
01:24:06: If you'd like to join us, send us an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com If you have a question for Pastor Goliger, please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence and only remain anonymous if your question is personal and private.
01:24:20: If you could, Pastor Goliger, if you could define what sanctification means. This is,
01:24:26: I think, a very important thing to know what that means because you have the Roman Catholic Church and you have cults blurring the distinction between justification and sanctification, and that is a very serious and deadly error to make.
01:24:41: But if you could define sanctification. Well, perhaps, as you've just indicated, we need to clarify that justification is
01:24:53: God's declaration of our pardon and acceptance, the fact that we have been put right with God, that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
01:25:06: And that is an absolute declarative act on God's behalf in relation to us.
01:25:14: And our justification is received by faith as we trust in Christ and in Christ alone for our salvation.
01:25:22: Sanctification, on the other hand, is not a declaration. It is a work that has begun in the life, in the heart, the mind, the soul of the believer.
01:25:37: So we're moving from a declarative act, which is the judge on the bench declaring someone to be something that they were not before, from condemnation to justification.
01:25:50: Sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit by which we are made more and more like the
01:25:57: God who has saved us, which is to say we are made more holy because God is holy.
01:26:07: Now holiness, let me think about holiness for a moment. Holiness is something we say about God.
01:26:14: God is the Holy One of Israel. He is referred to as the Holy One in our midst.
01:26:21: And when we use the word holy of God, we're using it in an absolute sense.
01:26:29: God is not like us. So when we talk about the holiness of God, we're talking about the fact that He is incomparable.
01:26:38: He is ineffable. We can't get our heads around Him. He is infinitely above us.
01:26:44: He is self -existing, self -originating, self -sustaining. And He's outside of all of our categories.
01:26:55: We're not saying that holiness is a thing. There was a man once who wrote a book.
01:27:02: Rudolf Otto was his name, called Der Heiliger. The holy, as if the holy was a kind of thing, a phenomena, a something.
01:27:13: No, when we talk about the holiness of God, we're talking about who God is all the way through. If I can use that language.
01:27:20: We sometimes talk about the attributes of God. Holy, wise, love, and so on. But we mustn't think of those things as if those are appendages to God.
01:27:33: God does not have appendages. God is who He is. God, in His essence, is the fact that He exists.
01:27:40: I am, He says. So He's holy all the way through. And all the way through, He's not us.
01:27:46: He's not a creature. He's not comparable to anything within our experience.
01:27:53: And is set apart from everything. And yet, here's where the grace aspect comes in.
01:28:00: In Scripture, the very thing that makes God different from us, and apart from us, and dare
01:28:08: I say it, against us, because we are unholy, the very thing that is
01:28:14: God's holiness, is the very way in which God approaches humans.
01:28:21: So when God comes to Moses in the desert, God says, Take off your shoes and mop your feet, for the ground on which you stand is holy ground.
01:28:32: The self -burning fire, the self -fueling fire, Moses sees is an image, a picture of God's self -originating life.
01:28:43: And God approaches Moses on the basis of His holiness.
01:28:50: When God comes to Isaiah in the temple, God appears to him in His majestic splendor, the majesty of God.
01:28:58: And the angels, the seraphim, are singing, Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty, the whole earth is full of your glory.
01:29:06: And the prophet begins to come apart, because to be in the presence of God is to be the presence of holiness.
01:29:14: Holiness is destructive of sin, and Isaiah realizes, I'm a sinner, and he is beginning to be destroyed.
01:29:22: But God reaches out of His holiness, this man, and cleanses him.
01:29:31: And then, ultimately, when God appears, when God comes into the world
01:29:39: Himself, in our human nature, when God becomes flesh, He comes as the
01:29:46: Holy One. The angels, sorry, the demons recognize that.
01:29:53: They refer to Jesus as the Holy One of God. When the angel is telling
01:30:01: Mary about His conception, he refers to Jesus, conceived in Mary's womb, as the
01:30:09: Holy One. The disciples said of Jesus that He was holy, harmless, and undefiled.
01:30:16: When God comes actually to be for us, in salvation, He comes as the
01:30:22: Holy One. So the very thing that makes Him different from us is the very vehicle through which
01:30:28: He comes and approaches us. And then, supremely, of course, when we come to know
01:30:34: Christ by salvation, in salvation, the new birth is the work of the
01:30:41: Holy Spirit who comes to dwell within us. So He is the
01:30:48: Holy One, not only in our midst, but He is the Holy One within us. The indwelling
01:30:54: Holy Spirit begins a work in the believer's heart and life.
01:31:04: And so sanctification is the working out of the presence of the
01:31:13: Holy One within the believer, the individual believer, who Paul calls a saint,
01:31:22: Holy One. We have been made holy by the presence of the Holy One in our midst and within us through the
01:31:32: Holy Spirit. So that's the beginning of an understanding of where we're going with this.
01:31:38: We have a listener named Harrison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who says,
01:31:45: Is not one of the reasons why it is very dangerous and deadly to mix sanctification and justification as if they are the same thing, is because sanctification, unlike our justification, involves human effort.
01:32:04: Yes, we have to distinguish between God's declaration of our salvation, which is rested entirely on the work of Christ for us, and the sanctification that God is working within us.
01:32:23: Now, I think in sanctification, the work of the
01:32:31: Holy Spirit is to renew us from the inside, renewing our thoughts and enabling our works to be good, number one, and two, to be pleasing to God.
01:32:49: So before I'm a Christian, my works aren't good and my works aren't pleasing to God.
01:32:56: That is not to say that I don't do good things before I become a Christian. It's not to say that I don't help people or love people or care for people.
01:33:04: But they don't pant with God. But when I become a
01:33:10: Christian and the Holy Spirit is dwelling within me, He cleans up all my works so that they are recognizable, if you like, to God.
01:33:20: We're using human language here. They're recognizable as good, and two, they are pleasing to God.
01:33:28: And what the Holy Spirit does in the whole work of sanctification is to encourage, in terms of our affections, in terms of the interest that we have, us towards love and good works.
01:33:49: They're entirely the work of the Holy Spirit stirring them up within us. And we are freed by the
01:33:56: Holy Spirit to cooperate with God as a result of our being born again and having the
01:34:02: Holy Spirit indwell us. So your caller is right to distinguish very, very clearly justification and sanctification and to emphasize that in sanctification we are not working for our salvation.
01:34:17: We're working from our salvation. We're working our salvation out in the attitudes and actions, motivations, as well as the ministry and life that we live as we begin to show
01:34:35: Christ. Amen. And would an analogy be proper?
01:34:42: Although many analogies, if not most, that are not purely out of the pages of Scripture fall short in some way.
01:34:53: But if a child loves his parents, he is going to, especially when he is old enough to do things for his parents, he's going to perhaps mow their lawn.
01:35:09: He's going to do repairs around their home. He's going to, especially when they are elderly, purchase groceries for them and do things for them that they could not do themselves, that perhaps they couldn't even leave the homes where they live.
01:35:26: They have reached a point of being elderly or disabled. And the children who truly love their parents are going to be caring for them.
01:35:38: They don't become their children by doing those things. They don't win the prize of being considered children because they care for their parents and do good deeds for their parents.
01:35:53: They do those things because they are true children of their parents who truly love them.
01:35:58: Would that be in some way an analogy of the difference between justification and sanctification?
01:36:06: Yes, I think that would be a good way to distinguish the two things. We are now children of God by adoption, but not only by adoption, primarily by adoption, but also because He has imparted
01:36:19: His nature to us. He has given us a bit of God, we might say, in giving us the
01:36:27: Holy Spirit. That's a very bad way of expressing it. By giving us the Holy Spirit, He has given us both the
01:36:35: Spirit and, as Jesus said to the disciples in the upper room, I'm sending you another
01:36:42: Comforter who is the same as me, who will be with you and He will be in you. And He will come to you.
01:36:50: And I will come to you. And my Father and I will come to you.
01:36:56: Because you can't have one member of the Trinity without having the Trinity because God is one.
01:37:03: And so we have the Spirit of Glory and of God dwelling within us. We are able, this is the thing, by having come to Christ as Christian people, we are able to obey
01:37:16: God. We are able to say no to sin. We are able to be killing sin.
01:37:23: We are able to obey the commandments because of the indwelling power of the
01:37:28: Holy Spirit. We don't have to worry about not being able to do it. We are enabled by the
01:37:34: Spirit to obey God and to live for God in the world. Sometimes we need a bit of motivation.
01:37:42: Sometimes we need to be rebuked. Sometimes we need to be stirred up to love and good works. But the ability lies within us because of our new birth.
01:37:52: We have Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, who says,
01:37:58: There are ecumenists among us, even amongst our Reformed brethren, who believe that although these issues may have importance, they are not important enough to discount the brotherhood or sisterhood of someone who claims to be a
01:38:16: Christian and yet denies justification by faith alone. Why is this so an important issue that we would disagree with them?
01:38:25: Why is this, in other words, a salvific issue of the Gospel itself? Why is it so important that we understand that Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
01:38:37: Sin has left its crimson stain. He washes us white as snow. Why is that so important, as the hymn writer says?
01:38:49: The essence of being a Christian is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is
01:38:55: Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. That takes a new birth to be able to say that, to be able to know that in your heart and in order to confess that Jesus Christ is
01:39:09: Lord. That's what we're saved by. We're saved by believing the
01:39:16: Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's important, however, for the
01:39:21: Church to express the Gospel and to explain the Gospel in a biblical and coherent way, and while there may be people who are saved, so they have the essence of salvation within them, they believe in Jesus as God, and they believe that God raised them from the dead, which is what it means to be saved according to Romans 10 and 9.
01:39:53: Nonetheless, it is for any essay, as it says in Latin, that is, the being of a
01:40:03: Christian requires you to confess Jesus as Lord, but the well -being of you as a
01:40:09: Christian is to understand more fully how it is that you are saved by confessing
01:40:16: Jesus as Lord and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and the well -being aspect is to be found in clear understanding of doctrine, clear understanding of the faith, which is why it's such an important issue that we clarify the errors that there are in teaching about how salvation works.
01:40:43: I think I would caution us all in saying this, we are not saved by whether or not we understand how salvation works.
01:40:52: We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ as our
01:40:57: Savior and Lord and by trusting in Him and in Him alone for salvation. That's what saves us.
01:41:03: It's the faith in Christ that saves us. It's not faith in the explanation of that.
01:41:10: If you go to Romans chapter 1, where I was describing in chapter 1 what the gospel is, he declares that it's the gospel of God, it's the gospel of God's Son.
01:41:23: He's declared to be Son by His resurrection and the work of the
01:41:29: Spirit. That's what it means to be a Christian. The rest of Romans is taken up with explaining how it is that that's what it takes to be a
01:41:40: Christian. So there are many people, I think, who trust in Christ but have not heard the explanation.
01:41:46: They need to be taught the explanation. They need to be taught Reformed theology if they're going to enjoy a
01:41:52: Christian faith and have the assurance and joy of being part of the family of God.
01:42:00: Does that make sense? Yes. Well, I think that I may understand you correctly if I look at the book of Galatians.
01:42:09: The Apostle Paul, he despised the false gospel of the
01:42:15: Judaizers where anything was added to faith in order to justify a man. But he did treat the
01:42:23: Judaizers who were the actual evangelists of falsehood.
01:42:31: They were the proselytizers of a damning gospel. He treated them differently than the
01:42:38: Galatians who were duped by them, at least temporarily duped by them.
01:42:44: Because he does call, even though he scolds them and calls them fools and says they were bewitched, he calls them his brothers in the letter to Galatians.
01:42:54: But he does not have any word of familial kindness to the
01:42:59: Judaizers. He says that they are to be accursed. He doesn't offer a hope of salvation for them if they remain that way, of course.
01:43:12: So would you say that there is a difference between the patience God has when mixed up and confused people, especially in the earlier stages of their faith, may have in their minds, there's a difference between that and a pastor or a missionary or evangelist or a media personality or author who is a studied person whose life is dedicated to teach a gospel that is false?
01:43:39: That's correct. I think that those who teach will be judged all the more severely.
01:43:46: And we have to warn people against the false teaching with absolute clarity, no hesitation about that.
01:43:55: I think our churches are full of people who are confused, who don't grasp everything, just for a whole host of reasons.
01:44:05: That's why we have to keep emphasizing the simplicity of faith in Christ as the basis of our salvation.
01:44:13: And we must also emphasize the need to teach people so that the more they learn of the gospel, the more they learn why it is that their faith in Christ saves them, the more happy they'll be in Jesus.
01:44:25: And that's one of the great goals of doctrinal teaching in the churches.
01:44:31: And don't you think, as merciful as God is, we know that he only has eternal mercy on his elect, and we should never be satisfied, not only in our own understanding, but in the understanding of our loved ones or neighbors.
01:44:51: We should never be satisfied with, well, they say they believe in Jesus, but everything else they believe is idolatrous and taking credit for themselves for salvation.
01:45:03: We'll let them pass on that, and we'll trust that they're our brothers and sisters. Don't we have to be more diligent to warn them of damnation because of these false beliefs?
01:45:13: They need taught. They need to be directed to the scriptures. They need the Holy Spirit to open their eyes to these things, and we need to be praying for them and taking every opportunity to show them from the scriptures the things that they need to grasp for understanding their faith.
01:45:34: And if they're actually claiming to be trusting in works, then we need to challenge that, as Paul did with Peter, and we need to be challenging people as gently or as firmly or even as strongly as we need to, depending on the individual and the degree to which the individual is not grasping the fundamentals of the faith.
01:46:00: Well, we have to go to our final break right now. If you have a question for Liam Gallagher about sanctification, please send it in quickly because we are rapidly running out of time.
01:46:09: Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.
01:46:15: Don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages with more of Liam Gallagher and sanctification by grace.
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01:46:32: 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.
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01:48:33: Where Christ Finds People and Changes Lives. Hi, I'm Stephan Lindblad, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at IRBS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, Texas.
01:48:53: I accepted this call to teach at the seminary because I'm firmly convinced that the people of God in the churches of our
01:49:01: Lord Jesus Christ need to be firmly grounded in the truth of Holy Scripture. I'm excited to be teaching such subjects as the nature of theology and the doctrine of Scripture, and even the doctrine of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
01:49:17: Our churches and our people need to be well grounded in these truths. Indeed, future ministers of the gospel need to understand these truths in order to proclaim them to all of God's people.
01:49:30: If you want to learn more about our program, visit us online at irbsseminary .org.
01:49:37: Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?
01:49:42: Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
01:49:48: Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, Pastor of Providence Baptist Church. We are a Reformed Baptist Church, and we hold to the
01:49:54: London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts. We strive to reflect
01:50:00: Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do than how men view these things.
01:50:07: That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the apostles' priority, it must not be ours either.
01:50:14: We believe, by God's grace, that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man, and to be vessels of Christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us, and to build up the body of Christ in truth and love.
01:50:26: If you live near Norfolk, Massachusetts, or plan to visit our area, please come and join us for worship and fellowship.
01:50:32: You can call us at 508 -528 -5750, that's 508 -528 -5750, or go to our website to email us, listen to past sermons, worship songs, or watch our
01:50:44: TV program entitled, Resting in Grace. You can find us at ProvidenceBaptistChurchMA .org,
01:50:50: that's ProvidenceBaptistChurchMA .org, or even on sermonaudio .com, Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor
01:50:58: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Did you know that all believers are priests?
01:51:07: In 1 Peter 2, verse 9, the Apostle Peter describes Christ's church as comprising a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
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01:51:56: Visit CitizenPriest .com today. Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts,
01:52:16: Long Island Youth for Christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need Jesus. We are rural and urban, and we are always about the message of Jesus.
01:52:25: Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ.
01:52:32: Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959.
01:52:38: We have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.
01:52:47: Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above.
01:52:54: For details, call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333.
01:53:01: That's 631 -385 -8333. Or visit liyfc .org.
01:53:10: That's liyfc .org. I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, host of A Visit to the
01:53:19: Pastor's Study, and I am so thankful to be part of the advertising family right here on Iron Sharpens Iron.
01:53:25: If you live on Long Island or if you're visiting the metropolitan New York area, I invite you to join us for worship at The Haven on Sundays at 4 .30
01:53:34: p .m. We meet at the Ascension Lutheran Church facility, 33 Bayshore Road in Deer Park, New York.
01:53:40: At The Haven, you'll find God -saturated singing, gospel -rich ministry, and great commission opportunities.
01:53:46: Learn more about us at thehavenli .com and join us this Sunday at 4 .30
01:53:52: p .m., 33 Bayshore Road, Deer Park, New York. Welcome back. This is
01:53:57: Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in, our guest has been for the entire program, Liam Gallagher, the senior minister at 10th
01:54:05: Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We are now concluding our discussion on sanctification by grace, and if you have a question, please send it immediately because we're rapidly running out of time.
01:54:15: That's chrisarnzen at gmail .com, chrisarnzen at gmail .com. We do have a listener,
01:54:25: RJ in White Plains, New York, who says, Reverend Gallagher, don't you think the issue of the absolute necessity of sanctification is important in a day and age when anybody calling themselves a
01:54:42: Christian is deemed to be someone headed for heaven, when we are surrounded by the millions globally with false converts who think wrongly they are saved only because they have a profession and not an inward transformation?
01:55:00: This is fundamental. I think that we do our congregations a disservice if we don't teach them that trusting
01:55:12: Christ alone for salvation is the basis of our justification, but that the evidence of our justification is the outworking of that, is the desire to live for God, the desire to please
01:55:25: God. It is the motivating force of the new birth that I want my life to conform more and more to my
01:55:35: Heavenly Father, that I long to be more like Jesus and to be purified, to let the
01:55:46: Son of God work a purification within my heart, purifying my thoughts and my motives and my actions on an ongoing basis.
01:55:58: I think we need to be preaching this to our people. I think perhaps we're afraid of preaching it to our people.
01:56:05: Maybe we think if we preach sanctification to our people, our people will start trusting in their good works for their salvation.
01:56:13: That's nonsense. If they're trusting in Christ for salvation, we can be emphasizing that very thing and yet at the same time be saying, now you are
01:56:23: Christ's, then you must die to sin and live to righteousness.
01:56:29: You must be killing sin and you must be pursuing a holy life, a life that is more and more like your
01:56:37: Heavenly Father, becoming more and more like Jesus in your daily walk.
01:56:45: You can do it. You can do it. If you're a believer, you can do it because the Holy Spirit is within you. If you say to me you cannot do it, then the
01:56:52: Holy Spirit doesn't live within you. That's the bottom line. There is no reason why a believer indwelt by the
01:57:02: Holy Spirit cannot begin the steps towards becoming more and more like his
01:57:07: Savior. Well, now I want you to, if you could, please summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today regarding the subject of sanctification by grace before we go off the air.
01:57:22: I think I want you to think of sanctification as the most beautiful thing, not a trial, not a burden, not a task, but a beautiful thing that God does inside of us by making us more and more like the
01:57:40: Lord Jesus, thinking the way Jesus thought, acting as Jesus would, and that in doing so we become closer to God, Amen.
01:57:55: Well, I want you all to remember that my guest today, Pastor Liam Gallagher, will be speaking in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania this weekend at the
01:58:05: Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology on the theme Redemption Accomplished and Applied.
01:58:11: And if you want more details on how you can register, go to AllianceNet .org, AllianceNet .org,
01:58:19: and then click on Events, and then scroll down to the Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology 2019
01:58:25: Redemption Accomplished and Applied. This is being held at the Proclamation Presbyterian Church of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
01:58:34: That's this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 26th, 27th, and the 28th.
01:58:40: God willing, I will be there. Look for me. Ask around, Where's Chris Arnzen from Iron Trip and Zion Radio, and I hope to see you there.
01:58:47: Don't forget that tomorrow, our guest is Jeff Kingswood. Jeff Kingswood is going to be one of the speakers at the
01:58:57: Banner of Truth Conference, which is coming up in May, and he's my guest tomorrow, discussing the person and work of the
01:59:04: Holy Spirit. Also, don't forget, if you live in the Philadelphia area, and you do not have a church home, or perhaps you know you'll be visiting there on vacation, or you have family, friends, and loved ones who live in Philadelphia, go to 10th .org,
01:59:19: T -E -N -T -H, that's the word 10th, dot org, to find out more about the 10th
01:59:27: Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where our friend and guest today,
01:59:32: Liam Gallagher, is the pastor. I hope that you all are blessed by today's program.
01:59:38: I hope that you will even share the MP3 of the program with others, and I hope to see you all this weekend at the
01:59:46: Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, and I hope that you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far, far greater