May 18, 2021 Show with Jeremy Brandenburg on “Making Your Neighborhood the Frontline of Missions”

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

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron.

This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues

facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens

another.

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.

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, Chris Arnzen.

Good afternoon, 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.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this

18th day of May 2021.

And I'm thrilled to have a first -time guest today that I so much enjoyed sharing a time of

fellowship with over lunch not long ago, as he is a new pastor in town right here in

Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

His name is Jeremy Brandenburg, a former Army officer and the new pastor at

Redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Today, our theme is going to be, a former Army officer discusses making your neighborhood

the front line of missions.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor

Jeremy Brandenburg.

Well, thanks so much for having me, Chris.

Well, even if that is going to be the case today with our listening audience on Iron Sharpens Iron

Radio, we know God's listening.

Amen.

And that's all that matters.

Audience of one.

And so tell our listeners, first of all, about Redeemer Orthodox

Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

A very major highway cutting across

the United States that I have had a number of friends who are either traveling

from the north to the south or vice versa, who have stopped by to

visit me because they're on 81.

One of my pastors.

Right, right.

I mean.

Praise God.

And I'm looking forward to our joint worship service on the evening of

Sunday, May 30th.

Yeah.

6 p .m. to be precise, where our two congregations are going to be worshiping together at Grace Baptist

Church of Carlisle.

So that is going to be a joy.

Yeah, hopefully.

Well, if anybody wants to find out more about Redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Carlisle,

Pennsylvania, go to RedeemerOPC .org,

RedeemerOPC .org.

Thank you, Chris.

And can I just say that.

Great.

And as I said, for those of you who are doing traveling this spring and summer,

81 is a very major highway cutting across the country from north to south,

and it should be fairly easy for you to stop by for a visit if you're passing by

Pennsylvania.

And we would hope to hear good reports from Pastor Jeremy that some of our listeners

have done so.

So keep that in mind.

Make a note of it somewhere and visit Redeemer OPC in Carlisle.

And we have a tradition here on the show.

Whenever we have a first -time guest, when that first -time guest is a Christian, there are rare

occasions when we have a guest that is not a Bible -believing evangelical Christian because they have something

of importance to say to our audience, nonetheless.

But the vast majority of times we interview Christians, and when we have a first -time guest, we have them give a

summary of their salvation testimony, which would include the kind of religious atmosphere, if

any, you were raised in, and the kind of providential circumstances our Sovereign Lord raised up in your life

that drew you to Himself and saved you.

So if you could, give us your story.

Many fond memories of 10th Presbyterian Church when I was a new Christian and attended for a number

of years in a row the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology when our dear brother

James Montgomery Boyce was still on the earth before entering into glory with Christ.

Yeah,

and

he

was, I

did

not

know

when

he

began.

Oh yeah, I've had him on the program.

He has definitely got a hard road ahead of him.

He's already been on the hard road there at Wheaton, but man, oh man.

Yeah, I think peaceful days back.

Teach

one of

our

classes,

but

I remember

and give

us

new

life.

In fact, I've even heard it put this way, and I think it's an excellent way.

It may confuse people at first, but

we are saved even from our own righteousness.

We have to repent of that.

We have to repent of holding on to anything within ourselves that we

believe is making us pleasing to God, because there is nothing in and of ourselves

that could ever merit an entrance into

eternity with Christ, so.

Yes, yeah, great.

Well, we've already said in our introduction of you that you are a former army officer.

Tell us when in your mind, perhaps even in your heart,

did you begin to desire joining the military?

And tell us about that experience, perhaps some of the highlights of it.

And I typically ask a veteran on the show when I interview

one, how their experience and training as a

member of the armed services has actually come to aid them in their walk with Christ.

I

always

knew

the

Navy

was

not

for

me.

And how long have you served in the armed forces?

I was on active duty for eight years, and now I'm currently transitioning

out, you know,

for the sake of...

And your rank?

Great.

Well, we are discussing something that sort of has

a military flavor to it, because we are referring to the mission field here

as the front line.

And our theme is, a former army officer discusses making your neighborhood

the front line of missions.

And I know I'm going to probably butcher this story, but

I, many years ago, heard a story that I heard was...

I heard confirmed was true by a number of scholarly

Lutherans that I've spoken with.

And the story is that a cobbler said to Martin Luther that he

wanted to uproot his wife and children and move to a foreign

land to serve as a missionary.

And he asked Martin Luther what his advice was.

And Luther said, well, you are a cobbler.

Make a good shoe and sell it at a fair price.

That's my recommendation for you.

Now, obviously, Luther wasn't opposed to missionaries or anything like that.

Right.

But I think that there is a great bit of wisdom in this idea

that people seem to have lost the concept of

the fact that if you are a Christian, you should be a missionary, even if that means

your own backyard, your own community, your own neighborhood.

And in fact, it probably should be your neighborhood to begin with,

before you even consider entering into a foreign mission field.

Does that make sense to you?

No, absolutely.

We just lost thousands of post -millennial listeners.

I'm sorry, I'm just kidding.

That's all right.

We welcome all millennial views, right?

I'm

not

ashamed

of

the

gospel.

I'll

field

people about him and why they need to know him.

Yeah, it is quite tragic that many of us, and I'm

including myself, there are moments when

we should be opening our mouths and proclaiming the gospel, and it's too much of an

inconvenience for us.

And we just keep our mouths shut.

It could be almost anything as little

as not wanting to ruin a mood during dinner

at a restaurant or something.

You don't want to embarrass yourself in front of the waitress or waiter, or even if it

has nothing to do with embarrassing yourself, you don't want to have somebody who's actually serving you

food get angry with you for any reason.

There are people who risked and actually gave their lives.

There are Christians throughout history who had the most gruesome of

torturous deaths, even children who underwent this in

defense of the gospel, even over things today that

the more ecumenically -minded Christian would say, you're

being ridiculous for wanting to divide over.

And these are things that are actually a lot more crucial than these ecumenists may think they are.

And one thing that actually saddens me is, having been a Christian since

the mid -80s, how many people I agree with theologically

on Reformed doctrine.

And these people are members of Reformed and confessional churches, and yet they're ecumenists with

Rome and so on.

It makes no sense to me.

Amen.

And there was a Reformation for a reason, and obviously it is because Rome did not and

does not have that gospel.

And they made that even more clear after the Reformation at the Council of Trent,

which was a specific response to the Reformation, where they anathematized or

pronounced curses on those that would dare to believe in the

key doctrines of the Reformation.

Not only us, but we were definitely the primary targets in mind by the Council of Trent.

We have to go to our first break right now.

If anybody would like to join us with a question, you can email it to chrisarnsen at gmail .com,

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

Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you

live outside the USA.

And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private

matter.

That's chrisarnsen at gmail .com, chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

We'll be right back after these messages, so do not go away.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by

https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed

by

https://otter

.ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai

Transcribed by https://otter .ai.