April 17, 2020 Show with Joseph Jacowitz on “Coronavirus: Pandemic, Pestilence & Panic (What Does the Bible Say?)” (Part 6)

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

Carwile, 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 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 Friday on this 17th day of April, 2020.

And if you've been listening to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio regularly, you have come to know that every Friday, since the coronavirus pandemic started to shut down businesses and isolate people in their homes, we have been running, every

Friday, a coronavirus update featuring Pastor Joe Jackiewicz of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California.

He's also the founder of First Love Radio, which live streams this program every day, and also the founder of First Love Missions and First Love Publications.

Today is the sixth edition of our coronavirus updates, and the specific theme we are focusing on today is

Three Reasons to Hold Fast to Your Confession. And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, my dear friend,

Pastor Joe Jackiewicz. It's a blessing to be here with you, Chris, and your audience, as always.

And if you could, as we do every time you're on, remind our listeners, or tell them for the first time, about Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California.

Well, I've been pastoring CBC for a little over 30 years, since 1990.

We are in Northern California, located about 40 miles east of San Francisco, and we are a commuter church, so we have folks driving from all over, not recently, not in the last five or six weeks, but when we do meet, we cover quite a territory.

As many churches do today, it's increasingly more prevalent to have commuter churches spring up, because it's difficult to find the

Word of God. And we have a number of ministries in our church. We have a prison ministry.

We go to two state prisons. Rescue Mission, nursing home. We have a missions ministry called

First Love Missions. Publications ministry, where we've distributed over 300 ,000 books, booklets, and tracts since 2006, through conferences, missions conferences, and pastors' conferences,

Bible conferences, all over the world in third world countries. And also, as you mentioned, we have

First Love Radio, which is a ministry of our church, located at firstloveradio .org,

and some of your listeners are listening right now on firstloveradio .org, and we are a 24 -hour a day, 7 -day a week radio station, live streaming with a variety of programs.

So, that's a very, very brief synopsis of our church ministry and its ministries.

And if anybody wants to find out more about this church, where Pastor Joe Jackiewicz is the pastor,

Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California, they are on the web at christbiblechurch .org,

christbiblechurch .org, and First Love Radio can be found at firstloveradio .org, firstloveradio .org.

Well, before we go into our theme of three reasons to hold fast to your confession, why don't you give us some updates for us that you're aware of?

Well, as of about 15 minutes ago, in terms of the coronavirus around the world, the amount of confirmed cases is 2 ,225 ,725, and the deaths due to the coronavirus are at 152 ,411.

And as far as the United States, confirmed cases are 694 ,150, and deaths are up to 36 ,172.

That's the latest stats, and again, the spiritual ramifications and repercussions of the coronavirus continue to work themselves out in the lives of God's people and our families and our nation, our citizens, our political and societal communities and situations where people are challenged.

There's a lot of panic, a lot of stress, a lot of financial concern. It continues to grow.

A lot of questions are being asked about the future. Will things go back to normal, the way they were before the pandemic?

And I think the answer there is kind of a combination of some things will permanently change for the better and for the worse, and some things will stay the same, and I think it's just a matter of time to see how it all works out.

But for those of us who believe in the sovereignty of God, as you and I often agree upon, it is a great comfort to know that every second of the day, every event of the world, both in the macro and in the micro, are in the hands of our wise

God who knows exactly what He's doing. Praise God. And I just heard word from a friend through his landlord that here in Pennsylvania, starting on midnight this

Sunday, it is going to be mandatory for the citizens here to never be without a face mask when we are out of our own homes.

So just when I thought things were going to ease up, they're getting more complicated here.

So that hasn't been 100 % confirmed, but the landlord is a reliable source, so I'm assuming that she is correct.

But things could be a lot worse. I could have to wear a hassmat, you know, a whole outfit sometime soon in the future.

Who knows? But I'm going to give our e -mail address right away here for our listeners, chrisarnson at gmail .com.

chrisarnson at gmail .com. And please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

And, you know, it's been interesting, Pastor Joe, doing programs other than the one that we do on Friday that involve the coronavirus pandemic, and it's interesting to see how many people in the body of Christ, even who are from a conservative bent, a

Reformed and Calvinistic bent even, how much disagreement there is amongst the brethren.

There are some who are saying that we shouldn't be complaining at all about the government's restrictions, that this is for our good, and this is a sign of real, genuine concern for the well -being of the citizens.

And others, while they may agree with that to a point, still believe that our

First Amendment rights are being violated and that we are seeing signs of the government flexing its muscles and that we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg as far as our rights being stripped away from us.

It's interesting that I even have had different legal experts on the program on different occasions who disagree over whether these bans on public gatherings are a violation of our right to assemble and our freedom of speech and freedom of religion and so on.

So it's interesting how there is never really a consensus, even amongst the body of Christ, and of course there is no consensus in the media either.

It seems that they change their guidance and counsel to us at one time.

In fact, for weeks they were telling us, don't waste your money on face masks, let the professionals get those, those in hospitals and so on, and it's not going to do you any good, it may even be counterproductive, and now it's being made mandatory in many places.

Your head can spin, you never know who to believe. Exactly. Yeah, there's a lot of confusion generated by all of these changing situations connected with the pandemic, both in politics and in medical responses to the virus and what we should do.

I think, again, there's a balance, there's both sides of it. I think we should do everything that we can, within our power and ability, to protect ourselves, even if medical advice or governmental advice goes against what common sense tells us to do or what the

Bible tells us to do or what experience tells us to do. So, in the end, I think we need to protect ourselves as much as we can and not walk about, or not walk about, but put our head in the stand and ignore good medical practices and habits, like some

Jehovah's Witnesses will say you shouldn't get inoculations or vaccines, but I think we should do everything we can to prevent the virus from happening, medically speaking, humanly speaking.

But at the same time, when you talk about the First Amendment rights and the Second Amendment rights, and the restriction of our liberty more and more, where the government's mandating us to stay indoors and wear masks and people are getting tickets for walking around outside or doing unnecessary, non -essential activities,

I think we need to look at the big picture there and ask where do our

First Amendment rights come from. There's nothing in the Bible that demands that Christians or citizens of any nation have

First Amendment or Second Amendment kind of rights. If a nation or political system gives its citizens democratic rights, like we enjoy in the

United States, certainly that's a blessing from God, and we ought to give the glory to God, but to insist upon those rights as a human right,

I don't see that in Scripture. And so we do need to change and be flexible when the government does clamp down on its citizens and maybe suspend rights or declare martial law or temporarily take away our rights.

Of course, that's scary to us, who are so used to having these rights, and we almost elevate the

U .S. Constitution and the rights it affords to us on the level of the Bible.

But, again, we have to remember that just because we've taken these rights for granted for so many decades and centuries and we've enjoyed these rights, that the history of the world shows that 95 -plus percent of cultures and nations were not democratic, and they were ruled with a rod of iron, and Christians were the most persecuted minority in these nations.

They suffered first. Between the Christians and the Jews, they were the ones to suffer first and to be blamed first for any problem in society, generally speaking.

And we're given a whole list of rules and principles from the Sermon on the Mount onward in the

New Testament on how to respond to persecution, to unjust treatment by the political class and by society, even by the poor.

How do we respond to these kinds of people or to this kind of persecution? Of course, we have principles such as love your enemies, do good to those who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the sons of your father in heaven.

So sometimes our rights afforded us by the Constitution, and what the

Bible says about how Christians should respond to persecution kind of get all woven together, and we end up getting confused, thinking, well,

I have this right to be treated in such and such a way, when the Scripture usurps that idea and says, no,

Jesus said in this world you will have persecution. Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God, and all that shall live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and on and on and on.

And so we need to really separate one truth from societal principles, truth from principles, and always go with biblical truth.

Well, we have three reasons that you want to reassure our audience that we should hold fast to our confession, and the first...

Go ahead. No, go ahead. I was going to say the first of these is because Jesus is a great high priest.

Well, we want to think about three things, three reasons why to hold fast to your confession.

First is because he's a great high priest. Second, because he's a compassionate high priest.

And third, because he's a gracious high priest. And I have a feeling we're only going to get through my introductory thoughts and the first point here.

But I think it's very important, Chris, as we proceed with these Friday editions of Iron Sharpens Iron, that we talk more and more about the emotional and the spiritual problems and issues that believers are dealing with in relationship to the pandemic and all the stressful problems that are testing

God's people. And so it's very important for believers to understand that things can get worse and worse from here on out.

They may not. I pray that they don't. But when you look at church history and you look at the big picture, very often as cultures become more wicked and more ungodly and more sinful, the judgment of God is poured out on those cultures and upon those nations and sometimes upon large sections of the world or the whole world in general.

And, for example, the results of both world wars in the 20th century had upwards of 70 -plus million people killed, not to say that those people all deserve to be killed, but God can pour out his wrath upon the whole world or upon regions anytime he wants to, and there's no guarantee that protection from the police and by the law and from the

Constitution will continue. Things may get worse and worse. And throughout church history, even world history, we see that believers were warned to be watchful and to maintain their profession of faith, their confession of faith.

And so in preparation for perhaps more persecution, there are multitudes, masses of professing

Christians in churches right now, Chris Arnzen, that are not ready for greater persecution.

What if the attitude of our culture in the United States and of our politicians, even conservative politicians, turn against churches and take away our liberties and begin to make life harder for us in every way?

How will we respond? Do we have a strong spiritual foundation? Are we connected very closely in a hard relationship with Jesus Christ?

I'm very concerned about how Christians are responding to the effects of the pandemic and the distress of the nations that we see growing in the world as a result of it.

And I think we're all in shock to a certain degree, but many Christians are not handling it very well emotionally and spiritually.

And so I would ask your listeners, have world events traumatized your faith?

Or do you feel you're stuck in your growth as a Christian? Or is your spiritual life out of control due to, say, worldliness or lukewarmness or even secret sin?

Are you afraid for your future, your health, and your income? These are relevant questions, questions that many today, even millions today, are wrestling with.

Has fear and uncertainty caused depression and stress in your life?

Many churchgoers and professing Christians are questioning their faith and reexamining their lives as we speak because of this worldwide pandemic.

And I pray that when things get better, and I hope they do, that you won't go back to an apathetic lifestyle where you take for granted these governmental safety nets and the protection of the

Constitution, thinking that these things will protect us from being challenged and searched and tested to the very core of our being.

Yeah, these are challenging and scary times for the Christian. And most people I've talked to say they've never seen things this bad in America and throughout the world.

I'll tell you, Chris, what a difference a couple of weeks make. And we're really living in times which try men's souls.

The faith of Christians is being tried in the fiery furnace of affliction right now.

And so if you're a Christian and can identify with what I just said and are struggling in your faith, well,

I've got good news and hope for you. The scripture I'm going to share with you,

I trust, will encourage you very greatly. By the way, before you even go into the scripture and even the first of the three aspects of our discussion, because Jesus is a great high priest, could you please define what a high priest is, especially how

Jesus is the high priest, because there were high priests of the Old Covenant that were far different, far inferior, infinitely inferior to our great high priest.

And there are a lot of people, probably a minority, but there are people that listen to this show that are new

Christians. Some are not Christians at all. They're from other religions, and they may be confused by the words we're using.

So why don't you define what Jesus Christ is, the great high priest. Sure. Well, there are many religions that have the office of priest that lead and regulate the rituals and the teachings and those services of their religion.

Pardon me. And in the Old Testament, the Jewish nation had the office of priest created for it by God himself that was handed down and taught in the law of Moses, and especially in the first five books of the

Bible called the five books of Moses or the Pentateuch. And in those five books, particularly

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the last four, the office of priest was regulated by the teachings in those four books of Moses.

And there was an entire tribe set aside called the tribe of Levi among the twelve tribes of Israel where the male members of that tribe was responsible to regulate and to administrate the sacrificial system that God had set up of animal sacrifices and worship and rituals that were to be done in the tabernacle first in the wilderness and then in the temple,

Solomon's temple, afterwards. And there were several offices among the tribe of Levitical men.

There was the Levite who had the primary responsibility of preparing the sacrifices and recording and writing and rewriting the scriptures on scrolls.

Once some scrolls wore out, they would just rewrite it in new scrolls to preserve the

Old Testament text. And then there was the office of priest, which he was responsible to oversee what the

Levites did and the priests did to make sure that the people, the everyday people, offered up the sacrifices according to biblical regulations that God had given

Moses in the Law of Moses. And they themselves offered up the animal sacrifices, and they had to prepare the sacrifices in very specific ways to be acceptable to God.

They had to come from clean animals, the goats and the lambs and the turtle doves, the pigeons and so forth.

And then lastly, there was the highest office of high priest. And the high priest was the only one authorized once a year to go into that very small section in the temple or tabernacle called the

Holy of Holies, where once a year during the Day of Atonement, the Jews call it

Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, he would go in and he had to be ceremonially and spiritually clean in his body, his garments, and in his conscience.

And he went in there to the Holy of Holies, and he sprinkled the blood on top of the

Ark of the Covenant. And in the Ark, there were the tablets of stone, the manna, and the rod,

Aaron's rod, which budded. And so he went in once a year and sprinkled blood on top of the box, the

Ark of the Covenant. And there were two angels, one on one end, one on the other, facing inward, facing the mercy seat.

And so the priest duties were, as I just outlined, and the high priest as well.

But every single priest, except two of them, belonged to the tribe of Levi.

We call it the Levitical system or the Aaronic priesthood.

Aaron was the first priest, and then he was from the tribe of Levi, his brother

Moses, his sister Miriam. They were from the same tribe. And then all of Aaron's sons had to be from, of course,

Levi, the tribe of Levi. And they were trained in very strict disciplines and very hard disciplines in how to be a priest and how to administer the temple services and the entire sacrificial system of the

Law of Moses. And so the Old Testament priesthood and all of its regulations and all of its injunctions were a type and figure of the

Lord Jesus Christ. They were weak men in the tribe of Levi, the Levites and the priests.

They were limited by death and by physical weakness in being perfect type priests.

But in type and figure, they pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, who was from the tribe of Judah.

Jesus was not from the tribe of Levi. And so Christ's priesthood is rooted in the priesthood of Melchizedek, who was this strange figure that came and confronted

Abraham on his way back from the battle with Sodom, Gomorrah, and the five tribes, the five kings of the plain.

And he was confronted by this man, Melchizedek, who was a type of Christ. He was a real person, a real man.

With no known genealogy, right? With no known genealogy. But just because we didn't know where he was from doesn't mean he was an angel or some ghost or apparition.

No, he was a real person. I'm going through the book of Hebrews right now in my verse -by -verse expository preaching.

And so all this is fresh in my mind from my studies. But Jesus and Melchizedek were the only members of the tribe of Melchizedek.

But all the rest of the priests were members of the tribe of Levi. So Jesus is in a class by himself as a high priest.

The tribe or the Levitical priesthood had unique things about it and weaknesses about it that are unlike the attributes of the

Melchizedek priesthood, where that is a perfect priesthood, especially as it is emulated to our

Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the things, and I hope that my dear

Pato Baptist friends are not insulted by this, just observe this as a difference between Reformed Baptists and you folks, and of course

I have to be clear that not all Pato Baptists agree on this, but many

Pato Baptists believe that the reprobate are truly members of the covenant, of Christ's covenant and the new covenant, even though they will never enter into heaven.

And we who are Credo Baptists, those who believe in a regenerate church membership, we who believe, of course, many if not all churches have false professors in them, and we sometimes find out that somebody was masquerading as a

Christian and they are disciplined, and if they don't follow the discipline, they're excommunicated.

But we believe that those who are a member of the true church and the true covenant, not what our eyes can see and what names are on a rule book, but what is the true covenant, only born -again believers are in that covenant, and those who are certainly going to heaven because they are the elect.

And what baffles me is our dear, or many of our dear Pato Baptist brethren, who agree with us on nearly everything we believe, have,

I think, a deficient view of this perfect mediatory work that Christ as our great high priest continually performs.

He stands as our mediator between us and the Father, and yet that is not sufficient to bring everyone for whom he mediates to heaven in the minds of many

Pato Baptists. Many of those folks in the covenant are going to hell in their mind.

We believe that if you're truly in the covenant, you're certainly going to heaven because of the infinite superiority of Christ as our great high priest.

Am I not right? You're absolutely right, and the high priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ guarantees that the elect will enter heaven in the end, and whatever title or label you want to put on the non -elect, professing

Christian, confessing Christian, member of the church because they're in the covenant through the parents, or whatever you want to call it, that cannot be the case because just as Christ's death on the cross and the benefits of his death, like justification, propitiation, sanctification, and glorification, will never be resisted or will always be applied to the elect, the same thing is true with Christ's high priesthood.

His high priesthood, just like his death on the cross, the sacrifice and the priest in his mediatorial work on behalf of the sheep will always be successful in representing the sheep in their primary need to make it in the end, persevere to the end of their lives.

So the high priesthood of Christ guarantees that the sheep for whom Christ died and laid his life down for will persevere and make it through this

Christian life until they go to be with the Lord in heaven. I think that one of the errors of our

Paedo -Baptist brethren, or many of them, is that they try to create too much of a mirror image between the church and Israel, and many even use the phrase, there is one covenant under two administrations, rather than an old and new covenant.

Even though they may use the terms old and new covenant, they still, many of them, use the phrase one covenant with two administrations.

And therefore, their understanding of the covenant, even the new and better covenant, is that it has many of the flaws of the old covenant.

The old covenant did have false professors who were not truly of Israel, as even the

Apostle Paul, later on in the new covenant, says that not all of Israel are

Israel, and circumcision is one of the heart. So I got that off my chest.

I don't want to get my Paedo -Baptist brethren too upset here. And I love you dearly, and I learn regularly from you, and I probably interview more

Paedo -Baptists than Baptists. But anyway, in fact, what we have to do now, Joe, is we have to go to our first break.

So we will continue on this thought of Christ, our great high priest.

If anybody wants to join us, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Don't go away, we'll be right back with Joe Jacowicz, and more on Christ, our great high priest.

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We are now back with Pastor Joe Jacowicz of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California, also the founder of First Love Radio, which livestreams this program every day.

We are giving our weekly coronavirus update and we are now in the portion of the program where we're giving biblical application to how

Christians are to view and respond to a crisis like this that is a global crisis.

And if you have a question of your own, our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com,

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. And before you continue with your discussion on Jesus Christ being a great high priest, we do have a listener in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Susan Margaret.

And Susan Margaret says, I have heard you on previous interviews on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Jacowicz, and I know that you happen to be a

Jewish believer. Can you tell us about how, now that you have become a born -again believer in Christ, how much more powerful the understanding of Christ as a high priest makes what the high priest was in the

Old Covenant? In other words, isn't this teaching from the Hebrew Scriptures made even more of a remarkable and amazing thing when fulfilled in Jesus Christ?

Oh, it's the difference between night and day. It's a huge black -and -white difference. I had no clue about the implications of Christ's priesthood when

I was a Jew. I did not know the Scriptures. All I knew was about the ceremonies and rituals of Judaism, some of the traditions and the customs, but I never knew the deeper implications of the

Messiah, his mission, his purpose, and the entire

Levitical system, the temple service being a type and figure of he who was to come, who is the substance, not the shadow, of all of who

Jesus is in his offices as prophet, priest, and king, especially high priest, and his attributes, and the role, the critical role that he has in upholding our faith through his prayers and intercessions and supplications as our high priest.

I had no clue who the Messiah was in Christ, let alone his vital role in sustaining and maintaining the faith of believers through his mediatorial and high priestly intercessions on our behalf during our lives as believers in this world.

So yes, and the knowledge that I have gained by the

Lord in the study of Christ's role in the

Old Testament or his typical allegorical, prophetical fulfillment of those priestly roles in the

Old Testament have enriched my Bible study and my worship immensely.

And it is so fulfilling and joyous to connect the

Old Testament prophetical and typical verses which pointed to Christ to the fulfillment of them in the

New Testament and then applying them to my life and my relationship with Jesus Christ as my personal redeemer, as my high priest, as my intercessor, as my sanctifier, as the one who upholds me through every trial and tribulation in life.

It has added such a rich dimension to my walk and my relationship with God as a

Christian. And in fact, the concept of a high priest today to a

Jewish person has to pale into insignificance infinitely so when compared to our high priest,

Jesus Christ, because they don't have a high priest. They have no temple. The temple was destroyed in AD 70 and if you were to go by the actual teachings of the

Old Covenant, they would have no hope. But of course, the traditions of the rabbis and the

Talmud and other things, they have come up with excuses as to why there is no temple and they still have a hope.

And they're really deceiving themselves and playing games. They're playing fast and loose with what the

Hebrew Scriptures taught. Am I right? Absolutely. The three branches of Judaism today, the

Orthodox, the Conservative, and the Reformed, have very little clue about the purpose and the figurative aspects of the

Old Testament and how they all pointed to Christ and were all fulfilled in Christ.

And trying to make sense of the Old Testament and apply it to their lives in any kind of meaning or personal value as Jews who have stopped at the cross and are just relishing and immersed in the

Old Testament, they are totally miserable. Because they have no peace.

They have no joy. They don't know the Messiah themselves in their hearts. And I've had occasion to have had numerous conversations with rabbis and Jews who are

Orthodox, and they stop. They stop at the cross.

But my main point is that they don't even understand the purpose of the animal sacrifices.

They don't study these things. If you ask the average Reformed Jew, which are very liberal... Well, you can even have a

Reformed Jew, not to be confused with Reformed Christianity, R -E -F -O -R -N

Judaism. You can have a rabbi who's an atheist. Oh, absolutely. You have the whole spectrum of liberal and modernistic

Jews who weave in all kinds of worldly thoughts and teachings of other religions and blending it with some kind of quasi -Judaism.

Anything goes with Reformed Judaism. Reformed is a synonym for liberal or progressive on a political level.

And the conservatives are mainly just ritualists who go through the motions during main holidays.

Many of them don't keep kosher. They don't follow the dietary laws. But the Orthodox Jews themselves, they're just a lot stricter about going through the motions compared to the conservative

Jews. But they are not very much acquainted with the animal sacrifices and the meaning of it.

And they dismiss all of those scriptures that press upon them the urgency and need to continue to observe the injunctions and teachings of the books of Moses if they're to be a true

Jew. But of course, they all have to stand on the Talmud as the excuse and the reason why they don't observe the

Old Testament rituals and perform the animal sacrifices, because they have no excuse otherwise.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a bit of trivia. I'm not even 100 % sure you're aware of this, but an

Orthodox Jew educated me on something. He said that if you ever hear a

Jew say that his house of worship is something like Temple Beth Shalom or Temple B 'nai

B 'rith or what have you, that is a liberal Jewish house of worship.

The Orthodox would never call it a temple, he said, because there is no temple. He said that it's always called a synagogue or shul, but never a temple.

That is correct. But actually, if you want to speak in technical terms, that is true, because I guess they're using temple in the sense of it's an annexed part.

It's a satellite of the temple. But he said that the Orthodox would never call it that, though.

No, they wouldn't. In fact, I remember seeing in a movie, they obviously didn't do their homework.

I was watching a movie where somebody was having a conversation with a Hasidic Jew on a train or a subway or something, and this

Hasidic Jew, ultra -Orthodox, says to the person, Come and visit me at Temple Beth Shalom!

Well, obviously, that was a false line in the movie, because a

Hasidic Jew wouldn't call it a temple. Yes. Yes, that's correct.

But, of course, Hollywood will reinvent itself in many ways. Right. But if you could, we have two minutes before we go to our midway break, so if you could expand upon what you were talking about.

You know, it's the high priesthood of Christ that guarantees that we will survive all these current trials with the coronavirus pandemic and so forth.

Trials of faith that are coming upon the world like waves. And there are many reasons which are all found in Jesus Christ for us to hold on to our confession of faith until the end.

And the text I wanted to use today was Hebrews 4, beginning at verse 14, where we read,

Seeing then, that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

And so, it's very important to look briefly at the background of the book of Hebrews to gain the most benefit from this text.

You'll remember in the first century, it's been 30 to 40 years since the first Christians who were all

Jewish believers, Hebrew Christians, came into the faith. And these Hebrew Christians who were...

They were suffering persecution and deprivation and ostracism.

They were cast out of the synagogue. They depended on Christians to help them and to house them and feed them at first.

Many of them were indigent and homeless. And they were cut off from their culture and family and society that they were an intimate part of before.

So after 30, 40 years in the faith, once the apostles began to preach after the ascension of Christ, they're left with the loss of their entire life.

And they have no contact with family. They were enormously weary. Many of them were seriously considering returning to their old life with all of its physical and emotional comforts.

And they could feel a lot better and they can have all this deprivation removed. And they were thinking about going backwards to Judaism and not forward by trusting in Christ and clinging to Him.

The apostle Paul himself, a converted Jew and rabbi, reminds these Hebrew believers that Christ is superior to the

Old Testament and everything they left behind in it, and that there's nothing in the

Law of Moses, there's nothing in Levitical priesthood, there's nothing in their

Jewish traditions, and there's nothing in their culture and the consolation of their family that will ever give them peace with God and cleanse their conscience from the guilt of sin and from dead works.

So we have to pick up right where you left off when we return from our midway break. If anybody wants to join us, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

We apologize that this is going to be a more lengthy break than normal because our midway break is dedicated to the fact that Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

FM in Lake City, Florida, has to air their own public service announcements according to FCC regulations to localize

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio to Lake City, Florida, and while they air their own locally heard public service announcements and other things, we air our globally heard commercials.

So please make the best use of this time by writing down the information provided by our advertisers so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them.

That means that more than likely they'll remain our advertisers, which will mean that we can remain on the air.

And also, send in your questions to Joe Jackowitz at chrisarnson at gmail dot com. chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

Don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

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I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years. His name is Dan Buttafuoco.

Dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer but not the type that typically comes to mind.

Dan cares about people and is a theologian himself. Recently he wrote a book titled Consider the

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Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states. He represents many

Christians in serious injury matters all over the country. Dan is an exceptional trial lawyer.

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.

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Or email me for Dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

That's chrisarnson at gmail dot com. The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly changed our way of life, bringing so many uncertainties.

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

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

God's Word for answers to this and other life -changing questions. Tune in at firstloveradio .org.

That's firstloveradio .org. Each Friday at 1 p .m.

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

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

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

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

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

Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our

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

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

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

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

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Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island, New York, that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

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

I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

And besides that, they feel so good. I'm so delighted I discovered Post Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding.

No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post Tenebrous Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan.

All his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching.

Jeffrey uses the finest in buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goat skin tanned in Italy used for my

Nestle All in 28th edition with a navy blue goat skin inside liner and the electric blue goat skin from a

French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study Bible I used as a gift. The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome.

Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather making whatever he rebinds a one -of -a -kind work of art.

For more details on Post Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding go to PTLBibleRebinding .com

That's PTLBibleRebinding .com Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnzen and if you just tuned us in our guest today for the full two hours with about a little less than an hour to go is

Pastor Joe Jakowicz and he is the pastor of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California and he is also the founder of First Love Radio which live streams this program every single day

Monday through Friday and also he is the founder of First Love Missions and First Love Publications and we are conducting our sixth edition of our coronavirus updates that we do every week every

Friday specifically and before we return to our discussion we are still on the subtopic of Jesus Christ being a great high priest and before we return to that discussion

I just have a couple of very important announcements to make. First of all I intend unless the government won't allow me to I intend to be conducting the next free spring

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheon on Friday May 29th 11am to 2pm here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at the

Bongiorno Conference Center and the Bongiorno Conference Center is a beautiful wonderful facility and this is the first time that we have the honor and privilege to use that facility to hold our luncheon that is if we are able to the one thing that has me so excited in addition to the

Bongiorno Center being our home for the luncheon this year is that for the very first time also a dear friend of mine since 1995 who

I believe is one of the most powerful preachers walking on the earth today in fact

I believe he is the most powerful preacher I've ever heard his name is Dr. Conrad Mbewe he is the pastor of Kabwatha Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa he is also the former chancellor and currently lecturing at African Christian University he is our speaker and not only will you be able to hear

Dr. Mbewe preach for free and be fed a sumptuous lunch for free at the Bongiorno Conference Center but you'll also be getting a heavy sack of free books personally selected by me for those in attendance donated by major Christian publishers all over the

United States and the United Kingdom if you would like to attend this free event this is for men in ministry only whether you're a pastor an elder a deacon a parachurch leader or other male leader in the church or parachurch you may feel free to submit a free registration at chrisarnson at gmail .com

chrisarnson at gmail .com and put pastorsluncheon in the subject line if we need to reschedule the date due to the hysteria going on globally with the coronavirus pandemic we will alert you to that so it's good for you to send in the email even if you're pessimistic that we'll be holding the luncheon because of what's going on and this way we can get back to you and let you know if indeed we are rescheduling and what date that will be and so on chrisarnson at gmail .com

and put pastorsluncheon in the subject line I also have got to let you know about some wonderful upcoming interviews that I have we have

Jeff Thomas the world -renowned Reformed Baptist author and conference speaker who pastored

Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales for 50 years he is going to be our guest both

Monday and Tuesday April 20th and 21st I'm so thrilled to have him back he is always such a joy to interview and so mark your calendars for that another dear friend of mine

Roger Salter who is the pastor or the rector of St.

Matthew's Anglican Church in Birmingham, Alabama he is going to be our guest on Wednesday we still don't have a topic for that discussion but I'm sure it will be fascinating whatever it is on Thursday the 23rd for the very first time

I'm interviewing Ron McKinney and Ron has a fascinating story about how his family starting with his dad

Don McKinney who is in glory for eternity with Christ how that family left

Pentecostalism and Arminian theology and entered into Reformed and Baptistic theology and quite a fascinating story and then of course on Friday the 24th

Pastor Joe Jackiewicz returns this time for our 7th edition of our

Coronavirus updates so mark those days down on your calendar last but not least folks if you love this show and you don't want it to disappear

I'm urging you please go to ironsharpensironradio .com click support then click click to donate now and you can donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion keep in mind folks as I've been telling you almost every day that we have lost at least temporarily two of our largest advertisers and that has made things that were already quite frightening financially even more so and so can you help us make up for that which was lost financially and please if you've never donated consider donating for the first time especially if you love the show and if you have donated please consider donating again or donating more we really need your funds more than ever before and again it's ironsharpensironradio .com

click support then click click to donate now I thank so much all of you who have been answering my

SOS's that have been responding to them with help financially and some of you

I've never heard from before and the generosity that I am witnessing is so encouraging and comforting and to know that there are even more people that I didn't know existed who value the show greatly and are blessed by it daily well

I can't even describe to you in the English language how much you mean to me and what your generosity means to me so thank you so much for that if you if any of you want to advertise with us send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

and put advertising in the subject line as long as whatever it is you're promoting is compatible with what we believe you don't have to believe identically with me but you need to be promoting something that's compatible with what we believe then we would love to launch an ad campaign with you as quickly as possible because we really do need your advertising dollars and if you are not a member of a local bible believing church and you're not even prayerfully looking for one please send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

and put I need a church in the subject line I have lists of biblically faithful churches all over the world and I've already helped a number of people in our audience from all over the world find churches near them where they have visited joined and become members or sometimes they have visited these churches when they're on vacation and sometimes they have referred these churches to their loved ones who do not have a church that's biblically faithful that they were aware of near them and might as well plug once again if you live near Pleasanton California which is not far from Dublin California Christ Bible Church is the church where our guest today

Pastor Joe Jackowitz serves as pastor Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton California that website is

Christ Bible Church dot org Christ Bible Church dot org but wherever you live even if you live in other parts of the world send me that email to ChrisArns in a gmail dot com

ChrisArns in a gmail dot com and put I need a church in the subject line that is also the email address where you can send in a question to Pastor Joe Jackowitz and we are discussing right now

Christ our Great High Priest that's ChrisArns in a gmail dot com and give us your first name at least your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter and Pastor Joe you were talking about the discouragement of Christians in the first century starting to long to return to their

Jewish or their Judaism the religion of their lives prior to coming to Christ and almost in some ways reflecting uh the uh the exodus where you had in the old covenant the

Israelites that were delivered from slavery in Egypt starting to become impatient with God and long for actually returning to Egypt but if you could continue where you left off yes we're looking at reasons to hold fast our confession of faith and as you suggested

I'm drawing a parallel between the first century and the first Jewish Christians who were saved and added to the church after 30, 40, 50 years they were beginning to apostatize and go backwards to Judaism and back to their old life and I'm trying to draw a parallel between that situation and the first century to our present day which there are many many similarities and the writer to the

Hebrews whom I believe was the Apostle Paul demonstrated that since Christ is superior to everything that's represented in Judaism to go back to Judaism and not to persevere in the faith and mature and grow as a

Christian and move forward and look to Christ uh is is suicidal

Christ is not only superior to the Old Testament and its sacrificial system but it replaces it and the law of Moses and the

Old Testament economy contain types and figures of the substance that is found in Christ so the book of Hebrews was written in the context of cataclysmic changes that took place in Palestine Jerusalem and the surrounding

Mediterranean world for about a hundred years from the birth of Christ until the end of the first century and this was one of the most trying and difficult periods in church history with enormous persecution martyrdom uh lawlessness and displacement of families and whole communities but it was also one of great advancement for the gospel and growth of the church so in this sense

I believe there's a parallel Chris between the first century of the church and the last century of the world the time that we're living in just prior to the second coming of Christ in the last hundred years there's been two world wars countless other wars many epidemics and pandemics countless pestilences and earthquakes without number false prophets and false teachers uh

Israel becoming a nation in 1948 and the signs of the times are increasing in frequency and in intensity it wouldn't be a sign if it wasn't different than what came before in terms of the signs so I believe the scripture teaches that things will get worse and worse in the political civil religious realms and it behooves

Christians to be ready especially in our day with the pandemic which could be the beginning of sorrows uh and more signs that will come as we read in scripture but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived the

Lord Jesus said there will be signs in the sun in the moon and in the stars and on the earth distress of nations with perplexity the sea and the waves are roaring men's hearts failing them from fear and expectation of those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of the heavens will be shaken then they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory now when these things begin to happen look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near all these are the beginning of sorrows we read in Matthew and we talk about in the book of Daniel where there will be changes in times and seasons and we read in 1

Thessalonians that you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night for when they say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape but you brethren are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you that is the day of the

Lord let us not sleep as others do but let us watch and be sober so the

Hebrew Christians were wavering in their faith prompted in part by persecution and doubts and great trials of faith were crashing in on their minds and hearts causing them to question and reexamine their loyalty to Christ and faith in Him many were seriously considering going back to their old life denying the faith denying

Christ and like Judas Iscariot and Demas betraying Christ and making shipwreck of their souls having loved this present world and I think

Chris as we look at the last month or two we have a number of those who profess faith in Christ professing

Christians who were barely hanging in there their church attendance and their entertainment centers keeping them happy but now most of them can't go to a physical worship service and their the little that they had of what they thought was substance in their profession is withering away and so like these

Hebrew Christians in the first century many professing Christians today are in a condition of great spiritual weakness and vulnerability while simultaneously worldly pressures and satanic deception are growing stronger and stronger and having a great influence upon them and many

Christian churches and these professing Christians as the trials continue will be like a house of cards and I believe only true believers will survive and so added to this we find two particular texts in the

New Testament that teaches us in for example Luke 18 8 nevertheless when the son of man comes will he really find faith on the earth and then in Matthew 24 12 and because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold so we see that in that last generation weak faith and weak love will be even more diminished will they will diminish greatly and faith and love we learn are at the heart of true

Christianity and so it behooves Christians as we look at the parallel between the first century believers who had enormous pressure on them to go backwards many believers today have the same amount of great pressure on them to go backward and the solution between these two groups is the same the

Lord Jesus Christ we read Hebrews 4 14 where it says that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens

Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession now in verse 13 the verse before this one the writer just finished the second of five very powerful and challenging warning passages in the book of Hebrews I don't know if you've ever read these warning passages in Hebrews like chapter 3 chapter 6 they're very scary and they don't suggest that a believer can lose his salvation but they urge professing

Christians to press on to maturity by looking to Jesus and not looking backwards to our old life these passages remind us that by trusting in Christ alone and not resting on dead works and dead religion for inspiration when our faith is tested in the fiery furnace of affliction will we persevere in the faith until we go to be with the

Lord and so after the severe warning the first warning passage in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7 through chapter 4 and verse 13 we aren't left to ourselves to figure things out our attention is immediately fixated on Jesus Christ and the apostle points us to Christ where he says seeing then that we have a great high priest in the very next verse verse 14 so our attention is now turned from looking back and thinking of apostatizing thinking about going back to our old life to looking forwards with Christ because there's nothing to go back to except dead religion which never provided peace in their conscience and the forgiveness of sins to begin with they were just going through the motions like many professing

Christians today who right now are locked up in their homes they're locked down and they're looking for some kind of entertainment or diversion to keep their attention to keep them happy they have very little or no substance in their life but we are urged to look away from ourselves our entertainment our religious works our experience and our credentials and like the

Jewish Christians we're admonished not to rest in a religious system like the mosaic economy or the

Levitical sacrificial system or our favorite religious organization or religious customs and traditions our favorite preacher but to look to Jesus alone for grace to overcome in the end our knowledge of the

Bible and our experience as in the case of the Hebrew Christians will not help in the day when we're tempted to fall away from the faith the power and strength that our spirit needs to be able to withstand in the day of temptation can only come from the

Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ and I'm wondering if many of your listeners and many of those who profess to be

Christians who are not listening are struggling and they're teetering between apostasy or maintaining a faithful relationship with Jesus Christ but I want you to notice the word that describes

Jesus as our high priest in the text it's the word great it says that we have a great high priest the

Lord could have chosen many synonyms to describe our Lord but He used the word great and I think it is a deliberate choice as in every word in the

Bible which is inspired by the Holy Spirit the word great here in the Greek means exceedingly great very great in magnitude very great in degree extraordinary remarkable in its greatness and in the

Old Testament the tribe of Levi was set apart to serve the

Lord in the priesthood like I mentioned earlier there were 22 ,000 of them but none of them were called great not even the high priests were described as great why?

because they're all sinners just like you and me Chris why is Jesus speak for yourself

Joe I'm only kidding I was going to say especially you since you brought it up but why is

Jesus great as our high priest well let me suggest first of all because Jesus is perfect and all sufficient in his mediation we're talking about Jesus as our high priest and the solution for potential apostasy and these end times when faith and love are on the wane and when it's so scary to be a

Christian and our future is uncertain in terms of our income and our stability we need to be looking to Jesus Christ and trusting in him more than ever before but consider his perfection and his all sufficiency as our high priest think about it can any other priest in history say that his advocacy and mediatorial efforts resulted in the salvation of sinners and their being accepted by God and made perfect in his sight no our high priest intercession that is

Jesus his intercession and advocacy and sacrifice are so sufficient and perfect that God accepted them on our behalf which resulted in our justification and redemption propitiation adoption sanctification and in the future glorification now

Chris what priest could ever mediate for us like this none but Christ how great is that hallelujah how great is that hallelujah

I was gonna say can you say amen or hallelujah well secondly

Jesus is a great high priest because his mediation and advocacy are perpetual and unchangeable

Chris if you and I and others in our audience are true children of God Jesus is not going to stop praying for us interceding for us mediating for us representing our weaknesses and needs in spite of ourselves in fact

I have a question from a listener that's right on the money as far as what you're talking about right now

Harrison Mechanicsburg asks does not the truths that you are talking about Christ being our perfect high priest and perfect mediator militate against the notion of our brothers and sisters who believe a truly reborn

Christian can lose his or her salvation yeah absolutely it does militate against that Jesus would not be a perfect high priest if you and I could lose our salvation how would he be great how would he be perfect how would he be all sufficient and the only one to meet all of our needs how would he indeed be the alpha and the omega the one who started our faith and the one we are told in scripture who promises to complete it no it militates against the idea that is of us being able to lose our salvation mitigates against the perfections that we find in the

Lord Jesus Christ including his high priesthood everything Jesus does for us or on our behalf and representing us he does perfectly and the trinity that is the members of the

Godhead God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit will all have a role in our conversion and our salvation are completely and totally committed based on their decree in eternity past to save for himself a people zealous of good works a people who will praise him forever they are committed to not only choosing in eternity past those who would be saved and then regenerating them in this world and in this life and then keeping them until they reach glory and to suggest that our

Lord Jesus Christ or God the Father or God the Holy Spirit would do anything less than perfectly perform their role in choosing saving keeping and glorifying would be to say that they are not perfect and one thing that I think that whenever we talk about the inability of a true

Christian to lose his or her salvation that that is an impossible thing it will never occur we have to be quick I think to remind people that there are millions of professing

Christians who think they are Christians and they're not and I think that we have to give some credit at least some credit to our brothers and sisters who believe you can lose your salvation because they realize that it is a fallacy to think and believe that there can be genuinely born -again

Christians who remain in unrepentant rebellion against God and we although we reject as a very serious grave error their understanding that you could lose your salvation at the same time we agree with them that there's no such thing as a perpetually unrepentant rebel against God even though we all sin and sometimes we fall into seasons of sin that may last even several years we will always come to our senses our hearts will be broken by the

Holy Spirit over the conscious rebellion that we are involved in and we will return with certainty if we are truly one of his am

I right yeah I think we can give them credit in at least observing that there's something wrong with all these people who at one time professed faith in Christ and many of them have fallen away from the faith completely

I think they're confused they're well meaning but they're confused be if they understood the teaching of the

New Testament which sit at the parable of the sower in particular which teaches us that three of the four seeds that were sown in the ground that have these three seeds that took root for a little while and grew up there was a plant that grew up and then they they withered away because of the stony ground or the birds that came in plucked away the seed or because of the heat of the sun those three seeds represent people who were never converted to begin with rather than representing people who were saved but then lost their salvation when they went back to the world we believe the

Bible teaches that these three seeds represent people who were never converted to begin with and then the fourth seed the seed that fell upon the good ground that took root and bore fruit that was a genuine conversion that seed that was planted in the good ground represents a true believer who will not fall away but will on the contrary continue to grow and bear fruit some thirty -fold sixty -fold and a hundred -fold and so yeah

I think it's just a lack of understanding the nature of salvation as it relates to the difference between a true conversion and a spurious conversion or false conversion and that those who fall away from the faith were never converted it was a false conversion all false conversions result in the individual falling away either by going back to the world or going to in the same sense they fall away in their hearts and even though they may maintain an outward relationship with the local church by their attendance yet in their hearts they have fallen away and it's no wonder why there are so many uh arminians who are determined to maintain an understanding that you can lose your salvation because Christendom today

I think is dominated by people who believe in easy believism and cheap grace who teach that God is only a

God of forgiveness they remove his wrath and they teach that people can live for decades in waging outright war against God and they're still considered believers who are going to heaven and even the heretical church of Rome today uh there is no fear being placed in the hearts of men by the

Pope and your average priest uh you know they're basically either universalists or on the borderline of it so we don't want to be too harsh to our five point arminian brothers and sisters but at the same time we gotta boldly declare what is true yes that's why sound theology is very important those who would say that love is all that matters and unity among christians is all that matters and we need to not worry about doctrine because we'll all make it to heaven someday is false that's not true at all as represented by the issues of life and death there are issues related to life and death related to one's view of soteriology or salvation and how god saved somebody and if you are subscribed to easy believism methodology and practices and teaching you will be very quick to believe that someone is saved when they're not saved and therefore your ministry to them and your exhortation to them to press on and make sure of their salvation will not be as urgent or as frequent as it should be because you'll believe that anyone that says they're saved well they're probably saved but jesus said in matthew 7 not everyone that says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that does the will of my father in heaven so if you believe that anyone who says that they're saved is likely saved uh...

you will not be necessarily looking for the works and the fruits that follow every genuine true christian that gets converted and so that's why an understanding of true salvation that that justification is will always manifest itself in sanctification that is uh...

james teaches that faith without works is dead and so if you don't understand how god saved somebody and the works and fruits that follow automatically follow every true christian then your your relationship and outreach with people will be drastically affected by this poor conception of salvation and we have to go to our final break joe and uh...

if anybody wants to join us with a question do so immediately at chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com gmail dot com chris arnzen at chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com chris arnzen at gmail dot com 4 p .m.

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This is Chris Arms, and this is our final segment of our interview today with Pastor Joe Jakiewicz. And Joe, before we move on to as much of the other two aspects of Christ as High Priest as we could possibly discuss within the next 10 minutes, do you have anything to wrap up about him being a great

High Priest before we move on to his compassion and graciousness? Well, we'll have to cover the last two in the next session concerning his compassion and graciousness, which lie at the backdrop and foundation of us really making it and persevering as a

Christian until our last breath. But Jesus, just to briefly review, is the bedrock and the foundation of our survival in any generation, whether it's first century

Mediterranean life as a Hebrew Christian who was saved shortly after our

Lord's ascension into heaven, or whether you're in 2020 and suffering directly or indirectly from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Every Christian is going to experience suffering in one form or another, testing of our faith.

Our hearts are going to be searched. Weaknesses are going to be shored up within us, spiritually speaking, through all of these processes where we are taught in the school of Christ to mature and to grow in our character, in our behavior, through very, very difficult testing periods in our life.

That testing can come from temptation internally in our minds and hearts, or from pressure from the outside in our culture, but the

Lord Jesus Christ, we learn, is perfect and all -sufficient in his mediation.

And compared to every other kind of priest from every other religion, Jesus is perfect to represent our needs before the

Father and to purchase for us a salvation that fades not away. And his mediation and advocacy are perpetual and unchangeable.

We read that there were many priests in Hebrews 723, in the

Old Testament, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But he, that is,

Jesus, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

So Jesus, then, has an unchangeable priesthood on our behalf. He never sleeps, never grows weary, never falls down on the job.

He represents you and me, Chris, and our dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and our needs, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

And that's one reason why he's called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, because he has an unchangeable, perfect priesthood.

He is at the right hand of God, always making intercession for us. Therefore, no one can bring a charge against God's elect.

And so Jesus answers all accusations and charges made against us by the enemy.

If we're accused a thousand times a day, Jesus, our faithful high priest, represents our status as justified believers and acquitted of all charges and silences all the voices that will condemn us.

We read in Hebrews 7, therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens.

The last point about Jesus being a perfect high priest that I'll touch on briefly is, he is great, a great high priest, because his intercessions and advocacy confirms the work of salvation, providing peace, assurance, and comfort.

Jesus prayed in John 14, where he told the believers, if you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the

Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever. This, Chris, is the proof at how great

Jesus is as our high priest. His prayers, intercessions, supplications, and mediation causes

God to send forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, Abba, Father.

He sends forth his Spirit, who regularly, and frequently, and occasionally confirms the great work of his high priestly prayers on our behalf, as well as his death on the cross, and his sanctifying efforts on our behalf.

This is proof, because it shows up in our behavior, our life, he gives us keeping grace, he gives us tokens of his presence when we walk with him.

There are many other evidences that actually show up in our lives to confirm that we're saved, and through the fruits of salvation, as well.

Now, I know we walk by faith, and we don't rely on emotions or feelings, no, no, but there's many proofs of his high priestly work on our behalf.

So let me encourage those of you who are worried, and stressed out, and panicking because of the coronavirus, to press on and hold fast to your confession, as Hebrews 4, 14 through 16 says.

And God willing, next Friday we'll talk about the compassion and grace of Christ as our high priest.

But before you close, Chris, let me encourage your listeners about this program, to invite friends.

You could help us by inviting friends to listen. Send them text or on Facebook, invite them to join this program and become part of it.

And pray about what your part would be in supporting this ministry financially. Think about the quality of the content and the guests that Chris has on this program, and how much you've benefited by it.

There are very few places you can go today to get quality information and teaching as is manifested on this program.

And it's important that there are places that maintain quality

Christian programming, and it's a priority. You talk about what the essentials are in the pandemic.

Well, quality Christian programming, to me, is an essential in this dry and thirsty land.

And then I would just remind our listeners that I do have a couple of other programs that I host.

This coming Sunday at 1 p .m. Pacific Time, we have our Sunday service and our message, which will be on the matter of indifference.

Last week we talked about indifference as it relates to non -Christians, and how it leads them to hell.

This Sunday we'll talk about indifference as an individual Christian and as a local church. The following Sunday, indifference as a pastor, and how these things hurt.

You can hear us on FirstLoveRadio .org, on Facebook .com, and YouTube .com.

This Sunday at 1 o 'clock Pacific Time, 4 o 'clock East Coast Time. Great.

And of course, the website is FirstLoveRadio .org, FirstLoveRadio .org.

And don't forget about ChristBibleChurch .org. ChristBibleChurch .org, which is the website of the church where Pastor Joe Jakiewicz serves as pastor in Pleasanton, California.

And I want to thank you so much, Joe, for taking a huge chunk out of your

Fridays every week until further notice while this pandemic continues to affect the globe.

And we look forward to hearing, God willing, some even more positive updates in regard to how

God is demonstrating His mercy and grace upon us, and His patience with us.

And I want to thank everybody who listened, not only today, but all this week, and especially those who sent in questions.

I want to thank all of you, as I said earlier, who have been demonstrating such generosity and benevolence and compassion and interest in the survival of this show through the donations that we have been receiving.

There has been, thankfully, much to the praise, honor, and glory of Jesus Christ, an upward spurt, if you will, of donations after being in a dry and thirsty land for a while.

And we thank all of you who have sacrificed some of your finances to help this program remain on the air.

It means more to me than you'll ever know, this side of glory. And I hope that the Lord rewards you richly for your benevolence.

I hope you all have a very safe and happy and healthy weekend, and Christ -honoring Lord's Day.

And I hope that you all always remember, for the rest of your lives, that Jesus Christ is a far greater