February 19, 2016 Show with Philip DeCourcy on “Testimony of a Royal Ulster Constable During Years of Terrorism in Northern Ireland” plus Joe Thorn on “Judging Another’s Faith: A Response to the Trump vs. Pope Francis Controversy”

Iron Sharpens Iron Opens With the Theme of Mutual Edification

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on 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, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with 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 hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. Now here's our host, Chris Arnson.

Philip DeCourcy’s Conversion and Ministry Background

Good afternoon Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 19th day of February 2016 and I am very excited about today's program as I have often said that at the beginning of my broadcast but I really mean it doubly this time.

I've been very strongly recommended by listeners of the Iron Sharpens Iron program to interview our first guest today. His name is Philip DeCoursey and Philip DeCoursey is the senior pastor of Kindred Community Church in Anaheim Hills, California and speaker on the daily radio program Know the Truth.

We have him on for the first hour. He's going to be talking about, among other things, his testimony of conversion to Christ while serving as a Royal Ulster constable during days of the terrorism that was occurring during the protests of the IRA and the residents of Northern Ireland both on the Protestant and Catholic side of the conflict.

He's going to be talking about his, not only his testimony of Christ and his conversion to Christianity, but he is going to be just discussing his life as a constable, what lessons that God has given him that he has learned through that experience and how it has equipped him as a Christian man and a pastor and what advice he can give to all of us today in a day of terrorism and also during a day where there is much strife between citizens of the inner city and the police and so on.

And we are looking forward to that. The second hour we are going to be interviewing author and pastor Joe Thorne, who has been a guest before on Iron, Trap and Ziron. And Joe Thorne is going to be discussing when it is right and wrong to judge someone else's faith and this is basically a response to the recent controversy between Donald Trump and Pope Francis that has the media buzzing and predominantly has the representatives of the media giving largely wrong answers to these issues, even from some surprising sources.

I've heard even conservative evangelical pastors giving terribly wrong answers to this controversy. But first of all, our first guest, as I mentioned, Philip DeCourcy, he was born in Belfast, Ireland to Christian parents who loved the Lord.

In 1978, at 16 years old, Philip trusted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Growing up in a neighborhood where civil tension was commonplace, many of Philip's friends became involved in acts of terrorism.

As a result, Philip decided to serve as a part-time reserve police officer in the Royal Ulster Constablery in Northern Ireland or North Belfast. While some of his comrades were injured and killed during that six-year period, Philip was unharmed.

To this day, he believes God used this faith-building season to prepare him for ministry. And it is my great honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever on Iron, Trap and Ziron, Philip DeCourcy.

Chris, it's a joy to join you and your listeners today and I just trust that as we continue to talk about what God's been doing in my life, that will be an encouragement to others and as they hear something of my story and conversion and the gospel and God's redemptive work that we might apply it to each of our lives.

So it's a joy to join you. I've admired you from a distance and I believe with some mutual friends, so thanks for the invite.

Yes, and it was largely because of a mutual friend, Cecil Andrews, or I believe he pronounces it Cecil Andrews, and some other brethren who know you personally. I made it a point to contact you and invite you on the show.

In fact, this all started really when I fell in love with a quote from your website in describing your basic faith. Your basic ideology or your mission statement, part of it was that you allow the Bible to run free and I loved that phrase because as a strong believer in the doctrines of sovereign grace, I think that we humans tend to be too caught up with anxiety and fear and are very often driven to compromise out of fear of what sinful men are going to think of us through a proclamation of the gospel where we should be letting the sovereign Lord just do his work and letting the Bible run free and go where it will and proclaim what it will and teach what it will and convict where it will.

I just love that way of phrasing it and because of posting that on my website and crediting you for it, I got the responses that I should.

Interview you.

Hey, Chris, that's a paraphrasing of words by Apostle Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians where he prays that the word of God would have free course or that it would be travel and be unimpeded. Certainly, we need to be praying that.

Look, we're back to the great masters of the pulpit and church history, Spurgeon, often talked about. We don't need to defend the Bible any more than we need to defend a lion. We just need to let the lion loose and it will defend itself.

We need, certainly as the contemporary church, to anchor ourselves to one of the great principles of the Reformation, you know, Sola Scriptura, the authority of God's word. There's power in the word, not in our words, and so as my mentor Dr. MacArthur taught us at the Master's Seminary, it's our job to get into the Bible pulpit and let the Bible speak.

And we do that through faithful exposition and so, you know, our radio ministry, Chris, is just an extension of the pulpit at Kindred Community Church and a philosophy of ministry. Our verse for our radio ministry is John 8, verse 32.

You know, Jesus said, the truth will set you free. And so, we want to make sure the word of God is free. As God uses it, it does its work. It's what brings people to faith. It's what's convicts of sin.

It's what sanctifies the believer. It's what brings comfort to the hurting, the grief, the sinning promises of God that are yes and amen. So, hey, I know that's what you're about. That's what we're about.

We're about not getting in the way of God's word, but just sharing it with confidence. I mean, you're dead right. The church has lost its nerve. It is, somehow it has complicated its mission in the world.

We're going to end the world and preach the gospel and have a confidence in the power of the gospel. We're not ashamed of it. And so, I find that in my ministry that as we let the word of God, you know, go free and pray that God will break down the barriers of the unregenerate heart and social antagonism, that the word of God does its work as it did in the Reformation.

You know well that Luther said that. As the Reformation unfolded, he said to Philip of Amsdorf, you know, while I and Philip of Amsdorf drank Wittenberg beer, the word of God did it all. And so, you know, that's what we're about.

Expository Preaching, Church Life, and the Radio Ministry

And I'd like to introduce my co-host, Buzz Taylor, the Reverend Buzz Taylor, who has been in the pastorate in a number of denominations as the Lord has drawn him into a deeper understanding of the scriptures.

He had to leave one place and go to another, and finally arrived where he is today, and is currently not pastoring, but is a member of a theologically faithful Presbyterian church. And it's my honor to have you back as my co-host today, Buzz Taylor.

Thank you very much. Good to be here.

And I know that you have currently got a Bible study going, and you have a website for that that is just in its infancy, but it's BackPorchBible .com.

Yes, because we have a group of people that meet together every Saturday morning at my back porch. And we just, you know, I wanted to use the term table talk, and I thought, somebody already used that.

In fact, two people that I know have used that, so I can't be the third one. And then I got to thinking, you know, another really good name would be Iron Sharpens Iron, but somebody used that too. So, but one of the guys suggested, he said, hey, look, you know, we meet on the back porch, and it's very informal.

It's kind of like table talk started originally. We just get a bunch of like-minded people together, and we discuss what we've been reading, what we've been listening to, and we talk about it. And it's been fun.

It is Iron Sharpening Iron, so it's in the spirit of your own program. But yes, we do have a site that has just been started. It's barely filled with anything yet, but it's BackPorchBible .com.

And Pastor DeCourcy, if you could, before we go into the heart of our discussion today, tell our listeners a little bit something more about the church where you pastor and the Know the Truth radio broadcast.

You've already given us the heart of what the broadcast is about, but I'd also like our listeners to know how they can listen to it and so on.

Sure, Chris. Thank you. Hey, and just to let your listeners know, I know you're on the other side of the coast, but hey, maybe they'll make a journey out to the West Coast, go to the Disneyland area. We're just north of Disneyland in that Anaheim area.

We're in the Anaheim Hills area of Orange County. And the church itself, I've been in there going on nine years. The church is fairly young. It's only about 15, 16 years old. But hey, God's good. We're an independent Protestant evangelical church, and we seek to just build our ministry around an expository pulpit.

That's the engine that drives us. We have blended and balanced worship. We sing the best of the old. We sing the best of the new. For us, it's not a question of what's old and what's new. It's what's theologically correct and what's singable.

And we kind of work on that. We're elder-led. We have a church close now at about 1 ,500 and growing. And we're just drawing people from all stratas of life, from businessmen, the blue-collar, Hispanic, you know, Caucasian.

It's just marvelous to see. Back to what I said. You know, we made it so hard for ourselves. Let's just take the text of Scripture. Let's look at the book of Acts. Let's especially read the epistles. See what a church ought to look like.

Godly leadership, church discipline, ordinances, the preaching of the word, the call to discipleship, and then go out into the community and live it. And for us, it's working. And we'd love any of your listeners, if they ever visit our area, we would love to host them.

I think they'll find our congregation very loving. We're truth-based and grace-driven, and that's a wonderful thing. And the radio ministry, frankly, Chris, is just a natural extension of that. You know, many of my heroes, John MacArthur and Alistair Begg and others like them, you know, I think when you're committed to preaching, that if the Lord opens a door for radio or writing, it's just a natural evolution of what I've spent several years ago.

A couple of men approached me and said they were looking for some fresh voices that were committed to expository preaching, and they said they would help put something together. And that's a story in itself, but several men in the broadcast industry just in God's providence, who I think of Roger Kemp, who consults for RC Sproul and Swindoll and Begg, you know, he made himself available to us and gave us a lot of advice.

And in God's goodness, doors opened up, and we're just thrilled. Look, you know, there's nothing, I didn't go looking at, God brought it to us, and I just, you know, I don't really think, to be honest about it, Chris, I don't think a lot about our radio ministry, because it's simply an extension of the pulpit.

I think a lot about my pulpit ministry. I deliver, content is king. I want to deliver something to a live congregation on a Sunday morning that's faithful to the scriptures, that's historic in nature, that calls the church to sanctification and holiness, calls the culture to repentance.

And hey, if God wants to use that in other ways, and I think a little bit of the Irish accent does help. I mean, somebody, your listeners may enjoy this, a friend of mine was bold enough to say to me one day, he said, Philip, he is for television, but you've got a voice for radio.

You know, that's how I ended up on the radio and not on television. You know, I'm not an oil painting, but maybe the voice just helps to attract the listener. But I'm thrilled. You know, I get up every day.

I think it was Robert Murray McShannon, maybe it was Andrew Bonner, my wife from Scotland, and I remember reading once an article by Warren Wiersbe where he quoted, I think it was Andrew Bonner, where he said that all he was was a glorious spectator to what God was doing.

And I think that's kind of where I'm at. I think all gospel ministers, if God does his work, we step back and go, hey, this is the Lord, it's not us. I just want to be.

Fearful. And you surprised me by calling your accent an Irish accident. I know,.

Accident, accident, accident, accident. You surprised me by calling it an Irish accent.

Because I know a number of Ulster men and they would be quick to correct me and say,.

It's not Irish, it's Ulster. Well, hey, no, believe me, I'm an Ulster man to the bone, but you know what, since we've only got an hour on the politics of that. Hey, I'll tell you this, if anybody wants to get into that, let me recommend a book totally off the subject, bear with me.

The story of the Scots-Irish Presbyterian Protestants, the Calvinistic Reformed Protestants that came early. The second wave of the Irish was more later on with the mass immigration of the Irish Catholics, the famine and stuff.

The first Irish were really Ulster men, the Ulster Scots. And James Webb, who just tried to run for president on the Democratic side, he wrote a brilliant book called Born Fighting. It's the story of the Scots-Irish coming to America.

And it is amazing, the story of Northern Ireland, the story of Ulster, the story of the early Irish Scots Presbyterians who had been hounded by the Anglican church and the state churches of Europe. They came and basically wrote, you know, the Scots-Irish story is America's story.

In fact, in the book, there's a quote by a parliamentarian in London who said that the American Revolution is nothing. You know, believe me, I'm an orange man and an Ulster man to the bone. But, you know, I think we've got much bigger fish to fry than that.

Well, I'll tell you, it's bringing back old memories for me because I attended Bob Jones University and this was at a time when one of the most famous Bible conference speakers we had was Ian Paisley.

He always made sure that his text contained an EF because we love to hear him say.

That. Yes. In fact, this is an interesting little footnote. You and I were talking off the air. We wonder how many dots can we connect. My wife, June, is from Scotland, but her pastor was a guy called David Castles, who often preached at Bob Jones.

And also, she came over and went to the Whitefield College of the Bible, which was Ian Paisley's school. So, you know, boy, I sat under his preaching on several occasions. And when he when he did his work in the text and preached, you know, reform theology set on fire.

There wasn't there wasn't many preachers could touch.

Him. Oh, I remember when he would finish a long, long sermon. It's like, what? Where's the rest of.

It? It's over already. That's right. Yeah, that's right. He was a captivating speaker. I was at a political rally in Northern Ireland many, many years ago, where he addressed literally, in the open air, 250 ,000 people.

You know, so anyway, too much politics. Let's get back to the main.

Thing. Yes. And as far as some similar brethren in Christ that we may know, I don't know if you know, John Greer and some of the other men from the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. I don't.

Know, John, personally, I know all of them in Greenville. And we'll get many more. But when I was in Northern Ireland, I was a Baptist. So I was, I went through the Baptist College, which was originally started by Spurgeon's son in Dublin.

And then after the partition of Ireland, it came up to Belfast, where you had the greater evangelical Protestant community. But when I was among the Baptist, several of my friends were Free Presbyterians.

And, you know, I have his, I think he did a theological dictionary, which is, you know, is still very helpful. So I don't know him personally, but I know all of it. I'm sure if we were sitting down over coffee, we would have many mutual friends.

Yeah, he's back in Ulster now. And he, okay, and a colleague of his, a friend of mine, Dr. Mark Allison, just retired from the ministry to become the new president of Geneva Reform Seminary in Greenville.

And Buzz and I attended his going away party here in Pennsylvania. Mark Allison, that is, he was pastoring Free Presbyterian Church of Malvern, Pennsylvania.

I'll actually be back in Ulster in about eight weeks. The Baptist churches there have a conference where all the pastors and leaders get together. So I'm delighted, buddy.

Conversion, Providence, and the Call to Faith in Northern Ireland

Well, tell us, first of all, now about your upbringing. And you already announced at the outset of the program that you were raised by Christian parents. Tell us something about your own personal journey to Christ, and then how you managed to remain faithful to Christ during a time when you obviously indicated in your bio that friends of yours that you grew up with began to be involved in terrorism and so on.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I love to, and it's a joy. I mean, the Bible encourages us when we get an opportunity to tell what Christ has done for us, and, you know, testimony has its place. And look, you know, maybe some of our listeners can identify this.

I grew up in a Christian home, and at the time, I didn't appreciate it. You know, and when you're not saved, and you don't have a love for Christ, and your heart's still unregenerate, and you're dead in your sin, you know, the last place you want to be every waking hour is in the company of a mother and father who love you enough to preach the gospel, and share the gospel.

And so, you know, looking back on those early years, I didn't come to Christ till I was 16. But I was surrounded by the gospel, and the Word of God was sown faithfully by my father, who's a Baptist deacon to this day, just outside Belfast.

Faithful pastors I sat on, who preached the whole counsel of God, and called us to repentance, and warned of heaven, or warned of hell, and wooed us to heaven. You know, that all got sowed into the lining of my soul.

But, you know, I still loved myself and my sin too much to yield to Christ. And looking back in those years, you know, from an unsaved and unregenerate point of view, it was torture. And I used to often, you know, love my parents.

They were great people. I even recognized that when I wasn't saved. But it was like, man, well, you know, it'd be nice to be in another home where you can stay out late. You can, you know, sow your wild oats.

You can do your own thing. There's no curfews. You know, Sunday's not about going to church, and being quiet, and being reflective. But you know, you realize on this side, what a privilege. You know, John Flavell, or Flavell, however we want to pronounce that.

When I got saved, that was one of the early books my father gave me on the doctrine of providence. And it struck me one day, to a place where I wept, that what a privilege to be born in a Christian home.

You know, why wasn't I born in a Muslim home, or a Hindu home? No gospel. And so looking back on my story, the one thing I want to at least start with is something I didn't appreciate, I've come to truly appreciate.

And even there may be a listener, or someone listening today is kind of growing up in that environment. And maybe it's Paul, as we read about Paul, fighting against the pricks. God's goading them through the gospel and Christian witness, and they're fighting it.

They need to see that that's a wonderful privilege. And it's a tremendous responsibility. Because Jesus talks about the different degrees of punishment. How much more light had I been exposed to if I had died and gone to hell, how greater my condemnation would have been.

But God in his goodness didn't give up on me, Chris. I remember being in riot situations in Northern Ireland on the Protestant side, fighting with Catholics. And for a time in my life, unknown to my parents, I was a little bit involved in soccer hooliganism.

So I went to soccer games on a Saturday. And then the whole thing was also tied into the troubles and the conflict. But in the middle of often in the middle of deep sin and violence, the gospel was there, the Word of God spoke.

I remember being in a riot in Belfast, you know, chucking bricks and getting involved in fighting the police who I would later join. And yet in the middle of all of that, you know, feeling the tug, convicting work of the Holy Spirit, I remember imagining in the middle of a riot, can you imagine this?

You know, if I get caught here and get arrested, they'll, they'll, they'll, they'll fraud march me up to my front door. And I loved my father enough to go out break his heart, the deacon, I would. And so even though I was enjoying my sin, and trying to enjoy my sin, I couldn't fully enjoy my sin, because God in his goodness kept wooing and pursuing.

You know, it's, you think about our salvation, it's a bit like the old C .S. Lewis quote, you know, you know, a mouse no more chases a cat than a man chases after God. And I didn't, but God didn't give up on me.

And he wrestled me to the ground. On the 20th of January 1970. And I was at another church event, it was more of a youth event. And that night, the speaker spoke on Matthew 2444. In such an hour as you think not the Son of Man comes, be ready.

And here's my thinking, Chris and Buzz. I knew I needed to get saved. Okay, I knew I needed to get saved. There was a heaven to gain, there was a hell to shun. I knew that Jesus was real. I knew the gospel was real.

But illogically, I was in the bondage to my sin. Even if I wanted to break free, I couldn't have. But I knew at some stage, I want to get saved. Enjoy the world a little bit. And then I'll get around to this.

And that night, Matthew 2444 shattered that. Because that verse was saying in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man's going to come. And the thought that God used to bring me to faith in Jesus Christ and repentance and submission to his lordship, was this thought, hey, Philip, you don't get to come to me on your terms.

In fact, my son could be back ever before you come to him. And that's what really gripped me. And God, I know it was God, brought me to that place of decision that night where I go, I got to get saved.

I got to get ready. Because Jesus could come for me when I'm not, when I haven't already come for him, come to him. And so that brought me to faith. And then the light went on, regeneration, faith in Christ, became a baptized believer there at Rothko Baptist Church and began to live out my Christian faith in the workplace.

I was an engineer, as well as a police officer. But that's the day we don't want to forget, of course, salvation is in three tenses. And it's a massive work and it fundamentally ends in glorification, which is a done deal according to Romans 8.

But me, each and every day can't get past the day that we came to Christ. And I look back and I thank God for pastors that preached heaven and hell and faith alone and Christ alone. I'm so thankful for parents that never, today it's almost like even evangelical Christians, my father never feared that.

He knew it was his responsibility, even in an unregenerate state, to bring his son before the gospel and the claims of Christ. And if I didn't like it, well, too bad. His conscience needed to be clear.

His love for me made me, you know, I just even wanted to the mothers and the fathers in the trenches do the work. I didn't come to Christ until I was 16. 16 years, my family wondered, you know, would I ever get saved?

And I remember the night when I got saved, it was carefully in case I start, you know, weeping, which is not often the Irishmen don't weep that much, but our mothers tend to make us weep. You know, if you listen to Donny boy, it's all about weeping over your mother's grief, you know, so our mothers do get us.

And I got home and got, told my mom and dad that we're lying in bed. Just simply said, you know, I was kind of, you know, what is this all going to mean? I was thinking about all my buddies and the soccer guy.

Boy, that's going to change how we're going to tell them and all of that. But I just went to the door of their bedroom and said, mama got saved tonight. And my dad said, that's great son, put the light on, we talked a little bit.

And yet we weren't, we weren't that much of an emotional family. And so I slept in the bedroom. And within maybe five, 10 minutes, my mom's in and just kisses me on the bra. I'm a 16, 17 year old young man kisses me on the brow weeping, you got saved.

And you know, it's just a word to parents, you know, that there's power in the gospel. So the word of God, live it before your children. But above all, my mom often says this, because young mothers will come to her and say, hey, you know, Mrs. DeCourcy, you know, what did you do?

Now he's a preacher of the gospel. What did you do some kind of formula? And my mom just said, you know what? She's a very ordinary woman. But she said beyond all that, she says prayer. My mom would say, and because you know, I don't know, Chris, where you guys are in this, but I think you'd be with me in this.

We've got to remember, as we celebrate the doctrines of grace, there's the means of grace. The means of grace is prayer and preaching and holiness. My mom would tell those young mothers, look, there comes a point when your son or your daughter is outside the house.

Think about me, in the middle of riots, and in all kinds of things. But my mother prayed. She prayed that God would save me. She prayed that, and his kind goodness, hey, you know, maybe that's way too long of an answer, but excitement.

So to all the parents, hey, do the hard work, live it. Put your kid under sign preaching in the Bible church. Don't worry about whether they like it or not. They're not going to like it until Jesus changed the heart.

That's not the issue. The issue is you make it sweet to them and trust God to do his work someday. Does that make any sense to you guys?

Oh, amen. I think you'd have a lot to worry about if it didn't make sense.

Just to put it in perspective, what year was it when you came to Christ?

It was 1970, and I was 16 years of age. This was the interesting thing. This has come back to you talk. You know, this is the doctrine of God's sovereignty. God saved me. To me, it was an interesting season in my life because, to me, it was the time where, you know, I was thinking, hey, I'd be out of school.

Soon enough, I'll be earning my own money. I'll get my own apartment, and I'll spend where I could get out into the world. So at the age of 16, get saved, get baptized, and then get involved in open air preaching and discipleship.

And then I have two jobs at that point. I leave school at the age of 16, didn't go into higher education, but I got a good job in an aircraft engineering company in Belfast called Shorts, and I did a four-year apprenticeship there and did that for almost eight or nine years during that time.

And then I also joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1982. So I get saved at the age of 16, 78. Then I become a police officer part-time when I'm 20, in 1982, in the middle of the troubles. I worked out of a very busy police station in North Belfast called Antrim Road Police Station.

We were bombed. One of our sergeants was shot dead by the IRA coming into the station. So as you kind of introduced me, Chris, you know, it's in the trenches of life. You know, we apply our faith. You know, faith without works is dead, says James.

And so I began to live my faith in the workaday world as an engineer trying to witness to my guys who would come in and all they talked about was their sexual exploits or getting drunk at the weekend.

And you're going, come on, guys, that's broken cisterns. The true life is found in Jesus Christ. And, you know, same in the police. And look, I've had two seminary educations, street education I got in those factories in the police.

I think it's prepared me, I think, to be an engaging expositor and also, I think, to connect with my congregation. It gives you a little bit of street credibility with guys when you can tell them, hey, you know, this is where I lived before I became, you know, a theological egghead or whatever.

And they can, it builds on the policing. And maybe we can drill down into that where I cannot listen and horror and violence. And as we look at our own country, the issues, we see the specter of Islamic, you know, terrorism.

I don't wonder if what Northern Ireland went through isn't something that will help America deal with it with what it's going to, I think, deal increasingly within the days to come.

In fact, I think this is a great time to take a break. We're going to be right back with Philip de Corsi and a discussion on how his experiences in Northern Ireland have prepared him to be a very needed voice in America today during a new age of terrorism for a different reason.

But don't go away. By the way, if you have a question of your own for Philip de Corsi, shoot us an email at chrisarnsen at gmail .com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

You may feel free to remain anonymous if it's about a personal and private matter that you're asking about. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Philip de Corsi.

Security, Providence, and Vengeance in a Time of Terror

I'm James White of Alpha Omega Ministries. The New American Standard Bible is perfect for daily reading or in-depth study. Used by pastors, scholars, and everyday readers, the NASB is widely embraced and trusted as a literal and readable Bible translation.

The NASB offers clarity and readability while maintaining high accuracy to the original languages which the NASB is known for. The NASB is available in many editions like a topical reference Bible. Researched and prepared by biblical scholars devoted to accuracy, the new topical reference Bible includes contemporary topics relevant to today's issues.

From compact to giant print Bibles, find an NASB that fits your needs very affordably at nasbible .com. Trust, discover, and enjoy the NASB for yourself today. Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com.

Tired of box store Christianity? Of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert? Do you long for a more traditional and reverent style of worship? And how about the preaching?

Perhaps you've begun to think that in-depth biblical exposition has vanished from Long Island. 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.

And this loving congregation looks forward to meeting you. Call them at 631 -929 -3512 for service times. 631 -929 -3512. Or check out their website at wrbc .us. That's wrbc .us.

Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church.

We are a Reformed Baptist Church and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts. We strive to reflect 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.

That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the Apostle's priority, it must not be ours either. 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.

If you live near Norfolk, Massachusetts or plan to visit our area, please come and join us for worship and fellowship. 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 TV program entitled, Resting in Grace.

You can find us at ProvidenceBaptistChurchMA .org, that's ProvidenceBaptistChurchMA .org, or even on sermonaudio .com. Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.