March 20, 2023 Show with Dr. Joe Morecraft on “The Deadliest Sin a Christian Can Commit”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson,

19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports

legend Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron.

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

issues facing the church and the world today.

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

another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to

have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the

listener, with your own questions.

And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the

planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 20th

day of, what is the month?

March.

I've been running around so ragged preparing for my pastor's luncheon and the three -day Bible

conference coming up in April that I don't know where my head is at right now.

But it's the 20th day of March, 2023, and

I'm delighted to have back on the program Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III,

who is an author and the pastor at Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia.

We're going to be addressing a very important topic.

Obviously, the title itself will reveal how extremely

vital this topic is.

The topic of today is, The Deadliest Sin a Christian Can Commit.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr. Joe Moorcraft.

It's good to be with you, Chris.

Seems like it's been a long time.

Yes, those technical difficulties, I think, were the main reason that separated us for a while, but I'm glad

that we have you back on the program.

And I know my audiences, because you definitely have a growing fan club in the Iron

Sharpens Iron Radio listening audience.

People contact me quite regularly to tell me how much they love hearing you

on the program.

Tell us about Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia.

We are a small congregation of a small denomination called

Reformed Presbyterian Church Hanover Presbytery.

We have 20 or so congregations.

We are thoroughly evangelical, thoroughly reformed, thoroughly committed to the Westminster

Confession of Faith, and thoroughly dedicated to carrying out the Great Commission.

We have just sent three times a team to south of the border

to witness to people in tent cities, these migrants.

There are thousands of them in the tent cities, and 200 or more come a day.

And so we sent a team of five people.

Some of them Reformed Baptists, some of them Reformed Presbyterian, and interpreters to go down

there to places like Juarez and preach wherever they can get a crowd.

And God has really blessed that, and we hope maybe we can do it again sometime.

We also, our congregation

comes from all kinds of backgrounds, and they are dedicated to the Reformed faith.

And if they know why they're there, we have a lot of young adults.

They come to my house once a month, about 30 of them, and we study the subject,

Controversial Fundamentals of the Christian Faith.

And of course, the first five fundamentals are the five points of Calvinism.

We are connected with an organization led by an elder in our church

named Tim Renshaw called ComprehensiveChristianity .com.

You can see it on the internet, and he spends all of his time

putting my papers and manuscripts in the book form as audio books or

paperback books and gets them out.

He just yesterday came out with a new commentary on the book of Exodus.

So now we have a commentary on Genesis, commentary on Exodus, and we're just going to keep going as long

as God gives us breath.

And I'm assuming the website for that is the same as your wonderful

commentary, eight -volume commentary, Authentic Christianity, on

the larger catechism of the larger Westminster Catechism, which can be found

at ComprehensiveChristianity .com.

Is that the same website for the other titles that you were just mentioning?

God has used that, too, and has had a lot of people purchase it.

We've given away a few copies.

But it is practical, readable, thorough.

It goes through every question and answer of the Westminster Larger Catechism.

If you know anything about it, that's several hundred.

And we've even had some people read it all the way through.

We have some people that read it to their children every night.

So it's not just for pastors.

It is for pastors.

It's not academic at all.

It is for a Christian who wants to grow deeply in the knowledge of

the Scriptures.

And Dr. Joey Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary,

the President Emeritus, he does a commercial on this broadcast

for that eight -volume commentary.

And with the likes of someone of his caliber, that is saying a lot,

that he would publicly, in his own voice, record a commercial for that eight -volume commentary.

So I'm assuming, as I just asked, that all of your publications,

all of the publications that you are affiliated with, can be found at ComprehensiveChristianity .com, or is there a different

website?

Ask me that again, please.

Is ComprehensiveChristianity .com the website for all of the publications affiliated with you?

For all the public, or AuthenticChristianity .com.

Either one of those, and you can get everything I have.

All right, great.

And now we are entering into our discussion quite a

provocative title that you came up with, The Deadliest Sin a Christian

Can Commit.

Well, tell us about this, because obviously, with that kind of urgency

and warning attached to a title, that's something that we all need to know.

What is this sin?

Well, obviously, it has a little hyperbole in it, in the title,

but not much.

And I wanted to impress people, as you say, with the seriousness of the issue.

What got me thinking about this issue is, for several months, I've been preaching

on the first 12 chapters of the book of Genesis.

And those are wonderful chapters.

If you don't understand the first 12 chapters of Genesis, you're not going to understand the gospel or the

meaning of creation, the meaning of your own life.

And so some of it people think is boring when you get these genealogies, but like so

-and -so begets so -and -so and lived to be such -and -such and died, et cetera.

But those are some of the most important parts, because right at the very beginning of the human

race, there are two lines of humanity,

both of them coming from Adam and Eve.

One of them we can call the sons of the serpent, or the seed of the serpent.

And those are human beings that have never been regenerated by the word of God and are in

rebellion against him.

And then the others are the seed of the woman.

And those are human beings that have been regenerated by the word of God.

So you have two genealogies in the very beginning of the human race.

One is the ungodly line.

They're very cultured.

They have accomplished a great deal.

They're the line of Cain and they are the ungodly line.

The godly line is the line of Seth.

And those are people who love God and people who

seek to serve him.

And as long as those two lines, those two genealogies were separate,

things were going well on the earth.

But then something happened that caused the flood.

And that is the sons of God.

That is the godly line.

The men from the godly line fell in love and

started being attracted to the daughters of men.

That is the women from the ungodly line.

And rather than staying separate, they intermarried.

The sons of God married the daughters of men.

And that accelerated violence and evil

in the world to such a point that God had to wipe the human race off the face of the earth in

Noah's flood.

So what led to Noah's flood was the

godly line letting their children marry the ungodly line.

Or we could put it this way.

What led to Noah's flood and the wiping out of the human race was Christians letting their

children marry non -Christians.

Believers letting their children marry unbelievers.

It only takes a generation to corrupt a whole race

and a whole line when there's that kind of intermarriage.

So the deadliest sin, in my opinion, with a little

hyperbole, the deadliest sin is Christians intermarrying with non -Christians.

And you letting your children marry those that are not Christians.

It brought on Noah's flood.

Don't ever forget that.

It led to the drowning of millions of men, women, and children.

It led to the acceleration of evil in the world.

And throughout the scriptures, synthesis, the

combining of Christianity with non -Christian thought, the combining of

Christian people with non -Christian people has always been, I think, the major problem of

the church from the Old Testament and the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, you had the worship of Jehovah.

But during the days of the kings and the prophets, there was always this temptation of Baalism.

That is to blend the worship of Jehovah with the worship of Baal.

And then in the New Testament, and particularly in the book of Colossians, there was always the

attempt to blend Christianity with Greek thought.

And the book of Colossians was written to try to stop that, nip that in the bud.

Because when you commit synthesis, philosophical synthesis, relational

synthesis, between Christian thought, non -Christian thought, between Christians and non -Christians,

it's going to have an immediate, as well as long -term, deadly

effect upon the church.

I think the godliest generation of Israelites

was the generation that entered the promised land for

the first time under Joshua's leadership.

They were godly.

They knew what they had to do.

They had to defeat the Canaanites.

They couldn't identify with them.

They couldn't intermarry with them.

But within a generation or two, they not only were intermarrying, they were

worshiping Canaanite gods.

So that within two generations, the leaven of idolatry

had corrupted Israel.

And that's how deadly this is throughout history.

It's not simplistic to say, don't let your children

marry Christians.

Don't let your children get emotionally entangled with non -Christians.

Don't be afraid when you see your daughter or your son attracted to a

non -Christian.

Do not be afraid, parents, to say to your children, no, this cannot happen,

this person you may not date.

So I can't be strong enough in emphasizing the deadliness

of what I call synthesis.

Amen.

And how far do you counsel a Christian go

with that?

I'll give you an example.

I know a man, I'm not going to mention his name, a strong believer,

has been a believer for many years.

His daughter married a man who is in a cult, a

cult that denies the Trinity,

denies monotheism, denies salvation by grace alone, through faith

alone and Christ alone.

And he and his wife would not attend the wedding.

They refused to.

And I think it's been quite a while since there has been communication other than

perhaps some kind of long -distance outreach of evangelism

and so on, because this young lady converted to the cult as well.

So do you think that that gentleman went too far in not attending the wedding and

giving it his blessing?

No, I do not.

I'm not necessarily saying that that is the rule at all times, but we've got to

stand by our decision.

I'll give you an example.

When my children and I can remember a time when my children were very little

and one of them wanted a boyfriend, and I guess

eight or nine years old, and I said, is he a Christian?

Maybe even earlier, seven or eight.

I said, is he a Christian?

She said, I don't know.

I said, you've got to find out.

You can't have boyfriends that are not Christians, or God will be very

angry with us.

So we've got to impress this upon our children from their earliest days.

And when I say synthesis between Christians and non -Christians, I also

include synthesis between the Reformed faith and synthetic

versions of Christianity.

I was just going to say you would include in that Roman Catholicism, I'm assuming.

I not only impressed my children not to marry non -Christians,

but I impressed upon them to make sure that whoever they were falling in love with was a Reformed

person.

Because if you're not united at the basic, most

central area of life in theology, you're not going to be united in

anything else.

And I will tell this one story about one of my daughters.

She wanted to get married, she thought, to this young man

in our church who was a pre -ministerial student.

And I was very impressed with him.

I thought he had a great character.

I thought he understood the Reformed faith.

So he came to me and asked me if he could marry my daughter.

And I said, yes.

Well, he was slow on the uptake.

He was slow about asking her to marry him.

So I saw that my daughter had a very close relationship with this other young man.

They worked together.

They were very close friends.

Neither one of them admitted they were in love with the other, but I could see what's happened.

So I take the son out, the boy, out to eat.

And I say to him, so -and -so, just in case you're interested in my daughter, I'm not

saying you are, but just in case you're interested in my daughter, let me tell you what I'm looking for

in a man.

Number one, he's got to be able to support her on his salary.

I don't care how much you make or don't make, but you've got to be able to support her on your salary.

And second, you've got to be Reformed.

Well, he'd never heard the word Reformed before.

So I took the time to explain the basic tenets of the Reformed faith,

the sovereignty of God, sovereignty of God's grace, the authority of God's law, things like that.

And so several weeks go by, and he comes back to me, and he

says, Mr. Morecraft, I'd like to marry your daughter.

I said, well, let me ask you two questions.

Can you support her on your salary?

He said, no.

Are you Reformed?

He said, no.

So I said, no.

So he started crying, and that made me feel like a heel.

So he goes to my daughter and tells her what happened, and she said to

him, you better believe my daddy.

She said, I'm in my early 20s, but I'm under his authority.

So now he's taking me seriously.

He goes back, and he studies the Bible, reads books on the Reformed

faith, comes to me for some Bible studies, and a few months later, he comes back to him,

and he says, well, Mr. Morecraft, I'm back.

I said, I figured you would be.

Let me ask you a couple questions.

Can you support her on your salary?

He said, yes, or I can, now that I have two jobs.

I said, number two, are you Reformed?

He said, well, I can truthfully say that I am in many areas of my thought.

There are some places I'm still struggling with, but I will say I am Reformed in

those basic tenets that you talked about.

I said, well, then you can have her, and I gave him permission to marry her,

and then he said something to me that made me realize he was thinking like a

Calvinist now, but if he realized what he said, it would have embarrassed him.

He said, Mr. Morecraft, when you turned me down the first time, I was mad at you,

but I've had time to think, and I realized I wasn't ready to get married,

and so, as Joseph said to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

Amen.

I thought when you said, or when you asked him, can you afford to support my

daughter, he was going to say, not after all those Reformed books I bought.

Yeah, that's right.

That's exactly right.

By the way, I know that you share with me a love for Votie Baucom,

and I wanted to plug a book by him.

I don't know if you're familiar with it, but Votie Baucom wrote a book back in 2009.

Wow, that was a long time ago.

What He Must Be If He Wants to Marry My Daughter, and I want to let our listeners know

if they contact Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, CVBBS .com,

you can ask them for What He Must Be If He Wants to Marry My Daughter by Votie

Baucom.

If they don't have it, they will order it.

It is a crossway publication, and obviously since CVBBS .com

sponsors the show, I would hope that you would order it through them.

I bet that's good, knowing it's from Votie.

Yes, I'm sure it is, and I'm sure that anybody approaching Votie with

intentions to marry any of his daughters, I don't know, of course, I think you've seen Votie Baucom,

looks like a brick wall with a head on it.

Yeah.

I'm sure that most, if not all, young men approaching him would take

him very seriously and added to that intimidating

figure that he has.

He is a martial arts expert, so

that's all added to the mix there.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to mess with him.

I'm going to give our listeners our email address.

If you would like to ask Dr. Joe Moorcraft a question, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail

.com, chrisarnson at gmail .com.

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

USA.

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

And I could readily understand this topic lending itself to people having personal and

private questions.

If you have a child who is being courted by an unbeliever and you're in the

midst of a family feud over this, something like that, perhaps you are the one courting or

being courted, and you need counsel, and so on.

Perhaps the nuances of this whole subject.

Need to be clarified.

Well, send us an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, and you may remain anonymous for things like that.

But please, if you're just asking a general question, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country

of residence.

Don't go away.

We're going to be right back after these messages.

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

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That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd on a theme that I have been preaching, teaching,

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It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners.

From all over the world.

Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland, who wants you to know about a guest on the show

he really loves hearing interviewed, Dr. Joe Moorcraft.

I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener here in Italy, in County Kildare, Ireland.

Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is Dr. Joe

Moorcraft.

If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming,

Georgia, are largely to thank, since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.

Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards.

And Dr. Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight -volume commentary on the larger catechism.

Heritage is a member of the Hanover Presbytery, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great Protestant

Reformation of the 16th century.

Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the Reformers, scripture alone,

grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and God's glory alone.

Their primary goal is the worship of the Triune God that continues in eternity.

For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com.

That's heritagepresbyterianchurch .com.

Or call 678 -954 -7831.

That's 678 -954 -7831.

If you visit, tell them Joe Reilly,.

An Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener.

From Attoy in County Kildare, Ireland, sent you.

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I'm Dr. Joe Moorcraft, pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, and the

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We're now back with Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III, author and pastor of Heritage

Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia.

Our theme today is The Deadliest Sin a Christian Can Commit.

And I think we should probably make it clear to our listeners, Dr. Moorcraft, I

would hope they would be either sensible enough to already know this, or if they listened to this

program for, if they have listened to this program for a long enough period of time,

they would have also known this coming from me and my guests, but you are not

at all, in any way, shape, or form, prohibiting what is

called interracial marriage.

Of course, that's a horrible term because we believe there's only one race,

but a mixed marriage where the different spouses

have different skin colors.

One might be very black and one might be as pale as pale could be.

And you're not saying that that is in any way, shape, or form wrong.

You are talking about religious mixed marriages and where

people put their trust for eternal life.

That's what you're discussing here today, correct?

I'm glad you brought that up.

That's correct.

The Bible does not forbid interracial marriages.

It takes wisdom.

I've done a lot of counseling with interracial marriages and it does take wisdom on the part of the couple

to be able to handle all the challenges they're going to have that they wouldn't have otherwise.

But the key to this thing of not letting your children marry non -Christians,

the key to it is parents not just using the imperative and

saying you cannot marry non -Christians, but from their earliest days to teach

them the truth so that they learn to love the truth, the reformed faith,

the sovereignty of God, the grace of God revealed in salvation, the necessity of

holiness of life, so that your children will love those truths.

They'll understand them from their earliest days.

Get a shorter catechism, Westminster Shorter Catechism, which was originally written for children

and it's a series of questions and answers for children to teach them the basic tenets of

Christianity and so marinate their mind in the

truth.

That is going to be the secret, not just giving commands, but telling them what the truth

is and why is it important to believe the truth and why is it important not to marry somebody who does not

believe the truth and how valuable is truth over against error.

So the secret to this thing is the mother and the father being diligent teachers of their

children from their very earliest days.

When my little last baby was born,.

Mercy,.

She was just a few weeks old and sometimes at night

she would wake up and every now and then I would go and rock her and give Becky a little

break.

So I would rock her and as I was rocking her I'd preach to her over and over

and I would say, God is your father, Jesus is your redeemer, the Holy

Spirit is your helper.

God is your father, Jesus is your redeemer, the Holy Spirit is your helper

over and over and over so that these things would be things they

love so that if you would ask my children when did they become Christians they would say we

don't remember a time when we weren't.

We don't remember a time when we didn't love God as our father.

We don't know a time when we didn't hate sin and want to repent of our sins

from the earliest days.

So that is the key is for the father to make sure you go to a good

church and as much as possible whatever

boy he or she or girl he or she is interested in will come to your church.

You don't want your children going to church where they have synthetic Christianity.

I mean this is a constant vigilance on the part of the father and the mother.

They can never let their guard down and they must make sure their children understand

they can never let their guards down either.

And as I said a little earlier this thing of synthesis of blending Christianity

with false philosophies and false religions has plagued the church for thousands of

years.

I think it's been one of our biggest problems.

I already told you about Baalism in the Old Testament and Greek philosophy

in the New Testament.

Well even in the early church one of the mistakes the early church made after the apostolic

church is they wanted to evangelize.

Their motives were great.

They wanted to evangelize the world and so they wanted to make

sure they were presenting the gospel as clearly as possible.

So they would blend Christianity with Greek Hellenistic thought

thinking that that would make the gospel clearer when as a matter of fact it didn't.

And so in those early days of the church when you see this synthesis between Christianity

and Greek philosophy you see something that has

plagued us ever since in medieval history.

Augustine in the fifth century who wanted to go with the word of God and he in his

early days tried to blend it with various forms of philosophy but he realized that didn't work.

And so after trying his best to blend them he finally had to realize I've

got to make sure that the word of God is purely presented.

Middle ages they blended the Bible with Greek philosophy and

that has been with us and plagued Protestantism

in fact Calvinists have had to struggle with blending

Christianity with non -Christian thought until 1941.

And in or around 1941 a book was written called

Christianity and Barthianism and it was by

Cornelius Van Till and this is the first man in the

history of the church that taught the church how to

escape synthesis.

I'm assuming you're talking about Van Till's critical review

of Karl Barth.

Yes sir, he was the first man to be critical of him.

The evangelical world since 1920 or the late teens

had been enamored with him because he was using language that sounded like our language

when they didn't realize that he was as dangerous as a cock cannon.

He used biblical language but he reinterpreted biblical language by the philosophy of

existentialism.

And so he even though Christians thought that if you follow Barth we can get rid of the old

liberalism of the 19th century this man talks our language.

He doesn't talk our language at all.

It's another form of synthesis and that has weakened the church even farther and

so in the 20th century you have the beginning of the church escaping Barthianism,

19th century liberalism and various other kinds of ism and get back to the

basic biblical Old Testament and New Testament understanding

of Christianity.

We have an anonymous listener who says to be perfectly

honest I think your view of insisting that a spouse for your

daughter be reformed might be a little too strong and here's where I'm coming from.

Would you accept the proposal of a young man to one of your daughters

if he said to you I am evangelical I believe the Bible I am conservative I

agree with reformed theology in many aspects but I'm not fully convinced of it and yet

I will promise to you that I will attend your church

or a congregation teaching your reformed views where I will bring

your daughter and raise our children.

Would that be acceptable to you?

Well I have two daughters I have made neither one of their sons.

I have not required neither of their husbands.

I have not required them to come to my church because they both live a long way from me.

But I have demanded that they be reformed

in large measure.

And so because of my daughter's love for the reformed faith and the

pressure they put on their new husbands and because of the husband's change of mind concerning

the reformed faith they all have gone to reformed churches.

I mean my oldest granddaughter is 21 years old.

They've all gone to reformed churches and I haven't demanded it of them.

It's been the desire of my daughters and of their husbands to put their children

in a church where they would be safe.

And when I say that there are some evangelical

and alleged reformed churches that are not safe the pastors

are celebrities.

They are well known.

They say some things that are good and they

intermix things that are good with things that are not good both in their books

and in their preaching.

And those kinds of preachers are not safe.

A liberal who never preaches the word of God whose sermons are full of non

-truth are in some way safer than celebrity

preachers who have a little bit of truth and a little bit of error.

And these days people don't have much discernment.

They can't discern.

They can't say what which is good and which is bad which is false and which is true.

I could mention a whole bunch of them.

So could you.

And for instance I'll give you an example one of my daughters and her family go to a church.

The preacher is a Charles Spurgeon Baptist.

He's got one of the best names I ever heard for a preacher.

His name is Brad Evangelista.

And he preaches the gospel of sovereign grace.

So I didn't make them have to go to church anywhere they knew to go

because their hearts had embraced the reformed faith.

I don't think I'm being too harsh.

I don't think I'm being too narrow.

My daughters for instance have thanked me

for protecting them from young men who did not believe the reformed

faith.

And once the reformed faith captures your heart you're safe.

And so it's important to make sure that your children with you go to safe churches

not where they're going to get half the truth and half of non -truth but where they're going to get the truth of God

pure and unmixed.

And there are many churches like that around.

Most of them are very small but they're all over the place.

And so I don't want to be too harsh.

But I realize there is a difference between truth and error between good and evil.

And I want to make sure that my grandchildren understand that difference too.

And if their mother and daddy do not understand the difference between truth and falsehood and

good and evil then the grandchildren will even be worse off in the

future.

So it is a way by which I not only can instruct my children and my

grandchildren and hopefully even my great -grandchildren.

Well we have to go to our midway break.

You can pick up where you left off when we come back brother.

And please be patient with us folks.

The midway break is always a bit longer than the other breaks because Grace Life Radio 90 .1 FM in

Lake City, Florida requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show because the FCC requires of them

to localize geographically all of their programming including I Am Trump and Zion with

local public service announcements and other local kinds of things that they air during the midway break

while we simultaneously air our globally heard commercials.

Please use this time wisely write down questions for Dr. Joe Moorcraft and send them to

chrisarnson at gmail .com but also write down as much of the contact information provided

by our advertisers as you possibly can so that you can more frequently and successfully contact

our advertisers.

We hope that you will very often purchase their products use their services support

their parachurch organizations and visit their churches but when you cannot do any of those things there's one thing

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You can contact our advertisers using the contact information they give in their ads and simply thank

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If indeed you love the show and are grateful to God and to our advertisers that they are

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So if you really do believe that and you are grateful please thank our advertisers and

also send in your questions to Dr. Joe Moorcraft to chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com give us your first name at least your city and state of residence

and your country of residence.

If you live outside of the USA don't go away.

We are going to be right back right after these messages from our sponsors.

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

I'm very excited to announce that my long time friend Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I

are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the G3 National Conference that's Thursday, September

21st through Saturday the 23rd on a theme that I have been preaching teaching, writing about and defending in live

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I'm Dr. Joseph Piper.

President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian

Theological Seminary every Christian who's serious about the Deformed Faith and the Westminster Standards

should have and use the 8 -volume commentary on the Theology and Ethics of the Westminster Larger

Catechism titled Authentic Christianity by Dr. Joseph Moorcraft.

It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism.

It is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes Biblical exegesis as well as historical and

systematic theology.

Dr. Moorcraft is Pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia and I urge

everyone looking for a Biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.

For details on the 8 -volume commentary go to westminstercommentary .com

westminstercommentary .com.

For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia visit

heritagepresbyterianchurch .com heritagepresbyterianchurch .com.

Please tell Dr. Moorcraft and the Saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia that Dr. Joseph

Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sent you.

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Hello, my name is Anthony Uvino and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church.

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And also the host of the reformrookie .com website.

I want you to know that if you enjoy listening to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio show like I do you can now find it on the

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Again I'm Pastor Anthony Invidio and thanks for listening.

The Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship God in spirit and truth.

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One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Arnton is doing is

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Before I return to my guest Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia I

just have a couple more announcements to make.

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Also.

If you are a man in ministry leadership you are invited to attend the next

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Free.

Pastor's luncheon at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania on Thursday.

April 13th.

11 a .m. to 2 p .m. featuring two guest speakers my dear friends going

back to the early 1990s Dr. William Webster who is a banner of truth

author he's also a pastor in Battleground, Washington and the Reverend David T.

King who is a co -author with Dr. Webster of the

massive 900 page three volume work.

Groundbreaking work.

Holy Scripture.

The Ground and Pillar of Our Faith which is a three volume work proving that the church

fathers believed in sola scriptura long before the Protestant Reformation.

These two men will be speaking at my free pastor's luncheon.

And not only will you be fed for free and also be fed.

Spiritually.

With two excellent messages.

For free.

And share fellowship with your colleagues in ministry for free.

You'll also leave that place with a heavy sack.

Of free.

Brand new books donated by Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom that I have

personally selected.

For.

From them.

So you can't beat that everything is free there's no ulterior motive.

These pastor's luncheons were created by my precious.

Late wife Julie.

In the 1990s and I continue to conduct them even after she is going

home to be with the Lord in loving memory of her and in tribute to her.

I hope that you can attend the three days following that free luncheon.

Friday the 14th Saturday the 15th and Sunday the 16th of April those same two men Dr. Webster and

Reverend King will be speaking at a three day Bible conference at a different church Grace Bible

Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

And the theme of the three day conference.

Is.

The Gospel Removed by Rome Rescued by the Reformers and

Rejected by Modern Evangelicals.

Absolutely free of charge.

If you want to register for either or both of these events send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail dot com

and put luncheon and or conference in the subject line.

That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III.

That's chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

Oh and I forgot one thing.

If you are in need of a biblically faithful church no matter where in the world you live.

If you are homeless spiritually and need a Christ honoring theologically sound church

like Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail dot com

and put I need a church in the subject line.

I've helped many people.

All over the world.

Find churches sometimes even within a couple of minutes from where they live.

That are.

Christ honoring biblically faithful theologically sound and doctrinally solid.

So send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail dot com and put I need a church in the subject line.

Dr. Moorcraft we have a listener question.

For you.

From Ted in Moundville, Alabama.

And he says I was struck by some of the language used by Dr. Moorcraft in the first segment.

As he laid out his thesis he spoke of Christian fathers not permitting

and not allowing their daughters to date and marry unbelievers.

In most states one must reach the age of majority in order to marry.

And therefore.

Do not require the permission of anyone other than their prospective spouse in order to marry.

And though many adult children of Christian parents would never dream of going against their parents' wishes to enter

into a marriage of which their parents disapprove there are many devout doctrinally sound Christians

whose children would never dream of not entering into a marriage simply because of

parental disapproval.

In these very unfortunate cases something we used to call persuasion is

required.

Does Dr. Moorcraft have any counsel to offer parents in such situations.

Well my response to that is all of those laws and every state that says a

child after he turns a certain age is no longer accountable to his father are damnable laws

and they are destructive to the family that it doesn't matter what the state says

that God says that our children are accountable to their parents.

Now.

And my children never argue with that.

They.

And if you teach them to love the truth they won't argue with it.

If you capture their hearts and they respect your justice and your affection

they won't argue with it.

They're not perfect.

But they won't argue with the fact that you are in their lives as their teacher and as

their protector.

And I'm not a tyrant and I don't think my children would have said I am a

tyrant but as I've said before there is a difference between good and

evil and truth and falsehood and one of the most important things we can teach our

children is to love those and their children.

I love the good and the love.

The truth.

Our children are not perfect but nevertheless they are under our authority

as husbands and as mothers and so

that's not to say we are dictators but it is to say

I really don't care what the state says about my children.

They don't have any authority over my children.

It seems that the listener agrees with you and is just asking for counsel on how to persuade

your child who is about to be married to somebody that a parent disapproves of how to persuade them

not to do that.

I think that's what the listener.

Ted.

Yeah is saying Let me give two great verses that parents can

use on themselves and on their children.

One is Bad company corrupts good morals.

No ifs, ands, and buts.

That's in 1 Corinthians 15 Bad company corrupts good morals.

It doesn't say bad company corrupts bad morals.

It says bad company corrupts good morals.

And so if you have children that you let run with people with bad morals

that's going to reflect on them and it's going to rub off on them.

And so you've got to stand firm.

And there's sometimes when your sinful child will want to do what's wrong and you

are not to let them.

You are not to permit them to do wrong and to do evil.

So if you capture their hearts you got them.

If you capture their hearts with the truth then they are going to love you for being their

guardian and their protector.

There is another verse that says don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

And you want to teach that to your children from the day they are very young not to be

yoked together with unbelievers.

What communion does light have with darkness.

Now.

I have seen many marriages go down because some young woman has

convinced herself that her husband is a Christian when in fact she knows in

her heart he is not.

So you've got to protect her.

My brother -in -law Wayne Rogers was preaching at a youth conference and he said

one time the same thing I've been saying is parents are not to let their children

marry unbelievers because the Bible says don't be yoked together with unbelievers

and there is no exceptions to that.

And so after he finished the pastor of the church where he was

preaching came to the podium and thanked him for his good sermon.

But he said I would disagree with brother Rogers on one thing and

that is Christians ought not to be yoked together with unbelievers

unless the Holy Spirit leads them to.

Well the Holy Spirit is not going to lead anybody to go against his word.

Well thank you Ted.

Excellent question.

We have another anonymous listener and the anonymous listener

says do you approve of a reformed Baptist man

marrying a paedo -Baptist woman or vice versa as long as

one of those being married agrees to give the authority of

how and when the children are to be baptized to the other spouse.

That is a very very good question.

It's a very complex.

Question.

That.

Babies when babies come along and one spouse is Christian

and the other is Baptist when babies come along unless you've

settled this issue beforehand somebody's going to have to compromise the faith

and that's never good.

If you have a Baptist spouse and the baby comes along you're going to have it baptized

or not.

Well if you have it baptized the Baptist has got to compromise.

If you don't have it baptized the Presbyterian's got to have it compromised.

So that's why it's so important to have these these issues

settled before you get married.

I can't emphasize that enough.

I think that was built into the anonymous listener's question that as long as one agrees

beforehand to give the authority to the other spouse on how and when

the children should be baptized and could it be.

I mean obviously there are endless scenarios in the things that we're talking about but you might have.

Let's say a.

Presbyterian woman who is not thoroughly convicted

that infant baptism is true so she grants her husband to make the decision on that or the

reverse.

It could be a woman who's a Baptist and she's not thoroughly convinced that

only repentant believers are qualified to be baptized so she lets her paedo -baptist husband make

the decision and you know obviously those things could be reversed where the man is

saying one thing and letting his wife make the decision.

I mean aren't those somewhat open doors for.

This?

They are in my opinion they are.

But then how are you going to answer the question?

When it comes to you have a baby you haven't made up your mind either.

One of you one's a Baptist one's a Presbyterian you haven't made up your mind.

How are you going to make a decision?

Who's going to have the final word?

I believe usually the husband has the final word.

But.

It is a difficult question and that's why it's so important for

couples to be united in the truth and united in doctrine

because as all these questions come along you want to continue to have

unity between the two of you.

And if you can't have unity in the basic elements of life you can't have unity anywhere

else.

What communion hath light with darkness?

Truth and falsehood are two entirely different things so make up your mind on these

things.

What does the Scripture teach about all these issues?

So that when the time comes you've already committed yourself to Scripture

you know what Scripture says and you're prepared to make righteous decisions.

It's not easy.

Well we have another anonymous listener.

I had a feeling this was going to happen.

Another anonymous listener asks in those very tragic

situations where someone's daughter backslides into

sexual immorality and is involved in fornication and becomes.

Pregnant.

Should you allow the unbelieving husband or the non -reformed

husband to marry her because he is repentant over the issue and

wants to make sure that the child and your daughter is cared for.

Obviously when the listener is using the word husband that's

not yet a husband it's a prospective husband.

So.

The daughter's not married yet?

But she's pregnant and the man the biological father

and the daughter say look we repent of this.

We know that we were involved in wickedness but we want to do the right thing.

We want to get married we want to raise this child we will raise it in the faith and you

have the man.

Or it could be the reverse situation obviously who is not reformed or maybe even an atheist but

in every other way that you could imagine might be an ideal prospect for a son -in -law.

But when do you bend the rules if ever does a situation like that where

somebody wants to do the right thing and care for that child as a bonafide husband and

father but is not either a believer or is not reformed.

Alright let me make sure I got it straight.

So there's this girl and this man that are courting each other or are

engaged but they're not married yet and the boy gets the girl

pregnant correct.

Yes and I don't even know if an engagement has to be a part of the scenario.

They're just dating or what have you.

But.

But the young man wants to do the right thing.

He realizes he has sinned and the girl has also realized and

repents of sinning by having premarital.

Relations.

But they want to be married to raise that child in a two

parent home.

But the husband or the wife whichever one or should I

say the man or the woman is not either a believer at all

or is not reformed.

Well there is a law in the Old Testament that says if two people sleep together and they're

not engaged and they're not married they sleep together they must get married

even if she's not pregnant.

They must get married if they if the boy has the father's approval

of the girl and the father of course isn't going to give the approval if he's not a Christian

but he can teach the boy.

And.

He can be patient but the Bible does say if a man and a woman who

are not married sleep together and it's consensual then they must get married.

If the girl if the boy has the father of the girl's approval if he does

not have the approval of the father the son must pay

the woman a large amount of money.

Now since that is an Old Testament law would you say according to your own.

Views of.

Theology that that carries over to the new covenant.

I do believe that.

Yes sir I believe the moral law of God in both Old and New Testament is

one Jesus said in Matthew 517.

I did not come to abrogate the law of God or any jot or

tittle of the law of God in the Old Testament.

I came to confirm it fulfill it to put it into effect.

And so I believe that whereas the ceremonial rituals are no longer applicable

the moral law of God is.

I have had occasion in my ministry to apply that law

to a young man and he was not the

one later that got engaged to the woman but he was broken.

He slept with her before she got engaged to somebody else and he was completely broken

and he had not dealt with it and obviously had to deal with it.

And so that takes great wisdom to know how.

So I told him since we didn't want her

engaged to marry husband to know something

that was done a long time ago I said give them a very expensive wedding gift.

And he had repented and that eased

his conscience and everything went on as it should be.

And she married the guy she was engaged to.

So I believe God's law matters

and it works when you obey God's law.

God blesses you.

The Lord honors those that honor him.

Now since we are approaching the latter part of the

second half of the program why don't you be more vivid and crystal

clear about why you used such a word as deadliest

sin in referring to those that disobey God

and intermarry with those that do not share the true Christian faith.

Give us some ways in which this is absolutely deadly.

Obviously we believe true Christians can't lose their salvation.

So there might be some five point Arminians out there who

might agree with you on the severity of this issue but they would say that the Christians lose their salvation.

Obviously we don't believe there is such a thing of that happening but how is this deadly.

How is it deadly.

It's deadly in that it can destroy Christianity in one generation is that

if you and your wife are Christians and you let your daughter marry somebody that's not a Christian

then in one or two generations non Christianity has infiltrated

your family and will most certainly affect your grandchildren

and your great grandchildren.

So you as a grandfather must be highly protective not only of your children

but of their children.

Yes I do also know some tragic situations where a

woman she was a single mother and became a Christian later on in her life

and her son married an unbeliever and

that wife forbid the grandmother the Christian grandmother from

ever talking about Christ and the Bible in the household with the grandchildren

and things like.

That that are real.

Horrible stories I even know.

And it happens all the time.

I also know of a story where a true story where a woman that I've known for many years a wonderful

Christian lady unfortunately she was convinced

that her boyfriend that she had before she was a Christian.

She was convinced of the authenticity of his conversion after she told

him that there's no way that we could proceed with this relationship unless you are born again

I have to break off the relationship with you and certainly not marry you.

So therefore we must go our separate ways.

And he convinced her that he converted.

And on the honeymoon I mean this man was baptized and everything on the

honeymoon.

The next day when they woke up he said to her guess what.

I made it all up actually had the the harshness

and the lack of conscience to wickedly spring it on her.

Even in that fashion I mean unbelievable but that shows you how

patience and the discernment have to come in when examining the

heart.

And like I say a lot of times to young women that I'm counseling don't ever be

satisfied with second best.

Don't ever convince yourself that somebody you're not sure about is a better

Christian than you are.

Don't be satisfied with second best.

Even if you have to wait longer to get married some young women get in a hurry

and they some young guy shows them affection and treats

them kindly and so they're convinced this guy is a Christian even though in their

heart of hearts they know either he's not or he's

very confused in what he believes.

If you be satisfied.

If you young women are ever satisfied with second best then you'll be sad the rest of your

life.

We have to go to our final break it's going to be a lot more brief than the other breaks.

If you have a question send it in immediately because we're rapidly running out of time.

Chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

Don't go away we'll be right back with Joe Moorcraft after these messages.

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I

are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the G3 National Conference that's Thursday, September

21st through Saturday the 23rd on a theme that I've been preaching, teaching writing about and defending in live

public debates for most of my life the sovereignty of God.

I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Voti Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott

Anuel and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

And there's more great news, Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio can get you a 30 discount

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enter promo code.

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That's G3 ISIR for the 30 % discount, Chris Arnson.

I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd for the G3 National

Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

On the sovereignty of God, make sure you stop by the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Exhibitor booth and say

hi to Chris Arnson.

While you're there, go to g3min .org and enter promo code.

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For your 30 % discount off the registration fee.

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This is Pastor.

Bill Sousa, 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 from which we strive is the glory of God.

If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes,

or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will

join us some Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior.

Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.

Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org.

That's gracechurchatfranklin .org.

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

Lord, God, Savior and King Jesus Christ today and

always.

If you.

Love Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by

supporting our advertisers.

One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Arnton is doing is

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Welcome back Dr. Moorcraft we have yet another anonymous listener.

Well folks, it looks like we are not going to be able to continue the program with Dr. Moorcraft.

I'm sorry folks, but we're going to have to we're going to have to leave the program and the way it was because

for some reason Dr. Moorcraft cannot hear me.

I've tried logging out and logging back in it is not working.

So I'm going to use the remainder of this time to let our listeners know or

remind them about some special events.

Remember to if you want to register for the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio

Free Pastors Luncheon which is being held Thursday, April 13th from

11am to 2pm at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania featuring Dr. William Webster

and also featuring Rev. David T. King.

Please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com chrisarnson at gmail .com and put Pastors

Luncheon in the subject line.

It's absolutely free of charge and also if you want to register for the three day conference.

Featuring.

Dr. William Webster and Rev. David T. King.

Send me an email also to chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

That's being held from Friday, the 14th of April through Sunday, the 16th of

April at a different church, Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

So just send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put either Luncheon and or Conference

in the subject line and we will get you registered.

Also, please.

Remember if you have any intention to attend the G3 Conference.

In.

Atlanta, Georgia, which is the conference that you've been hearing James White promote in my

broadcast every day, three times a day.

Please remember.

To.

Use the promo code G3ISIR when you register.

For the G3.

Conference at g3min .org g3min .org

and please use the promo code G3ISIR.

You'll get 30 off the registration fee and that conference, just to remind you,

is being held from September 21st through September 23rd in Atlanta on

the theme The Sovereignty of God and the lineup is absolutely amazing.

I believe they have over 20 speakers some of those will be breakout session speakers

but some of the primary speakers at this conference that you should know about

are Votie Baucom, Stephen Lawson, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, James White Justin

Peters, Ken Ham and James Coates, the pastor in

Canada that was arrested for refusing to close down his church during the COVID crisis

Virgil Walker, Daryl Bernard Harrison and many more.

So go to g3min .org g3min .org and when you register, use

the promo code G3ISIR G3ISIR.

And I hope that all of you have a safe and happy and

joyful and Christ -honoring weekend and Lord's Day and I hope that you all always

remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.