August 23, 2022 Show with Dr. Richard D. Phillips on “The Sufficiency of Scripture & the Story of Scripture” PLUS Michael A. Gaydosh on “Discovering Hidden Treasures of Christian Literature”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century Gospel Minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the Church and the world today.

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

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have a view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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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.

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

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity who are living on the planet

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Earth, listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is

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Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this 23rd day of August 2022.

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And we have two guests joining us today, back to back, two dear friends and two people

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I love to interview. During the first hour, we are going to have the privilege of having

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Dr. Richard D. Phillips on the show again. He is the author of numerous books, highly sought -after conference speaker, chairman of the

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Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, co -editor of the Reformed Expository Commentary Series published by PNR Publishing, an adjunct professor and trustee at Westminster Theological Seminary, and board of directors member at the

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Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He's also the senior pastor at the historic

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Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville, South Carolina. And during the first hour, we will be discussing with Rick the sufficiency of Scripture and the story of Scripture.

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And during the second hour, make sure you stay tuned for my dear friend and also my very first pastor after becoming, by the grace of God, a new creation in Christ, the man who actually baptized me,

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Michael A. Gayadosh, founder of Solid Ground Christian Books, and he's going to be addressing

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Discovering Hidden Treasures of Christian Literature. But first and foremost, we ask of you to welcome to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, back for another interview,

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Dr. Richard D. Phillips. It's great to have you. It's great to be here, Chris. And why don't you let our listeners know something about Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville, South Carolina.

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Yeah, thank you. The Second Presbyterian Church is a PCA church, Presbyterian Church in America, congregation, and we are a block off Main Street in downtown

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Greenville, South Carolina. Greenville is one of the fastest -growing southern cities, and it's kind of come on the map in the last 20 years, and it's absolutely wonderful.

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It's such a beautiful, wonderful city. It's a very conservative place. I'm very blessed, both by the church and by the town

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I live in. So we're a pretty old church. We were 1892 we were founded, and it's been a long -time

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Bible -believing, faithful, Reformed church, and it's great to be the pastor there. Great.

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And the church is most notorious for having as its member, one of its members,

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Joe Bianchi. And that's a dear friend of mine for many years. And extend my greetings to Joe and Monica for me.

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I will certainly do so. They're wonderful people. Yes, and for...

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And their daughter, Christina. Oh, yeah. Is Christina actually there at the church, too? Oh, yeah.

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Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. That's great. I haven't seen Christina, I think, since she was perhaps in her early teens, and she was always a very sweet girl, and just extend to her my greetings as well.

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And if anybody wants more information about the Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina, go to SPC, which stands for Second Presbyterian Church, Greenville .org,

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SPC, Greenville .org. And I figure I'll also, for the sake of my friend

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Joe Bianchi, and also for the sake of listeners desiring to find out about good

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Christian literature, I will give the website for Calvary Press, which Joe Bianchi owns and operates, calvarypress .com,

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calvarypress .com. And I hope to see you sometime soon, Joe, wherever the

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Lord may providentially guide our paths. And you are involved in an upcoming

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Bible conference where I plan to be manning an exhibitor's booth again.

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I've done this a number of times there in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. It's called the

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Quakertown Conference on Reform Theology, and this fall it's going to be on the theme,

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The Sufficient Word, and the other speakers at this conference are men who

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I just recently interviewed on Iron Sharp and Zion Radio, Daniel Doriani and Harry Reeder, and this is going to be taking place

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November 11th through the 12th. Why don't you tell us more about the Sufficient Word conference? Well, the

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Quakertown Conference on Reform Theology has probably been going on 10, maybe 15 years now.

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It's really a wonderful event if you're in the neighborhood and you're interested in Reform Theology, and I hope you are.

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You really should come. It's well attended. The speakers are great. And it's just got a wonderful, you know, enthusiasm about it.

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And it's actually, as the name suggests, it came about as a result of the

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Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology that James Boyce founded 50 years ago. This year is our 50th year for that.

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And they wanted to do that in their own local church, and it's really been wonderful. And when you're going to do

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Reform Theology, of course you know that the Father's Reformation, the formal principle of it was pholosphatura.

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And most evangelicals today will agree to the inerrancy of Scripture, and we're glad for that.

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But we need to know also that the Word of God is sufficient for the saving ministry of the

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Gospel. And so that's going to be our emphasis, and I'd love to talk about it today. Great.

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And if anybody wants more information about the QuakerTown Conference on Reform Theology this year on the theme,

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The Sufficient Word, go to AllianceNet .org. AllianceNet .org.

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Click on Events and scroll down to where you see QuakerTown Conference on Reform Theology 2022,

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The Sufficient Word, November 11th through the 12th. And I'm looking forward to seeing my old friend,

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Pastor Ron Cole of Grace Bible Fellowship Church there in QuakerTown who's hosting the conference. And we've got to also clarify for those of you who don't listen very keenly, this is not a conference on the

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Quakers or Quaker theology. It's the QuakerTown Conference. That's the name of the town.

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I've had some wise guys on social media commenting on that, so I have to make sure that our listeners are clear that this is a

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Reformed conference. Halfway between Philadelphia and Allentown.

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Great. And, well, the two elements of the main theme of The Sufficiency of Scripture or The Sufficient Word that you are addressing are

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The Sufficiency of Scripture and The Story of Scripture. Now, you already addressed a little bit of the controversy over The Sufficiency of Scripture.

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Once something that only Roman Catholics formally denied.

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And today you have a host of evangelicals either unconsciously contradicting or denying it.

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Or you even have some that boldly deny it and they would be typically more in the realm of Charismatic and Pentecostal churches.

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And, of course, there are some within that wide spectrum of belief within those categories.

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There are some who would readily and boldly and vociferously claim they believe in The Sufficiency of Scripture.

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It may not be logically and consistently held to according to their other practices, but there are some who say we need a fresh new word.

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The Bible is wonderful for a lot of things, but we still need a word for today from God to help govern the lives and churches of those in the 21st century.

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And it's interesting that people would even come to that conclusion when they probably have not even begun to plumb to the depths of what

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God has already provided in His canon. But if you could, tell us about your thoughts on why this is an important issue today, just as important as it ever was,

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The Sufficiency of Scripture. Yeah, thank you, Chris. Well, it's certainly true of those who believe there is ongoing prophecy today who have a revelatory word from God.

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They are denying The Sufficiency of Scripture because the canon is closed.

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And when we get to the story of Scripture, in fact, that's a good way to talk about how that is the case. But I think it's actually, in another way, even more significant, not just among Charismatic and Pentecostals, but among maybe the majority of Epigelical Christians, and that is in terms of our ministry approach, our means of doing the work that God's given us to do.

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In fact, particularly in that sense that I think of it, The Sufficiency of Scripture means that God saves by His Word, and He does so by His Word alone.

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Now, alone we mean by the power of the Holy Spirit, the priest's word in the church, the red word with an open

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Bible, the shared word over a coffee table. But faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the

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Word of Christ. That's what the Bible says. You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable seed.

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Now, that's important today because, and particularly the church is influenced by the Seeker -Centered

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Movement, which is almost the majority report today among Evangelical Christians, where they're really relying on things other than the

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Bible. My family and I went to a church, and it's a well -known church in our area for being conservative,

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Christian, Bible -believing, and I was on vacation, and we had some friends who went there, so we went.

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I was astonished that the first mention of the Bible was 36 minutes into the service.

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They started off with a greeter, and he was very chummy, and he invited people in, and then they had announcements, they sang a lot of songs, and then the minister was preaching from the church's vision statement.

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And I remember the first time he actually mentioned the Bible, a verse from it. I look at my watch, we were at 36 minutes into the service.

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And that would be unconscionable to the great majority of Protestant Reformed churches since the

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Reformation. When we speak of the sufficiency of Scripture, what we mean is what we're banking on to allow us to accomplish the work

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God's given us to do, and that's primarily the Great Commission. That's going to be the conversion of people, the in -gathering of converts to Christ, and then the discipleship of believers so that they grow in their faith.

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The principal means for that is the Word of God. And we rely on emotional manipulation through the rock band and through other means.

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The Word itself is increasingly not preached or it's referenced, but it's not exposited.

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People, I think, will know what I'm talking about. The pastor's got a message, he's got four points, and he mentions

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Bible verses, but he's not teaching the Bible. It's not the proclamation of the Bible. And that is a crisis today.

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It's no wonder that the evangelical church today in America is so anemic and weak when we are starving and famished for the

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Word of God. The Word of God is sufficient to do the work of God.

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Now, do you think a lot of the problem with that is that people are relying upon, and they may never in a million years phrase it this way, but they are relying upon an

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Arminian understanding of how God saves sinners. If you believe a

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Christian can convince someone through articulate oratory and cleverness and appealing to their desires and emotions to, through their own free will of their nature, of their unregenerate nature, to believe in Christ because you make things so appealing to them that they may involve blessings or privileges that they are not experiencing as a non -churchgoer, they think that they can convince these folks through these means to come to Christ, whereas we know we have to just boldly preach and proclaim and teach the truths of what

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God has breathed out that is in His Scripture, and He is the one that will give the increase.

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He is the one that will remove hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh.

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And when I bring this criticism of an Arminian understanding, I'm not just criticizing

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Arminian churches, because there are many Reformed churches that I have become aware of over the years who unconsciously, in every practical sense, are really adopting

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Arminian methodology. Am I off base here? Yeah, I think there's two things going on.

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One of them, undoubtedly, is the Arminian belief that conversion is primarily an act on the person's part.

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You believe it's an act of your will, it's your choice. But that belief, sincerely wanting to be successful, caring for people to come to know

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Christ, wanting them to escape hell and go to heaven, they're trying to persuade them.

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And so all kinds of leverage, I think this is in part how the worship services became so secular, so worldly.

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We're trying to appeal to people based upon what they like, and since they're not really interested in the Bible, they're not really interested in Christ himself.

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Therefore, we get this big emotional experience that more or less mimics the rock concert, and the way it feels is this euphoric experience that people like.

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Well, the problem is it's not Christian, and the other problem is, that's not how people are saved.

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But I think that a lot of it's well -meaning pastors and churches who are trying to be successful.

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And I don't even mean that necessarily in a worldly way. They're trying to reach people for Christ, and so they've increasingly abandoned the

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Bible, and they increasingly use sensual, carnal, worldly means of persuasion and manipulation.

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The other thing going on is simply that we have appeals to the world. I get these mailings for 10 pastor conferences from these groups, and it's amazing to me.

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They have all these business consultants, how to identify your target audience and craft your messages to be appealing and persuasive.

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But that, of course, denies, even more radically, the supernaturalism that's always involved.

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The Bible says that it's God who saves. When we were dead in our trespasses,

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God, who was rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. And so the

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Bible teaches that conversion and salvation, the same is true of spiritual growth, is a sovereign act of God by His appointed means, sheep of which is the

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Bible. And so this is why, by the way,

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Chris, the evangelical movement is increasingly populated by non -Christians, people who will identify as Christians, people who are not born again, because you cannot be born again apart from the

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Word of God. In fact, it's only by the Word of God that you can be born again. And we're removing the

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Word of God from our evangelism. And so I think, yes, it's Arminian theology, and then there's just this appeal to worldly methodology.

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Yes, a fear I have found, even amongst professedly

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Bible -believing evangelicals, a fear of offending the audience, the congregation, the visitors, a fear of losing people, and therefore subsequently losing tithes and offerings.

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I have met, sadly, over my decades of participation in Christian radio and the media,

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I have come across far too many pastors who will admit, even in an unashamed way, that, you know,

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I'm not going to tell my congregation that because they'll leave, this or that or the other thing.

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And my jaw is hanging open. Well, when did Jesus approach things that way?

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In fact, Jesus, from the Scriptures, had a habit of thinning out the herd when it got too big by saying something that was so offensive to their sensibilities that it sifted out those who were false believers, who were...

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Go ahead. It's that wonderful scene at the end of John 6, where Jesus has spent the 5 ,000, and then he taught, if you look whatever, it's really in John 6, he taught the doctrines that we call

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Reformed theology. I mean, it's what it is. Yes, you cannot come to me unless it has been given of the Father.

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Right. And they say, oh, this is a hard teaching, and Jesus doesn't say, well, then, what do you want me to say?

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I'll turn it down for you. He says, do you want to go as well? And they said, to whom shall we go,

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Lord? You have the words of eternal life. Jesus thought that a church of 12 actual believers who actually heard and believed the

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Word of God, and one of those was Judas, he thought that was a more effective church strategy than to fill the church with goats...

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Amen. ...rather than sheep. And that was Jesus' ideology. And, you know, when you look in other places around the world where the church has persecuted,

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China and those places, you know, they're holding fast to the Word of God, and that's why they're bearing fruit. And I would say, at the top of the list of the major problems in evangelical

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Christianity today is that we have increasingly abandoned the Bible. Now, people will say, what are you talking about?

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We still believe in the Bible. But methodologically, in our churches, we've abandoned the

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Bible. The work of ministry is done by other means. And increasingly, the

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Bible is excluded. And therefore, we are attracting people from things other than Christ, other than the

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Word of God, and the evangelical movement is increasingly today non -Christian. Amen.

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In fact, I had an interaction years ago with a very dear Roman Catholic friend, and I hope he's listening.

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Bob Posh used to be a lawyer for Doubleday Books. And Bob used to have parties over his home perhaps about three times a year.

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And those parties were specifically designed to invite Roman Catholics and evangelicals to his home so that they could eat, drink, and argue.

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And Bob and I were always the two last ones in the living room going back and forth.

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And I remember Bob saying that that passage that you were just referring to in John 6, he said, yes, see, you're just like those people that left

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Jesus who left because they rejected the mass, they rejected transubstantiation.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I said, no, read the passage again. When did they walk away? It was because Jesus said, no one can come to me unless it is given to them by the

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Father. And that is Reformed theology. And we talk about Calvinism is taught primarily by Paul and Isaiah.

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No one in the Bible teaches what we call the doctrines of Reformed doctrine more clearly and passionately than the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, tell us, in fact, I'm going to go to the first break right now.

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It's something that we have to do to pay the bills. But when we come back, I want you to get involved more in the story of Scripture.

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And people may be scratching their head, wondering exactly what you mean by that. And if anybody listening has a question for my guest today,

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Rick Phillips, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com,

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N, gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence.

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Don't go away. We'll be right back with Rick Phillips right after these messages from our sponsors. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here, excited to announce that my longtime friend,

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Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading to Washington, D .C. for the

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G3 Ministries Regional Conference on the theme, Just Thinking About the Bible. The conference will be held

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Thursday, September 15th through Saturday, September 17th. And I'll be speaking along with Stephen Lawson, Josh Weiss, founder of G3 Ministries, and Daryl Bernard Harrison and Virgil Walker, co -hosts of the

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Just Thinking podcast. To register, visit g3min .org, that's g3min .org,

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and click on Events. Your registration will include a ticket to the Museum of the Bible nearby the conference venue in Washington, D .C.

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So join me and Chris Arnson, September 15th through the 17th in Washington, D .C.

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for the G3 Ministries Regional Conference. Register now before they run out of seats at g3min .org,

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that's g3min .org. Stop by the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Exhibitor booth and say hi to Chris Arnson while you're there.

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Hi, this is John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona. Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnson and the

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where you can click support. That's ironsharpensironradio .com. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners from all over the world.

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

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Dr. Joe Moorcraft. Hi, I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener here in Ottawa in County Kildare, Ireland.

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

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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.

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

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

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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

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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

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HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com. That's HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com.

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Or call 678 -954 -7831. That's 678 -954 -7831.

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If you visit, tell them Joe Roydigan, Iron Sharpener's Iron radio listener from Ottawa in County Kildare, Ireland, sends you.

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I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,

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Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.

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It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God, like the dear saints at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word, and to enthusiastically proclaim

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I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love, as I have.

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

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Go to royaldiadem .com and mention Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with Rick Phillips, and tell us about the other aspect of your discussions at the

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Sufficient Word Conference, which is the Quaker Town Conference on Reform Theology this

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November. The story of Scripture. Yeah, I'm excited to speak on that subject.

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Most people haven't probably heard of Scripture spoken of that way. You know, what does the Bible teach?

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The Bible teaches us how to know God, and how to be saved. Amen. But how does the

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Bible do that? Primarily by telling a story. And there is one, I would prefer to say history, but it's a literary form of the

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Bible. There is a story that is told because of creation. And we are told about a historical event.

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The fall of Adam and Eve, and of our race. And then of God's great redemptive works throughout history, all leading to and flowing from the coming of His Son, the

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Lord Jesus, to redeem a people. And then the story, of course, ends.

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We're still in it. But it will end in the new heavens and the new earth, where we will reign with Christ forever.

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And so it's actually a hugely important thing to realize. Take the first five books of the

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Bible. What was the event, Chris, that prompted Moses, prompted

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God through Moses, to reveal the first five books of the Bible? What would you say? That prompted

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Moses. What did God use to prompt Moses? Something happened, and what's the big thing

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Moses is associated with? Well, obviously the Decalogue. And the

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Exodus, right? Yes. And so we refer to this as the word decorrelation.

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God accomplished a great redemptive work in history, and then He gave His revelatory word, both to record what

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He had done, and to explain the significance of it. And so really the first five books of the

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Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, they all come into existence because of the

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Exodus, and the forming of Israel as a nation, and the passage through the wilderness. And what you have is

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God acted in history. Even Genesis, the sense in which Genesis is prologue, because you have to get to Exodus.

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And then the rest of the Bible, the next great event in redemptive history, was the conquest of Canaan.

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Joshua and the entry of Israel into the promised land. And so you get the book of Joshua that records that.

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The next great event was the Kingdom, and the books of Judges. Judges is about David.

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Ruth ends with David. First and Second Samuel. And so on you get through the whole

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Bible. What the Bible is, it's the record and the explanation of God's great redemptive works in all of history.

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There is a story, not a fictional story. It's the true story. And here's the thing, you and I are in it.

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When you and I read our Old Testament, so many evangelicals today don't read their Old Testament because they think it's about somebody else.

35:28

No, it's that history that is currently going on in and through the Church today.

35:34

And so the Bible, the message of the Bible is God's great redemptive acts in history, centered on and culminating in His Son, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, by which He redeemed sinners from the curse of the fall. Isn't that exciting?

35:50

Amen. And by the way, that's one of the reasons why we will argue that there is no prophecy, there's no revelation going on today.

35:59

Because the last great redemptive act of God was Pentecost. You and I are living in the

36:05

Pentecostal Church, the New Testament Church with the outpoured Spirit from Pentecost.

36:11

The next great event that will happen is the return of Christ. And during this long age, the

36:16

Gospel is going forth to the end of the earth, and we're gathering in the elect by the ministry of the Word and prayer.

36:22

And then Christ will return. Now when Christ returns, we won't need the Word, that's the written Word, because He will bring in the eternal glory.

36:30

But so people say, I have a new revelation from God. I want to ask, well, what redemptive event are you recording or explaining?

36:41

Because that's what Scripture is. The Bible's not just random, you know,

36:46

God's thoughts. It's the record and explanation. Even the epistles are the explanation.

36:55

When we think of Paul, it's very doctrinal. It's not written in story format. True. But it is explaining the great events that are recorded in the

37:05

Gospels and the Book of Acts. So Scripture tells this grand story that's the true story of history.

37:12

And it tells us what happened and what it means. And that's what the Bible is. Amen. You just reminded me of years ago when a friend of mine who is

37:24

Pentecostal invited me to hear some prophet, so -called, that was speaking at a church that he was familiar with, and I wanted to humor him because he had been kind enough to attend conferences and worship services that I recommended.

37:44

So I went to this event and it was a Scottish gentleman who was the alleged prophet and of course he was just telling everybody good news and appeasing their desires and never offending anybody by just prophesying wonderful things about them.

38:03

And so I wrote to this man from his website afterwards and I said,

38:09

I know that Scotland has been a rich land filled with the doctrines of Reformed theology and Calvinism for centuries and you are a native of that land and I was wondering what is your opinion on things like unconditional election and definite atonement?

38:30

And he said, well, I haven't ever really given much thought about those things, nor have

38:36

I formed an opinion of them. So I said, so you know the future and not the past? Well, you know and these are usually well -meaning folks and in many cases they'll say, well, give us a prophecy and someone will stand up and say

38:52

I have a word from the Lord if he wants you to love one another. That's an exhortation, it's not a prophecy.

38:59

Prophecies deal with the great redemptive acts of God in history and in my lifetime there has not been a great redemptive act in history.

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One of the fundamental works by which he's moving redemptive history along. We are still living out the implications of Pentecost.

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That's the New Testament age and there is more to come and it's called the second coming of Jesus.

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And so I think it's very exciting and helpful to realize that's what Scripture does.

39:33

It tells us the great redemptive acts that God has done. And by the way, it also means that we can't afford to compromise these things.

39:41

I think particularly say the implications of the teaching of evolution. Evolution is not just a science.

39:49

People say, well, that's the Bible doing science. No, it's the Bible doing history. And we cannot compromise on these fundamental points of the biblical narrative.

40:04

If you take evolution and you add it in, you end up with a different story.

40:10

If Adam did not fall, if there's no historical Adam from whom every human being is the literal descendant, so that we are, when

40:21

Adam fell, we fell because he was our covenant head under the covenant of works, then the

40:27

Christian story doesn't make any sense. And so the most non -negotiable things are those things that deal with the great message of who

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God is and what is the problem and what is the solution in history. Amen.

40:44

And by the way, let me just quickly interject that so -called prophet I don't believe was just a well -meaning person.

40:51

I think he was a charlatan, but obviously I know that there are many quote -quote laypeople who are well -intentioned and misguided and fall into the trappings of using the verbiage of the popular charismatic and Pentecostal buzz phrases and so on.

41:10

Yeah, someone comes to you and says, I have a prophecy, and you should say, what great redemptive act of God?

41:17

You know, Isaiah and Jeremiah, I'm preaching Jeremiah in the mornings right now, they prophesied the fall of Babylon and the coming of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's what Isaiah prophesied. The judgment of Israel, the

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Babylonian captivity, the restoration of the Jews from Babylon, and the first coming of Jesus Christ.

41:39

Those are great redemptive acts of God. So if someone says they're a prophet today, we are living in the time where the next great redemptive work is the return of our

41:50

Lord, come Lord Jesus. So, yeah, it's very helpful. But more than just, you know,

41:55

I see my context, I don't deal with that problem a lot, so I don't think of that particular problem that too much, but the awareness, when you read your

42:04

Bible, when you pick up the book of Judges, that is not you know, or any

42:10

Old Testament text, it's not a marble in a bag.

42:16

Every Old Testament text is... So when you're reading and interpreting an

42:22

Old Testament text, it's not an isolated ethical story, it's telling you something that is part of the long story.

42:30

Now David and Goliath is not, in fact, about you can conquer through faith.

42:37

David is a type of Christ. He is the anointed one. Of course, as you know, the word anointed is the word for Messiah or Christ.

42:45

But David and Goliath's story is a type of Christ's victory over sin and Satan.

42:51

Where you and I are, David and Goliath's story, we're the cowardly Israelites who are afraid to fight

42:57

Goliath, but when our Savior shows up, we praise them, and we join along and follow Him.

43:03

And so understanding the Bible as telling the great story centered on Christ really helps us to interpret our whole

43:09

Bible. Amen. We have an anonymous listener. And the anonymous listener says, how do you approach respectfully your own pastor and elders when you fear that the sermons being proclaimed from the pulpit are too much storytelling about their own lives and anecdotes and there is not enough exegesis occurring?

43:36

I don't want to come off like I am holier than thou, or more knowledgeable than them, but it is something that is quite disturbing and I need some counsel and guidance.

43:50

Well, God bless the person with that question. It's a big question today, and it's an important one.

43:57

It is a big problem if your pastor is not teaching the Bible, but instead is telling emotional stories, telling you all about his own life and his wonderful wife, and funny stories from his life.

44:11

Why are people doing that? Well, because we define success in terms of numbers, and you get more people to come if instead of preaching the

44:19

Word of God, you tell charming stories. That's just what's going on today. I will say this.

44:25

I hate to put it this way. I think you should leave that church because you're not going to change your pastor.

44:30

I'm telling you right now. If someone comes to me and says, we want you to stop preaching the Bible and doing expository preaching and instead tell charming stories,

44:40

I'm not going to change because I have strong convictions. Well, your pastor probably does too, and I think that we need to show discernment in selecting churches.

44:50

A woman came to me some years ago and wanted marital counseling, and I said, Dad, I don't know that you're a part of our church.

44:57

She said, well, no. I said, I'm happy to help you, but shouldn't you go to your own pastor in your own church?

45:03

You know, you and your husband are under his authority. That's the place to go. She said, I wouldn't go to him for something important like that.

45:13

I said, well, why are you at this church? You can go for the music. I didn't say it, but I thought, well, and you're getting what you asked for.

45:24

You know, it is vitally essential that the pastor supported by the elders are committed to the teaching of the

45:33

Bible. In the New Testament, the number one word for the pastor is the Daskalos.

45:39

That's the Greek word for teacher. We are to teach the Bible. Our preaching is to be the teaching, the exposition of the

45:48

Word of God, and I think it's best done by going straight through books of the Bible. I've been preaching for the last year and a half the prophet

45:55

Jeremiah. We started in chapter 1, and we started chapter 31 this weekend. I'm teaching the

46:02

Bible, not telling them charming stories, but again, I think the big issue today,

46:07

Chris, is how we define success. Churches define success with the ABCs of church success.

46:14

Attendance, buildings, and cash. If that's what you want, then probably it's true.

46:22

You'll get more money and more people if you cry. Nothing wrong with crying, but every week is a little suspicious.

46:30

And you tell stories about your dog, and about your kids, and anecdotes from movies and cultures.

46:38

But that's not the work that the church is given to do. The minister is to preach the

46:43

Word of God, in which the Scriptures are taught. Now, there may be illustrations that help the teaching of it.

46:50

I'm fine with that. I give illustrations. But it's not primarily charming speech.

46:55

And I have to tell you, I don't think you're going to—the average—I mean, I'm not saying you shouldn't talk to your pastor about it.

47:01

I think in that case, you should humbly express your concern. But I'm not optimistic that most pastors are going to fundamentally change their philosophy of preaching.

47:12

Right, and if you're leaving, you should tell them why. I'm not against doing that, but I am saying, you know, honestly,

47:21

Paul praised the Bereans because they took the Scriptures so seriously. We need to choose our churches not over the dynamism of the pastor, not by the building, not by the praise band or the organ player, but by the teaching of the

47:36

Word of God. So, by all means, I would say to the pastor, in that case, you know, I'm really—the

47:42

Scriptures indicate that we're to be taught the Bible. I have to say,

47:48

I'm not optimistic about them. You know, I hope the pastors are listening. I hope pastors are persuaded. But usually it's not by complaints of people in church.

47:59

And we have time for one more question from Bobby in Hartsdale, New York. He says, don't you think one of the key areas that reveals the truth of the tragedy of the church of the evangelical world today, not relying upon the sufficiency of Scripture, is found in the counseling rooms and the counseling ministries and counseling books that dominate

48:26

Christian bookstores and online book distributors? Well, that question probably requires a longer answer than I should give here.

48:38

A couple things. You know, part of the whole appeal to worldly wisdom and authority, because we're trying to connect with people, the things that they give credence to, has led to us bringing worldly doctrine into everything, and worldly practice into everything.

48:52

And so there's a lot of pop psychology, or even actual psychology, which is in many cases not biblical, that's going on.

49:01

That's a symptom of the fact that the evangelical movement today is not tethered to the Bible. The other side of it is, even where there's godly biblical -based counseling, it is true that we are more interested in ourselves than in God.

49:17

And I'm not against Christian counseling when it's Bible -based and there's skilled people doing great things, but I've often said to people, you know, why don't you read a theology book?

49:27

Not because I'm into theology, but because we need to think about God. And we need to get our minds off ourselves.

49:35

And we are, you know, another phenomenon of the evangelical movement that is increasingly, you know, untethered from the

49:44

Bible, is that we're man -centered rather than God -centered. So I want to be careful, because I'm very grateful for godly

49:52

Christian counselors who help people with biblical wisdom, but sometimes the best biblical wisdom, often in fact, is let's just stop thinking about ourselves and let's turn our faces towards the

50:05

Lord. Amen. And the best healing and power is... And the best of biblical counselors say that very thing.

50:13

They do, they do. And I've known some people who, you know, they have a lot of concerns, a lot of pain in their lives perhaps, and they're just constantly reading these sorts of things, and I've often said to them, again,

50:25

I mean, for every one of those books, why don't you read, you know, a book of biblical devotion and then a theology book?

50:32

Think about God, think about the message of Scripture, and fill yourself with Scripture rather than merely, you know, making the focus of everything your own experience and pain.

50:43

So I don't want to be harsh in saying that, but I think it's actually a timely remark, to be honest with you.

50:51

Well, if you could, in a minute, summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners before we conclude our first hour of this program.

51:01

Well, thank you. Well, I hope you'll come to the conference. I think it'll be well worth time. I've spoken there maybe four or five times, three or four probably, and it's been wonderful.

51:09

I always love to be asked to go to the Quakedown conference. So I do hope I'll see you there. In terms of our topic,

51:15

I want to say that the Christian people are to be a people of truth. We're to be a people of biblical truth.

51:20

We're to be a people who really rely not only on the truthfulness of the Bible, but the power of the

51:26

Bible and the sufficiency of the Bible. Let me close with, I've had my Bible open to 2 Timothy 3 this whole time.

51:32

In 2 Timothy 3, Paul's dealing with, Timothy has all kinds of problems in his church.

51:38

He says that in the latter days, there'll be times of difficulty. Then he just gives this whole litany of things going on, which are going on today.

51:47

Paul's solution for this is not for him to find a new technique, not for him to get worldly counsel.

51:55

No, he tells Timothy to go back to the Scriptures. That's what he tells him to do. But as for you, 2

52:00

Timothy 3 .14, continue on what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you've been acquainted from the sacred writings, which will make you wiser and outmatched in truth, faith, and Jesus.

52:13

And that's when he says, all Scripture is breathed out by God, and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

52:26

And so the principal approach of the Christian church to all kinds of problems is to preach the

52:32

Word, and all of its richness. That Word, which tells the story, the history of God's great redemptive work in and through Jesus Christ, and puts us in that story where we are, and tells us how to understand our world and ourselves.

52:49

And Paul says, preach the Word. And so the thing that is most probably a neglect among Bible believing

52:57

Christians today is the thing that's prescribed to us, that we're to rely upon God's Word as sufficient.

53:05

The Word of God is sufficient in the hands of God to do the work of God with the power of God.

53:11

Amen, and we're out of time, and I want to repeat the websites that are key for my guest today,

53:18

Dr. Rick Phillips, spcgreenville .org, which is the website for Second Presbyterian Church, Greenville, South Carolina, spcgreenville .org,

53:29

and also don't forget about alliancenet .org, and click on events for more details on the

53:35

Quaker Town Conference on Reformed Theology coming up November 11th through the 12th. Thank you so much,

53:41

Dr. Rick Phillips, for doing such a superb job, and I look forward to our next interview, and I look forward to seeing you in November.

53:49

Always great to see you, Chris. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you, brother. And don't go away, folks, because during the second hour, we are going to be joined by Mike Gadosz of Solid Ground Christian Books, and be patient with us.

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It's the longer than normal break. Don't go away. We will be right back after these messages from our sponsors.

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01:08:48

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01:08:56

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01:09:10

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01:09:26

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01:09:42

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01:09:52

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01:10:19

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01:10:26

Bible -believing church, a theologically sound church, no matter where you live on the planet

01:10:32

Earth, I may be able to help you find a church because I have extensive lists of faithful churches spanning the globe, and I've helped many people in our audience find churches in all parts of the world, sometimes within just a few minutes of their homes.

01:10:45

I may be able to help you, too, so send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:10:51

and put I need a church in the subject line if you are in that predicament of not having a biblically faithful church home that you're aware of near where you live.

01:11:02

And that goes for if you have family, friends, and loved ones in that situation as well, obviously.

01:11:08

chrisarnson at gmail .com, but I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Michael A.

01:11:16

Gaydosh, the founder and director of Solid Ground Christian Books, whose website is solid -ground -books .com,

01:11:24

and I can't wait to find out what he has to say about discovering hidden treasures of Christian literature.

01:11:31

It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Triple Design Radio, my longtime friend and former pastor,

01:11:37

Mike Gaydosh. Well, thank you, Chris. Can you hear me okay? I can hear you perfectly well. Great, great.

01:11:43

Yeah, I'm glad that you've been able to squeeze me in after Brother Phillips, and I'm glad for the opportunity of being able to share with you some little gems.

01:11:53

Since you gave me a little bit of time, I'm going to have to deal with little things today. Little books, little classics, you know, little things.

01:12:02

That's what my thoughts are. Well, why don't you start with the first one that you had in mind. All righty. I have a book that I just recently received.

01:12:11

I printed a bunch of copies. It's entitled A Pastor's Counsel, subtitled

01:12:18

Wise Words for Weary, Wounded, and Wandering Sheep. Some of the authors that are found in this little gem that was an

01:12:26

American Tract Society publication back in the 1800s, people that you might have heard of, like Jonathan Edwards, Philip Doddridge, Thomas Scott, Ashbel Green, and a few others.

01:12:42

And what I love about this particular book is that it addresses some really important issues, like, you know, simple things, like what is it to believe on Christ?

01:12:55

And that seems like a simple enough question when a person says, well, what must I do to be saved?

01:13:01

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Well, what is it to believe? And they have an excellent little article,

01:13:10

What is it to Believe in Christ? And they answer some questions here that are just profoundly answered.

01:13:17

And in fact, I want to read a section from the publisher's introduction, which was written by me.

01:13:28

I knew you would enjoy that. I begin by quoting several proverbs that I think really introduce you to what's going to be found in the book.

01:13:41

Proverbs 12, 15. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

01:13:49

Proverbs 13, 20. He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

01:13:57

Proverbs 19, 20. Listen to counsel and accept discipline that you may be wise the rest of your days.

01:14:03

These texts drawn from Proverbs serve as a fitting introduction to the little gem that you now hold in your hands.

01:14:09

Those who wrote the brief articles that are now before you are some of the wisest choices, servants of God that this fallen world has ever known.

01:14:17

In Bunyan's classic Pilgrim's Progress, the leading figure in the book, whose name is Christian, is led into a house that is called the

01:14:24

House of the Interpreter. This house represents the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the new convert.

01:14:31

And there are seven powerful lessons that are taught to Christian. The very first lesson is the description of a true pastor, whom we are told is the only man whom the

01:14:43

Lord of the place, whither thou art going, has authorized to be your guide in all difficult places you may meet with in the way.

01:14:53

Now, I've often been struck by that, that Bunyan, as he is putting together this amazing book,

01:15:00

Pilgrim's Progress, and the House of the Interpreter, the very first scene of the seven marks that Bunyan lays out for the new believer is the marks of a true pastor.

01:15:16

And this is what he saw. These are the seven images that are found in this true pastor.

01:15:23

Christian saw a picture of a very grave person hang up against the wall.

01:15:28

And this was the fashion of it. It had his eyes lifted to heaven, the best of books in his hand.

01:15:35

The law of truth was written upon his lips. The world was behind his back.

01:15:41

He stood as if he pleaded with men. And a crown of gold did hang over his head.

01:15:49

First, we notice that the true pastor must be a man who is grave. The idea is found in the word that is being serious and solemn.

01:15:57

This is captured in the words of Richard Baxter. I preached as never sure to preach again and as a dying man to dying men.

01:16:06

Second, the true pastor should be a man with his eyes lifted to heaven. In the spirit of Samuel, the pastor you trust should be able to say, moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the

01:16:18

Lord by ceasing to pray for you. The man you trust as your pastor must be above all known as a man of prayer.

01:16:27

Third, the true pastor should be a man with the best of books in his hand. In the spirit of the psalmist, your earthly shepherd should be able to say, oh, how

01:16:35

I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. While all ministers of the gospel should be reading the best

01:16:42

Christian books available, he must be devoted to the Bible as the word of the living

01:16:47

God. Trust no man who does not trust the Bible. Fourth, the true pastor should be a man with the law of truth written upon his lips.

01:16:56

In the language of the prophet Malachi, the law of truth was in his mouth and justice was not found on his lips.

01:17:02

He walked with me in peace and equity and turned many away from iniquity. It is not enough that a man carries his

01:17:08

Bible in his hand. He must have it written within his heart and coming out from his lips. Fifth, the true pastor should be a man with the world behind his back.

01:17:17

A worldly minister is a contradiction of terms. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

01:17:24

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The apostle Paul was able to say, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our

01:17:32

Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.

01:17:38

One of the marks of a false shepherd, according to Thomas Brooks, is they eye your goods more than your good.

01:17:47

And mind more the serving of themselves than the saving of your souls.

01:17:53

So they may have your substance. They care not that Satan has your souls.

01:17:59

And sixth, the true pastor should be a man who pleads with men. In the language of the Lord through Ezekiel, I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will

01:18:07

I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt.

01:18:13

And if so, will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. All who represent our

01:18:19

Lord Jesus Christ must be like the apostle Peter, of whom we are told, and with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying,

01:18:29

Be saved from this perverse generation. And he must be like the apostle Paul who is described in Athens.

01:18:37

Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw the city was given over to idols.

01:18:45

Therefore, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

01:18:54

The men who wrote the chapters in this little book were all known by their earnest desire to see souls saved.

01:19:00

And then finally, the true pastor should be a man with a crown of gold, not on his head, but above his head.

01:19:07

In the language of Bunyan, that is to show thee that slighting and despising the things that are present, for the love that he hath to his master's service, he is sure in the world that comes next to have glory for his reward.

01:19:21

Seek a shepherd after God's own heart who has his eyes fixed upon the world to come.

01:19:27

Well, the book, The Pastor's Counsel, is a book that is for Christians and for unbelievers as well.

01:19:35

And it's a book that would be helpful for pastors. There are many helpful things in here that could be used by pastors.

01:19:43

Questions and Counsels by Ashbel Green, Self -Dedication to God by Philip Doddridge, Advice to Young Converts by Jonathan Edwards, The Closet Companion, A Help to Self -Examination by George Berder, and The Knowledge and Pardon and the

01:19:59

Witness of the Holy Spirit by Thomas Scott. It's an amazing little book. It's only about 100 pages long.

01:20:07

In fact, not even 100 pages long. And yet, it's just jam -packed with godly counsel that can be used by pastors, by Sunday school teachers, and by parents as well.

01:20:22

So that's a book called A Pastor's Counsel. Well, that sounds like a definite book that every pastor, especially, should have in his arsenal.

01:20:36

Yep. And do you find that a good percentage of your customers are pastors?

01:20:47

I don't know. I would say a decent percentage. I would think maybe 15%, 20%.

01:20:55

Maybe, and it depends. I mean, sometimes there will be more pastors.

01:21:03

But we have a lot of ladies that order books. So I'm assuming,

01:21:09

I'm hoping they're not pastors. Well, there goes about 7 ,000 customers right there that you just lost.

01:21:19

Well, my books are actually books that will minister to shepherds.

01:21:30

In fact, as you know, many of the books that I have uncovered through the years, I've uncovered them for pastors, but not just for pastors to read themselves.

01:21:40

But many times the books that I find are books that I find that pastors can get in order to give to people in their church.

01:21:51

And one of the books that I published some time ago is entitled The Backslider, His Nature, Symptoms, and Recovery, written by Andrew Fuller.

01:22:02

And The Backslider, it's an interesting book. It's almost like nobody wants to order it because they think that I'm going to think that they're getting it for themselves.

01:22:15

I personally object to the fact that you used my photo on the cover. I didn't think you'd notice.

01:22:25

No, I'm just kidding. I actually wonder if Tom Nettles was ever bothered by the fact that Walt Chantry had him on the cover of his book,

01:22:32

Today's Gospel, authentic or synthetic. And I'm hoping that most people realized he was the authentic.

01:22:41

I don't think I even knew that he was on. You're talking about the original cover? Yes, he was the pastor on the original, or the preacher,

01:22:47

I should say. Oh, wow. I didn't realize that. But anyway, that book by Andrew Fuller is a very, very good book.

01:22:57

It's the kind of book that, again, would be a good book to get for a pastor to be able to read and even be able to use it in a study that he might want to do.

01:23:10

It is a tough subject, obviously, to deal with. We have a picture of kind of an overgrown field, and on the cover we have superimposed the words,

01:23:23

I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo, it was grown over with thorns and nettles, and covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.

01:23:34

Then I saw and considered it well, looked upon it, and received instruction, Proverbs 24, 30 to 32.

01:23:40

And by the way, I just noticed the word nettles is in there. I heard it. It's not

01:23:46

Tom's picture, but it's his name. By the way, you've got to get, if you haven't already,

01:23:53

Dr. Michael Haken to write an endorsement for that, because he is one of the finest

01:23:59

Fuller scholars around. You know what, Chris? As a matter of fact, he wrote the foreword.

01:24:06

There you go. That was not planned, folks. We really do think alike,

01:24:12

Chris. That was a real softball toss. And that was not preplanned.

01:24:19

I didn't know that he wrote the foreword. No, I know you didn't. And he also didn't know that nettles' name was on the actual, was actually on the quote on the cover as well.

01:24:28

Right. But another one, do we have another minute? Oh, yeah, we do. We have nearly ten minutes.

01:24:36

Well, actually nearly 20, actually. Before we take a break? Yes. Do we get one break?

01:24:42

Yes, we only get one break because you're only on the second half. Oh, okay. Another small one that I did, which is really a helpful, encouraging little book, is called

01:24:54

The Assurance Foundation of Christian Hope by Louis Burkhoff.

01:25:01

Burkhoff lived from 1873 to 1957. He's mostly known for his

01:25:08

Systematic Theology, which actually has been recently reprinted in a very nice edition by Banner of Truth.

01:25:16

It's available. In fact, I believe they've added to his Systematic Theology his introduction to Systematic Theology, which was actually a book by itself, and they've included that in the volume.

01:25:30

But this particular book, Joel Beeky says of The Assurance of Faith, and you probably know that Beeky has written a tremendous amount on the subject of assurance.

01:25:40

Yeah, that was his doctoral dissertation, and he had to leave a denomination over there, aberrant teachings on that issue.

01:25:50

Wow, wow. Well, Beeky said this about Burkhoff's little book,

01:25:56

The Assurance of Faith. He said this book is unsurpassed in its clear, classically reformed presentation of the threefold foundation of assurance of faith, the promises of God, the inward witness of the spirit, and the testimony of the

01:26:12

Christian graces. Burkhoff excels at revealing the direct connection between faith and assurance and counseling believers on the cultivation of that assurance.

01:26:23

Covering its history, its foundation, and its experience, Burkhoff convinces the reader that assurance ought to be treasured by all believers and that doubt stunts a believer's growth, well -being, and ability to praise the

01:26:37

Lord. Having this book available once again is a great blessing. And so that is also a little book that I published that I believe is useful to the

01:26:49

Church of Christ. Another one that's rather small, which is also very, very helpful, is

01:26:56

Robert Candlish's expository discourses on Psalm 51 entitled

01:27:04

The Prayer of a Broken Heart. And it is really just a masterful exposition of Psalm 51.

01:27:14

In four messages, the first, chapter 1, is the confession of sin, Psalm 51, 1 -6.

01:27:21

Chapter 2, the supplication for a full cleansing, beginning with verse 7,

01:27:27

Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Chapter 3, its purpose of reparation,

01:27:35

Psalm 51, 13 -16, the purpose of reparation. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

01:27:44

And then chapter 4, its present sacrifice and final prospect. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else

01:27:52

I would give it that the light is not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart,

01:28:00

O God, thou wilt not despise. And that's entitled

01:28:05

The Prayer of a Broken Heart, Expository Discourses on Psalm 51.

01:28:11

So those are a few of the smaller books that I've published. I also wanted to speak about seven classic reprints that have recently been done by Crossway.

01:28:25

Crossway has done a series, they have a series, I'm not sure what the total number is going to end up being, but they've done a beautiful job, they're very handy, almost pocket -sized volumes, and they're called the

01:28:42

Crossway Short Classics. And I was thrilled when I found out that they were going to be doing one by my favorite author,

01:28:49

B .B. Warfield, and the foreword was written by my favorite living author,

01:28:55

Sinclair Ferguson. And the title of the essay that they chose to publish of Warfield's is called

01:29:05

The Emotional Life of Our Lord. I don't know, have you ever read that,

01:29:10

Chris? No, but I have heard of it, and now I am being reminded I should definitely read it, because I have heard of it, but have not yet read it.

01:29:19

Well, you need to read it. It really is an amazing work by Warfield.

01:29:25

He addresses the issues of the fact that our Lord had what he calls the emotion that we should naturally expect to find most frequently attributed to Jesus is no doubt compassion.

01:29:41

By the way, I wanted to give an extra plug for that book. I now instantly, well,

01:29:47

I shouldn't say instantly, it was a delayed reaction, but I now remember why I have heard of that book.

01:29:53

One of my most frequently interviewed guests, Dr. Joseph C. Moorcraft III, pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, and author of an eight -volume commentary on the larger

01:30:07

Westminster Catechism that is highly promoted by Dr. Joey Piper at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

01:30:15

Dr. Moorcraft, at least twice on my show, in very glowing terms, was urging people to read that book by Warfield.

01:30:23

Oh, wow. That's great. Excellent. Yeah, I think that I found it,

01:30:29

I've always loved Warfield, and when I first read this, and it was many, many years ago, it was probably at least 40 years ago that I first read it, and I just,

01:30:41

I was amazed at the insights that God gave him, and just the compassion, the love that he showed for Christ, and he has, one of the powerful sections he has is our

01:30:57

Lord's anger. He has, of course he has it on compassion, but he also has a section on anger, and he has some powerful, powerful words to describe the righteous anger, indignation of our

01:31:17

Lord, and of course you would remember the case of our

01:31:22

Lord when he goes into the temple and he sees the money changers, and just the way that he addresses that whole situation is so powerful.

01:31:32

So that's one, that's one of the seven classics, the emotional life of our

01:31:37

Lord. I have all seven of them available right now, and they're on sale when you get all seven together.

01:31:46

Another one I'll just mention is the expulsive power of a new affection by Thomas Chalmers.

01:31:53

The foreword to that is written by John Piper, and the expulsive power of a new affection is the fact that when, he says, we know of no other way by which to keep the love of the world out of our hearts than to keep in our hearts the love of God.

01:32:10

And that's that expulsive power of a new affection. We need to replace the love of the world with the love of the

01:32:18

Father. Another is entitled Fighting for Holiness.

01:32:23

Can you guess who wrote that one? J .C. Ryle? Fighting for Holiness. What is that? J .C.

01:32:29

Ryle? J .C. Ryle. Very good, Chris. You're doing excellent. You should actually get your own show.

01:32:42

Seriously, that's very impressive. Well, I mean, it wasn't that big of an accomplishment since he wrote a book called

01:32:49

Holiness. Well, yeah, you're right, but not everybody would know that, and not everybody would have had that done.

01:32:55

An interesting thing is this actually is not from that. When I first saw it, my assumption was that it was taken from the book

01:33:04

Holiness, but it's not. This was actually a separate article that he wrote, and it's taken now.

01:33:14

Now, they said that part of this is actually taken from Holiness, so I have to correct myself on that.

01:33:22

It is taken from that, but it is a stand -alone piece in which he deals with particularly focusing on fighting the good fight of faith from 1

01:33:34

Timothy 6 -12. It's brief. This one is only like 60 or 70 pages, but it's just a powerful, powerful piece,

01:33:46

Fighting for Holiness by Ryle. Another one is another one that I know you know which one this is.

01:33:53

Heaven is a World of Love. Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards, exactly. And remember, I got the endorsement from R .C.

01:34:01

Sproul while he was standing at the urinal at Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan. Well, be that as it may, and nevertheless, he's the one who speaks about your rapier -like intellect.

01:34:20

I doubt that it came from that urinal experience. By the way, he didn't write the endorsement right there.

01:34:31

He just accepted the booklet before it was published by Jonathan Edwards, and then he mailed the commendation later.

01:34:42

Well, I tell you, that is an excellent piece as well. That is taken from Jonathan Edwards' exposition of 1

01:34:55

Corinthians 13. And this is one of the chapters that was found in that exposition.

01:35:02

Another is The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Schugle, the foreword by Joel Beakey.

01:35:10

And if I'm not mistaken, I believe it was George Whitefield that said he did not know what true religion was until he read

01:35:20

The Life of God in the Soul of Man. So that tells you something also about the significance of that particular work.

01:35:29

Coming from George Whitefield. Yeah, George Whitefield. That's another one that they've recently done.

01:35:35

That's actually the largest of the particular books.

01:35:41

That one is about 180 pages long, so it's a little heftier.

01:35:47

Again, they're all very small. They're pocket -sized books, but it's larger. Another one, of course,

01:35:52

Encouragement for the Depressed. I think you might guess who that could have been written by.

01:35:58

Charles Spurgeon? Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Wow, I should be on Jeopardy in the solid ground

01:36:05

Christian books category. That's it. If they ever have a Jeopardy category of solid ground books, yes, you definitely should have it.

01:36:13

And I assure our listeners I'm not cheating here. No, I'm guessing that you're not.

01:36:18

I would never think you would do that. Well, I don't even know how I would. I'd have to be very fast on the Internet, and I'm not, as anybody who knows me will attest to.

01:36:28

Nobody would accuse you of that. You're right. Yes, Spurgeon was a man who, as you know, experienced deep depression, and his work here on Encouragement for the

01:36:42

Depressed is just excellent, excellent material. I think of all the ones I've sold,

01:36:47

I think that's probably sold more than any of the others. And the final one, and I don't know if you would know of this one,

01:36:55

The Lord's Work and the Lord's Way is one of the works, and then the second was called

01:37:00

No Little People. No Little People. Now, I don't know if that—does that ring a bell?

01:37:07

Yeah, that would be Randy Newman, the songwriter who sang Short People Have No Reason to Live.

01:37:15

Yeah, I know what you're doing. You're just thinking you might be able to think of it now.

01:37:21

You know it's not Randy Newman. And it wasn't

01:37:27

Alfred E. Newman either. It was Francis Schaeffer. Francis Schaeffer was the one who wrote

01:37:33

The Lord's Work and the Lord's Way. That was the first. This is actually made up of two small works by Francis Schaeffer.

01:37:42

And the one is The Lord's Work and the Lord's Way, and the other is No Little People. And just excellent.

01:37:48

These are excellent, excellent books. All seven of them, I think I've mentioned all seven now, we've got

01:37:54

Thomas Chalmers, B .B. Warfield, J .C. Ryle, Jonathan Edwards, Henry Schugle, Charles Spurgeon, and Francis Schaeffer.

01:38:02

They are working on a few more, but I don't think they're going to be bringing those out until sometime possibly beginning of next year.

01:38:12

But those are just excellent, excellent books. And if your people are interested in getting those, they can, of course, go to our website, solid -ground -books .com,

01:38:24

and they can just type in crossway short classics.

01:38:30

And I think if they do that, I'm pretty sure that that would be the way for them to pull that up.

01:38:36

Let me even check my own website just to make sure. And let me give our e -mail address again while you're looking.

01:38:42

It's chrisarnson at gmail .com. If you have a question for our guest today,

01:38:48

Michael A. Gaydosh, our guest for the second hour. And I do have a question that I'll give you time to recollect your thoughts after our final break to answer the question.

01:39:02

In fact, maybe I'll do that now, and you can jump in where you want to express some thoughts on something here.

01:39:11

If anybody wants to join us, it's chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away.

01:39:16

We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries here, excited to announce that my longtime friend

01:39:39

Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading to Washington, D .C.

01:39:44

for the G3 Ministries Regional Conference on the theme, Just Thinking About the Bible. The conference will be held

01:39:50

Thursday, September 15th, through Saturday, September 17th. I'll be speaking along with Stephen Lawson, Josh Weiss, founder of G3 Ministries, and Daryl Bernard Harrison and Virgil Walker, co -hosts of the

01:40:02

Just Thinking podcast. To register, visit g3min .org, that's g3min .org,

01:40:09

and click on events. Your registration will include a ticket to the Museum of the Bible nearby the conference venue in Washington, D .C.

01:40:17

So join me and Chris Arnson, September 15th through the 17th in Washington, D .C.,

01:40:22

to the G3 Ministries Regional Conference. Register now before they run out of seats at g3min .org,

01:40:29

that's g3min .org. Stop by the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio exhibitor booth and say hi to Chris Arnson while you're there.

01:40:44

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

01:40:50

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

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

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Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, non -profit, non -profit, 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

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

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

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

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Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. As host of Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

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01:50:20

And, Mike, we have a listener in Findlay, Ohio, Cindy, who wants to know if you can make this list you're providing in an email form so that she will be able to, you know, instead of searching through the catalog on your website, she'll just be able to know what you're recommending quickly.

01:50:42

And perhaps before you go off the air, you can highlight, like, the top five or six of what you're recommending.

01:50:50

Yeah, yeah, sure, I can do that. I actually send out emails on a daily basis that if Cindy would like to sign up, she can just sign up, and we would include her in receiving those.

01:51:06

That would be one option for her as well. And if you want to get a... If you want to take...

01:51:12

I can take the email off the air and be able to do that as well.

01:51:18

I did notice that all you have to do is if you wanted to just go on and look at these short classics that I mentioned in the

01:51:26

Crossway series, if you go into the book search and just type in the words short classics, it'll pop right up, and it'll just be that one page which will have all seven titles.

01:51:39

And you can get... You can order individual titles, or you can order all seven. The list price for the seven would be $66, and I'm selling them for $36 if you buy all seven.

01:51:51

So that would be a way to be able to do that. Now, I can't remember what you were hunting for before the break, but if you want to pick up where you left off.

01:52:01

Yeah, no, that is what I was hunting for. Oh, okay. And I found out that that... You don't even have to type in the word crossway.

01:52:07

If you just type in short classics, that will come up. We have a listener,

01:52:16

RJ in White Plains, New York, who asks, what was the most surprising discovery you have made of a book that you knew that you just had to bring into print that you had never heard of before?

01:52:36

When I say discovery, I think the two that are most obvious you would know,

01:52:42

Chris. The first is Pasteur's Sketches. Yeah, Ichabod Spencer. Ichabod Spencer. And the second would be

01:52:48

Councils and Thoughts on the Spiritual Life of Believers. Thomas Moore. Moore. Now, interestingly enough,

01:52:57

I didn't discover either of them. They were discovered by someone else. Tom Nettles discovered the second one, didn't he?

01:53:03

Who's that? Tom Nettles. No, no, no, no. Tom Nettles didn't discover the second one. He discovered that Thomas Moore was...

01:53:10

He found out that Thomas Moore was an elder in Spurgeon. Oh, okay. But no, no, no. He found out about...

01:53:15

He didn't know anything about the book until I gave him a copy. We had already published it. No, it was actually a good customer friend of mine,

01:53:23

Bob Hart, who is the one who told me about the

01:53:28

Councils and Thoughts, and he learned about it through an article that was in a Scottish magazine.

01:53:34

And so that's how I ended up finding out about it. And I was blown away when

01:53:39

I started reading it, and obviously God has used it in a mighty way. And Pastor Sketches was actually discovered, at least for me,

01:53:49

I came about it through a missionary in France, David Vaughan, who had discovered the book, and then he had made a photocopy, sent it to Steve Martin, who at the time was pastoring in Georgia, and Steve sent a copy to me and encouraged me to look at it and consider publishing it.

01:54:12

And eventually I finally read it, and once I read it, I realized that this has to be published.

01:54:19

And so, yeah, those are the two books. Really, there are many, many others that I can think of.

01:54:24

The Richard Newton titles that I've done, Richard Newton, who was nicknamed by Spurgeon the

01:54:31

Prince of Preachers to the

01:54:38

Young. That was the nickname that Spurgeon gave Richard Newton. And the books,

01:54:45

Bible Animals and Bible Jewels and Bible Warnings and Bible Promises and Heroes of the

01:54:52

Early Church, Heroes of the Reformation, all of those books, The Life of Jesus Christ for the

01:54:58

Young. I've done 18 different Newton titles and just astounding books, just absolutely astounding books.

01:55:09

And your two books by Stephen H. Ting, the 19th century rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in Manhattan.

01:55:16

Yeah. Really phenomenal. I had never heard of Ting before you brought this book back to Britain.

01:55:22

Yeah, his book, The Christian Pastor, is one of the books that I did and also the

01:55:27

Lectures on the Law and Gospel. And Stephen Ting also, Stephen Ting actually has,

01:55:35

I've done a few different things that he contributed to. The book on work that he contributed to,

01:55:46

J .W. Alexander also wrote an article. He also did, he wrote the introduction to the book

01:55:55

Light at Evening Time, a book of support and comfort for the aged, which is an excellent book.

01:56:03

And Ting wrote the introduction to that. Yeah, he was another one.

01:56:10

Honestly, I don't even remember now how I came across the name Stephen Ting. But so many times, the

01:56:17

Lord brings people across my path, authors, and sometimes

01:56:23

I find them going through old books and in the back of the old books they would have all these advertisements about other books that were published at that time and I'll go online and try to find an old copy and get it and read it and just be blown away by these books.

01:56:40

And the Pastor's Council was the same way, as well as the

01:56:45

Shorter Catechism Illustrated. That's a great book.

01:56:51

The Shorter Catechism Illustrated is not what you would think it would be. He goes through,

01:56:58

John Whitecross went through all the questions of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and he gives illustrations from Christian history and biography.

01:57:10

He'll take each question and give 6, 8, 10, 12 different examples, many of which are just incredible examples that illustrate, like for instance, what's forbidden in the 7th

01:57:27

Commandment. Forbidden is all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions. And he has just, how many does he have?

01:57:36

About 6 or 8 different illustrations from Christian history. And many of them are very, very memorable.

01:57:46

And so, that's a great book for anybody who's a Sunday School teacher or a pastor, anybody who's going to do any teaching through the

01:57:54

Catechism. John Whitecross, the Shorter Catechism Illustrated is just brilliant.

01:58:01

Well, you know, I have a suggestion for you. Uh -oh. Why don't you consider taking

01:58:09

J .C. Ryle's Sickness, which I believe is taken from the Upper Room, or perhaps even from the

01:58:15

Holiness book, I can't remember, but probably from the Upper Room. I think it is, yeah. And other men of God who have written on sickness, maybe

01:58:24

Adolph Manot and others, and include them in a book, you know, maybe 10 different great men of God who wrote on sickness.

01:58:31

I just thought that that would be a great idea. That is a good idea. And I know that we do not have time for you to repeat those titles, but once again, if Cindy would like that list, you can email it to her, or she can just follow your instructions that you gave.

01:58:50

Can you repeat that? Solid -groundishbooks .com, and how does she find these books? Well, she can, like for instance, the seven that I mentioned, all she has to do is type in the words short classics.

01:59:02

Okay. In the search bar, which is on the upper left of the book search, just type in short classics, and it'll take her to the very page where those are found.

01:59:13

Great, and remember folks, it's solid -groundishbooks .com. Also, do not forget about the

01:59:19

Sufficient Word Conference, which is actually the theme of the Quakertown Conference on Reform Theology, November 11th and the 12th in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, featuring

01:59:30

Dan Doriani, Richard Phillips, and Harry Reeder. Go to alliancenet .org, alliancenet .org,

01:59:36

and click on events. I want to thank you so much, Mike Adosh, for doing such an extraordinary job as you always do.

01:59:41

I want to thank all of our listeners, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater