April 27, 2020 Show with Marc Grimaldi on “The Christ, the Whole Christ, and Nothing But the Christ”

Iron Sharpens Iron

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:04

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

00:10

Carlyle, Pennsylvania It's iron sharpens iron This is a radio platform in which pastors

00:23

Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today

00:30

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

00:38

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

00:46

To make one another wiser and better It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours

00:54

And we hope to hear from you the listener with your own questions, and now here's your host

00:59

Chris Arnzen Good afternoon,

01:10

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

01:15

Earth who are listening via live streaming at iron sharpens iron radio .com This is

01:21

Chris Arnzen your host of iron sharpens iron radio wishing you all a happy Monday on this 27th day of April 2020 and I want to first of all start the show by thanking everyone

01:35

From the very depths of my heart who prayed Fervently and and are still praying fervently for my oldest brother

01:43

John Who is in his 70s and living in Texas? My brother

01:49

John as many of you know, I even announced it last Friday live on the air he had been rushed to the hospital and He has been for years suffering from critical stage emphysema and He had been rushed to the hospital once again this time.

02:09

It seemed more serious than ever because of the fact that he could not breathe and They Rendered him unconscious at the hospital they put him on life support and His wife and daughter

02:27

Regina were expecting the worst and Then the next day after multitudes of people all over the world were praying for him.

02:36

He regained consciousness and He is off life support.

02:42

He's breathing on his own. Although it is a laborious heavy breathing

02:48

But the the best news of all is my brother who? typically would

02:56

Make fun of me it wasn't totally serious, but it was still a

03:03

Form of mockery when I would talk to him about Christianity and his need for Christ That was his normal responses trying to turn it into a joke of some kind, but it seems that he is truly and earnestly seeking after Christ right now and he had

03:23

Told me the very first thing he texted me after he was taken off life support

03:30

I was surprised to get a text from him at all and he had texted me Asking about a certain website that I had never heard of before and it is a

03:42

Christian website of some kind and he told me he's searching the the Internet for Christian websites

03:49

So I recommended a couple of them to him myself and and I said to him yesterday

03:59

Keep looking to Jesus and he texted back Absolutely with about five exclamation points

04:05

Exclamation marks after that. So these are obviously all very encouraging signs and enormous

04:15

Incalculable answers to prayer and I I am just so grateful to all of you who prayed and I urge you to please continue praying for him that the

04:30

Lord extends his life here on earth greatly and that he makes a very crystal -clear profession of faith and that he's protected from false

04:41

Christ's and false Christianity's as He is searching the

04:47

Internet and perhaps even meeting People at least he doesn't he's not permitted to have visitors so he wouldn't be meeting them face to face but you never know he might even have a

04:58

Nurse who is a member of a cult or a false religion or something like that who begins to witness to him?

05:05

And of course, we would ask that in addition to all the other prayers you are lifting before Our Lord's Throne of Grace that you pray that a truly born -again nurse or nurses or even doctor or doctors are in care and are taking care of him and that they

05:26

Further witness to him and there's a lot more I could say, but I just wanted to thank you all

05:31

For that amazing news just truly powerful powerful answers to prayer

05:36

I also wanted to give you some sad news because this individual for any of you who have listened to the iron sharpens iron radio program going way back to 2005 when

05:48

I was broadcasting out of WNYG and WGBB on Long Island, New York You will recall we had a different voiceover artist

06:01

Doing the opening announcements for iron sharpens iron a man that many people told me thought

06:07

Morgan Freeman had Had been doing the the opens for the show.

06:12

His name Was Grey Payne and I just found out today that he went home to be with the

06:21

Lord he loves so much on the 15th of April and he was 79 years old and Now he is enjoying eternity with Christ with his first wife

06:33

Eleanor who was a dear sweet Christian lady and also a woman who was on fire for the

06:39

Lord and filled with zeal as well as grace and loveliness and sweetness, so I'm sure that they have had a wonderful reunion, but My guest today is someone in whom

06:58

I've I'd love to interview. He's my most recent former pastor

07:04

When I was a member of Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island, New York in Merrick, New York before relocating to Pennsylvania pastor

07:17

Mark Romaldi had become the pastor during my last few years on Long Island and Perhaps you can remind me

07:25

Mark. How long have you been the pastor at Grace Reformed Baptist Church now? Yeah, I've been passing here for almost 15 years now.

07:34

Wow time really flies yeah, and so I Left Long Island in 2014 that would have been six years ago.

07:46

So you would have Been in your I guess ninth year.

07:52

I might as my math adding up there yeah, so you were my pastor for nine years there along with Doug Totter and In fact,

08:01

I can remember Mark before he was even the Christian when he was a teenager because his parents were members of the church and we would have

08:08

Bible studies in their home and I remember on occasion this annoying guy with strangely colored hair would barge into the room and start demanding things that He had misplaced or what?

08:24

And Remarkable remarkable testimony of salvation. I believe it was When you had to overdose on drugs, am

08:32

I correct? Yeah, I've taken some taken an exorbitant amount of drugs and wound up in the hospital.

08:38

Yeah And that's like when you were in the hospital is when you were brought to the Lord or at least very shortly after Right.

08:45

Yes throughout that time the way it would be for the exact moment Let's say but but it was through that that process of those things happening that led me to the point

08:54

Ultimately where the Lord brought me to him and today we are going to be discussing the latest book

09:02

By pastor Mark Romaldi. It's not yet in print, but it is expected to be available very soon

09:07

The Christ the whole Christ and nothing but the Christ and it's my honor and privilege

09:13

To have you back on iron trip and Zion radio pastor Mark Romaldi Yeah It's good to be here Chris and just wanted to make sure that your audience

09:20

Knows that you and I are at least six feet apart away at this time because of this We're a lot more than six feet apart

09:30

And why don't you tell our listeners about grace reform Baptist Church of Long Island? Yes grace reform

09:36

Baptist Church of Long Island as it says in the title is a reform Baptist Church We're here to these

09:42

London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 Hold out the truths of the

09:48

Reformation and we would seek to be a Christ centered church And where the gospel is here and present and so if you're ever in town here and Merrick of Long Island We would love to have you come visit us

10:01

Yes, and if you live in the city, it's very easily accessible by train the walk from the

10:08

Merrick train station to grace reform Baptist Church of Long Island is only about five minutes or so if even that yeah, and so And this is a confessional reform

10:20

Baptist Church adheres to the 1689 London Baptist Confession and You are a member of the reform

10:28

Baptist Network. Am I right? Yes. Yes, absolutely. Yeah great if anybody wants more information about grace reform

10:35

Baptist Church of Long Island and I Hope to remember to repeat this later on but the website is grace reformed

10:43

Baptist Church org grace reformed Baptist Church org

10:49

I'm assuming that there are likely a lot of Other churches with the identical name who are filled with envy that you got that website

10:57

Well, we also have the dot -com same thing dot -com Great. Yeah. All righty.

11:03

Well The Christ the whole Christ nothing but the Christ before I even go into the subject at hand

11:12

How many books are under your belt now that you've written in our in print? Yeah, there are three in print is one that's not in print

11:21

So there are three that are still presently in print about two and this one is going to be in a short time

11:26

So actually two presently Great. I know those two books are one of them is we've

11:31

We actually interviewed me about I think of two times in the past it has to do with OCD deal with obsessive -compulsive

11:39

Disorder and then the other one has to do with the the Odyssey called evil and suffering in a sovereign

11:45

God's world But you also interviewed me about yes, I recall them both very well And now we are entering into a discussion on this new book

11:54

The Christ the whole Christ and nothing but the Christ obviously

12:01

Borrowed from when a witness is swearing in in a courtroom to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing, but the truth so help him

12:12

God or her God and So tell us why that title why did you borrow that very well -known phrase and change it about change it around a bit to fit the exclusive Exclusivity of Christ Yeah, the reason why

12:31

I use that particular title is I as I thought about the the three different statements within that title

12:38

I thought it would really help to encompass Just some of the very important aspects of the gospel sent it upon Jesus Christ and especially as you said with with the the the opposition that comes against Christianity in our country and throughout the world because Christianity is exclusive and people see that as offensive and arrogant and so what one of the main goals

12:59

I had in writing this book was to was to deal with that issue and to show people why? Why Christianity is exclusive that it's by necessity that it's not to be arrogant

13:09

It's not to to show off some level of pride and say hey we have the hidden truth But really to show that Christianity is unique and that it's it's necessary and so the the three -part theme to it the

13:21

Christ Addressing the importance of Jesus Christ Who he is and what he accomplished and why we need what he accomplished the whole

13:31

Christ Speaking about how we need to embrace Christ Especially with respect to his two natures this whole humanity and his full deity and then nothing but the

13:40

Christ Addressing the fact that there is no other Nothing to be added to to Christ nothing to be added to the gospel that it's

13:48

Christ alone who saves So when you go through that three -part theme It kind of deals with some of the counter religions and the counter -attacks that come against us

13:57

But in a more gracious way to say look, it's it's by necessity It's not it's not because we're trying to be arrogant

14:03

But this is actually what the need is for mankind because of who God is and who we are and what's happened between us

14:09

Let me immediately give our email address in case anybody wants to join us on the air with a question of your own

14:15

It's chris arnzen at gmail .com chris ar n z n at gmail .com

14:23

and as always Please give us your first name at least Your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside the

14:31

USA Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter perhaps you disagree with some important theological matter with your own pastor or with the

14:45

Predominant members of your congregation or your denomination or perhaps you're even a pastor and you disagree with your

14:54

Co -elders or your denomination? Well, we would understand that you would want to remain anonymous but if it's just a basic general question on theology and doctrine from From the theme that we are addressing today.

15:07

Then please at least give us your first name city and state and country of residence Well to start off with the exclusivity of Christ in fact your your your subtitle of the book is

15:24

Why the Christian gospel must be exclusive? This is an aspect of our faith that is most repugnant to those who are not

15:38

Christians Either those that profess to be Christians who are really leftists and apostates or even those from other religions for instance from what

15:50

I understand if you are in a Hindu country

15:56

Hindus will likely not bother you in the slightest even the most militant ones

16:03

Just by believing in Jesus Christ but once you say That everyone must

16:11

Believe in Jesus Christ as their only hope for salvation

16:17

That's when the militant Hindu will get very upset and and they have even

16:24

Resorted to grotesque violence. A lot of people are unaware of that. They they look upon The Muslims as the only ones involved in horrific barbaric

16:37

Terrorist activity across the globe, but there are especially in India, obviously some very extreme militant

16:45

Hindus who have The most grotesque incident I can remember of Hindu terrorism or atrocities were when a when militant

16:57

Hindus burned a Australian missionary family alive in their automobile While holding the doors closed with long poles, you know so that they could be far enough away from the car that the

17:11

Hindu militants could be far away far away enough from the car that they wouldn't themselves be harmed by the flames and yet keep the doors closed, but But there are people who have no problem with you believing upon Christ as long as He is just one of many options plausible acceptable options to enter heaven

17:38

You also have within Christianity people who have been great heroes

17:45

Within Christendom like Billy Graham Who believed and I'm amazed how many people are shocked when

17:53

I tell them this because it's not like it was a secret I mean he was on television a lot giving interviews and Basically Billy Graham was an inclusivist who believed that Jesus Christ and his

18:10

Sinless life His atoning death his resurrection. They were all necessary for anyone to be saved, but You don't have to necessarily believe that or know that to be saved.

18:25

So he had an inclusivist understanding of Of Christianity and the gospel whereby he had even clearly said

18:35

In an interview that you may have seen on Robert Schuller's program many years ago where he believes that many people are coming from The Muslims and the

18:47

Hindus and the Buddhists and the atheists to Christ, but they're not leaving those things

18:54

The they're still coming to Christ though because they're basically living according to the light that they have

19:03

And of course you have pluralism which is there are different ways that one may enter into heaven but as far as far especially as the one that is

19:15

Most prominent amongst Some very well -known evangelicals and and people from other forms or denominations within so -called

19:27

Christendom Why is that not an acceptable idea like like for instance if Billy Graham were alive

19:33

Sitting here on the panel on our show today And he would say to you know,

19:39

Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for anyone salvation it's just that his grace is bigger than our understanding and He recognizes that many people will never get to know who he is on this earth and so therefore many of these people he honors their faith and Receives it unto himself, even though they are not by name

20:01

Claiming him as their their sole source of salvation or their their soul

20:08

Lord God the Savior and King and they may still be Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or atheist

20:15

That are searching and and he will honor that nonetheless even if they never come to the point of Bowing the knee to him.

20:22

How do you respond to that kind of understanding? Yeah, yeah, the problem with that obviously is that it's it's foreign from Scripture both an example and direct teaching when you look at the example of the

20:35

Apostles in the early church and the Lord Jesus Christ himself and the The call to to go out and to evangelize and to make disciples and to baptize and to Teach them all things that Christ had taught his his disciples

20:49

And you see that being carried out in Acts It's is over and over the emphasis on the necessity of repentance

20:56

Which involves turning away from whatever it is that you were embracing Outside of Christ, whatever your faith was whatever your religion was whatever your trust was in your works your sin all that is a part of repentance and Completely putting your trust in Jesus Christ.

21:12

So you see that all throughout the scriptures in Romans Paul talks about the urgency of people being sent

21:19

To go out and to get the gospel in Romans chapter 10 the necessity of sending How will they hear unless unless somebody preaches the gospel to them and how will they preach unless they're sent?

21:29

And so there's that need for people to go and to give that specific Message and for people to hear that specific message and to believe that specific message and the

21:38

Apostle Paul was grieved because He had a deep love for the for his Jewish kinsmen in the flesh and if anybody had a

21:45

General enough knowledge of God in some sense a monotheistic God and so on it would have been the Jews And you think that they would be the ones who maybe would have that access that Billy Graham's talking about but Paul says that he

21:58

Even wished him he could see himself condemned if they would be saved through his condemnation So they were they were condemned

22:04

So you see that in the teaching of Romans and necessity of getting the gospel out there and also in Acts Again, when you look at all the events of the gospel being preached is always the call to repent and believe

22:14

You never have anywhere in Scripture where this is unconscious Sense of light that somebody's given this whatever that Gnostic teaching might be

22:24

That's just there and and and you and some people are going to be saved and not know about it. It's absolutely just absent from and completely contradictory to Scripture And I think the thing that Billy Graham, I mean, obviously we know that in the later part of his life his later years

22:38

He seemed to have regressed more and more and into that kind of a dangerous teaching Not that he was a hundred percent early on but he was a lot more

22:46

Fouled in his preaching when he was younger at least And then he seemed to kind of drift off in that sense to maybe want to welcome be welcoming and not to stir the apple cart when you're dealing with Muslims and others and to allegedly love others by not wanting to offend and Hoping that they have this extra space for them that Christ is giving them even though they don't know it

23:06

It's just not it's just absolutely Contradictory to everything that Scripture is and what it says and what it teaches.

23:11

I mean, that's what it comes down to yes, and people very often

23:17

Who may have good intentions wind up acting as if they are more kind and loving and merciful and gracious than God himself and and Someone who spoke for God through the

23:35

God -breathed words of Scripture the Apostle Paul I always bring up to people who have this inclusivistic idea and who think that I'm Being overly harsh and judgmental and mean -spirited and bigoted even when

23:51

I talk about the exclusive claims of Christ and the exclusivity of Christ in Christianity, I will say if what you are saying is true that we have to really not be caught up in too much giving theology and doctrine too much importance

24:15

If that is true, then the Apostle Paul really owes the Judaizers an apology Because because they were from what we know

24:23

They believed in everything that Paul taught except that they insisted upon circumcision as being necessary for salvation

24:30

Yeah, yeah, and if you look at Galatians when Paul addresses them, I mean, it's it's great

24:35

Galatians is one of the most fierce You know openings of a book you see Paul comes into one of his epistles

24:41

He's very gentle and how he thankfully is even to Corinthians with the things that they were doing Paul, you know

24:46

He reiterates his love with Galatians. He comes out like a firebrand I mean, he's swinging he's like if anybody comes to you with a different message, let them be accursed who has bewitched you

24:56

I mean, he knows the seriousness of them Incorporating into like you said

25:02

Chris even incorporating into a bit of an alleged faith in Christ the necessity of anything else

25:09

Circumcision or anything else let alone someone who completely rejects Christ and supposedly that somehow there's some light inside of them that they

25:16

You know that they have that that would save them in the end So I mean Galatians is a very clear It shows you that that's the case that it's exclusive.

25:25

There's only one way, you know through Christ I mean he goes so far as to say that he would rather have the the

25:33

Judaizers have castrated themselves Yeah, then Then be circumcised for the reasons that they believed one must be circumcised

25:47

One of the most loving individuals you could ever meet in Scripture We I mean he teaches us so much about Christian virtue and godliness and love and self -sacrifice

25:56

And how he would rather not eat ever again and let somebody stumble over something that he's doing But when it came to the gospel with somebody hinge, you know hindering the gospel and fringing upon the gospel

26:07

He was like a drawn sword, you know, he knew that that was life or death. That was spiritual life or death for eternity

26:13

So he was that serious Well when we come back from our first break, I want you to discuss

26:20

The issue that you bring up initially in the book the disease And we'll have you enter more deeply into that And if anyone would like to join us as I said before With a question of your own.

26:34

Our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com ch or is a or n and Z and gmail .com

26:41

And as always give us your first name at least your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside the

26:49

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

26:57

That's chris arnzen at gmail .com chris arnzen at gmail .com

27:03

Don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages with more of pastor

27:08

Mark Romaldi and our discussion on the Christ and The whole

27:16

Christ and nothing but the Christ. Sorry. I had a little bit of a brain freeze there for a second and We'll be right back

27:32

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

27:48

Grace Church at Franklin is an independent Autonomous body of believers

27:53

It strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in scripture

27:59

Through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ And of course the end of what we strive is the glory of God If you live near Franklin, Tennessee and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe ten minutes

28:13

Are you are visiting this area or you have friends and loved ones nearby?

28:18

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 Our website is

28:32

Grace Church at Franklin org. That's Grace Church at Franklin dot o -r -g

28:38

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

28:44

Lord God Savior and King Jesus Christ today and always

28:52

When I am sharpens iron radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the

28:58

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the iron sharpens iron radio audience have been sticking with or Switching to the

29:11

NASB. I'm dr Tony Costa professor of apologetics in Islam at the

29:16

Toronto Baptist Seminary and the NESB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor

29:21

Jeff Downs of Knox Reform Presbyterian Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and the NASB is my

29:27

Bible of choice I'm pastor Mark Romaldi of Grace Reform Baptist Church of Long Island in Merritt, New York And the

29:35

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Scott Masolo of the

29:41

Master's Church of Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the NASB is my

29:46

Bible of choice I'm pastor Kevin venue of the Bible Church for Washington, New York and the

29:52

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Andrew Smith of Christ Reformed Community Church in st

29:59

Augustine, Florida and the NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor

30:04

Clint Leiter of Highway M Chapel, Sedalia, Missouri and the NASB is my

30:10

Bible of choice There's a great way for your church to help keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air

30:17

Pastors are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart? consider restocking your pews with the

30:24

NASB and tell the publishers you heard about them Chris Arnzen on iron sharpens iron radio

30:30

Go to NASBible .com. That's NASBible .com

30:35

to place your order The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly changed our way of life bringing so many uncertainties

30:46

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

30:53

Well join us each Friday on the program iron sharpens iron with your host

30:58

Chris Arnzen and Pastor Joe Jackowitz as they explore God's Word for answers to this and other of life's related issues

31:07

Tune in at first love radio .org. That's first love radio dot o -r -g

31:13

Each Friday at 1 p .m. Pacific 4 p .m. Eastern That's iron sharpens iron on first love radio dot org

31:22

Friday's 1 p .m. Pacific 4 p .m Eastern to hear what the Bible has to say about pandemics and how we should respond

31:39

As Host of iron sharpens iron radio,

31:47

I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations the church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is

31:55

Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey pastored by Alan Dunn Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes.

32:02

It's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world

32:08

They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship

32:14

God in spirit and truth Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a

32:20

God -centered focus Reading preaching and hearing the Word of God singing psalms hymns and spiritual songs

32:27

Baptism and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship performed with faith joy and sobriety

32:34

Discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at GC BC and J dot squarespace .com

32:44

That's GC BC and J dot squarespace .com or call them at nine zero eight nine nine six

32:53

Seven six five four that's nine zero eight nine nine six Seven six five four tell

33:00

Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on iron sharpens iron radio Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said give yourself unto reading the man who never reads will never be read

33:23

He who never quotes will never be quoted He will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.

33:31

You need to read Solid ground Christian books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the

33:38

Prince of Preachers to heart the mission of solid ground Christian books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future and To publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world

33:50

Since its beginning in 2001 Solid ground has been committed to publish God -centered

33:55

Christ exalting books for all ages We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid ground books .com

34:03

That's solid ground books .com and see what priceless Literary gems from the past or present you can unearth from solid ground

34:12

Solid ground Christian books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of iron sharpens iron radio and please folks remember

34:19

Mother's Day next month and Father's Day and all of the wedding anniversaries that very often occur in the spring and summer and Graduation presence and going back to school presence

34:33

Remember solid ground books .com for all of those purposes and more and of course to replenish and edify yourself

34:41

By getting new books added to your own personal library And folks just always remember that every time you purchase books

34:49

From solid dash ground -books .com. You are helping iron sharpens iron radio to remain on the air for a longer future

34:57

Because solid dash ground -books .com is one of our primary sponsors

35:03

So make sure you tell Mike Gadosh and the folks at solid ground Christian books that you heard about them

35:08

From Chris Arnzen and iron sharpens iron radio We are now back with our guest pastor Mark Romaldi of grace reform

35:14

Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York where he is one of two pastors there alongside

35:21

Doug Totter And we are addressing today the Christ the whole Christ and nothing but the

35:27

Christ Which is also the title of a new book that is expected to be in print soon

35:34

By pastor Mark and if you have any questions, our email address is Chris Arnzen at gmail .com

35:39

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com and I wanted you to enter in to a discussion now of the disease

35:47

In regard to the very first chapter in your book Yeah, let me just let me just practice that one second by saying this too.

35:55

We're just so the audience is aware to one of the Purposes that I had for this book is it's only 60 pages long

36:01

It's pretty short as I wanted it to be a tool to be used Especially because we deal with people or we speak with people friends loved ones who were made some of Roman Catholics somewhere and other kinds of faiths some rapists, but who would

36:15

Especially question the issue of the exclusivism of Christianity what the differences are So I'm hoping it could be useful to that end in this first chapter

36:23

On the diseases first section. I should say part one on the disease is Essential to to unraveling the whole rest of the book in the cure

36:32

Because what happened what I address in the disease first as I as I address the issue of sin

36:38

I begin with who God is it's thought out with God and is Infinite holy nature is righteousness and just the character of God and from there

36:47

I talk about man as the creation and then I get into man's offense With God in sinning against him and Adam and Eve in the garden and how they sinned and now that sin has been

36:57

Propagated down to us and just beginning to understand the serious nature of sin as an offense against God Not because God simply chooses to be offended by it, but because of who he is by his essential nature and character

37:09

It is who God is it is his very nature to be opposed to sin and to to judge and condemn it

37:15

And so with dealing with the issue of the disease If you think about this by way of illustration for a moment

37:22

But if I if this even this COVID -19 that's going around and they're wrestling with trying to find a cure and we know that it's

37:30

It's not deadly for most people, but there are some people who are who are elderly or who have

37:36

Some kind of compromised system Compromised immune system or whatever might be that it could be very

37:43

Deadly to somebody like that. Well, if they come out with a cure for this disease this illness

37:48

And they're wrestling with chloroquine and all these different kinds of things But if they came out with a single cure that could cure this illness

37:57

There might be a thousand different kinds of medication factors way more than a thousand medications that you can get at a

38:03

CVS or a drug store and to to say that one particular drug is the actual cure for this disease and Would not be

38:14

It shouldn't be something that's offensive or something. That's arrogant, right? You would say well you you love these individuals who have this disease and you want to give them the right cure

38:23

So you're not going to give my coil or Tylenol or something like that to somebody who has COVID Who is who can very well die from it?

38:30

You want to make sure they have the right cure well the same way when we understand the nature of sin And how it affects us how it affects our well -being and the gravity of defense that it is against God Breaking his law, and it's a it's a an offense against our

38:44

Holy God, and it requires Atonement it requires a just payment for that sin you begin to appreciate that the that the

38:54

Exclusive nature of Christianity is not something That's coming from an area of pride or arrogance, but coming from an area of necessity

39:01

The disease warrants that so whatever the disease somebody has

39:07

Sometimes there's a specific medication that meets that disease and other medicines will do nothing to help well in this case the disease is

39:15

Spiritual and it has to do with how it how it offends And the the way that it opposes our

39:22

Holy God and so that first chapter first section on the disease I deal with the issue of sin, and then

39:28

I deal with the issue of death death being not only physical death, but also spiritual death Also the whole idea of hell, and what's entailed there the eternal consequences that sin brings about So when you think of the urgency of the matter

39:41

Chris when you of how serious of an offense our sin is to God of what? it requires That's why the whole issue of Christ the gospel the uniqueness of the gospel

39:51

It's the exclusive nature of the gospel. That's where that all comes to the table by way of necessity And so it's it's important for people to understand that and not just think that Christians Are these this arrogant group of people are out there who just want to be exclusive in this class on their own and want to?

40:06

Block everybody else out It's necessity and when we preach the gospel to everyone we evangelize as you said before Chris that with Hindus and others

40:15

The offense really comes down to when you try to evangelize How can you not evangelize?

40:21

How can you not if you know that this is the universal condition of all mankind is that we're condemned?

40:27

Because of our sin nature in the sight of God and we're heading to an eternal place of torment How can you not even at the expense of your own comfort in life evangelize?

40:37

And I think it was you could probably tell which one it was Chris. I don't always kind of tell her one of those the magician

40:44

Angela Angela yeah, he had actually said when somebody's talked to him about the gospel.

40:50

I think it was Which is named the British guy the guy who goes around and does the gospel presentations on the videos and stuff?

40:56

I'm just drawing a blank at the moment, but you know is he he when he brought this to to his attention

41:01

He said that he had put a quote out Basically saying that if you're a true

41:08

Christian, and you really believe that and you're not evangelizing That would be a heinous crime, but if you're not how could you not go out and warn people in this guy?

41:18

I tell her was right it was an atheist I don't think he's been converted or anything like that, but he's saying he understands

41:23

Why we would we would be compelled to do that And so that's that's the gist of where I get to with the whole idea of the disease and why it's important to understand

41:33

The nature of our problem. Yes, and I'm glad you said our problem because a lot of people

41:42

Either have a wrong preconceived notion about our at our intentions

41:49

When we evangelize them or they're listening to a Christian or even a charlatan professing to be a

41:58

Christian Who is so arrogant and proud? that he only brings condemnation to those around him for their sin and They may act as though they have no sin of their own

42:13

But this This Disease is something since we are all made out of the same lump of clay

42:22

We are all children of the devil Until some of us are adopted and rescued by God himself and he makes us by his miracle of grace and mercy a child of God, but we should never come across to Those whom we want to see rescued from their sinful state and from hell we should never come across That we believe we are somehow innately superior to them

42:54

Yeah, yeah, we need and that's part of the problem to Chris with with people's view of Christianity there's many people who have a story right of a church that they went to how they were mistreated or Or maybe that church, you know, there were there were grievous sins committed there and and the reality is that even in the best of churches, first of all this we all still struggle with sin and fight with sin and and Serious sin issues do come up in churches and so on and that's what we don't base our faith in the church

43:24

But in the scriptures and in the Christ of the scriptures about but if you think about it The the fact that there is a real devil and there are real minions that serve with the devil real demons

43:36

Who work against this gospel who are fighting against? The Christ of this gospel and trying to destroy his church and trying to keep people from benefiting from the gospel

43:46

It's not surprising that they were going to be many many ways that he's going to to a seek to attack the witness of the gospel and one of those ways is to have to have

43:59

Ponies right to have those that are hypocrite hypocrites in there people were going to profess the gospel and profess faith in Christ But they're going to teach a false gospel

44:08

Some were going to be very legalistic or be very arrogant or or contaminated with an easy believer

44:15

There's all kinds of contaminations out there and that's why I would encourage the audience as well to make sure that What you look to as your ultimate authority has got to be the

44:25

Word of God We're imperfect Even the best of men are men at best and will let you down and if you look to anybody but Christ and his

44:33

Word You're going to to doubt right? You're not you're going to start to doubt the truth of Christianity So when you have all that in there and people's experiences that they have you can see that why there's some sense of Reluctance or pulling back

44:47

And so we as Christians want to make sure we don't add to that We want to make sure that we're trying to come alongside of people and say look is my testimony, you know,

44:58

I've been there I know what I deserve this. I don't deserve any of this. I don't deserve grace. I'm not better than you

45:03

I'm not in the position of a higher a higher position than you are and and I'm trying to now bring you to my higher

45:09

Position because of something good in me. I'm saying that it's all based upon what this

45:14

Christ has accomplished He has to be the center and so that's important when you think about the way people will

45:22

You know wrestle with the issue of the exclusiveness and how people treat them arrogantly and what they experience

45:27

By the way, real quick the person I was thinking before I think it was way comfort was the what the individual

45:32

I think who would interviewed tell her if I recall Okay, great we have

45:39

John and Bangor, Maine who says in regard to your rejection of Inclusivism as expressed by Billy Graham and others

45:49

How do you interpret Acts chapter 17 verse 22 through 31 where it says?

45:57

Paul stood in the middle of the Aragapagus and said you men of Athens I perceive that you are very religious in all things for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship

46:08

I found also an altar with this inscription to an unknown God and then

46:15

Paul Proceeds to basically reveal Jesus Christ as this unknown God it appears unless I am misreading this

46:23

That they are unknowingly worshiping Christ. Am I wrong? No, I think that text actually supports and they

46:32

I don't know if the individual wrote the email is coming from that angle But that actually supports Exactly what we're saying

46:38

That Paul is saying look You have all these gods Zeus and Hermes, whatever all these different temples and gods and he may he uses that that one dedication to the unknown

46:51

God As a means of saying look there is there is one particular

46:57

God out of all your gods Who is correct and he borrows that classification because he is unknown to them

47:04

And he does exist there is they're kind of falling out this thing like We want to make sure we don't leave anybody out.

47:10

We don't want to take any of the gods out So they put this unknown God in there and he said look I'm gonna talk to you about the unknown one

47:16

He's playing on what they're doing and using that to bring them to the true and living God who is the unknown

47:21

God to them Right in the present. He literally is that even though they might not intend it that way

47:26

He uses that to that end to bring them to that, you know to the truth of the true gospel

47:32

So even in that context He's saying that all these other gods that are there are not real and he and in that he when he's speaking to the people

47:40

He talks about that God is not a God that's made by hands and you have to put him up on a horse and carry him around and he depends

47:46

Upon you to offer him these things because he's in need and he's angry at you if you don't give him food or whatever

47:52

It's the other way around is that our God doesn't depend upon us. We depend upon him

47:57

And and so Paul is kind of turning some of the Greek thought On its head there in that text and what he says in the preaching there

48:05

So that that's a very much very much a test to the whole exclusive nature of the gospel what Paul was doing right there so when

48:13

Paul says You are ignorant of the very thing you worship and this is what

48:19

I'm going to proclaim to you there assume from what you just said That is somewhat of a tongue -in -cheek expression because they're not really worshiping

48:29

Christ You can imagine all these different statues and dedications and plaques or whatever dedicated

48:42

And and the idea is that they have this one there that they don't just in case there's others or another

48:48

God They're not aware. They don't want to leave that one out and so Paul can with with Honesty and certainty he can utilize that in a sense because They even know they're trying to worship him in some sense because they don't want to leave anybody out

49:04

And even though they're not doing it correctly. You can point to the true God He said he's basically using that as a means of bridging to the true

49:11

God It's it's his avenue of reaching these individuals who have all these gods. It's actually a brilliant thing

49:17

It's and it would encourage us when we evangelize, right? We know we don't want to cut we can't compromise the gospel

49:23

We can't ever change what the gospel is, but sometimes the means of conveying that gospel Oh the circumstances who are we dealing with are we dealing with a you know old folks in a nursing home?

49:34

We're on the dying days. Are we dealing with you know, arrogant? You know bullies or gangsters?

49:40

Are we dealing with college kids who are very much into influence by atheism? Are we dealing with Hindus?

49:46

You can utilize Whatever you are you can utilize those surroundings in that context and that in whatever way is true

49:54

To get to the truth and I think when Paul sees that he's saying him If there isn't there is an unknown

50:00

God there to you He is unknown to you and I want to tell you about this unknown God You're not you're not aware and he is the one who created the book of Paul says

50:08

He's the one who created all things in heaven on earth. So Paul when he says that he's immediately elevating the unknown

50:13

God Over all these other statues and and all the gods that they have them

50:18

So it's more of I think a means of Paul using that to to get them to the truth And he's doing it with him in a way that he can be honest and he's not compromised because it is

50:27

It is the unknown God. It is the God that they're not aware of that. They're saying. Hey, we want to make sure we pay respect

50:33

To the to even if we're not thinking of a particular God only Paul's bringing that God in and saying yeah

50:38

Let me talk about this guy with you But all these other ones are not God's the one you're not that you worship in a goose.

50:44

He's actually the real God So in some sense, they're offering worship maybe incense or whatever it is that they're doing to all these gods

50:51

And they are doing it to that unknown God Not that it's accepted. But again, he's using that as a bridge to to address them

50:59

Right, just like Nadab and Abihu. They were offering worship to the true

51:06

Yahweh But they were where they did so in a way that caused their own deaths because it was

51:15

Displeasing the God it was a false form of worship God but the point is that is that they're acknowledging the possibility that there is some other

51:28

God and Paul said well I'm not only gonna Ignore, I'm not only gonna agree with you on that But I'm gonna say that that's the only one in true

51:34

God and here he is and it's a brilliant way of him bridging them into the gospel All right.

51:40

I would make a recommendation before we go to this midway break because you are still Overmodulating and I don't know why but perhaps when you speak you could speak farther away

51:52

From the mouthpiece of your phone because that may help and I apologize folks this kind of thing happens from time to time and they're beyond my

52:00

Understanding or ability to fix But we're going to our midway break right now. It's the longer than normal break.

52:07

So please be patient with us This is the break where Grace Life Radio 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida They use the middle break of our show

52:17

To air their own public service announcements and other localized things because by FCC regulations

52:26

They have to localize Iron Trip and Zion Radio to Lake City, Florida and while they air their own

52:32

Public service announcements we air our globally heard commercials So, please try to write down as much of the information provided by as many of our sponsors as possible

52:42

So that you can more frequently patronize them and more successfully patronize them because keep in mind

52:48

I know that sometimes people complain about the number of ads, but this show would not exist

52:53

Without the finances that come from the sponsorship of these advertisers So please be patient with us and also write down questions for Mark Romaldi on our topic at hand today the

53:05

Christ the whole Christ and nothing but the Christ and our email address again is

53:11

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com

53:16

and Please always as as I've said before give us your first name your city and state of residence in your country of residence if you live outside the

53:26

USA and Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter and we're gonna be right back after these messages

53:39

Chris Arnzen host of iron sharpens iron radio here. I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years

53:45

His name is Dan, but if you go Dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer

53:50

But not the type that typically comes to mind Dan cares about people and is a theologian himself

53:57

Recently, he wrote a book titled consider the evidence for the Bible Ravi Zacharias wrote the forward

54:03

Dan also has a master's degree in theology Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states

54:12

He represents many Christians in serious injury matters all over the country Dan is an exceptional trial lawyer

54:19

He wrote the test for the National Board of Trial Advocacy and currently his firm has over 100 cases

54:26

That have settled for 1 million dollars or more and in approximately 10 different states in Illinois his lawyers had the fourth largest settlement in the state's history in New York his case involving a paralyzed police officer

54:41

Made the front page of the law journal if you have a serious personal injury or medical malpractice claim in any state

54:49

I recommend that you call Dan Consultations are free. There is no fee unless you win

54:56

Dan, but a few goes number is 1 800 6 6 9 4 8 7 8 1 800 6 6 9 4 8 7 8 or email me for Dan's contact information at Chris Arnzen at gmail .com

55:10

That's Chris Arnzen at gmail .com James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here if you've watched my dividing line webcast often enough

55:27

You know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry Rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity and besides that they feel so good.

55:37

I'm so delighted I discovered post tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding. No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot

55:46

Jeffrey Rice of post tenebrous Lux is a Remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan all his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching

55:57

Jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goatskin

56:05

Tanned in Italy used to my Nestle all in 28th edition with a navy blue goatskin

56:10

Inside liner and the electric blue goatskin from a French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study

56:16

Bible I used as a gift the silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome

56:23

Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather

56:30

Making whatever he rebinds a one -of -a -kind work of art for more details on post tenebrous

56:36

Lux Bible rebinding Go to PTL Bible rebinding calm.

56:42

That's PTL Bible rebinding calm Have you been blessed by iron sharpens iron radio

57:03

We remain on the air because of our faithful sponsors and because of listeners like you there are four ways you can help

57:10

First, do you know potential sponsors who may wish to advertise their goods or services on iron sharpens iron radio?

57:17

second whenever possible purchase the products or use the services that our sponsors advertise and Then let them know that you heard about them on iron sharpens iron radio

57:28

Thirdly, you can also donate to iron sharpens iron radio by going to our website at iron sharpens iron radio

57:34

Dot -com and click support at the top of the page, but most importantly keep iron sharpens iron radio in your prayers

57:42

We hope that iron sharpens iron radio blesses you for many years to come This orange and host of iron sharpens iron radio announcing a new website with an exciting offer from world magazine

58:02

My trusted source for news from a Christian perspective Try world now at no charge for 90 days by going to get world now

58:12

Calm that's get world now calm. I rely on world because I trust the reporting

58:18

I gain insight from the analysis and world provides clarity to the news stories that really matter

58:23

I believe you'll also find world to be an invaluable resource to better understand Critical topics with a depth that's simply not found in other media outlets armed with this coverage

58:34

World can help you to be a voice of wisdom in your family and your community This trial includes bi -weekly issues of world magazine on -scene reporting from world radio and the fully shareable

58:46

Content of world digital. There's no obligation and no credit card required

58:51

Visit get world now calm today Also, check out world newsgroups podcast the world and everything in it at wng .org

59:02

Forward slash podcast. That's W for world in for news

59:07

G for group org forward slash podcast I'm dr.

59:22

Tony Costa professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love

59:32

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

59:52

Unfathomable riches of Christ in his Holy Word and to enthusiastically proclaim

59:57

Christ Jesus the King and his doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island and beyond 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 for more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church Go to hope reformed

01:00:18

Li net That's hope reformed Li dotnet or call 631 696 5711 that's 631 696 5711

01:00:34

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

01:00:49

You When iron sharpens iron radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the

01:00:55

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the iron sharpens iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the

01:01:08

NASB I'm dr. Joe Moore craft pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia And the

01:01:16

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm Anthony Vino founder of the reform rookie comm and co -founder of New York apologetics

01:01:26

And the NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Tim Bushong of Syracuse Baptist Church in Syracuse, Indiana and the

01:01:34

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm Eli Ayala founder of revealed apologetics and staff member with the

01:01:40

Historical Bible Society and the NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania And the

01:01:49

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm Joe Bianchi president of Calvi Press Publishing in Greenville, South Carolina And the

01:01:59

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Jake Korn of Switzerland Community Church in Switzerland, Florida And the

01:02:09

NASB is my Bible of choice Here's a great way for your church to help keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air

01:02:16

Pastors are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart? Consider restocking your pews with the

01:02:23

NASB and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Sarnson on iron sharpens iron radio go to NAS Bible comm that's

01:02:33

NAS Bible comm to place your order This is pastor

01:02:48

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

01:03:01

Financially Grace Church at Franklin is an independent autonomous body of believers

01:03:07

Which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in scripture through the person and work of our

01:03:15

Lord Jesus Christ and of course the end of which we strive is the glory of God If you live near Franklin, Tennessee and Franklin is just south of Nashville Maybe ten minutes or you are visiting this area or you have friends and loved ones nearby

01:03:32

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 Our website is grace church at Franklin org

01:03:48

That's grace church at Franklin dot o -r -g This is pastor

01:03:54

Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our Sovereign Lord God Savior and King Jesus Christ today and always

01:04:08

The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly changed our way of life bringing so many

01:04:14

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

01:04:22

Will join us each Friday on the program iron sharpens iron with your host Chris Arnson and Pastor Joe Jackowitz as they explore

01:04:31

God's Word for answers to this and other of life's related issues Tune in at first love radio dot org.

01:04:39

That's first love radio dot o -r -g Each Friday at 1 p .m.

01:04:45

Pacific 4 p .m. Eastern That's iron sharpens iron on first love radio dot org

01:04:51

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

01:05:02

Iron Sharpens iron welcomes solid rock remodeling to our family of sponsors

01:05:12

Serving South Central, Pennsylvania Solid rock remodeling is focused on discovering

01:05:18

Understanding and exceeding your expectations. They deliver personalized project solutions with exceptional results

01:05:26

Solid rock remodeling offers a full range of home renovations including kitchen and bath remodeling decks porches windows and doors

01:05:36

Roof and siding and more for a clear detailed professional estimate

01:05:41

Call this trustworthy team of problem solvers who provide superior results that stand to the test of time

01:05:49

Call solid rock remodeling at 7 1 7 6 9 7 1981 7 1 7 6 9 7 1981 or visit solid rock remodeling calm that solid rock remodeling calm solid rock remodeling

01:06:08

Bringing new life to your home Hi, I'm buzz

01:06:18

Taylor frequent co -host with Chris Arnson on iron sharpens iron radio I would like to introduce you to my good friends

01:06:24

Todd and Patty Jennings at CV BBS Which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible book service?

01:06:30

Todd and Patty specialize in supplying reformed in Puritan books and Bibles at discount prices that make them affordable to everyone since 1987 the family -owned and operated book service has sought to bring you the best available

01:06:43

Christian books and Bibles at the best possible prices Unlike other book sites.

01:06:49

They make no effort to provide every book that is available because frankly Much of what is being printed is not worth your time

01:06:56

That means you can get to the good stuff faster It also means that you don't have to worry about being assaulted by the pornographic

01:07:04

Heretical and otherwise faith insulting material promoted by the secular book vendors Their website is

01:07:10

CV BBS comm browse the pages at ease Shop at your leisure and purchase with confidence as Todd and Patty work in service to you the church and to Christ That's Cumberland Valley Bible book service at CV BBS comm that's

01:07:27

CV BBS comm Let Todd and Patty know that you heard about them on iron sharpens iron radio

01:07:35

And don't forget folks. You can call CV BBS comm if you prefer ordering by phone

01:07:41

Monday through Friday between 10 a .m. And 4 30 p .m. Eastern Time only at 800 6 5 6 0 2 3 1 800 6 5 6 0 2 3 1

01:07:52

No one mans that phone line outside of those hours 10 a .m. To 4 30 p .m.

01:07:58

Eastern Time Monday through Friday And there is no voicemail so if you intend to call Please call during those days and hours and always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen Iron sharpens iron radio.

01:08:10

In fact as I've said to you before since we have two book related advertisers

01:08:16

What you could do is You could go to I strongly recommend that you go to solid a dash ground

01:08:22

Dash books calm before you go to CV BBS comm Because solid ground

01:08:29

Christian books is a publisher and CV BBS comm is a book distributor and they carry all of solid ground

01:08:38

Christian books titles and of course many many other publishers So this way you could kill two birds with one stone and bless both of our advertisers

01:08:48

Because CV BBS will have to order the purchase those books from solid ground

01:08:55

Christian books So they both win If you do it that way, please tell solid ground

01:09:01

Christian books that you place the order with CV BBS So that they know that you responded to their commercial and tell

01:09:08

CV BBS to Before we return to pastor Mark Ramoli of grace reform

01:09:14

Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York with our discussion today on The Christ the whole

01:09:21

Christ and nothing but the Christ which is also the theme of His new book that should be available in print in four months

01:09:29

Before we go back to that theme Let me just give you a couple of announcements first of all tomorrow and Wednesday two days in a row.

01:09:41

We're gonna have pastor Mac Tomlinson returning the iron sharpens iron radio. I Do not know the themes yet.

01:09:48

I hopefully will know those tonight, but pastor Mac Tomlinson is always a joy to have on this program a very

01:09:56

Biblically wise brother in Christ the very Gracious and loving brother in Christ that oozes through his words.

01:10:08

I Frequent announcements Requesting prayer that Mac Tomlinson has visited my oldest brother

01:10:15

John in the hospital Before the coronavirus broke out and he was permitted into the hospital, but he has been in contact with him by phone

01:10:25

During his latest trip to the hospital and I value that very very much and I'm so glad that my brother

01:10:32

John is very welcoming and receiving Contact from Mac, but he will be on as I said

01:10:40

Tomorrow and Wednesday, we have a first -time guest on Thursday. His name is Michael Hammer He is from Princeton, New Jersey, and he is a

01:10:48

Jewish believer and we're going to be discussing his testimony of salvation and How as a

01:10:56

Jewish believer He has come to embrace The doctrines of reform theology also known as the doctrines of sovereign grace and also known as Calvinism Which is seems to be a rare phenomenon amongst

01:11:10

Jewish believers so that should be a Fascinating discussion on Thursday and then on Friday we have my dear friend pastor

01:11:19

Joe Jackowitz giving his weekly coronavirus updates and then also giving biblical application on how we should respond and last but not least folks if you

01:11:31

Love this show and you don't want it to disappear I'm urging you as I try to do every day every day during the show

01:11:39

I'm urging you to please go to iron sharpens iron radio .com click support Then click click to donate now

01:11:48

By doing that you could donate instantly by debit or credit card and if you prefer snail mail

01:11:54

You can write out a check to iron sharpens iron radio and mail it to the address that will appear on the screen when you click support at Iron sharpens iron radio .com

01:12:05

and as I've tried to remember to remind you every day Please never siphon money away from your regular giving to your local church

01:12:13

To give to iron sharpens iron radio, especially in this time right now

01:12:19

During the hysteria that has accompanied the corona virus pandemic Many churches are hurting badly financially because of the fact that their members and visitors are not showing up physically and therefore many of them are putting their giving on hold or Many of them can't give because they've lost their livelihood

01:12:44

Many reasons why this is happening. So please Don't siphon the money that you would normally give to your church away from them to give to us and never

01:12:55

Put your family in financial jeopardy either by giving to us those two things are commands of Scripture to provide for your church and your own family and to provide

01:13:06

For iron sharpens iron radio is obviously not a command of Scripture like those other two are

01:13:13

So if you are blessed financially above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands

01:13:18

Providing for church and home then please help us if you love the show go to iron sharpens iron radio .com

01:13:26

click support then click click to donate now and You could use some of that recreational money that you're not using now because you have been

01:13:37

Quarantined to your own home during this time of the pandemic You can't go to sporting events.

01:13:44

You can't go to the movies. You can't go out fine -dining You can't go to theatrical plays. You can't go to Bible conferences so many things that you used to love to do that right now

01:13:53

You've been prohibited from doing So if you could use some of that money, I will take as much of that money as you want to give to us

01:14:02

As possible and I am very honored and I am so grateful and giving praise to God for those of you who have maintained your loyalty in giving to us and I also want to thank the new folks that I've never heard from before who have

01:14:20

Given to us very recently and have responded to our SOS is our cries for help

01:14:25

Which I hate doing I hate doing this especially since there's so many charlatans Who Get wealthy off of bilking

01:14:35

God's people Financially, and so I don't even want to be in the same company as them

01:14:41

I hope you can distinguish between me and iron trip and Zion radio and these false teachers But so please help us so that we can remain on the air.

01:14:50

We lost Temporarily anyway, two of our biggest advertisers whose businesses were

01:14:56

Negatively affected by the hysteria accompanied by the coronavirus pandemic So, please help us replenish that which was lost and I am grateful for you and grateful to God for you

01:15:10

Also folks if you Want to advertise with us send me an email to Chris Arnson at gmail .com

01:15:16

Chris Arnson at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line We surely could use your advertising dollars as long as whatever it is.

01:15:24

You're promoting is compatible with what we believe You don't have to believe identically with me, but you need to be doing promoting something that's compatible and so just send me an email to Chris Arnson at gmail .com

01:15:34

and put advertising in the subject line and I want to be more compassionate and gentle in the way that I say this because I've been rebuked by a woman who

01:15:46

Shall remain anonymous Who I think very rightly pointed out to me that There are people out there who do not belong to a church because they have been horribly abused

01:15:59

By a church in their past and they are very hesitant and frightened and paranoid about making themselves vulnerable again and becoming a member of a church, but Having said that and I do have compassion for you

01:16:15

Having said that no matter what we experience in our lives, however is not a

01:16:21

License for us to disobey God and it is clear that In the

01:16:26

New Testament, there are no lone wolf Christians There are no maverick Christians who are not under the authority of a local

01:16:34

Body of elders at a local church and it's not going to do you any good. Anyway, it's not going to benefit you perhaps even especially if you've been harmed seriously by A church in the past.

01:16:46

It's not going to benefit you by just wallowing in that pain without truly ordained men of God as your shepherds over you and and the body of Christ that can

01:16:58

Overwhelm you with love and grace So, please if you are not a member of a church

01:17:05

And you're having trouble finding one. Send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com Chris Arnson at gmail .com

01:17:12

and put I need a church in the subject line I have lists of biblically faithful churches all over the world and God willing

01:17:17

I will be able to help you find a church no matter where on the planet earth you live I have helped quite a number of people all over the globe find churches where they have joined or recommended to Family friends and loved ones who don't have churches or where they have visited on vacation

01:17:32

So that's chrisarnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line That's also the email address where you could send in a question

01:17:41

To pastor Mark Romaldi on our subject today the Christ the whole Christ and nothing but the

01:17:47

Christ That's chrisarnson at gmail .com And we do have a listener

01:17:54

We have Johnny in Queens, New York, and I have to enlarge his email because the font is microscopic and His question is many in the visible church are

01:18:08

Reading the same Bible about the person and work of Christ yet. They still come to different conclusions

01:18:14

About the atonement his work to sanctify and preserve his people or the meaning of his teaching in the four

01:18:22

Gospels Why would there be such confusion and division if they all claim to know the whole

01:18:28

Christ? very good question Yep, so I would

01:18:34

I would say that's definitely a very good question for one. I would say it comes down to The the way that the way people would study this for how do you how do you understand the scriptures?

01:18:45

Is there a method of interpretation? That's proper. And I think that when you're dealing with the

01:18:51

Especially with the essentials of the scripture when you're dealing with the gospel who Christ is I'm talking about, you know The foundational issues of scripture.

01:18:57

It's very clear. It's all throughout the scriptures and if you're using a proper Permanent what

01:19:03

I mean by that is a proper means of interpretation where you would interpret the scriptures according to the way that each piece of literature that's given in the scriptures when you would open up text within their context and not

01:19:14

Just pull things out like we see in the political realm, right? We see a lot of people tend to twist things and politics

01:19:20

I'll just take somebody's statement out of context and make it and make it into say something It's not saying a lot of it happens within within Christianity as well within studying the

01:19:28

Bible So somebody's really trying to study the Bible and they understand how to and I don't mean that there's this secret knowledge on understanding how to but just basic understanding of how to Understand what an author is saying to his audience and looking at context and things like that There should be a pretty clear understanding of the very basics and the most important Issues of the faith.

01:19:50

Now there are things that it can be debatable that are less Maybe they're not as clear certain.

01:19:57

There is issues of eschatology There's room for debate there. Obviously, there's some difficulty in understanding some of the things in Revelation and Even issues with respect to how we talk about baptism.

01:20:09

We have Presbyterians and Baptists and whether or not Individuals should be baptized as infants and so on and and that this is room for debate there.

01:20:19

There's certainly a good case That Presbyterians would make they're wrong, but they make a good case That It could be some level of confusion about we are imperfect interpreters.

01:20:42

We're not we're not perfect And you'll see with some of those more peripheral issues even issues related to the spiritual gifts and whether or not they've ceased and how

01:20:52

They're to be used. There's some debate in there, but I think when you come down to the fundamentals

01:20:58

They're thoroughly clear They're it when it's right there and it's all over the scriptures all over the place.

01:21:05

It should be very clear So but the reason why there are debates or there are disagreements about the fundamentals

01:21:11

Generally is that it has to do with how people are interpreting the scripture But you can take any but you can take the scriptures and make it say whatever you want

01:21:19

If you if you don't use, you know a proper study of literature the problem study of narrative what's going on a narrative?

01:21:26

I don't understand narrative a proper understanding of didactic teaching literature Which would be in the epistles if you don't just study the way it's supposed to be studied and you just look at it and kind Of pull things out of context.

01:21:37

You could almost say anything you want with any book in the world But the reality is the author just like any author has a plot has a message

01:21:45

That it wants to convey that he wants to convey and there's a way of getting to the bottom of that message

01:21:50

That's pretty clear through throughout the scriptures. So I think that's where some of the debate issues

01:21:55

But when it comes down to the fundamentals of who Christ is What salvation is all about how an individual is saved

01:22:01

Christ being fully God and fully man? The assurance of salvation, you know, all those kinds of things

01:22:09

Are pretty clear throughout the scriptures and it you have to really rest things out of context to disagree

01:22:16

And so there are people do that though that will that will not really read the scriptures in a proper way

01:22:21

And they'll just take things and oh, well, it says this and just pull it out and make it say something that it isn't I think that's have a lot to do with us to come down with Come down to how you how you interpret the scriptures itself is is important but the means that you use and therefore you really answered a

01:22:39

Question that I was going to ask before Johnny wrote in There is a teaching that Those who are heirs of the

01:22:48

Protestant Reformation Believe is a very important doctrine the purpose cuity of Scripture Which basically means that the scriptures are clear.

01:22:59

They're plain. They're intelligible. They're transparent But at the same time those same scriptures teach that there are very

01:23:12

Strict qualifications for somebody who's to be a teacher in the church And the the scriptures

01:23:21

Worn against the sin of pride and so on So we should not be so arrogant and proud that we don't that we think that we don't need anybody else to help us

01:23:31

Understand the scriptures and because we're all sinners and infallible and finite we are not all going to Have the same depth of knowledge on every issue in The Bible that others have been gifted to have like for instance, you could even have somebody who is a genius who is a

01:23:53

Bible scholar and yet Eschatology might be something that he's ignored for years or just It's something that he just hasn't delved into enough to form solid conclusions and you could even have a brilliant Bible scholar who rejects reformed theology and yet, he is still a brother because he believes in the primary points of the gospel and the the pillars of the faith like the

01:24:23

The virgin conception of Jesus Christ his sinless life his atoning death is physical bodily resurrection his ascension into heaven his ruling and reigning at the right hand of the

01:24:36

Father and The deity of Christ the Trinity, you know all these things that we share

01:24:43

Does it trouble you as much as I am troubled that there is a new breed of those who profess to believe in the

01:24:52

The tulip who Condemned to hell anybody who does not believe in those things.

01:24:57

Oh It completely troubles me. I know a lot of people I've met many people who would who would hold to the

01:25:04

Armenian standpoint of Tulip right who would not agree with tulip who would be more

01:25:10

Armenian in there and they're leaning Who in in their Christian life would put people like me to shame who are just faithful Christ loving people who love the gospel

01:25:21

Again, I think that they're I think that they're in error when it comes to those issues

01:25:27

But they are just real good warriors of the faith. They're out there preaching the gospel mission -minded

01:25:33

And so, you know when there's no because you said Chris, there's no perfect church and even those who who may have more of a more an understanding of some of the deeper doctrines of Scripture there are times when some of those individuals can be full of pride and arrogance and Even fall into hyper

01:25:54

Calvinistic type views and things like that and and even condemn people and have by way of Attitude and by way of the way that they treat others

01:26:03

They do great damage and harm to the very doctrines that should humble us So I agree.

01:26:09

I mean, there's a lot of brothers and sisters and a lot of different denominations I think I think if we can agree on to me if I would have said what are the what are the main?

01:26:18

Tenets of the faith that are that we cannot That are not up for discussion or dispute.

01:26:24

It would have to be the five solace right the description alone is our authority It was justified by faith alone in the

01:26:32

Lord. You thought I should say we're just about by grace alone True faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and it's all for the glory of God alone

01:26:39

I think if we if we could agree on those five things And when I talk about the doctrine of Christ alone, that would be including who he is as to his divine and human humanity both full natures

01:26:51

I think there's room for Disagreement in some of the areas, you know that that doesn't determine somebody's unsafe

01:26:58

If you study church history, and I would recommend people do this I think that really gave me a good appreciation for for just having a sense of compassion toward people

01:27:07

You look at a lot of the people we respect in church history all the way back from the beginning throughout into the

01:27:12

Reformation beyond You know that they didn't have it all together either. You know that it and they didn't have the kind of shoulders to stand on that we have now and there are a lot of people today who might look at some of those people in The past to a very faithful will lay down their lives for the faith and condemn them

01:27:28

Because they help a certain views that today we realize as we've stood on shoulders and as we've seen doctrine develop and mature more

01:27:35

Understanding of teach doctrine through history We might if people look back and try to apply it today's standard to them and condemn them to hell and yet They were very faithful people who you know live and die for the faith

01:27:46

So I think you know, we need to be careful and there are there are people who you know Who just unfortunately don't know how to treat people with respect and and love who hold to those

01:27:57

Tenets of the faith that are most important. We have a Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County Who says

01:28:04

I have heard even some Reformed Baptist scholars

01:28:10

Say that we should not identify Christians as Sinners, even though these same people would never believe in the heresy of sinless perfectionism

01:28:22

They believe that we do sin, but the actual phrase sinners is

01:28:28

In their minds only to be used for those who are lost or reprobate Do you agree with this?

01:28:35

Well, you know, I guess it depends on what they mean by sinners, you know I can understand what the person with the individual saying

01:28:42

What some of these people are saying and because there's a sense in which? When you when you if I went on Facebook, for example, and I just said to everybody

01:28:52

Hello. How are you? My fellow Christian sinners? I'm a sinner to moral sinners and and then

01:28:57

I give the gospel in that context people may See that as me saying basically that we have a warrant to sin and the gospel is an easy believer in gospel as long as Our faith in Christ you can continue to live on and sin

01:29:09

So there has to be a sense in which we we say yes We still struggle with sin every day in some sense and we're talking about issues of pride or in the heart

01:29:19

We still struggle. We're in that fight and we strive but we're not given over We're not owned by that sin anymore.

01:29:25

And that's the big difference from just saying hey, you know, we're sinners in that sense I think it depends on how you define it.

01:29:30

I Wouldn't have a problem saying that we that we still sinner. We're still sinners in that sense

01:29:36

I would just be guarded only because you have to we have to think that you know What what is the world how is the world understanding our language when we when we use that term?

01:29:46

How are people understanding are they thinking that we're saying? Hey, I'm a Christian. I'm in Christ But I'm not sleeping around with women and you know

01:29:53

Doing drugs and or whatever. I'm just doing all kinds of things that it doesn't matter because I'm a sinner anyway

01:29:59

You know We have to put we have to put some sense of or get some sense of understanding to help people

01:30:04

Understanding that term and in the reform faith. We know what it means We can say because we understand who

01:30:11

God is and the nature of his perfect law There's a very real sense in which there's not a there's not a second that goes by where we're not in pure Ourselves that we our best motives are to some degree laced with impurity so we understanding the nature of God have a high view of God's holiness and his being and a high view of the severity of sin and can say we are sick and But those who are outside of the faith those who don't know

01:30:39

I'm more comfortable saying those who are unsaved. Those are unbelievers You know, they're not viewing the word sinners in the same way we are they're thinking of it as more that it's okay and we could be comfortable and You know

01:30:52

You could do whatever you want as long as you said this prayer and there's a lot of people out there in the Christian faith Who are okay with that and presenting that and so you don't want to identify with that So I guess

01:31:02

I'm saying I could sympathize with those who aren't comfortable using that term, but the reality is we are

01:31:09

And I'll bet you that most I'll bet you that most if not all of Those folks even the reformed ones or perhaps especially the reformed ones

01:31:18

Who say oh, we should never call Christians sinners, I'll bet you they all sing amazing grace grace who saved a wretch who saved a wretch

01:31:28

Like they in fact it disgusted me that some people

01:31:35

Have taken that out of the the lyric like for instance when Phil Driscoll Performed that song at least on one of his albums.

01:31:45

He replaced it with who saved someone like me And that that takes away the whole amazing part

01:31:56

We need Christ as much today as we did when we were first saved and before and after and we always will until we get

01:32:03

That we Okay You know

01:32:10

We'll take away the God, you know, my my righteousness from you and let you go forward from here on in we'll be instantly

01:32:16

You know sawdust, you know, we would be we'd be like But you know returning back to Sodom and Gomorrah lots wife, you know the reality is when we again when if you if you if we understand anything about the holiness of God in his nature and Understand anything about our hearts and just that the fight that's constantly going on within us each day and just the

01:32:39

The the part of us that is always it's like Paul says, you know Like that Roman seven or in Galatians is the war of the you know, the spirit was against the flesh

01:32:48

That's a reality for every Christian and when we understand that there's a real sincere part of us that wants to oppose

01:32:54

God still It's still part of us that that it doesn't want to do what God wants us to do

01:33:00

We know that we're the reality is that that's still really part of us that we're still not complete and we're still walking in the

01:33:07

Righteousness of Christ as much today as we were when we were first saved now, we have been sanctified We're not what we once were we've improved.

01:33:15

We should be fighting against sin We should be learning to love others more and we're doing better in that sense

01:33:20

But we're not doing better in a sense where we're justified by any of that or could be justified by any of that in the light

01:33:26

Of God's Holy Spirit. That's just never happened. He's people you look at how righteous he is So I think that's where the problem is with with with people saying that but I can understand like I said why they say that Because you have to be careful with how the unbeliever what they understand by you saying that I'm a sinner

01:33:44

And especially when you have easy believism and you know, Joel Osteen Oh this guy's out there You don't even teach about repentance and all that stuff

01:33:51

You just have to believe the gospel when you want when you know that that's out there We have to be more nuanced and careful on what we say

01:33:59

Yeah, well, you know Very well since you were one of those ministers who placed me under discipline that I was a drunkard but I one of the things that I Really oppose in the philosophy of a a and Na is that they say that a necessary element of a

01:34:27

True road to recovery is to forever for the rest of your life until you're dead you identify yourself as an alcoholic or a drug addict and I don't say

01:34:39

I'm Chris Arnzen and I'm an alcoholic I say I'm a Chris Arnzen and I was a drunkard and I was delivered by the grace and mercy of God from that wickedness

01:34:50

I don't I don't I choose not to take it because I know that that temptation would be strong for me Right, right in that area, but no, it'd be like somebody saying hey,

01:34:59

I'm so -and -so without but I'm a homosexual You know, I'm a Fornicator, you know,

01:35:05

Paul says such were some of you, you know, you're not you're not that's not your identified label You're you're in Christ and that's your label, you know, so there's that balance there and how you would address that and of course

01:35:16

Of especially those who are not biblically literate and those perhaps who are from Roman Catholicism or other

01:35:29

Folks that profess to be Christian and by the way folks if you're

01:35:34

Catholic and you're being offended by this well one of the most beloved

01:35:41

Catholic apologists Patrick Madrid Has said a number of occasions when he has spoken at Catholic conferences

01:35:49

If you're looking next to the person if you're looking at the person next to you in the audience And he has a

01:35:55

Bible on his lap. You could probably be 95 % sure. It's an evangelical So even even he said that but what

01:36:04

I'm intending to say here is that Many people when they hear the word sinner sinner, they only think of the scandalous extreme

01:36:13

And They don't recognize that even a thought a passing thought that is adulterous

01:36:22

Renders us guilty of the actual sin of adultery in the sight of God. That's not to say that in the sight of the church

01:36:31

We are to deal with people that way because everybody in the church would be excommunicated

01:36:37

If we have if we held that high of a standard on earth with each other but in the sight of God, we are guilty of adultery, even just by thinking about it and I can remember when

01:36:49

I was organizing my very first Roman Catholic debate on Long Island between dr.

01:36:56

James R. White and Roman Catholic apologist Jerry Matitix this very sweet woman

01:37:03

Roman Catholic lady Who is very excited about the event and she came from my memory to nearly all of them

01:37:12

For those ten years. I did those debates She was a very sweet humble gentle woman

01:37:20

But she I remember her coming into my office holding the poster and The theme of the debate was

01:37:28

Mary sinner saved by grace or a sinless Queen of Heaven She said why do you call

01:37:38

Mary a sinner? What do you think she's she was some kind of a whore or something?

01:37:43

I said no I don't think that it is that the only type of person that is a sinner.

01:37:49

I mean, you know don't don't we sin every time we have a

01:37:55

Thought of pride where we view ourselves more highly than we ought We ourselves more highly than our brothers and sisters around us or what you could go on and on with the things that We would

01:38:10

Flippantly view as immaterial or unimportant those same sins will send somebody to hell without the covering of Christ's blood

01:38:19

Am I right Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, like I said with Mary it, you know

01:38:24

And this is where you we got to be careful from the other extreme not to go the up not to go upset the other

01:38:30

Side of the horse Mary was definitely an exceptional woman. She was probably a godly woman from a young age

01:38:36

You know, she probably put many wants to shame in a sense you probably you know, but but she had he was a sinner and And there were things that she did in her life

01:38:43

But if God would hold her at her to that standard to his standard based on what she had left She would be condemned like everybody else so it's it's not that we don't have a respect for her and in the sense of how

01:38:54

God used her and and Somebody we could look up to many ways She even thought she even thought along with her other sons

01:39:03

Those that actually had father as a Who have actually had

01:39:09

Joseph as a biological father other than Jesus himself, obviously She Joined them in thinking that Jesus had lost his mind

01:39:20

Even though she had known before she before she even conceived She knew who this child was, but somehow she had amnesia at that point

01:39:29

That's one of the most mysterious parts of the Bible to me how Mary could have thought that way even though she knew that she was a virgin who conceived she knew what the angel had said to her and even

01:39:42

Joseph had the affirmation from So, I mean But we now are going through our final break

01:39:51

It's much shorter than the last one If anybody else would like to join us on the air our email address is

01:39:57

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com and as always, please give us your first name at least

01:40:04

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

01:40:13

Linbrook Baptist Church on 225 Earl Avenue in Linbrook Long Island is teaching God's timeless truths in the 21st century

01:40:20

Our church is far more than a Sunday worship service It's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant

01:40:27

It's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement It's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people in healing

01:40:35

We're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship play and together

01:40:41

Hi I'm pastor Bob Walderman and I invite you to come and join us here at Linbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church

01:40:47

Call in Brook Baptist at 5 1 6 5 9 9 9 4 0 2 that's 5 1 6 5 9 9 9 4 0 2 or visit

01:40:56

Linbrook Baptist org. That's Linbrook Baptist org When iron sharpens iron radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the

01:41:13

New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the iron sharpens iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the

01:41:26

NASB I'm author Gary DeMar president of American vision and the

01:41:32

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Dan LeBennett of West Hills Baptist Church in Huntington Station, New York and the

01:41:40

NASB Is my Bible of choice? I'm Justin Peters of Justin Peters ministries and the

01:41:46

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm Reverend buzz Taylor author of God's Lawson and the

01:41:53

NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm dr William Webster pastor of Grace Bible Church in Battleground, Washington founder of the ministry

01:42:02

Christian resources The NASB is my Bible of choice

01:42:07

I'm pastor Ryan Galan of Central Islip Community Church in Central Islip, New York and the

01:42:13

NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Brandon Smith of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Jackson, Georgia And the

01:42:21

NASB is my Bible of choice Here's a great way for your church to help keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air

01:42:29

Pastors are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart? consider restocking your pews with the

01:42:36

NASB and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on iron sharpens iron radio go to nasbible .com

01:42:45

That's nasbible .com to place your order Every day at thousands of community centers high schools middle schools juvenile institutions

01:43:01

Coffee shops and local hangouts Long Island Youth for Christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need

01:43:08

Jesus We are rural and urban and we are always about the message of Jesus Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959 we have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the

01:43:33

Country and around the world help honor our history by becoming a part of our future Volunteer donate pray or all of the above for details call

01:43:43

Long Island Youth for Christ at 6 3 1 3 8 5 8 3 3 3 that's 6 3 1 3 8 5 8 3 3 3 or visit liyfc .org

01:43:57

That's liyfc .org James White of Alpha Omega Ministries and the

01:44:10

Dividing Line webcast here Although God has brought me all over the globe for many years to teach preach and debate at numerous venues

01:44:17

Some of my very fondest memories are from those precious times of fellowship with Pastor Rich Jensen and the brethren at Hope Reform Baptist Church now located at their new beautiful facilities in Coram, Long Island, New York I've had the privilege of opening

01:44:31

God's Word from their pulpit on many occasions Have led youth retreats for them and have always been thrilled to see their members filling many seats at my

01:44:38

New York debates I do not hesitate to highly recommend Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island to anyone who wants to be accurately taught

01:44:46

Discipled and edified by the Holy Scriptures and to be surrounded by truly loving and caring brothers and sisters in Christ I also want to congratulate

01:44:55

Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram for the recent appointment of Pastor Rich Jensen's co -elder Pastor Christopher McDowell.

01:45:02

For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net

01:45:07

That's hopereformedli .net or call 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711

01:46:57

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

01:47:09

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

01:47:15

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

01:47:29

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.

01:47:38

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

01:47:47

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

01:47:52

Sovereign Lord, God, Savior, and King, Jesus Christ, today and always.

01:47:59

Welcome back, this is Chris Arnson. If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours with about ten minutes to go is

01:48:07

Pastor Mark Rimaldi of Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York.

01:48:12

We are discussing his soon -to -be -published book, The Christ, The Whole Christ, and Nothing but the

01:48:19

Christ. And we have John in Sharpsburg, Georgia. Just a quick note, even

01:48:26

Paul, a mighty servant of God, considered himself to be the chief of sinners.

01:48:35

Yes, that's very true. In fact, perhaps you could shed some light on that for me,

01:48:41

Pastor Mark. That's the famous text from 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, and probably most well -known by the

01:48:51

King James Version's rendering of that, because most of the other translations don't use the word of whom

01:48:58

I am chief, but they say of whom I am foremost of all, and other ways of phrasing that.

01:49:04

But is Paul saying, the Apostle Paul, was he saying that he was in reality the worst sinner that ever lived, or was he just perhaps referring to the fact that he had persecuted

01:49:20

Christ's church before he was saved on the road to Damascus?

01:49:26

If you could shed some light on that. Yeah, no, that's a good question. I think you can see that in two ways.

01:49:32

One, certainly when you look at what Paul states in the other epistles and how he was an axe, you can see that there's a sense in which he never forgot where he came from, and so he did know, he always knew at the forefront of his mind how he had persecuted the church, how he had treated

01:49:51

Christians, and so on. So there's no question that that is an implication of that there as well. But there's also, the interesting thing about that text is when

01:49:59

Paul says that, he doesn't say that I was the chief of sinners, or I was foremost, it's in the present tense.

01:50:08

Yeah, because there's a debate amongst, even amongst Calvinists, as to whether the man in Romans, is it 7 or 8 right now,

01:50:18

I'm losing my mind, when Paul is referring to himself in some very horrible and wicked terms, and there are some who believe he must be referring to himself before his regeneration.

01:50:31

Romans 7, yeah, there's a big debate, is that some of the language in Romans 7 lends itself to seeing

01:50:40

Paul as the Jew before he was saved, some of the things he says, because he uses words like,

01:50:46

I was sold as a carnal, or I am, and then some would see it more in the sense of the battle that goes on in the present, and Paul speaking about himself, what

01:50:55

I will to do I don't do, in the present sense. I take that more in the present sense when I look at that, but I do see how some people come from the other angle.

01:51:04

But either way, when you look at, like I said, Galatians, you know, what Paul talks about, the battle against the flesh and the spirit,

01:51:12

I can see why Paul would still say, in that text of Timothy, in the present tense, because Paul is somebody, remember, was walking even closer with God, you know, very close with God, he's receiving visions,

01:51:27

God has to humble him to fall in the flesh, I think the more you, the closer you walk with the

01:51:33

Lord, I think the more you see, kind of like what Isaiah saw, right? Isaiah was probably one of the most godliest people when he had said those words, he was already a prophet, and he had said that I'm a man of unclean lips, you know, when he saw the glory of God, you know, he was completely just undone, and that was

01:51:52

Isaiah as probably a man of God, to some extent, you know, but I think the closer you get to God, and Paul was certainly walking closer to the

01:52:00

Lord, I think you see, as we talked about before, you can see some of the, just the ugliness within our own hearts, even in the present, and that doesn't mean

01:52:09

Paul's out fornicating or doing, you know, we're not saying that, but he could see that, the reality of pride, the reality of covetousness, whatever, some of those inner things that are at the heart, and be able to say,

01:52:19

I'm the worst. So I would take more of a stance that would, like a balance would say that I'm sure he's including what he has done in the past to some extent, but the fact that he uses that in the present tense,

01:52:31

I don't think we can just limit that to the past, because he doesn't say, you know, I was, and he's not afraid to use the past tense, you see him do it in other cases,

01:52:40

I was, you know, a persecutor of the people of God, or whatever I did there, so I, you know, you see that a lot in his language, he'll use the past tense, but in that sense, he's speaking in the present.

01:52:50

I agree with you, and I saw an informal debate on that many years ago, back in the 1990s, and I agreed with the side that you just identified yourself with, although I believe that the main reason, it seemed, that compelled some fellow

01:53:09

Calvinists to reject Paul, reject the interpretation that it was

01:53:15

Paul speaking in it, about his current condition, is that they did not want to give sway to the cheap grace, easy believism notion of carnal

01:53:26

Christianity, that somebody could be an unrepentant, wicked individual, and even...

01:53:33

And I just preached on that this past Sunday, actually, and I was saying, one of the statements I made, I'm at the very end of the

01:53:39

Sermon on the Mount, and the Lord spoke about, you know, that there are going to be people who are going to come to him, and not everyone who comes to him and calls him

01:53:45

Lord, Lord, is going to be welcomed in, and he talks about how they'll, you know, depart from the work of lawlessness, it's those who do the will of God, and so on, so there is, the whole idea of a carnal

01:53:56

Christian, to be labeled like that is definitely unbiblical, but a Christian can act carnally at times, and we do, we fall short, so I think that's,

01:54:06

I can see why they're trying, we have to be careful that even though we want to protect the sanctity of the

01:54:11

Gospel, and the idea of a Christian having to walk in holiness, and we do, we need to emphasize that we don't want to go to the extreme that we, as we talked about before, that we make

01:54:21

Christianity out to be something where it's an impossible faith, in the sense where we're saying we're perfect and we're without sin, and that we don't sin, and that if we hold ourselves to God's standard, even at any moment, that we need it, so that there's a balance there, and we have to trust the

01:54:35

Holy Spirit to do that work, and that's why when we preach, we preach the whole counsel of God, if you preach both sides of the same coin, you'll see that there is this striving against sin, there is this conviction of sin, this dealing with sin, this wrestling with sin, a state of imperfection, but a state of growing in Christ, and forging ahead, as opposed to just comfortably living in sin, on one side of the equation, or on the other side of the equation, saying that we're not sinners at all, you know, both of those are not healthy.

01:55:05

And you know what makes, to me, anyway, Jesus' warnings in Matthew chapter 7 more terrifying, is that those whom he is speaking to on Judgment Day, who thought they were going to be welcomed into the, welcomed into eternity with Christ, they were not, that we know of, drunkards and homosexuals and murderers and rapists, they were religious people, who were even performing miracles, and casting out demons in Jesus' name, and I don't know what your conviction is, but I believe that they were performing miracles,

01:55:52

I don't think that they were charlatans, because Jesus never says, no, you didn't do those things, he just says, be gone from me, you workers of unrighteousness,

01:56:01

I never knew you. And that's why, that's why, Chris, the emphasis on the work of the

01:56:09

Spirit is not on the gifts, because somebody can have gifts, like, but even to those extent, they've had those kinds of gifts,

01:56:17

Judas Iscariot, when you look at the scriptures, he was involved with those miracles that, when the disciples were sent out, the twelve, he was one of them, and they were casting out demons, raising the dead,

01:56:27

I mean, you read the text, it says it right there, clearly, he was involved with that, and yet we know that he was not saved, so the emphasis on the

01:56:32

Spirit, by looking for, speaking in tongues and all those things, that's contrary to when the scripture says it's the fruit of the

01:56:39

Spirit, love, joy, peace, you know, gentleness, goodness, kindness, those are the things, those are the real evidences of the

01:56:45

Spirit, in a salvific sense, not just the signs and the wonders, you can have the signs and the wonders, even in truth, you could have had those, or have those, and still not be a

01:56:56

Christian. Well, Pastor Mark, I'd like you to have, let's say, three minutes to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners before we conclude this program, and I already know that I'd like to have you return in June, when our first openings are on the calendar, to continue this discussion, because we really only got into the first chapter of your book, and even though it's a short book, we only got into the first chapter.

01:57:26

Yeah, that'd be great. In fact, by then, we'll be getting to the point where I'll have the book, and I'd like to offer free copies, too, to anybody who calls in, that kind of thing, so we can do that.

01:57:35

When we have the second interview, I'll be ready to do that. Yeah, but just what

01:57:40

I would leave in the hearts of the individuals, for those who are listening, I would say, you know, and this would come from the context of talking about the book,

01:57:49

I would say we need to make much of the Lord Jesus Christ, is what it comes down to.

01:57:55

In the book, when I talk about the Christ, the whole Christ, and nothing but the Christ, that is,

01:58:00

Christ is the central figure, He provides the central work of all of history, of salvation, of everything that matters for us, is all bound up in who

01:58:12

He is, as fully God, and as fully man, as our representative, who replaces

01:58:18

Adam, who failed, we failed on Adam, but He is our representative,

01:58:23

He is also fully God, and He alone can save us. We cannot add to that in any sense.

01:58:30

We're still imperfect, we're still a work in progress, but the glory of the Gospel is that He who began a good work in us will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus, and so I would just encourage those who are out there listening to keep your eyes on the

01:58:44

Lord Jesus Christ, keep being in the Word, trust in Him and Him alone, and you will walk faithfully with Him, if that's where your heart is fixed.

01:58:53

Praise God. Well, don't forget, folks, if you want to find out more information about Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York, go to gracereformedbaptistchurch .org,

01:59:08

gracereformedbaptistchurch .org. Pastor Mark Romaldi, it's been an honor and privilege and joy to have you back on the program as it always is.

01:59:16

I look forward to your return. If you could stay on the line, I will schedule you on the calendar in June, and I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who took the time to write in questions, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater