August 21, 2017 Show with Anthony Mathenia on “Recounting Resistance & Rejection (Acts 7)”

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September 6, 2017

August 21, 2017: Anthony Mathenia, a pastor @ Christ Church, Radford, VA, a board member @ HeartCry Missionary Society & a speaker @ G3 Conference 2018, who will address: “Recounting RESISTANCE & REJECTION (Acts 7)”

00:01: Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown
00:08: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors,
00:16: Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
00:23: Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
00:32: Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
00:46: It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
00:57: Now here's our host, Chris Arntzen. Good afternoon,
01:04: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
01:14: This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 21st day of August 2017, the day of the eclipse of the sun, and it's my honor and privilege to have on the program today, for the very first time ever,
01:32: Anthony Mathenia. He is pastor of Christ Church in Radford, Virginia. He's a board member at HeartCry Missionary Society, the organization founded by Paul Washer, and he's also a speaker at the upcoming
01:45: G3 Conference, which is going to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, from January 18th through the 20th, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio for the very first time,
01:57: Anthony Mathenia. Thanks, I appreciate it. I'm glad to be able to talk with you today. Yes, and in studio with me is my co -host, the
02:05: Reverend Buzz Taylor. And hello once again. And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own for Anthony Mathenia, we are going to be speaking today on recounting resistance and rejection from Acts chapter 7, including the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr of the
02:25: Christian church. And our email address, if you'd like to join us, is chrisarnsen at gmail .com,
02:31: C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.
02:37: Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the
02:43: USA. You may remain anonymous if it makes you feel more comfortable because of it involving a personal and private matter.
02:52: That's chrisarnsen at gmail .com. But before I go into our subject at hand,
02:59: Anthony, I'd like, first of all, for you to explain a little bit about Christ Church in Radford, Virginia, and also
03:09: HeartCry Missionary Society. And then we'll be going into, if you don't mind, hearing a brief summary of your own conversion to Christ, the providential circumstances that our
03:21: Sovereign Lord brought about in your life that drew you to himself and saved you, and what kind of religion, if any, you were raised in, etc.
03:30: Before we get into that, let's hear something about Christ Church in Radford, Virginia. Sure.
03:37: We are a fairly new church, about seven years old, and have just over a hundred members and about twice that in attendance each week.
03:47: The Lord's been kind to us. Though it's a young church, we are in a college town, and there's another college not far away, so really two large universities pretty close to us.
04:01: So the Lord's been faithful with regard to our efforts in an attempt to reach students with the gospel, and then also being alongside
04:10: HeartCry, attempting to spread the gospel around the world as well. We continue to experience the
04:17: Lord's kindness. And what would be a description of the church theologically and denominationally, if any?
04:26: We're not affiliated denominationally. We subscribe to the
04:32: New Hampshire Confession. We are Reformed Baptists. Yes, I know that the New Hampshire Confession is somewhat of a revised version of the 1689
04:43: London Baptist Confession to some degree, correct? Yes, just a briefer summary.
04:48: Right. And the G3 Conference is coming up January 18th through the 20th.
04:55: Pastor Josh Bice and the folks at Praise Mill Baptist Church have been running this conference for a number of years, not very many years, but for a number.
05:05: I think this is going to be the second one that's actually being held at the Atlanta International Convention Center there in Atlanta, Georgia.
05:15: But you are on the roster this time, and I'm looking forward to seeing you preach in person for the first time.
05:23: I've seen you preach on video on the internet, but I've never seen you face -to -face before.
05:29: I'm looking forward to that. And you are on a very long roster of very impressive brethren who are going to be speaking.
05:37: But I know this is early on, that the event is not until January, but have informed you yet of what your specific topic of discussion is going to be?
05:49: No. At this point, I have no idea what I'll be speaking on. Josh Bice, who's the host, usually leaves it up to me to determine something.
05:59: We haven't discussed it in detail yet, but I'm sure in the coming days we'll nail something down. Yeah, and I know that the umbrella theme is knowing
06:08: God, a biblical understanding of discipleship. And just to whet the appetite of our listeners,
06:14: I'll be repeating this later, but this conference, which this will be,
06:19: God willing, the second one I'm attending, has a lineup that has more people on it than many conferences that I've attended had in their audience.
06:29: So they've got Stephen Lawson, Votie Balcombe, Phil Johnson, Keith Getty, H .B.
06:35: Charles Jr., Tim Challies, Josh Bice, James White, Tom Askell, Anthony Mathenia, who is my guest today,
06:42: Michael Kruger, who was my guest about a week ago, David Miller, Paul Tripp, Todd Friel, Derek Thomas, and Martha Peace.
06:49: Most of these folks I've had on the program, and I'm looking forward to eventually interviewing each and every one of them.
06:55: But if any of you can make it out to this conference, I strongly urge you to do so.
07:01: Go to G3conference .com, G3conference .com, and you can register there.
07:07: And make sure you mention to anybody there organizing the conference that you heard about the
07:14: G3 Conference from Chris Arnzen and Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Well, now, as I mentioned before, usually when
07:20: I have a first -time guest on Iron Sharpens Iron, I like them to give a summarized version of their own testimony of coming to Christ, starting with the religious atmosphere, if any, you were raised in.
07:33: Yes, I grew up in a churchgoing Christian Southern Baptist family in West Tennessee, and made a profession of faith at a fairly young age, and attempted, really, to live in light of that profession through elementary and junior high, the latter part of high school, and through college.
07:59: I proved the profession to be false by the choices that I made in a life that I lived, but almost immediately after graduating from college, the conviction set in.
08:13: I started back attending the local church where my membership actually was. I had some friends there.
08:20: They had a new minister who took me in under his wing. I started spending a lot of time with him.
08:28: We started doing Navigator Scripture Memory together, meeting once a week, studying the book of John verse -by -verse, and it was actually his influence in my life and me being impacted not only with the preaching there at the church, which was very strong at the time, but also the
08:45: Scripture Memory and the studying the book of John with this minister there, that I ended up being converted the first spring after I had graduated from college in the fall prior.
08:59: It was in 1999, spring of 1999. I finished school in December 98 and was converted spring of 99, and almost immediately after that, there was a desire for ministry of some sort.
09:13: I couldn't put my finger on it, obviously being a new convert and not knowing exactly what it was that God was doing in my life.
09:20: One thing led to another. I ended up having a mutual friend of the man that was influential in my conversion who had been a missionary in Ethiopia.
09:30: I met him, and within the next year, I'd spent some time on the ground in Ethiopia and then began actual training in seminary and went on staff at a local church and other things to try to get experience in education.
09:43: As I prepared for ministry in what I thought would be a lifetime on the mission field.
09:51: Hmm. Well, I guess that God had other plans, but you are certainly on a mission field involving domestic unbelievers as well as shepherding those who are believers and who have been led to be nurtured under your headship there.
10:09: And when you were newly converted, just out of curiosity, because I know that there are many different personalities of men that exist among those who enter them to the ministry.
10:24: There's not a cookie cutter personality, but was there anything about you even before you were regenerate that made you think when you became regenerate so quickly that you would like to be in the ministry?
10:38: Did you have any kind of gift for public speaking? Were you extroverted? Was there anything about you that you had boldness to speak to groups and things like that that made you automatically think to yourself,
10:52: I'd like to enter into the ministry after you were converted? Or was this purely a work of the
10:57: Holy Spirit on your heart? Yeah, definitely the latter. Unquestionably, it was just the work of God in my life.
11:05: In fact, while I was in college, a speech class was required for my degree, and you had to stand up, obviously, in front of the class and give a speech.
11:17: It was a night class, so they met once a week. And the two times that it came around for me to stand up and give a speech in class,
11:25: I skipped class, because I was so fearful of standing in front of those 12 people and speaking publicly.
11:33: So the professor was willing to just give me a C for the written assignment only. Well, I guess it was certainly purely the
11:45: Holy Spirit that led you to that conclusion. Well, you mentioned a little bit about HeartCry Missionary Society.
11:51: I know that Paul Washer founded it. Can you tell us about some of the things that HeartCry Missionary Society is routinely involved in?
12:02: Can you repeat that question? Sorry. Can you tell us more about some specific things that HeartCry Missionary Society is routinely involved in?
12:09: I know you set up conferences for Paul Washer and so on, but anything else that you could let our listeners know about?
12:16: Yes, we are involved in supporting missionary and missionary families, pastors, university workers, in over 20 countries around the world, just in all kinds of places from South America to Europe to Siberia, Africa, throughout the
12:37: Middle East. We're committed to coming alongside the church and proclaiming the gospel to those in that area, coming alongside with financial support, prayer support, educational resources, training conferences, whatever's needed in those areas.
12:54: We're committed to getting the truth of the gospel into the hands of those who are working hard to proclaim it among their own peoples.
13:04: Well, if anybody wants to know more about, and I'll be repeating this later, but if you want to know more about the
13:11: Christ Church of Radford, Virginia, you can go to ChristChurchRadford .org,
13:17: ChristChurchRadford .org. And for the HeartCry Missionary Society, you can go to HeartCryMissionary .com,
13:25: HeartCryMissionary .com, and God willing, we'll be repeating that later on. And there is a question we have from a listener that is a little bit off topic, but I'll ask her question anyway.
13:41: This is Rose in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She says, I know it doesn't have anything to do with the topic of discussion on Monday, but I was wondering if you might be able to ask
13:52: Brother Anthony how Brother Paul Washer is doing. And she says, Brother Anthony was such a blessing in the
14:01: Behold Your God series. I taught it for a ladies Bible study, and it was a phenomenal study, she adds.
14:09: Yes, thanks for that. Behold Your God is a great study, and in fact, within a couple of months,
14:17: Behold Your God, The Weight of Majesty, which is round two of that study, should be available for people to begin that series.
14:27: But to answer the question, Paul's doing really well. He continues to improve.
14:33: I saw him just yesterday, obviously at church, and his health continues to improve week after week.
14:43: He's doing better, he's getting stronger, taking care of himself. We are delighted that the
14:49: Lord sustained him through the heart attack earlier in the year, but also that he's continuing to improve, and it doesn't look like there's going to be any long -term damage that he's going to have to deal with.
15:02: Praise God. Yeah, I had the privilege of seeing Paul preach at the G3 conference this past January, and this was before anyone really knew, including
15:12: Paul, what was going on with his health. He had been going to doctors and so on, and was very weak, even during that conference, but was able to preach very, very powerfully.
15:22: You would never have known he was sick. But his friends and those of his admirers in the audience there were certainly concerned about his health, and I'm so delighted to get this update.
15:36: Well, today we are going to be discussing something that you had preached on, recounting resistance and rejection from Acts chapter 7.
15:47: And what I'd like to do now is I would just like to read a part of the end of Acts chapter 6 and a part of the end of Acts chapter 7, and basically have you fill in the middle part of this due to time restraints.
16:07: I'm just going to read the selected portions of Scripture that I just mentioned.
16:13: And we have, in the last part of Acts chapter 6, beginning at, let's see,
16:24: I'll start at verse 7. The Word of God kept on spreading, and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem.
16:32: And a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
16:41: But some from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both
16:47: Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Caecilia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen.
16:56: But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly induced men to say,
17:04: We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.
17:09: And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the council.
17:17: They put forward false witness, who said, This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the law.
17:26: For we have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place. And after the customs which
17:32: Moses handed down to us, and fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the council saw his face like the face of an angel.
17:42: Then we're going to be moving on to chapter 7, beginning in verse 51, where Stephen says,
17:53: You men who are stiff -necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the
17:59: Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
18:07: They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.
18:16: You who received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it.
18:22: Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.
18:28: But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
18:36: And he said, Behold, I see the heavens open up, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
18:43: But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and rushed at him with one impulse.
18:51: When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named
19:00: Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord, and said,
19:07: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice,
19:13: Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Having said this, he fell asleep."
19:19: Very interesting similarity to what Stephen was saying at his death, to what the
19:26: Lord himself, Jesus Christ, was saying on the cross at Golgotha. But in between these two segments that I wrote, basically we have
19:39: Stephen, as you know, as you were bringing about in your sermon, Stephen's summary of the history of the
19:48: Jews resisting God by rejecting Abraham, by rejecting Joseph, by rejecting
19:53: Moses, by rejecting David, and by rejecting Solomon in his temple. If you could start off, how these
20:02: Old Covenant pictures were really a sign of a rejection of Christ, which actually came to fruition in the the murder of Jesus Christ.
20:14: Of course, we know that he laid his own life down willingly, but he was simultaneously murdered by sinners.
20:22: But if you could tell us about these things that you brought up in this very powerful sermon that you preached not long ago.
20:31: Yeah, Stephen does a wonderful job. He has the opportunity here, being filled with the
20:38: Holy Spirit, this prototype deacon who's being wrongly accused, and the high priest gives him the floor and allows him to speak there at the beginning of verse 7, and he begins by identifying with them, you know, we're one.
20:55: That goes back to Abraham and points that out. We're one in Abraham. I'm one of you, he's saying, except you've turned your back on this one that Abraham, the one that was promised to come from Abraham's seed.
21:10: Just the lineage of Abraham is not what's promised there, as far as being children of God, but there's one who's coming, the
21:17: Messiah. And he continues working his way through Old Testament history, people and situations that his audience would have been very familiar with, and he points out time and again, beginning with Abraham, and then with Joseph, and how his brothers threw him in a pit to die, and then thought better of it, and sold him into slavery, and lied to their father, because he was the favorite, and he'd had these dreams about them worshiping him, or him being the leader over them.
21:51: Those things still come to fruition, even though they try to undermine it, and we can see that happening in the cross of Christ as well.
22:00: Joseph is a very good type of Christ. It's a wonderful study to look at.
22:06: Octavius Winslow has a great book called The Fullness of Christ, where he considers the life of Joseph, and how it points to Jesus time and again, but we see it wonderfully here, with his own people attempting to get rid of him, and then he is the one who actually saves them when
22:24: Joseph is sold into slavery, ends up in Egypt, he's elevated to a high stature there, and when his family comes, because of the wisdom that God has given him, and he's been saving grain, he, as a result, saves not only the land of Egypt, but also the nation of Israel, his own family, because of the wisdom that God gave him.
22:49: So he ends up being the savior of those, his brothers, who tried to get rid of him.
22:55: The famous statement in Genesis 50 -20, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
23:01: We could put that over the cross as well, it was meant for evil, and it was evil, and God used it for good, because the blood that was shed there cleanses from all sin.
23:13: You know, that message by Joseph to his brothers is really a very powerful evidence for God being sovereign in the midst of evil, because he does say, although his brothers meant what they did to Joseph for evil,
23:36: God meant it for good. There seems to be God's very intimate involvement, extremely intimate involvement, in the horrific acts that they performed, his brothers,
23:50: Joseph's brothers performed against him, and for which they were terrified when they saw that he was alive and standing over them as a ruler.
24:02: Yes, it's amazing that God, in his kind sovereignty, can oversee and orchestrate our fallenness as humans, and use that for the advantage of his people.
24:15: He can bless us and bring about blessing for us through the evil intentions of fallen humanity.
24:23: And this passage in Acts also reminds me of the parable of the marriage feast in Matthew chapter 22, 1 through 14.
24:36: I was actually given the privilege to preach on that. The congregation where I belong,
24:42: Grace Baptist Church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, asked me to preach at a men's shelter.
24:48: There were many addicts there as well, and I happen to have a very strong place in my heart for that kind of ministry, because I was actually in a place like that myself, in Boone, North Carolina, where there is a wonderful men's ministry for those seeking to overcome drug and alcohol addiction.
25:11: And I, after repenting of drunkenness in my mid -20s when
25:19: I first became a believer, sadly backslid into that sin, and thankfully was rescued out of it by going to that ministry.
25:28: But when I was preaching that text,
25:35: I was basically informing those that were gathered there that the parable of the marriage feast was a summary of the history of not only redemption, but the history of the persecution of God's people,
25:47: His prophets, and even Christ, from the days of the Old Covenant straight through the days of the
25:52: New Testament. Would you find that same parallel there? Yes. Yes, that picture of the wedding feast is wonderful, of God inviting everyone in, and those whom
26:07: He has invited have not come in, and He just keeps sending His workers out to invite more in.
26:14: There's always more room to come, and with the emphasis in the end being that we have to wear the wedding clothes that He gives us.
26:21: We can't come in our own righteousness, but He stands at the door and hands us the robes of Christ to wear as we come in.
26:30: Yes, and for those of our listeners who may be unfamiliar with what that is actually talking about, is that if we seek to merit heaven in any way with our own righteousness, if we are just clothed in our own goodness, we will certainly be cast into hell, because our goodness is nothing more than filthy rags in the sight of God, and we need to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
26:55: Can you tell us more about what that picture actually means? Yes, and while I'm thinking about it, in preaching that passage before the illustration that I've given, it's like we've been invited to an incredible banquet, feast, and the ludicrously of us attempting to come to Christ in our own merit, in our own righteousness, would be us stopping on the last corner before we get to the grand entrance of the ballroom where the feast is going to be held, stopping at a hot dog stand and ordering a half a dozen of them and cramming them down our throats before we go into this massive feast.
27:41: It would make no sense whatsoever. We wouldn't be longing for the feast anymore. In the same way, this grand marriage supper of the
27:51: Lamb that we've been invited to, we don't come with our own unrighteousness. We don't try to earn it in any way.
27:58: We come repenting of who we are and hoping only in Christ, and as a result of that, justification happens.
28:07: Our unrighteousness is forgiven because Christ takes it on Himself, our sin.
28:14: He takes on Himself as He hung there on the tree, and we are forgiven because He quenches the wrath of God that is due our sin, and that isn't enough for us.
28:24: That leaves us a blank slate. We have to have His righteousness and the very righteousness of Christ, in that all that He ever did was right, and He pleased the
28:33: Lord. He pleased His Father in every respect. That is credited to us, and then we are justified before God because we're robed in the righteousness of Christ.
28:43: We are declared righteous legally, and then we're treated as righteous, and we're made
28:49: His children, we're adopted into His family, and thus begins the onward conformity to the image of Jesus, or what we call sanctification, or maturing in the
29:00: Christian life. Amen. And we're going to be going to our first break right now. If anybody would like to join us, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com,
29:09: c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the
29:17: USA, and you may remain anonymous if it's about a personal and private matter. So don't go away.
29:23: God willing, we will be right back with Anthony Mathenia right after these messages from our sponsors.
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31:45: This is Chris Zarnes, and if you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours with just about 90 minutes to go is
31:52: Anthony Mathenia. He is a pastor at Christ Church in Radford, Virginia, a board member at HeartCry Missionary Society, and a speaker at the upcoming
32:00: G3 conference in Atlanta, Georgia, January 18th through the 20th.
32:06: We are addressing today recounting resistance and rejection from Acts chapter 7.
32:11: If you would like to join us, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, chrisarnsen at gmail .com.
32:18: And we do have a listener in White Plains, New York named RJ, who says,
32:23: I constantly hear people diminishing the importance of what your guest was just speaking about in regards to ecumenism between Roman Catholics and evangelical
32:34: Protestants. They say that we recognize our differences in regards to justification, but is it really that big of a deal?
32:44: Can't we just live and let live and agree to disagree? That's RJ in White Plains, New York.
32:51: I don't think that RJ was defending that attitude, but he was saying that he hears that. Yeah, and it's common.
33:00: It's a common approach, especially in a more Catholic -dominated area, you would hear it.
33:06: But it is that big of an issue. This is the 500th anniversary of the
33:12: Reformation. Justification by faith is what affected Luther so dramatically that brought about his conversion, and that led to Protestantism, as we know it today, and the
33:27: Great Reformation, and giving attention to what the Bible says. So when it comes down to doctrine, and is it important,
33:36: I think we can agree that what the Bible says is important, and the way that the Bible describes justification by faith, and that we must be perfectly righteous to come into the presence of God, and the only way for that to happen is through Christ, then it immediately becomes quite a big deal.
33:57: Well, thank you, RJ. Keep listening to Iron Trip and Zion Radio there in White Plains, New York, and keep spreading the word about it beyond.
34:07: And we have CJ from Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, who says,
34:14: Why do you think it was that the Jewish leaders so despised the prophets, and even during the
34:23: New Covenant era, so despised Christ and his disciples to the point of wanting them killed?
34:33: Specifically in the New Testament, the reason that the apostles and the
34:38: New Testament prophets were treated the way they were, if you look at Stephen's sermon here, and if you look at Peter's sermons, and I just preached yesterday
34:48: Acts 13 with Paul's sermon, they were careful time and again to say,
34:54: You killed Jesus. You're responsible for his death. And we can back up to the
35:00: Old Testament too, and say that the people of God did not want to accept, that the
35:06: Israelites did not want to accept the responsibility that God had placed on them.
35:12: And it's the same here in the New Testament, it's the same in our day. We don't want to accept the responsibility that God has given all men everywhere to repent and believe, and so we reject any kind of authority over us that is attempting to proclaim the reality of that truth.
35:31: My co -host Reverend Buzz Taylor has something to say. Well you bring up a point here, because I haven't heard it as much lately, but I have heard the argument before that the
35:41: Jews really didn't kill Christ, you know, it was the Romans or whatever, and even, no, there was more to that, but you know,
35:52: Jesus very plainly, and of course here, Stephen is very clear that they were the ones that became the one, they were the crucifiers of Christ, if you will.
36:04: So, you know, for people who are trying to say, oh the other argument was like, well yes, but we all killed
36:10: Jesus because of our sin, so, you know, they don't really hold the Jews of the first century culpable, because they, you know, just, they're just like everybody else.
36:20: How would you address that? Yes, in one sense they are like everyone else, and yes,
36:27: Jesus did have to die because of our sin, but it doesn't make me any less of a sinner if I just tell myself, well, everyone sins.
36:37: My sin is still very problematic in that it will separate me from God forever, and I'll have hell to pay, literally, eternal damnation and condemnation to pay because of my sin.
36:52: So for all of eternity, it will be insufficient for me just to keep reminding myself, but we're all sinners, but we're all sinners.
36:59: That's a useless argument. Sin is a much bigger deal than that, and it brings about separation.
37:06: The killing of Jesus had to happen because of the sin of all humanity, sure, but we see, and Jesus himself,
37:15: I mean, the scriptures tell us he came to his own, and his own did not receive him. I mean, this is here in Acts 7, typologically, with Moses.
37:27: When Moses was raised up by God to bring his people out of Egypt, they rejected it initially.
37:34: They, who are you? I mean, what are you doing here? And it was the same with Jesus, that John's gospel says he came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him, and in the same way, these leaders here in Acts chapter 7, they're accusing
37:50: Stephen, they've rejected God's law, they refuse to worship God truly. He's been their pattern throughout all, that's been their pattern throughout all of history, the
37:59: Jews have rejected Jesus, and even that is a picture of all humanity.
38:05: We continue to reject Jesus. It's kind of like the other side of what
38:11: Stephen said concerning Joseph, because Joseph did say, you know,
38:17: God meant it for good, but he also said you meant it for evil, and here he's pointing out to the first century
38:24: Jews, yeah, it was, you know, necessary that Jesus go through this death, but yes, you were the ones who murdered him, so he was showing that they were culpable.
38:36: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I have heard it preached by one of my former pastors,
38:41: I think it was Mike Gadosh, I'm almost certain, who now is the director and operator of Solid Grand Christian Books, now in Florida, previously in Alabama, he just relocated days ago, but Mike Gadosh, I'm pretty certain, preached a sermon where he was discussing or preaching about those who were responsible for the death of Christ, and that included his own people, the
39:08: Jews, that included the Romans and Pontius Pilate, that included
39:14: God the Father who ordained it to happen, who poured his wrath on his only son so that the elect could have eternal life, that included us because of our sins that contributed to the necessity of the death of meaning each and every human being that has ever lived, and also it was
39:38: Christ himself who laid down his life willingly, so it was all of it, I think it would be a danger to somehow focus on the
39:49: Jews primarily or exclusively, because that's another way of using a scapegoat, would it not be?
39:56: Anthony? Yes, absolutely, it's a way to say, I didn't do it, why do
40:01: I have any part in this? I didn't kill him. Yeah, I think that it's our sin that held him there on the tree.
40:12: Amen, and it is interesting that I think it's also another sign of the necessity of the rebirth to even see your need for a savior, the reformed ordo salutis or order of salvation, how dead man can't even cry out to a savior unless they are born again, and that is in genuine repentance and faith, and when you have
40:40: Jesus's own people, in fact the people of Yahweh in the old covenant, who even though they knew the voice of God was heard audibly and they had prophets who were speaking for God, they continued and saw miracles, and saw miracles even as dramatic as the plagues that fell upon Egypt and the parting of the
41:08: Red Sea and things like that, they still wound up rejecting God, and you have that going all the way up through the new covenant where people are rejecting the disciples and Christ himself, even though they saw miracles, the
41:24: Pharisees knew that he did perform miracles, they still wanted him dead, and isn't that just a proof that you will reject
41:31: Christ no matter what you see and hear unless you are regenerate? Absolutely, unless you have eyes to see, you can't see it.
41:40: Yeah, I think the most pointed example of that is when it says that they also sought to put
41:45: Lazarus to death. Yeah, and that actually goes back to the other
41:51: Lazarus, because when the rich man was in hell, he cried out that Abraham would send the other
42:01: Lazarus, the beggar Lazarus, to his brothers to warn them, and Abraham said they have the
42:08: Moses and the prophets, yeah, let them hear them, and because even if one were rised from the dead, they wouldn't believe.
42:19: Right, and a Lazarus did rise from the dead, and they didn't believe. Right, well, that was a different Lazarus though. Right, but it's interesting, it was a
42:26: Lazarus who was raised from the dead, and they still didn't believe, but wanted to kill him to destroy the evidence, you know. We do have a listener all the way in Slovenia, Joe, who says, thanks for continuing to have representatives from heart cry missions.
42:40: Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, Anthony, I had Don Curran on recently. I don't know if you know Don, I'm sure you probably do.
42:46: Yeah, Don was on the program not long ago, but Joe in Slovenia says, please ask brother
42:52: Anthony to address the issue of total depravity and bondage of the will as aspects of the fallen human condition involved in the lives of those who crucified
43:01: Jesus and stoned Stephen. Please explain the relation of these doctrines to human responsibility in these cases, and also those around us today.
43:15: What lessons are there for us to learn and apply in our own interactions with those who reject our attempts at evangelism, witnessing, and preaching?
43:24: Thank you so much for your service to our Savior. Well, that is a whole week's worth of questions, but if you could, that's a very good question.
43:34: We were actually just talking about it, but if you could even just expand a little further the issues of total depravity and the bondage of the will, and in contrast to human responsibility in regarding these persecutions of the prophets and the apostles and Christ.
43:56: Sure, I think it's helpful from the outset with using the total depravity terminology to understand that that doesn't mean that all people who are outside of Christ are as sinful as they could possibly be, but in totality every aspect of the human has been affected, tainted negatively by sin.
44:25: So there's no good left in us. Romans 3 makes it very clear. There's no one good, no not one.
44:32: There's nothing good that we can do. We hit on it earlier. Our righteousness is like filthy rags.
44:37: There's nothing good we can do because there's no good in us. Because of that, because of that depravity, we can't spiritually respond to God.
44:49: We are incapable. We are dead in our sins and our transgressions, incapacitated to respond to Him in any way apart from Him giving us life, which is regeneration.
45:05: And when that happens, there is a choice to be made to follow Christ. There's a response that follows as a result of Him removing the hard heart and putting in a soft heart that's pliable and conformable into the image of Jesus.
45:21: And as a result of the center of who we are, our hearts being completely altered, then slowly but surely every tributary of our lives begins to be affected through sanctification.
45:36: Our mind is altered. We begin to think differently. Our affections are altered. We begin to love differently.
45:43: Our conscience is altered. Our will is altered. Our memory is altered.
45:49: Every aspect of who we are slowly but surely coming forth from the center of who we are.
45:55: Out of that fountain, the sanctification begins to affect all of our lives. So though we started completely dead and totally depraved, the miracle of the new birth of regeneration happens, and then we are increasingly conformed to the image and the likeness of Jesus until we breathe our last and are glorified and made like Him.
46:17: And I can't help but immediately think as a Calvinist of Romans 9, where we start with verse 12, the older will serve the younger, just as it is written,
46:35: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? There is no justice with God, is there?
46:42: May it never be, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom
46:50: I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
46:58: For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for the very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole faith, throughout the whole earth.
47:11: So then he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
47:17: You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who resists his will?
47:23: On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this?
47:31: Will it or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
47:43: What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
48:08: There you have the built -in answer to a question.
48:14: It's interesting, isn't it Pastor Anthony, that instinctively those who are not
48:19: Calvinists, and that would include both our Christian brothers who are not Calvinists and also unbelievers, when we describe to them the nature of man and how those whom he chooses to regenerate is all according to his own sovereign choice, his sovereign will, and his sovereign mercy and grace, they will say these very things to us.
48:41: You know, they might reword the answers that Paul instinctively knows that man will respond with, but you hear that all the time, don't you?
48:52: In fact, I heard years ago in the 1990s, I organized a debate between my friend
48:58: Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and a non -Calvinist who would be better to describe as a vehemently anti -Calvinist
49:08: Christian minister, and he basically said almost word for word what
49:16: Paul predicted he would say. He said in regarding to God's sovereignty in election, well, how can
49:23: God still find fault with us? Because how can we, you know, resist his will? And James said, do you realize you're quoting from Romans 9?
49:31: Paul predicted that you would say that very thing, and the man obviously didn't understand what
49:37: James was saying, and he said, exactly! But that is, it's all right there, isn't it?
49:44: I mean, if your interpretation or the way you exegete Romans 9 doesn't have that built -in response, then you're not exegeting it properly, am
49:54: I right? Yes, that's right, and I think not only non -Calvinists, but often
50:01: Calvinists don't look at that passage in a way that it would be most helpful.
50:09: For some reason, we ask the wrong question when we look at that. We wonder how in the world
50:15: God could hate Esau, and the real question is, why in the world has
50:21: God chosen to show me mercy? Amen. Even Jacob, why he showed mercy to Jacob.
50:29: Right, and none of us are better than Jacob, and Jacob deserved no mercy at all. He doesn't have a life that's deserving of mercy, but God shows him mercy.
50:38: But if we have a right understanding of who God is, the way that he's described himself on the pages of scripture, that he's high and holy, and he's the judge of all the earth, and he always does right, then it allows room for him to treat people who have offended him infinitely with their sin however he wants, and we can understand that then it's just, and it's right, because of who he is, because of his holiness, and his purity, and his righteousness.
51:08: So then when he shows mercy to any, we ought to be left dumbfounded, picking our jaws up off the floor, amazed that he would show sinful humanity, people who were guilty of crucifying him.
51:23: I mean, our Lord himself, praying from the cross, forgive them. And you mentioned the words of Stephen as he's being martyred, when he, you know, says, don't hold this sin against them.
51:35: Those are that's very similar to the words of Jesus. Forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing.
51:42: Offer forgiveness to them. Bring them into the kingdom. Make them like the thief who is here, that will be with me today in paradise.
51:50: It's amazing. We should be more amazed with the mercy that God is showing to people.
51:57: Amen. Yes, that is really, unfortunately, in the heart of most people, whether they're
52:06: Calvinist or not, their immediate reaction might be that, or should
52:12: I say, our immediate reaction to conflict might be that we deserve better, or that we don't deserve whatever frowning providence has been brought into our lives.
52:26: We truly don't think that we are all that bad, even though we may on paper, we may even love to hear sermons about how men are totally depraved, and we may doctrinally fully agree with it.
52:45: But when it comes to ourselves, we typically don't logically and consistently follow through with our doctrine, do we?
52:54: Right. No, and that's where it's so helpful for us to follow the pattern of Christ in that who didn't claim the rights that were his there in Philippians 2, but he humbled himself, and we have no rights, and yet we find ourselves just grasping at air for rights, and we want entitlement, and those type things.
53:18: And we're nothing. God has done everything for us. We deserved hell, and he made us children.
53:26: Amen, and we're going to our midway break. This is a little longer than normal because of the fact that Grace Life Radio in Lake City, Florida requires a 12 -minute break between our two segments, so I hope you're patient, and I hope that those of you who have already submitted questions will be patient until we have our guest,
53:45: Pastor Anthony Matheny, answer your questions to the best of his ability. If anybody would like to get in line and ask questions of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.
53:54: chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Anthony Matheny after these messages from our sponsors.
54:03: One sure way all Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners can help keep my show on the air is to support my advertisers.
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55:29: Or go to BatteryDepot .com. That's BatteryDepot .com. Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, For am
55:42: I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man,
55:49: I would not be a servant of Christ. Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church. We are a
55:55: Reformed Baptist Church, and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts.
56:02: We strive to reflect Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do than how men view these things.
56:10: That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the apostles' priority, it must not be ours either.
56:17: We believe by God's grace that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man, and to be vessels of Christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us, and to build up the body of Christ in truth and love.
56:29: If you live near Norfolk, Massachusetts, or plan to visit our area, please come and join us for worship and fellowship.
56:35: You can call us at 508 -528 -5750, that's 508 -528 -5750, or go to our website to email us, listen to past sermons, worship songs, or watch our
56:47: TV program entitled, Resting in Grace. You can find us at providencebaptistchurchma .org,
56:53: that's providencebaptistchurchma .org, or even on sermonaudio .com. Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor
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58:35: Their website is cvbbs .com. 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.
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59:05: Earl Avenue in Lynbrook, Long Island is teaching God's timeless truths in the 21st century. Our church is far more than a
59:11: Sunday worship service. It's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant.
59:17: 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 and healing.
59:24: We're a diverse family of all ages, enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship, play, and together.
59:31: Hi, I'm Pastor Bob Walderman and I invite you to come and join us here at Lynbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be.
59:37: Call Lynbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402, that's 516 -599 -9402, or visit lynbrookbaptist .org,
59:47: that's lynbrookbaptist .org. Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts,
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01:02:37: Welcome back. This is Chris Arns. And if you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours, with a little less than an hour to go, is
01:02:45: Anthony Methenia, a pastor of Christ Church, Radford, Virginia, a board member at HeartCry Missionary Society, and a speaker at the upcoming
01:02:53: G3 Conference in January of 2018. We are discussing recounting resistance and rejection from Acts chapter 7.
01:03:02: And before we return to that actual discussion, I have some important announcements regarding special events being held by some of our sponsors.
01:03:11: The Word of Truth Church in Formingville, Long Island, New York, in cooperation with the
01:03:17: Long Island Spurgeon Fellowship, present the Gospel of the Reformation, a 500th anniversary celebration, featuring one of my dear friends, keynote speaker
01:03:27: Dr. Tony Costa, who is professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.
01:03:34: He'll be joined by Pastor Caleb Bunch, Pastor Bruce Bennett, and Pastor Dave Corson at the
01:03:40: Word of Truth Church in Formingville, Long Island on Friday, September 29th and Saturday, September 30th.
01:03:47: If you'd like to attend that Gospel of the Reformation celebration, go to wotchurch .com.
01:03:55: That's W -O -T, standing for wordoftruthchurch .com. Or you can call area code 631 -806 -0614.
01:04:06: 631 -806 -0614. The very next day, the aforementioned
01:04:12: Dr. Tony Costa of Toronto Baptist Seminary will be speaking at the Sunday morning service on Sunday, October 1st, at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Medford, Long Island, New York.
01:04:24: If you would like to attend that service, go to hopereformedli .net, hopereformedli, for Long Island, dot net, or call 631 -696 -5711.
01:04:38: 631 -696 -5711. And then, coming up in November, our friends at the
01:04:45: Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is having their annual Quakertown Conference on Reformed Theology.
01:04:53: This is going to be held, and for some reason, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals website was being sluggish there for a minute.
01:05:03: This is being held, as I said, November 17th through the 18th at the Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
01:05:10: The theme is, For Still Our Ancient Foe, obviously a reference to Satan from that great
01:05:16: Reformation hymn by Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress. The speakers at the Quakertown Conference on Reformed Theology include
01:05:23: Kent Hughes, Peter Jones, Tom Nettles, Dennis Cahill, and Scott Oliphant.
01:05:29: If you would like to register for this conference, go to alliancenet .org, alliancenet .org,
01:05:36: and click on Events, and then on the Quakertown Conference on Reformed Theology.
01:05:42: And then, coming up in January, as we have been already discussing, the
01:05:47: G3 Conference returns to Atlanta, Georgia, January 18th through the 20th.
01:05:53: And on January 17th, there is an exclusively Spanish -speaking edition of the conference.
01:06:00: That's January 17th for the Spanish Conference, and January 18th through the 20th for the
01:06:06: English -speaking conference, which features Stephen Lawson, Votie Balcom, Phil Johnson, Keith Getty, H .B.
01:06:13: Charles, Jr., Tim Challies, Josh Bice, James White, Tom Askell, Michael Kruger, David Miller, Paul Tripp, Todd Friel, Derek Thomas, Martha Peace, and our guest today,
01:06:23: Anthony Methenia. The theme is, Knowing God, a Biblical Understanding of Discipleship.
01:06:28: If you'd like to register for this conference, go to g3conference .com, g3conference .com.
01:06:35: And I am intending to have an Iron Sharpens Iron exhibitor's booth at both of those events, so I hope to see you at those events.
01:06:45: And again, to register, go to g3conference .com, g3conference .com.
01:06:51: And now comes that uncomfortable moment, the most uncomfortable moment of my day, when
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01:07:02: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air have urged me to make public appeals for donations after years of being totally silent of that matter.
01:07:13: We have reached a crucial stage in our history here at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and we are in urgent need of your donations and also of your advertising dollars.
01:07:22: If you would like to advertise on Iron Sharpens Iron, whether it's your church that you pastor, your parachurch ministry, whether it's your business, your professional firm, such as a law practice, a medical practice, whether it's a special event that you're having, whatever it is, as long as it's compatible with the theology expressed on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, you don't have to believe identically with me, who
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01:09:18: I thank you more than words can possibly describe in the English language. Well, now we are back to our discussion on recounting resistance and rejection from Acts chapter 7 with our host
01:09:30: Anthony Methenia, pastor at Christ Church Radford, Virginia, and we already have another listener who has a question for you, and that is
01:09:43: David in Ada, Ohio. And David in Ada, Ohio says, my question is about the use of tracts.
01:09:53: Could you address the value of tracts for those who don't want to engage in conversation with someone?
01:09:59: Well, I don't think a Christian should be not wanting to engage in conversation with people, but since God is sovereign, could we expect him to use any and all means for regenerating the elect, and even the means we choose are the means he wants us to use?
01:10:19: I .e., perhaps someone will receive a tract and read it later with much more effect than the immediate confrontation that a conversation on the street causes.
01:10:27: I was saved through a USO tract in a tract rack in a foreign country port of call while in the
01:10:34: Navy. Okay, Pastor Anthony, you have a response to David in Ada, Ohio? Yes, I think that the use of tracts is good and definitely okay.
01:10:49: The major problem with most tracts is that they don't tell the truth. Yeah, that's sadly the truth.
01:10:59: Yeah, I mean, so using tracts is fine. Finding ones that are biblical is a bit more problematic, but there are some good ones out there, and so I think it's nice to have them.
01:11:10: There are times when you don't have time for a full conversation, when it's nice to have just a small tract to hand to someone or to leave them in different places where people are going to be.
01:11:20: You don't have a conversation. I mean, the place where this gentleman found the tract, there wasn't a person there to have a conversation with, but he had a conversation, if you will, with the actual tract, which obviously proclaimed the gospel.
01:11:37: And that's what, as long as the tract has the biblical gospel in it, then
01:11:43: I think it's fine to use them, but we don't want to use them exclusively as an excuse to not have conversations with people.
01:11:55: Right, yeah, otherwise just get a pilot's license and drop them out of a plane somewhere, let them scatter in the wind across communities in various places.
01:12:05: But yeah, we got to make sure that we're not using that as a way out of fulfilling the
01:12:12: Great Commission in the way that Christ actually intended it to be done, but of course it's not always possible to strike up a conversation.
01:12:23: If we knew all the means that God used to reach people, it would probably surprise us, and we would probably disagree with him that he shouldn't have used that means and all that, and I would never say to a person who was saved through a tract, don't use tracts as a ministry, because I mean, look, it obviously works, you know, but I've also noticed...
01:12:44: By the way, this is Reverend Buzz Taylor, people say we sound alike. Yeah, Chris doesn't want to be accused of saying anything that I'm saying, but you know,
01:12:51: I've noticed a pattern over the years, not always, but people generally tend towards using the method of evangelism that they were reached under.
01:13:02: I was saved under somebody's preaching, and therefore I became a pastor and started preaching. This is a very common thing, and if you were saved, and I'm sure many other people were saved through the reading of a tract, yeah, definitely,
01:13:18: God obviously uses that. But I also agree what you said before, that the problem from what
01:13:25: I've seen from most gospel tracts is the thing that's lacking is gospel. Yeah, I don't know,
01:13:31: Pastor Anthony, if you are familiar with Chapel Library, but yeah,
01:13:38: Chapel Library, I think, is a phenomenal resource for tracts and booklets, and really insanely affordable.
01:13:49: In fact, they're very often provided for free by Jeff Pollard of Chapel Library. He calls his booklets and tracts paper missionaries, and they are very doctrinally sound.
01:14:02: They're now even much more physically attractive than they used to be.
01:14:10: They've come a long way with full -color tracts and pamphlets and brochures and booklets, and if anybody is interested in the
01:14:19: Chapel Library tract, I will give you their website in a few moments.
01:14:27: But just because of the fact that God uses something, wouldn't you also say that since God is sovereign, even like Reverend Buzz was saying, doesn't necessarily put a seal of approval on it as God's ordained means.
01:14:44: For instance, I know people who are opposed to the methodology of the
01:14:51: Billy Graham crusades, who were, they themselves were saved at those crusades. Ian Murray is one that just jumps in my mind immediately.
01:15:01: And even I know former Jehovah's Witnesses who came to Christ while they were
01:15:07: Jehovah's Witnesses because they were reading the Bible. And even Mormons who became
01:15:13: Christians, who became regenerate brothers in Christ while still remaining for a time in the
01:15:19: Mormon cult, but that wouldn't give a license to use the methodology of Jehovah's Witnesses and the
01:15:27: Mormons to evangelize. Am I making a point with you, Anthony? Yeah, right. The only pattern for us for doing evangelism and preaching the
01:15:37: Gospel is what's on the pages of the Scriptures. So God has ordained that the Gospel be preached, and so that's what we do.
01:15:43: We proclaim the Gospel. Sometimes it's in written words, sometimes it's verbally, and we don't want to get outside of and look for other ways, other creative ways to do it.
01:15:57: He has ordained the message, He's ordained the method, and we simply follow in line with what
01:16:02: He has told us to do. Right. And even the Bible talks about the traditions of the
01:16:11: Apostle being spread through not only word of mouth but in writing. So obviously when the tracts are biblical and even contain
01:16:18: Scripture, I'm assuming that you would include that as a valid means that wouldn't contradict anything in the
01:16:24: Bible. Passing around tracts, I'm saying. Yes. If anybody wants to go to Chapel Library's website to find out more about them, their website is chapellibrary .org.
01:16:38: If you don't already know about them, I think you'll be astounded by that wonderful ministry there in Pensacola, Florida.
01:16:46: One of the things that we were discussing today, it reminded me of the fact that we very often give up hope when we are witnessing to people.
01:17:06: We we throw in the towel. We view people as hopeless causes, they'll never be saved.
01:17:13: We deem ourselves to have omniscience in some way and think that we can tell who the elect are and who are not, and we say, forget this person.
01:17:24: But isn't this a powerful testimony that you have provided for us in your sermon and in our discussion today about Stephen, who proclaiming the truth to those who are actually killing him.
01:17:36: I mean, this is something for us all to remember when most of us, even though there are martyrs who lose their lives all around the world today, most of us live in places that at least those listening to my program are listening in places that is not the case, and we have relatively less to fear in regard to proclaiming the gospel, although who knows what's coming ahead of us in our future here in the
01:18:02: United States. But how do you address that pessimism that many of us fall into when we are evangelizing those, especially those that we love who reject the gospel?
01:18:16: Yes, that passage there at the end of Acts chapter 7, after they had driven him out of the city, verse 58 of Acts 7, they began stoning him and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named
01:18:30: Saul, and then Stephen's prayer did not hold this sin against them, we actually see that both the proclamation of the gospel that Stephen had just preached and his prayer that God would make it effectual in their lives, that they wouldn't be held responsible for killing him, the proclamation of the gospel proved fruitful and the prayer was answered in the life of that young man whose coats were at his feet.
01:19:03: With Saul, as we just skip forward a little bit to two chapters, and we see that Saul ends up saved in verse 9, and I mentioned earlier in the program,
01:19:12: I preached on Acts 13 in Paul's sermon yesterday, having been sent out of Antioch, and his sermon is very similar to this sermon of Stephen.
01:19:24: He heard Stephen run through the Old Testament history, and there that day as an unconverted man,
01:19:30: God changes his heart, he himself is now preaching in a synagogue to Jewish people, and he runs through the same
01:19:37: Old Testament history to point out and ultimately get to the culmination of Christ who was sent for salvation.
01:19:46: Amen. And when you think about Paul, the fire -breathing
01:19:54: Pharisee who wanted to kill men and women, who in fact did wind up rounding up men and women for execution who believed in Christ, that he would be used eventually to write, will be the author who wrote more of the
01:20:10: New Testament than any other author, it's quite astounding, isn't it? It's amazing, and it shows that it is the power of God who can dramatically change an individual through conversion.
01:20:24: It really increases, it should increase our view of the new birth and of regeneration and the power of God working in the life of human beings.
01:20:35: Now Pastor Anthony, you just referred me to, via email, a booklet that I thought
01:20:42: I'd announce since we just had David in Ada, Ohio asking about tracts.
01:20:48: You referred me to a booklet by Brother Paul Washer titled The Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is published by Heritage Books.
01:20:57: Do you have anything to say about that? I will also provide the contact information for people to order it as well.
01:21:04: Yes, I just quickly sent that to you because I think it's the best thing out there. It's fairly inexpensive, it's something you can afford to keep a few around and give them to people as they need them.
01:21:17: It is Paul who wrote it explaining the gospel beginning to end.
01:21:23: It's the full -orbed gospel dealing with the reality of God and the nature of man and what
01:21:30: Christ accomplished for us on the cross. Yes, and the website for that is heritagebooks .org.
01:21:39: Heritagebooks .org. If you type in Washer, just like your washer and dryer, if you type in Washer in the search engine on that website, that will be one of the things that come up, and it's only $2 .25.
01:21:54: So it's quite an inexpensive 32 -page booklet, and I hope that many of you take advantage of that.
01:22:00: And the Reverend Buzz Taylor has something to say. Yes, I just wanted to mention too that our friends at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, Todd Jennings has also written a booklet for the purpose of witnessing, and unfortunately the name escapes me, but if you go to his website, cbbbs .com,
01:22:16: I'm sure it's the only thing you're going to find that he's written himself, Todd Jennings. But that's also useful.
01:22:23: Yeah, that has been getting a lot of support even by the founder of the very publisher that I just mentioned,
01:22:31: Heritage Books. Dr. Joel Beeky wrote a wonderful endorsement for that booklet of Todd Jennings, and it is quite a helpful booklet and a very affordable booklet, and that is called
01:22:47: The Big Picture. That's it, yep. So if you go to cbbbs .com,
01:22:53: cbbbs .com, and if you type in Jennings in the search engine, that's
01:22:59: J -E -N -N -I -N -G -S, you will get that in there.
01:23:07: And let me just read what Joel Beeky said about that booklet since we mentioned his publishing ministry moments ago.
01:23:14: Surely there is more to life than trivial pursuit. In this booklet, Todd Jennings provides us with the big picture for life and for living, like a friend sitting down with you to have a real talk.
01:23:25: He dialogues with us about who God made us to be, what we have become, and what we need to be, and how to get there.
01:23:34: Anyone who embraces these pages with mind and heart will begin, by God's grace, to truly live.
01:23:41: That's quite an endorsement from Dr. Joel Beeky. What we were speaking about before, the fact that we need to not give up when we evangelize, knowing that God has a person within, or people,
01:24:02: I should say, within every tribe and nation and people and tongue that will with certainty come to him.
01:24:09: They might not necessarily come to him through our evangelism, but they will eventually hear the voice of the shepherd as we see in John chapter 10.
01:24:22: They will hear his voice and they will follow him. Although we are to be optimistic about that, is there a time when we are legitimately permitted to just say, okay,
01:24:35: I've said enough, I'm going to go on my way, and I will pray for you, but I will no longer burden you with the persistent evangelism?
01:24:46: Yeah, I think there is a time for that. Most of us don't reach that time. Most of us bail out and give up before we get to that,
01:24:55: I'm afraid. But there could be a time where either by, logistically, we're not living close to them anymore, or circumstantially, we're just not going by that business or place of employment where we've come across that person anymore, where we're not able to attempt to influence them with the gospel in the same way.
01:25:16: There may also be times in our conversations and communications with people that we don't need to be attempting to plow so hard, and we need to spend a little more time convincing them that we actually do care, and they're not just a project that we're trying to convert, but we do love and care about them.
01:25:35: We're going to go to our final break, Pastor Anthony, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you a question and have you mull it over and give an answer when you come back, or when we come back.
01:25:46: But this, I think, ties in very much with what
01:25:52: Stephen was proclaiming to those who eventually stoned him to death and made him the first Christian martyr, as well as what we were discussing in Matthew chapter 22, verses 1 through 14, the parable of the wedding feast.
01:26:09: We have Jesus himself saying, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often
01:26:19: I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
01:26:30: And one of the reasons that I bring that up is that not only is it a tie -in to our discussion, in fact, it occurs just later, a little bit later in the
01:26:43: Gospel of Matthew than the verses I was talking about regarding the wedding feast, but it's also something that those who oppose the doctrines of sovereign grace and Reformed theology will bring up, because they will say that here we see the will of man being involved in whether or not someone becomes a
01:27:09: Christian or rejects that free offer, because they will say, you see,
01:27:15: Jesus wanted to gather your children, meaning the
01:27:20: Jews, he wanted them to be saved, all of them to be saved, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but it was the individual choice of those who rejected
01:27:31: Christ and wound up calling out for his death that had to do ultimately with where they will spend eternal life, not a sovereign decision made before the foundations of the world by God himself.
01:27:47: I'll have you address that when we return to our final break here, and if anybody else would like to join us while we still have time,
01:27:57: I would recommend, if you want to join us with a question, that you do it very quickly, because we are running out of time.
01:28:03: Send it to chrisarnson at gmail .com, and please, as always, give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the
01:28:15: USA. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Anthony Matheny, God willing, right after these messages from our sponsors.
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01:31:10: Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor, frequent co -host with Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
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01:32:21: That's CVBBS .com. Let Todd and Patty know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
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01:36:39: This is Chris Arnzen, and this is the last 25 minutes of our program with Anthony Methenia, a pastor at Christ Church in Radford, Virginia, a board member at HeartCry Missionary Society, and a speaker at the upcoming
01:36:52: G3 conference, January 18th through the 20th in 2018.
01:36:57: We have been discussing and will continue to discuss recounting resistance and rejection from Acts chapter 7, and if you'd like to join us, now is the time to send in an email before we run out of time.
01:37:08: If you have a question, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com, chrisarnzen at gmail .com,
01:37:14: and as I said before the break, Anthony, you know probably as well as I do that many of those outside of the
01:37:23: Reformed faith or out of the doctrines of sovereign grace will quote to us
01:37:28: Jesus's own words, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her?
01:37:35: How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were unwilling?
01:37:44: How do you respond to the fact that Jesus seems to be wanting to save people but it was because of their own free will that their destinies were determined to eternal damnation?
01:38:00: I would begin with saying it was a result of their will, and if you want to argue that it was freedom of their will that resulted in it, then we could go there.
01:38:10: But the only freedom our will has because of the original fall, because of sin, is the freedom to sin, the freedom to not choose
01:38:19: Christ. And apart from the work of the new birth and regeneration, none of us will choose
01:38:28: Christ. None of us are willing to come. Our will has to be overcome by the sovereign choice of God, the sovereign work of God in our lives through the new birth, giving us new life, and then our wills are bent or broken to no longer, they're no longer free to only sin, but now they're free to obey, free to do what we're commanded to do, which is to come to Christ and to repent and to believe.
01:38:57: But there are none who are attempting to come to Christ that he's holding away with a stiff arm.
01:39:03: God isn't standing back keeping those who really want him away. Psalm 34, 22, the
01:39:10: Lord redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
01:39:16: All who come to him will be received. All who seek him will find him.
01:39:23: Amen. How would you respond if the person who is rejecting the doctrines of grace just further adds, well, you might be right on those issues, but we're talking about the love of God here, and Calvinists don't believe that God loves all people and the way that you interpret
01:39:41: Romans 9, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Why is Christ wanting to gather people under his wings that he does not love?
01:39:54: I would quote Jonathan Edwards that God is a diverse conjunction of divine excellencies, and though we do not understand how there can be a longing, how can the same
01:40:11: God who said he doesn't delight in the death of the wicked and that he desires all to come to him and to not perish,
01:40:19: I mean, those issues are hidden in the counsel of God. What we know is that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent, and all who come to him in Christ will be saved, and those who don't come will be damned because they chose not to come.
01:40:37: That's from our perspective. Now, certainly, we can back up and consider it from the perspective of God, and we see that there's been a people on the heart of God for all of eternity.
01:40:48: In the counsels eternal, he determined to save. He chose to show his affections to a certain people, and all of those will come to him in time.
01:41:00: Those are the people that Christ died for. But I think oftentimes we get confused looking at things from a human perspective and looking at things from a divine perspective, and we try to play
01:41:13: God a little bit too much rather than allowing him. For the most part, the people
01:41:18: I know who reject the doctrines of grace have a low view of the doctrine of God or a low view of God himself, and that's where it flows from.
01:41:28: Not allowing him to be completely free of any human agency or human authority or any agency authority outside of himself.
01:41:37: Because he's God and he does all things right, he's free to do and act however he wants.
01:41:44: The only thing he cannot do is contradict himself. We have confidence that he will not do that because he's
01:41:49: God. Amen. Would you say that also included in this whole question or whole dilemma, or at least an apparent dilemma, is that there are different aspects of God's love because of the fact that he loves all humanity in one way, but he has a parental and spousal love for his elect alone.
01:42:14: I mean, the scriptures talk about Jesus loved the young rich ruler, although we have no scriptural record of him coming to Christ later on after he rejected the gospel.
01:42:26: And we have, even though it never says that Jesus loved Judas, it says that in the scriptures that Jesus was his friend, and yet later on Jesus would say that it would have been better for him never to have been born.
01:42:40: Aren't there different aspects to God's love that does not make all humanity a cookie cutter and equal in the way that they are loved by God?
01:42:51: Absolutely. And the illustrations that you've given work very well. That of our family, the way that we love our family, we love different than we love other people.
01:43:01: I mean, there are people that I do love that are not immediate family, but I don't love them in the same way that I love my wife and my kids.
01:43:08: And we, we can obviously see that throughout scripture with God as well. He has a people that he loves.
01:43:16: He loves his children in a way that he doesn't love those who are not his children. Amen. We have
01:43:23: Murray and Ken Ross Scotland, who says in parts of the world where Christian missionaries are potentially in danger of their lives, is there ever a justification for avoiding life -threatening situations in order to finish the work that God has given them to do?
01:43:42: Or would avoiding such situations be seen as compromise or lack of faith?
01:43:47: Very good question for Murray and Ken Ross Scotland. It is a good question, and it does not, the first part of the question to answer, it is possible to avoid certain situations in order to finish the work that God has given you to do.
01:44:06: We see that in the life of the Apostle Paul, and he's kept from going here. He goes to the next place.
01:44:14: God ordains and orchestrates and leads in that way. That doesn't mean that that's always the answer.
01:44:22: The answer is not for us to just hole up in our house and, you know, wait it out because it's dangerous out there.
01:44:29: But there are times where wisdom should dictate that for the sake of the long -term effects and success of the
01:44:38: Gospel work there, we should be wise about how we go about doing it. If I am living in a place that's hostile towards the
01:44:47: Gospel, I don't want to be running up and down the streets with a megaphone continuously proclaiming the
01:44:53: Gospel. If I'm there to establish a church that will be able to minister to the next generation, if taking a megaphone in is going to allow me to only last a week rather than a decade, then that's probably not the approach
01:45:10: I want to take. That would in no way mean that I or whomever was doing that would be a coward.
01:45:16: That's using wisdom and attempting to do what God has shown you that you ought to do, and that is establish a local church there that will be able to continue ministering in future generations.
01:45:27: Yeah, and even in the Old Testament we have an example of Rahab the harlot being used to rescue
01:45:35: God's people from physical danger, right? Yes, right.
01:45:42: Well, thank you, Murray in Kinross, Scotland. Please keep listening to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and keep spreading the word in the
01:45:50: United Kingdom and beyond. It's always great to hear from you, Murray, and we love your questions here on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
01:45:58: We have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who says you mentioned several times
01:46:05: Paul Washer during your interview today. Could your guest give us a brief description of who
01:46:12: Paul Washer is? Okay, that's a fair question. Yeah, Paul is a man who's uniquely gifted by God.
01:46:23: He was converted in undergrad at the University of Texas. God called him to the mission field, and he spent about 10 years on the field in Peru with a mission agency and, due to health reasons, ended up back in the
01:46:38: States and began supporting Native pastors he saw while he was in Peru and actually supported them while he was there as well, that the local pastors and church planters were accomplishing a lot more with a lot less than the cross -cultural missionaries.
01:46:56: And once he was back here, he began supporting them even more there in Peru, and that has grown now to being in a couple dozen different countries around the world.
01:47:08: And Paul has been used uniquely, as I mentioned, and mightily by the
01:47:13: Lord to preach the gospel in lots of different contexts. I personally think that God has used him mostly in the burned -over district, so to speak, of America and those who have professed
01:47:30: Christianity but aren't living in a biblical fashion, that is one area where God's been mightily used, where Paul has been mightily used by God.
01:47:42: Amen. And I think it does relate to our discussion, when you mentioned the burned -over district, that's quite an interesting phenomenon, because although Christians who are evangelizing in areas such as that typically are not risking their lives like Stephen did and gave his life as a martyr, the first Christian martyr, but apathy and indifference, or people who are come out of religious stock but have been so jaded by the experience that they never want to return to even explore another theological voice claiming to be truth.
01:48:35: Explain to our listeners a bit what that means, burned -out district or burnt -over district, and how you might suggest we have a unique challenge in spreading the gospel in those areas.
01:48:46: Another way to describe it may be that we're inoculated to the gospel. We've heard those things that are true so often in our country that we've just gotten used to it, unfortunately, that those who name the name of Christ aren't really living for Christ.
01:49:06: They haven't been born again, they haven't repented, and they don't believe, but just as a result of being in a
01:49:13: Christian family or in a country that used to be Christian or was founded on a few Christian principles or their grandmother has a
01:49:21: Bible, I mean, just you can go on and on down the list of how people think they might be a Christian.
01:49:26: They were baptized into the church. There are lots of reasons why people think they are
01:49:31: Christians that simply are not biblical. So we live primarily in the central part of our country, central and southern part of our country is that way.
01:49:42: The entire country used to be more that way, the Northeast after the revivals, which is actually where the term
01:49:48: Burned Over District originally came from, was after the Second Great Awakening, I believe. So we have to work hard to penetrate those areas where people have been inoculated, so to speak, and that's from man's perspective that they've been inoculated with the gospel.
01:50:07: The gospel can still penetrate and break the heart of stone that's there, obviously the power of the gospel is sufficient for that, but we must be faithful to proclaim it and not just assume that these who are claiming to be
01:50:23: Christian because of this reason or that reason are okay with the
01:50:28: Lord. Well I'd like before we take any further questions from listeners,
01:50:34: I'd like you to have four or five minutes uninterrupted to basically summarize what you most want to have etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today before the program is over.
01:50:48: Well I think that Stephen Sermon does a good job of that, we can go back to Acts chapter 7, revisiting that briefly and seeing the way that Stephen lines out his thought of what the
01:51:07: Bible was actually about, recognizing that in the very beginning, God created all things, the heavens and the earth, and he did so in order to put on display the greatness of his glory, and he created at the end of that initial six days, man and woman, and everything was good, but then when sin entered into the world, we chose sin, and through the one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, and as a result of that wickedness and offensiveness to God, he determined to destroy all that he had made, except there was salvation through Noah, who had built an ark and his family, and they were rescued.
01:51:55: A great picture of us being rescued by Christ, but everything was blotted out, and years later, one of Noah's descendants came along,
01:52:04: Abraham, and he was promised to be the father of many nations. He and his wife
01:52:10: Sarah were old, but they believed the Lord, and God gave them a son, and God continued to bless his people, but time and again they turned their backs on him.
01:52:22: All the time he's promising to send a savior, and they were looking too often to the temporal hope that was around them, rather than looking for the coming
01:52:31: Messiah, and eventually God did send that Messiah. After 400 years of silence, he sent
01:52:39: Christ, who was born of a virgin in Bethlehem, and he lived a perfect and sinless life, fully devoted to honoring his father in all things.
01:52:50: He came down from heaven, deroged himself of the glory that he had known previously, and veiled that glory with human flesh in order that we might follow him back to God.
01:53:03: He came to trod the path back to God for sinful humanity that had lost, because we had lost our way due to the sin.
01:53:11: Some believed him. Tragically, most did not. Eventually had him arrested, crucified, and buried, but God raised this
01:53:18: Jesus from the dead, and he ascended on high to the right hand of God the Father, where he rules and reigns, having conquered sin and death and hell for all who trust only in him for salvation through repentance and faith.
01:53:32: That's the message that Stephen was preaching there in Acts chapter 7. It's the message that Paul, who was converted after hearing that message and his encounter with Christ, was preaching.
01:53:44: It's the message that we see on the pages of the New Testament, and it's our only hope that we too will trust in this
01:53:50: Christ that God has sent for salvation. Amen.
01:53:55: Amen. I'm going to take at least one more question since we seem to have time.
01:54:02: Christopher from Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. He says, very often when
01:54:08: I have had discussions with fellow Reformed Christians, they seem to fluff off deathbed conversions as not being reliable testimonies.
01:54:19: But do you think that many of us who are Calvinists can be too quick to do that, robbing people of hope and peace, knowing that God has given us who survive some ray of hope for the eternal destinies of those that have passed on when they have made some kind of profession of faith while awaiting death?
01:54:42: Absolutely, we can be too quick to write them off. The immediate example
01:54:48: I think of is the thief on the cross. I don't think any of us are willing to write him off based on Jesus's words that he would be with him today in paradise.
01:54:59: I think the balance that we have to keep is we have to be sure with those that we're talking to that they too are not just trusting that they'll get right with God some other time, and they too can just wait and have a deathbed conversion.
01:55:13: That they can live for themselves now, and that they will have a moment at the end of their life where they can just be all in for Christ for the final moment.
01:55:23: We want to remove that possibility and that type of thinking from people without removing the possibility of God showing mercy at the end of someone's days, at the end of their life.
01:55:37: Of course he can save them. I mean, even the parable comes to mind of those who worked different amounts of time for the owner, and they were all paid the same amount.
01:55:53: So we know that some people are going to be saved early in life and some late in life. I mean, they're in the parable, they're complaining about it, and they're told not to complain about that.
01:56:02: I don't think it's for us to cast judgment or to question it. We can just go by what the
01:56:07: Bible says. Those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Amen.
01:56:14: And don't you think that sometimes we as Christians, especially those that tend to be more strict or towards the right wing of the faith, for lack of a better term, those of us who are
01:56:28: Reformed or perhaps even Fundamentalist, as soon as we hear about the death of someone, that we never with our own ears and eyes witnessed a profession of faith, we, because of our lack of being an eyewitness to that, we immediately dismiss them as being in hell for eternity.
01:56:52: And that can be true of some people whose parents or children or loved ones have perished, who they have witnessed to, who they have evangelized, but they never heard a profession of faith, unless you're there at that person's side until they breathe their last breath.
01:57:10: I mean, should we be even coming to the immediate conclusion that that person is damned?
01:57:16: Because they may have come to faith in Christ without our knowing it, couldn't they? Well, absolutely they could.
01:57:22: I think we fall back on a verse that I've mentioned a couple times already, will not the judge of the earth do right?
01:57:28: If God is who he says he is in the scriptures, if he's really that big and full of splendor and majesty and holy and righteous and pure, then surely he's going to do right in all things.
01:57:42: And so I can trust that he will do what is right with regard to that person.
01:57:48: No one has ever come to Christ that he's turned away, Psalm 34, 22. So we can trust if they came to him, he received them, and we can just live there.
01:58:00: Amen. Well, I want to make sure that our listeners have your contact information.
01:58:05: Again, I have heartcrymissionary .com, heartcrymissionary .com, and I also have christchurchradford .org,
01:58:14: christchurchradford .org, that's R -A -D as in David, F as in Frank, O -R -D as in David .org,
01:58:21: christchurchradford .org. Do you have any other contact information you care to give? I think that's it.
01:58:27: Both of those two things described the church and the mission very well, and there's contact information on both of those.
01:58:34: If anyone wants to contact me, they can do so. Great. Well, I appreciate it if you would hold on when we go off the air, because I'd like to schedule you for another interview.
01:58:43: Okay. And I want to remind our listeners that today, as a solar eclipse occurred, and many people were totally enthralled and fascinated by that, something came to me today that the sun,
01:58:59: S -U -N, is in one extremely important way the polar opposite of the sun,
01:59:05: S -O -N, of God. Those who constantly look upon him without ceasing are those who are no longer blind.
01:59:13: And I hope that you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far, far greater
01:59:20: Savior than you are a sinner. I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow with questions for our guests on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
01:59:30: Don't forget about the G3 conference featuring our guest today, Anthony Mathenia, and many other speakers this coming
01:59:38: January 18th through the 20th. Go to g3conference .com, g3conference .com,
01:59:45: and always remember when you are registering for an event or just finding out information about it, always remember to tell those orchestrating those events that you heard about them from Chris Arnsen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.