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Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe.
It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better. It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen.
Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this second day of February 2024.
I'm absolutely thrilled to have back on the program a regularly featured guest who is one of my favorite guests of all to interview, and apparently, he is also the favorite of a growing number of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners outside of myself.
We have today David Reese, pastor of Puritan Reformed Church in Phoenix, Arizona, and CEO of armoredrepublic .com. And today, we're going to be addressing a theme right up my alley. I am a person, you may have heard me say this before, I am a person who is prone to melancholy, as they used to say, depression is the term that is more frequently used in the 21st century, and I have an ongoing battle with this.
And I thank God that Pastor Reese has chosen the theme, the power of Christian joy to overcome misery. It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor David Reese.
Father, it's an honor to be here, thank you for having me on the show, I look forward to talking through this subject.
Amen. Well, once again, as we always do, please explain or describe Puritan Reformed Church in Phoenix, Arizona.
Yeah, Puritan Reformed Church is a Presbyterian church that holds to the Westminster Confession. We believe the Bible is the Word of God, it's infallible, it's sufficient, it's necessary for the good of man and the glory of God.
And so, our concern is to maintain the doctrine, worship, and purity, sorry, the doctrine, worship, and government of the Church, according to Scripture alone, in its purity and without subtracting out anything.
So our goal is to teach the whole counsel of God without addition or subtraction, and so we try to take that very seriously. And so I'd love to see anybody come check us out, and to be able to see what seeking to worship God, carefully applying that principle, looks like.
So thank you for the opportunity to explain that.
And folks, if you are living in the Phoenix, Arizona area, or perhaps you're just traveling through, or maybe you have family, friends, and loved ones that lived in or near Phoenix, Arizona, visit the website of Puritan Reformed Church, which is puritanphx .com, puritanphx .com.
And now, if you could also briefly explain Armored Republic, our latest advertiser on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
Thank you, Chris. Yeah, Armored Republic, we manufacture body armor. We make the tools that we think are helpful to people to be able to stay alive in a fight. And so we think about, you know, body armor is a tool of liberty, and we create tools of liberty to equip free men to defend their God-given rights against tyrants and criminals to the honor of Jesus Christ.
And so when we think about body armor, we talk about how, you know, a lot of people own a rifle, and the reason you own a rifle is because it's the most effective tool that an infantryman can have to resist tyranny and to be able to rally around godly magistrates in the event of invasion or tyranny, and also to help to restore civil order.
And so, but at the same time, the next, the second piece of equipment that you would want to think about is body armor itself and med kits. The other thing I want to point out is we have backpacks that people can buy that are, basically, have armor built in, they stop pistol rounds, and so you can just have body armor with you in your day-to-day activities.
And you know, pistol armor stops 95 of the rounds that are used in crime. So in other words, 95 of crimes that the round that's used in a firearm crime would be stopped by that pistol armor. So I'd encourage people to check out, for everyday use, the idea of a backpack with body armor in it, and also, if you are concerned about resisting tyranny, I would encourage you to have a rifle, but to also have body armor and a med kit, so that you could be a useful part of those who might rally around the preservation of our rights and our Christian heritage in the event of a need to defend ourselves.
Amen, and the website for Armored Republic is ArmoredRepublic .com, ArmoredRepublic .com, and you will be hearing now, I think we launched the ads yesterday, but you will be hearing those commercials every day in Iron Sherpa's Iron Radio for Armored Republic, and we not only thank God, first and foremost, for the fine folks at Armored Republic and Puritan Reformed Church in Phoenix, Arizona, but we also thank Pastor Reese and those folks at those two organizations for seeing fit to share the money with which God has blessed them, which is God's money, with us, so that we can continue to exist, and I can never adequately explain in the English language how grateful I am to you folks for your kindness and generosity.
It's an honor to be able to participate in your good works that you're doing by seeking to make it so that pastors and theologians are able to communicate to your audience the useful things out of God's Word, so we're really honored to be able to participate in that, and honestly, we're the ones who get the better end of the deal, because we get to participate in those good works with eternal rewards, so it's a fantastic bargain.
Praise God. Well, that's great to hear, brother, and now I'm going to give our email address right away in the event that anybody has a question. It's chrisarnsen at gmail .com, c-h-r-i-s-a-r-n-z-e-n at gmail .com.
Please give us at least your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence, but if you do have a very personal and private question to ask, and due to the nature of the subject, I could readily understand that many people who are experiencing misery, and there are all kinds of issues on this planet that bring misery into the lives of Christians and non-Christians alike, but we have the death of loved ones, we have spouses committing adultery and abandoning their spouses, and we have people being fired from employment they may have had for decades, and it may be even added to the injury, they're being fired for erroneous reasons or wicked reasons, and we could go on and on and on why people are experiencing misery.
They may have an illness that's wracking them with excruciating, indescribable pain, or they're watching a loved one experience that pain. But whatever the issue is, if you prefer to remain anonymous because it's a personal and private issue, you may just do so.
Put in the subject line that this is an anonymous question, but other than that, if you are asking general questions, give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence. What was it that provoked you to desire to discuss this subject today?
Well, you know, it's funny, you mentioned the idea of having a melancholic nature, and I think a lot of the times, a lot of people who are gifted in a sort of prophetic way, and what I mean by that is people who are thinkers about doctrine, you know, if you focus on sort of trying to ask why types of questions or examining the meanings of things and interact with people on a regular basis, you know, so often people betray, people do things that are hurtful, and I think people that really care about trying to accomplish goals, trying to build positive relationships, and really ask why types of questions really tend towards a suffering in the form of a type of melancholy, and we have to argue with ourselves, we have to preach with ourselves, you know, against those points of unbelief to be able to restore joy, and you know, the psalmist says in Psalm 51, you know, David says there's this prayer to restore the joy of salvation, and sin brings it on so often, so I often find just the difficulties of life in a fallen world to cause me to have to battle with that myself, and I remember before I had an assurance of salvation, I was really struggling with depression, with a melancholic tendency, and after I had assurance of salvation, I remember that just reducing dramatically, and so I think that joy is a really important part of gratitude that empowers us to do good works, and I want to see Christians empowered to bear the utmost fruit, the most beautiful fruit for the glory of God, and I think joyful Christians, happy warriors will help us to see godliness extend throughout the land, and to see the knowledge of God fill the earth in a more powerful way in our lifetimes, so I am on a personal level passionate about it, but I'm also, I believe, in terms of the corporate work of the church, it's such an important thing to see extended out, and I run into it so often in the pastoral ministry, I talk to people, counsel people, and there's always this struggle with, you know, what are the trials of life, the difficulties of life, and so I was meditating on this myself, and I just asked the Lord to restore joy of my own salvation, and I thought, you know what, having thought about these things, I hope that this is a fruit that is useful to other people.
Amen. Well, I think it would be wise for you to provide for us, and this may seem like a ridiculous question to many listening, but I don't think it is, especially because of the way, the different ways people define things, even Christians.
So if you could define joy, I know that there are Christians who differentiate joy from happiness, and, you know, they may think that joy always just means that you have a beaming ear-to-ear toothy grin on your face, and you always have a joyful lilt, or an enthusiastic or laughter-filled lilt in your voice, and they say that's what joy is, it's just like being happy, but do.
You have a different way to define that? Yeah, so I think that happiness has to do with, it's connected to, the idea of satisfaction, contentedness, and it's related to hope, and so it's not identical to those things, and so what I want to do is I want to give you first a definition for joy, and then talk about happiness itself a little bit more, so I'm going to say joy, joy is, joy is a stable happiness.
Joy is a lasting happiness. Happiness is not just a sense of pleasure, but instead, this idea of contentedness, the idea that, that you, that you believe you have what is good, okay, so happiness, and this is, this is what I would give as a definition for happiness, that distinguishes it from other things, it's a mental state of contentedness, of satisfaction, that is based upon believing that you have what is good, so to shorten that up, happiness is the effect of getting what you think is good.
Now, happiness can be based upon a lie, and so the thing that distinguishes joy from happiness would be this idea that joy is a lasting happiness, and so we can be happy because we think we're about to get some pleasure, some physical pleasure, we can be happy because we think we're increasing in power, we can be happy because we think we're increasing in money, we can be happy because we're getting whatever thing we think is good, but if we, if we have a happiness that is based upon thinking something is ultimately the best thing, the good, and in reality, it's not, what's going to happen is we're going to become disillusioned, and as we are disillusioned, we will find that we, we suffer from a, a misery, a despair, a despondency that comes out of that, and so I want everybody to know you cannot seek happiness by itself, happiness is itself the effect of getting what you think is good, and the only way to stably think that what you're getting is good is to have certainty about what is good and how to get it.
Amen, and obviously we must include as a part of our conversation today a primary text of Scripture in James's epistle, James chapter 1, 2 through 4,. Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing, if you would care to exegete that.
Absolutely, so suffering is not antithetical to joy, right, from that text, and so that text is teaching us that we can go through suffering in this life and at the same time realize that that suffering is bringing about our good, so the Bible so often emphasizes the theme that there is suffering that occurs for us and God uses it for our good, so when we suffer, suffering comes for two reasons for the believer, and actually there's three reasons, one reason that applies to those who are, for example, demons or reprobates that God has not chosen to extend grace to, those people, they suffer for the sake of punishment, okay, it's a deserved thing, but for those who are saved, for those who are elect, whether regenerate or unregenerate, ultimately God is seeking the good of those people, and so the suffering that occurs is either for the purpose of testing, which when you suffer for righteousness sake, the result is that God blesses that, He rewards it in this life, but He also rewards it, that generally happens, He generally rewards it in this life, but He certainly, 100 of the time, always rewards it at the judgment, and so God rewards faithfulness normally in this life and always at the judgment, and so testing results in that.
Now, if we fail a test, what God does is He brings discipline, and so discipline is the other reason why we can suffer, and so when God brings suffering into the life of a Christian because of sin, it's not because He hates you, it's because He loves you, and He's bringing that suffering like a father brings discipline to a son for the sake of training you in righteousness, that you might enjoy the peaceable fruit of righteousness, and that includes all of the joys of a clear conscience and seeing the glory of God and increasing in knowledge and having your way become like a highway as opposed to a hedge of thorns, as well as the blessings that occur on the day of judgment, and so James there is talking to us about this idea that we should count it joy when trials come, when tests come, because those are opportunities for us to glorify the Lord in powerful ways, and also an opportunity for us to see blessedness occur in increased ways in this life, and to see greater reward on the day of judgment.
So those are opportunities. When we receive suffering, and we go through that trial where it glorifies the Lord, that is an opportunity that we can grab hold of.
Now, don't we have to tread lightly when we take a biblical truth like this, and we're not using it in our own mind and heart and life to encourage ourselves? We walk into a hospital room or we walk into somebody's living room where some kind of a nightmare has just occurred, a death, an illness, a terminal illness, a divorce, whatever the case may be, and there are Christians, I hope I'm not sinning in saying this, but there are Christians who are knuckleheads, and I don't think I'm sinning because I didn't mention anybody by name, but there are Christians, and I've encountered them, who may walk into your room wherever you—.
I've been them.
I probably have been, too, where you walk into the room with a big smile, and you say, turn that frown upside down. What are you so despondent about? What are you frowning for? Come on! The Lord's in control!
And you act as if you are impervious to the kind of pain that the person you're trying to help is experiencing, and you're really telling that person, your faith isn't as strong as mine, brother or sister.
I mean, can't we be idiots when it comes to these kinds of things?
Oh, absolutely, and that's such an amazing point. Thank you for bringing that up, because the Scriptures tell us to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice. If we sing a song to somebody with a heavy heart, it's a curse to them.
The timing of things is so important, and so if we go in and try to say, hey, here's the thing that I should be applying to myself when I'm suffering, and I'm going to try to jam it down your throat, what we're often doing is actually breaking the law of God, because what we're commanded—.
Instead, when we walk in and we see our brother grieved over something that they have a legitimate basis to be grieved about, we should grieve with them. And after we have grieved with them, and after we have sought to acknowledge the reality of the loss for them, we can then begin to help to—there's sort of an order of operation here, and the order of operation, assuming you don't have some immediate need to deal with something, assuming you're not in some emergency situation where you've got to get them to operate or function immediately, what you would normally do is you would first console by acknowledging the loss.
Then you would begin to seek to remind them that this is not something that the Lord has abandoned them. As opposed to immediately going into, the Lord brought this into your life, and it's for your good, there's an intermediary step of saying, the Lord has not done this to you out of hate.
The Lord has not abandoned you, and I have not abandoned you. And this idea of appealing to that, I would say, then normally people who are Christians, they've been catechized by the scriptures in this, and they will then finish the thought almost four years ago, I know, the Lord has done this for my good, and I want to try to come out of this.
They'll often finish it that way. But the idea of gradually rising to that, and the listening portion, and the acknowledgement of the harms should occur for a significant period of time, depending on the level of the loss.
And so, the friends of Job came to him and were silent for days, and sat with him. And so, that was a huge loss, the loss of children, and wealth, and health. Those are all great blessings of the Lord, and to have them all taken was something that was a huge loss.
And so, spending days and morning with them was an appropriate and amazing act of self-control, because, I mean, frankly, when somebody else loses things, we don't tend to feel them as harshly as they do.
And so, to spend days and morning with a person is actually a very powerful act of self-control.
But they didn't maintain that self-control, though, did they?
They seemed to not control their lips as well when they were talking as when they weren't talking, which seems to be a problem amongst the race of man. Elihu did pretty well. The things that he said were right.
The fourth speaker, the younger guy, and Job, many of the things that he said, but the Lord, when he comes in and speaks to them, obviously re-emphasizes this idea that he knows why he does the things that bring us suffering, and it has to do with us growing in the knowledge of it.
And so, anyway. So, that was a long answer to your question. Sorry about that, Chris, but I think you're absolutely right, and we want to avoid being somebody who comes in and brazenly rejoices when other people are weeping.
Yeah, and even somebody who has solid theology can misapply it and twist it. I can still remember, and I loved this dear brother—he's in heaven now—but there was this wonderful deacon in the congregation where I was saved, and my mom, Virginia, was diagnosed in 1995 with pancreatic cancer, and that would ultimately take her life within six weeks of getting the diagnosis.
But before she passed—and by the way, I just want to quickly add, praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ—she made it abundantly clear on her deathbed, weeks before passing, six weeks at least before passing, that she was trusting in the finished work of Christ alone for her salvation, and she renounced prayer to Mary and the saints, was praying directly to Christ Jesus.
Oh, wow.
And so it was a gift-wrapped present from God to me and to her to know this. But before my mom passed, I can remember this deacon approaching me, and he saw that I was despondent at a prayer meeting, and he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, Brother, just remember, it's wrong for you to want your mother to live if it's God's will for her to die.
And I said, yeah, but she's still alive. How do I know that it's God's will for her to die yet?
You know?
So, I mean, even if we have our understanding of the sovereignty of God correct, we can say stupid things in the way we are trying to convey that message.
Yes, absolutely. And I'm sure that was a very painful time. You know, heaping guilt onto a person, you know, when they're suffering, you have to be very careful. Sometimes when people are suffering or they're grieving, it's a valuable time to remind them of their need for Christ, but how you do that is difficult, right?
And that's the hard thing. You know, wisdom is a rare and precious thing, and knowing how to say things, you know, word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. And it's a valuable thing.
It's a rare thing. And so oftentimes we do find that people speak truths in ways that are hurtful, that are unseasonable, that are difficult. And at the same time, you know, we're all going to do that kind of thing.
We're all that guy sometimes. And you already mentioned, you know, this guy was a deacon that was a blessing to the church. He was a useful man. And so he did many good works. And then he also just blundered, right?
Right.
And so we're all going to do that. And thankfully, those blunders are a part of what Christ has paid for. And so I also, I want to encourage you, if you have, I imagine most of the listeners who are hearing that are immediately thinking of the various things they regret having said to people.
And so I want to remind them that they're, you know, forgiven in Christ for that, and encourage them to seek to honor the Lord better by speaking a word seasonably, as opposed to speaking in a way that is unhelpful.
We're going to our first commercial break. And once again, if you have a question, send it to ChrisArnson at gmail .com. Don't go away. We're going to be right back after these messages.
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I'm Pastor Keith Allen of Lindbrook Baptist Church, a Christ-centered, gospel-driven church looking to spread the gospel in the southwest portion of Long Island, New York, and play our role in fulfilling the Great Commission, supporting and sending for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
We're delighted to be a part of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron radio advertising family. At Lindbrook Baptist Church, we believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired word of God, inherent in the original writings, complete as the revelation of God's will for salvation and the supreme and final authority in all matters to which.
They speak.
We believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This salvation is based upon the sovereign grace of God, was purchased by Christ on the cross, and is received through faith alone, apart from any human merit, works, or ritual.
Salvation in Christ also results in righteous living, good works, and appropriate respect and concern to all who bear God's image. If you live near Lindbrook, Long Island, or if you're just passing through on the Lord's Day, we'd love to have you come and join us in worship.
For details, visit LindbrookBaptist .org. That's L-Y-N-BrookBaptist .org. This is Pastor Keith Allen of Lindbrook Baptist Church, reminding you that by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. The Lord bless you in the knowledge of himself.
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So go to RoyalDiadem .com today and mention Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with David Reese, pastor of Puritan Reformed Church in Phoenix, Arizona, and he's also the CEO of Armored Republic.
And we have a very important topic today that should be something of universal interest in our audience, and that is the power of Christian joy to overcome misery. And we do have Campbell in Nisconcit, Long Island, New York, who has a question for you.
Campbell says, I am thoroughly Reformed and am vehemently and vociferously opposed to the heresies of the word of faith movement, which says that any time a person who is a professing Christian is experiencing some kind of misery or trial, it is all because of their lack of faith in some measure.
While I discount that as being a lie from the devil, do not we as Christians need to consider when we are going through a trial whether or not it is our sin that is bringing this upon our lives?
That's an excellent question, and the answer is yes. The short answer is yes, absolutely. And so the Lord does bring discipline in His providence to care for His people. He brings suffering as a chastisement to bring about repentance and to cause us to stop and think.
Okay, so the first response to suffering, if we don't have it, if there's some immediate duty, right? If you're in a situation where, you know, suffering like there's a car accident or whatever, and you've got somebody to give medical attention to, okay, well, your immediate duty is to make sure they do the work of necessity of making sure you preserve life or whatever.
But after you have, you've removed yourself from some sort of immediate, urgent duty, we need to stop and think. Suffering is always a call to stop and think. We need to first go, okay, examine ourselves.
Is there some sin unrepented of that I need to put off? And then secondly, that includes the idea of the covenanted institutions that we're part of. So is there a way that I as an individual need to repent of sin?
Is there a way that my family or household needs to? Is there a way that my church needs to? Is there a way that our civil order or state needs to? You find in the scriptures that there's covenantal responsibility associated with all four of the covenant institutions.
There's blessing and cursing based upon what is done in the state, the church, the household, and on an individual basis. And so we absolutely need to stop and think about that. The other thing is sometimes we have a trial that comes upon us, some sort of suffering that comes upon us, not because of our particular sin or some particular thing we're being disciplined for, but simply because it is an opportunity to glorify God.
And so in either case, we want to stop and think and do what glorifies God, either by repenting or by handling the trial well. And so when someone undergoes suffering well, joyfully, to the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, it powerfully causes people to stop and think themselves and to examine that and to consider, why do you have this hope?
What is it that makes it so that you can bear up under this? And they then ask you what is talked about in Peter. They ask you about the hope that you have within you. And so you need to be ready to give an answer to that.
And so yes, we need to stop and think and examine ourselves. Absolutely.
Okay.
Thank you so much for the excellent question. And we have, let's see, I was just looking at it. We have Gabriel in Gaines County, Texas. And Gabriel asks, when we are going through a trial, is it a sin to be angry with God?
It is always sin to be angry with God. It is, anger itself is not sin. Anger is a gift from God to give us strength to overcome evil, to overcome wickedness, to be able to do our duty in the face of danger.
Anger is appropriate for a person who is fighting for his life or for the life of someone else to seek to defend the innocent against the actions of the wicked. Anger is the desire for justice. Anger is an effect of the desire for justice.
When you believe there's been an injustice done. And here's the important part of this. God never commits injustice. If God kills a man, it is not murder. If God takes your property, it is not theft. There is nothing that God can do to you that is unjust on God's part.
I deserve to be in hell. And so do you. Every one of us deserves to be in hell. So we deserve everlasting, intense suffering as punishment. And so we, by those of us who are elect by the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive mercies.
And we receive a part of that is our enjoyments in this life. And God using those things for our good. But our suffering is even for our good. And so to say that God is unjust would be wicked. So we have no right to ever be angry with God.
We must instead, we have to condemn self and justify God. So when we justify God, when we call him just, when we acknowledge his justice, his goodness, his righteousness, his right to bring about any suffering that comes upon us, we justify God rather than calling him wicked.
And we need to be careful to do that and to avoid even in our thoughts condemning God. And so anger towards God would be that. And so I think we have to be very careful to avoid anger toward God. The other thing I would say is sometimes we get mad at inanimate objects or animals or things like that.
The only things that are appropriate to be angry at actually are men and angels. And so we should be angry toward demons. And it's appropriate sometimes to have anger towards other human beings. And we need to be careful to properly deal with that.
And being angry towards a brother without a cause is sin. And when there is a repentance or supposed to, you know, part of that is we need to make sure that that anger is not retained. And so a part of forgiveness is making sure that anger does not continue towards a person when they've gone through proper biblical repentance, which requires them, by the way, to accept consequences, including restitution or other lawful things that need to be done or the acknowledgement of the right of certain actions, like in the case of infidelity, something like divorce.
So the acknowledgement of legitimate consequences is a part of a proper repentance. And when someone accepts the consequences and pays with owed there in a human-to-human way, you can't pay for your own sins, but towards your proper repentance towards your brother, then when that's a given as a part of the repentance, continued anger is sinful.
Amen. And we have Carolina, who lives in a town that's very ironic because of our subject today, Carolina in Carefree, Arizona. And Carolina asks, When we are approaching somebody in the midst of misery and we know that it was their own lifestyle and disobedience that brought their misery upon them, how do we demonstrate tenderness and compassion without neglecting the truth of the matter that their own sins caused their situation, such as someone with AIDS who received that illness because of promiscuous sex or somebody who is the driver in a drunk driving accident and perhaps is on their deathbed because of the injuries?
How do we approach them wanting them to repent and receive Christ without heaping injury upon injury?
That's a good question. So I think the thing that's difficult is taking blame and applying it personally is likely to result in strong emotional reactions. And sometimes that can be good or useful. But the thing is, if somebody is suffering, I think it's a consequence of their sinful actions.
It's oftentimes helpful to to talk to them with a sort of assumed guilt. What I don't mean there, what I'm not saying is that it's wrong to bring the law to bear. You can look at there might be, especially if there's hardness of heart or the person isn't acknowledging any sort of failure.
Sometimes even in the midst of suffering, it's necessary to say, do you understand that this is something that is a result of evil action? You know, if people if people have showed glimpses or a hardness of heart, they need to be humbled.
But if they are if they're humbled and if there's some sort of acknowledgement of guilt or sense of like failure, the thing to bring when there's when there's some sort of a humbled condition is to then bring the gospel to talk about how, you know, first of all, we have all failed and Christ pays for the sins of those who believe him.
All those who have faith are those who have had their sin paid for by Christ. And so there's a solution to the guilt of sin. But there's also a solution to misery that Christ removes our enslavement to sins.
He he removes the power of sin by degrees and he can restore what the locusts have eaten. And he can give to us an eternal weight of glory and joy. That even as the flower fades in this life, there is a glory to come and there is a resurrection.
And so there is a condition that goes beyond this. There is a hope beyond this. And so there is there is loss and there's destruction in this. But we we were made by a God who resurrects the dead. And so even in the midst of deadness and loss, he is the God that restores.
He is the God that raises the dead. And so I would encourage a person to look to Christ to not only deal with the guilt of the situation, but to also remove the mess and to remove the mystery, the misery.
And and and to realize that even if it doesn't occur in this life, that all suffering will be removed for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in the glorified state upon death. And also that in the resurrected state, there will be no tears left.
They will all be wiped away. There will be no ongoing suffering there. So I think I would want to point them to the power of Christ to resolve the problems, to take away the guilt and to take away the power of sin and then to furthermore restore and resurrect and to be able to provide.
So I think pointing people forward to hope, having a confident desire that will be fulfilled in Christ if they believe in him.
You know, that question reminded me of something that happened to me when I was a new Christian. I was in my 20s and I found out that the family doctor who who delivered most of my siblings and myself.
In fact, I believe it might have been when my mother was pregnant with me. The doctor actually had a cot in the hospital room and slept there overnight to make sure everything was going to work out well, because my mom was in her either late 30s or early 40s when she was having me.
But I remember when I found out that my doctor had cancer, lung cancer. I wrote out a card to him and included in the envelope a booklet, J .C. Ryle's sickness. And my dad said, what are you doing? What are you writing?
I said, oh, I'm writing a letter or writing a note in a card to Dr. Bradley because he has cancer. And he said, well, what would you say? And I mean, I'm just going by memory here. But I said something to the effect of dear Dr. Bradley, my family has nothing but the fondest memories of you.
But now, as you are facing what could be the end of your life, I want you to know that whether you are a very religious man or whether you are an evil man, everyone needs to repent and turn to Christ in order to be saved.
You could be trusting in your own goodness, and that is just as bad as living an openly evil life. So please repent and turn to Christ if you have not already. I do hope to see you in eternity in heaven.
And my father got upset. He said, what are you writing that for? The man has cancer. You're just going to make him more upset. And I said, well, I'm sorry, Dad. I'm a Christian and I think this is very important.
So about a year later, Dr. Bradley died. I went to the wake as I don't know if they call them that everywhere in the United States. But that's the viewing where you have the coffin in the room at the funeral home.
And one of his daughters, who knew who I was, came up to me and thanked me for being there. And she said, I want to introduce you to my sister. She introduced me to her sister and she said, this is my friend, Chris Arnzen.
And she said, what is your name? I said, Chris Arnzen. And she said, did you give my father a card with a very long note in it and a little booklet? I said, yeah. And she said, did you know that for the past year that has been on his nightstand?
And it was there until the day he died. So that blew me away. I made it clear. I made it. I made it a point to tell my father that. But but, you know, we have these fear and we have this fear and trebling that, oh, no, I'm going to offend somebody by telling them the truth about eternity.
And we don't know how they're going to react. They may react in an exact opposite way than we fear. Oh, sorry. I was just going to say, and that is not the ultimate reason that we give somebody the gospel.
Even if they yell at us and curse us, we still have to do it. But anyway, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
No, that's beautiful. And and as a young man, you know, you know, you had God given boldness and courage to express that truth. And I think so often we are so worried about finding the perfect time to communicate truths from God that we fail to do it.
And that's why I'd rather I'd rather be around people who are overzealous and say the truth like a knucklehead, you know, too hard, too often and have to pull them back and teach them to be restrained more than to be around people who are always restrained and never speak the truth.
Now, both of them, both of them are failings. But what we want is to see boldness and zeal done with beauty in wisdom. Right. We want we want a wise boldness. And that's that's so rare and so hard to find.
And I think many people would read that note that you said and think it was a knucklehead type of move. I don't think it was. I think we are knucklehead. Oh, meters are poorly tuned. And we think any plain statement of the truth is is sort of brazen.
Right. And and I think what we need is the tendency of our age is to be is to be timid about the truth in ways that are unhelpful. And so when people are suffering, there's an excellent opportunity to minister to them and to speak words.
So I want to emphasize the importance of taking risk to say things. And if you blow it, right, if you realize after you've said it that you were too harsh or it was the wrong timing. OK, repent and let them know that.
But let them know, you know, I think this is true. I think I should have said it better or should have said it at a time. But I said it because I love you and I'm trying to know how to speak these words to you.
I'm you know, I'm a mortal man with many failings, seeking to see you, a friend, someone I love to to get the thing I love to get the truth. And I'm seeking your good, you know. And so I think that idea of being able to come back if we if we have a humble attitude, oftentimes we can be bold.
And if we've failed, done the wrong thing at the wrong time, our humility can be used to salvage much. If we're all willing to examine ourselves. And so I think that's a great example that you gave there.
And I know I have a bunch of stuff I want to go into. I don't know how much time we have to go to the next.
Actually, actually, we have to go into the break now. And when we come back, I will hold off on any listener questions until you bring forth the most important things that you have there. And please, folks, be patient with us.
The middle break is always a little longer than the other breaks. Grace Life Radio, 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida, requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show because the FCC requires of them to localize this program geographically to Lake City, Florida, where they're located.
And they do so with their own public service announcements while they air those public service announcements. We, on the other hand, simultaneously air our globally heard commercials. Use this time wisely.
Respond to as many of our advertisers as you can so that you can let them know that their money is well spent on Iron Trip and Zion Radio. We need our advertisers to exist, folks. And also send in your questions to Pastor David Reese, to Chris Arnzen at Gmail .com.
We'll be right back.
Puritan Reformed is a Bible-believing, kingdom-building, devil-fighting church. We are devoted to upholding the apostolic doctrine and practice preserved in Scripture alone. Puritan Reformed teaches men to rule and lead as image-bearing prophets, priests, and kings.
We teach families to worship together as families. Puritan is committed to teaching the whole counsel of God so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. We sing the Psalms, teach the law, proclaim the gospel, make disciples, maintain discipline, and exalt Christ.
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It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners from all over the world. Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland, who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed, Dr. Joe Moorcraft.
I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland, going back to 2005. One of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, are largely to thank, since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.
Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church, unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards, and Dr. Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight-volume commentary on the larger catechism.
Heritage is a member of the Hanover Presbytery, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the reformers, scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and God's glory alone. Their primary goal is the worship of the Triune God that continues in eternity.
For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com. That's HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com. Or call 678 -954 -7831. That's 678 -954 -7831. If you visit, tell them Joe O 'Reilly, an Ironsharpens Iron radio listener, from a tie in County Kildare, Ireland, sent you.
Hi, this is John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona. Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnson and the Ironsharpens Iron podcast. I consider Chris a true friend and a man of high integrity.
He's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big penetrating questions, while always defending the key doctrines of the Christian faith. I've always been happy to point people to this podcast, knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the internet where folk won't be led astray.
I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide. This is a day of great spiritual compromise, and yet God has raised Chris up for just such a time. And knowing this, it's up to us as members of the body of Christ to stand with such a ministry, in prayer and in finances.
I'm pleased to do so, and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting Ironsharpens Iron financially. Would you consider sending either a one-time gift, or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry?
I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris, if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com, where you can click support. That's ironsharpensironradio .com.
I'm Dr. Joseph Piper, President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Every Christian who's serious about the Deformed Faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight-volume commentary on the theology and ethics of the Westminster Larger Catechism, titled, Authentic Christianity, by Dr. Joseph Morecraft.
It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism. It is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis, as well as historical and systematic theology. Dr. Morecraft is pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and I urge everyone looking for a biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.
For details on the eight-volume commentary, go to westminstercommentary .com, westminstercommentary .com. For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com, heritagepresbyterianchurch .com.
Please tell Dr. Morecraft and the saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, that Dr. Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sends you.
When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the 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 NASB.
This is Darrell Bernard Harrison, co-host of the Just Thinking Podcast, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Pastor Tom Buck of First Baptist Church in Glendale, Texas, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Kent Keller of Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Andrew Rapport, the founder and executive director at Striving for Eternity Ministries, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Mark Rimaldi, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Greenbrier, Tennessee, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Christopher Cookston, pastor of Prineville Community Church in Prineville, Oregon, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Matt Tarr, pastor of High Point Baptist Church in Larksville, Pennsylvania, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
Here's a great way for your church to help keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart? Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.
Hello, my name is Anthony Uvino, and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York, and also the host of the reformrookie .com website. I want you to know that if you enjoy listening to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio show like I do, you can now find it on the Apple's iTunes app by typing Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in the search bar.
You no longer have to worry about missing a show or a special guest because you're in your car or still at work. Just subscribe on the iTunes app and listen to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio show at any time, day or night.
Please be sure to also give it a good review and pass it along to anyone who would benefit from the teaching and the many solidly reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show. Truth is so hard to come by these days, so don't waste your time with fluff or fake news.
Subscribe to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio podcast right now. And while you're at it, you can also sign up for the reformrookie .com podcast and visit our website and the YouTube page. We are dedicated to teaching Christian theology from a Reformed Baptist perspective to beginners in the faith as well as seasoned believers.
From Keach's Catechism and the Doctrines of Grace to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Leviticus, the Reform Rookie podcast and YouTube channel is sure to have something to offer everyone seeking biblical truth.
And finally, if you're looking to worship in a Reformed church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, New York. Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Ovinio, and thanks for listening.
If you love Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers. One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Hansen is doing is Daniel P. Patafuoco, serious injury lawyer and Christian apologist.
Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission? To foster belief in the credibility of Scripture as the written Word of God. They go to various churches, schools, and institutions to publicly display a rare collection of biblical texts along with a fascinating presentation by Mr. Patafuoco demonstrating the reliability of Scripture.
To advance the cause of the Gospel, they created a beautiful, perfect facsimile of the genealogy of Jesus Christ from the original engravings contained in a first edition 1611 King James Bible. This 17th century hand-engraved chart shows the family tree of Jesus Christ going back to Adam and Eve.
This book is complete with gorgeous full-size illustrations of Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel and an explanation of why the genealogy of Jesus is so important for His claims to the throne of the universe.
Originals of this work are in museums and nobody has ever made it accessible to the public in a large book form before. You can have your own copy of this 44-page genealogy book for a donation of $35 or more.
Visit historicalbiblesociety .org. That's historicalbiblesociety .org. Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air.
This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee. Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially.
Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And, of course, the end from which we strive is the glory of God. If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior.
Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin. Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org. That's gracechurchatfranklin .org. This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our Sovereign Lord, God, Savior, and King, Jesus Christ, today and always.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,.
Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.
You need to read.
Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the 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.
Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God-centered, Christ-exalting books for all ages. We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid-ground-books .com. That's solid-ground-books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past to present you can unearth from Solid Ground.
Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
And please, folks, don't forget that this is one of our primary, premier, most vital advertisers, solid-ground-books .com, and they are experiencing, unfortunately, a crisis in book sales. So I'm hoping as many of you in my Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience will come to the rescue and go to solid-ground-books .com today and make a large purchase of books, if you can afford to do so.
At least purchase one book. And keep in mind that you're not only going to be doing solid-ground-books .com a favor if you purchase books from them, and you're not only going to be doing Iron Sharpens Iron Radio a favor by keeping one of our most important advertisers happy, you're going to be doing yourself and anyone for whom you are purchasing books from solid-ground-books .com an enormous favor of incalculable value because they bring back into print lost treasures of Christian literature from the past dating as far back as the 16th century Protestant Reformation, some of which has not been in print for centuries.
And then they also bring into print for the very first time new books by modern-day authors like Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. So please go to solid-ground-books .com frequently, purchase generously, and always mention that you heard about them from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
Please visit that site today and make your purchase, solid-ground-books .com. Before I return to David Reese, I have some important announcements to make. Please, folks, if you really love the show, you don't want us to go off the air, go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click, click to donate now.
You can donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion. If you prefer snail mail, mailing a physical check to a physical address, there will also be a physical address that appears on your screen when you click support at ironsharpensironradio .com, where you can mail your checks made payable to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
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The Bible is very clear that we are primarily to use the money with which he has blessed us, which is still his money. We're primarily to use that to provide for church and family, and providing for my radio show is obviously not a command of God.
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Go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click click to donate now. Last but not least, if you are not a member of a Christ-honoring, biblically faithful, doctrinally solid, theologically sound church like Puritan Reformed Church in Phoenix, Arizona, no matter where you live on the planet Earth, I have extensive lists spanning the globe of biblically faithful churches, and I've helped many people in my audience all over the planet Earth find churches, sometimes even within just a couple of minutes from where they live.
So, no matter where in the world you live, if you are without a Christ-honoring, biblically faithful church home, send me an email. ChrisArnson at gmail .com. ChrisArnson at gmail .com, and that's also the email address to send in a question to David Reese, and we are discussing the joy of the Lord overcoming misery.
And, once again, that is ChrisArnson at gmail .com. And, Pastor David, if you could please bring to the forefront the things that you really have pressing upon your heart about this subject.
Thank you, Brother. So, I'm excited to be able to explain this. I think, first of all, I think it's really important to recognize that everybody has the problem of unhappiness, right? So, the search for happiness, the search for contentedness, for joy, is a difficult thing.
And I want to point out that the First Commandment and the Tenth Commandment relate to this very powerfully. The First Commandment has to do with having no other gods in the sight of the true God, right?
We have no other thing that we are holding as the highest good. And the Tenth Commandment has to do with not coveting, and the idea that we are not supposed to have illegitimate desires. And so, these things are closely related.
And so, what I want to communicate is that we think about the problem of sin, and obviously, in a historical sense, since the fall of Adam obviously brings misery into the world. But on an individual level, you know, we have to deal with our unhappiness in terms of, first of all, our failure to believe what we ought to believe.
And secondly, in terms of choices that are contrary to the good life. And so, what we are commanded to believe is the doctrine revealed in the scriptures. And what we are commanded to do is the law of God laid out in the scriptures.
And those are instructions for a healthy, clean, joyful mind, the doctrine. And the commandments reveal to us the good life, the life that's fruitful and joyful. And so, sin is the root problem here. And so, sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of any law of God given as a rule to the reasonable creature.
And that means this idea that if we fail to conform, the lack of conformity to what God has commanded, or a breaking of the rule, a crossing the line, a transgression. So, sometimes this gets talked about in terms of sins of omission and sins of commission, right?
The failure to perform a duty. And so, we often go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's obvious if I violate the law of God how that's going to make me, you know, sad, upset. It's going to increase guilt. It's going to have negative consequences.
But we fail to seek God. We fail to know Him as we ought to know Him. We fail to glorify Him as we ought to glorify Him. And so, I want to say that the truth, the knowledge of God is the good. It's how we get God.
So, God's the good. He's the highest goal. He's the thing that is above everything else. He defines good. He is the good. And the way we get God, the way we possess Him, is by knowing Him, by knowing His word.
By possessing the knowledge of God, we possess God. And the good life is the life of applying the law. Now, if we realize that the knowledge of God is the good, we need to realize that our minds are naturally full of unbelief and falsehood.
We have ignorance and error as the default state. And so, what we have to recognize is that all of this error is conceptual idolatry. They are idols, falsehoods, lies that are in our minds. And we're to take every thought captive to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us in the scriptures needs to be brought to bear to knock down the statue of Dagon in our mind. And so, these things, these lies, these falsehoods are strongholds of the enemy and they must be torn down.
So, we argue with ourselves. So, joy comes from getting what we realize is good. And if we realize what's good is the knowledge of God, then not only do we have the enjoyment of learning new truths, the sort of like aha moment that is joyful, but also the reality that these truths can be meditated on, brought back to mind over and over again.
And so, as we think about the truth, we are able to bring it to bear against other falsehoods. And so, the knowledge of God in the gospel, this realization that we have a sin problem from Adam, that's both guilt and also the passing of a corrupt nature.
And we also commit particular sins. And Christ pays for our guilt so we can avoid the wrath of God. But also, He is renewing us by the power of His Spirit and Word so that we are renewed in knowledge, holiness, and righteousness.
And so, He's transforming us. And so, this confidence that if He has saved me, then I know He's not going to let me go so I can't lose my salvation. I can't lose the knowledge of God. It's inalienable.
And He's going to cumulatively transform me across time by increasing my knowledge of the truth. John 17, 17 says, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. And so, we know it's the word, it's the truth of God that comes and sanctifies us.
It renews us. It transforms us after the image of Christ. And so, as we grow in the knowledge of the truth, not only are we getting more of God to possess, but it's going to also powerfully transform us and remove the causes of misery.
So, we have our communion with God restored. We have the possession of God. We have the idea of the wrath of God removed. We have penalty removed. And we're also going to more and more have the power of sin removed as we grow in the knowledge of the truth.
And so, when we realize, you know, our options are we can go waste our time chasing after thrills and pleasure. And, you know, whether it's the various kinds of seventh commandment violations of gluttony, you know, inordinate sexual pleasure or pursuing sexual pleasure in its improper place, or this idea of drunkenness, right?
Those are warned about over and over again as the types of misuse of pleasure. And we chase those things down. And without any sort of truth to justify it, it's a meaningless action. And what happens is we either, as we chase pleasure, we either find that that pleasure is frustrating us because we can't get it, or if we get it consistently, we find that we become bored.
And so, this meaninglessness leads to boredom. And we start to chase down more and more excessive types of pleasures to try to figure out how to fill the void. And it leads to this excess that results in pain and all sorts of temporal curses.
And so, we find that our guilt increases. And so, there's this sort of spiraling down. And we try to then, you know, cover up our guilt with more and more excessive pleasure. This can true with any sort of idol where we improperly value something above God.
It could be power or money or any of these other things. So, recognizing that we have lies in our mind about what's good. And those are the things that make it so we get temporary happiness chasing them down.
And we become disillusioned. And so, that process of disillusionment is something many people just go through the cycle of replacing one false god with another, with another, with another. And going through the process of chasing the false god, getting lots of the false god.
And then, realizing that it's not good and it's not sufficient and not satisfying. And so, they're disillusioned. And so, then, they either double down on their false god or they move on to a new one.
And so, we have to realize that the God of the Bible is not a false version of the good. He's not a failure. He is the good. He is the highest value. And so, we ought to buy him and never sell him. And how do we do that?
By getting wisdom. So, we buy wisdom and don't sell it. That's what we're told in Proverbs. And so, the knowledge of God. Now, our misery is in the form of we chase stuff, we toil, we work. And it results in thorns and thistles.
This is the curses of Genesis 3. This idea that there will be strife where parents and children should be in a good relationship, but it's not. Or the marriage should be a good marriage, but it's not.
Or brother and neighbor hurt each other. And so, we have like a Cain and Abel situation. So, there's toil, fruitless work. There's strife where there's fighting and hurting of each other. And then there's also this idea of old age, sickness, and death.
The idea that our bodies are undergoing curse and that there's this destruction of the body and eventually we die. And this misery that we undergo in this life, we have to see it as purposeful in terms of accomplishing the glory of God and being for our individual good.
And so, knowing the good and the goal that we want to see the earth filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. And we personally want to obtain as much truth as we can. And we want to carry out acting in accordance with the knowledge of the truth in order to advance the knowledge of the truth to others.
To spread the knowledge of God so that the waters the knowledge of God fills the earth as the waters cover the sea. That idea that that's the goal. And so, work becomes this thing that if we work and worship and do godly recreation in its place and rest properly.
Having our daily worship in the morning and the evening and keeping the Lord's Day and being a part of a biblical church and being able to participate in that. These things become I think when we go, this is advancing a goal.
And then our daily work becomes something where we're going, we need to lead our families. So, all these institutions, the covenant institutions of the individual household, church, and state. These things get used properly in such a way to advance the knowledge of God.
It connects. The rubber hits the road. And now, as opposed to just, we have the knowledge of God, but we don't apply it into life. Now, we're connecting that and we realize that having good work to do to advance the goal.
And increasing the possession of what's good and sharing it with other people. It's something that removes despair and increases joy. And so, I think very few people can find times when they were vigorously working towards a goal and were also depressed.
And so, the Christian is given the goal of the glory of God and also work to do. And that enjoyment of work with others, with camaraderie, is something that is a powerful thing in the Christian life. And so, the joy of the Lord, the joy of our salvation, thankfulness, giving thanks to God.
Sending psalms of praise and giving thanks to God. Acknowledging how good He is. We are preaching to ourselves that God is good and we possess Him. We are preaching to ourselves that He's given us so many good things.
And we are working with others and being around us. So, there's this reinforcing element there of the camaraderie, the praise, the singing, the thanksgiving, the prayer and asking God to give continued blessing.
And the Word of God, which gives us promises and tells us over and over again about how He will not abandon us. And so, all that gives us hope that we will accomplish the goal of the glory of God. So, we have faith in what God has revealed.
We hope that the goal will be accomplished of glorifying God in the earth. And that gives us power out of gratitude to love each other and to love God and to do what His law commands. And so, the first commandment teaches us that we should know God and acknowledge Him to others.
And the tenth commandment teaches us to be satisfied with God and what He's given to us. And so, that is sort of this effort to give the 30 ,000 foot flyover of a systematic arrangement of thinking about how happiness, which is an effect of getting something you think is good, results in disillusionment if it's a false good or lasting happiness if you have the true good.
And you need to be able to argue with yourself so that you don't allow yourself to go into despondency. Preaching to yourself, arguing against the lies of your own heart is the powerful way that you seek to nurture the joy of your own heart.
And to see the Lord who gave you salvation as also your joy.
Amen. By the way, I don't want to detour long on this because it's not the subject at hand, but earlier on you very briefly quoted Proverbs 23, 23, by the truth and sell it not. Do you agree with those who interpret that?
And just to let you know up front, I don't agree with these folks that I'm going to mention. But there are certain folks in the church who say we should never sell Bibles and books and DVDs with teaching on them because of this verse.
But isn't this really this verse really saying that by the truth and don't sell it in such a manner where you don't possess it anymore?
Absolutely. So, yeah. So this idea that we are supposed to seek to know what's true and never, never give up knowledge of the truth in exchange for something else. In other words, never, never, never make it so you would be alienated from it.
So I might say, you know, I'm not going to I'm not going to I'm not going to seek to know God more. Instead, I'm going to go do something else. I would not seek to apply the law of God, which would deepen my knowledge of him in any situation.
But instead, I'm going to seek to do my own pleasure as opposed to God's pleasure. Those would be the types of selling the truth. You're you're giving up truth in exchange for something else, some false God.
And so it is totally legitimate to reward teachers. It's totally legitimate to reward printers. It's totally legitimate to reward those who organize information. And so buying books and buying time from people to teach is is is explicitly laid out in the scriptures as something to do.
We are we are told that we're supposed to reward teachers. Right. So, so those that interpretation would make an incoherent mess of the Bible. And what's being said is, you know, there's never a market price at which truth is so expensive that it's not worth buying.
And there's never a market price where it's better to take something else rather than the truth. And so the whole idea is you never alienate the truth from yourself. And one of the amazing things about truth is that when you share it, it actually increases your own possession of it.
Nothing else is like that. If you have money and you give it to somebody else, you've lost it. You don't have as much as you did. If you if you have an object of pleasure like alcohol or whatever, and you you give some to other people, you reduce the amount you can use for your own pleasure.
And if you if you have power, when you share it with somebody else, it reduces the absoluteness of your own power. But with wisdom, with knowledge, when you teach, Romans says, Paul says in Romans, you teach.
Do you not teach yourself? And so there's this way in which our knowledge deepens as we teach it. We remember it better. We have a deeper knowledge of it. It results in discussion where we sharpen each other.
And so we should absolutely share the knowledge of the truth. And people who receive spiritual blessing should give material blessing to those who share.
Amen. And we have a listener with a wonderful name, Ephesus in Islip Terrace, New York. And Ephesus asks, can you list some great heroes of the Christian faith who battled misery and depression?
Well, in terms of in terms of misery, in terms of misery, it's certainly the case that if you look at what John Knox went through, for example, John Knox, his great friend, John Wishart, he was a bodyguard of and, you know, he was he was a martyred.
John Knox leaves. He gets betrayed by his church in Frankfurt. He he is he has a wife die. He goes through all these things, being pushed around and eventually comes back and has this great triumph. So the first of his life is him going to trial, to trial, to trial.
And and so you see all sorts of suffering there. John Calvin had none of his his natural children survive to adulthood. And so he had a lovely wife who they had, you know, miscarriages. And then also, you know, his wife, his wife died.
And she was a great help to him. And he was persecuted and kicked out. There's many sufferings there in his own life, but he was known and had to go through many health trials, including very severe hemorrhoids and other problems.
He died in his youth, but he worked through suffering and pain on his deathbed. He was suffering so much and so weak. People kept encouraging him over and over again to stop working. And he said, would you have the Lord find me idle?
And so this idea that, you know, working through suffering because of the goal of the joy. But, you know, John Owen, for example, he had some number, some team, some team, number of children and all of them, none of them lived to adulthood.
And he watched many of them die in their childhood. So these great servants of the Lord, the Covenanters themselves, if you Google the Covenanters, people need to look into the Covenanters and what happened with the Covenanters.
Because this is just people need to look into the Covenanters and persecuted by their brothers in Christ and the Anglican Church. Yes, yes, yes. So so there's there's all of this history of that. And Martin Luther famously.
I mean, Luther, if you haven't read Luther, read Luther, like people need to read Luther, like the extremities of this man. Right. The outburst of joy in the gospel, the despair, you know, misplaced hatred, his properly placed angers, whatever.
There's so much human weakness. And you see so many ups and downs in this. But he's sustained by the Lord. And he's this guy that, you know, you needed this guy who was who was a guy that was it was powerful and could move.
And it helps. He was a well-prepared instrument of the Lord to get the Reformation rolling. But his ups and downs are so relatable. And so I just I think we just just look into some of the heroes of the faith.
Athanasius, I mean, him being over and over again exiled over the defense of the incarnation. The level of persecution and suffering the servants of the Lord have gone through in history, not to mention all the men that you could find in the Bible.
But I mean, the servants of the Lord often suffer and yet and often have moments of despair, like Elijah, where he just after this great exaltation, defeating the prophets of Baal, you know, is bemoaning the fact that nobody is loyal to God.
And God has to tell them, you know, there's seven thousand have not bowed the knee to Baal. And so we are we are so weak as human beings, the way we ride the high hills of the earth. And then in the next moment, we're in the valley of despair.
And so our human frailty and weakness tends towards this. So this is all over the history of the church. And I just want to encourage you all that the Lord sustains us. He maintains our faith. We can't lose it.
He will uphold us. If you believe the gospel, if you believe that the scriptures are true, that Jesus Christ paid for your sins and that he provided you with a righteousness by his perfect obedience. And that covers you so that you're righteous in the sight of God.
The wrath of God is removed. If you believe that, then you can't lose that. And and you will see your faith have the victory to the end and the Lord will glorify you and he will raise you up on the last day and he will give you rewards for every good work that he caused to be born as fruit from you by the power of his own Holy Spirit.
Amen. And a couple other notables that suffered with depression. You have Charles Spurgeon, who.
Yes.
Who especially battled depression after the tragic deaths of a number of his congregation at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. After somebody.
And during a prank yelled fire into the building. And during a stampede, there were people who were killed.
And his great fight with the downgrade movement when he had to leave the Baptist Union. His depression during that. So I'm sorry. Keep going.
And I was just going to say the great hymn writer, William Cooper, which is spelled like Calper, but it's actually pronounced Cooper. He is the hymn writer of many precious hymns that we sing in the church.
There is a fountain filled with blood and others. He actually attempted suicide and God and his amazing providence stopped that from happening. And you could look that up on the Internet. I'm sure you'll find the story somewhere.
But it's mind boggling how amazing that that story was. So it's not just the average, ordinary, weak Christian who battles these things. There have been great men of God who have also shared in that same suffering.
And Jonathan Edwards, with him being kicked out of his own church for trying to guard the Lord's table. Or Augustine, as he's struggling through things. Read the Confessions. If anybody wants to read about the battle for joy, read the Confessions of Augustine and his struggle with sexual sin.
I mean, there is so much there.
Amen. And the author of the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul, after the death of his children in a sea voyage. There are so many. We have to go to our final break. And this is your last opportunity to send in a question, if you have one.
ChrisOrensen at gmail .com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. Don't go away. We'll be right back.
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Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor. Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio has had a long-time partnership with our friends at CVBBS, which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service. They specialize in supplying Reformed and Puritan books and Bibles at discount prices that make them affordable for everyone.
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It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in his Holy Word, and to enthusiastically proclaim 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 hopereformedli .net.
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Make sure you mention Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Last but not least, if you are a man in ministry leadership, whether you are a pastor, elder, deacon, parachurch leader, and you would love to come to my next Iron Sharpens Iron Radio free pastor's luncheon, you are invited, no matter who you are, no matter where you live, as long as you can get to Perry County, Pennsylvania.
I would love to have you there on Thursday, June the 6th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m., at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, which is Perry County. And my guest speaker for the very first time is Dr. Joel Beeky, founder and president of Puritan Reform Theological Seminary.
And not only do you get free admission, and a free meal, and a free fun time of rest, relaxation, and fellowship, you will also receive a very heavy sack of free, brand new books, personally selected by me, and donated by generous publishers all over the United States and United Kingdom.
So, if you can be in Perry County, Pennsylvania on Thursday, June the 6th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m., send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com and put pastor's luncheon in the subject line. And remember, folks, this is for men in ministry only.
We're now back with David Reese, and before the time escapes us, I would like you, before I go to any other listener questions, to provide for us some of the additional primary reasons why you wanted to address the subject today.
On a basic level, I think that joy is extremely important for our witness, but also for us to see God as good ourselves. And we need to rejoice in our salvation. We need to rejoice in the gospel. We need to have a strong assurance of salvation so that we can be in a joyful condition that's stable.
We need to have hope that we can have victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that God will glorify himself, that dominion will be exercised, that there will be a completing of a great commission, and that the law of God is a set of instruction as a lamp unto our feet for the good life, a joyful life.
And I think that those things all work together to give us a sense that there is this way that God has given us instruction to know that he has the good. If we possess him, and we don't have a spiritual harlotry where we're chasing after false gods, false goods, that that is the path to joy.
And we can't do that perfectly, and so we need salvation. So this idea of the gospel there, so God is tied up in giving us joy, and his glory is there, not only for the world to see, but also for us ourselves, that if we see God as glorious as he is, the way in which the possession of him is going to bring us joy.
So I think this is for everybody's good, but it's also for the glory of God. And that's one of the joyful things, that God is a wise God who has designed his goal of glorifying himself to be interwoven with the good of the elect angels and the good of elect human beings that are object of his mercy.
Amen. We have either Angel or On Hell in Walnut Park, California, who wants to know, can you recommend any good Christian books that involve a Christian overcoming or having victory over misery and depression?
Yeah, you know, I think J. Adams is the best single author on Christian counseling. And I think because, one, it's very modern, and two, it's very focused on the idea of the sufficiency of Scripture. So the reason I mentioned modernity is the ease with which he writes, and it could be read, if he's a clear, concise writer.
And at the same time, he very often points forward to the need of applying Scripture. So there's a really fantastic book he's written called How to Help People Change, which deals with the idea that depression is principally about sin and the need to put off sin and then to go put on good work.
And so he really, that book is magnificent and short. And a longer one that deals with trying to deal with more deeply embedded problems and trying to deal with things in a longer way is the Christian Counselor's Manual that he's done.
Now, those are books that are very specifically about how to counsel, and you can apply it to yourself. But I would also say that what we need to realize is the way that we overcome depression or melancholy is by believing the truths that God has revealed and preaching them to ourselves, giving thanks to God, giving praise to God, and going and doing good work to His glory.
And so I have had many a time where I've had to argue with myself, and then I pray, and I blame my burdens on the Lord and the mediation of Christ. And then I give thanks to God for things that have been in the past, and I sing a psalm.
And God gave us a book of songs to sing in the middle of the Bible, and many of them have to do with things like saying our laments to God. And so I think that one of the neat things is the Psalter in the middle of the Bible has this ability to lay our complaints to God in a way that we might not feel like we know how to do otherwise.
So there's a free Psalter at PuritanPHX .com. You can find one of the resources that we have there in case you don't know. There's a PDF for free to be able to sing the psalms. But I think those things, and going and finding good work to do, those are the main things.
According to the law of God, you apply the law of God to do good work. Those are things that will lift depression. And I really want to encourage people to think about that. And the covenant institutions are the loci of the work.
It's doing good work to build up your estate, doing good work as part of your household, doing work to advance the church, and to seek to do your duties to care for yourself as an individual. And we obsess over politics as though the state can fix everything.
And so as Christian citizens, we want to understand Christian government. But a lot of our time needs to be spent focused on the most local elements of all those things.
And I also pick up a copy of R .C. Sproul's Surprised by Suffering. And I will get back to the author of Trusting God Even When Life Hurts because it's 62 years old. I'm having one of those Alzheimer's moments.
Oh, Jerry Bridges. I'm sorry. How could I forget Jerry Bridges? The late Jerry Bridges. Trusting God Even When Life Hurts, an R .C. Sproul Surprised by Suffering. And also, if you go to solid-grand-books .com, Be Still My Soul, Embracing God's Purpose and Provision in Suffering, edited by Nancy Guthrie with contributions by Sinclair Ferguson, J .I. Packer, R .C. Sproul, John Newton, and more.
And they have a number of books, if you go to solid-grand-books .com, that you can choose from that are right along the lines of what we are talking about today. Majesty and Misery, Sermons on the Passion and Death of Our Lord by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Songs of Suffering, 25 Hymns and Devotions for Weary Souls by Johnny Erickson Tada. And I could go on and on and on. Go to solid-grand-books .com, solid-grand-books .com. Well, I want you now to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today before we go off the air.
The solution to our misery is what the work of the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. He has paid for our guilt. He has given us His righteousness by grace alone through faith alone in His work alone. And I want to encourage you to lay your burdens on the Lord by praying to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit and to cast your burdens on God and to ask Him to care for them.
To not be anxious because of what's going on and to know that God is sovereign and to know that He cares and He provides and to know that there is a hope for accomplishing the work and that you will not be lost, that God will hold you.
If you believe the Gospel, you will not be lost. You can never lose your faith, and you will never be lost. And so, that idea. And so, out of gratitude now, I want to encourage you to go forward to do good work, and that's the good and joyful life.
And that's how, that's the life that you will rejoice in the salvation that you have. And so, I want to encourage you, if there's some besetting sin, to go look at Psalm 51 and repent of your sin and to ask for forgiveness from the Father in the name of the Son and to just, to look to the work of Christ for assurance and to go and sin no more.
That idea of our assurance of our salvation and the hope that we have that we will not lose, I want to put that out there, and that is the solution to despondency.
Amen. Well, I want to make sure our listeners have the contact information to get a hold of you, not only at your church, but also at your business. Let me start with the business, where my guest today, David Reese, is the CEO.
The website for Armored Republic, very easy to remember, is armoredrepublic .com, armoredrepublic .com. And also, the website for the church, where my guest David Reese serves as the pastor, Puritan Reform Church in Phoenix, Arizona.
That website is puritanphx .com. That's Puritan, and then the abbreviation for Phoenix, PHX, puritanphx .com. I also want to remind our listeners, once again, if you are a man in ministry leadership, we would love to have you join us at the next free, biannual Iron Trip on Zion Radio, Pastor's Luncheon, on Thursday, June the 6th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m., at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, featuring guest speaker, Dr. Joel Beeky, founder and president of Puritan Reform Theological Seminary.
If you want to register for free, just send me an email to chrisarnzen at gmail .com, C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. And as always, make sure you give us all of your contact information that we can store and have your registration recorded.
Also, folks, please remember to pray for Iron Trip on Zion Radio. We are reaching a point where we are getting a bit nervous about our finances, and I know that we are commanded by Christ to be anxious for nothing.
But we still covet your prayers for our financial situation and hope that if anybody listening can donate to us without taking any money away from your own church giving and your own dinner table, we would love to receive any gift that you care to give.
Go to irontriponsionradio .com, click support, then click to donate now. And if you want to advertise with us, send us an email to chrisarnzen at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line. Well, Pastor David Reese, it's always a joy.
I look forward to your return to the program actually next Friday. Looking forward to hearing from you again on February 9th, and I look forward to many frequent future returns from you. I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.