August 19, 2019 Show with Alan Dunn on “Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage”

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

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

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

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

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

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth. We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 19th day of August 2019.

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And when I think about how many years I've known my guest today, I am shocked that this is the first time

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I'm ever interviewing him. His name is Alan Dunn, and he is pastor of Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey.

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He's also an author, and we're going to be discussing his book today, Gospel Intimacy in a

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Godly Marriage. We're also going to be discussing an upcoming couples conference that Pastor Alan Dunn is leading at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

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And it is my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Alan Dunn.

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Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you today. Yes, I have very fond memories of the very first time

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I ever heard you preach in the 1980s, the late 1980s, when you were invited by my pastor,

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Mike Adosh, to conduct a conference at Calvary Baptist Church of Amityville, Long Island, New York, the church where I was saved, the church where I was baptized, the church where I actually was married to my late wife there.

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And that church, for our listeners' information, is now Grace Reform Baptist Church of Long Island, located in Merrick after a merger that Calvary Baptist Church in Amityville had.

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But I remember you had a phenomenal conference on the tongue, and even to this day

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I will occasionally contact Grace Reform Baptist Church's sermon archive there, the recording department of— they used to call it the tape room.

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I don't know if they still call it the tape room because nobody uses tapes. But I have ordered those sets of that series of messages you gave on the tongue.

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That was a really extraordinary conference. Well, you're very kind. It certainly is a subject of immediate relevance to radio talk show hosts and preachers, isn't it?

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Oh, yeah, definitely. And by the way, I will hopefully remember to announce to you who are listening the contact information for Grace Reform Baptist Church of Long Island.

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So if you are interested in ordering that series of messages, I'm fairly confident they still have them because it wasn't that long ago that I ordered a set to give to someone.

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But before we get into your personal testimony of salvation, which is a tradition we have here on Iron Trip and Zion Radio whenever we have a first -time guest on, tell our listeners something about Grace Covenant Baptist Church of Flemington, New Jersey.

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Well, we are located on 35 Court Street in Flemington, New Jersey.

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We have been together now. We were constituted in 1985. We were together for a period of time prior to that.

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So it's been a good 30 -plus years that several of the families right from the very beginning are still together, and we continue to have opportunities for various gospel ministries here both locally, regionally, and beyond.

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And we're very grateful for the things that God has given to us in the

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Scriptures, the privilege of worship, the fellowship of God's people, and the opportunity to serve

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Him in our generation. Now, is Grace Covenant Baptist Church a confessional

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Reformed Baptist Church? It is. It is, Chris. We were constituted in conjunction with our corporate embrace of the

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London Baptist Confession of 1689, and we frequently will make allusions to and incorporate that material into our study together.

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It's a defining point of reference for us in our doctrinal identity. Yes, and that's basically for our listeners who are unfamiliar with the vocabulary that we are using right now.

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They have never heard of a confessional church. They don't even know what that means. They may immediately wrongly think of the heretical

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Roman Catholic sacrament of penance and confession, where you confess your sins to a priest.

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That has nothing to do with what we mean. We're talking about a summary of biblical doctrine that is essential for a church to be behaving and practicing and living as a biblically faithful church.

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Yes, right. And so everything that is in there is biblical, and it is not some invented series of teachings that man has conceived within his own imagination.

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These are all based on the Bible. And as I have said before, every church, really, whether they admit it or not, is confessional.

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They just have a good or a bad confession. Right, right, right.

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You often see churches that will make public their statement of faith, which is basically a systematic theology, a doctrinal approach to answering questions,

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What is God? What is Scripture? What is man? What is salvation? And then under those headings, we delve into the

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Scriptures in order to give a biblical response, and it helps to identify us.

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It helps people who are coming in to know the landscape of our doctrinal convictions.

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It helps them to understand the perspective from which they'll hear the word preached from the pulpit, and gives us unity within our own congregation and a point of commonality and fellowship with other sister churches as well.

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And a commonality with churches from the past, such as Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, where Charles Spurgeon was the pastor.

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He adopted the 1689 London Baptist Confession.

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Yeah, it does. It gives a historical pedigree, which I think is very encouraging and helpful in our day to have a sense of rootedness, to have a sense of connectedness with the testimony of the

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Church that has preceded us, even before the modern period that echoes back into not only the

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Protestant Reformation, but the confessions and creeds of the early Church that give to us the testimony of the

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Church, teaching us the word of God, as the Lord commissioned us to do in the

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Great Commission at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. Amen. And if anybody wants more information about Grace Covenant Baptist Church of Flemington, New Jersey, their website is gcbcnj .squarespace

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.com. And by the way, for those of you who don't know this, squarespace are the actual words, squarespace.

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Somebody was actually asking me the other day, how do I type squarespace? They actually thought it was like a key on the keypad.

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And this was somebody who's fairly regularly using a computer, which surprised me. So I had to say, no, it's the words, squarespace.

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So it's gcbcnj .squarespace .com, and that's the words, squarespace.

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And we'll be repeating that later on during the program. And now, as I said before, according to our tradition here on Iron Tramp and Zion Radio, we have first -time guests give a summary of their salvation testimony.

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So if you could begin with the religious atmosphere, if any, you were raised in, and what kind of providential circumstances our

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Sovereign Lord raised up in your life that drew you to himself and saved you? Yeah, well,

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I was raised under the sound of the Gospel in conjunction with the

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General Association of Regular Baptist Churches in the

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Cleveland, Ohio area. My mother, through the course of my childhood, was a true believer, and her life was credible, pious, with integrity, owned my conscience, and her testimony was very influential in the course of my own development as a

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Christian. I would identify in many ways with Timothy, where Paul encourages him to remember those from whom he had learned the

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Gospel, from his grandmother, from his mother, and then that from childhood, he had known the sacred writings that were able to give that wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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So I was raised under the instruction of the Word of God. My father, in my childhood time, was not a professing

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Christian, was not living in any relationship to Christ or to the

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Church, so there was a contrast that I was able to see, even within my own household.

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I was responsive to the Word of God and to the Gospel as a young child. I wouldn't point to any particular

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Damascus Road conversion in my life as more of a gradual maturation in my understanding and internalizing of convictions that transpired over the course of quite some time.

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You know, I can point to catalysts, to occasions where there seemed to be inbreaking of the

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Spirit's illumination of the Word of God upon my conscience and fresh renewals of faith and repentance and a gradual growth and development that in some ways

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I would think I'm still in the way of that salvation that the

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Scriptures describe of having been saved in Christ, being saved in the workings of the

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Holy Spirit, anticipating future salvation and the glorification or resurrection from the dead, so that my conversion testimony is really to the sovereign grace of the

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Lord who pursued me through the course of my life and continues to sustain me even now.

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Now, I know that the GARBC, General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, they are a mixed group at least today where you do have solidly

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Calvinistic congregations and you have those that are not. You even have some that are vehemently anti -Calvinist.

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But were you being raised under the understanding of the doctrines of sovereign grace or did that come about later in your life?

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That came about later in my life. I would say that I was privileged to sit under the ministries of men who were serious in terms of their doctrine of Scripture, who were clear in the essentials of the

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Gospel, the summons for repentance and faith. I mean, it was a decisionistic context, but I was taught the

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Word of God. And as I continued to study the

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Word of God, and it was probably in my college days,

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I had a professor, Dr. James Greer, who really was instrumental in bringing together, in my understanding, the sovereign work of the

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Holy Spirit in salvation. And that opened me up to other voices at that time in my development and my education who were, at that time,

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I didn't know, as you mentioned earlier, what confessional Christianity was, but these voices were speaking from a confessional perspective, and I gravitated toward them because they were reiterating things that I was seeing in my

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Bible. I wasn't always seeing a direct correlation between the things

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I was reading in my Bible and the things that were happening in the church around about me, but I was attracted to these voices that were coming to me from the past who were identified in that point, at that time, with the

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Westminster Confession of Faith. And then gradually, on through seminary, I got more and more clarity in my understanding of the

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Scriptures, of the place of the Church. I entered into pastoral ministry in 1982 and was convinced that Reformed Truth, as I had come to understand it, was a biblical expression of the

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Scriptures, and I was also holding on to my Baptistic convictions relative to that church ordinance and also to the definition of the

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Church itself. And it was in a conversation with a local Orthodox Presbyterian pastor back in 1983 when, in discussing these things with him, he told me that I was a

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Reformed Baptist and I had never heard those two words put together before. And I said,

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Well, I guess that must describe what I am theologically. And he said,

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You know, there are churches that call themselves Reformed Baptists. And I said, Really? Where are they?

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And he said, Well, here in New Jersey. And it was he that encouraged me to get in touch with Pastor Albert Martin, who was then one of the elders at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, and I did.

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And that began a relationship back in 1983 that has been sustained ever since.

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Praise God. Now, when did you come to realize that you had been given a call from God to enter into the ministry?

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I would say that developed again gradually. When I was in seminary, initially

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I had thought that I would go into more of an academic route.

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I thought I would like to do to other people what Dr. Greer had done to me, open up the craniums of college -age kids and spin their heads around for a little bit and try to direct them into a more solid embrace of Scripture.

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But it was through my study of the Word of God that in my seminary days that I began to see the centrality of the

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Church. I began to experience a pressure upon my own stewardship of the

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Word of God that the context in which the Scripture is to be instructed and lived out and embraced was the

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Church. And at that point in my Christian development, I did not have a strong churchmanship.

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It met me with a lot of conviction. I had studied in a master's program prior to seminary a lot in the philosophy of existentialism.

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I was very much inclined to be somewhat individualistic and isolated. And so that teaching of the

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Church really convicted me relative to full -lord discipleship that entails a love for other disciples.

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And I found myself compelled to head into a ministry of the

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Word of God in conjunction with the pastoral ministry. And in God's providence, He allowed those doors to open for me.

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Well, praise God, and the Church is better off for it. And, as I said, I have been recommending your congregation way back since the 1980s and continue to do so.

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And I'm very thrilled that Grace Covenant Baptist Church has also become a sponsor of Iron Trepans Iron Radio.

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And our listeners will be hearing your ad at some point during the broadcast. Well, now it's time to discuss the main theme here today, which is the theme of your book,

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Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage. Now, what first led you to the thought,

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I've got to write a book on marriage, especially since there are reams and reams of things available in Christian publishing on the subject, even from Reformed views, or a

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Reformed view. And I know that probably the majority of men, maybe even men in the ministry, if they were to tell their wives, you know,

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I think I'm going to write a book on marriage. They would probably be deafened by the sound of laughter.

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So how did this thought occur to you to do this, and when did you tell your wife about it, and what was her response?

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Well, I would trace the beginning of this project actually to a couples conference that I was privileged to preach back in 2003.

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I was asked to preach at the Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland in 2003, and after the series of messages on that occasion, several of the brethren approached me and said, you know, that material would be really beneficial if it were accessible in print.

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So would you consider trying to write that out in a book form? And so that was the occasion that got me thinking about putting this material into a book.

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And tell us, if you could, about the upcoming conference at Trinity Baptist Church. Give us some of the details on how you are actually structuring this conference.

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Well, I'm going to be pretty well tracking along the main shape and contours of the book itself.

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Since having written this little book, there have been a couple of different occasions where I've been able to go through this material and basically have developed an approach to this subject that I will again be attempting to approach,

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God willing, at the couples conference in the first weekend of September. I start in foundational issues.

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I start with the foundational doctrines of God, the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of fall, and the doctrine of redemption, and use that as a framework in which we are to understand who we are as image -bearers of God, how

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God, in creation, making us male and female, has constituted the marriage relationship that we might be one flesh imaging

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Him. And then the effect of the fall, and I present the fall in many ways.

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Satan attacked the leadership of the man in his marriage and tried to open up how

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Adam plunged himself and his entire domain and mankind into the curse of death, the punishment of death by virtue of his abnegation of his leadership.

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He abdicated his responsibilities, and the consequences of that have been devastating.

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But redemption is the next category in which we are to see ourselves, in which we, in union with Christ by the power of the

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Holy Spirit, are given the wherewithal to learn how to love one another in keeping with the gospel.

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And that's where I've centered upon this idea of gospel love, a love that is defined by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And then we have to confront the inevitable challenges to our love of one another, and the essential challenge, of course, is sin.

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But it is the gospel in Christ, in His atoning death, in His victory of resurrection, in the gift of the

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Holy Spirit, that He enables us to apply that gospel to one another in our relationship.

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And we have to learn how to communicate that gospel to each other. We have to learn how to nurture grace in one another and strengthen one another's discipleship, that we might live as disciples, and that our marriages might be real signposts to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And I trace, then, the challenges that come through, the challenge of communication, the challenge of leadership, the challenge of selfishness, and the challenge of death.

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The fact that we're married until death do us part. To continue to cultivate a gospel -based intimacy with your spouse, even as you live through the course of time and face the inevitable intrusion of death, and yet do so, once again, in Christ, with that hope and confidence of our ultimate victory in Him.

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Now, before we go into more of the detail of the book and of the details of what you're going to be speaking on at the conference, is this conference open just to married couples?

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Is it open to engaged couples? Is it open to single people who believe that they one day will be married or want to be married?

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What are the parameters for attending this? I believe that the conference certainly is focusing on married couples and would assume that that would also embrace those other categories of viewers as well.

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You know, certainly those who are contemplating marriage benefit from getting as much perspective and an informed understanding of a biblical definition of marriage and both its definition and its practical outworkings.

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You know, single people, you know, the writer to the Hebrews tells us that the marriage bed is to be honored by all.

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So I would assume that includes not only those who are married, but also those who are single, that to elevate a biblical perspective of marriage is something

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I think would be beneficial to all of us today. Now, what would be the exact dates of the conference?

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And do you have the website for Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey? Or perhaps you have this information on your website?

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Yeah, the dates is August. We begin on Friday evening,

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August the 30th. There's a dinner and preliminary activities.

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And then on Saturday and Sunday, Saturday the 31st and then Sunday, September the 1st, will be given to the

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Ministry of the Word of God. And then on Monday, the 2nd of September, we're hoping to have a time of concentrated prayer and a time of questions and answers, along with a lunch and an afternoon picnic.

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It's a labor day on the 2nd of September. So that's the overall schedule of the conference.

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Right offhand, I would encourage the listeners to get onto the webpage at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

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And I'm sure if they root around there, there'll be information concerning the conference. And I would hope a possibility to register and join with us, if at all possible.

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Yeah, and I can tell you that TrinityMontville .org, which is what I thought that was the website, it has been not working for days now.

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So I don't know if that's just on my end. Your website works, but for some reason, for the last several days,

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TrinityMontville .org has not been working. So you might want to get a hold of those folks to get that website back into working condition.

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I appreciate knowing that, Chris. You're having technical difficulties in just about every sector of your life here.

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Yeah, well, that's an explanation as to why we started nearly 15 minutes late today, because our computer system was completely down.

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But we thankfully got everything up and running. And hopefully that TrinityMontville .org will be up and running soon as well.

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We're going to go to our first break right now. Oh, before I go to the break, how long have you and your wife been married?

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Because I think it would be a very interesting detail because of the content of your book and conference.

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Yeah, this past June, we just celebrated 42 years of marriage.

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Wow. That is amazing. I'm not saying this is flattery, but your wife barely looks 42.

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Looking at the photograph on the book, you've been married for 42 years. Wow. Well, praise

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God. You don't hear that a lot today, unfortunately. Yeah, she's to be commended for much more than her beauty.

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I'm very thankful for her. Amen. Well, we are going to our first break, as I said.

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If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

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chrisarnson at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence, if you live outside the

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USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Don't go away.

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We'll be right back, God willing, with Pastor Alan Dunn in Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage.

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Don't go away. As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

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A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.

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Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how He shall be worshipped and how

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He shall be represented in the world. They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship

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

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God -centered focus, reading, preaching, and hearing the Word of God, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

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

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Discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace

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.com That's gcbcnj .squarespace .com

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Or call them at 908 -996 -7654.

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That's 908 -996 -7654. Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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I'm James White of Alpha Omega Ministries, and my friend Chris Arnzen and I are excited to be attending another

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G3 conference together in Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday, January 16th through Saturday, January 18th on a theme that is vitally important to all of us,

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Worship Matters. I'll be on the speaking line -up with Eric Thomas, Joel Beeky, Paul Washer, Steve Lawson, Phil Johnson, Tom Askell, Vodi Balcom, and the world -renowned preacher, teacher, and author,

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John MacArthur. A fascinating new addition to the roster is Kosti Hinn, nephew of the notorious false teacher,

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Benny Hinn. Kosti has repented of the word -faith heresies of his youth and is now a Reformed Baptist pastor and cessationist in California.

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Come join me and Chris Arnzen at G3 2020, January 16th through the 18th in Atlanta by registering at g3conference .com.

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That's g3conference .com. See you there. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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TrinityMontville .org is up and running and it seems to be the only place it's not working is on my computer.

38:56

So, it's working on my phone and the information for the conference is right there on the main page.

39:05

So, I hope that you will write that down. TrinityMontville .org and get all the information that you need to attend the marriage or the couples conference being hosted by Pastor Alan Dunn of Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey.

39:23

We are now back with our discussion on Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage with our guest

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Pastor Alan Dunn and if you have any questions our email address is

39:35

ChrisOrenson at gmail .com ChrisOrenson at gmail .com We do have some questioners for you already,

39:42

Pastor Dunn, but before I do that I just want to get through one initial question of my own in regard to your book.

39:52

What do you mean by the doctrine of God directs our journey into marriage or marital intimacy?

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Well, I use a metaphor of guiding the journey into marital intimacy and being guided by four guiding stars, as it were.

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You have four points of reference that are biblical that frame our relationship and our pursuit of biblical intimacy.

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The doctrine of God is reflected in us as image of God.

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We are made in God's image male and female and I derive a principle of one

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God triune persons, the principle of plurality in unity and that being then reflected in the two becoming one flesh and so the

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God who was one God and yet plural persons is imaged in the one flesh but plural person relationship of marriage that is comprised of the male and the female image of God.

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Well, we have a question for you now from Grady, a very loyal and generous supporter.

41:29

of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Grady in Asheboro, North Carolina, who asks,

41:35

Hi Chris and Pastor Dunn. Brother Dunn, do you give advice in your book for those believers that are married to unbelievers or is your book just for believers who are married?

41:46

And I assume by that last part he means by two believers who are married. Yeah, the book has primarily in mind two professed disciples of Jesus Christ who are determined to love one another by applying the gospel of Christ to their relationship as husband and wife.

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But that doesn't mean that gospel love is not something that a spouse married to an unbelieving spouse has no concern for.

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You know, Peter speaks to the Christian woman who is married to an unbelieving husband in 1

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Peter 3 and encourages her through her example and through her words that by her influence she might be used of the

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Spirit even to bring that man to faith. And so the skill set, if you will, the muscles of faith and obedience that are requisite for gospel love are to be exercised by believers in whatever relationships they're in.

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I'm taking that, applying that kind of love specifically to the marriage relationship, but certainly

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Christians are to seek to extend gospel -defined love to all men, especially to one another in the framework of our local church, to our neighbors, and even to our enemies, so that we're to be characterized as those who are the recipients and then the transmitters, if you will, of this unique love that is revealed by God in Christ Jesus.

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The only love that has the will and the power to overcome our greatest enemy, which is our sin and death.

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So in any relationship where sin and the effect of death with its separating dynamic and its deadening dynamic were in any relationship, gospel love is something the

44:07

Christian is called to apply. Well, thank you, Grady. Please make sure that we have your full mailing address in Asheboro, North Carolina, so that we can mail you a free copy of the book

44:19

Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage. We want to thank the folks at Pillar and Ground Publications for providing these copies of Pastor Dunn's book for listeners who send in questions.

44:34

And we also want to thank Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com, cv for Cumberland Valley, bbs for BibleBookService .com,

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for shipping out our winners their free books. And we thank the

44:48

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Services for their sponsorship of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. My next question to you involves the second chapter of your book.

44:57

What do you mean by the doctrine of creation directs our journey into marital intimacy?

45:04

Well, there in the doctrine of creation, once again, we focus now more specifically on the marital relationship that God constituted for Adam.

45:19

I find that it's very significant in this whole discussion for us to realize that Adam, and this is part of the argument that Paul makes in 1

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Timothy 3, that it was Adam who was first created and then

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Eve, verse 13. And in verse 14, it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived,

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Phil, into transgression. So Paul brings the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of the fall to bear upon our understanding of male and female relationships, not only relative to who we are in the light of creation, but also who we are in Christ, in the

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Church, that those issues defined by creation are still relevant to us within the

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Church. But the doctrine of creation, I find Genesis chapter 2 to be of tremendous significance, because there we find

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Adam who has been created first, and he is already exercising aspects of his leadership, aspects of what later in the

46:37

Bible is called his headship. And he's entrusted with certain responsibilities, the responsibility to work and to take care of the garden and to transform that space into a virtual sanctuary, a virtual garden temple in which he would live with and commune with God.

47:01

He's given stewardship for words, which I find to be at the very crux of biblical masculinity.

47:09

He is entrusted with the responsibility of naming the animals, and it's in the course of that that he discovers the startling realization that it's not good for the man to be alone.

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And it's startling because throughout chapter 1, Moses has repeated the refrain, and God saw that it was good and culminates with the very good at the end of the creation week.

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And here is something that needs to be completed in God's program for his glory in creation, and that is to take the woman from him, from that rib that he removed from Adam, and then he brings the woman to Adam, and Adam exercises leadership with his words.

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And he rightly identifies the woman as his one flesh and assumes the responsibility of love and nurture and care for her, and together, then, they are able to accomplish what has been called the dominion mandate in Genesis 1, 26 to 28, where they are to fill the world with image -bearers of God who, through their obedient industry, would transform creation into the very temple of God, where God would be pleased to dwell with man.

48:36

And of course, that's what we see as the ultimate end in our Bibles. Our Bibles take us in Revelation 21 and 22 back to the

48:46

Garden, except it's not back to the Garden. It is forward to the Garden. And we come to that glorious Sabbath blessing of God living with man and man being fully conformed as image of God, now not in union with Adam, the first Adam, but in union with Christ, the second

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Adam, the resurrected Son of God, to whom we now fully conformed in resurrection glory.

49:14

So creation is at the very foundation of our Bibles and continues to be relevant to our lives as Christians and to our hope for the age to come, because we will ever be creatures who will glorify

49:32

God in Christ Jesus. We have

49:37

Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who asks, How can we relate to our liberal family, friends, and loved ones who believe in same -sex marriage?

49:51

That this is not marriage at all, no matter what they choose to call it. It is simply not a marriage.

49:57

How do we, from the Bible, define marriage appropriately? Wow, yeah.

50:05

Yeah, we live in quite a day, don't we, Chris? Yeah, sure do. It's getting more frightening every day.

50:13

If you watch TV enough, you're sure getting a dose of fright into your system.

50:19

Well, I would encourage our brother with the fact that, you know, when things get dark, a little bit of light goes a long way.

50:30

You know, 1 Timothy 4 verses 1 to 5 is helpful in terms of understanding,

50:41

I think, what is transpiring in our current cultural moment.

50:49

In 1 Timothy 4, 1 to 5, Paul tells us about the doctrines of demons.

50:59

Deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons who, through hypocrisy and lying, have their consciences branded and seared.

51:09

And the agenda of this deception focuses specifically on creation.

51:15

Once again, how relevant and necessary the doctrine of creation and all of its implications are for us as biblical

51:22

Christians. In verse 3, Paul tells us that these teachings are advocated by men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which

51:35

God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

51:48

The doctrines of demons historically and in our current moment target creation, target man as image of God, target the order of God as the good

52:00

God of creation. This is Satan's agenda right from the beginning in Genesis 3.

52:07

And so the forbidding of marriage, Satan often promotes heresies and dangerous teachings through the enticement of sexual sin, through the confusion of our sexuality, and we see that very prevalent in our day.

52:24

And then the abstaining from foods, I understand that to point to the physicality of our humanity.

52:32

We eat, we're physical, we are creatures that have been formed of dust, we are made to eat of the fruit of the tree and so forth.

52:42

And often we've seen in the history of the Church how man's confusion over the goodness of his physical constitution has become a stumbling block in many ways.

52:58

The other aspect, I think, of creation that bears upon our listeners' question is from Romans chapter 2 and verse 15 where Paul tells us that the work of the law has been written into the hearts of men by virtue of their created identity, that the conscience is shaped in such a way as to be immediately responsive to the law of God, to the

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Ten Commandments as they've been articulated at Mount Sinai, that when we live lives of moral credibility before our unbelieving family and friends, when we hold their consciences, they may not believe what we believe, but they need to know that we believe what we believe, and that when we can display biblical love within the framework of our families, when we especially can display gospel grace and gospel victory over sin in our marriages, our unbelieving family are given a testimony, they're given a witness, and we can only pray and hope that that will occasion their curiosity and their interest to perhaps inquire, how is it that you are together like this?

54:20

How is it that you learn to love one another like this? We all know what it's like to be around a couple who are in marital problems.

54:28

It's uncomfortable, it's awkward, you have a sense of intruding, but we also know what it's like to be around a couple where there's a delight in one another and where there's an engagement with one another.

54:39

It's very attractive, innately so. It appeals to the conscience. We rightly look at something like that and say, you know, that's really good, and it's attractive.

54:49

And our marriage should be something of an attraction, because as Christians, our marriage should be a depiction, with some measure of integrity, of Christ's relationship to His Church.

55:01

Now, isn't the most key passage involving the fact that marriage, as designed and instituted by God Himself, is between a man and a woman, and nothing else.

55:18

Genesis 2, 24, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

55:27

That is the definition of marriage, and anybody else that has a different definition has a different definition than God.

55:34

Yeah, well, amen. Amen. You know, Chris, that's one of the most important, I would say one of the most important verses in the

55:40

Bible, because it's, Paul picks up that text in Ephesians chapter 5, and he directs our attention to that pristine purity of Adam in one flesh union with his wife, against the backdrop of that sinless, created order.

55:59

And he wants us to look at that picture, and he says, look at that picture, and you're seeing a depiction of glory.

56:06

You're seeing a depiction of Christ's love to His church, and the destiny of the bride of Christ in a glorified new heaven and new earth, in intimate union with Christ, in a way that Adam's relationship to his wife was a type, was a picture, pointing us to the glory of God's love for us in Christ.

56:31

Amen. And we have to go to our midway break right now. It's a longer than normal break, because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

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FM in Lake City, Florida, always uses our middle break to localize

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Zion Sharp and Zion Radio to Lake City, Florida, with their own public service announcements and commercials. So we ask of you to please be patient with us, as this break is a bit longer.

56:51

Use this time wisely by writing down the information provided by our advertisers, so that you can more successfully and more frequently patronize them, knowing that when you patronize our sponsors, they are more likely going to remain our sponsors, which means the more likely we are going to remain on the air, because we need our advertisers and the advertising dollars that come from those sponsorships in order to exist.

57:17

So write down the information provided by our advertisers, so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them.

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And also write down questions for Pastor Alan Dunn on gospel intimacy in a godly marriage.

57:28

Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com chrisarnson at gmail .com Don't go away.

57:34

We'll be back after these messages with more of Alan Dunn and gospel intimacy in a godly marriage.

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Iron Sharp and Zion Radio depends upon the financial support of fine Christian organizations to remain on the air, like the

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today. Thank you, Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law, for your faithful support of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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I'm Dr. Gary Kimbrell, pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Laurel, Mississippi. God tells us in James 127 that pure and undefiled religion is a visit to fatherless and widows in their affliction.

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Visit citizenpriest .com today. As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

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A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.

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Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how He shall be worshiped and how

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from Chris Arnzen on IronSharpensiron Radio. I just have a couple of events that I've got to mention before I return to my interview with Pastor Alan Dunn on marriage.

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You can call them at 631 -806 -0614 for more details. 631 -806 -0614 or go to Word of Truth Church's website, wotchurch .com

01:16:27

wotchurch .com Then coming up in December, I am packing up my bags and heading back to my old stomping grounds in New York City to attend the

01:16:36

Foundations Conference, a conference of sermon audio. And I hope that all of you who are men in ministry leadership will join me there.

01:16:44

This is exclusively for men in ministry leadership because of the fact that they can only seat less than 200 people there, so they wanted to narrow the focus of invitation to men in ministry leadership.

01:16:57

The speakers include Dr. Stephen J. Lawson, Paul Washer, Rev. Jeff Thomas, Rev.

01:17:04

Armin Tomasian, Richard Caldwell Jr., and Andrew Quigley. If you'd like to register and be there and join me there at the

01:17:11

Foundations Conference, Thursday and Friday, December 19th and 20th, in the heart of the Christmas season.

01:17:17

There's no better place to be, in my opinion, than in the heart of New York City during the heart of the

01:17:23

Christmas season. Go to thefoundationconference .com thefoundationconference .com

01:17:28

to register. Then in January I'm packing up my bags again and this time heading down south to Atlanta, Georgia, more specifically to College Park, Georgia, to the

01:17:38

Georgia International Convention Center where they are having the

01:17:43

G3 Conference. The G3 Conference has become one of my very favorite conferences of all time.

01:17:49

I just absolutely love it and I will be manning an exhibitors booth at the G3 Conference once again.

01:17:55

I hope you look for me if you register. The theme this January is Worship Matters and the speakers always include a phenomenal roster of men and this is no exception.

01:18:10

In January, Thursday, January 16th through Saturday, January 18th.

01:18:15

The roster includes Kosti Hinn, who you've been hearing James White mention in the commercials for the

01:18:21

G3 Conference. He is nephew of the notorious charlatan and heretic Benny Hinn.

01:18:28

Kosti has renounced the word of faith heresies of his youth and has renounced his own uncle and is now a

01:18:37

Reformed Baptist and cessationist pastor. He was in California, as James White has been announcing, but now he has just recently taken the pastorate of a church in Arizona.

01:18:47

So Kosti's on the roster. Derek Thomas, no stranger to Reformed Christians globally.

01:18:54

My friend Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries. Dr. Joel Beeky, the president of Puritan Reform Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

01:19:03

Steven J. Lawson and Paul Washer are also on the lineup at this event. And we have

01:19:11

Todd Friel of Wretched TV and Wretched Radio. Dr. Tom Askell, the executive director of Founders Ministries, which is the

01:19:21

Calvinistic ministry within the Southern Baptist Convention. Vody Baucom is on the roster.

01:19:26

What a powerful preacher of the word he is. Phil Johnson, the executive director of Grace to You Ministries.

01:19:32

And as you heard Dr. James R. White mention, John MacArthur himself has been added to the lineup.

01:19:40

I just can't wait to be there because I've never been in the same building while John MacArthur has been preaching.

01:19:46

He has been a guest on this program a number of years ago, but I've never been in the same room with him, so I'm looking forward to not only hearing and seeing him preach in person but also meeting him.

01:19:56

If you want to join me there, go to g3conference .com g3conference .com and I strongly urge you not only to register to attend, but if you have a business or a parachurch organization,

01:20:06

I would strongly urge you to register for an exhibitor's booth as well so that you can take advantage of the fact that there's going to be over 5 ,000 people there.

01:20:15

And with the recent addition of John MacArthur, I really think there's going to be over 6 ,000 people. Go to g3conference .com

01:20:23

g3conference .com. Last but not least, if you love Iron Sherpins Iron Radio and you don't want us to disappear from the airwaves, go to ironsherpinsironradio .com

01:20:31

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01:20:45

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Never do that and never put your family in financial jeopardy by giving to Iron Sherpins Iron Radio. Those two things are commands of God providing for your church and home.

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That's ironsherpinsironradio .com. Click support, then click. Click to donate now. And remember folks, if you are not a member of a

01:21:30

Bible -believing church and you're not even prayerfully looking for one, you're living in rebellion against God. I have biblically faithful churches on lists all over the world and I can help you find a church if you send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

01:21:44

and put I need a church in the subject line. I've already helped a number of people in our audience find churches that they have joined near where they live in all parts of the world.

01:21:52

I've also helped people find churches where they're going on vacation or for family, friends, and loved ones who live in different parts of the world.

01:21:59

So, please send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com and put I need a church or something like that in the subject line.

01:22:05

If you want to advertise with us, please send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line because we really do need your advertising dollars urgently and if you, as long as whatever it is you're promoting is compatible with what

01:22:20

I believe, we will help you launch an ad campaign as quickly as we can. You don't have to believe identically with me, but you definitely need to be promoting something that is compatible with what

01:22:30

I believe. So, send me that email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line. That is also the email address to send in a question to Alan Dunn and we are talking about gospel intimacy in a godly marriage.

01:22:44

Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com chrisarnsen at gmail .com and we do have an anonymous listener,

01:22:51

Pastor Dunn, who wants to know, do you believe that there are any instances that would legitimize divorce and if so, what are they?

01:23:02

Well, certainly the marriage relationship is terminated on the occasion of the death of a spouse.

01:23:16

Secondly, it's evident that adultery also is of such a character that it is a violation of the marriage covenant that in essence puts a bullet in the head of the marriage, so to speak.

01:23:41

So that there is warrant for divorce on the occasion of adultery.

01:23:47

I wouldn't say necessarily an obligation to be divorced on that occasion because even though that sin inflicts a fatal wound upon the relationship, we serve the

01:24:01

God who raises the dead. And again, through gospel love, a marriage can be resurrected as it were and even attained to a deeper level of intimacy and more vitality of love because of the victory of the gospel being worked out in the context of that of that sin.

01:24:29

There's divergence of opinion perhaps and different levels of application, but Paul would make it,

01:24:37

I believe, make it clear in 1 Corinthians 7 that a willful abandonment of a spouse that is evident over a protracted period of time in which the marriage relationship has been ruined, has been terminated by virtue of the absence of the abandoning spouse that on that occasion there too then there was

01:25:07

I would find biblical justification for the conclusion of that covenant relationship.

01:25:14

Now a question that I get frequently from women is are we permitted to divorce our husbands if they are habitually and unrepentantly violent in the home?

01:25:28

Women who are the victims of spousal abuse, they're being battered, sometimes the children are victims of this as well.

01:25:35

Yeah, it certainly that's what I was alluding to in terms of the degree to which abandonment, separation, the degree to which the marriage suffers the repercussions of various kinds of sin.

01:25:55

I would certainly say that in the occasion of an angry and abusive man that the marriage is certainly ill, diseased, there needs to be some measure of intervention, perhaps even a temporary coming apart from one another in order to awaken the abusing spouse to the immorality of his behavior.

01:26:28

I would be loathe to say that that occasions necessarily occasions of divorce,

01:26:36

I would be however, I would certainly encourage counsel and intervention in order to address those issues and try to bring about some measure of reconciliation and restoration.

01:26:53

And of course, I would immediately tell a woman to call 911 if her husband was actually beating or striking her.

01:27:03

That man may have to leave the home due to his arrest. Right, right. There may be an imposed separation, not merely by pastoral counsel, but by the law enforcement if it comes to that.

01:27:20

And of course, there is a more rare but real phenomenon of women who physically abuse their husbands.

01:27:28

That does happen. You may even have a much older husband in this situation and a younger wife and I've heard from some pretty scary stories about husbands being physically abused by their wives.

01:27:40

He might be disabled, etc. You could go on and on. But we obviously don't want to candy -coat that wickedness because obviously he's not loving his spouse as Christ loved the

01:27:51

Church, that's for sure. Right, that's for sure. It definitely warrants intervention and exhortation, rebuke, a summons to repentance, and God willing, a restoration that puts both of the spouses on a biblical track once again to see

01:28:11

God do something that only He is able to do, to bring life to the dead, to bring reconciliation and peace to a situation that was otherwise in conflict and at war.

01:28:24

And Anonymous, if you would like to, obviously off the air, give me your full name and mailing address, you have won a free copy of Gospel Intimacy in a

01:28:33

Godly Marriage by our guest Alan Dunn. And if you're a first -time questioner, you're also going to get a free

01:28:40

New American Standard Bible compliments of the publishers of the NASB and also compliments of our friends at cvbbs .com.

01:28:47

We'll be shipping that out to you. That, by the way, in case

01:28:53

I failed to remember to mention it every time, that goes for all of our listeners who have submitted questions. You're getting a free copy of Gospel Intimacy in a

01:29:01

Godly Marriage by Alan Dunn. Thanks to our friends at Pillar and Ground Publications.

01:29:08

The Doctrine of the Fall directs our journey into marital intimacy.

01:29:14

That's interesting how such a horrifying and globally devastating event that affects every human born of woman the

01:29:30

Fall, that directs our journey into marital intimacy, if you could tell us about that.

01:29:38

Yeah, I bring that to bear because it is due to the

01:29:44

Fall that we are confronted with the essential threat to our intimacy, and that is our sin.

01:29:56

Sin is what is what severs our intimacy with one another because sin brings about death, and death pulls us apart.

01:30:09

Death separates. Death brings about a severance of the things that God has joined together in creation in order to form created life.

01:30:22

And so the Doctrine of the Fall gives us a perspective upon the matters of Gospel intimacy because it clearly defines for us what the biggest problem to our intimacy is.

01:30:35

And that is sin. And our intimacy collapses.

01:30:42

Our intimacy breaks apart when one or both of the spouses has an offended conscience.

01:30:51

And that happens when there's been wrong that has been done, wrong that has been said, when the law of God, when the love of God and the love of neighbor has been violated in the marriage relationship, and now you're confronted with the reality of sin.

01:31:07

And so by identifying the problem, we now can apply

01:31:13

God's provision and God's solution, and that is the Gospel itself.

01:31:19

And then to enter into an exchange of Gospel commodities, an exchange of the

01:31:28

Gospel, which defines us in loving each other with the

01:31:35

Gospel, addresses the sin, and it brings the matter to a resolution because in the

01:31:40

Gospel our consciences are brought to peace, and we can learn how to trust the power of the

01:31:47

Holy Spirit in our spouses. Because through the Gospel, by the God who raises the dead, through the power of the

01:31:54

Spirit, there are supernatural dynamics that are at work helping us to love each other.

01:32:02

That's in the marriage, and it's also in the Church. And so our sin can be overcome because of our union with Christ in His death and His resurrection.

01:32:12

So the Fall helps us to identify what the problem is. Amen. And we have

01:32:18

John in Bangor, Maine who asks, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the

01:32:25

Old Testament taught that you could not remarry a woman that you had previously divorced.

01:32:31

Is this the case in the New Covenant, and if so, why, and if not, why?

01:32:40

Wow. That's my understanding as well, that there's a specific prohibition against divorcing a woman and then remarrying her, particularly after she has once again been remarried, even after that.

01:33:00

I'm not studied to the point of being able to go into that minutia on the applications of the

01:33:12

Law of God at that particular point. But yeah,

01:33:17

I think the questioner is right in understanding that particular prohibition that is prescribed in the

01:33:26

Old Testament. But the key word there is Old Testament. There are a lot of things that are prescribed in there.

01:33:31

I mean, I know dear brethren, in fact a few pastors, who are godly men and very theologically sound, who have remarried their spouses after divorce.

01:33:43

There was no marriage that I know of in between. I don't know if that matters at all. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. And obviously we're not talking or advocating somebody who attempts to break up the second marriage in order to get back together with their first spouse.

01:34:01

That's... Right. Yeah. I mean, if I remember correctly, and again, it's not something that I prepared in advance to answer, but if I remember correctly,

01:34:09

I think the situation in the Old Testament is the prohibition of divorcing and then remarrying the woman after she had gotten married again.

01:34:19

Yeah, but you're right. I mean, the dynamics of the New Testament are advanced, as the writer of Hebrews says.

01:34:29

We have a much better revelation of God's love for us in the

01:34:34

Gospel. Right. And if divorce is a sin and two people are still single after that divorce,

01:34:44

I would think rectifying that sin would be to rejoin in marriage and sometimes this has occurred with people that I know who were unbelievers when the divorce occurred or when one of the spouses were an unbeliever and then when the other or both got saved after the divorce, they reunited and their marriage has been better than ever.

01:35:05

Yeah, yeah. I would fully celebrate that, that's for sure.

01:35:12

Amen. Let's see here, we have CJ in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, who says, don't you think the key in maintaining a healthy marriage is to remember every time your spouse has either sinned against you or troubled you or hurt you that you have done far more to Christ and He has forgiven us and constantly reminding ourselves of that should be able to put things in perspective if we are thinking biblically and if we are truly born again when we are having marital conflict.

01:35:51

Yeah, I think the perspective of that listener is right on the mark, that we do have to remember what he's saying is that we have to constantly define ourselves in terms of our primary relationship to Jesus Christ.

01:36:12

And so in our relationship to Jesus Christ, we are taught then how to give His love to others and in our marriage specifically to our spouse.

01:36:23

So in my book, I try to encourage the reader to become what I call a gospel lover.

01:36:30

And that entails cultivating the disposition or the mindset, the readiness to be forbearing, that love, as Peter tells us, covers a multitude of sins.

01:36:42

That there has to be the patient absorption, if you will, for the sake of retaining peace, of petty annoyances and irritations that are just part and parcel of living together in close proximity.

01:37:03

But when there are those occasions in which the offense is so substantial that you begin to realize that the relationship has been damaged, we're experiencing the impact of death here, we're dying, our emotional closeness is separating.

01:37:21

We feel a distance developing. Well, that's a death -like phenomenon.

01:37:27

At that point, then we need to move from a disposition of forbearance into an engagement of the gospel and an exchange and transaction of the gospel, which means we rehearse the gospel to one another in the same way that, as our listener has said, in the same way that replicates our relationship with Jesus Christ.

01:37:50

So there has to be, on the part of the offending one, there has to be an acknowledgement and an ownership of sin, a confession of sin, that identifies sin, not just emotes or expresses some sort of sorrow or sadness, but along with that regret, there is a specific identification of the sin.

01:38:17

When I said this, I was breaking the sixth commandment. When I bullied you,

01:38:26

I was violating the fifth commandment in terms of an abuse of my authority or something, where there's a sin that is specific.

01:38:38

And then the other person who enters into that transaction brings to that transaction the grace of forgiveness.

01:38:47

And Jesus says, if we've been sinned against seven times a day, and the offender comes and says, please forgive me, then we are to forgive.

01:38:57

And we give to each other that which we've received from the

01:39:02

Lord. We give forgiveness on the basis of the blood and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

01:39:09

And that restores the relationship. I've often used the illustration of a zipper. The bottom teeth of the zipper, by that exchange of the

01:39:17

Gospel, the bottom teeth of the zipper in your coat, for example, is then connected.

01:39:22

And now through communication, through continued application of the Gospel, and through the development of ongoing intimacy in the relationship, the zipper can be pulled back up.

01:39:34

And even as you alluded to earlier, Chris, people who've experienced even the devastation of divorce, they can reconnect the zipper of their relationship and pull that zipper up back higher than it's ever been before, because of the renewed vitality of resurrection grace that God gives us through the

01:39:52

Gospel. Amen. And thank you, C .J. You've also won a free copy of the book we are discussing,

01:40:00

Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage. Make sure we have your full mailing address. We're going to our final break right now, and before we go to the break,

01:40:06

I'm going to read a question from Harrison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and you can answer it when we come back.

01:40:15

Harrison asks, I don't think there is any teaching on this subject in the

01:40:20

Bible itself, but I was wondering what your thoughts were on the importance of laughter in a healthy marriage.

01:40:28

It seems that if couples are self -deprecating enough and humble enough, they're going to be able to laugh at themselves and be more understanding of their failures and not be so defensive, which is one of the key areas that couples erupt into arguments over, is one or another's feelings are hurt and their pride is wounded.

01:40:52

I was wondering what your thoughts were on laughter and humor in a marriage, and we'll have you answer that, Pastor Dunn, when we come back from our last break.

01:41:00

If anybody else would like to join us with a question, please send in your question quickly because we're rapidly running out of time.

01:41:06

ChrisArnson at gmail .com ChrisArnson at gmail .com is our email address, and we look forward to hearing from you and your questions after these messages from our sponsors.

01:41:18

So there'll be more with Alan Dunn on Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage very soon.

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That's irbsseminary .org, two S's in the middle. I hope to hear from you soon.

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God bless you. Tired of box store Christianity? Of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert?

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Call Lynnbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402. That's 516 -599 -9402 or visit lynnbrookbaptist .org.

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That's lynnbrookbaptist .org. Chris Sorensen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio here.

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I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years. His name is Dan Buttafuoco.

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I've had the privilege of opening God's Word from their pulpit on many occasions, have led youth retreats for them, and have always been thrilled to see their members filling many seats at my

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I also want to congratulate Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham for their recent appointment of Pastor Rich Jensen's co -elder,

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Pastor Christopher McDowell. For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church go to hopereformedli .net

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

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Paul wrote to the church at Galatia for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am

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That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the apostles priority, it must not be ours either.

01:50:40

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.

01:50:52

If you live near Norfolk, Massachusetts or plan to visit our area, please come and join us for worship and fellowship.

01:50:59

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

01:51:10

TV program entitled, Resting in Grace. You can find us at providencebaptistchurchma .org

01:51:16

that's providencebaptistchurchma .org or even on sermonaudio .com Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor

01:51:24

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01:51:59

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01:52:07

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01:52:13

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01:52:22

There's no obligation and no credit card required. Visit getworldnow .com

01:52:28

today. Also check out World News Group's podcast, The World and Everything in It, at wng .org

01:52:36

forward slash podcast. That's W for World, N for News, G for Group, dot org, forward slash podcast.

01:53:03

Listening to Christian radio can be a big gamble spiritually. Even many of the major Christian networks that include excellent biblically faithful teachers on their lineup sadly often also include the worst of doctrinally dangerous heretics.

01:53:18

If you are a lover of the doctrines of sovereign grace, you need not fear listening 24 hours a day to firstloveradio .org.

01:53:27

They feature Christ -centered programming from Reformed pastors and teachers you can rely upon for theological soundness and biblical faithfulness, such as Dr.

01:53:36

W .R. Downing, Dr. Peter Masters, Pastor Joe Jackowitz, Pastor Robert Gifford, Al Martin, Edward Delcor, and more.

01:53:46

firstloveradio .org also livestreams my Iron Sharpens Iron radio program daily.

01:53:51

Please stick around on firstloveradio .org after Iron Sharpens Iron radio is over to continue being blessed by the unwavering proclamation of the gospel of sovereign grace.

01:54:02

Spread the word about firstloveradio .org Welcome back, and I want to remind you of Joe Jackowitz Joe Jackowitz, who is the founder of First Love Radio, the ad you just heard promoting

01:54:26

First Love Radio. Joe Jackowitz was just very recently diagnosed with leukemia, and he has a 70 % survival rate according to his physicians.

01:54:38

So please pray for Joe, not only that the Lord heals him and guides his physicians in the most appropriate and effective manner of treatment and that the

01:54:50

Lord guides the surgeon's hands and everything else that needs to be done, but also please be with Joe in his faith, in his emotional state, mental state, spiritual state and that the

01:55:02

Lord constantly reminds him of the promise that all things shall work together for the good for those who love

01:55:10

God and are called according to his purpose. So please pray for Joe Jackowitz, founder of First Love Radio that airs this program and pray for his healing of leukemia and also pray for Richard Bennett, my friend, the former

01:55:25

Roman Catholic priest who is now a Reformed Baptist evangelist and founder of Berean Beacon Ministry.

01:55:32

His wife fears that he is on the brink of eternity so please pray that either he is rescued from death or that all around him rejoice knowing where Richard will be heading.

01:55:48

He is a senior citizen so this is no surprise to most of us but at the same time we who are on earth want him to stick around as long as possible.

01:55:58

So just pray for Richard Bennett and his family during this time. We are now back with the final minutes of our discussion with Alan Dunn and I already know

01:56:07

Pastor Alan that I want you back at least one more time, maybe a couple more times to discuss your book

01:56:13

Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage because there's a lot more in there. But could you address what

01:56:22

Harrison in Mechanicsburg asked about laughter in a marriage, how important is that? Yeah, you know, he was right when he prefaced his question by saying it's hard, you're hard pressed to find something explicit in that regard but what came to my mind was

01:56:38

Psalm 128 where the blessing upon the one who fears the

01:56:44

Lord, verse two, when you shall eat of the fruit of your hands you will be happy and it will be well with you, your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table and so forth.

01:56:58

So yeah, I mean laughter is certainly a dimension of human enjoyment in relationships and the marriage relationship should have a place where we are comfortable to be ourselves and everybody's got a different sense of humor in some different ways and learning how to enjoy and to have delight in the wife of your youth, how to delight in your children.

01:57:28

There will be many occasions in which you will find opportunities to laugh and to just simply enjoy the fact that God has put you together in a home in which he's pleased to give you that delight and enjoyment in each other.

01:57:45

Amen. I have often heard Proverbs 17, 22 connected with laughter.

01:57:51

Is that an appropriate connection? A joyful heart is good medicine but a broken spirit dries up the bones?

01:57:58

I think that's a relevant text, Chris. As you bring that to mind, yeah.

01:58:05

Laughter is an interesting phenomenon of the human personality.

01:58:10

Why we laugh, it's often a window many times into the moral character of a man's soul.

01:58:16

The thing that he finds funny is a perception of that he derives from perceiving contradictions, perceiving things that don't quite gel.

01:58:28

And sometimes laughter can indicate that a man's sense of things is not as pure as it should be.

01:58:38

Well, we're out of time, brother, and I definitely want you back. In fact, if you could hold on after we go off the air so I can get my calendar out.

01:58:46

Thank you, Chris. I just appreciate the opportunity. I appreciate your guiding the conversation along, and I want to thank you very much.

01:58:55

Well, I appreciate that. And the website for Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey is gcbcnj .squarespace

01:59:02

.com gcbcnj .squarespace .com gcbcnj .squarespace

01:59:07

.com The website for Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey that is hosting Pastor Dunn's marriage or couples conference,

01:59:14

I should say. That's trinitymontville .org trinitymontville .org I want to thank everybody who listened today, especially those who took the time to write in questions, and I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater