April 19, 2018 Show with Earl Blackburn on “How Can I Honor Christ in Fighting Cancer?”

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

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio

platform on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues

facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 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 whom we

converse with 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 hour, and we hope to hear

from you, the listener, with your own questions.

Now here's our 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 Thursday on this

19th day of April 2018, and I am delighted to have back as a returning guest

my dear friend for many years, Pastor Earl Blackburn, who is, or should I say, who

was the chairman of the administrative council of the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America,

commonly known as ARPCA, where he served in that capacity for eight years.

He is currently the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana, and he's author of a number

of books.

One includes his own victory over the disease of

cancer, and today we are going to be addressing that booklet, How Can I Honor Christ

in Fighting Cancer?, a publication of Reformation Heritage books, and it's my honor and privilege

to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Earl Blackburn.

Thank you, my brother.

It's a great.

Joy to be with you.

The great news of the

reality of life as we face it.

Amen.

If anybody would like.

To join us on the air with a question regarding cancer or regarding the battle with a

very serious illness, or maybe it's just another crisis, another hardship, another trial that

you are facing, or a question in general about facing hardship in life,

our email address is ChrisArnzen 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 if you live outside the USA.

I understand a topic like this might readily lend itself to somebody wanting to remain

anonymous.

A lot of people who have very serious illnesses want to keep that a private matter.

I often am puzzled why Christians are sometimes in that category.

If I am facing a serious illness, I know that I'm going to be shouting it out to the world so I can have a lot of

prayer warriors rallying behind me, but that is obviously

a case -by -case situation which individuals disagree on.

But you may remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

But otherwise, please give us at least your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside the USA.

Before we go into the subject at hand, Pastor Earl, because of the fact

that our audience is growing, it seems, daily, I'm getting emails

from people all over the world who are discovering Iron Trip and Zion Radio for the first time.

They may not have heard you on the program before, so why don't you tell our listeners, first of all, about Heritage

Baptist Church of Shreveport,.

Louisiana.

Thank you, Chris.

Heritage Church, it is a multi -ethnic, it is

multi -generational, it's a multi -church of many

stripes, but it is an exciting church, at least for me.

We're reaching all sorts of people, and the inner city is

desperately in need of gospel -preaching churches today,

especially here in the South.

I can't speak for other parts of the United States, but especially here in the South, there's been

a lot of flight out to the suburbs, and what has remained is a

vacuum, and many of the inner cities have no one in there.

Preaching the gospel, establishing churches, trying to fulfill the Great

Commission, and no wonder they're often presented as places of

crime, and so an inner city church,

people just walk in off the streets all the time, and there's no telling what

kind of person may come in, but I've said this before, I've said this for 12 years before I

even came, I said, I don't care what color you are, you can be green or purple.

If you want to hear the Word of God, and you want to hear about saving life -changing

gospel, you're welcome to come in.

If they're.

Green or purple, I would strongly advise calling 9 -1 -1 first, though.

Well, I believe the gospel.

Could even change someone green or purple.

But for 12 years, and that's where I am for 12 years, and very thankful.

This is a very encouraging church, and also, though I was previously

the chairman of the Administrative Council of ARBCA, the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America,

godly body of men,

and will be so until after the ARBCA General Assembly in May of this.

Year.

Oh, so I prematurely cut you out of that position.

That's all right, that's all right, and I am very excited about the new

Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies Theological Seminary, the IRBS Theological Seminary, being launched this

fall, this September, in Mansfield, Texas.

Well, in the

etymology, it's unique in that it is a seminary that has

given over to one thing and one thing only, and that is to

train men who have been internally called by Jesus Christ and directed by the

Spirit of God to preach the Word of God.

It is there to train them to become servants of the Word of God.

We're not going to do a lot of other things that many seminaries

just deal with.

The Word of God, biblical theology, pastoral

theology, fulfilled a great commission to train men

to become servants of the Word of God.

So we are very excited about what the Lord,.

What we believe he is yet to do.

And that website, for your information, is irbsseminary .org.

IRBSseminary .org, and make sure you put the two S's back -to -back, because a lot of times when there's two

S's next to each other, people forget to put one of those S's in there when they're typing out a URL.

So that's irbsseminary .org.

And also, the website for ARBCA is arbca .com.

That stands for the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America.

Arbca .com.

And last but not least, Heritage Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana.

Their website is hbcshreveport .com.

And hopefully we'll be mentioning those URLs, those websites,

later on in the program.

So I know that you wrote this booklet, which, by the way,

before I forget to say it, I think that everybody who's a pastor listening, or if you're a deacon,

or if you're in any position of authority that is involved in keeping the

tract racks in your church building stocked, or if you're in charge of a book table

or book room in your church, I am urging you to order at least a case of this

booklet.

It is a very brief booklet, and it is affordable enough where you could keep a

tract rack stocked with them, because obviously cancer is something that nearly everyone,

if I dare say everyone, in the country, if not the world,

is somehow affected by it.

It's so prevalent, the disease of cancer, that if you are not fighting

cancer yourself, I would be shocked if you did not know someone who was,

or should I say who was not, or no, how am I wording that?

I'd be shocked if you did not know someone who was battling cancer, and

I would be also shocked if you did not have someone in your life that is very close to you that you love

who was not battling cancer.

But anyway, Earl, tell us, first of all, how long ago it was when you

were first diagnosed with cancer, and what were the symptoms, how was this diagnosed, etc.?

Well, before I do that, Chris, if I may, I'd like to just encourage people,

and I say this in praise of myself or any prophet,

because I'm getting no royalties or anything from

the glory of God, and I was asked to write it.

I did not go promoting as such.

A doctor in our church got a hundred copies of this,

and the next thing you know, he's giving them to patients who are giving them to people

literally all over the United States.

He just ordered another 200 copies, 300 very

shortly, that will be distributed.

Everyone who has looked knows someone who is suffering with

cancer.

I open up the booklet by saying that cancer is the most

dreaded C word in all the English language, and it is an equal

opportunity disease.

It is no respecter of any person.

It is no respecter of race.

It's not your economic status.

It's no respecter of what position you may have in society.

The American Cancer Society tells us, and their statistics are almost

always, absolutely, all Americans

living will be stricken with cancer, which means,

listening to me right now, sometime or another in their life will be stricken with cancer,

and it's pervasive,

and it's part of fallen humanity.

Talking about something that's esoteric, something that's out there, when

we think about, we're talking about somebody infecting somebody,

probably your neighbor, a neighbor,

someone you know somewhere, disease.

In fact, my mom, Virginia Arnzen, my.

Precious mom, who was, and I don't exaggerate just because she

was my mother, but she was one of the most godly, in fact, I think she was the most godly

woman I had ever encountered in my life.

A sweet, selfless, humble, sacrificial woman, even

before I believe she was regenerate, she had those characteristics, but

she, at the age of 70, which in our day and age is young, she went home to be with the Lord

from pancreatic cancer, and she was a woman, just because of what you said earlier, it struck

this memory in me, she was a woman who was never overweight, she was a woman who never

smoked, she was a woman who ate health food and exercised daily,

she was just, I would be shocked if she

finished a full glass of wine in her entire life, she

was just a woman who had a very healthy lifestyle, was always in shape and so on,

and active, and yet she was killed very quickly by this dreaded

disease, pancreatic cancer, which is among the most deadly of all, and the

least curable, and she thankfully

came to understand the gospel within the last six weeks of her life on this earth,

and she clearly demonstrated that she trusted in Christ's death alone for her

salvation, even though she was raised a Roman Catholic and remained a faithful Roman Catholic

until about six weeks before her death, she renounced all prayer to saints, she renounced all

the idolatry and superstitious activity with relics, and medals, and statues,

and she was trusting in Christ alone, and Peter Jeffrey, who I know that you knew, Earl, who is now in

heaven as well, Peter Jeffrey met with my mom for at least a half hour alone

on her deathbed, and it was such a blessing that he arose from that

sick room and came outside where I was waiting, and he said to me in his

thick Welsh accent, I don't know what you're worried about, your mom's going to heaven, she's born again, she's a Christian,

so I just thank God for that extra measure of comfort,

and encouragement, and confidence that Peter gave me that day, but

going back to your story, was this a routine checkup, or did you have symptoms,

how did you find out you had cancer?

Well, with regards

to cancer, many young people there, and

I say to these young people, don't think that death only comes to older people,

I remember in taking chemotherapy,

played football for USC, University of Southern California, Paul got very

muscular, looking very strong, but he was stricken with cancer at the age of

28, and here he is taking,

and young people, and one of the saddest of cancer,

we have a family in our church that had a little, at

a very young age, and not

only, not respective of

the people, different types, but, and like you said, with

pancreatic cancer, when I went in to see my oncologist, he told me, he said if you'd come in with

certain types of liver cancer, or pancreatic cancer, I would advise you against getting

chemotherapy, because if you had a certain type of pancreatic cancer, you might have two

months, and if I gave you chemotherapy, I might prolong your life for another

month, but it would literally be a hell on earth if I did so, and I would just advise you to go home, set

your house in order, and it would all begin with me.

Well, my father was 82 years old, and he was suddenly stricken,

I flew back to where he was, and 17 days later, he

was dead, dead with colon cancer, and so I was 50 years

old, and the

doctor told me, he said, you, how old are you, and I said 50, he said, you need to go get

a colonoscopy, 50, every person should get a colonoscopy,

so I went and got a colonoscopy, and the gastroenterologist told me, he said,

everything looks clear, don't need to worry about anything, I'll see you in 10 years, I

said, great, thank the lord, walked out, about nine months later,

I just, and

oh boy, I'm just getting old or something, and that continued, and

I didn't even have a regular MD,

regular primary care physician, and so I just looked in the phone

book, and someone recommended this doctor, I went to him, he took some blood work, and

he said, and you just

need to go and take some over -the -counter iron tablets, and work out a little more,

and bought these over -the -counter iron tablets, oh man, they're horrible to take,

and started taking them, and started being more aggressive in my exercising,

and working out, and instead of getting better, I kept getting worse, I went back to this

doctor a couple more times, and he chided me, he said, you need to be more active with your working out,

you're not working out enough, intensified my

workouts, and I kept getting worse and worse,

I began to lose weight, I had no energy,

thought maybe something like cancer was wrong, I noticed my bowel

movements, and there was no blood in my stools, or anything like that, or other

signs, and, but after about eight months, I realized something was really

wrong, because I'd gotten so weak, I couldn't even get up from

the sofa, I remember one Friday evening, we were going to have dinner with a family in

our church, and I'd taken a shower, and sat on the sofa, sat down on the sofa, and I couldn't get up, my

wife had to help me get up, I realized something desperate was wrong,

and I went to see a gastroenterologist,

he called me Tuesday, and

after the colonoscopy, when I woke up, the nurse was there, she had sent my wife out, and she said,

I'm going to help you get dressed, which was very unusual, the doctor wants to see you in his office right

now, and I said, well my wife can take me, she said, no, he has instructed me to bring you over,

and I went over, and I sat down, and he walked in, and he had a long face,

and I could tell that something was wrong, I said, well doctor, I can tell by the look on your

face, you don't have good news for me,

don't whitewash it, tell me straight, I can handle the truth, but I can't handle any

half -measured statements or any falsehoods, tell me the truth, you've got colon

cancer, and we need to operate immediately, this was about one o 'clock in the afternoon,

he said, I've already scheduled you for surgery this coming

Thursday, he said, we need to get at it now, I

said, I haven't met the surgeon, he said, well he's the only man that I would let operate on my mother, and so

you just trust me, and I said, okay, and just about 48 hours later, they were

rolling me into the operating room, and that was on December 9th, I was diagnosed

with cancer December 7th, 2004, and on December 9th,

2004, they...

Well, what was the outcome of that surgery?

Well brother, a routine surge,

maybe seven, but he said no more than that, and nowadays,

modern medicine has advanced, I had a cousin that had the same surgery, and she was only in the hospital four days,

but he said five to six days, well what happened to me was

something unusual, and I'll deal with this, I give the full account, or as much as the

publisher allowed to be put in, I had to edit it, some of it, because of the

length.

It's 31 pages, it's a booklet.

Yes, they have some of these things

out, but four days later,

my fever has spiked to 104 .8,

and that is terrible damage for

adults, they had ice behind my neck, ice under my arms, under my chin,

ice between my legs, ice all around my abdominal

cavity, trying to lower the fever.

What had happened is I contracted a viral infection that you only get in

the hospital, and I became septic, and I had what they call sepsis,

and I don't distress...

Viral infection caused them to perform two more

operations on me, and so in a space of eight days, I had three operations,

and if I may say something on the third,

I knew,

I'm speaking with you this moment, I knew

though I was under anesthesia, I knew I was dying.

To be honest with you,

and contrary to what many of the pundits say today, you know it's

when you die, it's warm, at

the end of a tunnel, it was just the opposite.

It was cold, I was so cold,

and in my mind, this is very real to me,

over in my mind, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will

fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod,

and I can remember them, I thought they had transferred me from one operating table to

another, and later on, I talked with a surgeon, and I said, yea, I remember you transferring me

from one operating table to another, and he said, no, we didn't transfer you from one

operating table to another, we were fighting to bring you back to life, to keep you alive,

and he said, you shouldn't, normally you shouldn't remember this, but the anesthesiologist was there helping us,

and he let the levels of anesthesia go down, and that's why you remember some of

this, but he said, everyone in there was fighting to keep you

alive, it was a very, over

the next 10 days, I was, I was on, I had ARDS,

adult stress syndrome,

of your lungs, my lungs had collapsed, my kidneys had stopped working, and,

and this is a result of something involving the surgery that you were going through?

No, it took place after the surgery.

Do you know why?

No, there's no real explanation, you get these,

no matter how a

hospital does things, you always, there,

for me, I was susceptible,

and I, you, it's the kind that you only get in hospitals, that doesn't mean that hospitals are bad,

or anything like that, if you look at it,

understand, God's probably been angry at the hospital, I could have been angry at the

surgeon, I could have been angry at many people, but I'm not angry at anybody,

and his, all wise, and

me, and all of his creatures, and, um,

we

won't happen to one out of a thousand people, but it will, it can, and it will happen, and I,

and the providence of God, happen to be one of those to whom it happened.

I was on a ventilator for 10 days.

In fact, in fact, could you, could you.

Share that, when we return from our first break, we have a brief station break we have to go to right now.

Can you, can you make a note of where you left off, so you don't forget where you left off?

Yeah.

Because I'm, I'm very, I'm on the edge of my seat with everything you're saying, so I don't want you to leave anything out.

Okay.

So please remember where you left off, and we're going to be right back, God willing, right after these messages from our sponsors, please, if

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We are now back to our discussion, How Can I Honor Christ in Fighting Cancer, with our

guests Earl Blackburn.

And Earl, if you could please pick up right where you left off there before the break.

I came out of the third surgery, and that was

on a Thursday, previous Thursday dawn.

And so unconscious, I was on a ventilator.

Again, my lungs had collapsed, my liver, I mean, my kidneys had stopped functioning.

And I was

fighting alive, but I was not aware of it.

And so the next thing I remember before going into my third surgery is when I finally woke up, I didn't

even know what day it was.

And when I woke up, I'm on a ventilator, I can't talk.

And I look at the foot of my bed, and there are five or six doctors.

My wife later told me there were six doctors, the chief surgeon,

the nephrologist, the pulmonary specialist, exotic

disease specialist.

And I closed my eyes, or the chief surgeon told

my wife, he said, ma 'am, he said, we have done

everything that we can do.

We think you need to call in the family.

We don't think he's going to make it through the night.

Wow.

And they said, it is now up to him.

Well, one of the elders of my former church was there with my wife.

And he said, my little wife said, no, sir, it is not up to him.

It's up to the Lord Christ in heaven.

Amen.

And, and she said that he, the elder gave her a hug and he said, I'll talk with you later.

Well, unbeknownst to me, he goes and calls all the elder, other elders,

and they call a church wide prayer meeting.

This is on a Saturday.

And they had a prayer meeting at the church at the clock that night.

I guess if you've ever been to the church out there in Southern California, a large

place and people were out in the

courtyards, out in the parking lot, praying.

I had, the reason why they were so concerned is because my kidneys had stopped functioning.

And I had, I was just bloated, blown up with all this water

that I'd accumulated.

They told my wife, then they said, if he does make it through the night and into tomorrow,

if his kidneys do not start working, we're going to have to dial it by then.

Which means if they did that, then I would be on, however long I lived, I would be on dialysis.

And so that's when the elder left and called the other elders and called the church

and they prayed and then the next morning, the Lord's day, instead of

having Sunday school, except for the little nursery, little children in the nursery, they

had a church wide prayer meeting instead of Sunday school and

seeing the doctors at the foot of my bed.

My wife told me that was on a Saturday.

The next thing I remember, and I didn't know what it was, but the next thing I remember, my

wife is nudging my shoulder and holding up my urine bag, which looked like a water

balloon that was getting ready to explode any moment.

And she's crying and she's saying, look, sweetheart, your kidneys are working.

You're going to make it.

Wow.

Praise God.

I had no clue what she was talking about.

Uh, she said the nurse ran in there, changed the, the, uh, urine bag.

And the second one filled up in just a matter of minutes, my kidneys had started working

again.

So what had, what had, uh,

he's ended up being 23 days and I lost 49 pounds

in those 23 days.

The Lord brought me through, but just a couple of testimonies to the, to the

glory of God in this, to the glory of our triune God.

I, um, I share, uh, I talked with my third

asking, I said, now, doctor, I don't know what

religion you are and it really doesn't matter to me, but I would like to know just so I could pray for you.

And he said, well, I'm a Jew, but I'm an agnostic.

And I said, I understand.

I said, I just want you to know that my best friend in the whole world is a Jew.

And he said, really, who's that?

And I was in Southern California and there's a huge Jewish population there.

And he thought I was referring to one of the Jews there in Southern California.

And I said, he said, who's your best friend?

I said, Yahshua Hamashiach, Jesus Messiah.

And, um, two times, once

before they released me, he came into the room.

This was the 19th day of the 20th day.

And he came in with these cat scans under my arm and under his arm.

And he said, my wife would come in every morning.

She would read the scriptures to me.

I was so weak.

I couldn't even hold, hold the Bible.

I couldn't even hold the glass of water.

And she would read the scriptures to me and pray.

And all of a sudden, while she was reading the scriptures, I looked up and there's the

surgeon standing at the door and I motioned for him to come in.

And he had these cat scans under his arm.

And as he's walking across the room, he said, I don't know much

about prayer.

I don't know anything about God, but I know that there's something

divine, something miraculous.

And by that time they'd taken me off of the ventilator.

And I was able to talk, but I was so weak.

My voice was so weak.

And I said, what are you talking about?

And he showed me the cat scans before the,

and then he showed me the cat scans from the day before.

Well, he showed me the cat scan on the day before my third surgery.

And I could feel my lungs on my liver, my tops of my kidneys.

There's like an inch of white coating over these organs.

And I said, what is that?

And he said, well, you would call it, he called it a medical term.

And he said, we were frankly afraid to take a cat scan yesterday because we thought you were still

so infected and we'd have to operate on you again.

And we just knew you wouldn't make it through the fourth surgery.

But he said, now look at the cat scans from yesterday.

And I started looking at him and I said, well, I don't see anything.

He said, all of the infection is gone.

And he said, explain it.

Is that much prayer?

I said, yes, doctor.

I said, you remember what the prophet Daniel said in Daniel 12, that you may know that

there is a God in heaven.

And Dr. Royce, you need to understand this God that you don't know anything

about.

He's alive and he answers prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, the day he released me, that was one time, the day he released me,

he would come in and they had these airbags on my legs that massaged my legs to keep me from getting blood

clots.

And he would, every time he would come in, he would, brilliant doctor,

and he would massage my feet.

Strange, this is a man whose hands are so skilled and yet he's, it's not below,

beneath him, my feet.

And he would massage my feet and he'd talk with me.

So he came in the day he released me and he massaged my feet.

And he said, we're going to take these airbags off and I'm going to let you,

and he said, now when I let you go home, he said, I don't want you to do this,

this, this, I want you to do this, this and that and so on.

And then he stood up and he said, my friend,

you've been one sick hombre.

My friend, you've been one sick and I must confess that I did

absolutely

all the glory to God.

And, and I want God, the triune one

to receive all the glory.

And that began a long process.

19 days later, I started chemotherapy.

I did chemotherapy, took chemotherapy therapy for almost six months.

And the operation was the first operation, December

9th, 2004.

And this December, if the Lord is pleased to let me live, I will be 14 years cancer

-free.

Praise God.

To the glory of his magnificent name.

Praise God.

That is such an encouraging testimony, brother.

We have a listener in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Gordy, who has a question for

you.

He says, John Piper stated in a 2006 article on the Desiring God

website, that you will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.

How would you respond to this statement?

I agree with it.

100 take

your life

is

from the hands of the Lord.

A lot of people are bothered by that.

A lot of people, about a month ago, received this call from a

lady in a nearby town.

Reverend Blackburn, she said, I've come across your booklet, and I'm the leader of a

cancer center.

And she said, I would like that from you.

And I said, okay.

But she said, I need to be honest with you.

Sure.

She said, your first point really troubled me for a while until I worked through what

I make in the booklet.

You have to acknowledge, a

lot of people today,

once on your program before, we need to go back and read some of these guys.

We need to read A. W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy, and

view of God today.

And people see God as nothing more than a guy that gives

them gifts.

And he's there patiently wanting to work.

They won't let him.

And so he's biding his time and biting his nails.

I'm exaggerating and using hyperbole.

But he's very weak and very frustrated.

And Satan can do all sorts of things to us.

Or, worse yet, luck or fate or karma or something like that.

You know, it just happens to all of

us.

Luck.

It wasn't bad luck.

It wasn't fate.

It wasn't karma.

It wasn't something that sorts of people, good people, bad people, young people, old

people, rich people, poor people, people of various colors.

But more than that, it didn't come about because of luck or chance.

Secondly, I realized how

Satan is so wily and crafty that he was able to pull one

over on God and sneak in under God's eyes.

And I go into, it

is, to use

John Piper's words, it was a gift of God.

And I have said it said again, I would not wish what I

went through upon the most evil person in all the world.

I would not take a million dollars for what the Lord did for me.

And the

grace calmed my mind and

soul during those times.

I wouldn't take any of that.

I wouldn't exchange it for a million dollars.

And so Gordy and

Mechanicsburg is exactly right in what John

Piper said.

It is, even for unbelievers, and I go into that in the booklet as well, it

is a gift from the enthroned.

Christ.

And we need to look at that and look at it as such.

Now, when you said that it wasn't Satan, could

it not be, I'm not saying in your case it was, but could it not be on some occasion

a circumstance just like Job's where God permitted Satan to

bring about calamity in a person's life?

And that included eventually God permitting Satan to touch Job's body, which

initially was something that he was prevented from doing, but then eventually God let him touch his

body and he was covered with boils and so on.

Could not Satan be attacking somebody?

But obviously, since we believe in a sovereign God, it would be through the permission of God.

Well, I think that passage that you referred to there in Job 1 and then Job 2 is very

instructive.

Sabians, I think it was, had taken all of his camels and

some other group had come, raided all of his sheep and flocks and

taken them away and other things happened.

And then word came that a strong wind blew and destroyed the

house in which his children were, and all of them were killed.

And what was Job's response?

He didn't say, those wicked Sabians, oh cursed mother

earth, whoever she is.

I get so tired of people talking about mother earth and father time.

You know, these non -existent entities, it's an atheistic way of trying to

push God out of the scene.

Job said none of that, the devil

has done.

No, he said, naked came I into this world and naked

shall I leave.

The Lord give, blessed be the name of the Lord.

And in all of this, Job did not sin, the scripture says.

He didn't blame it on secondary causes like the Sabians or the Aramaeans,

or he didn't blame it on mother earth, the strong wind.

He didn't blame it on the devil.

He saw that it was the Lord give and the Lord who takes away.

And blessed be his name in the best of times, in the worst of times.

I love what the psalmist says in Psalm 102, I believe it is.

The Lord is good and he does good.

And God is good no matter what our circumstances.

He's good when everything is bright and sunshiny and it's a cheery day.

And he is also good when it's dark and gloomy and we're fighting depression.

God's good does not fluctuate with

our varying.

Circumstances.

And we have to go to our midway break right now, Earl, I'm sorry, but please pick up where you left off there when we return.

This is our longer than normal break because Grace Life Radio 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida

requires of us a 12 -minute break between our segments.

So please be patient as we take this elongated break.

Take this time to write down the information that our advertisers are providing to you so you can patronize them.

And also, please take this time to write in questions for our guest, Earl Blackburn.

And the email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Please give us your first name, city and state and country of residence if you live outside the USA.

And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

Don't go away, God willing, we'll be right.

Back with Earl Blackburn.

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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 I trying to please man?

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church.

We are a Reformed Baptist Church and we Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.

We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts.

We strive to reflect Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do

than how men view these things.

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

We believe, by God's grace, that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man and to be

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

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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko inviting you to tune in to A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday

from 12 noon to 1 pm Eastern Time on WLIE Radio,

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We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the Pastor's Study by calling in

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And then we have the Banner of Truth U .S. Ministers Conference coming up in

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I also intend to be at that conference.

It's being held in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and the speakers include Alistair Begg,

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But please tell the folks at Banner of Truth that you heard about their conferences and their ministry from Chris Arnzen on Iron

Sherpa's Iron Radio.

Last but not least, I have to once again do that uncomfortable task or perform that uncomfortable task of

begging you for money.

Iron Sherpa's Iron Radio has been airing since 2005, and in the vast majority of its

history, I never once made a public appeal for donations.

My advertisers have urged me for a long time to make these public appeals because of the urgent

need that we have in order to remain on the air, to continue to get donations

and more advertisers.

So if you love this show, you don't want it to go away, go to IronSherpaandZionradio .com, click Support,

then click to Donate Now, the new option on our website where you can instantly

donate via a debit or credit card.

And if you want to donate the old -fashioned way, when you click on Support at IronSherpaandZionradio

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made payable to Iron SherpaandZionradio.

Please never ever ever siphon money out of your regular giving to your local church.

If you're not a member of a Bible -believing church and you're not prayerfully seeking for one,

you are living in disobedience to God.

So please rectify that situation and never siphon money away from your regular giving to your

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And never put your family in financial jeopardy by giving to IronSherpaandZionradio .com, because providing for your family and your

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But if you love the show and you're financially blessed above and beyond your ability to obey the two

scriptural commands I mentioned, then please consider help keeping IronSherpaandZionradio .com on the air by

going to IronSherpaandZionradio .com, click support, and click click to donate now.

If you want to advertise with us, just send me an email to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line, whether it's your church, your parachurch

ministry, your business, your professional practice, if you're a lawyer, a doctor, a dentist, a chiropractor,

or if it's just a special event you're having, as long as whatever it is is compatible with the theology we express

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send us an email to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line.

We certainly could use your advertising dollars.

And that's also the email address where you can send a question for our guest Earl Blackburn.

That's ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, and we are now back with Earl Blackburn, who is

the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana, and he's an author of a number of books, including

the 31 -page booklet we are addressing today, How Can I Honor Christ in Fighting Cancer?

And this book came about in the aftermath of our

guest's own life and death struggle with cancer, a

disease that nearly took his life, and thanks be to God he is cancer -free and with us today,

and praising God for what he would call a gift from God, even though most of humanity would

view it as nothing more than a curse.

By the way, Gordie and Mechanicsburg, you have won a free copy of this booklet, and these are

the requirements for you to get this booklet.

If you do not have cancer yourself, especially, after you finish reading it, please

either give it to a person struggling with cancer or somebody who has a loved one struggling with cancer,

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track rack in the lobby of your church, because so many people know someone who is

suffering with cancer or are suffering with cancer themselves, and in fact, as Earl Blackburn

said earlier, everybody listening to this program knows someone who has cancer, so please

have them order.

This is a very inexpensive booklet.

It's only 31 pages long, and it's perfect to give out in the lobby of a church, so

please follow those instructions if you get a free copy, and by the way, since you're so close

to cvbbs .com on North Hanover Street in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, why don't you just go by there and pick it up

tomorrow.

Now, Earl, if you could pick up where you left off before the break, we were talking about how God permitted the

devil to assault Job in a number of ways, and you were in the midst of responding to me bringing that up

to you.

Well, before I continue along that line.

Of thought, I'd like to give another testimonial to how

Christ has used this booklet.

I have a dear friend, and again, I am getting no royalties.

I'm getting no money.

I'm not profiting whatsoever from this

booklet or anything of the nature, but since the book

Far Away States,

I put a little note in there telling him how much I appreciate his labor for

Christ in the church, and on Monday evening, he called me,

and he said that he and his

wife the Saturday before, and they

stopped and got their mail from their mailbox.

They live in a more rural setting, and they went to a place, and here was a guy.

They went to a community center, and here's a guy sitting out on the

community center, just downcast, dejected,

fighting tears, and they said, what's wrong, and they knew him, and he had just

become a Christian six months before, six months ago, and they

said, what's wrong, and he said, my wife has been diagnosed with cancer.

The doctors say that she maybe has six months to live, and

he said, of all she's,

and they hadn't even read the book, booklet.

They just opened up the mail, and as they were driving, and his wife saw the booklet, she said, oh, I can't

wait to read it, and as they were talking, his wife said, excuse me, she runs back to

the car, would you take this and give this to your wife,

and he said, yes, and so that was Saturday.

On Monday, the wife saw the man at the, she

said, how is your wife doing, and she said, he said, I have never seen my wife

in such peace.

He said, to read it.

I brought it in.

I gave it to her.

She read through it once, Saturday night.

She read through it again on Sunday, and then she read, she started reading through it the third time

this morning.

She's come to Christ, and he said she assisted, and no

fear, no worry, and I said, and they called me on Monday night to tell me that, and I said, well,

glory to the Lamb.

Amen.

And that's the whole point.

You know, I love the

Westminster Catechism, and question 11 says,

and the answer is, are his most holy, wise,

and powerful, preserving, and governing all his creatures, and all their actions,

is all the way through there, and this needs to be

understood.

Cancer, I mean, we have to see that

people get injured, people die,

and it's all because of what Adam did in the garden.

I'll never forget, since my chemotherapy, I

looked like the walking dead, whatever they may be, and my

wife, our neighbor, was a single parent.

He had a teenage daughter behind that, but he was given custody of

their daughter, and he called me, and he said, my daughter is going to

be coming home from school, and there'll be a baby, and if you would tell her I won't be home

tonight, that I'm out of town, and I won't be back until tomorrow evening, I would appreciate it.

So my wife made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and I took them over there, and I knocked on the door, and

the babysitter said,

sir,

you don't look well.

I said, I'm fighting cancer, and you could see the

athlete look on her face, and she said, may I ask you a personal question?

She said, what sin did you commit?

Some people would have been, if

I wasn't, and I said to her, I said, well, young lady, I said, she was a

student at Cal State Fullerton.

I said, first of all,

may I ask what was something like that, and I don't know

much about religion or anything, but I just figure some

kind of sin brings us about, and I said, well,

what you need to understand is that it wasn't my, I said, yes, it was sin that brought this about, but it wasn't

my sin.

She said, what?

I said, no, it wasn't my sin, it was the sin of my father.

What did he do?

I'm fighting back laughter, and I said, oh, it was,

what did he do?

And I said, he ate.

I'm sorry, I'm laughing.

It's probably not appropriate, but it is.

Kind of comical in the circumstance.

Yeah, and I

just see

she is nonplussed.

She

is befuddled.

She doesn't know what to do.

The

Bible

tells us that in Genesis 2, God

created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden and gave him every freedom that

he could hope for.

Only one commandment, one prohibition, and that was he could not eat of

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

He disobeyed God, he ate of the fruit, and he fell into sin.

Wherefore is by one man's sin in

that all,

get all sorts of diseases and die because of the sin of our first.

And from there, I should explain

the gospel to you.

It comes about by the fall.

It comes because also God in his wise providence,

Ephesians 1, 11, not some

things, not many things, not most things, but God has predestined all things

according to the counsel of his will.

And when it hits me, and that was the great comfort when I walked out and

said, you've got cancer,

less than four came to my mind and

heart is that this has come from the hand of my all wise, most

ancient, most loving.

Go home, call my family

and tell them.

The second thing I did was call the elders of the church where I pastored and told them.

And one of the elders said later, he said, I was so calm and collected.

And he said, he started crying like a baby.

And he said, I couldn't believe how calm you were.

And I said, brother, in God's,

from

this life to

the next life,

via

death, God's, suddenly you're

waylaid or blindsided disease that's called cancer.

And there are many, many types of cancer.

And also I might add that there are almost as many types of chemo,

19 days after I was to see an oncologist.

And he said, we're going to begin chemotherapy on you.

I thought there was one kind of chemo that treated all cancers, but there are almost as many kinds of chemos

as there are cancers.

And I fought for chemotherapy at the same time in a

six month period,

God used to spare my life.

Amen.

We're going to

go to our final

break right now.

And if you want to get in line, because.

We do have some folks waiting to have their questions asked and answered, but if you'd like to get in line with them, I would

email us with a question for Earl Blackburn immediately at chrisarnson at

gmail .com.

C H R I S A R N Z E N at gmail .com.

And please give us your first name, your city and state and your country of residence.

If you live outside the USA, and please only remain anonymous.

If your question involves a personal and private matter, don't go away.

God willing, we'll be right back after these messages with more of Earl Blackburn and how can I honor

Christ in fighting cancer?

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A place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant.

It's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement.

It's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people in healing.

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

Play and together.

Hi.

I'm Pastor Bob Walderman and I invite you to come and join us here at.

Linbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be.

Call Linbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402 that's 516 -599

-9402 or visit linbrookbaptist .org that's linbrookbaptist .org.

Hi.

I'm Pastor Bill Shishko inviting you to tune into a visit to the pastor's study every Saturday from

12 noon to 1 pm eastern time on WLIE radio www

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We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in

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Our time will be lively useful and I assure you never dull.

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon eastern time for a visit to the pastor's study because everyone needs

a pastor.

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 will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves 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

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And don't forget that solid ground christian books has back in stock the bonded leather edition of

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more about this today.

And i think my guest just sneezed or something like that because i almost went deaf there.

Oh by the way uh earl blackburn i think that you can concur that solid ground christian books is a

treasure trove of valuable resources because.

Your books are also available through there.

Yes our brother has done a

delight and

and even new books such as yours.

Well yes i did want to say that but he published my first book.

They published.

My first book and then uh one other that

theology.

Yes so that's solid -ground -books .com.

We have uh bb in cumberland county pennsylvania who has a question for you.

She says uh you said earlier that cancer and other

diseases and calamities and tragedies are gifts from god even to the non

-believer.

How specifically are these to be considered gifts not curses to unbelievers when

the promises that we have in romans 8 28 for instance are only for those who love.

The lord and are the cold according to his purpose.

That's a very good question.

That because we understand the unbeliever does not understand

that because the unbeliever whomever it may be

out of the bible.

And we have that light that truth from god's word.

And i've used this so many times.

Tell you how many people i have talked with that has said things like

why has this happened to me now.

I'm in the prime of life talking to one man.

He said i'm almost debt -free.

My kids are getting ready to go to school i'm at the just my career is just getting ready to

blossom.

I'm at soon to reach its height and zenith.

And i said given this to you to get

sure it's not see.

Paul tells

see don't see are eternal.

And for the unbeliever this can be a gift to call them.

To see to be a mean type

is not all there is.

And if they do and and

savingly believe upon christ they shall perish everlastingly.

And anything anything that will cause an unbeliever to be

disturbed about their lost estate and about their perishing souls is a gift of

god.

And anything that will cause them to lay aside all their worldly and vain empty

pursuit and seek after the lord.

Well thank you bb.

And guess what bb you have won a free copy of the book that we are speaking about by

our guest earl blackburn.

How can i honor christ in fighting cancer.

And remember that if you do not have cancer yourself after you finish reading it please give the

booklet to someone who does have cancer who has a loved one with cancer.

Or give it to your pastor and urge your pastor to order at least a case of these

booklets for your church.

And to repeat what earl has told us earlier or blackburn is not receiving one penny in royalties

for the sale of these booklets i am merely urging you to order or have your pastor order a case of them

because it's such a valuable booklet.

It's inexpensive it's brief.

It could be used to stock a tract rack in your church lobby or the northex as they sometimes

call it.

So uh please do so when you get this booklet and give us your full mailing address.

Um one of the things that you bring up into the booklet earl is that you instruct

the reader to interact with a healing instrument.

Sharper than a surgeon's scalpel.

What do you mean by that the writer of

people the word of god is quick and powerful and

sharper than any to it.

And i'll never forget uh what.

The first day i walked into the place where i was to receive the

chemotherapy recliners in

there people laying in these recliners and

blankets over them pillows behind their heads.

I wondered why the blankets were there.

And then i found out very quickly they keep the chemotherapies the liquid chemotherapies

just a little above freezing.

And when they when they put an iv in you and the chemo's go in all of a sudden you

find yourself cold and so they'll have blankets and you could just see fear written

all over people's faces.

And i really i could either yield to that fear or i could

fight that fear.

And the greatest way to to fight that fear is to enter interact

with something that sharper than us and that is the word of

god.

And given much will be

required.

And we here in the united states have the word of god and we have the gospel available

from so many sources.

And yet we're living this

heat in this life.

How many toys we can get how many possessions we can acquire how much money we can make.

We even christians will

oftentimes

and read the scriptures.

And yet if we believe the bible to be what it is revelation of

god himself that it is the very word of

god.

And that as we read the scriptures god himself not with an audible voice but

on the printed page as the spirit of god makes it effectual to our minds and hearts.

I said listen you have a

bible at home and if they didn't given bible

i need to read it and let me encourage you to read these

passages.

It's only there in the word of god that we will find peace

and strength and wisdom.

For some people i mean

the reality of it is that some people somebody today has walked

out of a doc and the doctor has you

have cancer and it's terminal.

There's nothing we can do.

A lady in our church had a daughter 35 years of age had these horrible

headaches and she goes to the doctor the doctor she had some kind

of brain tumor brain cancer blastoma.

He said we're going to fight this but i can tell you the prognosis is not good

and and in three years she was dead.

And there are people who've walked out of probably someone

walking out of a doctor's office right now and the doctor has defied

it.

The prognosis is not good.

Where are they going to find help.

I pray almost every sunday in the past people that have come

in here and they have needs needs that are greater than me

needs greater than this church needs that are so great only

you can find the answer to these things that

are.

They're not going to find it in some hospital.

And as much as i believe in the centrality of the visible church and all of god's redemptive

purposes it won't be ultimately in the church it will be in the holy scriptures the word of god.

And they need to interpret any two -edged

sword there they will.

Find the answers to life's questions and there they will find the way ahead.

Amen.

We have rj in white plains new york.

Uh who asks.

Uh one of the greatest dilemmas any christian faces is when they are watching a precious

loved one dying who is lost spiritually and they are faced with this great

dilemma of how to approach that person with their need for

the blood of christ in order for them to be ushered into his presence for eternity rather

than be cast into hell.

The problem that we all have is we hate to bring discouragement to those that we love most

we hate to get them depressed or fearful and the least time that we want to do this is when they

are already suffering.

How does your guest earl blackburn recommend that we look out for the

souls of our loved ones more than their feelings and how to approach them in this very

sensitive and delicate and difficult time in their lives as they approach death.

Excellent question as all of the questions.

Number of years ago with my older my nephew called me and he

said mother's been diagnosed with cancer.

The doctor said it's terminal.

And i said well how long does she have.

Six months.

And i'm not a doctor.

Chris let me just state this right up front.

I am not a medical professor.

Many people many times and i have learned and doctors are not liars but

doctors the degree of reasonable

optimism.

And i have learned over the years that whatever a doctor says with regard to

length of time that a person may or may not have god can sovereignly intervene and

overrule the doctors thank thankfully for that.

But i've learned that whatever the doctors say i've usually i usually cut it in half.

And i said to my nephew i said the doctor said

tell her.

I don't want to discourage her.

I said do you love her with all my heart.

I said i do too.

She's my sister.

I know she's your mother but she's my sister and i love her.

And i said you've got to tell terminal and that she is not going

to leave this hospital.

Or if she does she doesn't have long to live.

And he said oh no i can't do that.

I don't want to discourage her because that will depress to possibly

hasten everything.

And i said yet if you don't tell her how will she pursue.

One day my nephew

was not a christian.

My sister it grieves me to think that there's the

very real possibility she left this world without being a christian without believing upon

christ.

And my nephew wouldn't tell her.

And i said no.

You've got to tell her.

I called him and he said no.

And don't you call not to call her and tell her.

And i said i will abide by that.

But you you need to realize her blood's going to be on your hand.

Our lord taught us you

shall know the truth is

pleasant to hear you

that i might heal you i afflict you that i might bind you up.

And sometimes people need to hear the things that they don't want to hear.

And you know it's just like the law of god for an unbeliever.

You tell the unbeliever about the law of god.

They'll get angry at you.

Usually they need to have the law of god because the law was the

schoolmaster to lead us to christ that we might be justified by faith alone.

And you know when you i understand what the questioner has said

people are on their beds and they're they're fighting all sorts of doubts and fears.

And they have they're filled with.

They're worried about their grandchildren.

They're concerned about many things.

But we need to realize that time is short eternity is forever.

And we need to tell them the truth.

We can tell them lovingly.

We don't have to be crass and bombastic.

But we need to to speak the truth.

As paul said speak of truth and love.

And we need to approach them.

And you realize

i'll list nine

lessons that i that i

learned.

That we must find our source of comfort and our peace in him who is the

resurrection and the life.

And i think of that whole matter there in john 11 with

lazarus quickly.

Yeah i would rather you move on with your point and then if we have time we'll take.

A couple of more questions.

Well you know martha said if you'd been here he'd need not have died.

And jesus said he.

Jesus said he will live again.

She said i know in the resurrection.

And he said but martha what you need to understand is i'm the

resurrection.

He that believes upon me though he die yet shall he live.

And you know we've.

We've got to tell them of him who is the resurrection and we've got

to ingraciously be bold and

hopefully that answer.

And by the way uh i.

Think i forgot to tell bb uh in crumlin county and also rj

uh that you are both getting a free uh copy of the booklet how can

i honor christ in fighting cancer.

And this is by our guest earl blackburn.

And remember i am strongly urging you to uh when you finish it if you do not have cancer

yourself give it to somebody who either has cancer or has a loved one with cancer.

Or give it to your pastor.

And urge your pastor uh to uh order at least a case of

these booklets to give out in the church lobby and

uh put in a track rack etc.

Um you uh say in the book and booklet refuse to

give into fear fight it.

Uh you know i don't know if you've ever experienced hospice.

I was very disturbed by the hospice care workers that were caring for my mother.

Not because they weren't very sweet and kind and gentle to her but they were basically telling her

uh not even knowing of her spiritual condition or or not even really being concerned with that

end.

Because they weren't christians.

They were just basically telling her not to fight it.

They were saying just welcome death.

Open your arms embrace it.

It's just a natural thing that is to take place in everyone's life.

And you know on and on and on uh and i actually rebuked them for this uh

approach.

They were taking to my mother uh what do you mean by fight it.

And and of course not to give into fear.

They were telling her that uh.

But there are obviously people who are approaching death that need to be afraid as you were just saying before.

The apostle tells

us of his bondage.

God has not given us the spirit he's talking to.

Of course believers god has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sound

mind.

And i saw people taking chemotherapy and i've seen people

outside of the treatment rooms that have cancer and they're

just and i'm telling them that

yes death is coming to all of us.

It's just a matter of time.

The moment we were born we began to die.

Fear has bondage and only the christian can face

death boldly.

And that's why one of the things i bring out in the booklet is that though

cancer may one day kill me it will not.

Because through christ i am more than a conqueror.

I'm more than a conqueror.

And so many times i have i've seen people i think of this one man

in particular.

He had

mesothelioma.

You know the i would go to his house and he would be

sitting.

His wife had to go back to work and he himself was relatively speaking

young.

He was 52 years old.

And i would go to his house and visit him after i'd finished and

which i'd knock on the door and he would say come in.

I'd go in the house would be dark.

He would be sitting in front of the tv.

The shades would be drawn.

Not because the eye the light hurt his eyes often fear

and darkness.

I can call his name because you would know no one would know him.

But i suggest you and you can't live

in this in the life who went to the cross to bear

sin in his own body.

And fear will just cause people to become irrational

situations that normal circumstances.

Yes we should fear death.

Yes we should fear sin.

Yes we should fear these things and

all of our fears.

And he is greater than all front.

We've got to fight this paralyzing

fear.

There's nothing more that we can people you

see you just see people freeze up.

And that's the most wonderful opportunity the gospel

and tell them to

tell you there's a way that you can do like the apostle paul.

And you can look over an empty grave and say oh grave where's

the lord.

And so i i love what charles ridges

and his excellent commentary on in proverbs 1 7 the fear of the

lord is the beginning of knowledge.

And then in proverbs 10 the fear of the lord is the beginning of

the lord.

Need not fear.

And the only fear that i feel

i'll fear.

And the only fear that should.

Have any governance.

That is if you are a repentant believer in the lord jesus christ that's right.

That's right and we have.

If you're outside of christ you need to fear everything and you.

Especially need to fear eternal death.

I mean we have anthony in hoshton georgia who says has this experience

changed how pastor blackburn ministers in the sick room.

If so in what way.

Well it's made how brief one how brief life really

is even if you live to 85 or 90.

When you look at things and the and the relative short time that we live

upon the earth it's brief compared to history.

It's brief.

It's made me realize the brevity of life.

It's made me realize some of

the things that see

about life that we need to come to christ who is.

And it's made me see that i can't put off tomorrow what i should be doing today.

And i go to a hospital where i visit someone that's sick my neighbor across the street

out walking one evening and he was out and we he was boasting

he said oh my mother lived to be 97 98 my father lived to be 94

and i've got good genes in me 68.

Now i think i'll probably i'll probably got another at least 30 years to live and so on and so

forth.

And i said well dan you you have no assurance.

And the next thing i know a couple of months later he

was pancreatic just like your mother six weeks later he's dead.

And i realized that that night that i met him as he was walking

and i was walking i should have started walking with him and talk with him about the gospel.

And when i go over that when i hear that he's been stricken with pancreatic cancer i go over

there and i said dan i'd like to talk with you.

I wish i'd talked with you a few months ago when we met out here on the street and i'd like to

talk with you about the gospel.

And he said not now earl.

And it made me see made me realize the urgency of the eye

people that we see today we may not see tomorrow people that we're

talking with you know an hour from now something tragic god

forbid.

And and it's made me see the brevity of life and the urgency of the hour.

And it thirdly has made me more compassionate toward people and when they're

there huddled in fear drawn up in a fetal position

listen my prayers for you and give them the

gospel amen.

Well we are out.

Of time pastor earl and i want our listeners to know that they can find more information about

heritage baptist church in shreveport louisiana at hbc shreveport .com

hbc for heritage baptist church shreveport s -h -r -e -v as in victory e port

.com.

You could also order this booklet on how i can honor christ in fighting cancer by earl m blackburn

at cvbbs .com.

That's cumberland valley bible book service cvbbs .com.

By the way anthony in hoshton georgia make sure we have your full mailing address so you can get a free copy of this

which will be mailed out to you by cvbbs .com.

I want to thank everybody for listening today especially those who took the time to write in questions and perhaps especially

those who were listening silently who are themselves suffering with cancer.

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 amen.