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

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April 20, 2018

April 19, 2018: EARL BLACKBURN, Chairman of the Administrative Council of the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America (ARBCA) for 8 years, Pastor of Heritage Baptist Church of Shreveport, LA, & author of a number of books, who will address: “How Can I Honor Christ in FIGHTING CANCER?”

00:01: Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister
00:06: George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors,
00:16: Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
00:23: Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
00:32: Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
00:46: It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
00:57: Now here's our host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,
01:05: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
01:13: 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,
01:28: Pastor Earl Blackburn, who is, or should I say who was the chairman of the administrative council of the
01:35: Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America, commonly known as ARPCA, where he served in that capacity for eight years.
01:43: He is currently the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana and he's author of a number of books.
01:50: One includes his own victory over the disease of cancer and today we are going to be addressing that booklet,
02:00: 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.
02:12: Thank you, my brother. It's a great joy to be with you and to share with you and the listeners the great news of the power of Christ and the reality of life as we face it.
02:29: 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
02:49: ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.
02:56: 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.
03:09: A lot of people who have very serious illnesses want to keep that a private matter.
03:15: I often am puzzled why Christians are sometimes in that category. If I am facing a serious illness,
03:22: 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.
03:30: But that is obviously a case -by -case situation which individuals disagree on.
03:36: 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
03:47: USA. Before we go into the subject at hand, Pastor Earl, because of the fact that our audience is growing, it seems, daily,
03:58: I'm getting emails from people all over the world who are discovering Iron Trip and Zion Radio for the first time.
04:04: 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.
04:14: Thank you, Chris. Heritage Baptist Church of Shreveport is an inner -city church. It is a multi -ethnic.
04:22: It is multi -generational. It's a multi -church of many stripes and fashions.
04:33: But it is an exciting church, at least for me. We're reaching all sorts of people.
04:40: And the inner cities are desperately in need of gospel -preaching churches today, especially here in the
04:51: South. I can't speak for other parts of the United States, but especially here in the
04:56: South, there's been a lot of flight out to the suburbs. And what has remained is a vacuum.
05:04: And many of the inner cities have no one in there preaching the gospel, establishing churches, trying to fulfill the
05:14: Great Commission. And no wonder they're often presented as places of crime.
05:20: And so our church is an inner -city church. People just walk in off the streets all the time.
05:30: 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.
05:38: I said, I don't care what color you are. You can be green or purple. If you want to hear the
05:45: Word of God and you want to hear about Christ and His saving, life -changing gospel, you're welcome to come in.
05:51: If they're green or purple, I would strongly advise calling 911 first, though. Well, I believe the gospel could even change someone green or purple.
06:04: So that's where I've been for 12 years, and that's where I am for 12 years, and I'm very thankful.
06:13: This is a very encouraging church. And also, though I was previously the
06:19: Chairman of the Administrative Council of ARBCA, the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America, I am presently
06:28: Chairman of that godly body of men, and will be so until after the
06:35: ARBCA General Assembly in May of this year. Oh, so I prematurely cut you out of that position.
06:43: That's all right. That's all right, brother. And I am very excited about the new
06:49: Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies Theological Seminary, the IRBS Theological Seminary, being launched this fall, this
06:56: September, in Mansfield, Texas. Well, as am
07:02: I, brother. In the etymological sense of the word, it will be unique in that it is a seminary that is 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
07:23: Spirit of God to preach the Word of God. It is there to train them to become servants of the
07:31: Word of God. We're not going to focus on a lot of other things that many seminaries offer.
07:38: We're going to just deal with the Word of God and exegetical theology, historical theology, pastoral theology, and an attempt to fulfill the
07:52: Great Commission, to train men to become servants of the Word of God.
07:57: So we are very excited and very encouraged about what the Lord is doing and what we believe he is yet to do.
08:07: And that website, for your information, is irbsseminary .org.
08:14: irbsseminary .org, and make sure you put the two S's back -to -back, because a lot of times when there's two
08:19: 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.
08:29: And also, the website for ARBCA is arbca .com.
08:34: That stands for the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America, ARBCA .com.
08:41: And last but not least, Heritage Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana, their website is hbcshreveport .com.
08:51: H -B -C -S -H -R -E -V -E -port .com.
08:57: And hopefully we'll be mentioning those URLs, those websites, later on in the program.
09:03: So, I know that you wrote this booklet, which, by the way, before I forget to say it,
09:11: 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,
09:30: 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.
09:55: It's so prevalent, the disease of cancer, that if you are not fighting cancer yourself,
10:02: I would be shocked if you did not know someone who was, or should
10:08: I say who was not, or no, how am I wording that? I would 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.
10:26: 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.?
10:40: Well, before I do that, Chris, if I may, I'd like to just encourage people, and I say this not for the praise of myself or any prophet, because I'm getting no royalties or anything from this booklet.
10:59: I've written it for the glory of God, and I was asked to write it.
11:04: I did not go promoting as such myself, but just for example, a doctor in our church got 100 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
11:25: United States. He just ordered another 200 copies. That's 300 very shortly that will be distributed.
11:35: Everyone who is listening knows someone who is suffering with cancer.
11:41: I open up the booklet by saying that cancer is the most dreaded
11:49: C word in all the English language, and it is an equal opportunity disease.
11:55: It is no respecter of any person. It is no respecter of race.
12:01: It's no respecter of color. It's no respecter of your economic status.
12:07: 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 accurate, that 4 out of every 10 people living will be stricken with cancer, which means that 4 out of every 10 people listening to me right now, sometime or another in their life, will be stricken with cancer.
12:39: And it's something that is widespread. It is pervasive, and it's part of fallen humanity.
12:48: So we're not talking about something that's esoteric, something that's out there that is a good thing to occasionally think about.
12:58: We're talking about something that is affecting somebody, probably your neighbor, family member, a neighbor, a friend, a workmate, someone you know somewhere is stricken with this disease.
13:15: 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
13:29: I think she was the most godly woman I had ever encountered in my life.
13:35: A sweet, selfless, humble, sacrificial woman. Even before I believe she was regenerate, she had those characteristics.
13:47: But she, at the age of 70, which in our day and age is young, she went home to be with the
13:53: 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.
14:12: She was just, I would be shocked if she finished a full glass of wine in her entire life.
14:23: 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.
14:45: 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
15:03: Roman Catholic and remained a faithful Roman Catholic until about six weeks before her death.
15:08: 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.
15:21: And Peter Jeffrey, who I know that you knew, Earl, who is now in heaven as well,
15:26: 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
15:43: 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.
15:50: So I just thank God for that extra measure of comfort and encouragement and confidence that Peter gave me that day.
16:01: But going back to your story, was this a routine checkup or did you have symptoms?
16:08: How did you find out you had cancer? Well, I want to get to that, but let me say something else with regard to cancer.
16:19: I speak often at different places, and there are many young people there.
16:25: And I say to these young people, don't think that death only comes to older people, senior citizen -type people.
16:36: I remember in taking chemotherapy, there was a guy that had played football for USC, University of Southern California.
16:46: Tall guy, very muscular, looking very strong, but he was stricken with cancer at the age of 28.
16:56: And here he is taking chemotherapy with me. And young people, and one of the saddest things is that cancer, we have a family in our church that had a little boy, and he was stricken with cancer at a very young age and died at the age of six.
17:18: And so cancer is not only not respective of different stratas of people, different types, but different age groups.
17:31: 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,
17:42: I would advise you against getting chemotherapy because if you had a certain type of pancreatic cancer, you might have two months.
17:51: 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.
17:59: And I would just advise you to go home, set your house in order, and prepare to die. So how did it all begin with me?
18:08: Well, my father was 82 years old, and he was suddenly stricken with, well, he suddenly got sick, and I flew back to where he was, and 17 days later he was dead, dead with colon cancer.
18:28: And so I was 50 years old, and after his passing, his doctor told me, he said, you, how old are you?
18:40: And I said, 50. He said, you need to go get a colonoscopy. He said, at 50, every person should get a colonoscopy.
18:49: So I went and got a colonoscopy, and the gastroenterologist told me, he said, everything looks clear.
18:57: Don't need to worry about anything. I'll see you in 10 years. I said, great. Thank the
19:02: Lord. Walked out. About nine months later, I just started feeling badly.
19:13: And I thought, boy, I'm just getting old or something. And that continued, and finally
19:22: I realized something was wrong. And I went to, I didn't even have a regular MD, regular primary care physician.
19:32: And so I just looked in the phone book, and someone recommended this doctor. I went to him.
19:37: He took some blood work, and he said, oh, you are anemic, and you just need to go and take some over -the -counter iron tablets and work out a little more.
19:55: And I said, great. So I went and bought these over -the -counter iron tablets.
20:02: Oh, man, they're horrible to take. And started taking them, and started being more aggressive in my exercising and working out.
20:12: And instead of getting better, I kept getting worse. I went back to this doctor a couple more times, and he chided me.
20:20: He said, you need to be more active with your working out. You're not working out enough. I said, okay.
20:26: So I intensified my workouts, and I kept getting worse and worse.
20:32: I began to lose my appetite. I began to lose weight. I had no energy.
20:41: I 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.
20:55: But after about eight months, I realized something was really wrong, because I had gotten so weak that I couldn't even get up from the sofa.
21:05: 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 down on the sofa, and I couldn't get up.
21:17: My wife had to help me get up. And I realized something desperate was wrong.
21:23: And I went to see a gastroenterologist, and he did a colonoscopy on me
21:32: Tuesday. And after the colonoscopy, when I woke up, the nurse was there.
21:39: She had sent my wife out, and she said, I'm going to help you get dressed, which was very unusual.
21:45: The doctor wants to see you in his office right now. And I said, well, my wife can take me. And she said, no, he has instructed me to bring you over.
21:54: And I went over, and I sat down, and he walked in, and he had a long face.
22:00: And I could tell that something was wrong. I said, well, doctor, I can tell by the look on your face that you don't have good news for me.
22:09: And I said, I want you to shoot straight with me. Don't sugarcoat it. Don't whitewash it. Tell me straight.
22:15: I can handle the truth, but I can't handle any half -measured statements or any falsehoods.
22:23: Tell me the truth. And he said, okay, you've got colon cancer, and we need to operate immediately.
22:29: This was Tuesday, about 1 o 'clock in the afternoon. He said, I've already scheduled you for surgery this coming
22:36: Thursday. I said, what? He said, yep. He said, we need to get at it now.
22:42: 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.
22:49: And I said, okay. And just about 48 hours later, they were rolling me into the operating room.
22:56: And that was on December 9th. I was diagnosed with cancer December 7th, 2004.
23:03: And on December 9th, 2004, they operated on me. Well, what was the outcome of that surgery?
23:15: Well, brother, it was supposed to have been a routine surgery. I was supposed to have been in the hospital five to six days, maybe seven.
23:25: But he said no more than that. And nowadays, modern medicine has advanced.
23:32: 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.
23:39: Well, what happened to me was something unusual. And I'll deal with this.
23:45: I give the full account, or as much as the publisher allowed to be put in.
23:51: They had to edit some of it because of the link. Yes, 31 pages. It's a booklet.
23:58: Yes. It's in a series of booklets, and there's a specific link.
24:03: So they had to edit some of these things out. But four days later, after the surgery,
24:11: I am in such horrible pain. My fever has spiked to 104 .8.
24:18: And that can do some terrible damage for adults.
24:25: 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.
24:38: What had happened is I contracted a viral infection that you only get in the hospital.
24:46: And I became septic, and I had what they call sepsis, which brought on adult distress syndrome.
24:56: And this viral infection caused them to perform two more operations on me.
25:03: And so in the space of eight days, I had three operations. And if I may,
25:08: Chris, just share something very personal here. On the third surgery,
25:16: I flatlined. Wow. And I knew, as real as I'm talking with you this moment,
25:28: I knew, though I was under anesthesia, I knew
25:35: I was dying. Wow. And to be honest with you, to be honest with you, it was a fearful thing.
25:44: And contrary to what many of the pundits say today, you know, it's when you die, it's warm and bright, light at the end of a tunnel.
25:58: It was just the opposite. It was cold. I was so cold. It was dark.
26:04: And I knew I was dying. And I just kept saying over and over in my mind, this is very real to me, over and over in my mind, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
26:20: I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
26:27: And I can remember them. I thought they had transferred me from one operating table to another.
26:34: And later on, I talked with the surgeon and I said, yea, I remember you transferring me from one operating table to another.
26:42: 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.
26:51: Wow. And he said, normally you shouldn't remember this, but the anesthesiologist was there helping us.
26:59: And he let the levels of anesthesia go down, and that's why you remember some of this.
27:07: But he said, we were, everyone in there was fighting to keep you alive.
27:13: And it was a very, well, for the next 10 days,
27:20: I was on, I had ARDS, Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, which is infection of your lungs.
27:31: My lungs had collapsed, my kidneys had stopped working. And this is a result of something involving the surgery that you were going through?
27:40: No, it took place after the first surgery. Do you know why?
27:48: No, there's no real explanation, Chris. You get these, no matter how clean, how sanitary, how pure the hospital does things, there are always these strange viruses lurking around.
28:10: And for me, I was susceptible, and it was a viral infection.
28:17: And it's the kind that you only get in hospitals. That doesn't mean that hospitals are bad or anything like that.
28:23: It's just, for me, I look at it, and that's why the faith of God's elect is so precious to me, because it's helped me to understand
28:34: God's providence. I could have been angry at the hospital. I could have been angry at the surgeon.
28:40: I could have been angry at many people. But I'm not angry at anybody, because I understand that this is
28:46: God's providence, where he and his all -wise and powerful purposes govern me and all of his creatures.
28:58: And it was, humanly speaking, it was a fluke. But it does happen.
29:05: It probably won't happen to one out of a thousand people, but it can and it will happen.
29:13: And I and the providence of God happen to be one of those to whom it happens. And so, after the third surgery,
29:21: I was on a ventilator for 10 days. Well, let me share something else, if I may.
29:29: In fact, could you share that? I'm going to return from our first break. We have a brief station break we have to go to right now.
29:37: I will be glad to. Can you make a note of where you left off, so you don't forget where you left off?
29:43: Yes. Because I'm on the edge of my seat with everything you're saying, so I don't want you to leave anything out. Okay.
29:49: So please remember where you left off. And we're going to be right back, God willing, right after these messages from our sponsors.
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35:28: We are now back to our discussion, How Can I Honor Christ in Fighting Cancer with our guests
35:34: Earl Blackburn. And Earl, if you could please pick up right where you left off there before the break.
35:41: Okay, I came out of the third surgery, which was the third in eight days, and that was on a
35:49: Thursday. Previous Thursday, I had been operated on, and so I was unconscious.
35:57: I was on a ventilator. Again, my lungs had collapsed, my liver, I mean, my kidneys had stopped functioning, and I was fighting for life, but I was not aware of it.
36:16: And so the next thing I remember before going into my third surgery is when I finally woke up,
36:22: I didn't even know what day it was, but it was a Saturday. And when I woke up,
36:27: 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.
36:33: My wife later told me there were six doctors, the chief surgeon, the nephrologist, the pulmonary specialist, the exotic disease specialist, several doctors.
36:49: And I closed my eyes, and the doctors told my wife, or the chief surgeon told my wife, he said,
36:57: Ma 'am, he said, we have done everything that we can do.
37:03: We think you need to call in the family. We don't think he's going to make it through the night.
37:08: 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,
37:20: No, sir, it is not up to him. It's up to the Lord Christ in heaven. Amen. And she said that the elder gave her a hug, and he said,
37:30: I'll talk with you later. Well, unbeknownst to me, he goes and calls all the other elders, and they call a church -wide prayer meeting.
37:40: This was on a Saturday. And they had a prayer meeting at the church from 6 o 'clock to 10 o 'clock that night.
37:47: I guess, if you've ever been to the church out there in Southern California, a large place, and they said the building was full, the fellowship hall was full, people were out in the courtyards, out in the parking lot, praying.
38:04: The reason why they were so concerned is because my kidneys had stopped functioning, and I was just bloated, blown up with all this water that I had accumulated.
38:18: And 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 dialysis him, which means if they did that then,
38:33: 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 to prayer.
38:44: And they prayed that Saturday night from 6 to 10, and then the next morning, the Lord's Day, instead of having
38:51: Sunday school, except for the little nursery, the little children in the nursery, they had a church -wide prayer meeting instead of Sunday school.
39:01: Well, I remember opening my eyes and seeing the doctors at the foot of my bed. My wife told me that was on a
39:07: Saturday. The next thing I remember, and I didn't know what day it was, but the next thing
39:14: 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.
39:26: And she's saying, look, sweetheart, your kidneys are working. You're going to make it. Wow, praise
39:31: God. I had no clue what she was talking about. She said the nurse ran in there, changed the urine bag, and the second one filled up in just a matter of minutes.
39:45: My kidneys had started working again. So what had supposed to have been five to six days ended up being 23 days, and I lost 49 pounds in those 23 days.
40:01: The Lord brought me through, but just a couple of testimonies to the glory of God in this, to the glory of our triune
40:10: God. Amen. I talked with my surgeon, who
40:16: I asked him, 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 can pray for you.
40:28: And he said, well, I'm a Jew, but I'm an agnostic. And I said,
40:34: 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?
40:40: And I was in Southern California, and there's a huge Jewish population there, and he thought
40:46: I was referring to one of the Jews there in Southern California. And I said, he said, who is your best friend?
40:53: And I said, Yahshua HaMashiach. Amen. Jesus Messiah. And so there were two times.
41:02: One time, this was three days before they released me. He came into the room.
41:09: This was the 19th day, or the 20th day, and he came in with these
41:14: CAT scans under my arm, under his arm, and he said, my wife would come in every morning.
41:21: She would read the scriptures to me. I was so weak, I couldn't even hold hold the
41:27: Bible. I couldn't even hold a glass of water. And she would read the scriptures to me and pray. And all of a sudden, while she was reading the scriptures,
41:36: I looked up, and there's the surgeon standing at the door. And I motioned for him to come in, and he had these
41:46: CAT scans under his arm, and as he's walking across the room, he said, I don't know much about prayer.
41:54: I don't know anything about God, but I know that there's something divine, something miraculous going on here.
42:05: And by that time, they had taken me off of the ventilator, and I was able to talk, but I was so weak.
42:10: My voice was so weak, and I said, what are you talking about? And he showed me the
42:16: CAT scans before the third surgery, and then he showed me the
42:22: CAT scans on the day before. Well, he showed me the CAT scans on the day before my third surgery, and I could see on my lungs, on my liver, my pancreas, tops of my kidneys, there's like an inch of white coating over these organs.
42:40: And I said, what is that? And he said, well, you would call it pus. We would call it, he called it a medical term for it.
42:48: 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.
43:01: But he said, now look at the CAT scans from yesterday. And I started looking at them, and I said, well,
43:08: I don't see anything. He said, that's the point. He said, all of the infection is gone.
43:15: Wow. And he said, the only way I can explain it is that much prayer has been answered for you.
43:23: And I said, yes, doctor. I said, do you remember what the prophet Daniel said in Daniel 12?
43:29: That you may know that there is a God in heaven that answers prayer. And Dr.
43:35: Royce, you need to understand that this God that you don't know anything about, he's alive, and he answers prayer through our
43:43: 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.
43:58: And he would, every time he would come in, he would, here's this doctor, this brilliant doctor, and he would massage my feet.
44:08: And I thought, this is strange. This is a man whose hands are so skilled, and yet, it's not below, beneath him to massage my feet.
44:20: And he would massage my feet, and he would 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 go home today.
44:31: 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.
44:41: And then he stood up, and he said, my friend, you've been one sick hombre.
44:49: His exact words, my friend, you've been one sick hombre. And I must confess that I did absolutely nothing to bring you back.
44:59: Now go home and get better. Wow. And indirectly, he gave all the glory to God.
45:06: And, and, that's my purpose with this book. I want God, the triune one, to receive all the glory.
45:16: And that began a long process. Nineteen days later, I started chemotherapy.
45:22: I did chemotherapy, took chemotherapy, therapy for almost six months. Rough, difficult time, but that was in, the operation was, the first operation,
45:36: December 9th, 2004. And this December, if the
45:42: Lord is pleased to let me live, I will be 14 years cancer free. Praise God.
45:48: To the glory of his magnificent name. Praise God. That is such an encouraging testimony, brother.
45:56: We have a listener in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Gordy, who has a question for you.
46:04: He says, As 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.
46:16: How would you respond to this statement? I agree with it 100%.
46:24: In the book, which hopefully we'll get to, or in the booklet we'll get to,
46:31: I give nine lessons that I learned from this, all biblical lessons.
46:39: And the first one is to realize that this cancer, this horrible cancer that can possibly, very possibly, take your life, is from the hand of the
46:54: Lord. And a lot of people are bothered by that. A lot of people, for instance,
47:00: I, about a month ago, received this call from a lady in a nearby town.
47:07: And she said, Reverend Blackburn, she said, I've come across your booklet, and I'm the leader of a cancer support group.
47:16: And she said, I would like to order a number of copies of this booklet from you. And I said, okay.
47:23: But she said, I need to be honest with you about something. And I said, sure. She said,
47:29: Your first point really troubled me for a while until I worked through it. And the first point that I make, and you can see this in the booklet, is that you have to acknowledge that this cancer is in God's providence.
47:47: And she said, I really struggled with that. You see, a lot of people today have this.
47:56: I mentioned this, I think, once on your program before. We need to go back and read some of these guys.
48:03: We need to read A .W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy. And we've got such a low, anemic view of God today.
48:15: And people see God as nothing more than just a grandpa in the sky that gives them gifts, and he's there patiently wanting to work with them and trying to help them, but they won't let him.
48:29: And so he's biding his time and biting his nails. I'm exaggerating and using hyperbole.
48:36: But he's very weak and very frustrated. And Satan can do all sorts of things to us.
48:43: Or, worse yet, luck or fate or karma or something like that. You know, it just happens to all of us.
48:51: And I bring out the point that this cancer,
48:57: I realized right from the very start, this wasn't luck. It wasn't bad luck.
49:04: It wasn't fate. It wasn't karma. It wasn't something that just happens to all sorts of people, good people, bad people, young people, old people, rich people, poor people, people of various colors.
49:17: It happens to everyone. But more than that, it didn't come about because of luck or chance.
49:24: Secondly, I realized that it didn't come about by fate. That somehow or another,
49:31: Satan is so wily and crafty that he was able to pull one over on God and sneak in under God's eyes and hit me with something that God didn't know about or God couldn't control.
49:45: And I go into biblical reasons why this cancer is from God's providence.
49:52: It is, to use John Piper's words, it was a gift of God for me.
49:58: And I have said it before. I will say it again. I would not wish what
50:04: I went through upon the most evil person in all the world, but I would not take a million dollars for what the
50:13: Lord did for me. And the presence of Christ that I sent, the grace that fortified me, the peace that calmed my mind and soul during those times,
50:27: I wouldn't take any of that. I wouldn't exchange it for a million dollars. And so,
50:33: Gordy and... Mechanicsburg. Mechanicsburg is exactly right in what
50:41: 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
50:51: Christ. And we need to look at that. Look at it as such. Now, when you said that it wasn't
50:59: 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
51:12: Satan to bring about calamity in a person's life? And that included, eventually,
51:20: God permitting Satan to touch Job's body, which initially was something that he was prevented from doing, but then eventually
51:27: God let him touch his body and he was covered with boils and so on. Could not
51:33: Satan be attacking somebody? But obviously, since we believe in a sovereign God, it would be through the permission of God.
51:40: Well, I think that passage that you refer to there, in Job 1 and then Job 2, is very instructive for us.
51:48: You know, here's Job, and all of a sudden word comes that the Sabaeans, 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.
52:08: And then word came that a strong wind blew and destroyed the house in which his children were, and all of them were killed.
52:21: And what was Job's response? He didn't say, those wicked Sabaeans, oh, cursed
52:28: Mother Earth, whoever she is. I get so tired of people talking about Mother Earth and Father Time.
52:36: You know, these non -existent entities. It's an atheistic way of trying to push
52:43: God out of the scene. Job said none of that. What did Job say? He didn't say, oh, look what the devil has done.
52:53: No, he said, naked came I into this world, and naked shall
52:59: I leave. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the
53:06: Lord. Praise God. And in all of this, Job did not sin, the scripture says.
53:12: He didn't blame it on secondary causes, like the Sabaeans or the
53:18: Aramaeans or whomever. He didn't blame it on Mother Earth, the strong wind.
53:24: He didn't blame it on the devil. He saw that it was the Lord gives, and the
53:31: Lord who takes away. And blessed be his name, in the best of times, in the worst of times.
53:37: I love what the psalmist says in Psalm 102, I believe it is. The Lord is good, and he does good.
53:44: And God is good, no matter what our circumstance may be. He's good when everything is bright and sunshiny and it's a cheery day.
53:55: And he is also good when it's dark and gloomy and we're fighting depression. God's goodness does not fluctuate.
54:03: It does not vary with our varying circumstances of life. And we have to go to our midway break right now,
54:10: 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
54:19: 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.
54:27: Take this time to write down the information that our advertisers are providing to you so you can patronize them.
54:33: And also, please take this time to write in questions for our guest, Earl Blackburn. And the email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.
54:41: chrisarnson at gmail .com. Please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside the
54:47: USA. And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Don't go away.
54:52: God willing, we'll be right back with Earl Blackburn. Thriving Financial is not your typical financial services provider.
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55:21: Contact me, Mike Gallagher, financial consultant, at 717 -254 -6433.
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55:42: Lending faith, finances, and generosity. That's the Thriving Story. We were made to thrive.
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56:12: Biblical exposition has vanished from Long Island. Well, there's good news. Wedding River Baptist Church exists to provide believers with a meaningful and reverent worship experience featuring the systematic exposition of God's Word.
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56:41: That's wrbc .us. I'm James White of Alpha Omega Ministries.
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59:40: That's liyfc .org. Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, For am
59:50: 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,
59:57: I would not be a servant of Christ. Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church. We are a
01:00:03: Reformed Baptist Church and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts.
01:00:10: 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.
01:00:18: That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the apostles' priority, it must not be ours either.
01:00:25: 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.
01:00:37: If you live near Norfolk, Massachusetts, or plan to visit our area, please come and join us for worship and fellowship.
01:00:43: 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
01:00:55: TV program entitled, Resting in Grace. You can find us at ProvidenceBaptistChurchMA .org,
01:01:01: that's ProvidenceBaptistChurchMA .org, or even on sermonaudio .com. Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor
01:01:09: Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into A Visit to the
01:01:17: Pastors' Study every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on WLIE Radio, www .wlie540am
01:01:29: .com. We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you, and we invite you to visit the
01:01:34: Pastors' Study by calling in with your questions. Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull.
01:01:41: Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for A Visit to the Pastors' Study, because everyone needs a pastor.
01:01:53: Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor, frequent co -host with Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. I would like to introduce you to my good friends
01:02:00: Todd and Patty Jennings at CVBBS, which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.
01:02:06: Todd and Patty specialize in supplying Reformed and Puritan books and Bibles at discount prices that make them affordable to everyone.
01:02:14: Since 1987, the family -owned and operated book service has sought to bring you the best available
01:02:19: Christian books and Bibles at the best possible prices. Unlike other book sites, they make no effort to provide every book that is available, because frankly, much of what is being printed is not worth your time.
01:02:32: That means you can get to the good stuff faster. It also means that you don't have to worry about being assaulted by the pornographic, heretical, and otherwise faith -insulting material promoted by the secular book vendors.
01:02:45: Their website is CVBBS .com. Browse the pages at ease, shop at your leisure, and purchase with confidence as Todd and Patty work in service to you, the church, and to Christ.
01:02:57: That's Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service at CVBBS .com.
01:03:03: That's CVBBS .com. Let Todd and Patty know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.
01:03:11: And you can call CVBBS .com at their toll -free number, 800 -656 -0231, 800 -656 -0231.
01:03:20: They man that phone line every Monday through Friday, 10 a .m. before 30 p .m.
01:03:25: Eastern Time. If you call and no one answers, call back the next day if it's a weekday. And you can also, obviously, order 24 -7 at CVBBS .com.
01:03:37: If you mention Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio and you order at least $50 worth of merchandise, you will get free shipping.
01:03:47: And also, you will get a book, absolutely free of charge, a book that retails for $22, titled
01:03:55: The Salt of the Covenant, The Biblical Doctrine of Salvation. This is a book written by multiple authors.
01:04:03: It was first published in 1908 and reprinted with revisions by Sovereign Grace Union of London, England in 1932.
01:04:12: And this is a modern edition of that book by Sprinkle Publications.
01:04:20: And I'm sure Earl Blackburn is familiar with Sprinkle Publications. And as I said, this is a $22 book.
01:04:27: It's 271 pages long. It's hardback. It's shrink -wrapped. You'll get that for free if you order $50 or more worth of merchandise.
01:04:37: And I mentioned Chris Arnz and Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. That book alone is nearly worth half of your $50 order since it's a $22 book.
01:04:49: And also, I have a couple more announcements coming up that you need to know about.
01:04:55: Coming up right around the corner, the Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology is going to be held at the
01:05:03: Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. I intend to be there,
01:05:09: God willing. And I look forward to seeing a lot of my Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio listeners there in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, April 27th through the 29th.
01:05:18: The theme of this year's Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology is the spirit of the age and the age of the spirit.
01:05:26: And the speakers include Daniel Hyde, Conrad M. Bayway, who
01:05:31: I believe is the most powerful preacher alive on the planet Earth, Richard Phillips, Jonathan Master, David Murray, and Scott Oliphant.
01:05:39: If you'd like to register, go to AllianceNet .org, AllianceNet .org, click on Events, and then click on the
01:05:46: Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology, the spirit of the age, and the age of the spirit. Please tell the folks at the
01:05:51: Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals that you heard about this event from Chris Arnz and on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.
01:05:58: And then we have the Banner of Truth U .S. Ministers Conference coming up in May, the 29th through the 31st.
01:06:07: I also intend to be at that conference. It's being held in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.
01:06:14: And the speakers include Alistair Begg, Jimmy Gibson, Mark Johnston, Al Mohler, David Strain, and Craig Troxell.
01:06:25: The theme is Ministers of Christ. That's May 29th through the 31st in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, the 2018
01:06:33: U .S. Ministers Conference of Banner of Truth. Please, if you want to register, go to BannerofTruth .org,
01:06:38: BannerofTruth .org, click on Events, and then click on U .S.
01:06:44: Ministers Conference. You have to click on the U .S. because there are conferences in the U .K. that they hold as well.
01:06:51: And, of course, if you live in the U .K., click on those conferences.
01:06:57: But please tell the folks at Banner of Truth that you heard about their conferences and their ministry from Chris Arnz and on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.
01:07:05: Last but not least, I have to once again do that uncomfortable task or perform that uncomfortable task of begging you for money.
01:07:13: Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio has been airing since 2005, and in the vast majority of its history,
01:07:20: 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.
01:07:36: So if you love this show, you don't want it to go away, go to IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com, click
01:07:42: Support, then click to Donate Now, the new option on our website where you can instantly donate via a debit or credit card.
01:07:52: And if you want to donate the old -fashioned way, when you click on Support at IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com,
01:07:58: there will also be a mailing address that will pop up where you can mail a check via snail mail made payable to IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com.
01:08:07: Please never ever ever siphon money out of your regular giving to your local church. If you're not a member of a
01:08:13: 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 local church by giving to us.
01:08:27: And never put your family in financial jeopardy by giving to IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com, because providing for your family and your church are two commands of scripture, and providing for IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com
01:08:38: is obviously not a command in the Bible. But if you love the show and you're financially blessed above and beyond your ability to obey the two scriptural commands
01:08:47: I mentioned, then please consider help keeping IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com on the air by going to IronSharpen'sIronRadio .com,
01:08:54: 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.
01:09:02: 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 here.
01:09:20: It doesn't have to be identical, it just has to be compatible with our theology. And please send us an email to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com
01:09:28: 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
01:09:36: 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,
01:09:53: 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.
01:10:10: 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.
01:10:23: By the way, Gordy in Mechanicsburg, you have won a free copy of this booklet, and these are the requirements for you to get this booklet.
01:10:33: 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, or give it to your pastor and tell your pastor to order at least a case of these for the 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.
01:11:02: And in fact, as Earl Blackburn said earlier, everybody listening to this program knows someone who has cancer.
01:11:09: 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.
01:11:18: So please follow those instructions if you get a free copy. And by the way, since you're so close to cvbbs .com
01:11:27: 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.
01:11:35: 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.
01:11:46: Well, before I continue along that line of thought, if I may,
01:11:51: I'd like to give another testimonial to how Christ has used this booklet.
01:11:57: Sure. I have a dear friend, and again, I am getting no royalties.
01:12:03: I'm getting no money. I'm not profiting whatsoever from this booklet or anything of the nature.
01:12:13: But I sent the booklet to a dear friend who is an elder in a church in a faraway state, and so I put a little note in there telling him how much
01:12:28: I appreciated his friendship and his labor for Christ in the church, etc. And on Monday evening, he called me, and he said that he and his wife were pulling out of their driveway on the
01:12:47: Saturday before, and they stopped and got their mail from their mailbox. They live in a more rural setting.
01:12:54: 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 front steps of the community center just downcast, dejected, fighting tears.
01:13:10: And they said, What's wrong? And they knew him, and he had just become a
01:13:16: Christian six months before, six months ago. And they said,
01:13:21: What's wrong? And he said, My wife has been diagnosed with cancer. The doctors say that she maybe has six months to live.
01:13:30: And he said, Most of all, she's, worst of all, she's not a
01:13:37: Christian. And they hadn't even read the book, the booklet. They just opened up the mail as they were driving, and his wife saw the booklet.
01:13:47: 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.
01:13:53: She gets the booklet. She comes back, and she said, Here, would you take this and give this to your wife?
01:14:00: And he said, Yes. And so that was Saturday afternoon. On Monday, the wife saw the man at the grocery store, and she said,
01:14:12: How is your wife doing? And she said, He said, I have never seen my wife in such peace.
01:14:20: He said, I took that booklet you gave me Saturday. I didn't even have time to read it. I brought it in.
01:14:27: I gave it to her. She read through it once Saturday night. She read through it again on Sunday.
01:14:35: And then she started reading through it the third time this morning. And he said,
01:14:41: I believe she's come to Christ. And he said, She is just in such peace.
01:14:47: And no fear, no worry. And they called me on Monday night to tell me that.
01:14:54: And I said, Well, glory to the Lamb. This is what it's all about. Amen. If someone is not a
01:14:59: Christian, that it will be a means in the hands of our great God to lead someone to repentance and faith in Christ.
01:15:07: And if they are a Christian, that they will see that they're experiencing this very horrible disease that may could very well kill them.
01:15:21: It's a gift from our Father in heaven. And that's the whole point.
01:15:27: You know, I love what the catechisms and confessions say.
01:15:34: And I love the Westminster Catechism. And question 11 says,
01:15:40: What are God's works of providence? And the answer is, God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.
01:15:56: End quote. And there's scripture references all the way through there. And this is what needs to be understood.
01:16:05: Cancer is the result of the fall. I mean, we have to see that people get sick, people get injured, people die.
01:16:16: And it's all because of what Adam did in the garden. I'll never forget after I, about three months into my chemotherapy,
01:16:25: I looked like the walking dead, whatever they may be. And my wife, our neighbor, was a single parent.
01:16:34: He had a teenage daughter. I don't know the situation behind that, but he was given custody of their daughter and had his own business.
01:16:42: And he called me and he said, My daughter is going to be coming home from school and there will be a babysitter there with her.
01:16:50: 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,
01:16:56: 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 came to the door.
01:17:05: And his daughter came and I said, Your daddy called and he's out of town, etc.,
01:17:13: etc. And the babysitter said to me, She said,
01:17:18: Sir, you don't look well. Are you okay? And I said, No, I'm not. I said, I'm fighting cancer. And you could see this ghastly look on her face.
01:17:30: And she said, May I ask you a personal question? And I said, Sure. And she said,
01:17:38: What sin did you commit to get this cancer?
01:17:45: Now, some people would have been offended by that. But I wasn't.
01:17:51: And I said to her, Well, young lady, she was a student at Cal State Fullerton.
01:17:58: I said, First of all, may I ask what religious background you have? And she said, Well, I was baptized as a
01:18:04: Roman Catholic. But she said, I haven't gone since I was 12 years old or something like that.
01:18:09: And I don't know much about Christianity or religion or anything. But I just figure some kind of sin brings us about.
01:18:18: And I said, Well, actually, that's a very good question. I said, What you need to understand is that it wasn't my...
01:18:25: I said, Yes, it was sin that brought this about. But it wasn't my sin. And she said,
01:18:31: What? I said, No, it wasn't my sin. It was the sin of my father. And she said,
01:18:39: Wow. What did he do? I'm fighting back laughter.
01:18:47: And I said, Oh, it was terrible. She said, What did he do? And I said,
01:18:53: He ate some fruit. I'm sorry.
01:18:59: I'm laughing. It's probably not appropriate. But it is kind of comical in the circumstance. Yeah. And I said,
01:19:06: Oh. She said, Did it poison him? And it caused you to... I said, You know, this is...
01:19:12: I'm telling you, this is a great question. My father ate some fruit.
01:19:19: And it caused me to get this cancer. And she is just...
01:19:25: You can just see she is nonplussed. She is befuddled. She doesn't know what to do, what to say.
01:19:31: She feels awkward. And I start laughing. And I said, I want you to know
01:19:37: I'm a Christian. And I said, The Bible tells us that in Genesis 2,
01:19:43: God created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden and gave him every freedom that he could hope for.
01:19:50: There was only one commandment, one prohibition. And that was he could not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
01:20:01: And I said, He disobeyed God. He ate of the fruit. And he fell into sin.
01:20:08: Wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, in that all have sinned.
01:20:15: Literally, all have sinned and Adam. And I said, People get sick, get all sorts of diseases, and die because of the sin of our first father,
01:20:28: Adam. And from there, I said, But here is the remedy. And I go on and I explain the gospel to her.
01:20:36: But this we have to understand. It comes about by default.
01:20:44: But it comes because also, God in his wise providence,
01:20:49: Ephesians 1 .11, who has predestinated all things, not some things, not a few things, not many things, not most things, but God has predestined all things according to the counsel of his will.
01:21:06: And when it hits me, and that was the great comfort when I walked out of the doctor's office that day and he said,
01:21:13: You've got cancer. I've scheduled you for surgery Thursday, less than 48 hours from that time.
01:21:20: The great comfort that came to my mind and heart is that this has come from the hands of my all wise, most ancient, most loving father in heaven.
01:21:33: And I was able to go home. I laughed. The first thing
01:21:39: I did was call my family and tell them. The second thing
01:21:44: I did was call the elders of the church where I pastored and told them. And one of the elders said later,
01:21:49: He said, I was so calm and collected. And he said, He started crying like a baby. And he said,
01:21:56: I couldn't believe how calm you were. And I said, Brother, God's grace and God's purpose brings peace.
01:22:05: And I was able to help my family, the church. And I was able to set my house in order and prepare, if this would be the will of God, to pass from this life to the next life via death.
01:22:21: And God's providence is the only thing that will give you comfort when suddenly you're waylaid or blindsided for this dreaded disease that's called cancer.
01:22:34: And there are many, many types of cancers. And also I might add that there are almost as many types of chemotherapies as there are cancers.
01:22:45: I was so ignorant when I was diagnosed. Nineteen days after I was released from the hospital,
01:22:51: I went 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.
01:23:01: But there are almost as many kinds of chemos as there are cancers. And I thought I received two different chemotherapies at the same time in a six -month period, five -and -a -half -month period to be exact.
01:23:16: That God used to spare my life. And through it all,
01:23:22: Chris, through it all, I knew that this had come from him who is too wise to be mistaken, too good to be unkind.
01:23:35: Amen. 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.
01:23:45: But if you'd like to get in line with them, I would e -mail us with a question for Earl Blackburn immediately at ChrisArnzen at gmail .com,
01:23:54: 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
01:24:03: USA. And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Don't go away,
01:24:09: God willing. We'll be right back after these messages with more of Earl Blackburn and how can
01:24:14: I honor Christ in fighting cancer. Iron Sharpens Iron welcomes
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01:28:07: We're a diverse family of all ages. Enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ. In fellowship, play, and together.
01:28:13: 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.
01:28:20: Call Linbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402. That's 516 -599 -9402.
01:28:27: Or visit linbrookbaptist .org. That's linbrookbaptist .org. Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune in to A Visit to the
01:28:36: Pastor's Study every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 pm Eastern Time on WLIE Radio.
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01:28:49: We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in with your questions.
01:28:56: Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull. Join us this Saturday at 12 noon
01:29:02: Eastern Time for A Visit to the Pastor's Study because everyone needs a pastor. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,
01:29:14: Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted.
01:29:21: He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read.
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01:29:59: That's Solid -Ground -Books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past to present you can unearth from Solid Ground.
01:30:08: Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And don't forget that Solid Ground Christian Books has back in stock the bonded leather edition of the 1689
01:30:19: London Baptist Confession of Faith, and also the paperback version of the Three Forms of Unity.
01:30:25: They've got all kinds of sales and promotions there, including the pre -publication sale of the
01:30:31: Complete Works of Thomas Manton, a 17th century giant of theology. In fact, the 19th century
01:30:36: Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said of Thomas Manton's 22 -volume set of Complete Works that it is a mountain of biblical theology.
01:30:47: And so if the Prince of Preachers could say that, I would strongly urge you to investigate this 22 -volume set, because you can get it for approximately 70 % off the retail price by getting involved in the pre -publication sale.
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01:31:41: And I think my guest just sneezed, or something like that, because I almost went deaf there.
01:31:46: By the way, 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.
01:31:59: Yes. Our brother has done a superb job of reproducing old books that need to be brought back to life, and will enrich the
01:32:13: Church mightily. He's done a great job there. Well, yes.
01:32:20: I did want to say that, but he published my first book. They published my first book, and then one other, on Covenant Theology.
01:32:31: Yes, so that's Solid -Ground -Books .com. We have Bebe in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, who has a question for you.
01:32:40: She says, You said earlier that cancer and other diseases and calamities and tragedies are gifts from God, even to the non -believer.
01:32:54: How specifically are these to be considered gifts, not curses, to unbelievers, when the promises that we have in Romans 8 .28,
01:33:02: for instance, are only for those who love the Lord and are the cold according to His purpose?
01:33:10: That's a very good question, Bebe, and we can understand that because we understand the
01:33:16: Scriptures. The unbeliever does not understand that, because the unbeliever, whomever it may be, he, she, does not know
01:33:29: Christ and the God of the Bible. And we have that light, that truth from God's Word, and I've used this so many times.
01:33:40: I can't tell you how many people I have talked with that have said things like,
01:33:47: Why has this happened to me now? Why? I'm in the prime of life.
01:33:53: I was talking to one man. He said, I'm almost debt -free. My kids are getting ready to go to school.
01:33:59: My career is just getting ready to blossom. I'm soon to reach its height and zenith.
01:34:08: And I said, My friend, God has given this to you to get your attention.
01:34:15: Because this world, and here is the thing that most do not see. Paul tells us that the things that we see are temporal, are transient.
01:34:28: But the things that we don't see are eternal. And for the unbeliever, this can be a gift to call them to see, to be a means to awaken them, to see that this life is not all there is, and there is a world to come.
01:34:46: And if they do not repent of their sins and savingly believe upon Christ, they shall perish everlastingly.
01:34:57: And anything, anything that will cause an unbeliever to be disturbed about their lost estate and about their perishing soul is a gift of God.
01:35:10: And anything that will cause them to lay aside all their worldly and vain, empty pursuits and seek after the
01:35:20: Lord is a gift of His grace. Well, thank you,
01:35:27: B .B. And guess what, B .B.? You have won a free copy of the book that we are speaking about by our guest
01:35:34: 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.
01:35:57: And to repeat what Earl has told us earlier, Earl Blackburn is not receiving one penny in royalties for the sale of these booklets.
01:36:05: I am merely urging you to order or have your pastor order a case of them because it's such a valuable booklet.
01:36:11: It's inexpensive. It's brief. It could be used to stock a tract rack in your church lobby or the narthex, as they sometimes call it.
01:36:20: So please do so when you get this booklet and give us your full mailing address. One of the things that you bring up in the booklet,
01:36:29: Earl, is that you instruct the reader to interact with a healing instrument sharper than a surgeon's scalpel.
01:36:37: What do you mean by that? Well, of course, I'm referring to the Word of God.
01:36:43: And the writer of Hebrews says that the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two -edged sword.
01:36:54: And for the unbeliever, I'll never forget. The first day I walked into the place where I was to receive the chemotherapy, it was a room about 18 recliners in there, people laying in these recliners, and blankets over them, pillows behind their heads.
01:37:17: 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.
01:37:27: And when they put an IV in you and the chemos go in, all of a sudden you find yourself cold.
01:37:36: And so they'll have blankets. And you could just see fear written all over people's faces. And I realized then that, hey,
01:37:45: I could either yield to that fear or I could fight that fear. And the greatest way to fight that fear is to interact with something that's sharper than a surgeon's scalpel.
01:38:00: And that is the Word of God. And we in America, to whom much is given, much will be required.
01:38:11: And we here in the United States have the Word of God, and we have the Gospels available from so many sources, so many directions, and yet we're living this hedonistic life.
01:38:25: We're thinking only of the things that we can accrue in this life, how many toys we can get, how many possessions we can acquire, how much money we can make.
01:38:35: And we, even Christians, and this is what's so grieving and so sad,
01:38:41: Christians will oftentimes go four or five days a week, or four or five weeks, and never even read the
01:38:47: Scriptures. And yet, if we believe the Bible to be what it is, that it is the self -revelation of God Himself to us, that it is the very
01:39:00: Word of God, and that as we read the Scriptures, God Himself speaks to us, not with an audible voice, but on the printed page as the
01:39:09: Spirit of God makes it effectual to our minds and hearts. And I said, I can't tell you how many people
01:39:16: I've talked with, I've said, listen, do you have a Bible at home? And if they didn't,
01:39:22: I would, I've given Bibles, I've bought Bibles for people, and if they do,
01:39:29: I say, you need to read it. And let me encourage you to read these passages, and this section, and so forth.
01:39:34: Because it's only there in the Word of God that we will find peace and strength and wisdom of how to go forward.
01:39:47: And for some people, I mean, the reality of it is that some people, somebody today has walked out of a doctor's office, and the doctor has told them, you have cancer, and it's terminal, there's nothing we can do.
01:40:08: 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.
01:40:24: He said, we're going to fight this, but I can tell you the prognosis is not good. And in three years, she was dead.
01:40:35: And there are people who've walked out of offices today, probably someone walking out of a doctor's office right now, and the doctor has said, you have cancer, we're going to fight it, but it's terminal.
01:40:50: The prognosis is not good. Where are they going to find help? I say so many times to our church, and I pray almost every
01:40:58: Sunday in the pastoral prayer, Lord, there are people that have come in here and they have needs, needs that are greater than I as a pastor can meet, needs greater than this church can meet, needs that are so great only you can meet them.
01:41:15: Where are they going to find the answer to these things that are before them, the questions that they have?
01:41:21: They're not going to find it in the psychiatrist's office. 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.
01:41:36: It will be in the holy scriptures, the word of God. And they need to interact with the word of God that is quick and powerful and sharper than any two -edged sword.
01:41:47: There they will find the answers to life's questions, and there they will find the way ahead.
01:41:53: Amen. We have RJ in White Plains, New York, who asks,
01:42:00: 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.
01:42:28: The problem that we all have is we hate to bring discouragement to those that we love most.
01:42:34: We hate to get them depressed or fearful, and the least time that we want to do this is when they are already suffering.
01:42:42: 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?
01:43:01: Excellent question, as all of the questions have been. I had to face this myself a number of years ago with my oldest sister.
01:43:12: My nephew called me, and he said, Mother's been diagnosed with cancer, and the doctor said it's terminal.
01:43:21: And I said, well, how long does she have? And he said, well, the doctor has said six months.
01:43:28: And I'm not a doctor, Chris. Let me just state this right up front. I am not a medical professional, but I am a pastor, and I've been to the hospital.
01:43:39: I've been to the deathbeds of many people many times, and I have learned, and doctors are not liars, but doctors want to impart to their patients a degree of reasonable optimism.
01:43:54: 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,
01:44:04: God can sovereignly intervene and overrule the doctors, thankfully, for that.
01:44:10: But I've learned that whatever the doctors say, I usually cut it in half.
01:44:17: And I said to my nephew, I said, the doctor said six months.
01:44:24: I would say that she probably has about three months. And he said, well, I don't want to tell her.
01:44:29: I don't want to discourage her. I said, do you love her? And he said, with all my heart.
01:44:34: I said, I do, too. She's my sister. I know she's your mother, but she's my sister, and I love her.
01:44:42: And I said, you've got to tell her that her cancer is terminal and that she is not going to leave this hospital, or if she does, she doesn't have long to live.
01:44:53: And he said, oh, no, I can't do that. I don't want to discourage her because that will depress her and make her possibly hasten everything.
01:45:02: And I said, yet, if you don't tell her, how will she prepare her heart to one day stand before the true and living
01:45:12: God? Now, at that time, my nephew was not a Christian, my sister was not a
01:45:18: Christian, and it grieves me to think that there's the very real possibility she left this world without being a
01:45:27: Christian, without believing upon Christ. And my nephew wouldn't tell her. And I said, no, you've got to tell her.
01:45:33: And I called him, and he said, no, and don't you call. And I'm asking you, uncle, not to call her and tell her.
01:45:42: And I said, I will abide by that, but you need to realize her blood's going to be on your hands if she dies outside of Christ.
01:45:51: And I think, you know, our Lord taught us, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
01:45:58: The truth is not always pleasant to hear. God says in the book of Hosea, I wound you that I might heal you.
01:46:08: I afflict you that I might bind you up. And sometimes people need to hear the things that they don't want to hear.
01:46:19: And, you know, it's just like the law of God for an unbeliever. You tell an unbeliever about the law of God, they'll get angry at you, usually.
01:46:31: But they need to have the law of God because the law was the schoolmaster that lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith alone.
01:46:40: And, you know, I understand what the questioner has said.
01:46:47: People are on their beds, and they're fighting all sorts of doubts and fears, and they're filled with regrets.
01:46:55: They're worried about if they're married. They're worried about their spouse. They're worried about their children or their grandchildren.
01:47:03: They're concerned about many things. But we need to realize that time is short.
01:47:09: Eternity is forever. And we need to tell them the truth. We can tell them lovingly.
01:47:15: We don't have to be crass and bombastic. But we need to speak the truth, as Paul said, speak the truth in love.
01:47:25: And we need to approach them and say, you realize that this cancer is going to kill you.
01:47:35: And I list in the booklet nine lessons that I learned.
01:47:42: And among them are that we must find our source of comfort and our peace in him who is the resurrection and the life.
01:47:52: And I think of that whole matter there in John 11 with Lazarus. By the way,
01:47:57: Chris, do you have other questions? I can quickly end it.
01:48:03: Yeah, I would rather you move on with your point, and then if we have time, we'll take a couple more questions.
01:48:08: Well, you know, Martha said if you'd been here, he'd need not have died. And Jesus said he will live again.
01:48:18: She said, I know in the resurrection. And he said, but Martha, what you need to understand is I am the resurrection.
01:48:25: And he that believes upon me, though he die, yet shall he live. And, you know, we've got to tell them of him who is the resurrection and the life.
01:48:34: And we've got to lovingly and graciously be bold and speak the truth.
01:48:43: Hopefully that answers R .J.'s question. And by the way, I think
01:48:48: I forgot to tell B .B. in Cumberland County and also R .J.
01:48:55: that you are both getting a free copy of the booklet,
01:49:01: How Can I Honor Christ in Fighting Cancer? And this is by our guest
01:49:06: Earl Blackburn. And remember, I am strongly urging you to, 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 to order at least a case of these booklets to give out in the church lobby and put in a track rack, etc.
01:49:36: You say in the booklet, refuse to give into fear, fight it.
01:49:43: 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, not even knowing of her spiritual condition or not even really being concerned with that end because they weren't
01:50:07: Christians. They were just basically telling her not to fight it. They were saying, just welcome death, open your arms, embrace it.
01:50:14: It's just a natural thing that is to take place in everyone's life and on and on and on.
01:50:20: And I actually rebuked them for this approach they were taking to my mother. What do you mean by fight it?
01:50:28: And of course, not to give into fear. They were telling her that, but there are obviously people who are approaching death that need to be afraid, as you were just saying before.
01:50:40: Well, when I talk about don't give into fear, John the
01:50:46: Apostle tells us in 1 John chapter 4 that fear has bondage. And Paul tells us that God has not given us the spirit.
01:50:54: He's talking to, of course, believers. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
01:51:02: And I saw people taking chemotherapy, and I've seen people outside of the treatment rooms that have cancer, and they're paralyzed with fear.
01:51:16: And I'm telling them that, yes, death is coming to all of us.
01:51:23: It's just a matter of time. The moment we were born, we began to die. But fear has bondage.
01:51:33: And only the Christian can face death boldly.
01:51:39: 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 defeat me, because through Christ I am more than a conqueror.
01:51:54: Not just a conqueror, I'm more than a conqueror. And so many times
01:51:59: I have seen people. I think of this one man in particular that I took chemotherapy with him, and this man was paralyzed.
01:52:14: He had mesothelioma, you know, asbestos cancer. And I would go to his house, and he would be sitting.
01:52:23: His wife had to go back to work. And he himself was, relatively speaking, young.
01:52:29: He was 52 years old. And I would go to his house and visit him after I'd finished chemo.
01:52:36: And I'd knock on the door, and he would say, come in. I'd go in. The house would be dark.
01:52:42: He would be sitting in front of the TV. The shades would be drawn, not because the light hurt his eyes.
01:52:49: He was just engulfed in fear and darkness. And I can call his name, because no one would know him.
01:52:58: But I said, James, you know, fear has just paralyzed you, and you can't live in this fear.
01:53:05: And once more I would tell him of Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, who went to the cross to bear sin in his own body.
01:53:13: And fear will just cause people to become irrational, cause them to say things, do things, act out on certain situations that they wouldn't do under normal circumstances.
01:53:28: Yes, we should fear death. Yes, we should fear sin. Yes, we should fear these things.
01:53:35: But, you know, God is greater than all of our fears. And he is greater than all the things that confront us.
01:53:45: And we've got to fight this paralyzing fear. And if the sentence should come, there's nothing more that we can do, you're going to die, then people, you just see people freeze up.
01:54:06: And that's the most wonderful opportunity, to give someone the gospel. And tell them, well, the sentence has been passed, you're going to die.
01:54:19: But I want 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 your victory?
01:54:27: Oh, death, where's your sting? And it's only through Christ the Lord. And so I say,
01:54:37: I love what Charles Bridges in his excellent commentary on Proverbs says.
01:54:43: In Proverbs 1 -7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And then in Proverbs 10, the fear of the
01:54:49: Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And Charles Bridges says, he who fears the
01:54:54: Lord need not fear. And the only fear that we should have is a fear of God.
01:55:00: And that's a philal fear, a family fear, a reverential fear. And that's the only fear that should have any governance in our lives whatsoever.
01:55:14: That is if you are a repentant believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's right, that's right.
01:55:20: And we have... If you're outside of Christ, you need to fear everything.
01:55:26: And you especially need to fear eternal death. Amen. We have Anthony in Hoshton, Georgia, who says,
01:55:33: Has this experience changed how Pastor Blackburn ministers in the sick room?
01:55:40: If so, in what way? Well, it's made me see just how brief, one, how brief life really is.
01:55:51: Even if you live to 85 or 90, when you look at things in the grand scheme of things, and the relative short time that we live upon the earth, it's brief compared to history.
01:56:05: It's brief compared to eternity. And it's made me realize the brevity of life.
01:56:10: It's made me realize that there is an urgency. And this is one of the things that the
01:56:17: Puritans stress so often. There is the urgency about life, that we need to come to Christ, who is the resurrection and the life.
01:56:29: And it's made me see that I can't put off tomorrow what I should be doing today.
01:56:34: And I go to a hospital where I visit someone that's sick, my neighbor across the street.
01:56:41: I was out walking one evening, and he was out, and we crossed paths, and he was boasting.
01:56:49: He said, Oh, my mother lived to be 97, 98. My father lived to be 94.
01:56:56: And I've got good genes in me, and I'm just 68 now. I think
01:57:01: I've probably got another at least 30 years to live, and so on and so forth.
01:57:07: And I said, Well, Dan, you have no assurance of that. And the next thing
01:57:13: I know, a couple of months later, he is stricken with pancreatic cancer, and just like your mother, six weeks later, he's dead.
01:57:26: And I realized that that night that I met him, as he was walking and I was walking,
01:57:32: I should have started walking with him and talk with him about the gospel. And when I go over there, when
01:57:38: I hear that he's been stricken with pancreatic cancer, I go over there, and I said,
01:57:45: 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.
01:57:54: And he said, Not now, Earl. And it made me see, made me realize the urgency of the hour.
01:58:02: People that we see today we may not see tomorrow. People that we're talking with, you know, an hour from now, something tragic,
01:58:14: God forbid, could happen to them. And it's made me see the brevity of life and the urgency of the hour.
01:58:22: And it certainly has made me more compassionate toward people. And when they're there huddled in fear and drawn up in a fetal position,
01:58:34: I can say, Listen, my friend, I have some wonderful news for you. And give them the gospel, which is still the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes.
01:58:45: 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 HBCShreveport .com,
01:59:00: HBC for Heritage Baptist Church, Shreveport, S -H -R -E -V as in victory,
01:59:06: E, port .com. You can also order this booklet on How I Can Honor Christ in Fighting Cancer by Earl M.
01:59:13: Blackburn at CVBBS .com. That's Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, CVBBS .com.
01:59:19: And 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.
01:59:28: 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.
01:59:39: 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.