June 2, 2020 Show with Ron McKinney on “Being in Christ”
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June 2, 2020
Ron McKinney,
pastor of Kinsey Drive Baptist
Church, Dalton, GA, who will address:
“BEING IN CHRIST”
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- Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century Gospel Minister George Norcross in downtown
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- Carwile, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,
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- Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the Church and the world today.
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- Proverbs 27, verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
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- Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
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- It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
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- And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,
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- Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet
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- Earth, who are listening via live streaming at IronSharpensIronRadio .com This is
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- Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this second day of June, 2020.
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- And on this second day of June, we have the second time this week to have the privilege of having
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- Ron McKinney as our guest. He was our guest yesterday, and he is back to discuss a different topic.
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- He is pastor of Kinsey Drive Baptist Church in Dalton, Georgia, and today we are going to be discussing what it means to be in Christ.
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- And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back for the second time this week to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Ron McKinney.
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- Thank you very much, Chris. I'm pleased to be able to come back, and the subject matter today is of utmost importance to me, and I have been in pastoral ministry for 55 years, and I've often had times when
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- I've wondered if the person I was dealing with was truly converted.
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- Does that mean right now also? Sir? I said, does that mean right now too?
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- No, no, no. I'm saying by this, you've had that experience with someone who claims to be in Christ and yet whose life does not back up that claim.
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- Or perhaps at times you even wonder about yourself. How can
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- I know whether I am truly converted? There are people who have little conviction or have assurance, rather, of their salvation.
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- And it's not just an academic question that I'm asking, but it's a question that concerns your eternal destiny.
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- Yes. And so I'm interested in speaking on that today, at least not to harm or to cause the tender to be injured by it or to have someone just questioning themselves.
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- No, not at all. I want you to have a sure salvation because it is rooted and grounded in the person of Jesus Christ that he is your only, only hope and your only savior.
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- Amen. Paul tells us that these new believers that were in Thessalonians, and he knows that God loves them and has chosen them for salvation, he says in chapter 1 of 1
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- Thessalonians verse 4. But how did he know that? And in that particular passage he gives his reasons for knowing that the
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- Thessalonians were God's elect, that they were chosen. I love to read that because it is one of the thrilling times,
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- I think, that I have when I have assurance of salvation listening to what he has to say.
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- My salvation is not based upon my own will or my ability to stay saved.
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- In other words, I'm not in control of that. I don't wake up in the morning and say, well, this morning
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- I'm going to really please God and I'm going to serve God because I've got a will to do so and I know that I'm going to be able to do it.
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- No. I wake up in the morning and I thank God, first of all, for giving me breath to breathe and I thank him that he's already worked in my heart and called me to be one of his and that he has made me one of his own and I have that assurance and I can rest in him throughout the day knowing that I am in Christ.
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- Now, that's not a false assurance. That's not something that comes by my will and my own understanding of just simply
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- I am strong and I can get through this. No. I know that I'm kept by the power of God.
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- I am drawn to him by his power and then I am kept by him and that I persevere not because of my own ability.
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- I persevere because I'm in the hands of God and he is drawing me.
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- That experience that you read there in 1 Thessalonians, particularly when you get down to verse 5.
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- These Thessalonians could know that they were elect because the gospel had come to them through the apostles with such power.
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- I love that. Let me make a statement before I get any further. This statement,
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- I believe, is true about conversion. If anyone's out there who is saying,
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- I just don't know for certain. I have no real assurance of salvation.
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- Now, I can tell you I have wrestled with that too. I mean, after all of these years, and I believe
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- I was converted when I was very young. I believe it was a true conversion.
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- There was perhaps some evidence that I could look at, but I don't make that as the basis of my assurance.
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- I don't look at my works or what has happened. I don't think about what people have said about me, pro or con.
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- I'm resting on a truth that's in God's word that he has stated.
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- If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, or as I like to translate it, he's a new creation.
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- Now, I want to emphasize that just a little bit for us this day.
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- If any man, now that is a universal call.
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- I love this. I'm a preacher of the gospel. I've had opportunities to preach over the past 55 years in various places.
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- Some of the strangest places, I guess you could ever imagine. I've been in 17 countries in Europe.
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- I've had opportunity there to preach the gospel. I've been to Alaska, and I've been to Hawaii, and I've been to all these other countries, and I've been to the
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- Caribbean, and all of these places, Pretoria, British, Virgin Islands.
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- These are places that I've been able to go and to preach the gospel, and it's been the same gospel.
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- And the privilege is to call men to trust and believe in the person of Jesus Christ and His work on their behalf.
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- I desire for them to see Jesus in all of His beauty, and arrayed in all of His glory and His majesty, to know that He is the
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- God and Savior of fallen, wretched, blind, deaf men.
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- That there's a Savior. Now, true conversion comes through faithful witnesses who present the gospel not in their power, but in the power of the
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- Spirit, and what that happens is it results in the changed lives that then spread the gospel to others.
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- The true conversion comes through faithful witnesses.
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- Listen to 1 Thessalonians 1 .5. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power in the
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- Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. Just as you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.
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- Well, the word for there gives the reason that Paul knew that these people had been chosen by God, and therefore they were chosen and they were converted.
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- The gospel had come to them not as a lecture, a philosophical lecture through religious people.
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- It came by way of the Holy Spirit through men who had integrity and who were fully convinced of the truth of the message.
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- I'm going to tell you, it was a powerful thing. This gospel, you know, it's the gospel that the
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- Apostle Paul preached. The gospel that men are converted by virtue of the fact that God calls them out of darkness into light.
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- I think of 2 Corinthians chapter 4 where he says this gospel is hid.
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- It's hid from those who are blinded. They're hardened.
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- They cannot see. They cannot understand the truth of the gospel. It's hid to those that are lost.
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- Now, when I think about that, I think what an amazing thing to be lost.
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- What an amazing thing to be lost spiritually. I know people don't think about that, and people wander around and they have no purpose for life.
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- I'm even thinking about the fact that right now there are riots that are going on.
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- There are protests. There are people that are doing all kinds of things.
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- They're breaking glass. They're breaking buildings, burning cars. All of the things that they're doing, and all of this is an expression,
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- I think, of a frustration because they don't have anything that they are satisfied with.
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- They're looking for something in this world. They're looking for a utopia which is never going to come.
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- They're looking for something that is not of this world. I can't help but have a feeling of just fear.
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- Fear for the fact that our country is going through all of this in terms of a pandemic that people just simply have a fear of what's going to happen.
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- And who knows what will happen. I tell them that there is only one hope, and I know that sounds cliche to some, but my,
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- I tell you that I do have hope, and I have a sense of satisfaction in the person of Jesus Christ.
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- Now, in order to have true conversion, if any man be in Christ, the little phrase in, to be in Christ, that word is ace in the
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- Greek. It's a simple preposition. It's something that the
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- Apostle Paul uses some 150 times in the Gospel or more.
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- And it's talking about the fact to be in Him is to be in union with Him.
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- How different that is from what we see most of the time, when people many times will be converted, at least they say they're converted, and they may have had an experience, not sure exactly what it was, but had some kind of experience, and then thought that by that they were converted and that they were saved.
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- Maybe a little later, after a year or two, maybe more, they depart, they don't come back.
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- What has happened to this? What was the problem? Why didn't they continue on as the
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- Bible teaches us that a convert will do? Now, he's going to have trials, difficulties, he's going to have a lot of hardship, he's not running a sprint, he's running a marathon, there are going to be times he's going to be knocked down, at times even may even turn from the faith for a time.
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- But God is able and does call them back if they're truly one of His.
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- But what I'm saying is, some people rest upon that conversion experience.
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- I have had people, they just open up their Bible and they show me a date and they said, it was on this date that I was saved and that God saved me.
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- Now, they may have no interest in the things of God and they may not even attend church or even pretend to, and yet they have a sense of being saved.
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- Sometimes we look at some of the things that are used today for conversion.
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- I'm talking about those things that are outward, those things that are done in the flesh.
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- I've come to the fact that just because I do something outwardly in terms of coming forward, just because you do that outwardly doesn't necessarily mean that you have the true conversion.
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- And what do I mean by that? Well, I'm talking about the fact that people are invited sometimes to come forward in a meeting.
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- And I've wrestled with this. Way back years ago, I came out of a movement in which we gave what was commonly called an altar call.
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- Right, you were in Assemblies of God as a pastor, as was your father. I was. I was.
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- I was in a large church in Memphis, Tennessee, and I was a pastor there.
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- And one of the practices was inviting people to come forward. And most of the time, that was a pronouncement then that they were saved, though we would counsel with them and talk with them.
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- But many times, there was not the change in the light. And I remember
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- I spent some time on the beach of Florida. This is way, way back, and I had what we used to call the
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- Bird's Book. That was the four spiritual laws that was used back then by Campus Crusade for Christ.
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- And I was on the beach there with a number of friends of mine from college, and we were going around and we were having them read this little pamphlet, and it had four different things that were stated, and if they said yes to all four of them, then we would ask them to pray a prayer after us, and they would do so.
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- And then we would say, now you're a believer in Christ. Isn't it wonderful? Now you're going to Heaven. Everything's fine.
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- And, of course, I learned not long after that that that was not salvation.
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- Oh yes. It was some of the things that took place.
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- They would profess with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.
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- It wasn't that they heard the word and it came to them in the power of the Holy Spirit with full conviction, as it did with the
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- Thessalonians. It was word only. It was just word only. And see, that was a deception.
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- So if any man be in Christ, that is in union with Him.
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- And if I may, I would like to explain what I mean by in union. Yes, if you could just let me announce our email address first.
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- If anybody wants to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail dot com chrisarnsen at gmail dot com c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail dot com
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- Please always give us your first name, at least your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the
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- USA, and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.
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- And if you want to continue now on what it means to be in union with Christ?
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- All right, sir. I'll be happy to, and I hope that I can describe it so that could be understood, because this is very important as far as I'm concerned, because I believe many times this is missed in our modern evangelism.
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- Most of what we see today is very what I call easy -believism, and that's been around for a while but it's manipulation is what it is.
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- In other words, if we can get them to give me the right answers, then I can pronounce them saved. But the thing is to be in Christ, when
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- I talk about, I know someone. I'm trying to think of somebody
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- I could use, but even if I said well, I know something about the governor of our state.
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- Anyway, I've met him. I had the occasion to meet him when he was in Dallas. But I don't know him very well.
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- I know him, but I don't know him. I've read about him, but I don't know him.
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- But he has a family that really knows him. And of course, his wife knows him very well.
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- So there's a difference between casually knowing someone and really knowing them and knowing about them and knowing who they are.
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- And when it says here that if any man be in Christ, that he knows him, that he knows him intimately, closely, in a way that is not just superficial, not just on the outside, but knows him with reality.
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- He has had the glory of God revealed to him.
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- It's kind of like the Apostle Paul, when he talks about him, and then later on he talks about, he was knocked off of his pony, he was in the dust there, and God spoke to him in an audible voice.
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- And the Bible says that there he had, it was revealed to him in the face of Jesus, the knowledge of God.
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- It was revealed to him. And that's what happens in true conversion.
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- God opens our blind eyes, our deaf ears, and our hard hearts, and he shows us the truth about Jesus Christ, that he's a substitute, that he took our place.
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- He died as a ransom for those that he loved before the foundation of the world.
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- That's the truth of the gospel. That's the gospel message that's to be taught.
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- I want to read something for you, Chris. I think this is going to thrill you. I didn't ask permission, but I'm going to because I think he would allow me to.
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- I know this individual, this particular individual is living in China.
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- And after my first broadcast, I got a letter from him immediately.
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- Wow. Listen to this. Listening to the broadcast you did on Iron Sharpens Iron that I saw on Facebook, praising
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- God for how he works throughout the generations. The faithfulness of God in your life and love for the
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- Word affected my family in many ways. I don't know much about the history of my grandparents and their daughters being at Kinsey Drive, but I know that you serve
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- God faithfully and love his Word. In the past year, I have experienced, listen to this, true regeneration.
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- God has called me to repentance and has guided me to preaching from John MacArthur through a disciple who
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- God used to lead me out of spiritual blindness. I'm working through a work on biblical doctrine and have begun to study
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- Greek. My wife and I are going to be baptized soon, waiting for the
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- COVID restrictions to end, and have just become members of a church, a church to soldiers in Germany.
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- After my time in the military, my wife and I are considering attending seminary, but ultimately, we just want to serve our
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- Lord where we are very, very with every ounce of our strength he gives us.
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- God has been placing you on my heart the last few months, so I just wanted to reach out and say thanks, grace and peace.
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- Brother, I got that and I wept. I know the young man,
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- I know his family, but oh, I prayed for him that God would hover over him and keep him by his grace.
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- There were struggles that he had, but now I see that God has brought him to a true conversion.
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- He opened his eyes, and man, he said he led me out of spiritual blindness.
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- Now, that's what true conversion is. It's when the gospel becomes real to us.
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- I have a quote here I want to give you from my brother Jerry Bridges that has gone on to be with the
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- Lord. What a true servant he was. Yes, I had the privilege of interviewing him at least two times.
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- Oh my, I'm sure that was wonderful. He was precious, he was very humble and he was very consistent for the most part, and I just loved his writings.
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- I give his books away, I mean by the dozens. Every time somebody I know has a loved one who dies,
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- I give them a copy of Trusting God Even When Life Hurts. Oh yes, that book has done wonders.
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- You know, I've been through things with my daughter, with leukemia, cancer, relapse, the transplant, all that we went through.
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- That book has been a comfort not only to me, but to my daughter, and to my wife, and my children, and the people of the church here.
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- I mean, it's been used so much, we're so grateful for those words of comfort.
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- But here's what he said, this is in his book, The Gospel for Real Life. Have you ever thought about the wonderful truth that Christ lived his perfect life in your place and on your behalf?
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- As it yet grips you, when God looks at you today, he sees you clothed in the perfect, sinless obedience of his dear son.
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- And that when he says, this is my son whom I love, with him
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- I am well pleased, include you in that warm embrace.
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- The extent to which we truly understand this is the extent to which we will begin to enjoy those unsearchable riches that are found in Christ Jesus.
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- Oh, my brother, I love that. I can wrap myself in that and just think upon it, that I am in Christ.
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- He is mine. I am his. He is my salvation. He is my justification.
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- He's my sanctification. He is my all in all. Jesus Christ is mine.
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- And he is. And I am his. Oh, what a wonderful thing to know. Amen. And we have to go to our first break right now.
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- If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, again our email address is chrisarnson at gmail dot com.
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- Please remember to always give us at least your first name, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the
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- USA. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Ron McKinney and more of Being in Christ after these messages from our sponsors.
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- NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Anthony Uvino, founder of thereformrookie .com
- 41:27
- and co -founder of New York Apologetics, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
- 41:32
- I'm Pastor Tim Bushong of Syracuse Baptist Church in Syracuse, Indiana, and the NASB is my
- 41:38
- Bible of choice. I'm Eli Ayala, founder of Revealed Apologetics and staff member with the
- 41:43
- Historical Bible Society, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the
- 41:53
- NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Joe Bianchi, president of Calvi Press Publishing in Greenville, South Carolina, and the
- 42:02
- NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Jake Korn of Switzerland Community Church in Switzerland, Florida, and the
- 42:12
- NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep
- 42:18
- Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart?
- 42:24
- Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
- 42:33
- Go to nasbible .com. That's nasbible .com to place your order.
- 42:47
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read.
- 42:55
- 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.
- 43:03
- You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the
- 43:09
- Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future, and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.
- 43:22
- Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God -centered,
- 43:27
- Christ -exalting books for all ages. We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com.
- 43:35
- That's solid -ground -books .com, and see what priceless literary gems from the past to present you can unearth from Solid Ground.
- 43:44
- Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And remember folks, with Father's Day coming up, and with all kinds of special occasions where you normally buy gifts, please, always, first thing, go to solid -ground -books .com
- 44:04
- for all your gift -giving needs. We have birthdays, we have wedding anniversaries, we have graduation gifts, back -to -school gifts, we have bereavement gifts for those of your loved ones who have lost precious loved ones of their own.
- 44:22
- We could go on and on. In fact, you should start purchasing your Christmas gifts today, because something that you may want to order from Solid Ground Christian Books in December as a
- 44:34
- Christmas gift, they might be temporarily sold out due to the Christmas rush. So why not get that early at solid -ground -books .com.
- 44:43
- Keep in mind folks, that Solid Ground Christian Books is a primary, a key, a premier, a vital sponsor of this program.
- 44:57
- Without their support, we would likely not exist as a program, barring a miracle of God.
- 45:03
- So please, help us by helping them, and purchase as many books as you possibly can from solid -ground -books .com.
- 45:13
- And I always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnsen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We are now back with Ron McKinney, pastor of the
- 45:22
- Kinsey Drive Baptist Church in Dalton, Georgia. And by the way folks, you might want to look up,
- 45:29
- I'm telling our listeners they should, after this show is over, look up our previous interviews.
- 45:37
- One that might fascinate them in particular is your testimony of how your entire family left the
- 45:48
- Assemblies of God and Pentecostalism when you discovered the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace.
- 45:54
- And by the way, I don't mean that as a slam against the Assemblies of God or Pentecostals.
- 46:02
- In fact, one of the largest financial supporters of this program, Dan Buttafuoco, attorney at law.
- 46:09
- Although he has become a Calvinist, he was, until not long ago, an elder at an
- 46:16
- Assemblies of God, where he was an elder for decades, and he's still a member of that Assemblies of God church.
- 46:23
- But I love the Doctrines of Grace, so does my guest, and we're not going to be shy about believing that this is a glorious monumental event when someone comes to believe these things.
- 46:37
- And in fact, Ron's dad, who is now in glory with Christ, Don McKinney, he didn't have any choice as to whether or not he could stay in the
- 46:48
- Assemblies of God. He was excommunicated. Yes, he was. When he became a Calvinist, that is.
- 46:54
- You know, he still had some friendships with men who were in the
- 47:03
- Assemblies of God up until the time he died. They respected him because he was a
- 47:10
- Bible preacher, had always been, and he treated them kindly, though he was very definitive about what he believed the gospel was.
- 47:23
- And he would not in any way shy from that. But he would write letters,
- 47:30
- I'm talking about hundreds of letters, to former preacher friends and tell them about the grace of God.
- 47:39
- And he was so earnest about wanting them to know something of the fullness of the gospel.
- 47:47
- And one of the things that the Assemblies and some of the other Pentecostal churches talk about is the full gospel.
- 47:55
- Well, I want to say, this is the full gospel. It is marvelous when you see it.
- 48:03
- God opens your eyes. I know that to be true. God must do it. I had a dear friend,
- 48:09
- Chris, who came from about 300 miles away and spent a day with me in Memphis after I had left the denomination and I had come to believe in God's grace and what we call doctrines of grace.
- 48:28
- He spent the entire day with me. He was a mature pastor of a large church, and he just wanted to know what
- 48:35
- I believed. And I poured out my heart to him, and I told him of all the wonderful things of what
- 48:43
- God does for lost sinners and for those that are in bondage and slave to sin.
- 48:50
- And you know that God calls us out of that. And at the end of the day, before he left to go home and drive four, five, six hours, he said to me,
- 49:01
- Ron, he says, I don't understand it, and I don't believe that, but I know you do, and I respect that.
- 49:11
- And he said, I want us to continue to be friends. And we were until he passed away.
- 49:17
- I believe he was in Christ, but he had a very, what shall I say, a spirit of love and friendship, and I was so grateful for that.
- 49:31
- But not everybody was that charitable. Some people really turned me off, and some people talked about my dad in such ways.
- 49:43
- Many of them thought that he'd left the gospel altogether when he really found the gospel. In fact,
- 49:49
- I had a friend, I may have mentioned this to you, he's also in glory with Christ right now.
- 49:57
- His name was Al Stein. He was pastor of the
- 50:03
- Neighborhood Assembly of God in Belmore, Long Island for many years. And he was so highly thought of that he actually became a bishop on Long Island, an overseer of other churches.
- 50:16
- And he became a full -fledged Calvinist. And when he had to sign an agreement every year, because they force pastors to sign something that says that they do not believe in eternal security.
- 50:35
- And so what Al did was he put in there,
- 50:42
- I believe, an evidential security, meaning that if you're truly secure in Christ, you will give evidence of being saved.
- 50:51
- And they were satisfied with that year after year, and they did not kick him out of the denomination.
- 50:59
- Well, as far as I know, as far as I know, that was probably the first one that there was really a big faith, because the entire denomination, the next year in their
- 51:15
- Sunday school literature, it was against Calvinism. The entire literature of Sunday school for the entire denomination.
- 51:26
- And that was someone that was well -respected, because he had been involved with the denomination for a long time, from early days.
- 51:36
- He was one of those that was the organizer of Feed the Light, which was the missionary program of the denomination.
- 51:44
- And he spoke at the general council, you know, the large council that they had, and he was well -respected.
- 51:51
- But it was difficult because they weren't able to refute what he believed, and he would let them know what he believed.
- 52:01
- So I'm not at war with any of those. I just spoke to one of my friends from the assembly the other day, and he's a dear brother, and he's now retired.
- 52:14
- And I just love him, and I have fellowship with him. He still doesn't see what I see, but I know he knows
- 52:22
- Christ, and that's first and foremost. Well, what I'm going to do, since we have to go to our midway break very soon,
- 52:32
- I'm forwarding you an email that we just got from Cork, Ireland, from a listener.
- 52:40
- I forwarded it to you so you could look it over during the prolonged midway break. All right.
- 52:45
- And I'm going to read the question right now so our listeners can hear it, and you can answer it when we come back.
- 52:53
- The question is from Mary in Cork, Ireland. She says, Hi, Chris and Pastor McKinney.
- 53:00
- Personally, I found it very helpful to understand what it means to be in Adam under guilt and condemnation and sin being imputed to us.
- 53:09
- I could then better appreciate the jewel of our salvation with all its multi -facets like reconciliation, forgiveness of sins, justification, righteousness, adoption, sanctification, inheritance, glorification, etc.,
- 53:25
- and what it means to be in Christ. I understand what regeneration means, but could you please explain to me again what conversion means?
- 53:37
- As some people say, they changed and converted to Christianity. Is this like an
- 53:44
- Arminian view or not? Thank you so much, Mary in Cork, Ireland, and we'll have you answer that when we come back.
- 53:54
- And folks, this is an elongated break in the middle of the show because Grace Life Radio requires a longer break in the show because they air this program twice a day in a pre -recorded format in the morning drive and in the evening in accordance to the
- 54:14
- FCC regulations. They have to localize the show to Lake City, Florida, so be patient with us as this break is longer than usual.
- 54:22
- Use this time wisely by writing down as much of the information provided by our advertisers as you possibly can.
- 54:30
- This way you will be helping to keep our advertisers satisfied when they know they're getting responses and that means that we are more than likely going to remain on the air for a longer future because we depend on the advertising dollars that come from these sponsors.
- 54:46
- So write down as much information as you can that they provide. Also write down questions for Ron McKinney and send them to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.
- 54:55
- ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Don't go away, God willing, we are going to be right back right after these messages from our sponsors.
- 55:11
- I Am Sharpened's Iron Radio depends upon the financial support of fine Christian organizations to remain on the air, like the
- 55:18
- Historical Bible Society. The Historical Bible Society maintains a collection of Christian books, manuscripts, and Bibles of historical significance spanning nearly a thousand years.
- 55:30
- The mission of HBS is the preservation and public display of ancient scripture, dissemination of scripture, to provide tools equipping believers and Christian apologetics with evidence for the
- 55:41
- Bible's reliability, and to introduce Reformation literature and Christian art to a broader audience.
- 55:48
- Since 2004, HBS has toured schools and churches throughout the Northeast United States, reaching thousands of believers and non -believers alike who are hungry for knowledge of the
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- Bible. HBS's founder, Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law, is committed to sharing this collection along with an inspirational historical message that will captivate you and your church.
- 56:11
- Come journey through their website, historicalbiblesociety .org. The collection includes a complete 11th century
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- Bible, an actual page of the Gutenberg Bible from 1455, the first book ever printed, the
- 56:26
- Geneva Bible, the 1611 King James Bible, and much, much more. Visit historicalbiblesociety .org
- 56:33
- today. Thank you, Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law, for your faithful support of Iron Trump and Zion Radio.
- 56:49
- James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and the Dividing Line webcast here. Although God has brought me all over the globe for many years to teach, preach, and debate at numerous venues, some of my very fondest memories are from those precious times of fellowship with Pastor Rich Jensen and the brethren at Hope Reform Baptist Church, now located at their new beautiful facilities in Coram, Long Island, New York.
- 57:11
- I've had the privilege of opening God's word from their pulpit on many occasions, have led youth retreats for them, and have always been thrilled to see their members filling many seats at my
- 57:20
- New York debates. I do not hesitate to highly recommend Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island to anyone who wants to be accurately taught, discipled, and edified by the holy scriptures, and to be surrounded by truly loving and caring brothers and sisters in Christ.
- 57:35
- I also want to congratulate Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram for their recent appointment of Pastor Rich Jensen's co -elder,
- 57:41
- Pastor Christopher McDowell. For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net,
- 57:49
- that's hopereformedli .net, or call 631 -696 -5711, that's 631 -696 -5711.
- 57:59
- Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island that you heard about them from James White on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
- 58:11
- Lynnbrook Baptist Church on 225 Earl Avenue in Lynnbrook, Long Island is teaching God's timeless truths in the 21st century.
- 58:18
- Our church is far more than a Sunday worship service. It's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant.
- 58:25
- 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.
- 58:33
- We're a diverse family of all ages, enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship, play, and together.
- 58:40
- Hi, I'm Pastor Bob Walderman, and I invite you to come and join us here at Lynnbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be.
- 58:46
- Call Lynnbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402, that's 516 -599 -9402, or visit lynnbrookbaptist .org,
- 58:55
- that's lynnbrookbaptist .org. Dr.
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- Gotti has a doctorate in pharmacy degree and is very knowledgeable on the current coronavirus pandemic. Please contact
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- Dr. Gotti so he and his expert staff can give you proper guidance amid all the contradictory confusion we are all hearing in the media.
- 59:40
- To find the pharmacy nearest you, call 516 -354 -2000, that's 516 -354 -2000, or order online at leesdrugsrx .com,
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- that's leesdrugsrx .com. Don't forget to ask about their discount generic drug program.
- 01:00:03
- Greetings in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ. My name is Bhanu Gadhi. I'm a pharmacist in New York, which is the epicenter of the latest crisis the world is going through.
- 01:00:15
- In Psalm 139 verse 14, the psalmist offers praise to the Lord like this,
- 01:00:20
- I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made and wondrous are your works that my soul knows very well.
- 01:00:27
- He saw God's goodness and mercy, kindness, and the beauty in what
- 01:00:32
- God has designed, and he has erupted into praise. In any crisis or problem, brothers and sisters, our only fallback position is to trust
- 01:00:42
- God's design, and once we do, there is nothing for us to do but to erupt in praise to him.
- 01:00:49
- When the whole world is searching for a solution, God in his infinite mercy has given us what we need to address this illness, which can be very serious.
- 01:00:58
- Such is the beauty of his design, knowing that design, how can we not add up in praise to our great
- 01:01:05
- God like the psalmist did. May God bless you and give all of us wisdom to see greater things in his design.
- 01:01:12
- Thank you. Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts,
- 01:01:33
- Long Island Youth for Christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need Jesus. We are rural and urban and we are always about the message of Jesus.
- 01:01:42
- Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ.
- 01:01:50
- Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959. We have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.
- 01:02:04
- Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above.
- 01:02:11
- For details call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333.
- 01:02:18
- That's 631 -385 -8333. Or visit liyfc .org.
- 01:02:27
- That's liyfc .org. As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.
- 01:02:52
- A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.
- 01:03:02
- Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world.
- 01:03:10
- They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship
- 01:03:16
- God in spirit and truth. Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a
- 01:03:21
- God -centered focus, reading, preaching, and hearing the Word of God, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
- 01:03:29
- Baptism and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship, performed with faith, joy, and sobriety.
- 01:03:36
- Discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace
- 01:03:44
- .com. That's gcbcnj .squarespace .com.
- 01:03:51
- Or call them at 908 -996 -7654. That's 908 -996 -7654.
- 01:04:01
- Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Iron Sharpens Iron welcomes
- 01:04:22
- Solid Rock Remodeling to our family of sponsors. Serving South Central Pennsylvania, Solid Rock Remodeling is focused on discovering, understanding, and exceeding your expectations.
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- They deliver personalized project solutions with exceptional results. Solid Rock Remodeling offers a full range of home renovations, including kitchen and bath remodeling, decks, porches, windows and doors, roof and siding, and more.
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- That's solidrockremodeling .com. Solid Rock Remodeling, bringing new life to your home.
- 01:05:28
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read.
- 01:05:35
- He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.
- 01:05:44
- You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the
- 01:05:50
- Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future, and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.
- 01:06:03
- Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God -centered, Christ -exalting books for all ages.
- 01:06:10
- We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com.
- 01:06:16
- That's solid -ground -books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past you can unearth from Solid Ground.
- 01:06:25
- Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. This is
- 01:06:36
- Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.
- 01:06:42
- Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially.
- 01:06:51
- Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our
- 01:07:03
- Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the end of which we strive is the glory of God.
- 01:07:10
- If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some
- 01:07:23
- Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.
- 01:07:33
- Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org. That's gracechurchatfranklin .org.
- 01:07:41
- This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our
- 01:07:47
- Sovereign Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ today and always.
- 01:08:06
- Was your business shut down during the COVID -19 pandemic, depriving you of earning any money, causing you to default on your rent as you try to survive without income?
- 01:08:18
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- 01:08:37
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- 01:08:44
- The pandemic exclusion since 2006, most insurance companies added this clause to enable them to deny your income loss claims in the event of a worldwide pandemic.
- 01:08:56
- Do not give up. No matter what state you live in, call Buttafuoco & Associates now at 1 -800 -669 -4878.
- 01:09:07
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- Buttafuoco & Associates, here to help business owners rebuild their lives in the wake of the pandemic.
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- Call 1 -800 -669 -4878. Welcome back.
- 01:10:14
- This is Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours is
- 01:10:21
- Ron McKinney and he is pastor of the Kinsey Drive Baptist Church in Dalton, Georgia.
- 01:10:28
- We are discussing what it means to be in Christ. This is the second day this week he has been our guest.
- 01:10:36
- We started interviewing him yesterday. That was actually the second time we interviewed him and today is the third time we've interviewed him.
- 01:10:43
- We look forward to many more interviews with him. But before we return to that discussion,
- 01:10:50
- I have some important announcements to make. First of all, this
- 01:10:55
- Friday, I am so looking forward to part three of a debate that we had orchestrated last week,
- 01:11:07
- Thursday and Friday of last week, between Don K. Preston, who is a full preterist, and his opponent,
- 01:11:17
- Sam Frost, who is a former full preterist and an author of full preterist books while he was still promoting that eschatological view.
- 01:11:31
- He also was a well -known leading advocate of the full preterist view before abandoning full preterism.
- 01:11:40
- And they are, this Friday, going to be conducting what will mainly be a
- 01:11:49
- Q &A with the audience because we had very little time last Thursday and Friday during the first two parts of the debate.
- 01:11:58
- We had very little time left over for questions from the audience and I know how much audience questions means to the audience, so we made sure that we arranged for a third part of this debate.
- 01:12:11
- So make sure you mark your calendars for that this Friday, which is June the 5th, 4 to 6 p .m.
- 01:12:19
- Eastern Time. And we are, once again, preempting our normal weekly
- 01:12:25
- Friday edition of the program where we have been giving COVID -19, coronavirus updates with Pastor Joe Jacobs of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California, where he not only gives updates but he also gives biblical application on how we as a church are to respond to those updates.
- 01:12:50
- So we will resume that the following Friday, which is the 12th of June.
- 01:12:58
- So please mark your calendars. And folks, I also want to remind you that we are in urgent need of your financial support.
- 01:13:10
- We lost, at least I hope it's just temporary, we don't know that for certain, but we lost two of our largest financial supporters because of the hysteria attached to the coronavirus pandemic.
- 01:13:27
- I'm not trying to undermine the seriousness of the pandemic when I say that, but there is certainly hysteria that has followed this pandemic and where the government is flexing its muscles in many parts of the
- 01:13:43
- United States, depending upon who the governor is especially. And these two of my largest supporters had their businesses negatively impacted so greatly that they had to say,
- 01:13:59
- Chris, I'm sorry, but we're going to have to postpone until further notice any financial support of Iron Trump and Zion Radio.
- 01:14:07
- So can you help us make up for that? Please go to IronTrumpandZionRadio .com,
- 01:14:13
- click support, then click, click to donate now, and you could donate instantly with a debit or credit card by doing that.
- 01:14:22
- And you could also arrange on that app on IronTrumpandZionRadio .com
- 01:14:28
- to automatically give monthly if you so choose to do that. You don't have to do that, but we would love it if you did, obviously.
- 01:14:37
- And you could also advertise with us as long as whatever it is you're promoting is compatible with what we believe.
- 01:14:43
- You don't have to believe identically with me, but you need to be promoting something that's at the very least compatible with what we believe here on Iron Trump and Zion Radio.
- 01:14:52
- And as I try to remind you every day, never siphon money away from your regular giving that you're accustomed to to your own local church where you're a member in order to give to Iron Trump and Zion Radio, especially during this pandemic because many churches have been hit really hard financially from the pandemic since they're not meeting, at least many of them are not until the last
- 01:15:20
- Sunday. A lot of churches, including my own, began resuming public corporate worship, but many have still refrained from that.
- 01:15:30
- But there have been many churches that have been hit seriously with the fact that their congregations have disbanded and many of their members have lost their careers, their livelihood.
- 01:15:44
- So please don't siphon money away from your own church to give to us. And please don't put your own family in financial peril by giving to Iron Trump and Zion Radio.
- 01:15:56
- Those two things are commands of scripture providing for your church and your wife and children.
- 01:16:03
- Providing for Iron Trump and Zion Radio is not obviously a command of God, but if you love this show and you have been financially blessed above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands, you might have extra money gaining interest in the bank, maybe it's stuffed underneath your mattress, but you have extra money perhaps because you're not going to your favorite sporting events yet.
- 01:16:31
- You're not going to the movies. You're not going to concerts. You're not going out fine dining. You're not going to all kinds of events that you used to love to go to.
- 01:16:42
- Bible conferences, I don't know if I mentioned that, theatrical performances at plays, playhouses, and theaters.
- 01:16:50
- I could go on and on with the ways many of us spend money on recreation and frivolity that we had to refrain from during this pandemic.
- 01:17:03
- Well, the money that you saved on those things, can you please share some of that money with us?
- 01:17:09
- If you love the show, of course, and you don't want it to disappear. Go to Iron Trump and Zion radio .com,
- 01:17:14
- click support, then click, click to donate now. And there's an address that appears on the screen where you could send in checks via snail mail, if you prefer that, made out to Iron Trump and Zion radio.
- 01:17:27
- I want to thank everybody from the very depths of my heart for enabling Iron Trump and Zion radio to remain on the air during this pandemic, even though we lost two of our largest supporters, as I've already mentioned.
- 01:17:41
- You helped us make it through this. And I keep repeating this. I still have to get her permission to mention her by name, at least her first name.
- 01:17:51
- But there is a woman in Austin, Texas that I had never heard from before who broke all records of donations with a gift that she gave not long ago that blew me out of my socks.
- 01:18:04
- I am just so indebted to you. And you know who you are if you're listening. And I hope that you will always be a lifelong listener of Iron Trump and Zion radio and that we bless you and your life and your walk with Christ for many years to come.
- 01:18:22
- Also, folks, if you are not a member of a Bible believing church in your area, please, if you're having a hard time finding a church, send me an email to ChrisArnson at gmail .com.
- 01:18:34
- ChrisArnson at gmail .com and put in the email subject line, I need a church.
- 01:18:41
- I have helped people all over the planet Earth find churches where they have either joined or where they have visited on vacation, or where they have referred them to family, friends and loved ones who could not find a church in their own area and all parts of the globe.
- 01:19:00
- So if you need help, I have lists of biblically faithful churches all over the world. Send me an email to ChrisArnson at gmail .com.
- 01:19:07
- ChrisArnson at gmail .com and I may be able to help you find the church that you're looking for that is biblically faithful near you.
- 01:19:15
- ChrisArnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line. And that's also the email address where you send in a question to Ron McKinney.
- 01:19:26
- That's ChrisArnson at gmail .com. ChrisArnson at gmail .com and Ron, as you probably have already seen,
- 01:19:35
- I forwarded you Mary from Cork, Ireland's question and I will read that.
- 01:19:40
- I will read that again for the sake of our listeners. Would you hold just a minute and let me give you an endorsement of Iron Sharpens Iron radio.
- 01:19:52
- Okay, great. I wrote this to you a few weeks ago or a couple weeks ago and I'd just like to read it again.
- 01:20:02
- The truth of God's word can only be hammered out on the anvil of sola scriptura.
- 01:20:12
- Iron Sharpens Iron radio broadcast is the smitty to forge gospel truth by the pounding out of biblical understanding in the fire of grace.
- 01:20:28
- ChrisArnson's pertinent questions provide the tools or tongs to strike a chord of truth.
- 01:20:37
- When I hear the pounding sound of the introduction of Iron Sharpens Iron, it reminds me that truth will follow.
- 01:20:48
- Amen. Amen. I love and treasure that commendation and if my webmaster hasn't already posted it on the website,
- 01:20:57
- I'm looking forward to him doing so. That commendation, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, only cost me a thousand dollars.
- 01:21:06
- Just kidding. I'm sorry?
- 01:21:14
- I've got to get this question back on. Yeah, I want to read it again just so our listeners...
- 01:21:21
- Okay, I've got it. Okay, and Mary in Cork, Ireland says, personally, I found it very helpful to understand what it means to be in Adam under guilt and condemnation and sin being imputed to us.
- 01:21:35
- I could then better appreciate the jewel of our salvation with all its multifacets like reconciliation, forgiveness of sins, justification, righteousness, adoption, sanctification, inheritance, glorification, etc.
- 01:21:51
- And what it means to be in Christ. I understand what regeneration means, but could you please explain to me again what conversion means?
- 01:22:01
- As some people say, they changed and converted to Christianity. Is this an
- 01:22:06
- Arminian view or not? Thank you so much. And wow, I think that Mary has a career in writing ahead of her.
- 01:22:12
- She really very eloquently wrote that, but if you could.
- 01:22:19
- She began with what I would want to begin with, and that is there are three imputations that we find in the
- 01:22:31
- Bible. Three imputations. The word imputation means to credit to one's account.
- 01:22:40
- And what we know is that we are in Adam. All are in Adam.
- 01:22:47
- And because of that, the sin of Adam has been imputed to us so that all are sinners.
- 01:22:57
- We're sinners by imputation, but we're sinners by our own acts.
- 01:23:03
- But we're sinners because of what Adam did. It was imputed to us.
- 01:23:10
- The glorious thing is when Christ came to live his life and that he died on the cross, he died in place of us paying the penalty because our sins were imputed to Christ.
- 01:23:28
- They were credited to his account as though he had committed them.
- 01:23:34
- He was without sin. He had no sin, but our sin was laid upon him, was imputed to him, and he died in our place to pay the sin debt for his people.
- 01:23:51
- But then there's another thing that happened, a glorious thing, and that is that Jesus has imputed to us who are in him, he's imputed to us his perfection, his righteousness, his godliness, his holiness.
- 01:24:12
- We are in Christ Jesus because it's been imputed to us the righteousness of Christ.
- 01:24:21
- When he looks upon us, as I read earlier in that quote from Jerry Bridges, that he sees not us, he sees not our sin, he sees
- 01:24:34
- Christ and his righteousness in us. Now that's something that she understands because she said here, all of these multiple things, multifaceted things that we receive, along with all of this, justification, righteousness, adoption, sanctification, inheritance, glorification, what we have all of these things because we are in union with Christ Jesus.
- 01:25:06
- Praise God. Now, the question she asks is about regeneration and regeneration and conversion.
- 01:25:17
- Now, I will say this, regeneration is something that happens before we believe.
- 01:25:28
- Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit to quicken. Ephesians 2, 1, you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin.
- 01:25:42
- So regeneration is when God gives life, he gives a quickening, and one becomes alive.
- 01:25:51
- Then, one believes and repents.
- 01:25:57
- And the conversion is that we believe and we repent. And it is a continuation of believing and repenting.
- 01:26:08
- Now, the work that she said here, they changed and converted to Christianity, is that an
- 01:26:16
- Arminian view or not? Well, we could easily say that when
- 01:26:22
- God regenerates us, he gives to us spiritual life.
- 01:26:28
- And then there is the profession of Christ, the belief in him.
- 01:26:34
- And remember, it's not just, it's not accepting Jesus. We don't, that's not what needs to be done.
- 01:26:42
- Not accepting. It is believing in Jesus. And that's trusting.
- 01:26:48
- That's laying everything upon Christ. It's all that we have is that Christ is our
- 01:26:56
- Redeemer. We're not accepting him. We're believing in him. We're trusting in him.
- 01:27:03
- We're relying upon him. All of those words. Then what happens is our life is changed.
- 01:27:11
- Now, how much does it change? Well, our sanctification grows.
- 01:27:17
- Now, there's one sense that we're sanctified in Christ. There's the perfect righteousness of Christ.
- 01:27:24
- But also we have a personal sanctification there in which we grow.
- 01:27:30
- And that is one of the things that God is working in us to do his will and to do his purpose.
- 01:27:37
- And we're carrying that out in this life. So, I don't call that an
- 01:27:44
- Arminian view. I believe we can easily say that we're changed by the grace of God.
- 01:27:50
- There's true conversion. There's regeneration first. There's believing and trusting.
- 01:27:56
- And then there is the changed life that comes. But we're always repenting. Changing. We're always getting, moving towards the day when we will be changed and be like our
- 01:28:09
- Lord Jesus Christ. And if I say that, you've got to know that it's in scripture.
- 01:28:15
- Because otherwise it would be blasphemous to say we would be like our Lord. We will be like unto him.
- 01:28:22
- That is, we will be glorified. How about that? Does that help you? Amen.
- 01:28:28
- Well, Adam, perhaps if Mary wants to send a clarifying email, she can let you know. I'd love to hear from her.
- 01:28:35
- I think that's an excellent answer to her excellent question. And of course,
- 01:28:41
- Arminians do believe in conversion, but they're not exclusively the ones who believe in conversion.
- 01:28:50
- So, one of the main differences, I'm assuming from what you said, is that regeneration enables men and women to convert.
- 01:29:01
- Otherwise, they would have no desire to, sometimes depending upon where you live, conversion, where those who know you and witness you, they are seeing you abandoning a former religion, a former way of life.
- 01:29:20
- And in some areas of the world, especially when it comes to religion, that could have you executed.
- 01:29:27
- I mean, very serious consequences, especially in Muslim lands. So, we would never convert if we enjoyed being in whatever state we were in, or whatever religion we were in, unless we were first regenerate.
- 01:29:42
- I'm glad so much that you brought up all this about being in Adam, and that we are in Christ Jesus.
- 01:29:51
- I'll tell you, that's the truth that we must stand upon. That gives us our great hope, our great hope.
- 01:30:00
- Amen. Well, I had a quote I was going to read. Now, it goes back a little bit to what we were talking about earlier.
- 01:30:09
- If I may read it. Sure, go ahead. Throughout the history of the
- 01:30:14
- Church, some believers have begun well, but later have been pulled away from the truth they first believed and followed.
- 01:30:25
- They receive the gospel of salvation by grace, and live for the
- 01:30:30
- Lord in humble faith, but then fall prey to some system of legalism and works righteousness that promises more, but produces much less.
- 01:30:46
- Some fall into formalism, substituting external ceremonies and rites for the internal reality of personal growth in the
- 01:30:58
- Lord. Others fall into legalistic systems of do's and don'ts, proudly hoping to improve their standing before God by doing or not doing certain things.
- 01:31:13
- The defecting believers had not lost their salvation, but they had lost the joy and freedom of it, and it returned, deceived, to the uncertainty and bondage of a self -imposed legalism.
- 01:31:33
- They were still in Christ and right with God positionally, but they were not practically living in conformity to the truth by which they had been made righteous.
- 01:31:48
- They substituted a form of religion that had no power or joy for the fullness of life in Christ they once enjoyed.
- 01:32:00
- Having received new life in Christ by faith, they had been persuaded to live out their new lives by the old ways of works.
- 01:32:12
- They had turned back from grace to law, from faith to works, from calvary to ceremony, from freedom to bondage.
- 01:32:27
- Now, I actually don't know who wrote that. I have an idea, but I'm not going to say,
- 01:32:33
- I'll just say it was not mine, but I think it was something that gave us, gives to us, an understanding of how some have come and they have made some professions, some professions, without having any true evidence.
- 01:32:56
- The difficulty is that people can either fall into the do's and the don'ts.
- 01:33:03
- They can fall into a legalism, something of works, or they can go to a more, what
- 01:33:15
- I was talking about earlier, that they, let's see, the fact that they can get into ceremonialism, formalism, substituting external ceremonies and rites for the internal reality of personal growth.
- 01:33:33
- There are two extremes that people can go. One is that they can go to a more legalistic, in other words,
- 01:33:42
- I've got to do this and I've got to do that, and the other is you've got to, you've got to kind of keep all of these rituals and these ceremonies.
- 01:33:55
- Now, I want to propose, in 1980, we had a meeting in Dallas, Texas.
- 01:34:08
- It was a called meeting for study of the scriptures and it had to do with some tenets that were set forth and there was, there were those that were contending that it was not a scriptural, and we had this meeting at the hotel there, the
- 01:34:31
- DuPont Hotel in downtown Dallas, Texas in 1980. There were about 500 pastors that came, that came from different denominations, that came from different stripes, but most of them came with the thought that they were not satisfied with two systems of theology that were being taught.
- 01:34:59
- One was the covenant theology system, which is primarily of Presbyterian and Reformed denominations and organizations, and the other would be
- 01:35:15
- Baptistic, but it would be others of a different stripe. They were coming together and there is going to be discussion concerning the grace of God.
- 01:35:28
- This was something that was being discussed between the subject of grace and law.
- 01:35:35
- Now, this is a very, very important subject.
- 01:35:41
- I find it very important because it has a lot to do,
- 01:35:47
- I think, with the subject even of sanctification. Now, when
- 01:35:53
- I talk about the new covenant, I want to make the distinction, because most people don't understand this and they don't see this, but I want to underscore it, is that there is an old covenant.
- 01:36:12
- We do know there's an old covenant, and what is the old covenant?
- 01:36:18
- That's what I ask people all the time. The old covenant is not the
- 01:36:23
- Old Testament. No, the old covenant was the
- 01:36:28
- Mosaic law. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai to the people of Israel, of course they had made a golden calf.
- 01:36:41
- It sinned against God, and he broke the tablet of stone, but he made a covenant with them, and the covenant was that they would keep this covenant, and they said they will.
- 01:36:55
- They said that they would keep that covenant, which they were not able to. It was not possible, but they said they would, and so there was a covenant that was made with Israel.
- 01:37:08
- Now, when we come to Christ's coming, of course everything that we have in the
- 01:37:15
- Old Testament, every type, every shadow, all of the history of redemption, is pointing to the coming of Christ as being the
- 01:37:27
- Messiah, the Savior, all of the prophecies that are made. And of course, we have prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 31, that there's another covenant, not one that was made with their fathers, which they had broken, but this is a new covenant that he's made with him, and that he will be their
- 01:37:51
- God, and they will be his people. And he talks about this new covenant that will come, and then we have when
- 01:37:59
- Christ, on the day when he was there in the upper room, and they were there for the last supper, and Jesus takes the talisman, and he holds it, that cup, and he says, this is the blood of the new covenant which
- 01:38:18
- I give unto thee. And they partook of that covenant, and it was a brand new covenant that had been spoken of by Jeremiah, also given to us in Deuteronomy 29.
- 01:38:34
- There are places where it is speaking of this new covenant that will come, and that the
- 01:38:40
- Messiah will come, the prophet will come, that's spoken of in Deuteronomy chapter 19.
- 01:38:52
- The prophet will come, and Christ is that prophet, and he institutes the new covenant, and all things then became new.
- 01:39:03
- And as we know, what took place at that time is that as he went to the cross, and he died, and then in the temple, the curtain was ripped from the top to the bottom, and it was open for us, us that are believers, that are in Christ, who are in him, that we were able to access to him directly.
- 01:39:29
- There is the priesthood of all believers, we were able to go into the presence of God, and to call upon him.
- 01:39:38
- And what an amazing thing took place, that there was a new covenant that was made, not like the old one.
- 01:39:47
- And of course, Hebrews goes over this much as we read in the eighth, ninth, tenth chapter of Hebrews and elsewhere, when he talks about that old covenant has vanished away.
- 01:39:59
- It's been fulfilled, it's old, it was something that was temporary, and now there's a brand new covenant that's in Christ Jesus.
- 01:40:11
- And now we have a new lawgiver. He's not only our prophet, priest, and king, he is all that.
- 01:40:20
- He's our high priest, our new high priest, he's our prophet, but here he is, he's also the new lawgiver.
- 01:40:29
- He says, you've heard it said of old, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, but I say unto you, and he gives to them a new law that is a greater law.
- 01:40:42
- It is one that is filled with Christ being the one who causes men to live in such a way.
- 01:40:53
- It is the law that is given, that is written upon the heart. It's not those that are written in stone by the finger of God, but it's law that is written upon their hearts according to 2
- 01:41:06
- Corinthians 3. It's not one of the old administration, but it's one of the new, that now we have new life in Christ, and we have a new lawgiver.
- 01:41:21
- That's why he could say, a new law I give unto you, that you love one another.
- 01:41:28
- Well, we've always to love one another, but he says to love one another even as I have loved you, meaning as Christ is loved.
- 01:41:41
- The motivation now is not a legalistic motivation. It's because our desire is to please
- 01:41:50
- Christ and to live as he lives, to follow him, to emulate him in all that he did.
- 01:41:58
- He said, when you give, you don't just give because it's a legalistic thing.
- 01:42:03
- No. He says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich.
- 01:42:16
- It's because of the work that Christ has done on our behalf.
- 01:42:22
- He has provided for us. And what is the blessing of the new covenant? One of the great blessings is we read in Galatians chapter 4.
- 01:42:32
- He says that we now are able, because of Christ's work on our behalf, we are now adopted into the family of God, and we cry,
- 01:42:46
- Abba Father, because now we have our relationship with him in which he is our heavenly father.
- 01:42:53
- He's guiding and directing us by the blessed Holy Spirit. Now to me, there's the difference of having a salvation that is not fruitful, but one that is full and fruitful in Christ Jesus, wanting to please him and follow his example in every way.
- 01:43:17
- And we have to go to our final break. And by the way folks, what our brother was discussing here is a matter of debate, sometimes very friendly and loving debate amongst
- 01:43:34
- Calvinists, and sometimes unfortunately, and I don't think it ever should be, it can become a hostile debate.
- 01:43:42
- But this is a divide between confessional reform Baptists and covenant theology
- 01:43:50
- Baptists and new covenant theology Baptists. And some new covenant theology
- 01:43:56
- Baptists would adhere to the first one in confession, but not all.
- 01:44:03
- But I just wanted to let you know, so you're aware, that there is a division amongst Sovereign Grace believers.
- 01:44:08
- In fact, my church would be a covenant theology Baptist congregation, as our guest knows, because he has preached there when
- 01:44:18
- Walt Chantry was the pastor. But we have to go to our final break.
- 01:44:24
- And by the way, Ron, I emailed you another very long email.
- 01:44:30
- This one is from Andrew in Dalton, Georgia, so that you could read it during the break. And we'll be right back with your answer to that question, right after these messages.
- 01:44:50
- I'm Dr. Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary. I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,
- 01:45:01
- Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jansen and Christopher McDowell.
- 01:45:09
- It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God, like the dear saints at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word, and to enthusiastically proclaim
- 01:45:26
- Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of Sovereign Grace in Suffolk County, Long Island and beyond.
- 01:45:34
- I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love, as I have.
- 01:45:42
- For more information on Hope Reformed Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.
- 01:45:49
- That's hopereformedli .net or call 631 -696 -5711.
- 01:45:58
- That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.
- 01:46:15
- When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the
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- New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the
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- NASB. I'm Pastor Brandon Scalf of Cruciform Bible Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the
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- NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Chris Hatton of Grace Chapel in Sanford, Florida, and the
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- NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Mike Wachowski of Westminster Chapel in Ballground, Georgia, and the
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- NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Steve Cooley of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and the
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- NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Brock Evans from Wading River Baptist Church in Wading River, Long Island, New York, and the
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- NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Tom Lassner of Crestview Baptist Church in Big Spring, Texas, and the
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- NASB is my Bible of choice. Here's a great way for your church to help keep Iron Trumpet's Iron Radio on the air.
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- 01:48:03
- This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.
- 01:48:10
- Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio financially.
- 01:48:19
- Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers, which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in scripture through the person and work of our
- 01:48:31
- Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the end of which we strive is the glory of God.
- 01:48:38
- If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some
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- Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.
- 01:49:01
- Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org. That's gracechurchatfranklin .org.
- 01:49:09
- This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign
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- Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ, today and always.
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- 01:51:36
- Andrew in Dalton George's question is, Hi brothers
- 01:51:42
- Chris and Ron, great show. In Romans chapter 12, verse 5, the scripture says,
- 01:51:49
- So we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
- 01:51:56
- Is it not true then that the functional racism so prevalent in the church today is completely unbiblical and should be despised and eradicated since we are united brethren from every tribe, tongue, and language?
- 01:52:12
- That's Andrew's first question, and Ron, if you could answer.
- 01:52:19
- I just simply say, absolutely. We ought to be functioning.
- 01:52:24
- There's no such thing in the scriptures of having a white church, a black church, a
- 01:52:30
- Chinese church, a Korean church. If we're in Christ Jesus, we're one.
- 01:52:37
- We have had, speak in our church, several black pastors whom
- 01:52:43
- I love, and one of them's already gone to be with the Lord, but these were men that I appreciated, and I wish that we would have those that would come.
- 01:52:53
- I've sat down with two different churches here in my community that were predominantly black and talked to them about this very subject, but we're still dealing with this, and I would say there's no such thing as differences in terms of race as far as meeting together.
- 01:53:17
- There's a one church. There is the Church of God, which is invisible, and then there is the local church, but it should be also representative of the universal church.
- 01:53:34
- But in the New Testament, most of the teaching has to do with the local church.
- 01:53:40
- Now, I'm sure you would agree, though, when you mentioned Korean church, that there's absolutely nothing wrong with, because of a language barrier, if a church wishes to reach out to Korean immigrants who predominantly speak their native tongue, there's nothing wrong with having a worship service exclusively in Korean.
- 01:54:01
- No, no, I wouldn't have any problem. Let me tell you what I do know. My friend
- 01:54:07
- Baruch Mayos, who pastored in Beirut... Yes, I know Baruch.
- 01:54:13
- Pardon me? I know him, and I've interviewed Baruch. Baruch pastored a church of maybe 400 congregants.
- 01:54:23
- There were people of all different denominations, I mean races that were there.
- 01:54:31
- They had Germans, they had Arabs, they had
- 01:54:36
- Koreans, they had all this, and what they did was they had interpretation of all those different languages in their church.
- 01:54:46
- But even the Arabs that would come to that church predominantly, they were Jewish Christians, that they would leave their nationality outside, and they would come in and worship with it.
- 01:54:59
- I mean, there is...it's just not the realism of having a separate kind of worship just for one particular group of people.
- 01:55:15
- There should be...we should have more to do with different races in our local churches.
- 01:55:23
- And we have one more question from...in fact, I'm going to ask our listener
- 01:55:30
- Andrew, please be patient with us, but allow us to have you ask that question of Ron when we have him back on the show, because we have two people waiting to have their questions asked that I will not be able to get to if we read your question, so we'll keep this on file.
- 01:55:48
- We have Bobby in...where is that?
- 01:55:55
- I was just looking at it. Hartsdale, New York. Bobby in Hartsdale, New York. He says, I have heard
- 01:56:00
- Jewish believers say that when we discuss conversion to Jews while evangelizing them, we should only use that term regarding Gentiles who come to Christ, never to Jews who are to be described as completed, not converted.
- 01:56:19
- Do you agree with this? Well, before you speak, Ron, I don't know how people could have that belief when it's very clear in the
- 01:56:28
- Gospel of Matthew. In fact, it's specifically in chapter 18, verse 3, where Jesus Christ himself, speaking to a predominantly
- 01:56:39
- Jewish audience, says, truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become my children, you will not enter the kingdom of God.
- 01:56:46
- So I disagree with that rhetoric. Do you want to comment on that? I agree.
- 01:56:53
- I agree. I disagree with that. My friend Baruch Maaz, who is a
- 01:57:00
- Jewish man who believes in Christ, and he was the one that has said to me so clearly, he said the idea of that a
- 01:57:10
- Jew converted is something more than what another person is converted is, is not scriptural.
- 01:57:18
- You know, we're all in Christ. May Jew or Gentile, black or white, whoever we might be, we're in Christ Jesus.
- 01:57:26
- There's one, and that's what we must teach and preach.
- 01:57:32
- And rabbinical Judaism is not Old Covenant Jewish religion.
- 01:57:38
- And even if it were, they would still have to convert from that. But it's not even a biblical religion.
- 01:57:47
- It contains elements, of course, of Old Covenant Israel's belief.
- 01:57:53
- But, well, thank you very much, Bobby. We have Mary again from Cork, Ireland, who says, is this correct as sometimes we put the cart before the horse, so to speak?
- 01:58:07
- I think people generally use the phrase, believe in God, when in actual fact, all they probably mean is that they just acknowledge things about him.
- 01:58:18
- So with that in mind, it is easier to understand that we are firstly regenerated by the
- 01:58:25
- Holy Spirit and become born again, which is solely his work before we actually believe, as believing is obviously acknowledging
- 01:58:35
- Christ and his cross work, etc., and then trusting in him as our
- 01:58:41
- Savior and continuing to repent. So I'm guessing that Mary is just asking if you agree with this.
- 01:58:48
- I do agree. Do you have an order of salutas, the order of salvation, and regeneration precedes believing and repentance.
- 01:58:59
- And that's certainly what she said, I think, right on. Well, we are out of time, and I'm going to definitely have
- 01:59:07
- Ron back as long as he is willing. Thank you, brother. And the website for Kinsey Drive Baptist Church is
- 01:59:14
- KinseyDriveBaptistChurch .com, and Kinsey is spelled K -I -N -S -E -Y,
- 01:59:19
- KinseyDriveBaptistChurch .com. And I want everybody to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater
- 01:59:27
- Savior than you are a sinner. Amen. Amen.