December 29, 2017 Show with Derek Thomas on “ICHTHUS: Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Saviour”

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

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania It's iron sharpens iron a radio platform on 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 quote We are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation

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To make one another wiser and better It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour

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And we hope to hear from you the listener with your own questions

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Now, here's our host Chris Arntz 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 We're listening via live streaming at iron sharpens iron radio dot -com This is

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Chris Arntz and your host of iron sharpens iron radio wishing you a happy Friday on this 29th day of December 2017 our very last live episode of 2017 on iron sharpens iron radio, and I'm so delighted that for the first hour.

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I have the honor and privilege of Having a returning guest who has not been on this program since March 25th 2010 and that is dr.

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Derek Thomas Many of you and the iron sharpens iron radio audience will be very familiar with that name.

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He is an author He's senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina Which is an

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ARP affiliated congregation associated Reform Presbyterian Church denomination and The First Presbyterian Church in Columbia is the oldest

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Presbyterian Church in that city He is also the Robert Strong professor of systematic and practical theology at Reform Theological Seminary in Atlanta Georgia He's a teaching fellow at Ligonier Ministries a former chairman of the theology department of RTS in Jackson, Mississippi and former minister of teaching at the historic

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First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi Today we are going to discuss for the first hour with dr.

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Thomas his book co -authored with Sinclair Ferguson Icthys Jesus Christ God's Son the

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Savior and it's my honor and privilege to have you return to iron sharpens iron radio dr.

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Derek Thomas Yes, it has it's amazing and time has flown by and hopefully we're not going to wait another seven years to have you come

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Back on the program because I look forward to having you on Frequently in the future as often as God will allow and And I know that you are not a native

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South Carolinian. You are from Wales. Am I am I correct? I Grew up in Wales Went to high school went to College in Wales Then Married and and found myself at seminary at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi For a couple years and then returned to Britain I Was I was a pastor in Belfast in Northern Ireland for?

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Almost 18 years before returning back here to the States and I'm sure you must know our brother who is now in heaven with Christ for eternity

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Peter Jeffrey who is from Port Talbot, Wales Yes Yes Well, I had the privilege of getting to know him when he would make

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Regular trips from Wales out to the United States before his health Prevented that and I had the honor and privilege of having

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Peter sit at my mother's bedside during the last days of her life on earth and And Peter arose from that sickbed.

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He spent a half hour at least alone with her and he rose from that sickbed giving me a lot of further reassurance that she was truly

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Trusting in Christ alone as her Savior and that she was indeed on her way to heaven So I thank

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God for that privilege that I had with with Peter But today we are going to be talking about the book that you have authored or co -authored with dr

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Sinclair Ferguson who is also one of my favorite of all -time preachers Icthys Jesus Christ God's Son the

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Savior now Icthys Some of us who are Christians will remember that that is somehow connected to a symbol shaped like a fish

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Can you tell us how that symbol and that word

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Icthys became connected with Jesus Christ and with Christianity? There are

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Engravings on walls in the shape of Fish these are the letters

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That that spell at least in a transliterated English form Icthys Greek letters, of course

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Jesus Christ and God's Son our Savior and And These it's probably most familiar to us on the back of a car that's right

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Doing something illegal Speeding by breaking the speed limit and there's a little fish and I I see that quite often

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Yeah, that's unfortunate Do you know why the early church you use that symbol was it because of the miracle of loaves and fishes?

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Was it because Jesus was making? His disciples fishers of men or do you know exactly what the connection was in the early early church?

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No, no, I'm not. I'm not sure that anybody knows exactly I I do think that It's you know, there are various possibilities and and the letters that make up The Greek letters that make up this verse, you know can be shaped into something that looks like a fish

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You know, and it might just have been that I like to think that it was the

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Burden of evangelism go and be fishers of men that the early church felt so keenly and and therefore that certainly would be apt a

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Reminder That one of the last things he did with the disciples

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Before ascending was eat fish for breakfast beside the Sea of Galilee And I know that this book basically is a summary of The major events that are the core of the history of redemption

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Jesus is Jesus Christ's Conception and his birth his baptism his temptation his transfiguration the

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The incident in Gethsemane the cross resurrection ascension and second coming of Jesus To can you tell us since we are still even though Christmas was

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Last week. Can you tell us something about what you relate to in your book in regard to the birth of Christ?

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Yes, perhaps I can go a little Into the background as to why we did it.

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Sure Help For a couple of years

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Sinclair Ferguson and I were ministering together here. I trust Presbyterian he was the senior minister and I was the evening

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Preacher and and then he retired and I became senior. Mr. But during those two years that we

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We had together We had always talked about doing a series

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Together that would end up as a book and We talked about various ideas

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You know as evangelical Who believe in the deity of Christ in the absolute unqualified?

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deity of Christ now we tend to Major on Aspects of Jesus deity and defended very quickly

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But from another point of view Jesus was also a true man

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Fully human two natures in one person and and the

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Gospels You know, particularly the synoptic Gospels portray

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Jesus first of all as a human being and a human being in whose life there are very particular definable important and significant redemptive moments

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One of which of course is his conception in the womb of the

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Virgin Mary we we talk of course about the virgin birth Now there was nothing miraculous about the birth of Jesus His birth was actually quite ordinary that the miracle occurred at the time of the conception.

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That's right and the term Virgin birth is has to be understood properly.

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He was born of someone who is a virgin But the actual birth itself was was a fairly ordinary birth

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Here at First Persian Church like many churches we celebrate the advent of Christ In a fairly extensive manner it begins, you know, it begins in the first Sunday of December But I never grow tired of the birth narrative of Jesus even though it's only told in Matthew and Luke John in his prologue

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Tells it in a very different way in a theological way and actually begins in heaven In the beginning was the word

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But the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem Is of course one of the most

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Significant moments in all of history and The actual beginning and end the beginning

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Meaning the conception of Jesus nine months before in the womb of the Virgin Mary the conception of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus are both

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Miracles At the beginning and end of Jesus life. They're like two pillars that say to The natural the naturalist or or or the person whose worldview cannot accommodate

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The supernatural and the miraculous you can go no further I mean if you if you can't fathom the miracle that attends the coming of Jesus into the world, then there's no point

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There's no point in going any further. There is there is no there is no journey that you can make with him and That that is deeply deeply significant a birth that had been foretold and prophesied in a seventh eighth century

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Prophet The details of which even down to the location in Bethlehem That he would be lying in a manger

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Surrounded by animals. I mean all all of this was part of prophecy, of course, and of course, we know that the the commonly seen creche or nativity scene with the

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Wisemen there at the manger is incorrect that they did not show up until Jesus was already living in Joseph's house as a young boy

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Yeah, probably Jesus, you know was about two years old Why Two years old murdered in Bethlehem rather than newborn a simply newborn infants

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Atrocious as all of that is it does suggest Magi Will probably a couple of years later in coming in many of the

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Christmas carols, of course, it's not wrong and The famous nine lessons and carols service in the sequence of readings seems to suggest

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An incorrect order of sequence of events to And every children's nativity plague

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Tends to get that wrong, too Right. Well, I know that that you believe that And every

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Christian should believe that every major Event in fact every event in Jesus's life period

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Was an act of obedience to the Father And this is a primary

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Theme in what you have written with dr. Ferguson. Am I am I correct, right?

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Absolutely, correct You know the birth of Jesus is a significant redemptive moment because The world needs the

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Savior humanity needs the Savior We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we cannot in and of ourselves by human effort produce that Savior and therefore the miraculous

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The miraculous Inception of Jesus and I understand that to be

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As the Chalcedonian Creed Suggests that he was ex Maria So therefore he bore

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DNA that was that was of Mary yet 23 of Mary's chromosomes the other 23 coming from the

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Holy Spirit is how I understand that and And But but the interposition of the

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Holy Spirit and But the father the reference to the power of the

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Most High in in the virgin conception Is indicative of the fact that humanity cannot in and of itself produce

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The Savior that it that it needs That in itself is a kind of theological death blow to Darwinianism the survival of the fittest philosophy because even the very fittest gene is unfit to produce a

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Savior and Unlike you and I or any Christian or any human being

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Who when we were born that was not an act of obedience on our part, but when Jesus Was born or even conceived as a human

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It was because Jesus existed in in eternity past. He he did not come into being in The manger in Bethlehem.

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This was a willful Act of him becoming human. Am I right?

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I Yes, I mean if humanity came into being Yes There was a time when when his humanity was not

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So every aspect of his humanity is created and and has a finite moment of coming into being

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His divine nature Has always existed but in addition to his divine nature

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He assumes human flesh That assumption of human flesh that that act of of Becoming incarnate is an act of obedience

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It's an act of obedience on the part of the second person of the Trinity Paul of course famously puts it in Philippians 2 who being in the form of God And I'm quoting now the

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King James in my head thought is not robbery to be equal with God but made himself nothing

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Taking the form of a servant was found in fashion as a man The literal the more literal translation the latest

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Translation of the ESV for example has now Translated that literally and that he emptied himself

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The Greek verb is a connoisseur and it does literally mean to to empty

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Translators have been shy Employing that literal translation because if you ask yourself the question

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Of what did he empty himself and and then begin to answer the question you're in heresy within a short space of time

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He Emptied himself not by emptying any aspect of his divine nature or or emptying some of his divine attributes or In John Wesley's words,

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I don't think he meant quite what it says, but he emptied himself of all but love and and Wesley was a better theologian than to actually

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Intend for us to understand that in a so literal way Because if that were the case that would be an incarnation by divine suicide, right

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So so in addition to being God God he veiled he hid that Godhead Hidden behind the veil of his humanity and he also limited how he used his powers as D as deity,

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I mean he could have You know prevented the crucifixion if that was his will he could have gotten down from that cross or prevented

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The soldiers from even nailing him there. I mean there were many things that Jesus could have done as God Because he's always remained fully

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God, but he chose not to Use those

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Powers of deity. Am I right? Yeah And and here are not, you know, all evangelicals are not on all on the same page

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As to how the divine and human natures relate to one another

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My own understanding is that everything that Jesus says and does and think

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That's recorded of him in the Gospels Is in fact his human nature

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So his his consciousness of him of of him being divine

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Is a human consciousness another divine consciousness. I Don't think that That you should read the

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Gospels and you know nine times out of ten It's the human Jesus speaking and then on the tenth time.

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It's the divine Jesus speaking. I think that's entirely false I think it's always the human

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Jesus that's speaking in the Gospels even when he asserts his

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Identity he's doing that as a human being who? Believes his identity

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And is upheld in that belief by the power of the Holy Spirit Now not all not all

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Albumists and inerrantists and Bible -believing Christians Hold to the same point of view and there are

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There are some evangelicals who believe that every now and then God Jesus is divine nature sort of speaks through his human nature.

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I think that's a false conception of it, but So I'm I'm happier with I think the point of view that that John Calvin held to or John Owen held to And and I believe it's the majority view that that the divine

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You know Jesus is Jesus never talks to himself. His human nature doesn't address his divine nature

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He doesn't he doesn't pray to himself. He doesn't worship himself So his consciousness of his divine nature is a is a human consciousness yes, and we know that he even

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Grew in his knowledge and things like that that we cannot Fathom how that could possibly be that a man that is not not only fully man, but fully

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God Could learn when he was growing and so on Right, and and what what one has to do is remember the

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Chalcedonian Persons that the two natures are Separate from each other and are not mingled with each other

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The unity of the natures is in is in the person and not in the nature that there is one

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There's one he there's one him But he but he exists in two quite distinct natures

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One which is human and one which is divine Yes, interesting. No But there's no parallel to that there is no illustration that you can that you can say like Like marriage or or the relationship between Christ and the church

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I mean, none of those none of those quite fit the relationship between the two natures

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Right and it's interesting that when the devil is trying to tempt Jesus He Did he did not say that I as a deity could you know crush you with my bare hand or anything like that?

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He was speaking as a human being a human being with authority but as a human being correct and Importance of it theologically is that in order for us to be saved?

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We need a Savior who is both God to represent God to us

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But it was also a human being to represent us to God and therefore

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Athanasius in his in his battle with Arianism or The the

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Anselm of Canterbury in his famous treatise Cordaeus homo, why did

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God become man? And Calvin and his institutes are all insistence that if we are to be saved we need a

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Savior who is both truly God and truly man and and and that Now as a mathematician at one time.

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I did my undergraduate degree in mathematics I I I hear people say a hundred percent

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God and a hundred percent man I mean mathematically that doesn't make any sense. But but you know what

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I mean When we say that No, no limitation to his

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Godhead and no limitation to his humanity Otherwise, otherwise we are unsafe.

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Amen. We do have a listener from Slovenia Joe who has a question for you

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Joe in Slovenia who's listening says since in our day some 2 ,000 years after the first Christian confession

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Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior there is a veritable plethora of heretical and heterodox cults and sub

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Christian religions That were readily used this phrase yet with different meaning for the words

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How useful is this phrase as a Christian confession today in what ways if any?

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Would we need to clarify or expand this phrase today if we would use it as a

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Christian confession and measure for fellowship? That's Joe in Slovenia Jesus Christ is the

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Son of God and Savior I'm assuming perhaps he means such as the

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Jehovah's Witnesses who say yes. He is the Son of God, but he's not God the Son There are a multitude of ways in which

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You know various Sect Accept the notion that Jesus is

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God's Son in the sense that for example God adopted him as a son or he

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He was promoted to be a son or he is a son among many other sons the

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Bible for example uses the term sons of God To refer to angels, for example but The term

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Jesus the Son of God therefore like like any term like any theological term needs to be fully explained and and therefore fully defended

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There is no limit to the Attacks that have been made of course upon Christ and his identity and and therefore a diminution of His deity, but the term

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Son of God Is meant to be a divine title a title of divinity and Of course there are as I say, there are no limits to the attacks that are made

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I still think I still think that The The Confession Jesus Christ the

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Son of God our Savior is is a perfectly good Confession it just needs explaining which is part of the reason why we wrote the book to explain exactly what we did mean by that term

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Well, thank you Joe in Slovenia You have won a free copy of the book that we are discussing today by our guest

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Derek Thomas Ichthus Jesus Christ God's Son the Savior compliments of our friends at banner of truth

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And that will be mailed to you compliments of our friends at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service CV BBS calm

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CV BBS calm and we're going to be going to another break right now or actually our first break

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Dr. Thomas will be here waiting for your Questions and waiting to answer them if you'd like to join us with a question of your own

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Our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com chris ar n ze and a gmail .com

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please give us your first name your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside of the

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USA and Please only remain anonymous. If your question is about a personal and private matter.

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Don't go away We'll be right back with more of Derek Thomas and Ichthus Jesus Christ God's Son the

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Savior Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said

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Give yourself unto reading the man who never reads will never be read

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Our time will be lively useful and I assure you never dull Join us this Saturday at 12 noon

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Eastern Time for a visit to the pastor's study because everyone needs a pastor Welcome back our guest today.

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If you just tuned us in Is dr. Derek Thomas for the first hour? We are discussing his book

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Ichthus Jesus Christ God's Son the Savior if you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own our email address is

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Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com and Please give us your first name your city and state in your country of residence

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If you live outside of the USA only remain anonymous if it's about a personal and private matter

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Dr. Thomas we have a question from RJ in White Plains, New York and RJ wants to know why did

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Jesus Christ have to be baptized? Many of those who deny his deity will use that as their evidence well, of course everything that Jesus does is by way of a substitute for us

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So the baptism that he received it wasn't Christian baptism, he wasn't baptized in the name of the

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Trinity he was baptized According to John the Baptist's right of baptism

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Which was a line of ritual ceremonial washings for the unclean and therefore

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When Jesus is baptized and and we remember of course that John the Baptist himself

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Was Reluctant to do so because he saw himself the implication that if Jesus were to be baptized

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He would be confessing that he was a sinner and John the Baptist understood that he wasn't a sinner

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But Jesus said to him suffer it to be so now in order to fulfill all righteousness

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Because he had come to be The last Adam the second man as Paul refers to him

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He'd come to be our substitute. So it was altogether Necessary for him to identify with sinners

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You know there in the Jordan River is that beautiful sign of his willingness to become

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And legally and ceremonially like one of us as somebody who is unclean and and and needs to be forgiven needs a baptism of forgiveness for the remission of sins

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But of course as I say he did that for me in our room and in our stead so I see substitution all over Jesus's baptism by John the

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Baptist And it's interesting. Obviously, it was not a Trinitarian baptism as you mentioned, but the

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Trinity was present at that event that's one of those Instances in the scripture where you have the

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Father the Son and the Holy Ghost there in the same event Yes, of course

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In actual fact You know that the three persons of the

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Trinity are present at every point in Jesus's life It's fascinating to see

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That the references to the Holy Spirit, for example at the time of the conception

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Baptism temptation he was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit The book of Hebrews speaks of his death was that by the power of the

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Holy Spirit So at every at every redemptive moment

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Actually at every moment, but particularly at every redemptive moment, there is a particular mention of the role of the

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Holy Spirit What is significant Again is the fact that although Jesus There are these references to the

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Holy Spirit and Jesus most certainly addresses his

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Heavenly Father throughout the course of his life and ministry

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He never addresses himself. He never addresses his divine nature as such and By the way,

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RJ you have also won a free copy of the book Icthys Jesus Christ God's Son the

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Savior So, please give us your full name and mailing address So that Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service CV bbs .com

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can ship that out to you and we thank our friends at banner of truth once again for providing these copies

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The one of the things that you bring up in the book in regard to this

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Redemptive history and summary of Jesus is the

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Very powerful scene in Gethsemane and Some people have viewed that as Christ Agonizing over the physical torturous death that he would about to partake in and others would say it was only that he was

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Fearful of knowing that the the wrath of the father was going to be poured upon him and Some would say it was both.

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Do you have any particular opinion on that? Very moving and powerful scene that we have in Gethsemane.

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Yes You know Gethsemane is one of the tenderest moments in all of history

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When you see the human Jesus And and I think it's important to emphasize

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This is the human Jesus and and he is

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Going into an area of experience that he has never been in before from a human point of view

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He cannot himself grasp The depth of the suffering and I think it's pointless to ask is he is he thinking about physical suffering or spiritual suffering or emotional suffering and it's all the above It's every aspect of it, but but there is also

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I think an awareness on the part of Jesus Not just of the physical sufferings and that in itself would

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You know would bring you know many Christian to a point of Immense difficulty, but one has to One has to face the fact that there are

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Christian martyrs who have faced death with far greater Poise and Equanimity and and Resolution than and Jesus does in the garden of Gethsemane Because he does say in the garden of Gethsemane a father if it be possible let this cup pass from me in other words

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He is saying I Don't want to go through with this.

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I mean, that's what he's saying and therefore there is a there is an intensity to What Jesus is expecting that goes beyond the pale of?

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mere physical suffering immense as the bat in itself is

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And and I think that there is an awareness here of A growing awareness an awareness upon his human mind and consciousness that perhaps he has not had before now of the immense cost of Becoming the

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Savior of sinners and of facing not just the wrath of God, but facing the unmitigated wrath of God of being cast into outer darkness and and and But the climax of that being those words, you know, my god my god, why have you forsaken me?

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Never before had Jesus ever experienced any such thing and we mustn't

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We mustn't minimize it by suggesting That he is being upheld you're consciously upheld by his own divine nature

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I think his divine nature is totally in the background here and All you have is the naked

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Human consciousness that he is going into a place that he has never been before and it totally overwhelms him such is

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But such is the degree of his commitment to fulfill the role and task of the mediator and Savior at He he finds that resolution and he finds it by the help of the

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Holy Spirit and and We read in the Gospels and an angel that strengthens him in the garden.

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We have Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Who says when

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Jesus asks the father if the cup could be passed from him? some might look at that and Think that the future is not fixed because of God's decree as we as Calvinists believe

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How do you respond to someone who does not believe that the future is certain and that God has not already

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Decreed all things that will come Because of the fact of Jesus asking the father to have the pet cup passed even though he does not do that Example once again of where we need to keep the two natures of Jesus apart and distinct

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His divine nature knew that the future was fixed because his divine nature had fixed it

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But his human nature did not know that and and did not know what that what

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I mean His human nature knew that God is sovereign and that the future was fixed, but his human nature didn't know what that future was and and therefore

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This is a classic example of Jesus speaking from his incarnate limited knowledge point of view as a human being and The actual

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Crucifixion of Christ the the day that he

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Provided the redemption of his people on Golgotha or on Calvary as some would say

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There is as you know division amongst the body of Christ as to whom

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Did for whom did Christ die we who are theologically reformed believe that he must have only died for the purpose of the redemption of his elect because since his

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Work of atonement or redemption was perfect therefore everyone for whom he died will

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Certainly be in heaven one day They certainly have been Redeemed by his blood whereas as trolls hadn't

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Spurgeon once said that the Arminians Truly have a limited atonement because it's limited in its power the

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Arminian believes that most of whom The Christ died for will not be saved how can you perhaps give a

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Word to our brethren Who are in serious disagreement over this this very serious point on The the redemption of Christ to perhaps by God's grace and and the

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Holy Spirit's aiding give them a Greater reason to understand this.

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Yeah, this is not an issue that the outcome of which says, you know

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You Are saved or unsaved according to whether or not you believe in limited atonement

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So it's not it's not of that order of things my own belief in particular redemption or limited atonement

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Is based on the theological point of view expressed by Augustus top lady in a hymn or more like a poem

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That in which he said these words payment God cannot twice demand once At my bleeding surety's hand and then again at mine if if Jesus is our substitute and paid the price at Justice demands for salvation

45:12

If he does that for everybody You know in a general way he does it for everybody why why then isn't everybody saying why why is it on the

45:22

Day of Judgment We are still held accountable for our sins if Jesus has already died for our sins and the only the only

45:31

Logical answer is that Jesus died redemptively only for those

45:38

Who are the elect and therefore on the Day of Judgment their sins are already paid for the

45:47

Ransom price has already been paid. Well, that's not to say That there aren't other benefits from the cross in terms of It in terms of a more general nature and the fact that The fact that the rain falls on the just and the unjust is is also

46:10

I think off of the benefit of the cross, but but I Believe that from a point of view of justice you cannot have

46:24

Jesus making general atonement for everybody unless And that's your point of view is

46:32

That the basis for your salvation in the end is your decision and then you've moved into a minion ism

46:40

So so I think our minion is about the logic to it. I think I find Calvinism has a logic to it

46:46

But four -point Calvinism is just illogical. It doesn't it just doesn't make any sense. Yeah, you're right

46:52

It doesn't Yeah, you wonder why those who are Amaral Deon or four -point

46:57

Calvinist? Why they would believe on the one hand in unconditional election and that there will be a fixed number of people

47:06

Going to heaven who have who have been predestined Before the foundation of the world and yet they want to maintain a

47:15

A Atonement an atonement or a redemption that includes all of mankind even those who are damned

47:23

It doesn't make any sense as you just said One thing that you said

47:29

Go ahead. I'm sorry. Oh Yeah, sure Atonement is a question

47:41

About the nature of that which Jesus Did on the cross?

47:46

I mean what what did the cross actually achieve and did the cross actually achieve?

47:53

salvation and forgiveness or did it simply achieve the possibility of salvation and and if you say the latter, you know, you're into our minion ism and and there is a certain logic to it, but it's

48:10

Sort of halfway house Jesus actually achieved salvation on the cross that only makes sense if he actually achieved it and That that achievement becomes effective in the salvation of the elect

48:25

Yes, and in fact most as you probably are aware in your own conversations with those who are non

48:33

Calvinists Most people don't say even if they reject particular redemption or definite atonement or limited atonement even if they reject it, they don't say that the

48:43

The atonement was hypothetical. They will say that Jesus certainly did Complete the work of redemption on Calvary and it shows they're very serious inconsistency

48:57

There is no logical consistency how he could have paid the price For all of humanity's sin and yet most of them are going to as you quoted from top lady earlier

49:11

Most of them will be paying for those sins again and will be in eternal torment

49:17

Right and you said something in description of this book

49:26

Not on this program. I had I had seen your Promotion of the book on the banner of truth website where you were saying that Books about Jesus do not sell very well, which is very poor reflection upon the the body of Christ at least in the 21st century

49:51

Why Christians would rather not buy books about Jesus is pretty startling. It might interest you

49:59

That I have heard from an art collector that if you have very

50:06

Old and rare paintings That are depictions of the

50:11

Old Testament They they may be very very valuable, but they are very rarely very valuable when the depiction of Christ is in the painting which is

50:22

Kind of going along with what you said about books. Why is that that? Do you believe that books about Jesus are not very popular and at least in our 21st century

50:39

And people want, you know five ways to do this and ten ways to do that and and Those are by far and away the most popular books books that help people

50:52

Live their Christian lives Whether they're good books or or not so good books.

50:57

I mean they tend to be in the best sellers Apologetics books that address very contemporary issues

51:09

Tend to sell better. But I mean the fact of the matter is that if you write a book about Jesus It's probably not going to sell well and and partly because most

51:20

Christians Think they already understand Jesus. It's the rest of the

51:26

Bible. They don't understand but It was our opinion

51:32

Sinclair Ferguson and I that there are significant aspects of Of the work of Jesus, but it's but there are significant aspects of the person of Jesus that are insufficiently understood and one of those things is the relationship between The human nature and the divine nature and there's a tendency to interpret the

52:03

Gospels Suggesting at various points that the divine nature of Jesus is somehow sort of Showing through his human nature and and we both felt that that was a misinterpretation of of the life of Jesus Well, I know that You know that the title it

52:29

Hasn't helped either I Hear them say

52:41

Well, I want you I know that you have to leave early I want you to have five minutes of uninterrupted time now to just summarize what you most

52:50

Want to be etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today Regarding Ichthus Jesus Christ God's Son the

52:56

Savior. Well, of course Nothing is more important than Jesus And Jesus as both

53:04

God and man and our Savior Jesus as our representative and sin -bearer and substitute

53:14

He is the one who Enables us to find our complete and utter fulfillment

53:22

In terms of who we are and what God intended us to be but far more important still

53:28

He is the one that ensures that our sins though they are red like crimson are in a

53:37

Union with him as white as snow Living our

53:42

Christian life It is a matter of a relationship with Christ and a relationship with him as our prophet and priest and and king and as our elder brother

53:58

We have been adopted by grace into a family of God and we are heirs and co -heirs with Jesus Christ Our sanctification our pursuit of holiness living the

54:15

Christian life is one of living in union and communion with this

54:22

Jesus You know, I I thought I came to know him over 40 years ago when

54:30

I When I became a Christian But I find that every day

54:35

I I need to know him more and I need to experience him more

54:43

He is my all in all and and without him

54:49

We are we are and I am completely and utterly lost so this book

54:55

Looking into the significant redemptive

55:01

Historical moments in the life of Jesus from his conception to his ascension and second coming

55:09

Was an attempt to help us grasp a little

55:15

Better who he is the altogether lovely one and We do have time for one more question

55:27

Joey in Clifton, New Jersey Says I very much agree with your point that the formulation of count

55:34

Calcedon is very important to maintain orthodoxy regarding Christ's person and work

55:39

Heresies on both sides of this formulation continue every day. My question regards your statement that Christ's expression of himself

55:48

Was always through the human nature. Can you share then how the divine nature was operating and expressing itself?

55:56

Can you also share your thoughts on the interaction between? Christ's two natures Well, I was reading it for the first time

56:18

Joey that's a great question. It's a wonderful question. I I think that we need a consistency in how we understand

56:25

Who this? Jesus Who speaks and breathes and eats and sleeps in the

56:34

Gospels? How he does that and I just think that it's just inconsistent and besides which who

56:46

Who is to make the determination? Oh, this is the divine Jesus speaking here and this is the human Jesus speaking here

56:52

It is always the human Jesus that is speaking. I Don't I don't know

56:59

Exactly how the divine nature communed with the human nature of Jesus except by faith

57:08

And I think that the human Jesus was conscious of the divine Jesus only

57:14

By faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit in the way that we are conscious of the divine nature of Jesus by faith

57:23

Well, thank you, Joey. You have received or you will receive our last copy of the book ichthyus

57:30

Published by banner of truth. We thank our friends at banner of truth for supplying them and we thank

57:35

Cumberland Valley Bible book service CVBBS .com for shipping that out to you. I want to thank you so much.

57:41

Dr. Thomas for being on the program today and I look forward to your frequent return.

57:46

I know that the banner of truth website is banner of truth org banner of truth org and also the website for First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina is first prez

57:59

Columbia org first prez Columbia org and Columbia There is a different spelling than the country.

58:08

There's not two O's in that. It's C Olu and BIA first prez

58:13

Columbia org. Thank you so much brother, and I look forward to your return You too brother

58:24

God bless you and Coming up don't go away folks because coming up Mike Gadosz is going to be joining us a god -willing

58:32

He is going to be talking about new. Hope for a new year Mike Gadosz is an ordained

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Baptist minister and he is also the founder of solid ground Christian books

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And I look forward to having my discussion with him. Don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors

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Harvey Cedars where Christ finds people and changes lives Welcome back.

01:05:49

This is Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in our second guest During our program today will be

01:05:56

Mike Gadosh He is an ordained Baptist minister and he is the founder of solid ground

01:06:02

Christian books He also happens to be my very first pastor After receiving the new birth by the grace and mercy of our

01:06:10

Lord Jesus Christ in the mid 1980s We are going to be discussing new hope for a new year

01:06:16

But before we do that, I have some important announcements to make Coming up just in a matter of a couple of weeks from January 17th through the 20th the

01:06:29

G3 conference returns to Atlanta, Georgia and the

01:06:36

G3 stand the G3 conference stands for grace gospel and glory and I am excited that I will once again

01:06:44

God willing Be manning an exhibitors booth for iron sharpens iron radio at this conference and This is a wonderful reformed conference.

01:06:56

If you've never been to this conference the G3 conference. I strongly urge you to make reservations to attend and if you have a ministry or Church or a parachurch organization or a business

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That you want to promote to the audience and there'll be thousands of people at this conference. It's quite a large conference

01:07:17

You can register for an exhibitors booth as well by going to g3 conference calm g3 conference calm and the theme this

01:07:26

January Is knowing God a biblical understanding of discipleship the speakers include

01:07:31

Stephen Lawson Votie Balcom Phil Johnson Keith Getty HB Charles jr Tim Chalice Josh Bice James White Tom Askell Anthony Mathenia and Michael Kruger David Miller Paul Tripp Todd Friel Derek Thomas who was our first guest today?

01:07:47

Martha Peace Justin Peters and Stephen Nichols Who is the president of Reformation?

01:07:54

Bible College the college founded by dr. RC sprawl Ligonier ministries who is now in eternity with Christ If you would like to register once again, the website is g3 conference calm g3 conference calm

01:08:09

Please please please tell Josh Bice and everyone at Praise Mill Baptist Church who are running this conference that you heard about the g3 conference from Chris Arnson on iron sharpens iron radio and Last but not least.

01:08:27

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01:10:21

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01:10:28

So whether it's your church your parachurch Organization your business your professional practice such as a law firm a medical firm dental firm a chiropractic firm suppose it could be a

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01:10:55

We would love to launch an ad campaign with you. And of course, there are certain things That you can advertise that are benign that are theologically neutral because they don't involve

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Just send us that email to Chris Arnson at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line

01:11:22

That's also the email address where you can send a question for my current guest

01:11:28

Mike Gadosh Mike Gadosh as I already mentioned is an ordained Baptist minister And he is also the founder of solid ground

01:11:35

Christian books And today we are going to be addressing new hope for a new year and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to iron sharpens iron radio

01:11:43

Mike Gadosh Thank you Chris for the opportunity, I really appreciate it and it was such a joy to have

01:11:49

Derek Thomas on for the first hour I know that you are very familiar with Derek and I know that he has on occasion written endorsements for books that you have published and It was such a joy to have

01:12:01

I haven't spoken to him since 2010. That was the last time he was on the program So it was great to have him back

01:12:06

Well, you've got a Welshman leading into a half Welshman My mother's maiden name was

01:12:15

Jones and from from Wales and Yes, well you might be a half

01:12:24

Welshman but I heard that most Presbyterians that have at least a fifth of Scotch in them And Before we even go into our theme, which is a very timely and appropriate theme new hope for a new year

01:12:47

I want you to tell our listeners about solid ground Christian books and perhaps even mentioned some titles that you want to highlight

01:12:55

Yes, solid ground has been in existence now for almost 18 years we began in 2001

01:13:01

I began with a vision to Reprint old works that have been out of print for a long time.

01:13:08

The first book that we did was Ichabod Spencer's pastures sketches, which has now gone through many different printings and editions and we have

01:13:19

Published now well over 350 titles in the past nearly 18 years

01:13:25

But we now do much more than just the older works. We've also been publishing new books by new authors as well living authors and I've been very thankful for the opportunity of published four titles of James White Pulpit crimes letters to a

01:13:43

Mormon elder Is the Mormon my brother and from Toronto to Emmaus? the defense of the resurrection of Christ So there's there's been tremendous opportunities for me to to be able to serve the

01:13:58

Christian community I'm a Reformed Baptist by conviction, but I'm also Probably the leading publisher of old

01:14:05

Princeton volumes. I've done many books by the Alexander family

01:14:11

Ja Alexander Archibald the father and JW Alexander as well. I've also published works by Machen and by Warfield and And many many others from the old

01:14:24

Princeton tradition Princeton sermons just a plethora of works, but at the same time

01:14:31

I've also done what's now become somewhat the definitive edition of the

01:14:38

Baptist confession of faith the London Baptist confession of faith We've we've done we've gone through two printings and leather three printings and paperback and at present

01:14:47

We are sold out of all of them I'm Hoping and praying for the opportunity to be able to bring possibly both of them back into print again in 2018 in fact, hopefully in the early part of 2018 if we get enough orders we've had a good number of people who have asked about when we're going to be doing it again, and It really all depends on pre -orders that we would need to get to be able to have the money

01:15:17

Necessary to to do a new edition as it is very costly project But those are the main things right now that that I would like to focus on And the website is solid -ground -books .com

01:15:31

solid -ground -books .com and Please make sure you tell

01:15:37

Mike that you heard about Solid ground Christian books from Chris Arnson and iron sharpens on radio, and you don't know how much

01:15:43

Joy, it gives me to know that many of my listeners are being obedient, and they're actually telling you that They're hearing about you from our program

01:15:53

Absolutely, we've been we've been getting a lot of people recently letting us know that they've they found out about us through iron sharpens iron and and have placed some very encouraging orders first -time orders and We just we just continue to receive orders every month

01:16:14

Sometimes several times a week from from customers that have found out about us through iron sharpens iron

01:16:21

Well praise God for that well our theme today as you know very appropriately is new hope for a new year when people approach the new year their thoughts very often are either on how drunk or high they can get on New Year's Eve or how much fun they can have and Also, you have other people who have

01:16:47

Better intentions in regards to the new year they are focusing on some kind of resolution

01:16:52

That they want to make and unfortunately. I think most people probably give up after a couple of days on those resolutions

01:16:59

But you have something infinitely more important to discuss today regarding the new year don't you? Yes, I do

01:17:06

Chris. I am in fact as I pondered your question I'm I don't remember was it yesterday that you called me

01:17:13

I know it wasn't a real long time ago but as you were asking me about this the passage that immediately came to mind is the same passage that came to my mind when when we moved from Alabama this past summer to to where we live now in in Florida and our pastor pastor with Todd Wilson asked me to bring a farewell message to the congregation on our last

01:17:40

Lord's Day and The passage that the Lord put upon my heart is the passage that I'd like to be able to open up to your listeners today and It has everything to do with hope has everything to do with comfort has everything to do with encouragement

01:17:56

And it's actually only part of a verse it's taken from Psalm 31 and it's verse 15 part a and Literally the words are my times

01:18:09

In your hand and The most translations read my times are in your hand and then the second half of the verse

01:18:17

Which we will not be able to be really looking at too much is deliver me from the hand of my enemies

01:18:23

And from those who persecute me But the focus I would like to have upon this is upon those words

01:18:30

My times are in your hand when whenever we come to us a new situation in life whenever particularly in this case

01:18:35

We're coming to a new year I Think it's good for us to go back to the basic realities that that give us firm footing and that's exactly what

01:18:48

David did here and This psalm is actually a very precious psalm and a very special psalm

01:18:56

Can I ask you Chris, do you know why this particular psalm 31 is Such a special psalm one of the reasons at least

01:19:05

Is it a relation to the death of Christ Exactly. In fact,

01:19:11

I believe I believe it can be pretty clearly demonstrated that it is this psalm that our

01:19:18

Lord Had upon his heart and his mind as he died As he breathed his last as a matter of fact, we are told specifically in Luke 23 46 and it says and Jesus crying out with a loud voice said father

01:19:33

Into your hands. I commit my spirit having said this he breathed his last and so and that's taken from Psalm 31 in the earlier portion

01:19:45

Psalm 31 verse 5 and here These words into your hands.

01:19:51

I commit my spirit into your hands. I commit my spirit those words we know those words were upon our

01:19:58

Lord's heart and Not only were they upon his heart and came forth from him but These words were quoted by many others

01:20:09

Who passed into the presence of God in fact in July 6?

01:20:15

1415 the bohemian reformer John Huss Was burned at the stake for preaching the doctrines

01:20:21

Luther would preach a hundred years later as he was dying He repeated the words over and over again

01:20:27

Into thy hands. I commit my spirit Thou has redeemed me

01:20:33

Lord God of truth and then Martin Luther died on February 18th 1846 and his final words repeated three times

01:20:41

Where father into thy hands I commend my spirit thou has redeemed me

01:20:47

Lord God of truth and Then the great Scottish reformer John Knox on November 24th 1572 as he died his last words now for the last time

01:20:58

I commend my spirit soul and body into thy hand And since that time a multitude no way no man can number have passed from death to life with the words of this psalm upon their lips

01:21:12

But this is not a psalm that is only useful in death it is perfect for us as we face every day and every change in our lives and Therefore it is especially appropriate as we come to a new year and Going to those words, let us consider the circumstances of these life -changing words

01:21:31

Do you know what the circumstances were when David penned this psalm? You have any idea

01:21:37

David Chris? Could it have been? Is grieving over absent?

01:21:45

That's one of the possibilities. In fact Dear the we know that David a man after God's own heart when he wrote these words

01:21:54

Some believe that they were penned during the time King Saul was seeking his life Others believe that he wrote these words much later when he fled from his son

01:22:02

Absalom but then most believe that it is impossible to point out the precise circumstances he was facing and So as with Paul's thorn in the flesh our ignorance proves to be a blessing

01:22:15

There is no child of God who cannot relate to the troubles that evoked this psalm

01:22:21

Therefore there is no child of God here That would listens to us today who is not able to relate these words to himself or to herself

01:22:29

These words were not just from David. They were not just because of the circumstances he faced but these words are words that can be taken upon the heart of every child of God a

01:22:42

Second thing to consider is the context of these life -changing words That is the context of verse 15 and the preceding paragraph reads like this

01:22:51

Be gracious to me. Oh Lord for I am in distress My eye is wasted from grief my soul and my body also

01:23:00

For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing

01:23:06

My strength fails because of my iniquity and my bones waste away

01:23:11

I Doubt there is anyone who is going to be listening tonight who

01:23:18

Can't identify with these words. I know you can Chris. I know that you've gone through and experienced distress sorrow grief and sighing and For a variety of reasons and I know in my own case that the vast majority of times

01:23:32

The distress that I feel the grief that I feel The sorrow that I feel in the sighing that I experienced is exactly the same reason that David gives

01:23:43

My strength fails because of my iniquity it's not because of the iniquity of the world as grievous as it is to hear of the horrible things that take place as Horrible as it is to hear of terror terror attacks and various things that are taking place in this country and throughout the world

01:24:01

My strength fails because of my iniquity. It's not my problem is not your iniquity

01:24:06

My problem is my iniquity and put and and this is exactly the setting in which

01:24:12

David wrote these words and then he says in verses 11 to 13 because of all my adversaries.

01:24:18

I've become a reproach Especially to my neighbors and an object of dread to my acquaintances those who see me in the street flee from me

01:24:26

I've been forgotten like one who is dead I become like a broken vessel for I hear the whispering of many terror on every side

01:24:34

They scheme together against me as they plot to take my life As David prepares to utter the words of our text he pleads with the

01:24:42

Lord to be gracious to him in light of his inner struggles his distress his sorrow his sighing and The outer struggles from his adversaries as he becomes a reproach an object of dread forgotten in a broken vessel

01:24:53

The language of these verses takes us back to the time David and his men returned home in 1st

01:24:58

Samuel 30 You remember that Chris where it says? David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day and the

01:25:06

Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag Had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire and they took captive the women and all who were in it both small and great

01:25:15

Without killing anyone and carried them off and went their way It says when

01:25:20

David and his men came to the city and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive and David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep

01:25:33

You can imagine and we've heard about this fire that took place in New York and some dozen people who were killed in this fire

01:25:41

Well here we are told that David and his men came home and their homes were all burned and Every one of their wives and children were gone

01:25:51

They did not know if they were still alive. They might have assumed that they were still alive because they didn't kill them there

01:25:57

But we know for a fact that they were gone and they didn't know where they were They didn't know who had them and they didn't know where they were.

01:26:03

They had gone And we are told that they had no strength to weep anymore And we're told

01:26:09

David's two wives Had been taken captive and when the Jezreel Itis and Abigail the widow of Nabal the

01:26:15

Carmelite Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him for all the people were embittered each one because of his sons and his daughters and Then something happens here in the in the text in first Samuel.

01:26:31

It's quite wonderful to behold It says at that moment when all appeared to be lost

01:26:37

When David's own men were planning to stone him David strengthened himself in the

01:26:44

Lord his God and the literal words there are David strengthened his hand in God and Kyle and Dale it's a not by supplies not by money not by any subsidy of that kind but by consolation drawn from his innocence and from the promises of God And what's particularly wonderful about that expression that is used in the first Samuel passage

01:27:11

When it says David strengthened himself in the Lord his God Years earlier David had faced great

01:27:19

Distraction and it was Saul who was seeking his life at that time and Jonathan we are told came out to David and we are told that Jonathan strengthened

01:27:31

David's hand in God And you know how he did it He did it by reminding

01:27:37

David of the promises of God that had come to him through Samuel Jonathan reminded

01:27:43

David that God had promised that he would reign over Israel and therefore he strengthened his hand in God and then in fact in fact, if you could pick up right where you left off there because We have to get to our final break right now.

01:27:59

Yes, sure and Jonathan Giving comfort to David and If anybody would like to join us now is the time to send in your email because we're rapidly running out of time

01:28:10

Our email address is Chris Arnzen at gmail .com. If you have a question for Mike Adosh About a new hope for a new year.

01:28:17

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01:28:24

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01:28:30

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01:35:58

Conversation with Mike Gadosz founder of solid ground Christian books that I was just mentioning and we are talking about New hope for a new year and right before the break you were talking about how

01:36:09

Jonathan was comforting David And if you want to continue and then we do have several people whose questions have come in that we'd like you to address

01:36:18

Okay, yes, I was what my point was is that the setting or the context of these words my times

01:36:26

Are in your hand? comes from the encouragement that David had received

01:36:32

From Jonathan back when Saul was pursuing his life and Jonathan came to him

01:36:39

And it says he strengthened his hand in God and that exact expression is picked up again in 1st

01:36:46

Samuel 30 when David was faced and Jonathan was no longer there. And so you have a case where Jonathan had strengthened his hand in God when he was there now

01:36:57

Jonathan wasn't there and David strengthened his own hand in God and he did so as Kylin Dalish point out that he did so by focusing upon the promises of God and And so that's the that's the first setting of the of the context that is of these life -changing words is

01:37:17

Verses 9 to 13 and then before we answer a question Let me just look at the preceding verse verse 14, which immediately precedes our text

01:37:26

Where David said but I trust in you O Lord. I say you are my

01:37:33

God Here my friends is the key to finding consolation and hope Within our text this morning, but I trust in you

01:37:43

O Lord Now if we're a Christian, we're called a believer Why are we called again and again in Scripture a believer?

01:37:52

Very simple no matter what happens within us or around us We believe

01:37:58

With Paul we can say I know whom I have believed with Abraham yet with respect to the promise of God he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully assured that what

01:38:13

God had promised He was able also to perform We walk by faith and not by sight.

01:38:20

We are a believer We are a child of God and then we are able to say with David I say you are my

01:38:29

God. The first declaration is rooted in the second. God is my God This is not a selfish declaration as if he were exclusively our

01:38:37

God But this is a personal declaration that he is our personal God Luther once said our religion is a matter of personal pronouns our being able to say of God my

01:38:49

God and God saying of us my child and Thus if we are a

01:38:54

Christian if we are truly a child of God no matter what we're facing in the year to come we are confident as David was my times are in your hand

01:39:06

Amen, we go on and look at those words Let's take a question or two here Okay, we have

01:39:15

CJ from Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York who says When David and later

01:39:22

Christ cry out to God, why have you forsaken me? What is really meant by that if we are going through trials in our life that are unbearable are we to believe that God has forsaken us were they mistaken and Was there a different way in which

01:39:38

God was forsaking David then he was Jesus Well number one

01:39:45

Clearly there is a difference between what David was experiencing what our Lord experienced

01:39:51

There is no one who experienced the kind of forsakenness that our

01:39:57

Lord did upon the cross Those words my God my God Why is thou forsaken me as Murray said those words are the most startling words ever uttered from earth

01:40:09

God forsaken of God and The only explanation is the vicarious sin -bearing of our

01:40:18

Lord if you remove the doctrine of propitiation from your theology Those words make no sense

01:40:25

Those words only make sense when you understand that God the

01:40:30

Father Poured out his wrath his unmitigated wrath upon Christ as the substitute

01:40:39

He bore our sins in his body on the tree He who knew no sin was made to sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him

01:40:51

Whatever David experienced whatever caused David to say what he said in Psalm 22 was a very very minor in comparison to what with what

01:41:02

Jesus our Lord went through and The words that are spoken there in Psalm 22 and there are uttered from the cross our words that There are times when we feel and we feel in the very depth of our being

01:41:19

That the Lord has forsaken us There are times that we actually feel that way

01:41:25

I think all of us have gone through times when we wonder if the Lord has not turned his back on us in Part of Psalm 51

01:41:32

David prays take not by Holy Spirit from me and yet we are told the promises that are given to us in the

01:41:39

New Testament is that The Lord has promised that he will never ever Leave us.

01:41:45

He will never ever forsake us and So we know that no matter what we feel

01:41:53

The Lord's promise is true And the psalmist at one point says when my anxious thoughts multiply within me thy consolations delight my soul there are times when our our thoughts

01:42:10

Truly do multiply within us when this is when Satan buffets us when he

01:42:15

Reminds us of our sins and he pounds us with our sins and he brings back sins that took place 35 years ago

01:42:24

And he throws them into our face and he reminds us of those things it is easy for us to begin to become in despair and What we need to do in every case is look to Christ Spurgeon always said for every look that we take in our inside of ourselves.

01:42:41

We need to take two looks to Christ Continually look to Christ. He is the only hope that we have in our times of despair.

01:42:47

We need to look to Christ We need to look to him Amen we have

01:42:54

Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania who says 2018 will no doubt have its share of false predictions

01:43:04

About the return of Christ in the end of the world as it seems every year has

01:43:10

What is your best? Initial response to those who even begin to bring you such a prediction that they have heard from a televangelist radio evangelist or false preacher

01:43:22

That's a good question. I I think that what I what I would probably do is

01:43:28

I would gently ask them questions and Ask them.

01:43:35

What is it that would cause you to think? That this year will be different from last year or from ten years ago there have been many false prophets who have risen and have

01:43:45

Prophesied that the Lord is going to return or he has to return by a certain date And we know that those are all false that whenever a claim is made like that.

01:43:55

We know that it's false But the person who's speaking to us may not and so I think that you your relationship

01:44:05

With that person becomes very critical If you have a close relationship and if they trust you

01:44:11

I would say that you would would perhaps Graciously say You know while I can appreciate what you're saying.

01:44:20

I Do think it's important for us to remember what the scriptures tell us about The way we are to live our lives every day.

01:44:28

We are to live our life every day with our eyes fixed upon heaven We are to be thinking of our citizenship which is in heaven from which we eagerly wait for the

01:44:37

Savior I mean, it's good for us to long for those things and many times as Christians We we lose sight of that that we are to be looking for and hastening the day of our

01:44:48

Lord's return at the same time we also know that no man knows the time that the

01:44:55

Lord is going to return and And so I think that that we just need to be humble.

01:45:00

We need to be gracious. We need to listen We need to ask questions and then we need to cause people just to encourage people

01:45:09

To focus their attention in other words if to say to a person look if you really believe the

01:45:15

Lord is going to return this year Peter tells us in 2nd Peter chapter 3 if The heavens are going to be dissolved in this way.

01:45:23

What manner of lives are we to live? Sadly when mr.

01:45:28

Camping was making all of his false predictions Now there were some people who who did

01:45:35

Sacrifice many things lost they quit their jobs. They they took out on the road we're taking out advertisements were warning people of the judgment that was coming and Mean the one thing you have to commend in those people at least they were putting

01:45:53

Things to practice, but I also heard that were many people who believed those predictions

01:45:58

That ended up taking getting credit cards and running credit cards up Thinking that they wouldn't have to worry about them the pay about paying them back and I'm thinking to myself.

01:46:09

Well, why in the world if you really believe that Christ is returning Why would you go out and spend and I'm not talking about the people who spent their money on on?

01:46:18

Advertisements and warning people about the judgment to come and turn about people who went out and got huge TVs and and and boats

01:46:25

And all of these other things on on credit Thinking that they wouldn't have to pay back those things

01:46:31

Well, that's that's exactly the opposite of what the scriptures tell us we are to be doing

01:46:38

If we really believe the Lord is going to come soon so that would be That's the best answer that I could give for that.

01:46:45

Mm -hmm And we let let's before I answer any more questions Let's let's just look at the I want to look at our words themselves

01:46:51

Because I don't know we could end up running out of time and I never get to the actual text The content of these life -changing words is found

01:46:59

Literally in just a couple of words in the verse my times in your hand

01:47:05

My times this expression my times the only time this precise phrase is found in the Bible The Geneva Bible has the following footnote for this verse whatever changes come you govern them by your providence and John Calvin Said regarding This verse he says he does not use the plural number in my opinion without reason that is my times plural but rather to mark the variety of casualties by which the life of man is usually harassed and So we see here the times our times are in his hand

01:47:41

It is a plural it emphasizes every moment every experience. We will ever face in 2018 my times that is happy times sad times

01:47:51

Disappointing times surprising times busy times boring times Act 1726 he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth

01:48:03

Having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation

01:48:09

Hebrews 9 27 and in as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment

01:48:16

Every moment of our day psalm 139 speaks about this so much our times every little moment these two words my times

01:48:27

Nothing excluded Nothing will be missed The Lord comforts and encourages us

01:48:33

Spurgeon said this the sovereign arbiter of destiny Holds in his own power all the issues of our life

01:48:40

We are not waifs and strays upon the ocean of fate, but are steered by infinite wisdom towards our desired

01:48:48

Haven Providence is a soft pillow for anxious heads an anodyne for care and a grave for despair and so here in the words of comfort for the year 2018 my times and Then we have the final word your hand my times in your hand an anthropomorphic expression signifying the power and the rule of our

01:49:16

God I Would think of the verse in first Chronicles 29 both riches and honor come from you and you rule over all and in your hand

01:49:24

His power and might and it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone

01:49:30

But who am I and who are my people? That we should be able to offer as generously as this for all things come from you and from your hand

01:49:38

We have given you Oh Lord our God all this abundance that we have provided to build you a house for your holy name it is from your hand and all is yours and You remember of course the great prayer of Acts 20 chapter 4

01:49:58

It says in the prayer that was offered. It says for truly in this city There were gathered together against your holy servant

01:50:05

Jesus whom you anointed Both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur and Now Lord take note of their threats and grant that your bonds servants may speak your word with all confidence while you extend your hand to heal and Signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant

01:50:32

Jesus Those are the words of the text my times every moment in your hand in the powerful grip of our great and our awesome

01:50:46

God We have another question. Yes. We have an anonymous listener who says

01:50:52

I am in a serious dilemma My ex -husband is a very evil man and he does what he can

01:51:00

To turn my children away from the Lord. He hates Christianity and I am constantly being told by Christians that I have to forgive him and I am not to ever prevent his involvement from their lives

01:51:18

What am I to do in this precarious situation? I do not want to disobey

01:51:24

God and yet I have fear of what The future holds for my children with this man constantly being a drumbeat for Satan To turn my children away from God Well My first counsel would always be to To go to a pastor to go to your pastor and to seek to speak with your pastor and receive the counsel from him

01:51:49

I would not want to undermine anything that a pastor would say to his congregant

01:51:56

At the same time having been a pastor for many years I think that what I would say and what

01:52:01

I've always tried to say into circumstances like this is number one No matter how evil the man is

01:52:09

He has some legal rights to visit the children and I think that that we can't go against the law of the state in In seeking to prevent the children from from seeing their father unless the courts would deem that he is not

01:52:26

A person who should have rights to see the children Whether or not that should be pursued.

01:52:33

That would be something again. A person would have to speak to a Christian lawyer their pastor to get some counsel about that but I would say the first thing that that this dear woman needs to do is to Continue to be an example to her family

01:52:53

I'm not going to speak. I'm not even going to address the issue of forgiving him. I Do believe forgiveness is something that the

01:53:01

Scriptures tell us is upon repentance You can't forgive somebody who's unrepentant.

01:53:07

God doesn't forgive unrepentant people and When the Lord says if your brothers for your brother sins against you and comes and repents forgive him

01:53:16

He sins against you seven times in a day and comes and repents you forgive him and That that's a completely different situation than somebody who is sinning and has no interest in forgiveness and has no interest in repentance

01:53:32

So I don't think that the issue of forgiveness is really the issue here. That should be the primary thing What I would say is that this the woman this dear woman needs to be an example to her children

01:53:42

She needs to love her children. She needs to pray for her children. She needs to be there for her children

01:53:48

People that I have spoken with through the years when when a spouse tries to turn the children against the other spouse as the children grow they will begin to see where the truth lies and And just pray that God would protect them

01:54:06

That when they're in your presence you be an example of Christ to them you demonstrate the love of Christ You extend to them the forgiveness of Christ you don't speak ill of your husband your former husband

01:54:22

You you just simply pray for him and and seek to be an example of godliness

01:54:29

It's not easy to do. I think it's simple but not easy And so that's what that would be my counsel in this situation just in a little bit of time that I've had

01:54:40

Amen yeah people I think most Christians wrongly or mistakenly blur the distinction between Loving doing good for and praying for your enemies with forgiveness.

01:54:54

Those aren't all the same thing And I remember reading

01:54:59

Jay Adams book on that from forgiven to forgiving excellent book Yeah, taking that point and also

01:55:04

Chris bronze as an excellent book taking the same position Unpacking forgiveness Well, if you could in two minutes just summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners in regard to a new hope for a new year

01:55:20

Well, I think that the Heidelberg catechism really comes in beautifully at this point You know I will read and focus on some of those words there and then conclude with Psalm 73 25 and 26.

01:55:32

I think these are the words that can greet bring great comfort to us and give us hope What is your only comfort in life and in death that I am not my own

01:55:41

But belong with body and soul both in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil

01:55:56

He has also preserved me in such a way that without the will of my Heavenly Father Not a hair can fall from my head indeed all things must work together for my salvation therefore by his

01:56:11

Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him this brings us hope this gives us comfort in the coming year and Then the words that I would like to close with are the words of Asaph taken from Psalm 73

01:56:32

Whom have I in heaven, but you and besides you I desire nothing on earth

01:56:39

My flesh and my heart may fail But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever

01:56:49

May God write these words upon our heart and may 2018 be a year in which we enjoy the comfort and the blessing of our great

01:56:58

God amen, I would ask of all of you listening if you know of those who are

01:57:06

Alone during the holidays. They're grieving over the loss of a loved one. Perhaps a

01:57:12

Spouse perhaps parents perhaps children or just someone very close to them

01:57:18

Want to read why not reach out to them want to invite them over your home or do something What through the love of Christ?

01:57:26

to appoint them To the only hope for eternal life our

01:57:31

Lord God Savior and King Jesus Christ who holds eternity in his hands I want to thank you so much

01:57:38

Mike Gadoche my very first pastor who dunked me into the waters of baptism and Nurtured me in the faith for so many years.

01:57:46

I look forward to your return to this program I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who wrote in questions today

01:57:53

Don't forget that the website for solid ground Christian books is solid -ground -books .com

01:57:58

Solid -ground -books .com so we'll hear from you in 2018 and don't forget that Jesus Christ is a far greater