January 26, 2023 Show with A. M. Brewster on “The Nature of Biblical Obedience”

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Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of Founding Father James Wilson, 19th

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Century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th Century Gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend

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Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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

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

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have an 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, and now here's your host,

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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. We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Thursday on this 26th day of January 2023.

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I'm thrilled to have back as a returning guest for one of his monthly visits

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A .M. Brewster. He is president of Evermind Ministries, a biblical counselor, author, podcaster, and conference speaker, and today he is going to be addressing the nature of biblical obedience is doing the right thing good enough.

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Maybe Spike Lee is wrong after all, and do the right thing may be insufficient, but it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, A .M.

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Brewster. Thank you so much for having me back on. I am very happy to be here, and I'm also happy to say if any of your listeners listening today caught our last show,

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I mentioned that I had lost control of, I lost access to my websites, but by the grace of God, I have access to those again.

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So thank you for those who prayed, and I hope you can rejoice with me. Amen. Well, tell our listeners, for the sake of those especially who have not yet heard you on the program, tell them about Evermind Ministries.

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Evermind Ministries is a family of ministries, I like to say it. It really,

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Evermind Ministries is all about keeping God's truth at the center of the human experience, so each ministry within Evermind Ministries is designed to do that, to keep

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God's truth at the center of a specific niche of our human experience.

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One of the very first ministries was Truth Love Family, and Truth Love Family clearly speaks to marriage and parenting, as well as general family matters.

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Then there is Faith Tree Biblical Counseling and Discipleship, where we deal specifically with discipleship, but also mostly crisis counseling.

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Individuals find themselves in difficult situations and don't know what God's word says about it. Well, there's also the year -long

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Celebration of God, which deals with the broader concept of worship. What is worship, and what does that look like in our daily lives?

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We'll actually be talking a lot about that today and as part of our discussion. And then my speaking ministry and my biblical counseling is also done through A .M.

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Brewster Ministries. I just had the opportunity to speak at a church and school in Vermont, which was super awesome, and have a parenting

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Q &A and all of that. So I speak and I minister broadly. If God's word talks about it,

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I pray that I have the opportunity to minister that truth to people. And then we find those different facets of our lives, family, work, worship, to the church, and we look at what

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God's word has to say in those particular instances. One great way to find out more about these ministries, and me in particular, is to go to TruthLoveParent, all one word, truthloveparent .com,

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and then forward slash iron. And when you go there, not only will you see links to what I do, but you'll also be able to access additional information and resources concerning what

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Chris and I are going to talk about today, as well as access all of the previous conversations

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Chris and I have had, and all of the resources for that as well, truthloveparent .com, forward slash iron.

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Amen. Well, I want to give our listeners right up front our email address if you have questions for A .M.

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Brewster. The email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

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Give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

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Obviously when we have a biblical counselor on the program, I can readily understand people who have personal, private, and very intimate questions that they want to ask and not identify themselves, so that's completely acceptable.

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We will honor your request that you remain anonymous, but please, if you're just asking a general question, please give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

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That's chrisarnsen at gmail .com. Well, you know, something reminded me of the discussion that we are having today.

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The other day, I can't remember how long ago it was, but it was just two to three days,

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I believe, ago. I sat with a churning stomach, getting a little bit nauseous, watching the very popular

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Fox news host, Jesse Waters, interviewing some woman who is either mentally ill, a liar, or demon possessed, telling the story about how she went to heaven and saw heaven, giving a completely ridiculous description of it.

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And Jesse Waters opened up this interview with her by declaring this as truth, that he was trying to give the impression that he knew full well about the subject of heaven.

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He opened up by saying, you know, good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. That was basically his description.

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I am intending to write a brief note to Jesse saying, keep things that you don't know about off of your lips when you're hosting this show.

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You have no clue what Christianity teaches about this, which you've made obvious in making such an absurd comment.

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It's actually the kind of comment and the belief that I would imagine the vast majority of people who are not born again, who actually believe in an afterlife, would say and believe something like that.

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But the nature of biblical obedience is doing the right thing good enough.

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Well, why don't you start off the program by addressing the roots of why you wanted to address this subject and the fact that even though I know you're going to conclude that doing the right thing is not good enough, at the same time, there are

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Christians today, many Christians who have adopted a false theology that says that being born again need not bear the evidence of being truly born of God by doing good things and the right thing and so on.

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The easy believers in cheap grace theology, you and I believe that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but we believe that doing the right thing is an evidence of our changed heart of receiving a new heart.

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Good works must be given as an evidence, not as a cause, not as something meritorious, but as an evidence, as a fruit of true conversion.

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But tell us why you wanted to discuss this to begin with. Well, everything that you just said, amen and amen, hopefully, obviously, your listeners know, or they will soon find out, that this is not me saying that obedience is not important, right?

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We're really going to look at the fact that obedience is desperately important, absolutely important. But the fact of the matter is, so often we're very superficial in our understanding of God's expectations for our lives.

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And so we say, okay, we've crossed from the darkness into the light, you know, before we thought that obedience wasn't important, now we recognize and we see how important it is all throughout scripture.

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God has setting expectations for my life. And so, okay, I need to do those things. Yes, that is accurate.

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You need to do those things. But if that's where we stop, we're actually going to find ourselves in a lot of trouble.

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And for me, as a biblical counselor, it's hard for me to pinpoint exactly where this passion for this topic started.

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I'm a husband, I'm a father, obviously, I'm a son, I'm a brother,

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I am a biblical counselor, I've preached and taught people, I've been a teacher in a school, right?

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And so I, like you guys, have had lots of experiences where we've seen the way people relate to each other.

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We've seen people do right, people do wrong, and all that kind of stuff. But I think what really opened my eyes to this reality was when

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I read what I consider to be one of the most petrifying portions of scripture.

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It comes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, it's very familiar, everyone will recognize it. Then in Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse 21,

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Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord. Now, these people are saying,

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Lord, they're calling Jesus their master, okay? You are my master. You are my owner.

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You are the one who gets to decide how I live. All right, that's a really powerful thing.

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Do we see God as our master? Well, not everyone who sees me that way, who calls me that way will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my

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Father who is in heaven will enter, okay? Well, there we see the importance of our doing.

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We know that our doing doesn't earn us salvation, but we recognize that when we have been truly born again, we will desire to do the will of the

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Father, right? But then he goes on. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, my master, did we not prophesy in your name?

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And in your name, cast out demons. And in your name, perform many miracles.

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And again, we're familiar with this passage, but think about that. Those of us in the Baptist, the

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Protestant, the conservative denominations or reformed denominations, so on and so forth, generally speaking, we're not the ones who are saying, yes, you need to have, you need to be able to prophesy.

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You need to be able to cast out demons. You need to be able to perform miracles. Most of us tend to be cessationists to one degree or another.

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That's not a part of our wheelhouse, part of our experience. And so those are three things that I, Aaron Brewster, cannot say that I have done.

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I have not done those things. And those are three things, by the way, which are not inherently sinful. They are good things. We see

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Jesus himself doing these things. We see the disciples doing these things. We see these things happening in the early church, okay?

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And so these people are standing before Lord going, Master, this is what we have done. And then

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I will declare to them, says Jesus, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

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By the way, Aaron, you're going to be pleasantly surprised, perhaps, that minutes, just a handful of minutes before this broadcast began,

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I was addressing that very text with my friend

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Joe. I hope you're listening. Joe said that he and his friend, who is a Pentecostal, were going to listen today.

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I hope they are. But Joe is one of the sons, the second oldest son of the woman who led me to Christ in the 1980s.

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And Joe contacted me to do a video chat with me and his friend.

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They were on a break at work. And his friend is Pentecostal. And we were having a friendly disagreement over whether or not a true

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Christian, a genuinely born -again Christian, could lose his or her salvation.

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And I, of course, being theologically reformed, was insisting that if you have received the gift of eternal life, it's just what the word says.

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It's eternal. You can't make eternal terminal. And he brought up that passage in Matthew 7 that you just cited.

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And I said, yes, but keep reading. Jesus said he never knew those people. He didn't say he knew them and they left him.

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But anyway, I just thought you'd find that perhaps fascinating. Oh, that's awesome. God's providence. That's awesome.

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And the point you make is really an important one, too. This is not somebody who truly was a follower of Christ, who truly was doing these wonderful things, who lost their salvation.

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No, no. These people were doing good things. I recognize that even this list of three things here, pretty phenomenal as they are.

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No doubt, these people were decent individuals at times. And they were hospitable. They were kind.

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They worked hard at their jobs, right? You say, well, Aaron, how do you know that?

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Because most people do. I've had the opportunity to meet people who are hardcore atheists, people who hate the idea of God.

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But you know what? A lot of them are really decent people. They're people fun to work with, fun to play games with, fun to be on the same softball team with them, okay?

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Another evidence of that is that they were shocked that they were not being welcomed into heaven. If they were knowing charlatans,

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I don't think that in their final meeting with the very son of God, they would think they could pull the wool over his eyes.

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Exactly. These people believed with all of their heart that they would be ushered into heaven. Exactly. And yet,

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God says, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And so what's petrifying for me about this passage is that it reveals the fact that you can't just look at your good works and use that as the final justification for the fact that you have a relationship with God.

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And that's because, you know, again, works, there's a tension in the scriptures about works. We can't just live a life where we say,

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I don't ever have to do right. I'm saved. I got my fire insurance, and so therefore I can just live how

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I want, and I'll get out of hell. We can't do that on the one side. On the other side, we don't want to become like the

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Pharisees, so superficial, so legalistic, so focused on our performance that we're missing the deeper realities.

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And so a couple of those, this truth, all the truths that we're going to talk about today, couple that with my experience working with individuals and finding that people, professing

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Christians, have a very superficial understanding of what true obedience, Christ -honoring obedience is.

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And this has become a massively important, and something I'm very passionate about, something that's massively important in every facet of my ministry.

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So, you know, Chris, I believe that for the most part, I don't want to make too many assumptions, but I believe for the most part that your audience is going to recognize and agree with a lot of the comments.

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I believe they're going to agree with 75 % of what I'm going to say today. So I want to get that 75 % kind of out of the way quickly, so that we can really invest in that 25 % where Christians tend to struggle, all right?

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And so one of the easy things, I don't even really need to necessarily quote any scriptures on this particular point, but the first concept, the first facet of the nature of obedience is obviously that we do the right things, all right?

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We have to do the right things. And as Bible -believing Christians, we recognize the fact that God gets to determine what is right.

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If there is an absolute authority, then there must be absolute truth. God is the absolute authority.

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He gets to decide what is right and what is wrong, all right? That's period. That's all there is to it.

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And the scriptures are filled with God making proclamations about what is right and what is wrong. So therefore, that's the first thing.

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Yes, obedience does include doing the right thing. It necessitates doing the right thing. In fact, we see people in the scriptures who thought they were obeying, but they were doing the wrong thing, and God was not pleased with them, and they received consequences for that.

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So yes, first and foremost, everyone please understand, God gets to decide what is right.

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And he has communicated that to us in his word, both in clear commands as well as in principles. And it falls upon us, we need to know what

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God says is right. In order to obey, it is contingent upon us to know God's word and to discover what's right.

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I mean, too many Christians just have this nebulous superficial concept of the Christian life, where, you know, at best, they go to church, they listen to what the pastor says, and then they think about that, and they try to do some of that during the week.

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But the idea of personal Bible study, getting into the word, knowing God, knowing his heartbeat, knowing his expectations for our lives, and trying to work on practically applying those truths to our lives is unfortunately far too foreign and uncommon in many professing believers' lives.

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So that's the starting place. And I think, again, most people will agree, very few of your listeners will write into you and say, you know, obedience,

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I don't have to do the right thing to obey, all right? The second thing that I think we're going to agree on is the fact that obedience can't just be doing the right things.

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And we also have to do them in the right way. The example that I go to quite often is the example of, and you know what?

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His name is escaping me. The gentleman who in the

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Old Testament was transporting the Ark of the Covenant. What's his name?

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Uzzah. Yes, Uzzah, yeah, that's correct, correct, right? So he wanted to do this good thing, right?

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He wanted to take the Ark of God back where it was supposed to go, all right?

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So what he did is he put the Ark of the Covenant onto a cart being pulled by oxen and he was taking it back where it belonged.

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Now, he had the right idea, get the Ark where it needed to go, very important.

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But he didn't do it the right way. In fact, not only did he not do it the right way by transporting it, but because he didn't transport it the right way, we're told that,

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I don't remember exactly what happened, but the cart hit something and started, and the

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Ark of the Covenant started to slip off of the cart. Yeah, an ox stumbled. And Uzzah, yes, okay, the ox stumbled, yes.

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And so Uzzah wanted to protect the Ark, all right? And the

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Bible tells us they actually got a new cart, right? They wanted to make sure they did this the best they could so they have a new cart.

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And the Ark stumbled and Uzzah puts out his hand because he doesn't want the

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Ark of God to fall onto the ground. That's a wonderful desire. People will say, yes, that's good.

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We don't want that to happen. But he didn't obey the right way because God said, you're supposed to transport it for men using the poles that slide through the rings.

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You carry it like that. And number one, you never touch the Ark. You don't touch it.

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Well, it didn't matter that Uzzah was trying to quote -unquote do the right thing, that his intentions were good.

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The fact of the matter was he wasn't doing it in the right way because he didn't do it in the right way. The Ark slipped. He was tempted to, again, do another good thing, but he didn't do it the right way.

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And he died because of it. And that is powerful, my friends.

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For you to recognize that fact. God killed him because he did the right thing in the wrong way.

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That's right. Another passage. In fact, I just wanted to tell you that somebody sent me the video of my opening remarks to a debate in the 1990s that I arranged between James White and a

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Roman Catholic apologist. I think it was Father Mitch Pacwa. And during my opening remarks,

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I brought up the story of Uzzah and the Ark. And I was comparing it to the ecumenical movement where there are people who have very good motives when they see what is happening in the world around them.

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Unborn babies are being murdered. Homosexuality is being celebrated.

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And on and on we could go. And people with good intentions think that we should link arms with Roman Catholics and anybody that shares our morality and unite as if we are all brothers and sisters to combat these evils.

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Now, I'm not saying that we should never be co -belligerent or anything like that. Obviously, every time we vote for someone that's not a

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Christian, we're in some way involving a friendship or a connection or the linking of arms with an unbeliever for a good cause.

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But I'm talking about full -blown ecumenism where we worship together and that kind of a thing.

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And I was comparing that with Uzzah because it looks like the right thing to do. But it is something that God forbids.

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He forbids having a light connected with darkness and being unevenly yoked.

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And I could go on and on. And worshiping with people who reject the gospel.

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But anyway, I don't know if you see that as an analogy, but I saw it when I said it.

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And it's exceptionally important for us to recognize that we can't, you are right, you have to be careful of our association because if we're not obeying in the right way, we're not obeying at all.

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I think about, let me see, in 1 Corinthians 11 .27, we hear of whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the

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Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the

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Lord. And Paul in that passage lays out some very important ways. If you're going to participate in the bread and the cup, you need to do it the right way.

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1 Corinthians chapter 13, a very familiar passage. Do we recognize the fact that the first few, first three verses explain people doing the right things, but in the wrong way.

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They're speaking with the tongues of men and of angels. They have the gift of prophecy. They know all mysteries and have all knowledge and have all faith.

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They're giving their possessions to feed the poor. They're surrendering their bodies to be burned. Listen to that last verse.

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If I give all my possessions to feed the poor and I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

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This needs to be done the right way, all right? So hopefully God's people are saying, okay, well, what's the right way?

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And obviously there are specifics to each thing that might be a right way to do this and a right way to do that.

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But generally speaking, there are three main concepts that need to be considered. And when

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I teach children, I find that these three words are very easy to remember. They may seem a little bit too immature, childish for perhaps your show, but I find that it works really well.

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I got these three words from Patch the Pirate and from Rand Hummel, two men I greatly respect. But the three words are this, quickly, sweetly, and completely.

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And I think most of us have heard a version of these three things. You can really say it any way you want, but let's go through them really quickly.

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The quickly one is this idea behind this concept is that you need to do what you're told within the time constraints given by the authority.

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That could be like, do this right now. This paper needs to be turned in on Thursday, right? God often commanded his people to do something on a certain day or by a certain time.

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And if they didn't do it, within the time constraints given to them, there are consequences. They sinned, right?

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The Lord was not pleased by it. The second one is sweetly. And this one is interesting.

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Most authorities really don't have a problem attaching a timeframe to their instructions. Teachers, parents, bosses, they're like, you know,

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I get this done by Saturday, right? However, they rarely express a desire for the individual's attitude while doing what they were told.

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Imagine your boss at work being like, all right, guys, read all these pallets moved from over there to over there.

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And you know what? I want to see some good attitudes on your faces. No grumbling, right? We don't really expect that from our bosses.

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I'm not saying that, you know, parents never have an expectations for their kids, but I just find it that many authorities seem to be fine with just outward conformity in spite of the fact that the individual they're talking to clearly hates doing what they've been told to do.

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This is true of children and adults. It's that old example of a child, you know, who after being asked to take a seat said,

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I'm sitting on the outside, but I'm standing on the inside. Okay, that's not obedience. However, biblically speaking, how do we define this idea of sweetness?

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Well, I like to go to this. We are commanded all throughout scripture and I will have verses, lots of passages referenced.

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If you go to truthloveparent .com forward slash iron, you know, I'll have a bunch of references there for each of these, but we're commanded to be peaceful, content, joyful, and thankful.

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We are commanded to obey that way. If I am not at peace, if I'm not content, if I'm not joyful, if I'm not grateful in the situation,

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I am sinning because I'm commanded to do the right things in the right ways. So we have to obey quickly, sweetly.

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And the last one is completely, partial obedience is no obedience. You think about AI, right?

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They didn't, one person, one person out of the entire congregation of Israel didn't obey completely.

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And everyone bore the responsibility that men died in the battle with AI because of what

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Achan had done. We also see in 1 Samuel 15, Saul lost the kingship.

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It was stripped from his family. Why? Because he obeyed partially. He didn't kill all of the animals.

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He didn't kill the king of Amalek, right? He did most of what he was told to do, but he didn't do all of it.

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He disobeyed. Now, here's the thing. Most authorities have no problem recognizing this when they're talking about somebody else, especially parents with their kids.

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Really, the kid has a bad attitude or they're not doing the right thing. And man, oh man, we see it.

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But I tell you what, we are so hypocritical for ourselves. I have met adults who try to justify their bad attitude and their obedience.

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I'm just doing the right thing. It's like, wow, do you hear yourself? Do you recognize that you would not accept such a statement from your children or from your employees?

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You have some cashier who's supposed to, you know, be really sweet and give good customer service. And yeah, they might be bringing everything up the right way.

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But if they're doing it with this really jerk attitude, unless, you know, they work at Eddebevix or something like that in Chicago, if they're doing it with a terrible attitude, the employer's not okay with that.

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And we followers of Christ, we have to acknowledge that if we are not being peaceful, content, joyful, thankful, all the other things that God commands, we're not really obeying because we're not obeying the right way.

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In fact, we'll pick up right where you left off because we have to go to our first break. Again, if anybody has a question for A .M.

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Brewster, our email address is chrizarnsen at gmail .com. C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

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Give us your first name, at least your city and state and your country of residence. Don't go away. We're going to be right back after these messages from our sponsors.

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Call 717 -258 -4688 today. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners from all over the world.

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Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland, who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed,

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Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland.

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Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is

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Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Clemming, Georgia are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.

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Heritage Presbyterian Church of Clemming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

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Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards. And Dr.

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Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight volume commentary on the larger catechism. Heritage is a member of the

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Hanover Presbyterian Church built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great

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Protestant reformation of the 16th century. Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the reformers, scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone,

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Christ alone, and God's glory alone. Their primary goal is the worship of the triune God that continues in eternity.

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For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Clemming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com.

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That's heritagepresbyterianchurch .com or call 678 -954 -7831.

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That's 678 -954 -7831. If you visit, have them

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Joe Reilly, an Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener from a tie in County Kildare, Ireland, send you.

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When Iron Sharpens Iron radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Matt Tarr, pastor of High Point Baptist Church in Larksville, Pennsylvania, and the

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Getting a driver's license, running a cash register, flipping burgers, passing sixth grade.

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Do you know what they all have in common? They all require training, assessments and certifications.

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But do you know what requires no training at all? Becoming a parent. My name is

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A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth Love Parent and host of its award -winning podcast. I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s.

37:51

And what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes.

37:58

That's why Truth Love Parent exists. We serve God by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents

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God called and created them to be. We produce free parenting resources, train church leaders, and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness.

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Please visit us at truthloveparent .com. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

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If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

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That's royaldiadem .com. We're now back with A .M. Brewster, and we are discussing the nature of biblical obedience as doing the right thing good enough.

44:03

Before you continue on the thread that you were on, I just wanted to read a listener question.

44:09

And we have Andrew in Dalton, Georgia. Hey, brother, Mr. Brewster, as I am trying to walk humbly and faithfully before the

44:19

Lord, attending Lord's Day worship, family worship, these things that the redeemed delights in, it is the case that most of my kin, family members, claim the name of Christ but have nothing to do with the things mentioned above, nor walk in a manner consistent with the gospel.

44:41

I have reason to doubt the legitimacy of many of their professions of faith. We are saved by faith alone, but living faith produces living works.

44:50

What advice would you give as I continue to try to urge them on to love and good works consistent with their profession?

45:01

Wonderful question. Such a burden. Most of us know, have friends or have family members who are either unsaved or professing believers, but it is clear from the scriptures, if we just went to 1

45:14

John 1, they're professing to live in the light, but they're living in the darkness, and we see their plight.

45:22

And obviously, I would tell people the very first thing that we want to do is we want to take them to the scriptures. Take them to 1

45:27

John. 1 John, we go there because that is the place where many times people either find assurance of their salvation or come face -to -face with the fact that they cannot continue professing to be born again because in that passage that John, the author, through the inspiration of the

45:45

Holy Spirit, calls them a liar. You say you're a child of God, but you're lying as evidenced by your life.

45:51

So I'll definitely take people to the scriptures. But one thing that I found is very helpful, and Jesus did this all the time. Jesus' parables were used for many reasons.

45:59

And one of the reasons he used parables was to exemplify, to illustrate his teaching.

46:06

This is the truth, you know, in Matthew chapter 7, where he's talking about, you know, if you build a house on the rock versus building a house on the sand, it helps us to understand and appreciate things.

46:16

And I find that in my teaching, in my preaching, in my counseling, illustrations are very helpful. And the reality is, is that everybody understands this concept, even though, again, we hypocritically don't like to apply it to ourselves.

46:30

All right, so you've got somebody there professing to be born again. One of the examples I like to use is this.

46:36

Valentine's Day is coming up here soon. And no doubt, there are a lot of people. In fact, I just read a number recently. I don't remember exact number, but it was in the billions.

46:43

I'm pretty sure it was over, it may have been over $10 billion people will spend on Valentine's stuff this year, right?

46:51

People are going to be buying candy and all that kind of stuff. Let's just say that your loved one is deathly allergic to peanuts.

46:59

If you love this person in your life and you go to the store, you are desperately going to try to protect them by making certain that whatever you purchased for them, whatever candies you purchased for them, it doesn't have peanuts in it, right?

47:13

It sounds like an Agatha Christie novel coming up here. Exactly, yeah, exactly. Who gave this person the peanut candies?

47:24

If we love somebody, we're going to delight in caring for them and protecting them.

47:31

That's an example of somebody in a life or death situation. If your spouse tells you that they're allergic to a certain kind of flower, but that they really love this other flower, we're not going to want to give them the flower they're allergic to, the flower that causes them pain.

47:47

We're going to want to get them the flowers that they like. That makes sense. But if you have somebody who says, oh, yes,

47:53

I love my spouse, my spouse who is allergic to daffodils and who is allergic to peanuts and what did

48:01

I get them for Valentine's Day? Peanut M &M's and daffodils. And you're looking at that like, well, either you're a jerk or you're stupid.

48:12

Like you clearly, do you not know that this is going to kill them? That they hate this?

48:18

Did you not read me? Like, what's the problem here? And everybody, there's not a single person listening to my voice or a single person that you would talk to who wouldn't be like, yeah,

48:27

I get that. That person who would do that is either universally stupid or they're just universally hateful individual.

48:36

Okay, well then let's see the comparisons here. You say you love God. God says that he hates fill in the blank.

48:45

And yet you do fill in the blank all of the time. And you don't care.

48:51

You make excuses for it. You try to justify your behavior before God. Does that sound like somebody who loves

48:59

God? No, it doesn't. Now that is not guaranteed to convince them.

49:07

But I just found it super, super helpful to follow the example of Christ when trying to teach something and trying to illustrate it for them in the most consistent, accurate way possible.

49:16

Because oftentimes, again, we see it so clearly in other people, but we are blinded to our own sin.

49:23

And when we can see where we're confronted by the scriptures and the truths of the scriptures, and we can see those illustrated in other people's lives.

49:30

So oftentimes it's a lot easier to see our own sins. And conversely, would you not say that even when we do wonderful things, things that God approves of, in fact rejoices when seeing us in obedience do these things like loving our wives as Christ loved the church and being kind and benevolent and compassionate to those in need.

50:05

And we could go on and on. Those things become filthy rags when we turn them into something where we expect

50:13

God to owe us salvation for them. We are thinking in our minds that we are buying

50:20

God's favor with these things. So what would otherwise be a wonderful and good thing becomes a horrific and even a damnable thing, right?

50:30

And that's true as much in salvation as it is in sanctification as well. Another example that I like to use is, let's just say, and I worked with teen boys for quite some time.

50:42

So this is a very natural example. You'd obviously have to change the sexes depending on who you're talking to. But I use this with teen boys.

50:48

I say, let's say you have these girls who all approach you. I mean, it's like the best day of your life because each of these girls approach you because each of them wants to be your girlfriend, right?

50:58

And you're like, wow, I've got all of these girls who want to be my girlfriend. And so you're like, well, maybe I should figure out, you know, in order to decide, you know, and they're all beautiful and they're all wonderful, but I can only have one as my girlfriend.

51:09

You know, maybe I need to ask them some questions. So you start talking with them and you find out that the first girl is only interested in being your girlfriend because she just broke up with her prior boyfriend.

51:19

She hates to be alone and you were the first single guy. And you're like, okay. So you have to talk to the second girl.

51:26

The second girl is like, yeah, basically I want to be your girlfriend because my parents told me

51:31

I had to date you. And you're like, okay.

51:38

And so you talk to the third girl. All right, remember four different girls coming up to you. They want to be your girlfriend. You talk to the third girl.

51:44

The third girl is like, well, oh, I think you're great and everything like that.

51:49

But she just can't stop talking about your friend, how cool he is and how popular he is.

51:57

You start to get the idea as you're talking with this girl that she's more interested in getting to know your friend than she is you.

52:04

But then you get to the fourth girl. And the fourth girl is just, you know, she's just like, well,

52:11

I mean, you're a really awesome guy. I've seen you. I've seen the way you treat people. You're talented, you're smart, you're funny.

52:18

And of all the other people in my life, I mean, you're the person I'd rather spend this time with.

52:24

You're the person I'd rather get to know. And who knows, maybe you might be the person that I would have the privilege and honor of marrying one day.

52:33

Four girls, all interested in doing what we're going to call the right thing, dating you.

52:41

But they all are approaching it for very different reasons. And the one who basically is just lonely and wants you to fulfill that need for her.

52:52

The one who's just doing what she was told to do. The one who's just using you to get to your friend.

52:58

All of that is despicable to you. It's gross. Whereas before you're like, wow, these girls want to date me.

53:05

Now, once you know why, you're like, oh, I'm not even remotely interested.

53:11

And obviously you're interested in going out with the girl. Who truly values you as a person.

53:17

In fact, could you pick up right where you left off? Because we have to go to our midway break. Oh, yeah, yes, I will.

53:22

I'll do it. Okay. Please be patient with us. This is a little longer than normal break. So we'll be right back after these messages.

53:45

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend, Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the

53:55

G3 National Conference. That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday, the 23rd on a theme that I have been preaching, teaching, writing about and defending in live public debates for most of my life.

54:07

The sovereignty of God. I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Vody Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Anuel and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

54:21

And there's more great news. Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio can get you a 30 % discount off the registration fee.

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Go to g3min .org. That's g3min .org and enter promo code

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Chris Arnson and I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday, the 23rd in the

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Iron Sharpens Iron radio exhibitor booth and say hi to Chris Arnson while you're there.

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Go to g3min .org and enter promo code G3ISIR for your 30 % discount off the registration fee.

55:20

Hello, my name is Anthony Eugenio and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York and also the host of the reformrookie .com

55:28

website. I want you to know that if you enjoy listening to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio show like I do, you can now find it on the

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Apple's iTunes app by typing Iron Sharpens Iron radio in the search bar. You no longer have to worry about missing a show or a special guest because you're in your car or still at work.

55:46

Just subscribe on the iTunes app and listen to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio show at any time, day or night.

55:52

Please be sure to also give it a good review and pass it along to anyone who would benefit from the teaching and the many solidly reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show.

56:02

Truth is so hard to come by these days, so don't waste your time with fluff or fake news. Subscribe to the

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Iron Sharpens Iron radio podcast right now. And while you're at it, you can also sign up for the reformrookie .com

56:14

podcast and visit our website and the YouTube page. We are dedicated to teaching Christian theology from a

56:20

Reformed Baptist perspective to beginners in the faith as well as seasoned believers. From Keech's Catechism and the

56:27

Doctrines of Grace to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Leviticus, the Reform Rookie Podcast and YouTube channel is sure to have something to offer everyone seeking biblical truth.

56:37

And finally, if you're looking to worship in a Reformed Church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, New York.

56:47

Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Ivino, and thanks for listening. I'm Dr.

56:58

Joseph Piper, President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

57:07

Every Christian who's serious about the Reformed faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight -volume commentary on the theology and ethics of the

57:17

Westminster Larger Catechism, titled Authentic Christianity by Dr. Joseph Morecraft.

57:23

It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism. It is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology.

57:35

Dr. Morecraft is Pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and I urge everyone looking for a biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.

57:46

For details on the eight -volume commentary, go to westminstercommentary .com, westminstercommentary .com.

57:54

For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com,

58:03

heritagepresbyterianchurch .com. Please tell Dr. Morecraft and the saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, that Dr.

58:10

Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sent you. As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

58:40

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.

58:50

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.

58:58

They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship

59:04

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

59:09

God -centered focus. Reading, preaching, and hearing the word of God, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, baptism, and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship, performed with faith, joy, and sobriety.

59:24

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

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.com That's gcbcnj .squarespace .com

59:39

or call them at 908 -996 -7654. That's 908 -996 -7654.

59:49

Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. If you love

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers.

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One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Arnton is doing is

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Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission?

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Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts,

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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.

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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.

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Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above.

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For details, call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333.

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That's 631 -385 -8333. Or visit liyfc .org.

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That's liyfc .org. Getting a driver's license, running a cash register, flipping burgers, passing sixth grade.

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Do you know what they all have in common? They all require training, assessments, and certifications. But do you know what requires no training at all?

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Becoming a parent. My name is A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth, Love, Parent and host of its award -winning podcast.

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I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s. And what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes.

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That's why Truth, Love, Parent exists. We serve God by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents

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God called and created them to be. We produce free parenting resources, train church leaders, and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness.

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Please visit us at truthloveparent .com. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

01:04:32

If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

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And besides that, they feel so good. I'm so delighted I discovered Post Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding.

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No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post Tenebrous Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan.

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All his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching.

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Jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goat skin tanned in Italy used for my

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Nestle Allen 28th edition with a navy blue goat skin inside liner and the electric blue goat skin from a

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French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study Bible I used as a gift. The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome.

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Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather, making whatever he rebinds a one of a kind work of art.

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For more details on Post Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding, go to ptlbiblerebinding .com.

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That's ptlbiblerebinding .com. 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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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the NASB.

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I'm Pastor Nate Pickowitz of Harvest Bible Church in Gilmont and Ironworks, New Hampshire, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Rich Jensen of Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Sule Prince of Oakwood Wesleyan Church in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor John Samson of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, and the

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01:09:10

Before I return to my guest today, A .M. Brewster, I just have some very important announcements to make.

01:09:17

Coming up, but we'll be here before you know it, from Friday, March 3rd through Sunday, March 5th,

01:09:27

First Love Ministries is having their upcoming conference. Really excited about it.

01:09:33

First Love Ministries, which also runs First Love Radio. First Love Radio is the very vehicle that live streams

01:09:44

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. You're listening right now because of our friends at First Love Radio, and they are having a conference featuring my dear friend

01:09:54

Joe Jackiewicz, the founder of First Love Ministries and First Love Radio, Tom Smith, who is also on the staff of First Love Ministries, Johnny White, Stephen Ringel, Stan Murrell, Paul Nelson, Eddie Delcor, and Austin Huggins.

01:10:14

They are all going to be speaking at the First Baptist Church of Baghdad in Milton, Florida.

01:10:24

I'm sure that most of you sighed with relief when you finally heard that the First Baptist Church of Baghdad was in Milton, Florida.

01:10:32

So that's where it's being held, March 3rd through the 5th, as I mentioned. And it's on the very important theme, examining the new birth.

01:10:42

This is actually the first annual First Love Ministries Bible Conference. And so I'm urging you to register for this if you're able to get to Milton, Florida in March, in early

01:10:54

March. The website to find out more information is firstloveministries .org,

01:11:01

firstloveministries .org. And if you register and if you attend, please tell the folks there that you heard about this conference from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:11:15

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01:11:52

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01:12:01

and put advertising in the subject line. Also, folks, I want to remind you, never give your own church where you are a member less money than you are accustomed to giving them every

01:12:13

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01:12:30

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01:12:44

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01:12:59

Go to irontripandzionradio .com, click support, then click, click to donate now. Last but not least, if you are not a member of a

01:13:05

Christ honoring, biblically faithful, theologically sound, doctrinally solid church, no matter where on the planet

01:13:11

Earth you live, I have extensive lists of biblically faithful churches spanning the globe and I've helped many people in our audience in all parts of the world find churches, sometimes within just a couple of minutes from where they live.

01:13:24

And I may be able to help you in the same way if you are without a solid church home. Send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

01:13:31

and put I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to AM Brewster and that email address again is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:13:44

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence.

01:13:52

Before we left for our midway break, as you likely recall,

01:14:00

Brother Brewster, you were talking about different kinds of women that might be approaching a young man at first feigning interest in some kind of a romantic relationship, but then ulterior motives are actually one by one revealed.

01:14:19

If you could pick up where you left off, it was quite humorous, actually. Yeah, I want to say that that's never happened to me.

01:14:25

I never had four ladies at once. Their interest in me. But I praise

01:14:31

God for my wife and the interest that she showed. So it's an illustration, just designed to show us that there's more to, and I'll say this,

01:14:42

I shared the illustration because Chris, you were talking about, you know, some people, we try to do certain things in order to earn

01:14:49

God's favor, right? It's a very Catholic way of understanding, you know, quote unquote, salvation. If you're good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, you know,

01:14:56

God will be happy and take you to heaven. That's not biblical. But also sometimes we as Christians oftentimes have the similar idea about our goodness, our righteousness, our supposed righteousness, our obedience.

01:15:09

We do this thing and God is pleased with me because I'm doing this thing.

01:15:15

Well, really, is that all? Is that all it takes for God to be pleased with you? Is you doing a thing?

01:15:22

Well, no, we've seen that we have to do the right thing as he prescribes it. But number two, we have to do it in the right way. Now that's, that 50 % right there, your audience will likely agree with me on.

01:15:32

They won't have any problem with that, even though we all tend to hypocritically gloss over those truths in our own lives.

01:15:38

It's this one right here that uses illustration of the young ladies and the dating relationship to illustrate that really, when it comes right down to it, we all understand the fact that motivation is very important.

01:15:52

If somebody is doing something nice to you simply because they're trying to manipulate you, we don't like that.

01:16:01

If somebody is, pick any action attached to it, a negative motivation, and all of a sudden, the action itself is like, oh, that's gross.

01:16:12

Because you're trying to do, you're trying to, you're doing that good thing for very bad reasons. And that's the third point today.

01:16:19

Obedience requires that we do the right things in the right ways for the right reasons.

01:16:26

If we don't have the right reason, God is not going to be glorified by what we do and how we do it.

01:16:32

So the main question that Christians obviously want to ask is, what's the right reason to obey?

01:16:42

And everything I'm going to say, we're all going to nod our head in agreement. We'll be like, yeah, okay, that makes sense. But we need to come face to face with the fact that we, that having the right, excuse me, having the right reason is not as easy as we think it is.

01:16:56

The main reason that we should obey is that who God is and what he's done for us. Philippians 3 .12, not that I've already obtained it, or I've already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which

01:17:07

I was also laid hold of by Christ Jesus. I'm pressing on because of what Christ has done for me, what has been done for me through Christ.

01:17:16

We know 1 Corinthians 10 .31, whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, what's the motivation for it?

01:17:22

Do it all to the glory of God that people would think differently about God because of what you're doing.

01:17:30

John 15 .14, you are my friends if you do what I command you. Very similar to what

01:17:35

Jesus said in John 14 .15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

01:17:41

This idea of loving and obeying are all throughout scripture. Deuteronomy 7 .9, know therefore that the

01:17:47

Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps his covenant and his loving kindness to a thousandth generation with those who love him and keep his commandments.

01:17:57

That right there is quoted all throughout scripture. Deuteronomy 11 .1, Deuteronomy 11 .22, Deuteronomy 30 .16,

01:18:04

Joshua 22 .5 and Nehemiah 1 .5. Nehemiah says, I beseech you, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome

01:18:10

God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. By the way, all of these references and more will be at truthloveparent .com

01:18:19

forward slash iron if you want to find some resources about what we're talking about today, as well as articles, other podcast episodes that help us take this next step in maturing in our obedience.

01:18:30

But Jesus, again, Jesus specifically said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. There's a motivation for what we do.

01:18:36

Now, this is where we get into trouble, okay? We get into trouble here because we as believers have bought into the world's definitions of love.

01:18:44

Well, I feel a certain way when I think about Jesus or I like Jesus or whatever the case may be.

01:18:51

Therefore, since I've made, since I love Jesus, therefore, when

01:18:56

I do good things, that pleases him. Well, hold on a second. Hold the phone.

01:19:03

Take a step back. This is where we need to get really aggressive with ourselves. Now, I'm going to admit to you, right, that what

01:19:10

I'm about to share is the result of a lot of study where God has been convicting my heart and showing me the importance of what

01:19:16

I'm about to share with you in my own life. And I've had friends who have politely disagreed with me on this point, and they are entitled to do so.

01:19:23

I do believe they're wrong. But I will say that I respect a person who says, well, no,

01:19:31

Aaron, I'm a Christian. That's all it takes. I, you know, I love God. Generally speaking,

01:19:36

I believe in God, right? And that's good enough. My obedience is true obedience. My righteousness is true righteousness because of those facts.

01:19:44

Well, here's the thing. The scriptures say that if we do anything and it is not in faith, we're sinning.

01:19:53

We're sinning. We know that from Romans. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Now, what does that mean?

01:20:00

What does that mean? Well, faith is what? Faith is choosing to trust something, to believe something, right?

01:20:07

God says, do this. I believe that's what I need to do. And I believe it's going to please him, right?

01:20:13

So therefore I do it. Let's be honest. Too many of us just kind of float through life.

01:20:20

My natural personality is kind of a rule follower, for the most part. I have this weird tension. I'm really passionate about following rules until I'm not, then

01:20:28

I'm a hardcore rebel in my flesh. But we've known people who are just natural rule followers, people, pagans, unsaved people who are decent, good, nice people.

01:20:39

We've talked about them earlier in the show. But does that mean that what they're doing is good enough?

01:20:45

Does that mean what they're doing pleases the Lord? And the answer is no, because they're not doing it in faith.

01:20:50

They're not doing it because they are believing that this is what God wants of them. This is what's going to please him.

01:20:56

You say, well, Aaron, okay, that's fine. I get that. I'm a Christian. But remember, I believe in God. Therefore, my righteousness is acceptable to him.

01:21:05

Okay, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 10 31. Have you ever asked yourself what the word glory, what's the glory of God mean?

01:21:13

That word in the Greek refers to the way that someone thinks about something, the way that somebody understands something.

01:21:20

So the Bible is saying that when I eat, when I put food into my mouth, when

01:21:25

I drink, when I pour a cup of whatever back into my throat, or whatever I do, I need to do it in such a way that God is glorified.

01:21:34

I need to do it in such a way that people's thinking about God is changed. So let's say

01:21:41

I'm at a restaurant. Maybe I'm at a fast food restaurant. I happen to love Arby's. Arby's is my favorite fast food restaurant.

01:21:48

One of my favorite candies is going to start coming out here this time of year. It's the

01:21:53

Cadbury Cream Egg. Favorite candy always comes out during Easter, right? If somebody sees me eating a

01:21:59

Cadbury Cream Egg or eating an Arby's roast beef sandwich, how on earth is their thinking about God going to be changed for the better because I did that?

01:22:12

Jesus said a similar thing in Matthew chapter 5. He talks about the word light of the world will salt of the earth, right? And what's the purpose?

01:22:18

That people would see our good works and do what? Glorify our Father who's in heaven.

01:22:24

How does that happen when you're at work and you're working on the assembly line? You're churning out your product.

01:22:31

Are there people who work with you who are looking over at you going, wow, his God is really pretty awesome, isn't he?

01:22:38

You're like, well, no, not inherently that the person wouldn't say. What would have to be done for me to eat a

01:22:43

Cadbury Cream Egg and have someone's view of God elevated? What would have to be done for somebody to see you give a presentation to your board of directors about a new product line and have them walk away going, wow, his

01:22:56

God is awesome. Well, those people would have to know something. Those people would have to be aware of something, that this person is a

01:23:04

Christian, that this person is doing what they're doing, saying what they're saying, acting how they're acting because they are passionate to follow

01:23:11

Christ. This individual does the best job that he can do. This is one of the best workers we have.

01:23:17

This person is so serious about his health or whatever else because he is a follower of Christ.

01:23:24

You see that we have to have intentionally been salt and light in this person's life to such a degree that they can't miss the fact that we're living the way we're living because we love

01:23:34

God. People say, you know, preach the gospel and if necessary, use words. I say no, no, no, no, no.

01:23:41

Preach the gospel with your words. Exemplify, illustrate the gospel in your life by all means, but preach the gospel with words because nobody is going to see me being a decent individual,

01:23:52

Aaron Brewster, out in the street helping some old lady cross the street, right? No one is going to look at me and say, well, the

01:23:58

God of the Bible, Yahweh is an amazing God. Look at what that young man is doing. They're not going to do that unless they know that I'm a

01:24:05

Christian, that I worship the God of the Bible and that they can make that connection that he's doing this.

01:24:11

He's living this way because he loves the Lord. It requires intentionality. I have to communicate that to other people for them to be able to give

01:24:17

God the glory. Well, in the same way, in the exact same way, I do really good things a lot.

01:24:25

I'm a biblical counselor, but did you know there have been times that I have been biblically counseling people and not pleasing the

01:24:31

Lord? It wasn't because I was doing a bad thing and it wasn't because I wasn't speaking the truth.

01:24:38

I was somehow giving, I was lying about the Bible. It wasn't that at all. There have been times in my biblical counseling, and I'm sure there have been times that I've been tempted even in an interview like this and at other times, preaching or whatever else, where I was all of a sudden doing it for my own best interest, my own pleasure.

01:24:56

I wanted them to think of me a certain way, to see me in a certain way. When I was in Vermont, the people up there were so sweet.

01:25:02

They treated me like a rock star. It was great. They treated me like a celebrity. It was so, it was fun. I got a call recently from somebody who has been listening to my podcast for years.

01:25:10

And when I introduced myself, he just, he was surprised. He was shocked. He didn't actually think he'd be talking to me. And he was like, he was kind of like, oh, wow, this is, this is crazy.

01:25:18

I'm talking to you. And those times I'm tempted to experience those pleasures and those joys for me.

01:25:25

And when being a decent individual, being a biblical counselor, when being a parenting authority, when being on an interview, when having a popular podcast, right?

01:25:34

Those are good things that oftentimes I will enjoy for my own pleasure with no thought to God whatsoever.

01:25:44

And in those moments, I am not pleasing the Lord. I'm doing those things for the wrong reasons.

01:25:50

And this is why I'm going to say that here's the key. If we want to truly obey God, we have to do the right things in the right ways for the right reasons.

01:25:57

And the right reason is not going to happen accidentally. I'm not just going to waft my way through life, feel my way through life, doing whatever seems right, and inadvertently glorifying

01:26:08

God. No, I have to do what I'm doing in faith, that this is what God wants me doing.

01:26:14

It's this thing or nothing. I could be doing any number of things right now, but I'm on this show with you because I believe that doing this and having this conversation is the most

01:26:22

Christ -honoring thing I'm doing. And I'm trying through His strength to make certain that I'm doing this for His glory and His glory alone.

01:26:30

It's an intentional thing. It's a premeditated thing. We Christians get into trouble, but we don't really know why we're doing what we're doing.

01:26:38

Yes, you're a hard worker. Yes, you're a good mom. Yes, you preach awesome sermons. But if you sat down and really investigated your motivation, why are you doing those things?

01:26:50

I had a young man I talked to today reached out to me because the Lord is convicting him that perhaps his life vocation choice is not the best thing for him.

01:27:00

And he told me, he said, I've always wanted to be a physical therapist. He said, but when

01:27:05

I really stopped and thought about why I wanted to be a physical therapist, I'm a good kid, Christian, right?

01:27:11

But he thought about how he came to the conclusion that he should be a physical therapist. And he recognized that that thought process didn't involve

01:27:18

God at all. He knew that he had had physical therapy and he saw how it helped people.

01:27:24

He knew that he could make good money and have a comfortable lifestyle. And that was pretty much the extent of his thinking.

01:27:31

His thinking didn't involve God at all. And now he's starting to realize, wow,

01:27:37

I wasn't factoring. I wasn't making that choice because I love the Lord. Is being a physical therapist bad?

01:27:43

No, I'd say it'd be a good thing. Unless you're doing it for the wrong reasons. So my friends, obedience is not what you think it is.

01:27:50

Doing the right thing isn't good enough. We have to do the right things in the right ways. And we have to do them for the right reasons.

01:27:56

And those reasons have to be intentional. We have to be purposing in our hearts to thank

01:28:01

God's thoughts after him, to do what he says in the right ways, for the right reasons, for his honor and glory, to communicate that to people so that they can see our good works and they can glorify, they can actively, intentionally glorify our

01:28:14

Father who's in heaven because they see the connection between the choices we're making in life and why we're doing it.

01:28:21

And that, I think, is the one area where we get into the most trouble because we like to just justify, well, I'm doing decent things, but we're not really doing them for the

01:28:29

Lord. We're just doing them because they're habitual, because they're expected of us, because it gets us the praise of men, because we make decent money doing it, because people like us when we act this way.

01:28:42

Well, guess what? Children do that all the time. You know, a child realizes that, man, they get really, they get candy and they get stickers and they get applause from their teachers when they make good grades.

01:28:53

There are some children who are tempted just to be hard workers for that reason. But that reason isn't a

01:28:59

Christ -honoring reason. Now, Chris, I could go on. I'm so passionate about this. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'd love to hear if there are any questions from your listeners because this is where I find that most people really get stuck in this concept that, oh, man, my motivation for doing what

01:29:14

I'm doing actually means just as much as what I'm doing. Well, we have an anonymous listener who says, during heated discussions and disagreements and arguments with my

01:29:27

Roman Catholic family, they always bring up the fact that Jesus Christ determined who was going to heaven and who was going to hell in the way he described the separation of the sheep and the goats.

01:29:43

It was because of what they did. They did the right thing. That was why they went to heaven. And when they didn't do the right thing, they went to hell.

01:29:51

How do we get our Roman Catholic loved ones to understand this passage rightly?

01:29:59

Well, that's a great question. Again, I think it comes down to specificity.

01:30:06

If your friends and your family recognize the fact that true obedience is doing the right thing in the right way for the right reasons, and the fourth part that everyone's going to agree with is in the right power.

01:30:16

We can't obey God without the power from the Holy Spirit to obey God, right? We can do good things in the flesh by God's common grace.

01:30:25

We can do decent things, and a believer can be a good worker and a good student, all that kind of stuff. But we can't truly obey

01:30:32

God unless we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Those are the four things that make true obedience.

01:30:37

And when they recognize that passages like Matthew 25, like you're talking about, makes sense.

01:30:44

It's not just that the sheep and the goats and the sheep followed Christ and the goats did not, right? It's the fact that the sheep had a relationship with God and the goats did not.

01:30:55

And their relationship with Him was evidenced in the fact that they did the right things in the right ways, for the right reasons, and in the right power.

01:31:03

That's what made them sheep, not, actually, I take that back. That doesn't what saved them, right? But that's their evidence of the fact they were sheep because they did those things.

01:31:12

The goats didn't always do the right things in the right way. Oftentimes, they did right things in the right way, but they did it for the wrong reasons, and they never truly did it by the power of the

01:31:21

Holy Spirit because they were just doing it for themselves. It's what they believed was best. It's no different than idolatry, choosing to worship some stone god or choosing to worship the

01:31:32

God of the Bible in your own ways and for your own reasons. It's still idolatry. So, oftentimes, passages in Scripture, we don't truly understand them the way we should because we don't understand the individual elements that are part of the passage.

01:31:45

This is why when we talk about love, it's desperately important that we understand love biblically. And it's just as important that we understand the concept of obedience biblically, holistically, if you put it that way, in order for us to appreciate what

01:31:59

God is saying in the Scripture when he talks about obedience. Amen. And it's clear from John chapter 10 that as you caught yourself there when you said that we don't become sheep by being obedient, we are obedient and we follow

01:32:22

Christ because we are already sheep. And we have

01:32:28

John says here in John chapter 10,

01:32:38

Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name.

01:32:47

These testified me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

01:33:03

My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand and I and the father are one.

01:33:11

And by the way, if Joe and his friend are still listening, his Pentecostal friend was trying to assert the fact that a true

01:33:22

Christian can lose their salvation. This is another verse that disproves that because no one can snatch anybody who is truly in the father's hand.

01:33:33

But we see here that that sheep are the ones that listen to and follow

01:33:40

Christ, which following Christ also involves obeying him and it's not the other way around.

01:33:48

We don't become sheep by following Christ and obeying him. Now, there is another passage in scripture which gives us another couple motivations for our obedience.

01:34:00

But we're going to see that just like Jesus said, when we love God and we love others on that hang the rest of the commandments.

01:34:07

We're going to see that that's true of these other things as well. In Hebrews 13, 17, it says, Obey your leaders and submit to them.

01:34:15

Why? What comes next? For they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.

01:34:21

Let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be a profitable for you. The motivation we see here in part is that we should obey because we love our authorities.

01:34:32

This is a massively important concept. Yes, I love God, but I also love others.

01:34:38

I love God and I love my parents. I love God and I love my boss. I love God and I love my authorities. God commands us to obey our authorities.

01:34:46

And so therefore that's another secondary reason that we should obey. However, again, this motivation needs to grow from the first because we cannot truly love our authorities unless we love

01:34:55

God. Just like we can't truly love others unless we first love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

01:35:02

And the third reason for obedience we see in this is that if we disobey our authorities, that will be unprofitable for us.

01:35:09

That's quite a way of putting that. But an understatement, if you want to put it that way. All throughout the scripture, we see that sin has consequences.

01:35:18

The ultimate sin of never truly submitting to God, rejecting Him is going to result in eternity separated from Him in hell.

01:35:25

But even those of us who are born again, there are consequences for our sin, very real consequences. And here we see that the third reason that we should obey is that obedience will benefit us more than our own selfish desires will.

01:35:37

We can have true satisfaction, true peace, true joy, true contentment only when we obey

01:35:43

God. And again, this motivation has to submit to the first. We're merely living for our own benefit.

01:35:49

We're worshiping self. We're valuing ourselves over everything else. That is never going to please the Lord. But it is fair to acknowledge that we do right because we love

01:35:58

God. We love our authorities. And let's just be patently honest, life works the way

01:36:05

God says it works when we obey Him. But we have to make sure that we don't get those things out of order, which we so often do.

01:36:11

And when we're tempted to get those things out of order, we make other people or our own pleasures more important than God's will for us.

01:36:18

And that is a desperately dangerous thing to do. In Colossians 3, 18 -25, we see a passage where it talks about the various relationships that we have in our lives.

01:36:28

Colossians 3, 18 -25 illustrates how the main reasons for doing right work themselves out in our relationships.

01:36:36

It talks about wives being subjects to the husbands, as is fitting to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives. Children, be obedient to your parents.

01:36:43

Fathers, don't exasperate your children. Verse 22, it says, Slaves, in all things, obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the

01:36:54

Lord. Whatever you do, do you work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men.

01:37:01

On my parenting podcast, I say it all the time at the beginning of every show, at least all the newer shows.

01:37:07

Parenting is not about you. Parenting is not about your kids. Your parenting is an act of worship to God.

01:37:15

Lord willing, you know, when I'm truly submitting to God in my parenting, I'm not parenting because I'm trying to accomplish something in my kids or if I'm trying to achieve my own desires.

01:37:23

I'm parenting the way I'm parenting because that's what God expects from me. And in the same way here, we shouldn't go to work.

01:37:30

We shouldn't go to school. We shouldn't interact with people that I service, that external service as men pleasers, but because we fear the

01:37:40

Lord, because we want to please Him. We're doing it for Him rather than for men. I'm not living for my girlfriend.

01:37:47

I'm not living for my parents. I'm not living for anything other than God. It says here that it is the

01:37:54

Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done and that without partiality.

01:38:00

And it ties that idea of consequences in sin to the fact that it wasn't being done for Christ.

01:38:07

That's really important that we recognize that. And if you go, we won't have time today to talk about it.

01:38:14

We're going to run out of time here shortly. We're gonna have another break and then we'll be done. But one of the last points that I have is really important.

01:38:22

I just pull some various principles from the life of Jesus. Jesus was the perfect example of obedience and everything that I've said today is necessary for true biblical obedience.

01:38:31

Jesus exemplified for us what he did, how he did it, why he did it, and the power in which he did it.

01:38:37

And so I have a number of, you'll see there in the notes, a number of things that I've pulled from the life of Christ about how he obeyed, why he obeyed, so on and so forth.

01:38:45

I encourage you guys to check that out. Also, the other resources that are at truthloveparent .com forward slash iron because I really want to encourage you guys to take this seriously.

01:38:55

Sit down and recognize, look at your obedience. When I teach this, I oftentimes spread it out over time.

01:39:01

And when I ask people to take your average week and to come up with a number, a percentage, what percentage of your week do you spend doing the right things?

01:39:11

Most of the people with whom I talk come up with a pretty high answer, pretty high number. Even the boys at Victory Academy for Boys who were where they were because of the bad choices they were making in life could come up with a pretty high number what percentage of the time they did the right things.

01:39:26

Then the next day I would ask them after teaching about the importance of doing them in the right way, I would say, okay, well, so how many of you, what percentage of your week do you spend doing the right things in the right ways?

01:39:36

And everyone who's being honest, the second number is smaller than the first number. But when

01:39:42

I get to this section, and when I get to this section with mature believers in Christ, and we talk about that, we need to do the right things in the right ways for the right reasons.

01:39:51

And then I say, think about your week and what percentage of your week did you intentionally on purpose do the right things in the right way for God's soul, honor, and glory?

01:40:04

The number drops substantially. And I have had mature men and women, true followers of Christ look at me with tears in their eyes and give one digit numbers for the percentage of their week that they're intentionally doing to glorify

01:40:21

God. And these people, they come to realize that they have just, they have a habit of living in what we would consider a righteous way.

01:40:29

But when they really sit down and investigate their own motivations, they see how self -focused it really is.

01:40:37

And that's what we all need to do. We all need to investigate the motivations behind why we do what we do.

01:40:43

Are we truly obeying or are we just doing right things in right ways, but for very wrong reasons?

01:40:51

In fact, we're going to leave. We're going to pick up where you left off there. When we come back from our final break, which is a lot more brief than the others, don't go away.

01:40:59

We're going to be right back. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

01:41:17

I'm very excited to announce that my longtime friend, Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and I are heading down to Atlanta, Georgia again for the

01:41:25

G3 National Conference. That's Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd on a theme that I've been preaching, teaching, writing about and defending in live public debates for most of my life, the sovereignty of God.

01:41:38

I'll be joined on the speaking roster by Steve Lawson, Voti Baucom, Paul Washer, Virgil Walker, Scott Anuel and Josh Bice, founder of G3 Ministries.

01:41:50

And there's more great news. Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio can get you a 30 % discount off the registration fee.

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Go to g3nin .org. That's g3nin .org and enter promo code

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01:42:12

Chris Arnson, I look forward to seeing you all Thursday, September 21st through Saturday the 23rd for the

01:42:18

G3 National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on the sovereignty of God. Make sure you stop by the

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Exhibitor Booth and say hi to Chris Arnson while you're there.

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Go to g3nin .org and enter promo code G3ISIR for your 30 % discount off the registration fee.

01:42:52

The Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, growing a beard is a habit most natural, scriptural, manly and beneficial.

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01:43:56

James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. If you've watched my dividing line webcast often enough, you know

01:44:01

I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.

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No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post Tenebrous Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan.

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All his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching.

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French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study Bible I used as a gift. The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome.

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For more details on Post Tenebrous Lux Bible Rebinding go to ptlbiblerebinding .com.

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Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers.

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One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Arnton is doing is

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Daniel P. Patafuco serious injury lawyer and Christian apologist.

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Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission to foster belief in the credibility of scripture as the written word of God.

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01:47:22

Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. Hi, this is

01:47:32

John Sampson pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona. Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnson and the

01:47:40

Iron Sharpen's Iron podcast. I consider Chris a true friend and a man of high integrity. He's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big penetrating questions while always defending the key doctrines of the

01:47:52

Christian faith. I've always been happy to point people to this podcast knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the internet where folk won't be led astray.

01:48:00

I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide. This is a day of great spiritual compromise and yet God has raised

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Chris up for just such a time and knowing this it's up to us as members of the body of Christ to stand with such a ministry in prayer and in finances.

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I'm pleased to do so and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting

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Iron Sharpens Iron financially. Would you consider sending either a one -time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry?

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I know it'll be a huge encouragement to Chris if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com

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where you can click support. That's ironsharpensironradio .com.

01:48:45

Getting a driver's license, running a cash register, flipping burgers, passing sixth grade.

01:48:52

Do you know what they all have in common? They all require training, assessments, and certifications. But do you know what requires no training at all?

01:49:00

Becoming a parent. My name is A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth Love Parent and host of its award -winning podcast.

01:49:08

I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s and what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes.

01:49:19

That's why Truth Love Parent exists. We serve God by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents

01:49:25

God called and created them to be. We produce free parenting resources, trained church leaders, and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness.

01:49:37

Please visit us at truthloveparent .com. I'm Dr.

01:49:49

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.

01:50:00

Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jansen and Christopher McDowell.

01:50:07

It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Coram 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

01:50:25

Christ Jesus the King and his doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.

01:50:32

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.

01:50:41

For more information on Hope Reformed Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.

01:50:47

That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.

01:50:57

That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

01:51:17

Welcome back. A .M. Brewster, please, if you would summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners before we go off the air today.

01:51:31

Thank you for the opportunity. The reality is, my friends, that yes, we do need to obey

01:51:38

God, not to earn anything from him, not to earn our salvation, not to earn his love.

01:51:45

But we have to obey God because we love him. We have to obey him because he is working in us to conform us to his image, to grow in holiness, and to be, to change from one degree of glory to another.

01:51:59

And as we strive to obey, as we look at our lives, we need to be honest with ourselves. True obedience requires that we do the right things.

01:52:07

We have to know those things. We have to do them. We also have to do them in the right way. That includes all the appropriate time limitations, our attitude while we do it, as well as the fact that we're doing it in totality.

01:52:19

But we also need to check our motivation. Doing the right things for the wrong reasons is idolatry.

01:52:27

It doesn't please the Lord. We need to be careful that we don't just give ourselves a pass that because we're doing the right things in the right ways,

01:52:34

God's automatically pleased with us because the scriptures are filled with examples of people who did the right things in the right ways for the wrong reasons, and the

01:52:42

Lord was not glorified. And there were consequences for those reasons, as we saw in Matthew 7, as we started off the show today, being a perfect example.

01:52:52

And then when we do the right things in the right ways for the right reasons, we're doing those in the right power, the power of the

01:52:57

Holy Spirit. We're not doing it in our own strength. We can't do it in our own strength. And in our obedience, we should be striving to follow after the example that Jesus left for us here on this earth.

01:53:09

He submitted to the will of the Father. His whole purpose in everything he did was to glorify the Father. And we see that he did everything in the right way, in the right reason, empowered by the

01:53:18

Holy Spirit. A wonderful example. And we should be very careful in our own obedience, again, not to just take things for granted and give ourselves a pass, but to be intentional, making certain that everything we do is being done in faith for the glory of God.

01:53:35

We have another anonymous listener who asks, I have been told by some

01:53:42

Christians, even those that are Reformed, that it is wrong for me to examine my own life and to see if in my life

01:53:55

I am giving the evidence of obedience and doing good works.

01:54:01

They say we should always and only look to the finished work of Christ.

01:54:07

I tell them that I think that they are confusing justification and sanctification. I'm actually surprised that some

01:54:14

Reformed Christians are telling me this. They think that I am somehow taking the attention and focus and taking away the glory from Christ, but I am not.

01:54:23

We have to use something as a litmus test, don't we, to determine whether we or those that we meet, know, and love are actually truly in the body of Christ and are saved and are headed for heaven.

01:54:37

Wonderful observations. I completely agree. I think those individuals potentially are, again, approaching it from a very superficial standpoint.

01:54:46

What they're saying is true. Our relationship with Christ is in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

01:54:52

Our worship with God is in the finished work of Jesus Christ, for sure. But you're right. I mean, 1

01:54:58

John 4, 1 tells us not to believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

01:55:04

If we're supposed to test the spirits, how much more are we supposed to test ourselves? I mean, God gives us the standard by which to test ourselves.

01:55:11

1 John, again, a perfect example. If we do not love our earthly brothers,

01:55:17

Paul John says, then we cannot love God whom we have not seen. That's a powerful statement.

01:55:24

And it's a testing statement. It's a statement for me to go and say, well, let me look at the relationships in my life. Do I love people in my life?

01:55:31

If I'm a hateful person and no one wants to be around, that reveals something about me. So I would say that you're approaching this from the right angle.

01:55:38

I think that we do need to compare ourselves. We look at ourselves in the mirror of the word. We need to see what needs to be changed.

01:55:46

And then we need to change it. We don't just, here's the word, we're doers of the word. We look at the word, we allow it to show us what needs to be changed in our lives.

01:55:52

And then we are further conformed to the image of Christ. It's likely that maybe you guys are talking past each other.

01:55:58

Maybe it's possible that the people that you're talking to who claim to have reformed beliefs really are just having a very superficial understanding and they can only think within the context of justification, as you said.

01:56:11

They might even be hyper -Calvinists. That's also very possible. Yeah, which is dangerous. But keep talking, keep bringing them to truth.

01:56:20

Ask them what they think about these different passages in 1 John. And maybe you'll find that it's a misunderstanding.

01:56:25

And maybe you'll find that their eyes can be opened to the truth of the fact that God has expectations for their standard of living.

01:56:32

Amen. And we have time for one more question. We have CJ from Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, who asks, do you have any plans to speak anywhere on the

01:56:45

East Coast, especially New York, and even more, especially Long Island? Oh, great question.

01:56:52

No, I don't have any plans. Nothing set on the stone right now. Like I said, I just flew into Albany and spoke in Vermont and Massachusetts this past week.

01:56:59

Had a great time doing that. I will be speaking, Lord willing, later this year in Spokane, as well as Indiana and Michigan.

01:57:08

I'm open to go anywhere to open God's word and preach. And I plan to put some dates and some locations on my website, ambruster .com,

01:57:20

so that people can see where I will be. But if you have a church, camp, a school, some organization or ministry, you believe that I could be a blessing to you and those people by serving you, by all means, check out truthloverparent .com

01:57:34

or ambruster .com and put in a speaker request, and we'll see if we can connect, do things in person as well as virtually.

01:57:41

And everyone has an opportunity to connect, especially virtually. It's an easy thing to do these days.

01:57:47

And I'd like to recommend to you, CJ, to take some of the

01:57:53

MP3s from the Iron Triple Zion Radio Archive, MP3s of interviews that I've conducted with AM Brewster, share them with your elders, share them with churches of like precious faith that may be in your area.

01:58:09

In fact, if you need recommendations, since I'm originally from Long Island, I know a lot of churches out there.

01:58:15

And maybe you can actually be spearhead a speaking engagement or multiple engagements at different churches featuring

01:58:25

Brother Brewster. So that is just a thought. And I hope that I hear from you with that kind of request so that we can get the ball rolling on that.

01:58:37

Well, I want to make sure that I have given our listeners all of the information they need.

01:58:47

Go to truthloveparent .com. truthloveparent .com forward slash iron, correct?

01:58:55

That's correct. Yep. And of course, you know, people can connect with me on social media and stuff like that.

01:59:00

But for all you chess players out there, if you're on chess .com, you should challenge me to a game.

01:59:05

That's a fun thing you don't always get to do with somebody that you hear on the radio. Come play chess with me online.

01:59:11

That'd be fun. Well, I'd love to see a chess match between you and my friend, Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries, since he apparently is quite proficient at that game.

01:59:21

But he would win right now. Well, I want to thank you so much for being such a superb guest again.

01:59:27

I want to thank everybody for listening. I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater savior than you are a sinner.