March 2, 2017 Show with William Edgar on “Created & Creating: A Biblical Theology of Culture” PLUS Mack Tomlinson on “A Biblical Understanding of Death”

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

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

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

facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, iron sharpens iron, so one

man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we

converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another

wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour, and we hope to hear

from you, the listener, with your own questions.

Now here's our host, Chris Arnzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest

of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Thursday on the

second day of March 2017, and I'm so delighted that we have back in, or should I

say, back on the Iron Sharpens Iron program again, William Edgar,

author and professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, and many of you know he was on the

program yesterday.

Well, we have him back again today to discuss another book he has written, Created

and Creating a Biblical Theology of Culture, and it's my honor and privilege

to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron, William Edgar,

and in studio with me is my co -host, the Reverend Buzz Taylor.

Hello, I'll agree.

It's good to be here again, Tulsa.

And for anybody who would like to join us on the air with a question for Brother Edgar, our

email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C

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

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

Our second guest today, 5 to 6 p .m. Eastern time, will be Mack Tomlinson,

pastor of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas, speaking on a biblical understanding of death.

And as many of you know, there was a mix -up yesterday, and it was entirely my fault, where I had double

-booked William Edgar and Mack Tomlinson for the same hour yesterday.

And thankfully, that did not create any kind of a nightmare, and Mack Tomlinson is going

to be on the program today, God willing, and we have William Edgar on again

for this first hour.

Well, before I even go into the topic at hand of the book you've written,

Creating a Biblical Theology of Culture, I'd like to know something about Westminster Theological

Seminary, or as I should rephrase that, I'd like you to tell our listeners something about Westminster

Theological Seminary, because there are listeners to this program who have joined us for

the first time it seems every week.

We have new listeners, and there may be some who are unfamiliar with Westminster

Theological Seminary, because we not only have new Christians at times listening, but we sometimes

have people who are not even a part of the Christian faith who listen.

So why don't you.

Explain to

our

listeners the

Westminster

Theological

Seminary.

And

I

know

quite

a.

Number of folks who have graduated from that fine institution and have interviewed

your president, Dr. Peter Lilback, and Carl Truman, and quite a number

of other members of the faculty over there, and it's always a pleasure to interview

anyone from Westminster Theological Seminary.

And this book that you have written, it is published by InterVarsity Press in

their academic wing, created and creating a

biblical theology of culture.

Tell us about the catalyst.

Of why you wrote this book.

Much of my life

studying

the...

In one way,

this

detailed

critique is not going to be in

this book.

This is more of the principle to

be published.

And I know that most of our Reformed listeners, theologically Reformed listeners, will be familiar with the name John Frame,

but I'll read you a plug or a commendation for this book by John Frame, who is a

professor of systematic theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary.

Dr. Frame says, Bill Edgar's created and creating is the most thorough and the

most solidly biblical contribution to the current discussion of Christ and culture.

Edgar's analysis of the historical discussion is wonderfully erudite and nuanced.

His treatment of biblical texts and principles is deep and cogent.

His conclusion is that God's cultural mandate to Adam is still in effect, and that the great

commission of Jesus Christ applies that mandate to a world lost in sin.

I hope and pray that many will read this book and take its message to heart.

And as I said, that was John Frame.

Quite a powerful endorsement, indeed, for this book.

And I know that you have this book broken up into three parts.

You start with the parameters of culture.

The second part is the challenges from scripture.

And the third part is the cultural mandate.

If you could begin from the first part with a cultural analysis.

The first part,.

Based

back

on the

agenda.

And

then

you

go on

to

biblical

and

theological

reflections.

Exactly

what do

you mean by

that?

Culture and what I

design as

admonition accommodate with the world,

more

to

the

church,

reconciling

to

himself.

And

then

finally,

in the third

multiply

and fill the

earth.

Perhaps you

could

contrast,

compare

and

contrast

on both ends of the spectrum,.

How you believe, in your opinion, both liberalism and much of modern day

evangelicalism are violating specific principles you're laying out in this book.

Well, don't

you think,

though,

that

there

is

another

wing of

evangelicalism

that

might

even.

Be more dominant today that is really imitating what the Church of

Rome did in many ways.

The Church of Rome is notorious over the centuries of history for having

gone into pagan cultures and retaining many of the

pagan customs and mixing them with the

doctrine and practice of Rome.

Many believe that that is why the Church of Rome, even today, has statues that they venerate and so

on.

But you have evangelicals today who seek to draw lost people

into their churches by appealing to the tastes, the cultural tastes,

of the pagan by, instead of preaching, they'll put on a play.

They will adopt the music of the secular culture

that very often is the most shocking and displeasing to

the more conservative Christians who would find it dishonoring to God.

And very often they wind up just doing bad imitations of what the world does very well.

If you could comment on that.

Maybe you disagree with my comments.

I do agree.

The

second

thing it

does

is

in

culture...

And by the way, I wanted to make a clarification to our listeners.

I did not mean to imply that I think it is wrong for Christians to have theatrical

plays and performances.

What I was speaking specifically of is churches who replace sermons and have

things like that because they are more appealing to the lost community around them.

But we have a listener who is originally from Davao City, Philippines.

I don't know if I'm mispronouncing Davao or Davao.

He now lives in Kannapolis, North Carolina.

His name is Casey.

He asks, this is a huge question that doesn't necessarily...

It's not necessarily on the topic we are addressing, but it is more involved in your role at Westminster Theological

Seminary as an apologist.

And obviously this would require a summary because you could fill more than one program on his one question.

Casey asks, what are some mistakes in apologetics that Christians make regarding the topics of creation,

death, and evolution?

And how can we make our apologetics better?

Yeah, that is...

I

think,

after many

years of

teaching, I

realize

more

than ever.

Why

not many

of you...

I appreciate the question.

And guess what, Casey?

You have won a free copy of Created and Creating a Biblical Theology of

Culture by William Edgar, compliments of InterVarsity Press, the academic wing.

And you should be getting that within a week or so.

Thanks to our friends at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, CVBBS .com.

That's CV for Cumberland Valley, BBS for BibleBookService .com.

And we thank Todd and Patty Jennings for being faithful supporters of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

We're going to go to a break right now.

And by the way, Casey, make sure you stay tuned for the second hour because your question involves death,

which is our main topic with Mack Tomlinson, 5 to 6 p .m. Eastern.

But if anybody else would like to join us on the air with a question for William Edgar for the final half hour,

he is with us.

Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

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

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

USA.

Don't go away.

We will be right back with William Edgar right after these messages.

I'm James White of Alpha Omega Ministries.

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arns, and if you just tuned in to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, our guest today is William Edgar

for the first hour, with a half hour to go.

He is the author of Created and Creating a Biblical Theology of Culture.

In our second hour, we will be joined by Mack Tomlinson, who will be discussing a biblical response to

death.

But if you'd like to join us on the air now with a question for William Edgar on Created and Creating a Biblical Theology of Culture,

our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail dot com.

Chrisarnsen at gmail dot com.

And we do have a listener in Slovenia.

Joe in Slovenia asks, Please ask Dr. Edgar to discuss how the

church should best engage culture without being sussumed by it.

What are the major pitfalls resulting in failure to be in the world and yet not of the world?

How does the church remain relevant and in culture as God's gospel agent without taking on the

trappings of the world in the process?

What are the guiding principles to achieving engagement while avoiding immersion?

Those are many questions that are really asking the same thing.

And if you could respond to that very insightful series of questions.

Well, the

bottom

line

is

a lot of

room

for

in

the

case, because he believes in giving access to people

to be welcoming.

Paul tells us, he says, you know, don't

confuse them with they won't

know.

The general answer is

no of life,

which includes politics.

But

you're not outrageously

in need of response.

The church from time to time, I think, is right to make a declaration for

today.

And of course, we could do a week worth of programs on music, and we wouldn't

even scratch the surface on that topic.

Obviously, there is nothing innately wrong with using

melodies of a secular world to sing praises to our

Lord.

But it depends on whether or not those melodies distract from the very message that we are singing.

And obviously, there are certain melodies that overpower the words.

There are certain melodies that convey sensuality, or frivolity,

or things that are just totally robbing us from the atmosphere of

worship.

And those are obviously things that are to be considered.

In fact, we have a question on music right now.

We have RJ in White Plains, New York, who asks,

Should not, out of Christian humility and having more concern for others

than yourself, we treat those in our congregations with utmost

respect, especially the older senior citizens among us,

who may find an introduction of new modern worldly music into our

worship services as being frightening and distasteful?

Even if we can come up with legitimate reasons for using

new melodies in our worship services, should not the opinions of those

who are our senior saints be of great value to us, and should we not be

concerned of how they will respond to these things?

My

answer

to

that

one is, that doesn't

mean, though,

that

not only you

want

melodies,

this

stuff

is

not

world

leaders.

Yes, and it's also rich with biblical content.

There's nothing soft -pedaled with the gospel in those

particular artists you mentioned.

And you also, if anybody listens to radio that may be

going under the guise of old -fashioned Christian music, very

often you hear songs on stations like that, not all stations like that, but on some of those

stations, some songs that are laughably ridiculous, that are, that are, you know, that actually

some of the country western or barbershop quartet style singing

can bring frivolity into serious subjects that are being sung about.

Yeah, I once

heard a, he

saw a lot of you,

you know, it's so engaging, so you have to be careful.

Yeah, there are limits if

you stepped over the border.

You mentioned something

earlier, the

atonement or crisis.

Yeah, and I don't know how many of you can understand the words of the battle hymn of the

republic, but there seems to be some very odd things being sung in that, that hymn.

It has a very odd beginning.

Yeah, but by the way, I forgot to mention, both Joe in

Slovenia and RJ in White Plains, you have also each won a free copy of Created and Creating

a Biblical Theology of Culture.

You have an interesting subtitle in your second section,

Facing the Contramundum Texts, and immediately I thought of Athanasius,

Contramundum being against the world, correct?

Some

of

those,

God's good,

there'll be doctrines

of forbidding people,

Paul calls those doctrines,

it's a

beautiful, you

give thanks for it, an

agent.

Yes, and in fact, obviously, Peter had a very radical

revelation from God about the foods that were no longer prohibited from his people, and that was

a, that was an astonishing thing at that time, for a Jewish man

who thought that to be honoring to God, he was to abstain from pork and other things,

he is now being told he is sinful from prohibiting these things to others.

Yeah,

that's

right, so much

about, we

just have a

hard

time,

and

that's an

outstanding

example.

And you have a section or a subtitle under, in the second section,

that says, The World, No Friend, question mark, explain that.

It's with

God, and there are

places when it's, you know, friendship with.

Susan in Newville, Pennsylvania wants to know, when we read Paul's warnings in

Romans 14, not to cause a brother to stumble,.

I sometimes wonder when we are in the company of those such as Seventh -day Adventists, who

do not typically eat meat of any kind, and view Saturday as the Sabbath,

are we to be constantly reminding them that they are wrong, or are we to

not eat meat in their presence, and accommodate them according to their beliefs, as to not

make them stumble?

Yeah, that's

it, not so much with

sure, he's

concerned, the

weaker brother, I think, is

probably a

new

Christian,

really

not talking

about,

so in that

case, he's

not saying,

somebody, he's not

saying, and we are

out of

time, and I

definitely want

to have you

back.

Very soon, William, because not only can we continue a discussion on this book, but you have many others that

I want to address.

I know that the Westminster Theological Seminary website is wts .edu, do

you have any other contact information you care to give?

No,

that's

probably

the best,

if you go there, and if you

want to

contact me.

Well, great, well, God bless you, brother, and we look forward to having you back on the program.

Very soon.

Okay, Chris, thank you.

All right, God bless, and don't go away, because coming up very soon, God willing, is our second guest,

Mack Tomlinson, who is going to be addressing a biblical approach to death, so if you

hang on, we'll be joined by Mack Tomlinson any moment, God willing.

Don't go away, we'll be right back.

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This is Chris Sarnes, and before I introduce my guest and our topic for the second hour, I want to

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Well, our second guest for the second hour of the program today is my friend Pastor Mac

Tomlinson of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas.

We are discussing a biblical understanding of death, and he is also going to be promoting the

Fellowship Conference New England in Portland, Maine, but it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron,.

Pastor Mac Tomlinson.

Greetings, thank you for having me again, it's always a blessing to be.

On with you.

And I apologize from the depths of my heart for the error made yesterday when I completely forgot that I

had already booked William Edgar for our second half of the program, and when he called in, he totally took me

by surprise.

He obviously beat you to the punch when he called in, and I had completely forgot that I had already booked him, so

I'm glad it worked out that you could be with us today.

Glad to be with you.

Well, before we go into the topic at hand, tell us something about Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas.

Our church is a Reformed, Baptistic congregation in the heart of Denton, which is in

North Texas, about 30 miles north of Dallas, 30 miles north

of Fort Lee, the

gospel and the truth of God's word and

missions, and we have a real community of fellowship,

so anyone

in North Texas

within, who's interested in a Reformed, Baptistic church,

free to contact us.

Our website is.

Providencedenton .org.

Great, and I'm still praying that my brother John, who lives about 10 minutes from you, eventually

does visit that church.

I am not ceasing in my prayer for that end.

We would love to meet John and be with him anytime.

In fact, I would invite my listeners.

To join me in praying that my brother John, who lives not far away from Providence Chapel, does eventually

come to visit that church and meets my dear brother Mac face -to -face.

I'm looking forward to that coming to fruition.

Tell us also something about Fellowship Conference New England.

My co -host, Reverend Buzz Taylor, used to live in that area.

Your Fellowship Conference New England will be in Portland, Maine, as it is every year.

Tell us about this.

Conference.

Well, the conference started approximately five years ago when some Christians in Portland,

the greater Portland area, they would both

encourage pastors and believers and Christian families, so

they approached us because we have a Texas fellowship conference here

in Denton every Easter weekend,

establishing a summer conference in Portland.

We did that five years ago.

It is always the first week of August in Portland.

The website is

fellowshipconferencenewengland .com.

I believe right now, at the present moment,.

The website is being improved.

Yes, that's not in operation right now, but people can find it.

They can go to Facebook.

Right.

It will be up soon, though, but the conference is August 3rd through the

5th.

That's Thursday through Saturday, so all are welcome in the greater New England,

Canada, New Brunswick area, and as far south as New York State, New

York City, all the way up.

A wonderful time.

Fellowship, good preaching and teaching.

It's gospel -centered, and we usually have a lunch for the ladies one day.

Pastors, and the

registration cost is minimal.

I think it's $20 to $30.

It's very

affordable, and we really welcome anyone who would like to visit Portland

to join us.

You would also be able to see some of the main coast if you could combine it with some sightseeing.

It's a marvelous time.

And I think that in one of your recent fellowship conference New England

events, you had at least one of my Iron Trump and Zion listeners attend that.

Did you not?

I think that's right.

That's true, and so we welcome all.

If you're listening to Iron Trump and make that summer conference

in Portland genuine,

we welcome you to come.

In fact, until your website is brought up, you can go to

facebook .com forward slash fellowship New England

forward slash.

That's facebook .com forward slash fellowship New England forward slash.

And fellowship New England is all one word, all lowercase, and you can get information on

there as well.

And who is speaking at the conference other than.

Yourself?

Well, some are yet to be announced,

but Jesse Barrington from

Grace left in there twice, and he's a great

blessing all self.

I think

the conference and speaking once Don

Curran

Northwest.

He's also work

body.

That's where Paul Washer is direct is director of that.

Yes, Paul Washers work hard.

Don Curran is the U .S. director of heart and Don is a

wonderful preacher.

He will be there this year as well.

And so also the tentative possibility of

Nathan Pickowitz nearby Portland in New

Hampshire.

He has written, by the way, a small good book on revival in New England and the need for it

today.

A faithful brother.

Well, let him know.

I'd love to interview him.

Yeah, he likely would.

Some are yet to be determined,.

But it will be a good lineup.

I wonder if I don't know if you are aware of this.

Grace Life Church in Lake City, Florida, has a radio station that is now airing Iron

Sharpens Iron every day.

And I wonder if there's any connection with the Grace Life Church that you mentioned in Texas.

I do not know, Chris, at all.

Okay, I'll have to ask Pastor.

I'll ask.

Pastor Brandon Ellickson of Grace Life Church in Lake City, Florida, if there is a connection.

Yeah, because I know I think there is some kind of an affiliation with other Grace Life Churches, churches of that name

that are reformed Baptist churches.

Well, I am hopefully going to attend that, God willing, if I can work that out in my schedule

and budget.

So I will keep you updated on that, Pastor.

And this subject of death is something that is not pleasant to think of and talk about, but it's a

reality, one of the most vividly tangible and important realities that

we all have to face.

We have to face it in our own lives.

Some of us are facing it in more real ways than others because some of us are aware

that we are either very elderly or have some kind of a terminal

illness or fatal injury that we have not yet

succumbed to.

And this is a pressing issue.

And obviously, the young who think naively that they're going to live forever or at least

behave that way may not take this issue as seriously as the older folks like you

and I do, but they should take it seriously because even they, in the prime of

their health and youth and strength and vitality, could be snuffed out in a

moment, in a second, in a twinkling of an eye with an automobile

turning the wrong way or any of a number of other things that could happen.

In fact, I'm going to use a question that was asked of my first guest

from someone in our audience.

I'll ask you the same question, but narrow the focus on to the

subject of death.

We have a listener originally from the Philippines who now

lives in Annapolis, North Carolina.

His question, his name is Casey.

And Casey's question, I have to enlarge his font because it's microscopic and

I can barely read it.

Casey's question for our first guest, which I think is applicable to you, is what

are some mistakes and apologetics that Christians make regarding the topic of death?

I narrowed the focus on to death because of our subject with you.

Particularly apologetics has to do with

defending a truth.

I guess

understanding the

question, addressed

the proper apologetics

would be obviously, first of all, speaks

of the issue of death widely.

Any Christian or any person who even respects the Bible, if they did a topical reading of

the Bible on the subject of

death to find out how much the Bible speaks, so I

think it's a very...

I suppose when you're thinking about our

death is the biggest and in one sense

to eternity the most

important

topic in a way.

Whenever I bring up the subject of death, my own death to my children or grandchildren,

invariably they will interrupt me, they will cut me off, and they say, we don't want to talk about this.

We don't want to talk about death.

And so that's human nature.

And the reason is Hebrews 2 says an amazing thing.

The writer to the Hebrews said, speaking about all men, all men who are partakers of flesh

and blood, all men through the fear of death, all

their lifetime are subject to bondage.

And so there is a fear of death universally because all men know in their hearts,

and someone jokingly said, the statistics are now in.

So I

think the apologetic or the defensive

stated the Bible addresses it so much, not only the

certainty of it, not only the uncertainty to us,

but the irreversible permanence of it.

The Bible teaches us clearly how to

courageously prepare for not only our own coming death,.

But the death of those that we...

Yes, and I don't know how prevalent it is in the media today, but there was a

time not long ago when Christian media was saturated with the warnings of

our dispensationalist brothers that people better turn to Christ

because the rapture is coming and they will be left behind otherwise.

Shouldn't that warning have more to do, regardless of what eschatology is,

shouldn't that warning be more to do with you better repent because you may die at any moment and you

will be faced with Christ, the judge of all the earth, and he will

either be your friend and savior welcoming you with open arms into eternal

glory with him, or he will be casting you into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Shouldn't that be more of the concept that we are conveying to people?

The more urgent and immediate warning should be.

That of death?

It absolutely is.

I couldn't agree more because if we want to think eschatologically, the end of

things, the great reality is

especially in the Old Testament warns us more

death as much as it warns us to be ready for the right

thinking.

Biblical thinking tells us important thing to prepare for in the

future is our own death and to be ready to stand before.

Perhaps you should have a word of warning to our young people who think

like this, and I'm about to describe the way I thought when I was young.

I can remember as a young man, I was not like

a lot of folks are before they come to Saving Faith in Christ, who totally

reject the idea of the claims of Christianity.

They reject the Bible, they reject the existence of God, and they reject Jesus Christ.

They look at it all as nonsense.

I was not among people like that.

I was perhaps worse because even as a young man, having been raised Roman

Catholic and basically abandoning any attendance or connection with the church

for a long period of time as a teenager, I believed at

least that the God that I was taught existed as a Roman Catholic

child.

I believed that that God was real.

I believed that God existed.

I believed that Jesus Christ existed.

I believed in heaven and hell, and I was consciously rebelling against

this, but I naively thought, well, it is only right,

natural, and normal, and expected, and acceptable for a teenager or a young person to sow

their wild oats, to live like the devil or any way that pleases you until you

are older, and then of course when you're older and you're married and you have children of your own,

that is the time to become a more respectable member of society and to be a church

goer and a God -honoring, God -fearing person.

But I can still even remember as a young man in that state of rebellion, while in an

automobile of a friend who happened to be driving at very high speeds recklessly while under the

influence of a drug or alcohol, I can even remember praying, God, don't let me die

now because I know that I will be in hell.

Spare me of this and I promise I'll repent tomorrow, and of course I never did repent the next day.

But I'm sure you can in some way

empathize with this kind of mindset, Mac, and if you could give a bit of a warning to our

listeners who especially are of the younger age bracket who may feel this way.

Right.

Well, I think.

It's human nature to presume upon life,

but think about

this.

The 75 -year -old in the

next year, the 75 -year -old in his mind presumes, I've probably got another 20 years.

Yeah.

The 50, 55 -year -old presumes he's got another 30.

Yeah.

The 35, you know, on and on down.

And certainly teenagers.

I have had in my past at least three

teenagers who were 15 to 19 years old who died suddenly.

I think of my family.

Young people simply cannot get it into their heads as

easily as an elder.

Their whole future is

ahead of them.

They don't think about it.

The rare young people when they have

friends that die

really is real.

That's when, you know,

the Bible says the righteous perish, and no

one affects

their hearts.

I know we're going to be having to go to a break soon.

In fact, we're going to a break right now, actually.

Okay.

When we get back, when we come back, I want to share a little bit of personal history.

Oh yeah.

In fact, I know that there have been providentially a lot of deaths in your own congregation very recently.

Yes.

And we will address that when we return from the break.

This is our final break.

If you care to join us, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Don't go away.

We'll be right back with Pastor Mack Tomlinson and our subject of a biblical response to death.

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

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

www .wlie540am .com.

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with your questions.

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

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for a visit to the Pastors' Study.

Because everyone needs a pastor.

Welcome back, this is Chris Arnzen.

If you just tuned us in, our guest for the second hour with a half hour to go is Pastor Mack Tomlinson,

pastor of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas.

We are discussing a biblical response to death.

Anyone who would like to join us on the air with your own question may email us at ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

And if you could, Pastor Mack, continue with your comments about the recent

deaths in your own congregation.

Even before that, my own experience in my life has been

unique.

It's made me face -dive by the time I

was eight.

My cousin adopted me after my parents died, and her husband, who was like an adoptive

father, died when I was 12.

And the figure I had in my life, a close

uncle, died when I was 19.

So I began to face this many times early on, and I was

thrust into facing and experiencing the reality of death.

And my wife

and I, on a due date,

died the first week suddenly.

And so we buried our friend in her

body.

And so it's been a great reality to me to

have to face death.

And when you have that pain and the sorrow that goes with that, you

begin the reality that there must be answers to this issue.

I can't avoid it.

And God does not want me to be afraid of it.

And so I've faced the death of at least 25 people.

But it's been an amazing experience our church has had.

In the past 10 weeks, suddenly, our church

members began to have loved

ones.

But it was a

strong loss because our whole church was close to

him.

A young woman, her grandfather died suddenly in another

country, and she couldn't go to the funeral.

And then since that time, seven or eight other deaths.

The greatest loss being one of our pastors, his

mother died two days apart.

And he had to do both funerals.

And then a week

later, she died with great,

great pastor of ours.

And this is just a sermon.

As somebody said, every death is a sermon.

Every cemetery is preaching to us that the reality of death is ever before all of

us.

I think one of the greatest things I could urge,

you have

grown children, you have young

children, you have loving relatives that you love, or maybe broken relationships with

some, you have friends and family.

And those

who do not face the issue of death, they

don't handle it well.

Face the reality of death and learn to think biblically about it.

They knew they do much better when death comes to those.

Martin Lloyd Jones said, the Christian must prepare not only for his own

death preparation, we must

face it if we would live life fully and be

ready for it.

Why don't you go through some of those preparatory things that we should do?

Well, the first thing I think that comes to my mind is many people have never read.

For instance, I remember

there was a rock group in the 1960s called the Birds.

And they had a very famous song to everything there is a season.

That's right, right from the Bible.

Right, right from the Bible, time for every purpose under heaven.

And it became a very.

Well known song. Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 3, 1, 2.

It's Solomon's words, but the very first thing he lists in that passage from

Ecclesiastes 8, the first thing he lists

is there's a time to be born and a time to die.

We love to think about birthdays or the birth of children, but we do not

at all like to think about the time to die.

But Solomon said something amazing five chapters later in Ecclesiastes.

In chapter seven, he says this, it's astounding what

God's view of this is much different than ours.

In Ecclesiastes 7, scripture says, a good name is better than precious ointment.

And the day of death is better to go to the house of

mourning than to go to the house of feasting.

For that is the end of all men in the living.

I think what we need to do, we need to let

this reality sink into our minds as hard as it is, this

discomfort as people have in thinking about death or talking about it.

They do need to give thought to it.

Someone said in the past, he is worse than a fool.

Preparation.

The irony is we all know we're

going to die almost on purpose.

I think one Puritan said, there is no one so

old, but they think they will live one year longer.

And though in general, he says everyone's going to die.

Yet in the false numbering of his own particular day, he thinks he'll live forever.

The Bible's picture of death has some

major, for many

people,

death.

The second thing, think

about Biblically, not

teach purgatory,

not teach

or annihilation.

The Bible teaches that when a person dies, their physical body,

their real them, is alive in eternity

forever, either in heaven.

This is the great reality.

Death doesn't end anything.

It only begins eternity.

And everyone will be alive somewhere forever.

Next major thought that comes to my mind is that death is irreversibly

going back,

incarnated.

One poet put it, it

says the tree cut down and falls to north or south and

departs to heaven or hell, fixed in the state wherein he dies.

And it really is true.

Think about these things, seem negative.

They seem,

but actually this is the path to view death

rightly.

There's nothing more certain than death, nothing more uncertain than the

time of death.

I will therefore be prepared at all times.

And that's an amazing, but

let me speak of the Christian and death.

The Bible views death as an amazing positive.

It says things like this, Psalm 116, the sight

of the Lord is the death of the saints.

So God views the death of a Christian, no Christian, if their

wife died or their child, who's a Christian dies suddenly, no one

upon hearing the death of another Christian, no one replies by saying, Oh, how

precious is that?

That's really precious.

We don't use that word about death, but God does.

He says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of a saint.

Now, why is death a precious?

Christ has conquered death for the Christian.

And if the last enemy death has now become a friend, actually,

it escorts us into the very

Corinthians five to be absent from the

body is to be present with the Lord.

And Paul said, and another, another amazing thing in Philippians one, 21, when he's

torn about whether he's going to die soon or whether he should stay here and help the

Philippian church and other churches.

And he says, I'm convinced that I'm going to

remain for you.

But before that, he said this to live my

whole purpose for living is to know and glorify.

But then he said, and

to die is a gain.

Paul viewed death as a gaining.

And in another place, he said, I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

And so I think the Christian has to develop when I die.

I'm not going to be asleep.

I'm not going to suffer.

I'm going to wake up in eternity in the presence of Christ.

I'm going to see him.

And that will be exceedingly far better than anything I've ever experienced on earth.

One other scripture that comes to my mind, and then I'll pause.

I

recently heard Revelation

14, 13, and the title of the sermon, I would recommend all your listeners to

go hear it.

How we should see death by Ian Murray.

And his text was Revelation 14, 13, which says this.

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right.

God was telling John the apostle to write this, the following words, blessed

or happy.

The word is happy.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on,

yet that they may rest from their life.

There will be no sadness in death for the Christian

brings blessedness and eternal happiness from all pain.

We're in eternity with the Lord and our works

to eternity, but death does not.

As John Owen,

Amen.

The cross of Christ put death to death, and now death has been called.

And as John Owen put it, the death of death and the death of Christ.

Right.

Now, this is an interesting dichotomy that you've brought up because

Christians are to view death as an enemy, but at the same time, death is this

glorious gateway to presence with Christ, if indeed you are one of his

own.

The one thing that had disturbed me is having interaction with

hospice workers that were taking care of my mother when she was dying of pancreatic cancer.

I thank God from the depths of my heart that my mother revealed that she

had genuinely embraced the true gospel.

Having been a Roman Catholic all of her life, she abandoned all thoughts of

the intercession of Mary and the saints, of venerating

relics and images.

When I asked her on her deathbed why she believed

she was going to heaven, she said, it's only because of the death of Jesus.

And I said, really?

Hasn't any of your own good works have anything to do with it?

Don't you think that you in some way are earning heaven by all the wonderful things you did?

And she said, absolutely not.

And she said, that would be like the Pharisee who prayed, oh Lord, I thank you that I'm not a sinner like this tax

collector.

The tax collector said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

And Jesus said, the tax collector was saved.

And my mother said, I am like that tax collector.

I almost fell off my chair when my Roman Catholic mother said that to me.

But the hospice workers who were not even Christian, at least not Bible -believing ones,

not real ones, they had this idea that they were trying to convey to all of their

patients, no matter who those patients were, welcome death.

Death is our friend.

Death is beautiful.

Death is a part of life.

Death is something that you should just embrace with open arms.

And I had to rebuke them for telling this to my mother, because I was saying to them, you know, what you're

saying, the only reason that death is in any way welcome is if you are indeed a Christian

who is going to spend an eternity with God.

Death is not this wonderful thing you claim it is for every single person, because they will be in an eternity

in hell if they do not have Christ.

And they were just totally taken aback by my comments to them.

But if you could explain or.

Respond to what I just said.

Well, it's very common in our world, from Hollywood,

to when

people they love die, inevitably they will

all come.

The Bible says that eternity is in the hearts of all men.

Men know that eternity is real.

And so they, with the idea,

well, simply put, they delude themselves with the idea that

everyone, nobody goes to hell.

But the Bible paints in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul

calls death the last enemy.

Death is an enemy, cosmically and

redemptively, because all men die in Adam.

All men die because of sin.

Sin caused death.

Our sin brought death upon all of us.

So death is a universal enemy.

But the same chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, says that for the Christian,

death is not anything any longer that has to be feared.

Before victory, thanks

be to God who gives us the victory.

So only the Christian, the true follower of Jesus Christ,

can view death no longer as an enemy now, but as a friend.

It will be presence of Christ forever.

And so death has been defeated.

And I think, I want to hasten to

see if Christians out there, or persons who are

to know, how can I prepare to face this issue more?

Right now, they might say, you're a mother that's terminal.

I have a child that's terminal.

I know my own death is coming.

I think we should learn to seriously pray for

God to teach us to number.

Moses prayed, Lord, teach us to number our days

that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

In other words, teach us to view death properly.

And only God can teach us that.

Secondly, as much as it goes against the grain of human nature, we should make ourselves

meditate upon our brevity in this life.

James, in the New Testament, what

is your life?

So James likens every person's life to a vapor.

John Wesley, the great Methodist leader, said this life, eternity,

not only prayed for God to teach us to number our days,

we need to think about and meditate upon the brevity of life and the reality of

death.

Thirdly, I would say, we need to be willing to discuss the topic with our

pastor and friend, with our wife, our husband.

We need to face the issue and talk about it.

It's like the elephant in the room that we know is there.

Nobody wants to discuss it.

Well, start discussing it.

It helps immensely to begin to discuss it.

Next, I would say, find a biblical book.

There are many out there.

I don't even have one.

Ask your pastor.

Then two other things I would quickly

say.

Study what the Bible says about death.

Read what the Bible says.

Also, it's good to listen to good sermons on death.

This subject needs to be preached on and taught on in church.

And then finally,

fully have

as few regrets as possible.

Amen.

Well, I can certainly recommend.

Two sources on good Christian books on death and on many other

issues.

Go to solid -ground -books .com.

Solid -ground -books .com.

That's the ministry of Mike Gadosh, Solid Ground Christian Books, has a number of wonderful

resources.

And I know that Mack is a mutual friend of our dear brother, Mike Gadosh.

And also, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, C -V for Cumberland Valley, B -B -S for Bible

Book Service, dot com.

C -V -B -B -S dot com is the website for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.

Well, Pastor Mack, I know that your website is ProvidenceDenton .org.

That's ProvidenceDenton .org,

ProvidenceDenton .org for Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas.

Any other contact information you care to share?

No, that's it.

But I would also mention on our website, under our sermons,

that I preached on death biblically, and so

it deals with

this afternoon.

And in fact, anybody wishing to register for the 2017 Fellowship Conference

New England from April 13th through the 16th in Denton, Texas.

Actually, I'm sorry, I misspoke.

It wasn't the New England Conference.

This is the one in Denton, Texas.

You can register at that website I gave you, ProvidenceDenton .org, ProvidenceDenton .org, and

that's for the 2017 Fellowship Conference April 13th through the 16th in Denton, Texas.

So that's coming up very soon.

So if you plan to register, go there soon to ProvidenceDenton .org.

Thank you so much, Pastor Mack.

I look forward to having you back again on the program, and very frequently.

And if you could hang on the line, I'd like to reschedule you right now, as a matter of fact.

I want to thank everybody for listening today, especially those who took the time to write.

And 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.

We look forward to hearing from you and your question for our guest tomorrow on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

God bless.