R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 126

Announcing our 2020 West Coast Conference

The Word of God is no dead letter. Having been breathed out by the Holy Spirit, Scripture is alive and active. God’s Word will never return to Him empty or void but will always accomplish His intended purposes. Therefore, as we learn from the reluctant prophet Jonah, serious ramifications attend a refusal to proclaim the Word of God.

Join us on June 26–27, 2020, for God’s Word Unproclaimed, a two-day conference in Seattle, WA. Gabriel Fluhrer, W. Robert Godfrey, Steven Lawson, Stephen Nichols, and Burk Parsons will remind us that, because the Word of God is still active, it will not return to Him void even today. Register now to secure your early-bird discount.

Sessions:

The Word of the Lord by Burk Parsons
The Sovereignty of God by Steven Lawson
Salvation Belongs to the Lord by Stephen Nichols
Proclaiming the Word by W. Robert Godfrey
Our Gracious God by Gabriel Fluhrer
A Heart for the Nations by Steven Lawson
Q&A with Fluhrer, Godfrey, Lawson, and Nichols

You can also join us early on Friday, beginning at 3:00 p.m., for our pre-conference on The Priority of Preaching.

Pre-Conference Sessions:

Preach the Word by W. Robert Godfrey
Sound Teaching by Steven Lawson
Fulfill Your Ministry by Gabriel Fluhrer

Register Now

Group discounts are available to groups of fifteen or more. The group rate is $69 per person and is good until June 5, 2020. You will also receive one complimentary registration per fifteen registered attendees.

How Do I Know If I'm Being Called to Be a Pastor?

A pastoral calling is not as simple as having the right gifts, sufficient education, and an internal conviction. From one of our live Ask Ligonier events, Burk Parsons counsels young men not to enter the ministry without an external call from the elders of a local church.

To get real-time answers to your biblical and theological questions, just Ask.Ligonier.org.

Read the Transcript

The Essence of the Calvinistic Life

Calvinistic theology has always placed great emphasis on biblical and doctrinal knowledge, and rightly so. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:1-2). This transformation is a prerequisite for our worship, since it is by the Spirit's illumination of our minds through Scripture that we gain understanding of God and His ways. But Calvinism—at least in its consistent forms—has never been merely cerebral. The history of Reformed Christianity is also the story of the highest order of spiritual experience. Calvinistic doctrine expressed in God-exalting words of praise leads to a distinctive Christian experience. The melody that is composed intellectually in Calvinistic theology and sung enthusiastically in Reformed worship also can be heard in the lifestyle and experience of Reformed Christians.

The seriousness of the Reformed world and life view means that, even when the melody is played in a minor key, it remains a melody. Indeed, to use a metaphor of Calvin, as this melody is played in the church, it becomes a glorious symphony blending the following motifs:

Trust in the sovereignty of God.
The experience of the power of God's grace to save hopeless and helpless sinners.
An overwhelming sense of being loved by a Savior who has died specifically and successfully for one's sins.
The discovery of a grace that has set one free to trust, serve, and love Christ while yet not destroying one's will.
The quiet confidence and poise engendered by knowing that God has pledged Himself to persevere with His people "till all the ransomed church of God is saved to sin no more."

These motifs all conspire to give God alone the glory.

The essence of the Calvinistic life is living in such a way as to glorify God. This, after all, is the burden of the answer to the opening question of the Shorter Catechism written by the Westminster Assembly of Divines: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever." Here is the ultimate surprise in Calvinism for many people: the glory of God and the enjoyment of man are not antithetical, but are correlated in the purposes of God.

The view that God's glory diminishes man and robs him of pleasure is, in the light (or should one say "darkness"?) of Genesis 3, the lie about God that was exchanged for the truth (Rom. 1:25). It is satanic theology that plays God against man.

In sharp contrast, biblical theology that exalts God in His sovereign grace and glory opens the door for man to enter into a quite different order of reality. Here is offered the experience of, and delight in, the rich pleasures of restoration to fellowship with God, transformation into the likeness of Christ, and anticipation of being with Christ where He is in order to see Him in His glory (John 17:24).

This excerpt is adapted from Sinclair Ferguson's contribution to Living for God's Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism by Joel Beeke.

$5 Friday: Scripture, Repentance, & the Reformation

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as Jonathan Edwards, repentance, suffering, Scripture, worship, God’s will, the Reformation, and more.

Sale runs through 12:01 a.m. — 11:59 p.m. Friday ET.

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

The Snare of the Devil

Here’s an excerpt from The Snare of the Devil, Burk Parsons’ contribution to the September issue of Tabletalk:

The nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote that the devil’s best trick is persuading people that he doesn’t exist. In the providence of God, the devil has been quite successful in persuading people that he doesn’t exist. The truth is that the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they might not see the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). As a result, the devil’s primary work is presumably focused elsewhere—on his enemy, God, and His people, the church. We who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ know all too well that Satan does indeed exist, for we wrestle daily against our enemy and the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and spiritual forces of evil (Eph. 6:12).

The devil has been a liar from the beginning, and with the fall, sin became our master (Rom. 6:20). At conversion, we gained Christ and, thus, we gained His enemy—Satan and all his demons. While we know that demons can neither indwell believers nor control our minds, we also know that they can strive to wreak havoc in our lives. We see this throughout Scripture, most vividly in Job’s life and in the lives of Jesus and His Apostles. Nevertheless, God is sovereign over all things—including the demons. He is sovereign over the ends as well as the means to those ends, and He has called us in His wisdom to “resist the devil” (James 4:7), who “disguises himself as an angel of light” and whose servants “disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:13–15).

Continue reading The Snare of the Devil, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month’s issue.

How Sinful Is Man?

Imagine a circle that represents the character of mankind. Now imagine that if someone sins, a spot—a moral blemish of sorts—appears in the circle, marring the character of man. If other sins occur, more blemishes appear in the circle. Well, if sins continue to multiply, eventually the entire circle will be filled with spots and blemishes. But have things reached that point? Human character is clearly tainted by sin, but the debate is about the extent of that taint. The Roman Catholic Church holds the position that man's character is not completely tainted, but that he retains a little island of righteousness. However, the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century affirmed that the sinful pollution and corruption of fallen man is complete, rendering us totally corrupt.

There's a lot of misunderstanding about just what the Reformers meant by that affirmation. The term that is often used for the human predicament in classical Reformed theology is total depravity. People have a tendency to wince whenever we use that term because there's very widespread confusion between the concept of total depravity and the concept of utter depravity. Utter depravity would mean that man is as bad, as corrupt, as he possibly could be. I don't think that there's a human being in this world who is utterly corrupt, but that's only by the grace of God and by the restraining power of His common grace. As many sins as we have committed individually, we could have done worse. We could have sinned more often. We could have committed sins that were more heinous. Or we could have committed a greater number of sins. Total depravity, then, does not mean that men are as bad as they conceivably could be.

When the Protestant Reformers talked about total depravity, they meant that sin—its power, its influence, its inclination—affects the whole person. Our bodies are fallen, our hearts are fallen, and our minds are fallen—there's no part of us that escapes the ravages of our sinful human nature. Sin affects our behavior, our thought life, and even our conversation. The whole person is fallen. That is the true extent of our sinfulness when judged by the standard and the norm of God's perfection and holiness.

This excerpt is taken from The Truth of the Cross by R.C. Sproul. To learn more about the true extent of human sinfulness download R.C. Sproul's free Crucial Questions booklet Are People Basically Good?

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, September 2019

The September issue of Tabletalk considers the many ways that Satan attempts to tear down the church, and presents these attempts creatively in the form of a training manual for demons. The Apostle Peter tells us that Satan prowls about like a lion, searching for those whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Christians need to be aware of his schemes if they are to recognize his work and stand against him. This issue exposes several of the most common ways that Satan tries to destroy the church, presenting these schemes in the form of a training manual that Satan might hand out to demons who have joined his rebellion. Each article is written as if it is a section of this training manual.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month's issue. You can also purchase the issue or subscribe to get the print issue every month.

The Snare of the Devil by Burk Parsons
How to Use This Manual by Tabletalk Editors
Erode Evangelism and Missions by Kevin D. Gardner
Cultivate Cowardice and Worldliness by Grant R. Castleberry
Subvert the Sacraments by Keith A. Mathison
Wreck the Word of God by Steven J. Lawson
Wear Down Worship by Chris Larson
Push against Personal Piety by Thomas Brewer
Demonize Church Discipline by Burk Parsons
Make Marriage Miserable by Eric Bancroft
And More

Browse the Entire Issue

Subscribe to Tabletalk today for only $23 a year, and $20 to renew. You save even more if you get a 2- or 3-year subscription (as little as $1.36 per issue). Get your subscription to Tabletalk today by calling one of Ligonier Ministries’ resource consultants at 800-435-4343 or by subscribing online.

If a New Believer Becomes Injured and Cannot Show “Good Works,” How Do We Know They Are Saved?

What should we think about Christians who, through accident or disability, can no longer articulate their faith? In this Q&A video from one of our live Ask Ligonier events, Sinclair Ferguson explains that if someone has trusted in Christ, there’s no reason to doubt they are saved.

To ask a biblical or theological question, just visit Ask.Ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.

Read the Transcript

Is Marriage "Just a Piece of Paper"?

In the past few decades, the option of living together, rather than moving into a formal marriage contract, has proliferated in our culture. Christians must be careful not to establish their precepts of marriage (or any other ethical dimension of life) on the basis of contemporary community standards. The Christian's conscience is to be governed not merely by what is socially acceptable or even by what is legal according to the law of the land, but rather by what God sanctions.

Unfortunately, some Christians have rejected the legal and formal aspects of marriage, arguing that marriage is a matter of private and individual commitment between two people and has no legal or formal requirements. These view marriage as a matter of individual private decision apart from external ceremony. The question most frequently asked of clergymen on this matter reflects the so-called freedom in Christ: "Why do we have to sign a piece of paper to make it legal?"

The signing of a piece of paper is not a matter of affixing one's signature in ink to a meaningless document. The signing of a marriage certificate is an integral part of what the Bible calls a covenant. A covenant is made publicly before witnesses and with formal legal commitments that are taken seriously by the community. The protection of both partners is at stake; there is legal recourse should one of the partners act in a way that is destructive to the other.

Contracts are signed out of the necessity spawned by the presence of sin in our fallen nature. Because we have an enormous capacity to wound each other, sanctions have to be imposed by legal contracts. Contracts not only restrain sin, but also protect the innocent in the case of legal and moral violation. With every commitment I make to another human being, there is a sense in which a part of me becomes vulnerable, exposed to the response of the other person. No human enterprise renders a person more vulnerable to hurt than does the estate of marriage.

God ordained certain rules regulating marriage in order to protect people. His law was born of love, concern, and compassion for His fallen creatures. The sanctions God imposed on sexual activity outside marriage do not mean that God is a spoilsport or a prude. Sex is an enjoyment He Himself created and gave to the human race. God, in His infinite wisdom, understands that there is no time that human beings are more vulnerable than when they are engaged in this most intimate activity. Thus, He cloaks this special act of intimacy with certain safeguards. He is saying to both the man and the woman that it is safe to give oneself to the other only when there is a certain knowledge of a lifelong commitment behind it. There is a vast difference between a commitment sealed with a formal document and declared in the presence of witnesses, including family, friends, and authorities of church and state, and a whispered, hollow promise breathed in the back seat of a car.

This excerpt is from R.C. Sproul's Crucial Questions booklet Can I Know God's Will? Download this ebook and the rest of the series for free here.

Will You Pray for Awakening? Download Your Free Prayer Guide

We live in a world that needs awakening. Millions of people do not know Jesus Christ. The church itself needs renewed zeal for the truth, for spiritual growth, and for missions. Scripture reveals how this awakening comes about: by a powerful movement of the Spirit of God. It also tells us that when just two men—Paul and Silas—prayed, the earth itself shook (Acts 16:25–26). So we are dedicating the entire year of 2019 to pray for awakening, and we hope you will, too.

To help as many people as possible, we produced this free prayer guide. Download it today at PrayForAwakening.com, find it in the PrayerMate app, or order the prayer booklet in packs of ten to share with your loved ones.

To use the guide, find the prayer that corresponds to the current week. Each week of the month focuses on a different group to pray for, starting with you and your family and expanding to the world and the global church. You can also share your desire to #PrayForAwakening on social media.

SEPTEMBER PRAYER FOCUS:

Week 1: Pray that you and your family will increasingly love God with your heart, soul, and might. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut. 6:5)
Week 2: Pray that your church will be diligent to teach the whole counsel of God. “Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:20)
Week 3: Pray for the peace and welfare of your city and nation, including that your fellow citizens will find spiritual peace by trusting in Christ. “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jer. 29:7)
Week 4: Pray that the nations of the world will come to know Christ and call upon His name in faith and repentance. “At that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord.” (Zeph. 3:9)
Week 5: Pray that the demons who exercise strong influence in your city and nation will be overcome and defeated. “The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia.” (Dan. 10:13)

We hope this prayer guide encourages you this year and in future years. Join us in praying fervently for a mighty movement of God’s Spirit today, thankful that He has graciously promised to hear us, and confident that He will answer our prayers according to His will.

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