R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 135

Biblical Exemplars

Here’s an excerpt from Biblical Exemplars, Robert Rothwell’s contribution to the July issue of Tabletalk:

“It’s the little things that matter the most.” Have you ever heard that phrase? Perhaps you have spoken it yourself. It is said so often that it is a cliché. Yet, the thing about clichés is that often they begin and gain popularity because they reflect at least a grain of truth.

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Do You Believe in Jesus?

In this brief clip from our 2012 West Coast Conference, Steven Lawson presents the gospel.

Transcript

Have you come to put your full confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you understand that you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? Do you understand that two thousand years ago upon the cross, Jesus Christ was lifted up to die for sinners; that He died in the place of all those who will call upon Him; and that through His death and through the shedding of His blood, He has made the only atonement for our sins by which we may find full and free acceptance with God? Have you come to repent of your sins—to turn away from a life of independence and autonomy from God? Have you come to confess and acknowledge that you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? Have you come to commit your life and surrender your life to the King of Kings and to the Lord of Lords—this risen Christ? He is the Good Shepherd, and all of His sheep He will safely transport to heaven one day.

If you have never believed upon Jesus Christ, if you have never called upon His name, I urge you this moment, this very second, in your heart of hearts to turn to the Lord and say, “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner, but you are the friend of sinners. You have come to seek and to save that which is lost. Lord Jesus, receive me into your kingdom.” “Whoever comes to me,” Jesus said, “I will never cast out” (John 6:37). You will find a willing and loving Savior who will embrace you in His arms, bring you into His kingdom, clothe you with His perfect righteousness, and wash away all of your sins, who has prepared a place in heaven for you. No greater offer could ever be extended to any one of us here than the free offer of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For He has come to seek and to save that which is lost, and if you have never acknowledged that you’re lost and that you need to be saved, turn to Him this moment, and He will save you. He will save you forever. But if you do not, there is a day of dread that is coming, and it will be shocking in that day if you stand before Him without an advocate. You must settle out of court. You must settle this with Him today.

The Heart of John Calvin

"If we, then, are not our own [cf. 1 Cor. 6:19] but the Lord's, it is clear what error we must flee, and whither we must direct all the acts of our life." —John Calvin

We are not our own; we belong to the Lord. That confession, in essence, is the heart of true Calvinism. Our salvation belongs to the Lord, from beginning to end (Ps. 3:8; Rev. 7:10). He has captivated our minds and has made His light to shine abroad in our hearts (2 Cor. 4:6; 10:5). Our whole being belongs to Him—heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is what Calvin proclaimed, and this is the foundation on which his life was established.

The Lord took hold of Calvin, and Calvin thus could not help but take away "dominion and rule from his own reason" and yield it to the Lord alone. That is the glorious brilliance reflected by any study of Calvin. There was nothing in Calvin himself that was superhuman, super-theologian, or super-churchman. Calvin was a man whom God chose to call out of darkness and into His marvelous light so that he might go back into the darkness and shine brightly unto every generation of God's people until Christ returns.

In truth, any study of Calvin is actually just a study of God's work in the life of His servant in His kingdom. In the words of Calvin biographer Jean Cadier, Calvin was a man whom "God mastered." In mastering him, the Lord used His servant to accomplish all that He had sovereignly purposed. In mastering his heart, the Lord left Calvin with no choice but to offer his heart to God promptly and sincerely. Although Calvin understood that "man's nature is a perpetual factory of idols," that the "mind begets an idol, and the hand gives it birth," and that man's heart is deceitfully wicked above all things (Jer. 17:9), he could do nothing but present his heart to God with outstretched hands, offering himself wholly to Him.

In everything, Calvin, more than simply dedicating himself, offered himself sacrificially to the Lord: his family, his studies, his preaching—his entire ministry (Rom. 12:1–2). He was a man who ministered not for his own glory, but for the glory of God (Ps. 115); he was a man who preached not himself, but the Word of God (2 Tim. 4:1–2). According to Parker, Calvin "had a horror of those who preached their own ideas in place of the gospel of the Bible: 'When we enter the pulpit, it is not so that we may bring our own dreams and fancies with us.'" Calvin was not concerned with offering to his congregation the quaint meditations of his own heart. Although it has become popular in many churches for the pastor to strive to "pour out his heart" to his congregation, such was not Calvin's aim in his preaching, for he had offered his heart to God alone. As a result, Calvin did not think it was profitable to share the ever-changing passions of his own heart, but to proclaim the heart of God in His never-changing Word. Calvin was not concerned that his congregants behold him but that they behold the Lord. This should be the aim of every pastor, and, if necessary, every pastor should place a placard behind his pulpit with the following words inscribed: "Sir, we wish to see Jesus" (John 12:21). Such was Calvin's aim in his preaching and in all his life.

An excerpt from John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology by Burk Parsons. To commemorate the 510th anniversary of John Calvin's birth (July 10, 1509), Reformation Trust is giving away the ebook edition of John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology for free. Download your copy today.

Our Call to Faithfulness

Here’s an excerpt from Our Call to Faithfulness, David Strain’s contribution to the July issue of Tabletalk:

To be a Christian is to be called to a life of faithfulness. But the duty of Christian faithfulness, properly understood, should be seen as our response to the faithfulness of God. Of course, before we can speak of God’s faithfulness to us, we must first remember that God is supremely faithful to Himself. He always acts in perfect conformity to His own holy character and purpose. His singular objective is His own glory, and He is unfailingly faithful to that goal. In Isaiah 48:9–11, the motive of the Lord in restraining His judgment is Himself and the glory of His own name.

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Are Faith and Belief the Same Thing?

To be a Christian is not simply to believe that God exists but to place your trust in Him. In this Q&A video from one of our live Ask R.C. events, R.C. Sproul considers what it means to have faith.

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

Read the Transcript

Does Prayer Change God’s Mind?

Does prayer make any difference? Does it really change anything? Someone once asked me that question, only in a slightly different manner: "Does prayer change God's mind?" My answer brought storms of protest. I said simply, "No." Now, if the person had asked me, "Does prayer change things?" I would have answered, "Of course!"

The Bible says there are certain things God has decreed from all eternity. Those things will inevitably come to pass. If you were to pray individually or if you and I were to join forces in prayer or if all the Christians of the world were to pray collectively, it "would not change what God, in His hidden counsel, has determined to do. If we decided to pray for Jesus not to return, He still would return. You might ask, though, "Doesn't the Bible say that if two or three agree on anything, they'll get it?" Yes, it does, but that passage is talking about church discipline, not prayer requests. So we must take all the biblical teaching on prayer into account and not isolate one passage from the rest. We must approach the matter in light of the whole of Scripture, resisting an atomistic reading. Again, you might ask, "Doesn't the Bible say from time to time that God repents?" Yes, the Old Testament certainly says so. The book of Jonah tells us that God "repented of " the judgment He had planned for the people of Nineveh (Jonah 3:10, KJV). In using the concept of repentance here, the Bible is describing God, who is Spirit, in what theologians call "anthropomorphic" language. Obviously the Bible does not mean that God repented in the way we would repent; otherwise, we could rightly assume that God had sinned and therefore would need a savior Himself. What it clearly means is that God removed the threat of judgment from the people. The Hebrew word nacham, translated "repent" in the King James Version, means "comforted" or "eased" in this case. God was comforted and felt at ease that the people "had turned from their sin, and therefore He revoked the sentence of judgment He had imposed.

When God hangs His sword of judgment over people's heads, and they repent and He then withholds His judgment, has He really changed His mind? The mind of God does not change for God does not change. Things change, and they change according to His sovereign will, which He exercises through secondary means and secondary activities. The prayer of His people is one of the means He uses to bring things to pass in this world. So if you ask me whether prayer changes things, I answer with an unhesitating "Yes!"

It is impossible to know how much of human history reflects God's immediate intervention and how much reveals God working through human agents. Calvin's favorite example of this was the book of Job. The Sabeans and the Chaldeans had taken Job's donkeys and camels. Why? Because Satan had stirred their hearts to do so. But why? Because Satan had received permission from God to test Job's faithfulness in any way he so desired, short of taking Job's life. Why had God agreed to such a thing? For three reasons: (1) to silence the slander of Satan; (2) to vindicate Himself; and (3) to vindicate Job from the slander of Satan. All of these reasons are perfectly righteous justifications for God's actions.

By contrast, Satan's purpose in stirring up these two groups was to cause Job to blaspheme God—an altogether wicked motive. But we notice that Satan did not do something supernatural to accomplish his ends. He chose human agents—the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who were evil by nature—to steal Job's animals. The Sabeans and Chaldeans were known for their thievery and murderous way of life. Their will was involved, but there was no coercion; God's purpose was accomplished through their wicked actions.

The Sabeans and Chaldeans were free to choose, but for them, as for us, freedom always means freedom within limits. We must not, however, confuse human freedom and human autonomy. There will always be a conflict between divine sovereignty and human autonomy. There is never a conflict between divine sovereignty and human freedom. The Bible says that man is free, but he is not an autonomous law unto himself.

Suppose the Sabeans and Chaldeans had prayed, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." I'm absolutely certain that Job's animals still would have been stolen, but not necessarily by the Sabeans and Chaldeans. God might have chosen to"answer their prayer, but He would have used some other agent to steal Job's animals. There is freedom within limits, and within those limits, our prayers can change things. The Scriptures tell us that Elijah, through prayer, kept the rain from falling. He was not dissuaded from praying by his understanding of divine sovereignty.

No human being has ever had a more profound understanding of divine sovereignty than Jesus. No man ever prayed more fiercely or more effectively. Even in Gethsemane, He requested an option, a different way. When the request was denied, He bowed to the Father's will. The very reason we pray is because of God's sovereignty, because we believe that God has it within His power to order things according to His purpose. That is what sovereignty is all about—ordering things according to God's purpose. So then, does prayer change God's mind? No. Does prayer change things? Yes, of course. The promise of the Scriptures is that "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:16). The problem is that we are not all that righteous. What prayer most often changes is the wickedness and the hardness of our own hearts. That alone would be reason enough to pray, even if none of the other reasons were valid or true.

In a sermon titled "The Most High, a Prayer-Hearing God," Jonathan Edwards gave two reasons why God requires prayer:

With respect to God, prayer is but a sensible acknowledgement of our dependence on him to his glory. As he hath made all things for his own glory, so he will be glorified and acknowledged by his creatures; and it is fit that he should require this of those who would be subjects of his mercy . . . [it] is a suitable acknowledgement of our dependence on the power and mercy of God for that which we need, and but a suitable honor paid to the great Author and Fountain of all good.

With respect to ourselves, God requires prayer of us . . . Fervent prayer many ways tends to prepare the heart. Hereby is excited a sense of our need . . . whereby the mind is more prepared to prize [his mercy] . . . Our prayer to God may excite in us a suitable sense and consideration of our dependence on God for the mercy we ask, and a suitable exercise of faith in God's sufficiency, so that we may be prepared to glorify his name when the mercy is received. (The Works of Jonathan Edwards [Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974], 2:116)

All that God does is for His glory first and for our benefit second. We pray because God commands us to pray, because it glorifies Him, and because it benefits us.

See also:

If God Is Sovereign, Why Pray?
Does Prayer Change God’s Mind?

This excerpt is taken from R.C. Sproul's Crucial Questions booklet Does Prayer Change Things?. Download more free ebooks in the Crucial Questions series 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.

JULY PRAYER FOCUS:

Week 1: Pray that you and your family will put no confidence in the flesh or human methods but rather lean on God to bring awakening. “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” (Phil. 3:3)
Week 2: Pray that your church will be committed to making true disciples of the next generation so that renewal continues. “You shall teach [God’s commandments] diligently to your children.” (Deut. 6:7)
Week 3: Pray that your nation will be turned upside down and changed through the preaching of the biblical gospel. “They dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.’” (Acts 17:6)
Week 4: Pray that God will raise up Christians who are willing to go to the ends of the earth, to the most out-of-the-way places in order to proclaim the gospel to those who haven’t heard it. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

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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The Bishop of Rome

In this brief clip from his teaching series A Survey of Church History, W. Robert Godfrey examines the claim that the whole church rests on the bishop of Rome. Watch this entire message for free today. 

Transcript

It is true that from fairly early on bishops of Rome began to argue that they had a special place in the life of the church. And that argument resonated with many Christians. After all, Rome was the capital city of the empire. It’s where the emperor was, and therefore, Rome was particularly important, and therefore it made sense that the bishop of Rome would be particularly important. And so, for the first time probably in the middle of the third century, often in the study of the ancient church, you have to say probably because we don’t know as much as we’d like to know. The historical record particularly of the second and third century is really pretty sketchy. We have evidence, but we’re never quite sure how full that evidence is.

But in the middle of the third century, about 250, as far as we can tell for the first time a bishop of Rome quoted the words of Jesus to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my church.” And it was Pope Stephen about 250 for the first time said, “This shows the primacy of the bishop of Rome. This shows that in some fundamental way the whole church rests on the bishop of Rome.” Now, if we were a Roman Catholic apologist we would say, “Well 250, that’s a long time ago.” But from the perspective of the church, the church had been going without apostles for a hundred and fifty years, which is also a long time, without this papal claim.

But even more importantly, we have to recognize, it’s one thing to claim something, and it’s quite something else for anybody to pay attention to the claim. And for a very long time the bishops of Rome did make claims for themselves, but the rest of the church wasn’t buying it, wasn’t paying attention. The bishops of Rome had more success in the west, of course, because they didn’t have as much competition. But in the east there was very little inclination to grant that the bishop of Rome was in charge.

The Frozen Chosen

Most of us are familiar with the phrase the frozen chosen. Many will even have used it on occasion to describe themselves or some other group of Christians or to distinguish one tradition within Christianity from another. But what exactly does the phrase mean? And is it a helpful phrase? Or is it instead a misnomer and a contradiction in terms?

If we mean by frozen chosen that some Christian traditions are less externally expressive than others, then this phrase certainly could be a helpful way of conveying that idea. When my family and I moved from the United States to Scotland several years ago, one of the first things that we noticed was that many of our Scottish brothers and sisters are far more reserved in their outward expressions of faith than we are as Americans. If this is all that we are attempting to convey when we use the phrase frozen chosen, then I have no real objection to it. Moreover, if we mean that some traditions or some Christians tend to be more intellectual or more concerned about doctrine than others are, then, again, this phrase could possibly be helpful in communicating that idea.

But if we mean by the phrase frozen chosen that it is possible for people to be "chosen" (that is, to be genuinely Christian) and yet for there to be no visible, external manifestation of their faith in their lives, then I do not think this phrase is helpful at all. In fact, I would say that if this is what we mean by the phrase frozen chosen, then it is a complete falsehood and a clear contradiction in terms.

I say this for two main reasons. First, Jesus on several occasions teaches that genuine faith will manifest itself visibly in the life of the true Christian. In Matthew 7:15–20 and 12:33–37, for instance, Jesus appeals to the example of the tree and its fruit to teach that the inward condition of every tree is revealed by the kind of fruit that it produces: good trees produce good fruit and diseased trees produce bad fruit. The good fruit doesn't make the tree good. The good roots do that. The good fruit simply demonstrates and proves that the tree does in fact have good roots and is, therefore, a good tree. The good roots manifest themselves in the fact that they produce good fruit, just as bad roots manifest themselves in the fact that they produce bad fruit.

In Matthew 12:36–37, Jesus associates not just the things that we do but also the words that we speak with the fruit that trees produce. Just as the fruit of the tree reveals the condition of its roots, so the words that we speak reveal the condition of our hearts, whether we genuinely believe and are justified or don't and are condemned. It is out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks (v. 34).

The whole point in these passages is that genuine faith manifests itself visibly in the things that we do and the words that we say. It may be hidden for a season, but it cannot remain that way. It will manifest itself visibly in our lives. In that sense, we cannot be "chosen" and remain in a "frozen" condition. There may be times when genuine Christians feel "frozen" or cold-hearted toward God and His Word and, at these times, our fruit may indeed be hidden or less visible. But this will not be a permanent condition. There is no such thing as secret Christianity. Sooner or later, either the secrecy will drive out whatever Christianity there may be, or the Christianity will drive out the secrecy. Genuine Christianity will always manifest itself visibly in our lives.

The second reason I say that the phrase frozen chosen is a contradiction in terms is because Jesus teaches that sound doctrine ought also to bear fruit in our lives. Not only should genuine faith produce visible fruit but sound theology ought to as well. This is one of the main points of the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4–15. The seed of the Word of God that is sown onto the good soil of the Christian heart does not remain hidden. It bears fruit, "thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold" (Mark 4:20). In other words, sound theology ought always to affect our lives visibly. It should affect our worship, our prayer lives, and the way we love our spouses, do our jobs, interact with other Christians, endure trials and tribulations, and reach out to the lost. If it doesn't, there is something wrong with the doctrine (the seed), the soil, or both.

What is more, the doctrine of predestination itself—which is the basis upon which anyone would claim to be "chosen" in the first place—is intended to lead us to warm-hearted worship, not to cold-hearted complacency or pride. Paul tells us as much in Romans 9:22–24. His point is that everything God has done in regard to His decree of election is for the express purpose that those who are "chosen" might know and revel in "the riches of [God's] glory" that are for us.

In other words, the doctrine of election ought to affect our lives. It ought to warm our hearts and lead us to worship and serve the Lord because of His great mercy toward us. It ought never lead us to a "frozen" condition but to cry out, with Paul, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" It ought to lead us to declare with our lips and our lives: "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Rom. 11:33, 36).

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

$5 Friday: Revival, Guilt, & Forgiveness

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as revival, parables, church history, guilt, Jonathan Edwards, forgiveness and more.

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

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.