R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 20

The Road to Worms: The Diet of Worms in Historical Context

Here’s an excerpt from The Road to Worms: The Diet of Worms in Historical Context, Stephen Nichols' contribution to the April issue of Tabletalk:

In the spring of 1521, Martin Luther and a few colleagues and a few students boarded a wagon and set out for Worms, a three-hundred-plus-mile journey from Wittenberg. Along the way, they stopped at Erfurt. As Luther’s carriage approached, a greeting party of forty horsemen trotted out to give the Reformer a hero’s welcome. City residents lined the streets, straddled walls, and perched on window ledges to catch a glimpse of Martin Luther. On April 7, 1521, he ascended the pulpit to preach to an overflow crowd that had spilled out onto the streets.

John 20:19–20 served as the text:

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

This text prompted Luther to ask perhaps the most significant question one could ask: How do we have peace with God? Luther personally felt the gravity of this question. Throughout his life, he felt no such peace with God. Instead, he felt terror, sheer fear. Oh, how this question troubled Luther. Peace with God means forgiveness. It means salvation. It means eternal life. Luther longed to hear these words from God directly to him: “Peace be with you.”

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How Does Being Made In the Image of God Motivate Us to Live a Holy Life?

God uses even the most difficult times in our lives to shape us into the likeness of His Son. From our livestream event Made in the Image of God, John MacArthur explains why it matters for Christians to have the right motivation in the pursuit of holiness.

Do you have another biblical or theological question? Ask Ligonier is your place for answers.

Read the Transcript

 

Watch Tomorrow: Here We Stand

Five hundred years ago, an Augustinian monk stood before an imperial council and was called to recant his teachings. With his conscience bound by the Word of God, Martin Luther refused to compromise. His stand fanned the flames of reformation as the Western church recovered the precious teachings that were long obscured by extrabiblical rules and traditions.

Tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. ET, join us for Here We Stand, a special online streaming event. Celebrating the five-hundredth anniversary of the Diet of Worms, this free event will explore the essential truths championed in the Protestant Reformation. As we consider the relevance of these truths for people of all ages around the world, we will be encouraged to stand with conviction on the Word of God today.

MESSAGES WILL INCLUDE

Here I Stand by Stephen NicholsHere We Stand on Scripture Alone by Burk ParsonsHere We Stand in Latin America by Sugel MichelénHere We Stand through Faith Alone by Derek ThomasHere We Stand in Europe by Michael ReevesHere We Stand in Christ Alone by Sinclair FergusonHere We Stand in Asia and the Middle East by Nathan W. BinghamHere We Stand by Grace Alone by W. Robert GodfreyHere We Stand in Africa by Ken MbuguaHere We Stand for the Glory of God Alone by Steven Lawson

This event will stream on Ligonier’s blog, YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Twitter account. Please share this online streaming event with your family and friends.

 

Enjoying God Is a Command

While shaking hands at the church door, ministers are sometimes greeted with a spontaneous, "I really enjoyed that!"—which is immediately followed by, "Oh! I shouldn't really say that, should I?" I usually grip tighter, hold the handshake a little longer, and say with a smile, "Doesn't the catechism's first question encourage us to do that? If we are to enjoy Him forever, why not begin now?"

Of course, we cannot enjoy God apart from glorifying Him. And the Westminster Shorter Catechism wisely goes on to ask, "What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?" But notice that Scripture contains the "rule" for enjoying God as well as glorifying Him. We know it abounds in instructions for glorifying Him, but how does it instruct us to "enjoy him"?

Enjoying God is a command, not an optional extra: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice" (Phil. 4:4). But how? We cannot "rejoice to order," can we?

True. Yet, Scripture shows that well-instructed believers develop a determination to rejoice. They will rejoice in the Lord. Habakkuk exemplified this in difficult days (see Hab. 3:17–18). He exercised what our forefathers called "acting faith"—a vigorous determination to experience whatever the Lord commands, including joy, and to use the God-given means to do so. Here are four of these means—in which, it should be noted, we also glorify God.

Joy in Salvation

Enjoying God means relishing the salvation He gives us in Jesus Christ. "I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (Hab. 3:18). God takes joy in our salvation (Luke 15:6–7, 9–10, 32). So should we. Here, Ephesians 1:3–14 provides a masterly delineation of this salvation in Christ. It is a gospel bath in which we should often luxuriate, rungs on a ladder we should frequently climb, in order to experience the joy of the Lord as our strength (Neh. 8:10). While we are commanded to have joy, the resources to do so are outside of ourselves, known only through union with Christ.

Joy in Revelation

Joy issues from devouring inscripturated revelation. Psalm 119 bears repeated witness to this. The psalmist "delights" in God's testimonies "as much as in all riches" (Ps. 119:14; see also vv. 35, 47, 70, 77, 103, 162, 174). Think of Jesus' words, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11). Does He mean He will find His joy in us, so that our joy may be full, or that His joy will be in us so that our joy may be full? Both, surely, are true. We find full joy in the Lord only when we know He finds His joy in us. The pathway to joy, then, is to give ourselves maximum exposure to His Word and to let it dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16). It is joy-food for the joy-hungry soul.

Joy in Communion

There is joy in the Lord to be tasted in the worship we enjoy in church communion. The church is the new Jerusalem, the city that cannot be hidden, the joy of the whole earth (Ps. 48:2). In the Spirit-led communion of praise and petition; soul pastoring; Word preaching; psalm, hymn, and spiritual song singing; and water, bread, and wine receiving, abundant joy is to be found. The Lord sings over us with joy (Zeph. 3:17). Our hearts sing for joy in return.

Joy in Tribulation

Here, indeed, is a divine paradox. There is joy to be known in the midst of and through affliction. Viewed biblically, tribulation is the Father's chastising hand using life's pain and darkness to mold us into the image of the One who endured for the sake of the joy set before Him (Heb. 12: 1–2, 5–11; see Rom. 8:29). We exult and rejoice in our sufferings, Paul says, because "suffering produces . . . hope" in us (Rom. 5:3–4). Peter and James echo the same principle (1 Peter 1:3–8; James 1:2–4). The knowledge of the sure hand of God in providence not only brings stability; it is also a joy-producer.

All of this adds up to exultation in God Himself. In Romans 5:1–11, Paul leads us from rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God (v. 2) to joy that comes in tribulation (v. 3) to exulting in God Himself (v. 11; see Ps. 43:4). The unbeliever finds this incredible, because he has been blinded by the joy-depriving lie of Satan that to glorify God is the high road to joylessness. Thankfully, Christ reveals that the reverse takes place in Him—because of our salvation, through His revelation, in worship's blessed communion, and by means of tribulation.

Enjoy! Yes, indeed, may "everlasting joy . . . be upon [your] heads" (Isa. 51:11).

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

God Has No Potential for Change

As finite creatures, we're always changing—either for the better or for the worse. But God has no potential for change, for He has all being perfectly within Himself. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul explains what it means for God to have “pure actuality.”

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Transcript:

But there’s no statement in secular philosophy that has jerked me back to contemplation more often than that one: “Whatever is, is.” What he’s saying is that reality, to be real, cannot be changing. Because that which is changing never truly is. You are not what you are, because since I’ve started that sentence, you changed. And not even Robin Williams with the Popeye image can say, “I am who I am, who I am, who I am: Popeye the sailor man.” What he should say is, “I'm potentially Popeye the sailor man. I’m becoming Popeye the sailor man. Because maybe I was Popeye the sailor man, but I'm not anymore. And even when I was, I wasn’t, because when I was, I was changing.” You can't freeze time with creatures who are constantly undergoing this state of flux. That’s why it is a matter of great profundity that the God of sacred Scripture defines Himself as “I AM,” not “I am becoming,” not “I am changing.” But He is eternally perfect in His actuality. To put it another way: For God, there is no potential. God has no lack or deficiency into which He must grow to realize His full potential. He has pure actuality. And yet, as Aristotle would later discover, if something were only potential, and potentially everything, it would be actually nothing. So, there can’t be pure potentiality, or there can’t be something that is purely becoming. If all you are is change, if all you are is becoming, all that means is that what you are is that you are an illusion. You’re fig newton of somebody’s imagination. Because you don’t have anything that really is. Now, many of the thinkers following this debate in antiquity came to that conclusion. They said, “Whatever is, is changing.” If that’s true, then everything that undergoes change is just an illusion. It can’t really be. Now, what does that say about flowers and rocks and hills and rivers? Then the whole external world of our experience is an illusion. What about you? If you are undergoing change, and if you are in a state of becoming, if all you are is becoming, then you aren’t anything. You are nothing. But common sense says, “I may be changing but it is an I—an actuality—who really is changing.” But where do I find this being that keeps me from being just an illusion? You're not going to find the answer in Parmenides. You're not going to find it in Heraclitus. You’re going to have to go back to Mars Hill and have to hear the Apostle Paul say, “In Him you live and move and have your being.” The only thing that keeps me from being an illusion is the power of the One who created me, who Himself has all being perfectly within His own identity.

 

Does God Love the Wicked the Same Way He Loves the Elect?

Does God love everyone in the same way—both His redeemed people and His enemies? From one of our live events, R.C. Sproul helps us understand what it means that “God so loved the world” (John 3:16).

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Read the Transcript

 

The Greatest Joy

At one point during His earthly ministry, Jesus sent a group of His disciples out on their own to preach the gospel and to heal the sick and those who were under demonic possession. Luke writes:

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.” (10:1–14)

Jesus appointed seventy-two of His followers to go throughout the land of Palestine, to every hamlet and village where He Himself was about to go, to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God. He warned them that in many places they would not be warmly received. As Jesus put it, they would be “lambs in the midst of wolves.” Of course, the commission to go out with the message about Christ now belongs to all of the church, and so this warning applies to each one of us. The world is not always glad to receive our message, and sometimes we feel as lambs being led to the slaughter.

These must have been sobering words for the seventy-two. Luke does not explicitly say so, but I imagine they went out with a measure of trepidation. However, Luke is very explicit about the attitude of the seventy-two when they returned. He writes: “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’” (v. 17). In all probability, they went out fearful and apprehensive, but they came back with exceedingly great joy. Why were they so happy? It was because they had been successful—God had used them and they had seen the manifestation of the power of Christ in their ministry. Also, they declared that they were happy because the demons were subject to them in Jesus’ name. So, they were filled with elation because of two things—success and power. These are the kinds of things that we typically enjoy, too.

But Jesus did not quite enter into their joy. He told them: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (vv. 18–20).

We need to ponder these words. Jesus obviously understood the excitement of His followers, who had enjoyed the success of ministry, but He warned them against having a misplaced basis for their joy. He said they should not rejoice that the demons were subject to them; rather, they should rejoice that their names were written in heaven. Here our Lord identified the supreme foundation for Christian joy. Our joy is to come from the assurance that we have redemption in Christ. The greatest joy that a person can have is to know that his name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that he is saved and will live forever with Christ.

This excerpt is taken from the free ebook Can I Have Joy in My Life? by R.C. Sproul. You can download all of R.C. Sproul's Crucial Questions booklets for free here.

$5 Friday (And More): The Trinity, Reformed Theology, & the Beatitudes

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as the Trinity, reformed theology, the Beatitudes, the Lord's Supper, the prodigal son, Isaac Watts, and more.

Plus, several bonus resources are also available for more than $5. These have been significantly discounted from their original price. This week’s bonus resources include:

The Parables of Jesus with R.C. Sproul, DVD $48 $15 Luke: An Expositional Commentary by R.C. Sproul, Hardcover book $40 $20 The Necessity of Reforming the Church by John Calvin, Hardcover book $17 $12 Pleasing God by R.C. Sproul, Paperback book $15 $9 Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves, Paperback book $18 $12And More

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

View Today's $5 Friday Items

 

Multiply Your Ministry Impact to Help Advance a Global Awakening

You and I have been entrusted with a mission of eternal consequence: to see people around the world awakened to God’s holiness and the reality of their sinfulness, so that they trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone, thereby glorifying and enjoying God forever. Now, you and I have an opportunity to see more people awakened to the Lord through a special grant dedicated to international outreach.

Striving for an awakening to the character of God has been at the forefront of Ligonier Ministries’ mission from the beginning. When our founder, Dr. R.C. Sproul, began to gather students at a small study center in the Ligonier Valley east of Pittsburgh, he knew that their greatest need was to know who God is. Only when we come to know who God is can we come to truly know who we are, why we’re here, and how we are called to live in this world.

The Lord provided for this ministry at the beginning, and through you, He continues to provide fifty years later. Following the mission mapped out by Dr. Sproul, we do not seek to provide teaching that will remain relevant to the church for only a few years. Our message does not change because the character of God does not change.

That is why I’m so pleased to tell you about a new opportunity the Lord has set before us. Recognizing the enduring relevance of Ligonier’s Bible teaching and the soaring global demand for our discipleship resources, the Love in Action Foundation has now awarded Ligonier a special grant to accelerate our global outreach over the next five years. We are grateful and humbled by this, the largest grant so far in Ligonier’s history. It means that your ministry reach can be significantly extended.

Your gift of any amount this month will receive an increase through this grant, allowing you to multiply your impact so that even more people may be awakened to the glory of God and the gospel of His grace.

The need for trusted teaching is ever on the rise. Billions of people around the world are living and dying without the hope of the gospel. Poor training for pastors and church leaders predominates. False teaching and cults oppose the truth of God’s Word at every turn. Yes, the Lord is building His church, but He uses you and me to reach millions of Christians who languish without biblical preaching or accessible discipleship teaching in their region or language.

If we do not step in to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ, who will (Rom. 10:14–15)? What alternatives will the nations embrace if we do not strive now to reach them with the liberating truths of the historic Christian faith?

By God’s grace, Ligonier is increasingly focused on getting the discipleship resources you trust to millions more people in regions around the globe. We have added skilled team members and developed new capabilities that enable us to translate more teaching and get it to those who need it most. Our aim is not to lift Ligonier’s name up but rather to promote the glory of God above all else.

In the past six months alone, friends such as you have enabled the launch of our new Chinese and Hindi dedicated-language websites. This means that Ligonier resources can now be accessed by half of the world’s population. Give thanks to God with us. Even so, a vast amount of work lies ahead of us.

The opportunity presented by this grant has moved us to enlarge our already bold international outreach plan for the next five years. With long-range funding support from donors, God has made it possible to establish committed, multiyear international partnerships to bring trusted Bible teaching to people around the world. Here is a glimpse into our strategic plan to reach billions of souls with uncompromising teaching that exalts the character of God:

Translate the Reformation Study Bible into Arabic and French, unlocking its unparalleled study notes to more than one billion new readers. These new printed and digital editions will enable people throughout Africa, the Middle East, Canada, France, and beyond to become anchored in the true knowledge of God.Distribute a rich theological library in Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. Your gift will help put tens of thousands of copies of the Reformation Study Bible in Spanish and Portuguese in the hands of pastors, missionaries, and other growing Christians throughout Latin America. You will also enable the Arabic translation of books from Dr. Sproul to provide a firm theological foundation for persecuted Middle Eastern and North African Christians.Develop the Spanish and Arabic editions of Ligonier Connect. This will greatly expand Ligonier’s worldwide discipleship community by making biblical teaching accessible to every Spanish and Arabic speaker with an internet connection. Providing our library of interactive video courses in these major languages will also bring needed reinforcements to Christians living in regions that are hostile to the gospel.Provide digital teaching libraries to serve the persecuted church through ten new Ligonier digital library resource centers in strategic regions where the Christian faith is strenuously opposed. These centers will distribute microchips filled with thousands of discipleship resources in six major languages. These resources can be accessed without an internet connection. In 2021 alone, we expect more than 250,000 of these digital libraries to be distributed, which also play a key role in our multi-front effort to reach more than a billion Chinese speakers with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Your support will make a deep and accessible theological library available in English, Arabic, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, helping to provide resources that can serve nearly everyone living on the entire continent of Africa!

If the Lord should bless these plans for global gospel outreach, you and I could find ourselves in the middle of a surging renewal of biblical Christianity the likes of which we have never seen. Now is the hour for prayer and strenuous labor—but to move forward, we need your help this month.

If friends such as you help Ligonier raise $3 million by the summer of 2022, this multiplying grant will contribute an additional $1.5 million. To keep you informed on the fruit of your thoughtful generosity, my commitment to you is to keep you apprised of the unfolding progress of this global outreach plan. Expect updates from me in the future.

Dr. Sproul often told me of his desire to see a worldwide awakening to the holiness of God, with Ligonier serving faithfully in the middle of it all. With God’s blessing, your donation this month will help foster awakening in countries, cities, and households around the globe.

Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). This is the longing of every Christian. It sustains our zeal for God’s glory alone.

This urgent and unique opportunity will multiply your ministry impact so that our holy God may be known throughout the world. Thank you for your treasured partnership in the gospel.

 

Steadfast in the Truth

Here’s an excerpt from Steadfast in the Truth, Burk Parsons' contribution to the April issue of Tabletalk:

When Luther appeared at the Diet of Worms on April 15–18, the assembly had already been meeting for nearly three months. At first, Luther was not scheduled to appear. He was summoned after he publicly burned the papal bull Exsurge Domine on December 10, 1520. The bull, drafted largely by Eck and issued by Pope Leo X in June, listed forty-one charges against Luther and threatened his excommunication if he did not recant his teachings against some of the actions and teachings of the church, particularly as they pertained to the sale of indulgences to fund the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Luther burned the papal bull in response to Eck’s burning of Luther’s books throughout Germany. Luther’s refusal to repent prompted Leo to excommunicate Luther in another papal bull titled Decet Romanum Pontificem on January 3, 1521. However, Luther remained under the protection of the elector of Saxony, Frederick III, which gave him freedom to preach and teach throughout the Saxon region. Luther’s audacious actions fueled the growth of his teachings’ popularity, leading many churches throughout the region to support and follow him.

Continue reading Steadfast in the Truth, 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.