R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 553

Self-Righteous Snobbery

"How is it that He [Jesus] eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" (Mark 2:16b).

When the scribes and Pharisees called people "sinners," they were thinking of the rank-and-file Jews who were not committed to in-depth study of the things of God, especially the law of God. These people went the way of the culture and followed the customs of the day rather than the details of the law. The Pharisees were just the opposite. The word Pharisee is derived from a Hebrew word meaning "separated one," for the Pharisees were strongly committed to keeping the law of God, and they believed that salvation came from distancing themselves from anyone who was morally loose. So it was important for them, in order to maintain their holiness and their sanctity, to have no dealings with people whom they regarded as sinners.

There are Christians like that, who actually believe that there is some sanctity in avoiding any contact with unbelievers or pagans. Several years ago, a woman called me to say her husband wanted to play golf with me. She said she would pay for the round as a birthday gift for her husband, and I agreed to play golf with him. We played eighteen holes of golf, and then after the round we went into the Men’s Grill. As he was leaving, he saw me then go to sit with my friends at the club, many of whom were not believers at the time but who are now members of my congregation. This man was so upset that I was friendly with these people that he took it on himself to call the board of directors of Ligonier Ministries and complain that I was mixing with the wrong kind of people.

Jesus did not spend His life in a monastery. He was where people were, where there was pain and suffering, because He cared about people. But the religious establishment of His day could not stomach that Jesus, who was supposed to be a rabbi, was willing to dine with despised tax collectors and ordinary Jews. So they came to Jesus’ disciples and asked, "Why is He doing it?"

When Jesus heard about their complaint, He said to them:

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Mark 2:17).

What good is a doctor who associates only with well people? It is a good thing for doctors to be involved in preventive medicine, but we need doctors even more when we are sick. Of course, not everyone who is sick and needs a physician realizes it—such were the scribes and Pharisees.

There was some irony in Jesus' words when He said to the scribes and Pharisees, "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." The implication was that these religious leaders themselves needed to repent of their sin. They were the sickest of the sick, all the while thinking they had no need of a physician.

Excerpt from R.C. Sproul's Mark, the fifth volume in the St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary series. Now available in the Ligonier store.

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Being Black and Reformed: An Interview with Anthony Carter

Tabletalk: Why did you write the book On Being Black and Reformed?

Anthony Carter: When I first came into the knowledge of Reformed theology, I was excited and invigorated to share this truth with others. However, I quickly discovered that not everyone found Reformed theology as compelling as I did (go figure). This was particularly true within African American circles. Because of the caricatures of Reformed theology that have become popular in some Christian circles, and because of the unfortunate history of some within Reformed confessing Christianity, many African Americans find Reformed theology in general, and Reformed-minded Christians in particular, not very sympathetic to their history and culture. I wrote On Being Black and Reformed because I wanted to nix those thoughts and demonstrate that not only is Reformed theology biblically and historically consistent, but it is not antithetical to the African American Christian experience. In fact, Reformed theology makes the most sense of the world in general and the history of African Americans in particular.

Continue reading Being Black and Reformed: An Interview with Anthony Carter from the December issue of Tabletalk.

Denise Sproul Memorial Message

This morning a memorial service was held for Denise Sproul at Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida. Her father-in-law, Dr. R.C. Sproul, gave a meditation from Philippians 1:19-26:

"For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again." — Philippians 1:19-26

You’ve just heard the inspired, infallible Word of Almighty God, which our Lord Jesus Christ said is Truth. Truth that cannot fail. Truth that cannot be broken. Please receive it as such this morning.

Let us pray. Our Father and our God, You have declared to us that it is better to go to the house of mourning than to spend our time with fools. And even now we are in that house of mourning. But we mourn not as those who have no hope. But rather we weep with those who weep, and we rejoice with those who rejoice knowing that you have decreed from eternity that all things work together for good for those who love You and who are called according to Your purpose. For that we are profoundly and eternally grateful. Amen.

Paul was writing to the Philippians from prison. This was not his final imprisonment that he endured before his execution under the beast, Nero of Rome. But he wrote to this church in Philippi, and he declared to them his joy in the midst of sorrow saying to them, "I rejoice in my condition; therefore, you should rejoice as well." And he remarks here in verse 19, "I know that this will turn out for my deliverance." By what means? "Through your prayer and through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." And he said "According to my expectation, nay, my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so even now Christ will be magnified in my body whether by life or by death."

The first year I was a Christian I read the New Testament through, and I had a marker to highlight those passages that stood out to me in my virgin reading of the Scriptures. And I remember in that first exposure to holy Writ that when I came to the next line I took out my highlighter and highlighted the passage where the Apostle Paul said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For me to live is Christ. It’s not simply about Christ. It’s not simply under the authority of Christ. It’s not simply before the face of Christ; not in the service of Christ. Paul says, "For me to live is Christ."

If anyone ever probed the depths and the riches of the mystical union that exists between Christ and His people, it was this Apostle. And from the day of his conversion on the road to Damascus, he simply no longer was living for his own glory. It’s not merely that his life was changed by Christ, but beloved, from that moment on Paul’s life was defined by Christ. That kind of life in our culture today is politically incorrect. The media would refer to it as right-wing extremism and dangerous. Well the Apostle Paul was dangerous. It was through the power of God he turned the Roman Empire upside-down. There was a reason why Nero in his madness had him executed. Because for Paul, to live was Christ.

In the years that I spent teaching in seminary, we would prepare students for ministry with academic disciplines in theology, biblical studies, church history, apologetics, philosophy, that sort of thing. But in addition to those disciplines, we would provide courses in what we called "practical theology" to help the students understand how to administer the sacraments and how to visit people in the hospital. But a question I was frequently asked by seminarians was this: "What do you say when you visit people who are bereaved at a funeral service or during visiting hours at a funeral home—what do you say?" And I would answer that question two ways. First thing I would say to them is that there is no script that has been given to us from heaven on what you're supposed to say to people who are in the midst of grieving. There’s no rehearsed speech that you can take with you into the funeral home. And the second thing I said was that it really doesn’t matter what you say. In fact, you don’t have to say anything. Just be there. Put your arm around those who are in pain.

Yesterday afternoon and last evening when we were at the Baldwin-Fairchild funeral home, as our son and his children, Denise’s parents, siblings, and friends were all there, people came from all over this country and said all kinds of different things. But you know the thing that people said more than any other thing that I heard? Here’s what they would say: "I’m very sorry for your loss." And that was meaningful to me—to our family. Because for that question our loss was enormous; losing his wife was an immeasurable loss for our son; losing their mother, an unspeakable loss for her children, for her parents, for her sister, siblings, and all of her friends. And it was true.

But each one of these people have experienced a profound loss. Husband, children, parents, brother, sister—loss. The only person in the whole mix that didn’t experience loss was Denise. Because she is a Christian, to die is gain. Loss for us, but gain for her.

Then Paul goes on to say, "But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you." So Paul writes to the Philippians about his ambivalence—an ambivalence with a vengeance; an ambivalence so powerful that he said, "I'm torn—ripped apart between two options. On the one hand, what I'd like to do is leave." The word there in the text is the word that the sailors of antiquity used to weigh anchor, to leave this port and go to a destination that we have planned. 

In that prison cell Paul was writing to his friends saying, "If all things were equal, I'd just assume get out of here and leave and depart because I know that if I'm absent from the body, I am present with the Lord. If I leave this veil of sorrows, if I leave this place of shipwreck and beatings, hostility and fighting with wild beasts, I go to be in the presence of Jesus to bask in the radiance of the refulgent glory of His face in heaven. To see it once is all I need for eternity. I'm torn between that and staying here and ministering to you. It's more needful for you if I stay."

A little bit over a week ago I got a phone call from my son. Denise was beside him. R.C. Jr. said to me, "Dad, we have a tough decision to make. The doctors here at the hospital have recommended that we put Denise in hospice. She may have a few days left of consciousness and peace that she can spend with her husband, family and kids. And yet on the other hand, they have one last experimental, intense chemotherapy they can try. The medical odds of success were astronomical against it. What should we do?" I said, "Son, if it were me on that bed, I would choose hospice. I wouldn't want any more medication or any more suffering there. However, if I were a mother and there was one chance in a thousand that I could survive for the sake of my children, I'd take that chance." 

Like Paul, she was torn between two alternatives. One—to depart and be with Christ. Two—to endure more affliction for the sake of her children. And that's the decision she made. I said to R.C., "Whatever she decides, we'll have to stand behind that decision, especially you." And he did. She made the decision, but the physicians were not able to get her platelets high enough to even have this final medical solution that she was willing to undertake. 

And so she came home. She got to see her children one more time—her parents, her sister, her siblings—and then she died. And the second alternative came to pass in the providence of God, which the apostle Paul assigned a value to. You heard what he said to the Philippians: "I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, parenthetically, which is far better." 

It's not possible to translate any language into another language with exact verbal precision word-for-word. It would become so awkward that you wouldn't be able to make any sense out of it, so this is one of the problems that translators have. And we also have a problem where the grammatical structure of one language is not the same as the grammatical structure of another language. It is improper English to say something is more better than something else. We're not allowed to speak like that. Some people do, but we're not supposed to speak like that. But the Greeks did not have a problem with that particular grammatical expression. In fact what is written in the text, Paul says, "For me to depart is much more better." Not just better, not just more better, but reaching for the superlative, he said it is much more better.

Vesta and I were married fifty-one years ago plus. After the wedding we flew to New York City and spent our wedding night in a basically run-down hotel on the property of what was then Idyllwild International Airport. (It's now Kennedy Airport.) We were excited because we were flying out in the morning for a week in Bermuda, which was a wedding present given to us by a close friend of her parents—all expenses paid at the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda. What an exotic and ideal place for a honeymoon. What would you think of us if I would have said to her that Sunday morning, "Honey, let's stay here in this place and forget about going to Bermuda."

Jonathan Edwards says, "That's the way we are. We are like travelers that set out for a glorious destination and they stop at a run-down inn on the way, and you have to pull them away out of that inn to get them to go to their final destination." We are like Shakespeare's Hamlet declared: We would "rather bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of. Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all." So we cling desperately, tenaciously to this life, which is good. But for the Christian what's ahead is far, far better—better than we can possibly imagine in this world. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words that come ultimately from God Himself. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for what you have prepared for your saints in glory. And we thank you that Denise is gone before us to that place. Turn our tears into joy. Protect her children, her husband, and all of her loved ones and friends. For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. 

Download the Message (right-click to download)

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Great Quotes from The Soul's Quest for God

I recently had the opportunity to read through almost all of the books of R.C. Sproul. Along the way I built a collection of some of the best quotes from each one of them. Here are several of the best from The Soul's Quest for God.

The pursuit of the knowledge of God is insufficient. It must not serve as an end in itself, but as a means to an end. The goal is to inflame the heart. The mind is to serve as a feeding trough for the soul.

There are no quick and easy paths to spiritual maturity. The soul that seeks a deeper level of maturity must be prepared for a long, arduous task. If we are to seek the Kingdom of God, we must abandon any formulae that promise instant spiritual gratification.

The Christian who seeks a deeper experience of God by ignoring the hard sayings of Scripture gets nowhere. The full nourishment of the soul requires feeding on the whole counsel of God.

Is the goal of Christian living to be Christlike? If so, we will reach that goal only to the degree that we possess the mind of Christ. If, as the Bible declares, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, then to the degree that we think like Christ, we will be like Christ.

It is both foolish and wicked to suppose that we will make much progress in sanctification if we isolate ourselves from the visible church.

To lack gratitude is an attitude of supreme arrogance. Ungratefulness indicates a heart so filled with pride and self-sufficiency that no room is left for gratitude.

To seek God is the business of the Christian. The quest begins at conversion; it doesn’t end there. Once we have “found” him, the real search begins. We say “I found it” because he found us and now invites us to seek him until we pass through the veil into heaven.

The water our souls requires for survival is the assurance of salvation. This assurance does not always come immediately upon conversion. Indeed, in some cases it may remain elusive. Yet the gaining of full assurance is not only a spiritual privilege for the Christian, it is also a duty.

Divorce

In 1948, the famous Harvard social historian Pitirim Sorokin wrote an essay in which he sounded an alarm about the rapid disintegration of the stability of the American culture. In this essay, Sorokin pointed out that in 1910 the divorce rate in America was ten percent. Yet from 1910 to 1948, the rate of divorce in America escalated from ten to twenty-five percent. Sorokin indicated that if a quarter of the homes in any given nation are broken by divorce, the stability of the nation cannot endure. Its culture is torn to shreds. Arguing that the family unit is the most basic and foundational unit of every society, he said that when that unit breaks, the society itself suffers a shattered continuity.

One wonders what Sorokin would think if he observed the situation that exists in America today. Since 1948, the divorce rate has gone from twenty-five percent up to and beyond fifty percent: that is, at least half of those marriages that are contracted in America end in divorce. This also means that at least half of the families that are united by marriage suffer a fracture; in a word, they are broken.

Continue reading Divorce, R.C. Sproul's contribution to the December issue of Tabletalk.

Can You Remember?

This was written two days before Denise passed.

Though children tend to see "I forgot" as an excuse, the Bible seems to see it as a condemnation. God is good to us from our births, and we forget. We look forward, waiting and wondering if and when God will give us what we want. In so doing we forget that we got to this point by the grace of God, forgetting His sundry deliverances along the way. We accept the status quo as our rightful starting point, and dare to ask the Lord of heaven and earth, "What have You done for me lately?"

Death, on the other hand, can be good for the memory. Considering what my life will be like without my wife makes me consider what life was like before she blessed us. Already I am finding myself making what were once simple decisions without the blessing of her wisdom, and feeling the paucity of my own insight. I am already living the wisdom of that aphorism that reminds us we will not miss the water until the well runs dry.

I suspect the solution here is less "preparing" for loss, and more gratitude for what was found. That is, as I face a future without the spiritual wisdom of my bride it is less important that I bank what I can still receive from her, and more important that I give thanks to God for all the wisdom He has bestowed over the years through her. Looking through the gift of her wisdom to the source of that wisdom makes it less likely that I will miss her wisdom while I miss her.

My wife's greatest fear today as her final days slip away isn't about herself. That's what she's like. She is worried about me and the children. I seek to put her at ease by reminding her that the source of the wisdom she gave our family isn't her as my wife, but Jesus as my husband. He has been taking care of us through her. When she goes, He will still take care of us.

Years ago as I expressed to my then young bride my heart's desire that He would bless me soon with the honor of a martyr's death she understandably asked, "But who will take care of us?" I replied wisely, "The same Man who has been taking care of you all along." Now I am facing the same truth, that all that we have received through Denise ultimately came from the gracious hand and loving heart of Jesus. And He already died once, and will not die again.

It was the grace of God that gave us all a blessed life in southwest Virginia. Leaving there didn't mean leaving that blessing. In like manner it was the grace of God that gave us the blessed life of having Denise for a wife and mother. Losing her doesn't mean losing that grace. It means remembering where it ultimately came from. To confuse God's means of grace with His grace is to fall into idolatry. To look beyond and through the blessing to its Giver is to understand how our God works through what He has made. God loves me. Where I live, and with whom doesn't change that but reveals that. My calling is to give thanks.

Visitation: Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home
Hours: 2–4 p.m. & 6–8 p.m.
5000 County Road 46A
Sanford, Florida 32771
407-322-4263

Memorial Service: Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Saint Andrew’s Chapel
11:00 a.m.
5525 Wayside Drive
Sanford, Florida 32771
407-328-1139

In lieu of flowers you may donate to the
Denise Sproul Memorial Scholarship Fund:
c/o Reformation Bible College
421 Ligonier Court
Sanford, Florida 32771

Also see: Denise Sproul is at home with the Lord

Mark, New from R.C. Sproul and Reformation Trust

In 1997, the Lord did something R.C. Sproul says he never anticipated: He called him to preach at St. Andrew's in Sanford, Florida. With a lifetime of teaching experience and having taught through books of the Bible in a variety of settings, R.C. Sproul still understood that this call to preach was different:

"...now I found myself appealing not so much to the minds of my hearers as to both their minds and their hearts. I knew that I was responsible as a preacher to clearly explain God's Word and to show how we ought to live in light of it. I sought to fulfill both tasks as I ascended the St. Andrew's pulpit each week."

The St. Andrew's Expositional Commentary series is one of the fruits of R.C. Sproul's preaching ministry, as his sermon series are being adapted in book form. Today, Reformation Trust is pleased to announce the release of Mark, the fifth volume in the series.

In Mark, R.C. Sproul continues his easily understandable writing style, providing invaluable insights into a gospel that he describes as, "overlooked and underappreciated." This introduction to the gospel of Mark is packed with insights and exhortations that will draw you closer to the Savior and encourage you to a greater depth of love and devotion to Him.

Mark is available now.

Read a Sample Chapter | Retail $27, Buy it for $21.60 here

"I am ecstatic at the prospect of reading the St. Andrew's Expositional Commentary series. It represents Reformed theology on fire, delivered from a pastor's heart in a vibrant congregation of our time. Essential reading."

—Derek W. H. Thomas
Minister of Preaching and Teaching,
First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina

Jesus Didn't Just Die For My Sins

Excerpt from Mark, the fifth volume in the St. Andrew's Expositional Commentary series.

For Jesus to qualify as our Redeemer, it was not enough for Him simply to go to the cross and be crucified. If you ask a six-year-old child, "What did Jesus do for you?" that child, if he or she has been to Sunday school, will answer, "Jesus died on the cross for my sins." That's true, but that is only half of the matter. If all that was necessary to redeem us was for a substitute to bear the punishment that we deserve, Jesus did not have to be born to Mary. He could have descended from heaven as a man, gone straight to Golgotha, died on the cross, risen, and left again, and our sin problem would be fixed.

But if Jesus had only paid for our sins, He would have succeeded only in taking us back to square one. We would no longer be guilty, but we still would have absolutely no positive righteousness to bring before God. So, our Redeemer not only needed to die, He had to live a life of perfect obedience. The righteousness that He manifested could then be transferred to all who put their trust in Him. Just as my sin is transferred to Him on the cross when I put my trust in Him, His righteousness is transferred to my account in the sight of God. So, when I stand before God on the judgment day, God is going to see Jesus and His righteousness, which will be my cover.

That is the gospel.

Mark is now available in the Ligonier store.

If you're a blogger, Mark is also available to review through our blog for a free book program.

Is The Celebration of Christmas a Pagan Ritual?

That question comes up every year at Christmastime. In the first place, there's no direct biblical commandment to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. There's nothing in the Bible that would even indicate that Jesus was born on December 25. In fact, there's much in the New Testament narratives that would indicate that it didn't occur during that time of year. It just so happens that on the twenty-fifth of December in the Roman Empire there was a pagan holiday that was linked to mystery religions; the pagans celebrated their festival on December 25. The Christians didn't want to participate in that, and so they said, "While everybody else is celebrating this pagan thing, we're going to have our own celebration. We're going to celebrate the thing that's most important in our lives, the incarnation of God, the birth of Jesus Christ. So this is going to be a time of joyous festivities, of celebration and worship of our God and King."

I can't think of anything more pleasing to Christ than the church celebrating his birthday every year.—R.C. Sproul

I can't think of anything more pleasing to Christ than the church celebrating his birthday every year. Keep in mind that the whole principle of annual festival and celebration is deeply rooted in ancient Jewish tradition. In the Old Testament, for example, there were times when God emphatically commanded the people to remember certain events with annual celebrations. While the New Testament doesn't require that we celebrate Christmas every year, I certainly see nothing wrong with the church's entering into this joyous time of celebrating the Incarnation, which is the dividing point of all human history. Originally, it was intended to honor, not Mithras or any of the other mystery religion cults, but the birth of our King.

Many more questions are answered in R.C. Sproul's Now, That's a Good Question!

Excerpt has been adapted.
©1996 by R.C. Sproul. Used by permission of Tyndale.