R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 597

2011 Ligonier National Conference - Session 4 (Questions & Answers)

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On Thursday evening we were treated to a question-and-answer session featuring Ligonier Ministries' teaching fellows — Drs. Sinclair Ferguson (F), Robert Godfrey (G), Steven Lawson (L), and R.C. Sproul Jr. (S). Here is what they had to say.

1. What are your favorite 3 books?

G: The Bible, Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, and Tolstoy's War and Peace

F: Calvin's Institutes, Owen on Communion with God, and Young's Concordance — It has all the Bible and challenges your memory to put it back together again.

L: Watson's A Body of Divinity, Murray's The Forgotten Spurgeon and Spurgeon's Sermons, Dallimore's Whitefield biography.

S: Murray's Evangelicalism Divided, Lewis' The Great Divorce — it has the typical Lewis absolute brilliance next to "oh yeah, he is not a theologian" — and Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will.

2. What about The Holiness of God has informed your understanding of Scripture and your ministry?

S: I didn't have the same conversion experience as my dad, but in reading that book there was an awakening, an awareness that I have to own this. It became an awareness that God is who He is and not who I want Him to be.

L: God used that book to direct me to the place where I would pursue my next degree. I enrolled in Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson because that is where Dr. Sproul was teaching at the time. I wanted a personal encounter with the man who was teaching such things. The very definition of holiness as transcendence and moral purity was significant. I had only associated holiness with moral perfection before reading that book. Taking holiness to the superlative degree was eye-opening. The book has legs. It takes you closer to God and yet lower before God because of its exposition of Scripture.

F: There are essential truths that get so covered over that the church fails to recognized that they are even there. We are thankful for how God shaped RC to write such a book and that God was working among Christian people towards the recovery of that truth. It was like Luther saying to Erasmus: "your God is too manlike."

You can never discover the depth of your depravity without discovering the intensity of God's holiness. And you cannot taste the riches of grace without tasting the depth of your depravity. The Christian life revolves around the three points of this triangle: God is holy, I am sinful, God is gracious.

G: As the historian looking at R.C. and his impact, it is impressive to me that such a man of learning can communicate that learning so powerfully and clearly to the church as a whole. Only the greatest church leaders can do that. Luther and Calvin were like that. It is an amazing gift to communicate first-class understanding and insight more broadly.

L: Theology proper is the defining area through which we view the other areas of theology. Reading The Holiness of God became a defining lens through which I see everything else. From Scripture it gave me an overarching way to see all of theology and all of life.

3. Considering comments on how Satan twists the Word of God, how can we discern between Satan's twisting of Scripture and our own poor understanding?

L: Satan corrupts the Word of God at the points that are non-negotiable. To miss that the Bible is the Word of God is so glaring because it is a blatant denial of what Scripture teaches about itself; thus, it demonstrates Satan's work. Denial of the Trinity is rooted in Satan's corrupting of minds. Specifically, the person and work of Christ and how that affects the gospel is Satan's beachhead for attack. Every cult goes astray at this point on the humanity and deity of Christ. They also go astray at the tri-unity of God. Satan deliberately and diabolically attacks those areas. The gospel itself — grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone — is also under attack. Satan is always trying to twist the gospel into another gospel.

Everything in the Bible is important, but where there are differences among believers that is due to our misunderstanding. You can be a Christian and differ on certain matters. Satan attacks at those areas that define what Christianity actually is. He attacks the substance of the gospel, not the symbol.

S: It does not matter where the Devil attacks, in one sense. If every Christian is in a battle against the world, the flesh, and the Devil, the issue is this: are we making progress and how are we making progress? I don't worry about whether it is me or the Devil causing the problem but whether I am progressing or regressing. Anytime you diminish the power of the gospel to deal with your sin it could be any enemy. What I need to hold onto is: "As bad as I am, Jesus is better."

G: Christ has called us to be a part of His church. We can weigh our understanding by belonging to a church that stands for the Word of God. In these congregations we can learn by studying in concert with the other people and elders.

F: The important overarching thing is that we get to know our Bibles very well. The way you tell counterfeit money is to learn what real money looks like. The same is true of the Bible. It is immature to want to know only where things can go wrong. We want people to learn the good money of the gospel so well so that they can at least sense when things are off. The quirky side of me has always been struck by Paul's statement that we are not ignorant of his strategies. Satan is a creature and he has a limited number of stratagems that he keeps using again and again. One healthy exercise is to look through the New Testament letters and ask: In what way is Satan seeking to deceive this group of Christians and hinder the advancement of the gospel? We should watch out for these dimensions again and again. False teaching often begins not in denial of the truth but in leaving out important aspects of the truth.

4. Dr. Ferguson, exposit on the thread of the tree of life and the cross.

F: To use the language of trees is homiletic, for the New Testament does not make much of the connectedness between the tree in Eden and the cross. But we do have man coming to the tree and a curse falling upon him. Paul picks this up in Galatians 3:13; it is not accidental that Jesus was not stoned to death. I think it lies behind the distinction between the two Adams in Philippians 2. The first Adam grasps at being God, the second Adam does not, and lowers Himself to die the death of the cross.

L: May I ask Sinclair a question? In what way did Jesus increase in favor with God?

F: He wasn't tested as a 12-year old as he was at 20. It was testing and meeting that test that increased the capacity for obedience in Him. Jesus possesses true humanity, not humanity transformed by an infusion of deity into humanity.

S: One of the Devil's strategy is to so focus on the cardinal doctrine that we miss the focus of the biblical story. It is not possible to be too concerned with the legal aspects of our justification. We are, however, not concerned enough with Jesus as the second Adam. We do not want to let the metaphor breathe. One of my favorite ways to see this is to compare the tempting of Jesus and the tempting of Eve. If we could answer what Sinclair is talking about growing in favor with God, we would answer the question as to the nature of Adam's probation.

5. Did God suffer on the Cross?

G: No

S: I'm with you. The creedal point is that the humanity and deity are united perfectly, though each nature retains its own attributes. Because of His eternal blessedness, God cannot suffer on the cross. Some object and say, "but if you say that, where do you get the eternal value of the cross." It comes from the fact that the human that suffers is in union with the eternal deity.

G: The church fathers said that is was legitimate linguistic exercise to attribute something of one nature to the other. But the communication is metaphorical.

F: In the incarnation, the Lord did not cease to be the second person of the Trinity, but He assumed a human nature. He assumed our humanity, He did not lose our deity. Difficult though it is, we need to keep these natures distinct even though they were united perfectly in Him.

6. How does the gospel help us when we feel enslaved to sin in our Christian walk?

S: Sometimes we turn what the Bible says into something safe and reasonable. We come to the promise that he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and forgive us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8–9), but we only hear that he is faithful and just to forgive our sins. The good news of the gospel isn't merely that we are square with God now and we better stay good. The good news is that we are being cleansed. Jesus is about the business of washing His bride. It's a big job. The Devil is saying we are filthy. We say, yes I am, but Jesus has cleansed me. Don't understand the gospel so narrowly that you miss the promises of God. It's a glorious gospel that doesn't stop.

L: I would add Romans 12:1–2. Because of the gospel, Paul appeals to us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. It is inconceivable to present my body to sin because I have been set free from sin. Contemplating what God has done in the gospel should have a revolutionary impact on us. We should act upon what we know to be true.

F: We are justified by grace alone through faith alone. The faith that justifies us also unites us to Christ and it brings us into a new order of reality altogether — the dominion of sin has been broken once and for all. We need to keep hearing the gospel because we doubt what it says. We need to learn to distinguish between the fact that the dominion of sin is broken from the fact that the presence of sin remains. The only way to advance in victory over sin is to recall that its dominion has been broken even though its presence remains. Think of World War II: once D-Day happened, there was no going back even though the struggle continued until V-E and V-J day. Spiritually, the New Testament says we are in the period between D-Day and V-E day. The breaking of sin's dominion enables us to wrestle against its dominion.

G: The language of Scripture reminds us that we feel like we are enslaved to sin yet we still look away to the work of Christ. In this work we have hope of deliverance and the work of the Spirit follows this. We are not just forgiven, we are also renewed.

S: One of the paradoxes of sanctification is that the less dirty you are, the more aware of how dirty you are. The fact you are aware of sin is a good sign that the Spirit is at work within you.

7. Have you ever struggled with assurance of salvation?

G: I did at the beginning of my Christian life. As a junior in high school I heard the gospel and I knew Jesus was the Savior, but I was not sure that I believed strong enough to save me. Learning the promises of the gospel as rediscovered in the Reformation helped me tremendously.

F: For quite a long time. But I stumbled upon the promises of God. What we think of assurance has to do with the way we think about ourselves in relation to Christ. But that is not the same thing as our actual relation to Christ. In some people, there are natural things that need to be melted away in their own view of themselves in the world before we can take it in that He loves us and is never going to leave us. Some people cannot believe that they are loved, and the gospel needs to keep working at this — until they learn that God loves them just because He loves them. We have to keep looking up to Christ.

L: I have not gone through times of doubting my salvation. The Spirit has kept me with a sense of inner peace in trusting God. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior is the point that I keep coming back to. I was never taught eternal security, though I had an inner assurance that I was saved. I was helped by the hope of the eternal security of the believer, however, to sustain my assurance. The preserving of the elect in Christ is glorious news.

S: There are two kinds of doubt. I never doubted that it was true (the Bible), but I went through a period in high school that I thought I was not a Christian. Then I thought to myself, "this is stupid," and I haven't struggled since.

8. What is the greatest need in our pulpits today?

G: Our churches need clear, careful, consistent exposition of the Word of God. Congregations have to help ministers stay in their studies to achieve this.

S: I don't want to disagree with what Bob said, but my answer instinctively is that we need courage. I don't mean boldly denouncing Rob Bell. Rob Bell should be boldly denounced. We need pastors who have courage to speak to the sins of their congregation. Shepherds and their sheep have the same weaknesses, and if shepherds can see where they themselves have fallen they will speak boldly to the sins of their churches.

F: It's easy to think we need a Steve Lawson in every pulpit. But what we actually need is the sense that our pastors are doing the most important thing in the world for us. Expounding the Word is doing the most important thing for them. We also need to recapture the wonder of what the Spirit does through our preaching. If Christ is held up, He Himself is sufficient for all the needs of all the people, no matter their needs. Finally, we need to love our people to death as preachers. It is particularly important for young preachers to learn this.

L: In 1 Timothy 4:13 Paul gives the basic parts of preaching. It matters to God how His Word is preached. There is a simplicity that many preachers try to make complex. Preaching is to read the text, explain the text, and apply the text. I am amazed at how little reading and explaining is done. We need to get into the text as quick as we can.

We have to say only what the text says and all that the text says. Conviction, clarity, and passion are all essential. True biblical preaching must affect mind, affections, and the will. Too much preaching focuses on one or two of these to the neglect of the others. The most powerful preacher on the planet is the Calvinistic preacher who is an evangelist in the pulpit. He is the only one playing with a full deck. He preaches a high view of God, he magnifies grace, and he calls people to Christ. We are borderline hypercalvinists if we do not call people to Jesus. We have too many talkers and sharers, and not enough preachers.

2011 Ligonier National Conference - Session 3 (Sinclair Ferguson)

[image error]After a break, the 2011 Ligonier National Conference continued with Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson, senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C., and a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow, speaking on "Why the God-Man?"

One of the great books on Jesus Christ was written by Anselm of Canterbury around the end of the eleventh century. It was titled Cur Deus Homo? ("Why the God-Man?). It is notable because of Anselm's emphasis that the atonement brought redemption to man because it satisfied God.

"Why the God-Man?" is a question that opens to us the sheer wonder of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe that for our sakes the Son of God came from heaven to earth and assumed humanity to bring us salvation.

In the early chapters of Hebrews, perhaps more than anywhere else in the New Testament, Dr. Ferguson said, we find a deep exposition of why God became man. He noted that these chapters reveal three aspects of the atonement.

First, they teach us about the personal identity of the God-Man. Quoting the Old Testament repeatedly, the author of Hebrews shows that Jesus is God. It is not possible to speak about God the Father without implying God the Son, and vice versa.

The author thinks about the ways in which the Son reveals His deity. He is the radiance of God's glory (Heb. 1:3). He is the exact imprint of the divine nature (1:3). He is the One through whom God created the world (1:2). So it should not surprise us that when the Father brings the Son into the world, He tells the angels to worship Him (1:6). And not only is He to be worshiped, all things are to be His (1:2). This is because He is God.

Second, these chapters teach us about the incarnate mystery of the God-Man. He was made lower than the angels (2:9). We so often find ourselves defending the deity of Jesus that we don't think very often about His humanity. The author of Hebrews is saying that if Jesus isn't truly man, He's not fit to be our Savior.

Hebrew is concerned to show us how the Lord Jesus came as the second Man and the Last Adam. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. The mystery of the incarnation is that the Son of God assumed our human nature so that God could do what none of us could do for ourselves. Jesus came in the flesh that He might do all that was necessary to bring us and the world back to God.

Third, these chapters teach us about the present ministry of the God-Man. Jesus is still the God-Man, and will be for all eternity. This is so that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest (2:17). He is able to help those who are tempted (2:18).

The greatness of the weight of sin is such that the Son had to assume our nature and be immolated on the cross to absorb the wrath of God that it deserved.

2011 Ligonier National Conference - Session 2 (Steven Lawson)

SUMMARY

In every era of history, the holiness of God has been under assault. Satan is the original antagonist against God. The principle attack of Satan against the holiness of God is aimed at impugning and assaulting the character of His being and His word. 

In Genesis 3, we see illustrated the method of the evil one – a method employed with success on our first parents, and employed with equal success in the world at large in our day.  The attack of [image error]Satan starts with doubt – doubt of the inerrancy and infallibility of the word of God ("Did God actually say…?").  In Genesis 3:1, Satan initiates the attack against Eve with a seemingly innocent question – but one which plans a beachhead of doubt in Eve's mind.  Satan's question was nothing less than an attempt to draw a veil of doubt in Eve's mind regarding the truthfulness of God.  We see similar fallacies in the emergent church today, which prizes uncertainty as humility and regards certainty as pride.  In contrast, Martin Luther said, "Take away assertions and you take away Christianity."

Next comes distortion. Satan puts words into God's mouth, with intentionality, to shed doubt on God's character and goodness. Satan says: "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" Actually, God had granted enormous permission to eat of the trees in the garden - with just one exception. God is far more gracious then Satan allows.

Third comes denial. Satan says: "You shall not surely die."  Satan boldly denies what God said.  In our day, Satan is a universalist, propagating the notion that there is no judgment to come. But there is no good news without bad news. And it's the bad news that makes the good news so glorious. 

Fourth comes defamation.  "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened." Satan makes the command of God nothing more than a manipulative tool on the part of God to keep Adam and Eve in the place of ignorant slaves.

And fifth comes deification – the promise of divinity. "You shall become like God." But disobedience has never led to becoming like God. It has always led to death, both for individuals and for ministries.

CONCLUSION

The issues in our day are, at their core, variations on one theme: the battle for the inerrancy and infallibility and sufficiency of the Word of God.  May God give us confidence in His perfect book.

2011 National Conference - Session 1 (R.C. Sproul)

[image error]This afternoon marks the beginning of the 24th Ligonier Ministries National Conference. This year's conference is titled "Light & Heat: A Passion for the Holiness of God." It brings together the ministries of R.C. Sproul and John Piper.

The conference began with Chris Larson, Executive Vice President of Ligonier, interviewing Dr. Sproul about how he came to be drawn to God's holiness.

Dr. Sproul spoke of his early days as a Christian. Just weeks after the Lord saved him, he read the whole Bible and immediately found himself drawn to God's character. This first reading came as shock as he encountered the nature and revelation of God. And in particular, he was drawn to God's holiness.

Over the first years of his ministry he had opportunity to deliver a series of lectures on God's holiness, and later to have it recorded. Then a publisher asked him to write The Holiness of God. And the rest is history.

Why this emphasis on God's holiness? Because our doctrine of God informs the doctrine of Christ, of atonement, of salvation, of sin, of everything. The control mechanism for all our thought is who we understand that God is. To grow in grace we have to grow in our knowledge of God, not just to puff up our intellect but that we may know him. The more we know him, the more we love him, the more we love him, the greater our capacity to serve and honor and obey him.

Listening Before Answering

"It is arrogant to answer before you hear. Humility does not presume that it knows precisely what a person is asking until the questioner has finished asking the question. How many times have I jumped to a wrong conclusion by starting to formulate my answer before I heard the whole question! Often it is the last word in the question that turns the whole thing around and makes you realize that the questioner is not asking what you thought he was."

In his contribution to the current issue of Tabletalk, John Piper uses Proverbs 18:13 as a jumping-off point for a reflection on the importance of listening before answering. "Not answering a question before you hear it all honors and respects the person asking the question. It treats the person as though his words really matter. It is belittling to another to presume to be able to finish his question before he does."

Keep Reading at Listening Before Answering.

Reformation Trust Books Now Available from Logos Bible Software

Today we are pleased to announce the release of a 35-volume collection of Reformation Trust books available from Logos Bible Software.

This massive collection contains nearly every book published by the Reformation Trust imprint, the publishing arm of Ligonier. It features 16 books by R.C. Sproul, as well as multiple books by Richard Phillips, Sinclair Ferguson, and Steven Lawson. This collection also contains two forthcoming titles, How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home by Derek Thomas and The Mighty Weakness of John Knox by Douglas Bond. 

For a limited time, Logos is offering the entire set at a substantial discount. The individual retail price would be around $500, but right now you can pre-order the enter 35-volume set for only $269.95. That works out to around $7.71 for each book. This price will be going up in four weeks, so pre-order it now to get it at the introductory price.

Logos is the most advanced digital library for Bible study available, which means these books will more accessible than ever. You can search across the entire collection. For example, if you're preaching on John 3:16 next Sunday, you can find every instance where R.C. Sproul or Sinclair Ferguson talks about the passage in less than a second. All Scripture references are linked to the Bibles in your library as well. 

Remember, the Reformation Trust Collection will only move forward with your support. Head on over to the Reformation Trust page on Logos' website and pre-order the collection today!

The Mystery of the Lord's Supper

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Robert Bruce (1551-1631) is not a household name, even among knowledgeable Reformed Christians. He was at one time, however, one of the most important leaders in the Church of Scotland. He was the successor of John Knox and James Lawson and preached at the Great Kirk of St. Giles in Edinburgh. St. Giles holds a prominent place in Reformation history, being the site where Knox preached his first sermon on the Reformation. The Mystery of the Lord's Supper (Christian Heritage) contains five sermons preached by Bruce at St. Giles in February and March of the year 1589.

The Christian Heritage edition of these sermons is a reprint of the 1958 English translation of the work by Thomas F. Torrance (1913-2007). Torrance provides an introduction to the work, describing briefly Bruce's life and work. Although helpful in terms of its biographical information, the introduction should be read with discernment since in it Torrance espouses the "Calvin vs. the Calvinists" thesis that has been so ably challenged by scholars such as Richard Muller, Paul Helm, and Carl Trueman.

The five sermons in the book cover a wide range of issues. In the first sermon, Bruce deals with the sacraments in general. He places his entire discussion in the context of union with Christ, saying, "There is nothing in this world, or out of this world, more to be wished by everyone of you than to be conjoined with Jesus Christ, and once for all made one with Him, the God of glory." God brings about this union by means of the Word and the sacraments. Bruce devotes this first sermon to an examination of four fundamental questions: 1) the meaning of the sacramental sign; 2) the meaning of the thing signified; 3) the union of the sign and the thing signified; and 4) the different ways the sign and the thing signified are given and received.

Bruce follows the sacramental theology of John Calvin rather than that of Zwingli. Considering the fact that Zwingli's memorialist view is the dominant view among evangelicals today, Bruce's language may come as a surprise to those not familiar with the doctrine of Calvin or some of the first Reformed confessions. Bruce begins by noting that the signs are the sacramental elements and the sacramental actions (such as the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the wine). The thing signified is the whole Christ along with all of His benefits and graces. The sign and the thing signified are not conjoined locally, corporally, or visibly, but are instead joined in a mystical and spiritual manner. As the minister gives the bread and wine, Christ Himself gives His body and blood to believing recipients, and as the believer receives the bread and wine with his hand and mouth, he receives the body and blood of Christ spiritually by faith.

In his second and third sermons, Bruce deals specifically with the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. He looks at the names given to the sacrament in Scripture, the reasons why it was instituted, and objections to the Calvinistic doctrine. He contends that the Supper represents our spiritual nourishment, bears witness of our faith to the world, serves as a sovereign medicine for our spiritual ailments, and is a means of giving thanks to God. In addressing various objections to the Calvinistic doctrine, Bruce offers a fine critique of the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

In the final two sermons, Bruce addresses our preparation for receiving the Lord's Supper, offering practical advice and admonition to all believers. He urges communicants to test their consciences to determine first whether they are at peace with God and second whether they have love for their neighbor. After an extended discussion of the conscience, Bruce expounds on the absolute necessity of faith for proper reception of the Supper. He observes that true faith will always exhibit certain fruit in the lives of those who have it. He mentions specifically prayer, forgiveness, and compassion.

It is probably not an exaggeration to say that many, if not most, Christians coming to the Lord's Table in our day have very little comprehension of what they are doing or why they are doing it. This is a tragic and, frankly, dangerous state of affairs. Christians are warned not to partake of the Supper in an unworthy manner, and they are called to examine themselves and to partake with discernment (1 Cor. 11:27-30). Bruce's sermons are a remedy for the widespread ignorance that exists in the church today and should be in the hands of every Christian who desires to partake of the Lord's Supper intelligently and with some understanding of this precious means of grace.

A Primer on Inerrancy (pt. 6)

In this excerpt from John Gerstner's Primitive Theology, Dr. Gerstner looks at the issue of inerrancy and seeks briefly and non-technically to present a case for Bible Inerrancy that a serious-minded layman can follow and evaluate. Though by no means an exhaustive treatment, it is one that is sound and faithful to the Scriptures. This is the sixth part of the series. Dr. Gerstner has looked at four unsound bases for sound doctrine and is now in the midst of a discussion of a sound basis for sound doctrine.

Continued from Part 5

b. Miracles are God's seal to mark men unmistakably as His messengers.

If the evidence is convincing that Christ did work miracles, what do these miracles prove? Miracles as such do not prove that Jesus was more than a man. For though men do not have this power as men, they could be enabled by God to perform them in His name. Miraculous power belongs only to the Author of nature, but apparently it is not incommunicable as God's omniscience, omnipotence, or eternality must be. So the power to work miracles is not necessarily proof that the person who has that power is God Himself. But it does prove Him to be sent from God, for only God has this power and can delegate it. This is the very conclusion which Nicodemus drew when he said to Jesus, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him" (John 3:2).

At this point, however, we face another problem or question. Is it not possible that there are other, non-human beings who, though not the Author of nature, are nevertheless able to influence nature in supernatural ways? Apart from revelation, we cannot know there are not such beings; we therefore consider the possibility that Christ's miracles were wrought by a man who had received His power from some supernatural being other than God, whether good or evil. If there are such beings, and they are good, then they are in subjection to God and His servants. If, therefore, they communicated their powers to the man Jesus, they must have done so in obedience to the will of God. Thus their giving of power would be essentially the same thing as God's giving it, for they would give it in accordance with His will.

If these beings are evil beings, what then? Then they are not subservient to God and do not deliberately do His will. In that case they would not necessarily have power over nature, for that would obviously be in the hands of the Author of nature and of those to whom He willingly permits it to pass. If, therefore, these evil spirits possess any such power as we are here supposing, it can only be by the permission of God. So the question is, is it conceivable that God would permit these evil spirits to possess such power? Maybe we cannot answer that question, but we do not have to. The question that really concerns us here is not whether such spirits could possess such powers, but whether, even if they could, they would be able to communicate them to a human being. But we do not even have to answer that question, for we are dealing with a specific human being, Jesus Christ. So the question precisely is: if there are such evil beings and these beings are permitted by God to have power over nature which could conceivably be communicated to some human being, could they conceivably communicate it to such a human being as Jesus Christ? We have already shown that they could do so only if they wished to destroy themselves. They would be empowering Him to make converts to a kingdom which was set up to destroy the kingdom of evil. They would be giving power to one who would use it only for good when, by definition, evil spirits would want it to be used only for evil. They would be providing an instrument for healing when they wished only to spread sickness and death; they would insure the success of the person best fitted to insure their own failure. If these evil spirits were intelligent spirits, they simply could not do such a thing even if God would permit it. And is it possible that God would communicate His great power to a man after His own heart by spirits utterly alien to Him? So, from the standpoint of the devils themselves or from the standpoint of God Himself, it would seem inconceivable that Christ's supernatural power could have been derived from Satan, if there is such a being. And since there is no other conceivable source from which His power could have come, it must have come, as Nicodemus said, from God.

As observed above, what is shown of Christ in particular would apply in general to all true miracle workers from whom the Bible comes.

c. God's Message Is Indubitably True.

There are only two ways by which any person can come to say something that is untrue: either by ignorance or lying. A person may either mean to speak the truth but not know it; or know the truth but not mean to speak it. Thus the error must come from a defect of mind (not knowing enough) or a defect of heart (not loving the truth). God suffers from neither limitation, and therefore cannot speak untruth. His message must be true indubitably.

First, God cannot err from ignorance. His knowledge is infinite. There is nothing which He does not know. All things which exist, exist of His power and will and cannot lie outside the range of His knowledge. If there were anything which God did not know it would lie outside His domain. If so, He would not be infallible, all-powerful, independent; in short, He would not be God.

Second, God cannot err by lying. If God lied as well as told truth, His creatures could never know which was which. Nor would it do any good to ask Him, for if He lied He would tell us that the truth was falsehood and falsehood was the truth. This would be cruel. It would leave the creature in hopeless confusion. It would also be unintelligent on the part of Creator, for His creature would be of no use as He wandered hopelessly in the dark. So, if God lied He could not be God for He would not be good or intelligent

Thus, God's message is indubitably true. He could not lie if He would, nor would He lie if He could. He could not be wrong if He would, and He would not be wrong if He could.

d. God's Message Includes the Inspiration of the Bible.

Jesus Christ, the "teacher sent from God," taught that the Bible (Old Testament) was the inspired Word of God. "Scripture," He said, "could not be broken" (John 10:35). Every "jot and tittle" was to be fulfilled (Matthew 5:18). He claimed to be divine (Matthew 11:27; John 10:30; 14:9), and also said that the Scriptures bore witness of Him (John 5:39) which implied their inspiration. He argued from details (John 10:34) and recognized Biblical authority by the formula: "it is written" (Mark 11:17; Luke 18:31). This is admitted by virtually all modern scholars. As one of them put it: Christ's teaching concerning the Old Testament Bible was "fundamentalistic."

Likewise, Christ authenticated the New Testament by promising to send the Spirit to lead the apostles into all truth (John 14:26). This leading the apostles, in turn, claimed (cf. for example, 2 Corinthians 12; 13) as they wrote or sanctioned the writing of the New Testament.

e. Therefore the Inspiration of the Bible Is Indubitably True.

One may and must question whether a message is from God, but one cannot question a message which is once shown to be from God. This is the basic point which those who rest the inspiration for the Bible on the Bible's own testimony overlook. They rightly and righteously recognize that the Bible must be instantly accepted as what it says it is; namely, the Word of God. But they overlook the fact that the Bible is not instantly accepted because it says it is the Word of God. They are unconsciously persuaded of the Bible's divinity on other grounds. Consequently each time they hear the Bible referring to its inspiration, they know and accept this as true. Nevertheless they forget, because they never consciously recognize, that the truth of this self-affirmation is established on other grounds and merely confirmed by the self-affirmation.

There can be no higher proof of anything than the ipse dixit of God. God speaking is Truth speaking. What God says is so is so. It could not be otherwise. If God could be supposed to have made an error, our world and all worlds are in ruins. Reason, meaning, life and all have perished instantly. We may ask these prior questions about God's existence necessarily assuming the validity of our thinking processes as we do. These lead us to the knowledge of God. He, in turn, verifies the validity of our prior assumptions. But if He did not exist, or if He could err (which are one and the same thing), then the very thinking processes by which we arrive at the conclusion that God does not exist are so many gratuitous assumptions. Therefore if God could err, error would have no meaning, for truth would have no meaning. Nothing would have any meaning. Nothing would even be.

So God who is truth, who cannot err, has inspired the Bible, and the Bible is truth and cannot err.

To be continued...

Excerpted from Primitive Theology by John H. Gerstner.

Deserving Nothing

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Religious people are always profoundly disturbed when they discover that they are not, and never have been, true Christians. Does all of their religion count for nothing? Those hours in church, hours spent doing good things, hours involved in religious activity—do they not count for something in the presence of God? Do they not enable me to say: "Look at what I have done. Don't I deserve heaven?"

Sadly, thinking that I deserve heaven is a sure sign I have no understanding of the gospel.

Thinking that I deserve heaven is a sure sign I have no understanding of the gospel.

Jesus unmasked the terrible truth about His contemporaries. They resisted His teaching and refused to receive His Word because they were sinners—and slaves to sin.

Some years ago, the British media reported that a Presbyterian denomination had pulled fifty thousand printed copies of an edition of its monthly magazine. The report indicated that the author of an article had referred to a prominent member of the British royal family as a "miserable sinner."

Intriguingly, the member of the royal family, as a member of the Church of England, must have regularly used the words of the Anglican prayer book's "Prayer of General Confession," which includes a request for the forgiveness of the sins of "miserable offenders." Why, then, were the magazines pulled? The official comment: "We don't want to give the impression that the doctrines of the Christian faith cause people emotional trauma."

But sometimes the doctrines of the Christian faith do exactly that—and necessarily so.

Or should we say instead: "How cruel Jesus was to these poor Jews! Fancy Jesus speaking to them in this way!"?

Jesus did say, "You are miserable sinners." He unmasked sinners and drove His point home: "You have no room for my word" (John 8:37, NIV). They had heard, but resisted it. Later, He described the result: "Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say" (John 8:43, NIV).

Jesus had already patiently explained this to Nicodemus: "Unless God's Spirit opens your eyes, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless God sets you free from the bondage of sin, you will never enter the kingdom of God" (see John 3:3, 5). "The truth is," Jesus said later, "you do not hear what I am saying because you are not really the children of God" (see John 8:41, 44). They were, to use Paul's language, spiritually "dead" (Eph. 2:1).

Some time ago, while relaxing on vacation on a wonderful summer day in the Scottish Highlands, I sat outside enjoying a morning coffee. A few feet away I saw a beautiful little red robin. I admired its feathers, its lovely red breast, its sharp and clean beak, its simple beauty. I found myself instinctively talking to it. But there was no response, no movement. Everything was intact, but little robin red-breast was dead. The most skilled veterinarian in the world could do absolutely nothing for him.

So are we, spiritually. Despite appearances, in my natural state I am dead toward God. There is no spiritual life in me.

Only when I see this will I begin to see why God's grace is surprising and amazing. For it is to spiritually dead people that the grace of God comes to give life and release.

Excerpted from By Grace Alone.

Twitter Highlights (3/20/11)

Here are some highlights from the various Ligonier Twitter feeds over the past week.

Ligonier .@JohnMacArthur examines the alternative gospel of prosperity preachers & explains why legalism-lite is still legalism. http://bit.ly/giULPd



Ligonier As soon as you think [God] owes us mercy, you're not thinking about mercy any more. -R.C. Sproul



Reformation Trust The aim of preaching is impossible; no human techniques will make it succeed. But God can work through it. -J. Piper in http://bit.ly/eDtTsN



Reformation Trust Steven Lawson discusses Pillars of Grace with Alex Crain of Christianity.com http://budurl.com/plrz



Ligonier God doesn't need our consent in order to govern us; He made us! - R.C. Sproul



Tabletalk Magazine "A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant" (Stephen Charnock).



Ligonier Academy Get R.C. Sproul's classic Holiness of God free: http://christianaudio.com/free/

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