R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 76

Should Our Worship Services Be Designed for Christians or Non-Christians?

Today, it’s popular for churches to make elements of the worship service appealing to non-Christian visitors and guests. From one of our Ask R.C. events, R.C. Sproul reminds us of the purpose of our worship as Christians.

Message us for clear, concise, and trustworthy answers to your biblical and theological questions at ask.Ligonier.org.

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What Is Saving Faith?

Faith is central to Christianity. The New Testament repeatedly calls people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a definite body of content to be believed, which is part and parcel of our religious activity. At the time of the Reformation, the debate involved the nature of saving faith. What is saving faith? The idea of justification by faith alone suggests to many people a thinly veiled antinomianism that claims people can live any way they like so long as they believe the right things. Yet James wrote in his epistle: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?…Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (2:14, 17). Luther said that the sort of faith that justifies is fides viva, a “living faith,” one that inevitably, necessarily, and immediately yields the fruit of righteousness. Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. A faith without any yield of righteousness is not true faith.

For the Roman Catholic Church, faith plus works equals justification; for antinomians, faith minus works equals justification; for the Protestant Reformers, faith equals justification plus works. In other words, works are the necessary fruit of true faith. Works are not factored into God’s declaration that we are just in His sight; they are not part of the grounds for God’s decision to declare us righteous.

What are the constituent elements of saving faith? The Protestant Reformers recognized that biblical faith has three essential aspects: notitia, assensus, and fiducia.

Notitia refers to the content of faith, the things we believe. There are certain things we are required to believe about Christ, namely, that He is the Son of God, that He is our Savior, that He has provided an atonement, and so on.

Assensus is the conviction that the content of our faith is true. One can know about the Christian faith and yet believe that it is not true. We might have a doubt or two mixed with our faith, but there has to be a certain level of intellectual affirmation and conviction if we are to be saved. Before anyone can really trust in Jesus Christ, he has to believe that Christ indeed is the Savior, that He is who He claimed to be. Genuine faith says that the content, the notitia, is true.

Fiducia refers to personal trust and reliance. Knowing and believing the content of the Christian faith is not enough, for even demons can do that (James 2:19). Faith is effectual only if one personally trusts in Christ alone for salvation. It is one thing to give an intellectual assent to a proposition but quite another to place personal trust in it. We can say that we believe in justification by faith alone and yet still think that we are going to get to heaven by our achievements, our works, or our striving. It is easy to get the doctrine of justification by faith into our heads, but it is hard to get it into the bloodstream such that we cling to Christ alone for salvation.

There is another element to fiducia besides trust, and that is affection. An unregenerate person will never come to Jesus, because he does not want Jesus. In his mind and heart, he is fundamentally at enmity with the things of God. As long as someone is hostile to Christ, he has no affection for Him. Satan is a case in point. Satan knows the truth, but he hates the truth. He is utterly disinclined to worship God because he has no love for God. We are like that by nature. We are dead in our sin. We walk according to the powers of this world and indulge the lusts of the flesh. Until the Holy Spirit changes us, we have hearts of stone. An unregenerate heart is without affection for Christ; it is both lifeless and loveless. The Holy Spirit changes the disposition of our hearts so that we see the sweetness of Christ and embrace Him. None of us loves Christ perfectly, but we cannot love Him at all unless the Holy Spirit changes the heart of stone and makes it a heart of flesh.

This excerpt is adapted from Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology by R.C. Sproul.

A Needed Reminder: Jesus Triumphs

You’ve probably been fascinated and perplexed by the book of Revelation at some point. I know I have. Christian bestseller lists indicate we’re not alone. Even non-Christians find the book’s apocalyptic imagery compelling.

Over the centuries, Revelation has confused readers and sparked debates about the end times. It’s been the source of much speculation about decoding current events.

More than anything else, however, Revelation has been a means of great comfort.

Differences continue over what Revelation says about the end of the world and its timing, but whatever view we take of the millennium, the rapture, the tribulation, plagues, shadowy figures, and other matters, I think we can agree on at least one thing—Revelation is comforting because it shows us that Jesus triumphs.

We need to hear that message, don’t we? We’re living in an era of great upheaval and confusion. Even the global health scare and financial crisis have shown us that what society takes for granted can be upended or even destroyed in a matter of days. And the moral compass for most of the world has been lost. It seems ethics are up for grabs, and even the very basics of male and female biology. Christians are facing severe persecution around the world, even in countries once hospitable to the gospel message.

Our current situation is unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lifetime. But as I have learned from Dr. R.C. Sproul, our world is not unlike that of the first-century Roman Empire, the historical setting of the book of Revelation. It was a world of violence, of tremendous social flux, of moral anarchy, of contagious disease, and of Christian persecution. And what did the Lord prescribe for the Christians in that world who needed comfort? The Holy Spirit granted the Apostle John a heavenly vision and inspired him to write the Christian church an urgent message—the book of Revelation.

Unlike John’s words, of course, these ministry updates that we regularly publish are not God-breathed Scripture. But one of the reasons we write them is in the hopes that they will also encourage and comfort you. Being able to share with you just some of what God is doing through your support is a great joy for me. I hear firsthand from so many churches and Christians around the world about what the Lord is doing among them and how friends such as you are helping them through Ligonier’s ongoing ministry. They are grateful and I am grateful. Thank you.

Our greatest comfort, however, comes as we understand the Scriptures and meet within the pages of the Bible the holy and gracious God who is overcoming His enemies. Jesus has overcome our sin by the power of the cross and now sends His people on mission. That’s really why Ligonier exists—to assist people like you and me in understanding God’s Word so that we will be comforted by the truth that Jesus prevails. With this knowledge, we will be better equipped to take the gospel to our families and neighbors. Your support is vital for this mission to impact others. As you stand with us in prayer and with your donations, people around the world are growing in biblical truth. Your gift of any amount this month will help equip even more men and women with God’s Word.

The book of Revelation reminds us that Christ has defeated Satan and that his doom is sure. Yet, we also know from Revelation that until Jesus returns, the devil remains a vicious foe. We need not be afraid of him if we are on God’s side through faith in Christ, but we must be wise to Satan’s schemes, for he seeks to devour us.

As we look all around us, it is clear that the enemy is on the move. No longer do we see a storm on the horizon. That storm is here. Now. Fear is gripping so many, even some within the church. Aggressive secularists and ruthless totalitarians seem to seize every opportunity to drive the church into irrelevance, threatening Chrisitans’ freedom to worship and to proclaim the gospel. In too many places the church is compromised, and so-called Christian institutions and organizations are not holding the line on the truth. As R.C. said in an interview shortly before he went home to be with the Lord, we cannot just blindly assume that those who were faithful thirty, twenty, even ten years ago are remaining true to God’s Word today.

If you, I, and God’s people everywhere are to be sustained in these dangerous days, we must:

Be firmly rooted in the Bible in all of its authority, sufficiency, and power to change lives, to confront the sinner, to comfort the suffering, and to bring reformation to every part of human society;
Know who God is in His holiness, majesty, sovereignty, glory, and grace so that we may worship and enjoy Him.

Now is the time to stand with conviction on the truth once delivered to the saints. Ligonier is committed to doing just that. Every Ligonier outreach you support and ministry you sustain advances the great work God gave to R.C. to believe and teach that which the Lord has revealed.

The stakes are high. We’re in a daily battle for people’s hearts around the world as the gospel goes forth because it’s the only way they can be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20). This is a battle for holiness as believers are helped to apply biblical teaching to every area of life.

And especially in the past few months, the demand is surging globally for Ligonier’s trustworthy teaching. Because of Dr. Sproul’s decades of steadfast service and comprehensive teaching, I know of no other ministry that covers the breadth of topics that we do with the amount of depth found in all of our resources.

Your support is felt every day. One student recently said, “Finding R.C. Sproul and his teaching ministry has radically changed my life and worldview. I devoured all the free teaching series in a matter of months from the Ligonier app and I’m still an avid listener of Renewing Your Mind.”

Christians tell us that they need clear, confident, biblically grounded teaching to find comfort and strength now. We all look forward to the day when God will wipe away all our tears, when there will be no more sickness, death, pain, or betrayal. Until that day comes when Christ returns, there is a job to do in telling God’s truth to as many people as possible. Your prayers and financial support enable just that.

We have been looking forward with particular delight to the upcoming release of Dr. W. Robert Godfrey’s new DVD teaching series Blessed Hope: The Book of Revelation, as we believe this resource will be a joy and comfort to those who use it for personal or group study. It is our gift to you this month when you give a donation of any amount to Ligonier’s outreach. Your support enables the thoughtful production of discipleship helps in many languages and speeds their distribution around the world.

This opportunity to support the work of God is urgent and needed. You’ll receive teaching that I am convinced will be of great encouragement to you in this troubled age. Matters of life and death are front and center around the world at this hour, and people need to hear what the Lord has to say to the most important issue—the state of their souls.

Thank you for standing with Ligonier.

 

Doctrinal Shifts

Here’s an excerpt from Doctrinal Shifts, Keith A. Mathison's contribution to the May issue of Tabletalk:

Those alive when the twentieth century began lived in a world that had been and still was experiencing unprecedented change. Longstanding empires had fallen. Others were reaching the height of their power as colonialism was at its peak. The wars caused by all of these events seemed never-ending. Additionally, the Second Industrial Revolution was creating massive social and economic changes as people fled the farms and filled the cities. Philosophically, the academy was still coming to grips with the questions of authority associated with the rise of modernity. Little did anyone then know, however, that the changes they had already witnessed would be almost nothing compared to what the twentieth century would bring.

Continue reading Doctrinal Shifts, 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.

Panel Discussion: Comfort in Times of Crisis

On March 20, our President, Chris Larson, hosted a panel discussion with the Ligonier Ministries Teaching Fellows called Comfort in Times of Crisis. Later that evening, we streamed this conversation about the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis and the hope we have in Christ during times of trial.

This special event was streamed on Ligonier's blog, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also watch a recording of the discussion below.

Divided Love Is Idolatry

The Lord has given us His undivided love. Should we as God’s people give Him anything less in return? In this brief clip, W. Robert Godfrey alerts us to the subtle characteristics of idolatry.

Transcript:

And here, too, we can remember something of the characteristic of idolatry in Israel. The characteristic of idolatry was almost never that Israel said, "We reject the Lord our God." What Israel said was, "Of course we love the Lord! Of course we serve the Lord – but why can't we also serve Baal? We have big hearts. We can be generous. We can serve Baal as well as the Lord." And the Lord is adamant through the Old Testament and the New Testament that He wants the undivided loyalty of His people. And, you know, this should not come as such a huge surprise to us. We find that in personal relationships, don't we? We are not much impressed by the spouse who says, "Of course I love you, but I love other people too." It just doesn't work that way, does it? And when we read that “the Lord is jealous,” what He means is that He has given us His undivided love, and He expects undivided love in response. That's what this warning about idolatry is really all about. God is saying over and over again, "Look at all I have done for you. I have created you. I have sustained you. I have redeemed you. And you want to share your love with Baal? I'm not putting up with that," He says. And that's what Moses is reminding them of here: "Stick to the Word to be your guide."

Finding God in the Darkness

Four times in Genesis 39 we read that God was with Joseph (39:2-3, 21, 23). The statements form a set of pillars at either end of the story of Joseph's initial experience of Egypt. On the one end, they come at the beginning of the story after Joseph has been sold by the Ishmaelites to Potiphar, the pharaoh's "captain of the guard" (39:1). The point of the description is to show to us that God's presence "prospered" Joseph (39:2). He was a "successful man" (39:2) because "the Lord was with him" (39:3). William Tyndale translated it, "the Lord was with Joseph and he was a lucky fellow!" The point is that the presence of God in the life of Joseph prospered him. He was put in charge of Potiphar's entire house entrusting everything that he had to Joseph. God was there, in the good times. True, he was a slave, but life was good.

It is relatively easy to reason that when things are going well that this represents blessings of God. Most of us fall into it by default: things are going well and we thank God for "every good and perfect gift that comes from above." We count our blessings and name them one by one. In the abundance of provision and security of a life where things are going well for us, it is reasonable to conclude that God is in the midst of all of this.

But Moses, in writing the account of Joseph, has a more profound theology than this. As the story develops, things suddenly, and without warning, turn bad. Joseph finds himself the victim of a false accusation of sexual assault—rape, if you will. It is a nightmare scenario where we are told unequivocally that he is utterly innocent. But accuse someone of rape, and some are bound to believe it no matter how loud the protest. Joseph has no recourse to law. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" wrote William Congreve in The Mourning Bride (1697), and Potiphar's wife, a jilted woman to be sure, cries foul, and, understandably, the husband has only one course of action at his disposal: Joseph is imprisoned. The fact he was put in the "King's prison" (39:20), certainly not the worst Egyptian penitentiary, probably indicates that Potiphar may well have doubted his wife's integrity.

What now? When things suddenly turn dark, what are we to think of God's promises to His children? It is one thing to reason that God is with us when things are going well. It is another to conclude the very same thing when things are going badly. And yet, this is precisely what Moses does. Joseph "was there in prison," but "the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison....the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed." (Gen. 39:20-21, 23). The very same language as before! God was with Joseph in the bad times as well as the good times.

It is worth pondering what this means. We might have expected Joseph to reason that because things had turned worse, God must surely be against him. It is natural for us to assume that bad things are indicative of chastisement. "What have I done to deserve this?" we ask. The false accusations made against Joseph would then be an example of instant retribution. God was punishing him for something he had done. This was exactly the reasoning of Job's friends. They only had one song (Calvin said in a sermon on Job), and they sang it to death! And, because we do believe in divine retribution, this sometimes is the case. Paul seems to be saying as much when he comments on the reason why some of the Corinthians are sick and dying (1 Cor. 11:29-30). But such a conclusion is not a necessary one, and in this instance it would be an entirely false one. Outward suffering is not necessarily an indicator that God is against us.

What Joseph did not know, but what the end of the story in Genesis 50 makes clear, is that God had a purpose in mind in placing him in prison. He would be the right man in the right place when the pharaoh would be losing sleep due to a recurring dream. God would have the interpreter of the dream there at hand in the king's own prison, having exercised his gift among the pharaoh's former butler and baker (who are also in prison). God is weaving a plan, which in its macrocosm will lead to the raising of Joseph to leadership and the rescue of this covenant family from the famine that befalls his homeland. Joseph's imprisonment is part of the unfolding of the greater plan of redemption on the pages of history.

God moves in a mysterious way;

His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.

     —William Cowper, 1774

Only faith in the "steadfast love" of God towards His own (Gen. 39:21) will reason this way. But it is the way of faith to reason in just this way. No matter how dark the path gets, there is a reason for it. I may not know it; but that is not important. What is important is this: He knows!

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

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Ethics in Flux

Here’s an excerpt from Ethics in Flux, Bruce P. Baugus' contribution to the May issue of Tabletalk:

Twentieth-century ethics was a time of reaping the whirlwind after the wind had been sown since the dawn of modernity. The modern era of Western thought began in the seventeenth century when some thinkers abandoned the Augustinian approach to theology as an exercise of faith seeking understanding, opting instead for a new approach that roughly amounted to reason, in a narrow sense, seeking reasons or justifications to believe. So began the quest of rational theology.

Continue reading Ethics in Flux, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

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What Do You Think the Church Will Look like in the Next 10 to 20 Years?

In a culture that chases after the latest trend, God’s people must rest on His unchanging Word. From one of our Ask Ligonier events, John MacArthur expresses his concerns for the next decade and presents the way for the church to remain steadfast in a changing world.

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

Read the Transcript