R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 89

Did Believers in the Old Testament Have a Complete Understanding of the Trinity?

The doctrine of the Trinity is revealed throughout the Old Testament. But did Old Testament believers recognize this truth? From one of our live events, R.C. Sproul and Derek Thomas consider the extent to which God’s people understood His triune nature prior to the New Testament.

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God Never Forgets His Promises

The entire life of Joseph is summarized in Genesis 50:20: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” The teenager we met at the beginning of the story is now over a hundred years old. His life has come full circle, and he is addressing his duplicitous brothers. Their actions, in selling him into slavery, had nothing but evil intent written all over it. Their malevolence can in no way be lessened by the knowledge that things did not turn out as they might have done. Truth is, God overruled their evil actions to accomplish a purpose that neither they nor Joseph could have fathomed. God brought good out of evil. In the words of the Westminster Confession, God in His providence “upholds, directs, disposes and governs all creatures, actions and things” to bring about a sovereignly pre-determined plan (5.1). 

This, God had accomplished through a variety of actions. Joseph’s descent into slavery, followed by a false accusation of rape resulting in a lengthy imprisonment, spelled his downward spiral to the bottom. His life could hardly have been much worse. Only now, from the vantage point of what God had, in fact, accomplished — ensuring that an heir of the covenant promises was in the most powerful position in Egypt at a time when famine engulfed Canaan to ensure the survival of the covenant family — could Joseph look back and see the hand of God. As the puritan John Flavel has been so frequently cited as saying, providence is best read like Hebrew, backwards! Only then is it possible to trace the divine hand on the tiller guiding the gospel ship into a safe harbor. No matter how dark things get, His hand is always in control. Or, as the poet William Cowper wrote in verse:

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense

but trust him for his grace;

Behind a frowning providence

he hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast;

unfolding every hour.

The bud may have a bitter taste,

but sweet will be the flower. 

Providence has wider issues in mind than merely our personal comfort or gain. In answer to the oft-cited question in times of difficulty, “Why me?” the forthcoming answer is always, “Them!” He allows us to suffer so that others may be blessed. Joseph suffered in order that his undeserving brothers might receive blessing. In their case, this meant being kept alive during a time of famine and having the covenant promises of their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, reaffirmed before their eyes. 

What do you think went through the minds of those disciples who carried the blood-soaked body of Stephen for his burial? Were they saying to themselves, “What a waste! Couldn’t God have spared this godly man so that he might be of use to the church in her time of need? Does God care about us at all?” In all these questions, they would have been showing the shortsightedness that is so much a part of unbelief. They would not have been reckoning on the purposes of God had they asked such questions. For there, at the feet of Stephen’s corpse, stood a man upon whom Stephen’s death had the most profound impact. In hearing the voice of Jesus speak to him and accuse him of persecuting God’s Messiah, Paul learned what is arguably his most characteristic feature: that every Christian is in such spiritual union with Christ that to persecute one of His little ones is to persecute Jesus Himself! 

And what were the purposes behind Joseph’s suffering? At least two are forthcoming in the closing chapters of Genesis: the first on a microcosmic level and the second on a larger, macrocosmic level. Joseph learned first of all that whatever happened to him personally, he was part of a larger purpose in which God’s plan was being revealed. In that case, he could not hold grudges against his brothers, no matter how badly they had behaved. True, they must learn their sin and confess it, and this explains the lengthy way in which Joseph finally reveals himself to them as his brother after first of all making them think that they had stolen from a prince of Egypt. God had used him as an instrument in the spiritual growth of his brothers, and Joseph seems to sense that by his utter unwillingness to hold a grudge against them. 

But secondly, and on a much larger platform, Joseph begins to learn the answer to the question, how will the promises made to Abraham be fulfilled? At one level, the final scene of Jacob’s burial in Canaan attended by a huge entourage of Egyptians seems a curious way to end the story of Joseph. But it is part and parcel of it. In the end, the Egyptians are paying homage to Joseph’s family! When Jacob says to his son, “Make sure that I am buried in the land of promise” (see Gen. 50:5), he is thinking of the promise that God had given to Abraham of a land — a land that at this time they did not possess apart from this burial plot! At the end of Genesis the people of God are nowhere near possessing Canaan. They are going to spend four hundred years in captivity in Egypt. But in Jacob’s burial there is a glimpse of things to come. God has not forgotten His promise. He never does. 

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

$5 Friday And More: Worship, Evangelism, & Assurance

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as worship, evangelism, assurance, Martin Luther, faith, the Holy Spirit, 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:

Maturity: Growing Up and Going on in the Christian Life , Paperback $17 $11 (Save 35%)
Jesus Made in America , Paperback $20 $13 (Save 35%)
The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World , Hardcover $20 $12 (Save 40%)
The Promises of God: Discovering the One Who Keeps His Word , Hardcover $20 $10 (Save 50%)
How Then Shall We Worship? , Audiobook CD $22 $12 (Save 45%)
The Legacy of Luther , Audiobook CD $20 $12 (Save 40%)
The Psychology of Atheism , CD Collection $38 $15 (Save 60%)
The English Reformation and the Puritans , CD Collection $31 $15 (Save 51%)
The English Reformation and the Puritans , Study Guide $15 $8 (Save 46%)
October 2012 Tabletalk: The English Reformation and the Puritans , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 66%)
August 2012 Tabletalk: Eastern Spirituality , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 66%)
July 2016 Tabletalk: Doubt and Assurance , Magazine $3 $1 (Save 66%)

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

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

An Update on Our 2020 National Conference

In light of a request from Florida’s governor to limit mass gatherings, Ligonier Ministries will cancel next week’s National Conference in its current format.

God’s people need clear, timely instruction from God’s Word, so there will still be a limited livestream conference experience next week. Be sure to follow updates here on Ligonier.org, as well as our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.

It saddens me to make this announcement, as this will be the first time in 33 years we will not be able to meet face to face with thousands of our cherished friends and supporters and sit under trustworthy Bible teaching together. We wait upon the Lord to see how He uses these turbulent times for His glory and His people’s good. May this be a moment in which we as the church “shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).

We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. Ligonier will provide a full refund of your registration upon your request. In light of the costs already incurred for this planned event, however, many registrants have asked for their registration fee to be converted to a donation to advance Ligonier’s global outreach. Details about receiving refunds or donating registration fees have been emailed to all conference registrants.

Thank you for praying for this ministry. But even more importantly, join us in prayer on behalf of those affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) around the world and for government officials, first responders, and the entire medical community. May the Lord have mercy. Luther’s paraphrase of Psalm 46 is apt: “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.”

As you know, we like to refer to our National Conference as Ligonier’s annual “family reunion.” Lord willing, we look forward to our next reunion with you, in person, in 2021.

Fear of a Changing World

Here’s an excerpt from Fear of a Changing World, Keith Evans' contribution to the March issue of Tabletalk:

Change. Few of us like it; many of us fear it; most of us try to prevent it. And yet, change is all around us. We needn’t be mildly irritated, rocking on our front porch, vacantly musing, “When I was your age . . .” to recognize it. We click through the twenty-four-hour news cycle and frantically counsel our own hearts not to be troubled. We pause to chat with our neighbors next door who do not share a last name or the couple across the street whose first names are Jim and John, and we nervously wonder what is becoming of the nuclear family. Change is even in our very bones—we pass from one day to the next, remembering the “good ol’ days” when our bodies didn’t hurt quite as much, or at least when they were better able to do what our brains command. Change is everywhere. And whatever change it may be, part of us cries out, “This is not the way things ought to be!”

Continue reading Fear of a Changing World, 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.

Assurance Is the "Cream" of Faith

From his teaching series Assurance of Faith, Joel Beeke explains the correlation between our faith and our assurance of salvation.

Transcript:

"Assurance," said Thomas Brooks, "is the cream of faith." Perhaps, you are old enough to remember when there actually was cream on the top of milk. So, the milk is not separated from the cream, or the cream from the milk, there's an organic link between the two. But the cream is not exactly the milk either. The cream is the richest part of the milk. And so, assurance you see, is something that when faith is strong, it increases. When faith is weak, assurance tends to weaken as well.

What Is the Gospel?

There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they're preaching the gospel to you when they tell you, 'you can have a purpose to your life', or that 'you can have meaning to your life', or that 'you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.' All of those things are true, and they're all important, but they don't get to the heart of the gospel.

The gospel is called the 'good news' because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I'm not. And at the end of my life, I'm going to stand before a just and holy God, and I'll be judged. And I'll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness–or lack of it–or the righteousness of another. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn't possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.

The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn't concerned to protect His own integrity. He's a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead–so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith–and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ's life and death is by putting your trust in Him and in Him alone. You do that, you're declared just by God, you're adopted into His family, you're forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.

A Pastor’s Update from Italy on the Coronavirus

We asked Rev. Michael Brown, a pastor in Milan, Italy, how we can be praying for the Italian church amid the coronavirus situation. Here is his response:

I am a missionary of the United Reformed Churches in North America serving in northern Italy, where I pastor Chiesa Riformata Filadelfia, an Italian congregation in the suburbs of Milan. As you have probably seen in the news, we have experienced a devastating outbreak of the coronavirus. In the past ten days alone, we have seen the number of reported cases in Italy skyrocket from 888 to 7985, and deaths have climbed from 21 to 463. In the past 48 hours, Italy has experienced more than 100 deaths to coronavirus per day. Almost 90% of the cases of coronavirus in Italy are in Lombardy, the region where my family lives. The entire country, however, is on lockdown. This means that no one is permitted to travel and everyone is encouraged to remain at home unless absolutely necessary. All schools and churches in the entire country are under a strict mandate to remain closed until at least April 3. Out of love for our neighbors, we are complying with that ordinance.

For our church, this means that all worship services, classes, and meetings are canceled for the time being. I have been preaching sermons from home via the internet and staying in contact with everyone in the congregation. By God’s grace, all of us are still healthy and well supplied with food and water. The greater crisis at the moment, however, is the destructive toll that the panic is taking on the already fragile Italian economy. More than 30% of Italy’s GNP is dependent on tourism, which has come to a screeching halt during this health situation. In our congregation, several members are unable to work because of school and restaurant closures, and most are seeing a radical decline in business. It is a trying time, to say the least.

I have one encouraging piece of news, however. With the temporary closure of churches, our online sermons are receiving a significant spike in views. Each Sunday, we’re averaging between 600 and 900 views. These are excellent numbers for a Protestant congregation in staunchly Roman Catholic Italy. Some Italians who have listened to the preaching have reached out to us and expressed their gratitude for the gospel and asked for more information about our church. This is very hopeful. Even amid the spread of the coronavirus in northern Italy, God is causing His Word to spread. For that, we give Him praise and trust that He will use these difficult days for His glory.

As believers, we seek to be prudent and to use common sense. But there is never an appropriate time to panic or act as if God is not in control. He has given us “a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). Throughout the centuries, the Lord has brought His church through many periods of plagues, diseases, wars, and natural disasters—all of which are common to this fallen world. Our hope and confidence are not in our circumstances, but in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead, reigns in heaven, and will return in glory. What a comfort to know that we belong to Him in body and in soul, in life and in death!

As you remember us in prayer, here are a few items you can bring before our Father’s throne of grace:

Pray that the Lord will use the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy for His glory and for the spread of the gospel;
Pray that God will mercifully bring the suffering and economic devastation in Italy to an end;
Pray that the Lord will allow our family and congregation here in Milan to remain healthy;
Pray that those in the congregation who are suffering financially as a result of the outbreak will find relief.

We thank you for standing with us in prayer.

For the gospel in Milan,

Rev. Michael Brown

ReformationItaly.org

The Reality of Fear

Here’s an excerpt from The Reality of Fear, Ed Welch's contribution to the March issue of Tabletalk:

Among our ever-expanding troubles, fear and anxiety have pride of place. They are quintessential human issues. They are not so much problems that occasionally seize us; they are regular features of daily life that can be either quiet in the background or loud and dominating in the foreground. In this era, they come attached to our humanity. They say that we are powerless and weak, there are troubles ahead, things cherished are at risk, and there is not much we can do about it. And they are correct. Their specific predictions are often off, and they don’t tell the whole story, but they are correct. In this world, we and the people we love will know trouble (John 16:33).

Continue reading The Reality of Fear, 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.

Since Jesus Is God, Who Is a Spirit, How Can Christ Also Be Human?

We must be careful not to confuse the divine and human natures of Jesus. From one of our Ask R.C. events, R.C. Sproul helps us make careful distinctions when considering the incarnation of Christ.

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

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