R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 97

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Rejoice Always

Do you know what the shortest verse in the New Testament is? The obvious answer is John 11:35: "Jesus wept." It is the shortest verse in our English translations of the Bible. But the shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is 1 Thessalonians 5:16: "Rejoice always." It is a little verse with big implications.

The word "rejoice" is a call to joy. The term was a watchword among early Christians. More than a term of worship, it was a word of salutation. Jesus used it as a greeting (Matt. 28:9). Paul used it as a farewell (2 Cor. 13:11). We typically greet one another with "Hello" or "Goodbye." But what an encouragement it would be if we entered and departed one another's presence with a call to rejoice.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Paul exhorts the saints to rejoice. It is a command, which makes it clear that joy is more than happiness. Happiness is an emotional response to favorable, pleasant, or rewarding circumstances. You cannot compel a person to be happy. It's based on what happens to a person. But Christians are commanded by God to rejoice. This command to rejoice is in the present tense. It means "keep on rejoicing." This makes 1 Thessalonians 5:16 a hard command. This divine mandate would be easier to swallow if it simply directed us to rejoice. Indeed, there are many times, reasons, and occasions that call for rejoicing. But the command is to rejoice always, not only sometimes. How does the Christian rejoice always?

First Thessalonians 5:16–18 features what have been called "the standing orders of the gospel." These exhortations apply to all Christians in every place and every situation. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances." These commands may be familiar. But the justification for the commands is often overlooked: "for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Do we want to know God's will for us in any situation? It is God's will that we rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances. We are in spiritual rebellion if we are not joyful, prayerful, and thankful. God's will for our lives is about more than the circumstances we face. It is about how we respond to those circumstances.

It is the will of God for us to rejoice always. But obedience to this command is not accomplished by an act of the will. It is only accomplished by faith in Christ. The believer's unceasing rejoicing is the will of God for us "in Christ Jesus." This is the key to the life of rejoicing. Unsaved people do not rejoice in God, pray to God, or give thanks to God. Religious people rejoice sometimes, pray when they feel like it, and give thanks when things are going well. But Christians rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances. This is not the believer's response because we are impervious to life's dangers, toils, and snares. It is our response to life because we are in Christ Jesus.

As the Lord Jesus concluded the Upper Room Discourse, He gave a provocative explanation for these final instructions He gave to the disciples: "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). The Lord wants His disciples to live in peace. But true peace is not the absence of negative, painful, or difficult realities. The fact is that disciples of Christ will have tribulations in this world. We are not exempt from trouble because we are in Christ. To the contrary, following Jesus will bring faith-testing, soul-burdening, and life-threatening pressures. Sickness. Heartbreak. Persecution. Rejection. Disappointment. Loss. We will even face death itself. Yet, we can take heart in the midst of it all because Christ has overcome the world.

Here are two essential things that you as a follower of Christ need to know about the world. First, the world is filled with tribulation. But, second and more importantly, it is conquered tribulation. The Lord has overcome the world. This bold declaration of sovereign authority is not a post-resurrection claim. Before the cross, with all its moral injustice, physical suffering, and spiritual agony, Jesus had already overcome the world. The One who was crucified for our sins rose again to declare, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matt. 28:18).

The tribulations of life are inevitable. But they do not have the last word. The crucified and risen Christ is the world conqueror. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns over heaven and earth. This includes all of the blessings and burdens of your private world. Rejoice in this glorious truth now and forever.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

The Westminster Assembly

In this brief clip from his teaching series A Survey of Church History, W. Robert Godfrey examines the importance of the Westminster Assembly. Watch this entire message for free.

The English civil war really established the necessity of Parliamentary government along with the monarch, and began the evolution in England towards the kind of Parliamentary democracy that is in England today, so it had that great social political benefit. But it also had very important ecclesiastical benefit, and that came from the decision of the Parliament to establish an assembly of theologians and ministers to decide how to reform the church. And this is known to history as "The Westminster Assembly." The Westminster Assembly, interestingly enough, was not really a church assembly.

The Synod of Dort, for example, that defeated Arminianism, in the early seventeenth century, was a church synod. The Westminster Assembly was really a Parliamentary committee, it was a political committee in that sense, but it was composed of ministers who were given the responsibility of figuring out how to improve and reform the church in England. And they decided that they needed to reform the church in three ways, just as the National Covenant had talked about "three necessities”" They wanted a clear statement of Reformed doctrine, they wanted a clear direction on Reformed worship, and they wanted a clear Reformed government for the life of the church, and that's what the Westminster Assembly set about doing.

Is It Biblical to Say "God Loves the Sinner, but Hates the Sin?"

Does God “love the sinner but hate the sin”? From one of our Ask Ligonier Live events, Burk Parsons explains his concerns related to this common phrase and offers a clearer alternative.

If you have a biblical or theological question, just visit Ask.Ligonier.org to ask your question live online.

Read the Transcript

An Illustration of Repentance

The Westminster Shorter Catechism has an excellent definition of repentance in Question 87: "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience."

In the heat of the Christian life, however, that definition may seem more theoretical than practical, not particularly helpful when seeking to live a life of repentance (See the first of Martin Luther's 95 Theses: When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent" (Mt 4:17), He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.) We recognize that repentance is a grace. That is, it is a gift from God. It is not something we work up for ourselves. It is not turning over a new leaf. It is a turning away from sin and a turning to God that is fueled, as it were, by the Spirit of God at work within us.

We all recognize that the first act of repentance is only the beginning. We recognize that sins must be mortified. We recognize that there is the problem of indwelling sin in the life of the believer. But I suspect that we don't often attach repentance to these things. In part, this may be because we do not have a sense of what repentance looks like when God is working repentance in us.

Perhaps an illustration will help. Imagine repentance as a man walking in one direction who suddenly realizes that he is walking in the opposite direction from which he should be walking. He stops. He turns around. Then he begins walking in the new direction. It is a quick and simple process. He realizes. He stops. He turns. But imagine someone on a bicycle realizing he is going the wrong direction. In one sense, it is still obvious. He stops. He turns around. He begins bicycling in the new direction. But it is a longer process. He has to come to a stop. Depending on his speed, that may take some time. The turning around also takes longer. And it takes longer to get up to full speed in the new direction. The process is the same for a man in a car. But it takes longer than for the man on the bike, and it may require going somewhat out of his way before he gets back on the right track. The process is the same for a man in a speed boat. He has to slow down, enter the turn, and come back. But the time and distance required to do so is much longer than what was required for the man walking. Now imagine that the man is piloting a supertanker. It takes him miles to slow the ship down enough to even begin to make the turn. The turn itself is immense, taking him quite a distance from his intended course. Then again it also takes a large amount of time to get up to full speed in the new direction.

Now apply the images to repentance. Some sins are small and easy. We stop and walk the other way. Some sins, like the bicycle, are a little more difficult. In God's work in the believer, He takes a little time to bring the believer to an awareness that his course is actually a sinful one. Then there is the process of coming to a stop, the process of the turn itself, and the process of getting up to speed in faithfulness. But some sins are enormous. We may not be aware that they really are sins. Or they may be so deeply ingrained in us that we are not willing, at first, to recognize them as sins. God works patiently with us, carefully slowing us down, as the captain does with the ship, so that He can bring us through the turn and into the new direction, where He can bring us up to full speed.

There are two things that I find helpful about this illustration. First is the fact that God does not work repentance in us instantaneously, but over time. So the awareness of sin and the desire to change come gradually. God brings us, as it were, to a full stop slowly and carefully. So there are going to be many slips and falls on the way to that stopping point. The second thing has to do with the turning itself. In the image of the ship turning, there is a long time when the ship is neither on the old course, nor on the new course but, as it were, dead in the water. So it may well be in the life of the Christian. The sin has been admitted. The slips and falls have gotten fewer. But there seems to be little progress. We seem to be dead in the water. At that point, we are in the turn. Speed will pick up. Godliness will grow. But it will do so slowly, as God patiently works with us.

So if you have prayed for repentance for some particular sin, and there has been no instantaneous change, keep praying. God has promised to work, and He will. And you will be glad in the end that He did it slowly and carefully.

Benjamin Shawn is professor of Old Testament at Reformation Bible College.

$5 Friday (And More): Grace, William Tyndale, & Evangelism

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as grace, William Tyndale, Reformed theology, predestination, the arts, evangelism, Charles Spurgeon, 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:

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Bought with a Price: 2006 National Conference , CD $55 $15 (Save 72%)
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Sale runs through 12:01 a.m.–11:59 p.m. Friday ET.

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Examining Our Motives

Here’s an excerpt from Examining Our Motives, Dan Thompson's contribution to the January issue of Tabletalk:

Imagine surviving a shipwreck in a remote region of the South Pacific. You come ashore on a tiny island and discover that you are the only survivor. A suitcase washes up on the beach, and inside you find a Bible. What do you think: Could you “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18) in isolation from other Christians, or for that matter, in isolation from other human beings?

Alone on an island, you could learn a lot about God through His written Word, and your love for Him could flourish. But there are things about yourself in relation to God that you might not learn very well.

The Apostle Paul tells us that the works of the flesh include “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, . . . and things like these” (Gal. 5:20–21). In contrast, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. . . . Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (vv. 22–23). If there’s no one else around, there will be no jealousy, enmity, rivalries, dissensions, or envy. There will also be no one to try your patience and no one to draw out kindness or gentleness.

Continue reading Examining Our Motives, 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.

Design and Function Come Only from Intelligent Design

Information does not self-originate. In this brief clip, John MacArthur explains that design and function come only from intelligence.

Transcript

Back in the nineteen forties there was a scientist by the name of VonNeumann. He is famous for what is known as the VonNeumann machine. And the Von Neumann machine was the ultimate machine - the ultimate machine that could never be built. VonNeumann said that the machine would be self-generating. That is, it would have within itself the ability to sustain its own existence. It would be secondly, self-repairing. It would be able to fix itself within itself. Thirdly it would be self-reproducing. That is, it would produce more machines just like it. The complexity VonNeumann pointed out is so extreme by the time you get to the third level, that it is impossible to build it, self-sustaining, self-repairing, self-reproducing. If you were to think of it as a car, you can't imagine a car that you really never had to put anything into, it just sustained its own life. It just drew on its environment and sustained it own life, and it was perpetual. Nor, can you imagine a car, that when something went wrong had within itself the ability to fix itself. And a car that when you went out into the garage one day, there were two other little cars sitting beside that car, no doubt Mini coopers.

And you would say to yourself "this is a very complex machine." It's too complex to build and yet that is precisely what every single living cell in the universe does. VonNeumann said "every living cell is supremely complex capable of reproduction, growth, survival, self-diagnosing, self-repairing with a complex cellular communication of information, and storage and retrieval capability. Evolutionists are quick to say, you know, that given enough time codes and machines grown out of nothing. We now know that that is completely absurd. Computer simulations have been done so they can test the affect of time by high speed simulation, to see if evolution builds ordered complex structures. And the bottom line is, just I guess the simplest way that I have read that scientists have concluded, it has about one chance in ten to the one thousandth power. No chance. Information does not self-originate. Nor self-assemble. Design and function come only from intelligence. No natural process ever produced a program code. If you add energy disorder increases.

Pro-Choice: What Does It Mean?

What is the substance of the pro-choice position? If a woman says that she personally would not have an abortion but does not want to deny someone else's right to do it, on what grounds would this woman hesitate to get an abortion? Perhaps she simply wants to have as many babies as possible and doesn't anticipate ever facing an unwanted pregnancy. Maybe this person thinks a fetus is a living human being or is not sure about the fetus' status. Perhaps she believes that the fetus is a living human being but does not want to impose this view on others. Here we reach the crux of the pro-choice position. Is the right to choose an absolute right? Do we have the moral right to choose what is morally wrong? To ask such a question is to answer it.

Again, every law enacted limits or restricts someone's choices. That is the very nature of law. If we do not wish to restrict other people's choices through legislation, we must stop legislating and cease voting. I think that most people will grant that freedom of choice is not an absolute freedom. No human being is an absolute law unto himself. Unless we are prepared to buy into an ethical system of pure relativism by which law and society become impossible, we must flee as the wind from the proposition that the individual is autonomous. To move from the abstract into the concrete, I wonder whether pro-choice activists object to laws protecting their personal property rights? Does the thief breaking into a home to steal someone's television have the inalienable right to make that choice? Does a man have the right to choose to rape a woman? These extreme examples make it obvious that freedom of choice cannot be considered an absolute right.

At what line must freedom of choice end? I believe it ends where my freedom of choice steps on another person's inalienable rights of life and liberty. No unborn baby has ever had the right to choose or deny its own destruction. Indeed, as others have said, the most dangerous place in the United States for a human being is inside the womb of a woman. For millions of unborn babies, the womb has become a cell on death row. The inmate is summarily executed without benefit of a trial or a word of defense. This execution literally involves being torn limb from limb. Is this description too graphic? Is it too emotionally provocative? No. It would be only if the description were untrue.

The right to choose, as sacred as it may be, does not carry with it the arbitrary right to destroy a human life. This is as much a miscarriage of justice as it is a miscarriage of a human baby.

What is it about the freedom to choose that makes it so precious? What provoked Patrick Henry to cry, "Give me liberty or give me death"? Certainly we desire some self-determination, and the idea of living under external coercion is abhorrent. We are thinking creatures, and we value our freedom to make choices. Most of us would hate being imprisoned, but even in a maximum-security penitentiary, a person's right to choose is not totally stripped away.

It is this principle of self-determination—having a say in my own condition and future—that is brutally denied to every unborn, aborted child. I had no say in my mother's decision whether to have an abortion or to carry me to term. My entire life was in her hands. Had she chosen abortion, my life would have been snuffed out before I was born. You and I are real human beings. We were once helpless to exercise our own precious right to choose. We were once totally dependent on somebody else's choice for our very existence.

A second crucial dimension of the right to choose is the question of when to make the moral choice concerning the baby's life. (Because this involves sexual morality, it is a very unpopular subject in the discussion.) The time to choose whether or not to have a baby is not after the baby has been conceived and begun its development. Except in cases of rape, sexual intercourse with or without means of contraception is still a matter of choice. Choices we make, whether of a sexual or nonsexual nature, always have consequences. It is an axiom of ethics and of law that we are responsible for the consequences of our choices.

When we have sexual intercourse, we may not intend or desire to produce another human life. We are aware, however, that intercourse begins the reproduction process and can produce such offspring. To kill the offspring is hardly a responsible or moral method of handling this decision.

Excerpt adapted from Abortion by R.C. Sproul. You can download the ebook edition for free. We encourage you to share this offer with your family, friends, and church community.

Sound Theology Is Practical Theology

You and I share in a high calling—to become holy.

That’s one of the most important life lessons I learned from Dr. R.C. Sproul. Perhaps you remember how often he talked about this call when he taught on finding the will of God for our lives. Nearly every time he touched on the subject, he took us to 1 Thessalonians 4:3, where Paul says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.”

We all have different secondary callings, don’t we? What I mean is that we are not all given the same vocation, the same family, the same place to live, or the same sphere of service in God’s kingdom. These things are all determined by God’s sovereignty, the gifts He gives to you and me, and the opportunities He providentially orders.

But R.C. emphasized that we all have the same primary calling, and that is to grow in our sanctification—to become more and more like Christ as we pursue personal holiness.

Ligonier Ministries has always been about the business of helping people grow in holiness. Your regular giving undergirds Ligonier’s mission of equipping believers to know God and fulfill His primary calling to live holy lives. A gift this month as we begin the new year will give people around the world more resources to help them grow in their understanding of God’s Word and in His will for their lives.

Turning the calendar to the new year with fresh personal resolutions doesn’t bring immediate holiness, does it? Weighed down by our own sin, the pull of the world, and the warfare of the evil one, it seems every day the pressure only grows more intense to conform to the spirit of the age rather than to be transformed. Living by fear, not by faith, is the temptation.

R.C. taught us that the only way to persevere and to grow in such times is through a full commitment to the lordship of Christ. This comes to expression not only in what we think but also in what we do. We will mature in faith and become more Christlike only as we put into practice what God has revealed in His Word.

There’s a place for what we might call the “ivory tower” theologian, the scholar who trains other scholars and pastors. But as you know if you’ve followed Ligonier for some time, R.C. was a “battlefield theologian,” one who like the great Reformers took the deep truths of God’s Word to Christians who are on the frontlines of spiritual warfare (2 Cor. 10:4–6). That’s where we must proclaim Christ’s lordship: in our homes, workplaces, schools, and communities. So, Ligonier is committed to producing other battlefield theologians who can take God’s truth and thoughtfully put it into practice wherever they are even as they train others to do the same.

Sound theology is practical theology, informing every step of the Christian walk. That’s why Ligonier continues to help believers not only think right thoughts about God but also to do what He commands and to press on to Christian maturity. The Lord has called us this year, with your help, not only to help people understand what they believe, but also how to live out what they believe.

You are needed in 2020 to carry on this mission of equipping Christians to grow in holiness. I am not aware of another ministry that does what Ligonier does in the way that we do it.

When you give a gift of any amount, receive with our thanks this month a new resource by R.C. that we believe will help you put God’s Word into practice and grow in Christ. We will send you Growing in Holiness, a new book based on R.C.’s recorded lessons about Christian growth and sanctification, when you support us with your donation.

Just as the hymn says, “all other ground is sinking sand,” and Ligonier stands firm on Jesus Christ and the sure Word of God. Your gospel partnership furthers our mission to help as many people as possible in every age and stage of the Christian life. By supporting Ligonier, you help ensure that this work continues to serve the church. Ministry friends like you who stand with us this month help Christians around the world.

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