No podcast this week. My apologies. See you next week.

You can, however, listen to any or all of the many previous ones. It’s not like the expire or anything.

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Eight Years Bearing the Sower’s Fruit with My Bride

Jesus’ public ministry, because Jesus changes everything, changed everything. It’s hard to believe such a short time, three years of public ministry, could render such potent change. It was not long after He ascended to the right hand of the Father that His disciples were called, “They who have upset the world.” (Acts 17:6)

Eight years ago today my precious wife walked down the aisle of Saint Andrews Chapel and changed everything. My father led us through the marriage ceremony and then we walked that same aisle together. I wish I could look back over the last eight years and see an impact coming from me like that that Jesus had in just three. Instead I look back over the past eight years and am reminded not how much I have done for Jesus, but how much He has done for me.

Over the course of the past eight years almost all that He has done for me He has done through my wife, His daughter, Lisa. When I have failed, she has responded in love. When I have been attacked, she has come to my defense. When I have been discouraged, she has lifted my countenance. When I have felt alone, she has walked beside me. When I have clung to old habits she has set me free. When I have lost hope she has set my eyes on Jesus. She has been my counselor, my partner, my friend, my lover, my comfort and my joy.

And that is just me. She has mothered our children, loved and risked and sacrificed for them. She serves them, teaches them, trains them, hugs them, blesses them. She has led them out of the broken-down home I had had them in and given them health and life and direction.

The grace that He pours through her extends beyond me and our children. For eight years I’ve been blessed to watch her encourage young mothers, meet the needs of those in need, open her home and heart to strangers, perhaps even angels unaware. I’ve watched her respond with grace to gracelessness from others, returning good for evil. I’ve watched her continue to live a life of faith in the One who sustains us both.

Just a few weeks after our wedding I, in my sin, brought my own platform crashing down around me. No longer did I have a public venue from which to introduce her, to encourage her, to praise her. She, however, doesn’t live to be known for her faithful service. She lives for faithful service itself. She never lost a step, never walked away, never beat me with the big stick of my big sin.

For eight years instead she has loved and been loved. For eight years she has walked beside me as we have sought to follow the Teacher. Not once has she lost faith that He is leading us, and leading us to an eternity that is beyond our ken. When we reach those shores we will remember these eight years with thanksgiving as we look forward with hope in the eternity He won for us. And the sower leads us…

Posted in 10 Commandments, beauty, friendship, grace, Heroes, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, Lisa Sproul, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Last week’s study, I Thessalonians 4- Pleasing God

Posted in 10 Commandments, Bible Study, Biblical Doctrines, church, eschatology, grace, RC Sproul JR, repentance | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Live Study Tonight, I Thessalonians 5 – Faithful Expectation

Tonight we continue our study on I Thessalonians. All are welcome to our home at 7 est, or you may join us for dinner at 6:15. We will also stream the study at Facebook Live, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you’ll join us.

Posted in Advent, announcements, Bible Study, Biblical Doctrines, church, eschatology, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Why is the church so biblically illiterate?

Because we in the pulpits do not preach God’s Word, and we in the pews neither read nor study God’s Word. There is no great mystery. We have not because we ask not. And when we do ask, we ask awry. We can then ask why do we ask not, and why, when we do ask, do we ask awry (James 4:2). Here too there is no great mystery. We ask not because we don’t believe that God’s Word will feed us. When we do ask, we ask awry because we want the Bible to affirm us rather than instruct us.

God’s Word, it tells us, is a mirror that shows us what we are (James 1:23). What we find in the mirror is, to put it mildly, not pretty. We find countless blots and blemishes. We are discouraged, disheartened. We learn the lesson that we’re not good enough, but miss the lesson that He is. And so flee from the very Word that shows us the Word whose love for us is boundless and unchangeable.

We’ve all either said or heard or both “I don’t have time to read/study the Bible.” Plug this statement into an honesty machine and it translates, “Reading and studying the Bible is less important to me than all the other things I spend my time on.” “I have more pressing matters in my life.” This despite the wisdom of Jesus that we would remember if we invested our time in His Word, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

Our lives are saturated with noise. Ear-tickling, eye candy noise. If we show up for church on Sunday morning we expect a message that will be short and sweet. It must not step on our toes. And above all else, it must be entertaining. Bible optional.

We know better. What we have studied, however, is the fine art of rationalization. We sooth our consciences with lies. “I know more about the Bible than some people.” “I have heart knowledge. I don’t need head knowledge.” “The Holy Spirit will tell me all I need to know.” “Studying the Bible makes people unloving and Pharisaical.” “My pastor studies God’s Word for me.” We’re more diligent to excuse our failure than we are to overcome it.

Here’s a brief quiz, if you dare. Call it a self-assessment. Five simple questions. Looking things up is cheating. This is just off the top of your head.

1. Can you name all 10 commandments? You may paraphrase, and need not be in order or word perfect.
2. Who was Shimei?
3. Where was the book of Revelation written?
4. Who lived first, Ruth or Esther?
5. On what day did Peter preach his first sermon?

These are not questions one would have to memorize in order the pass the quiz. They are bits of information that would be already ingrained in you if you read your Bible regularly. They are profoundly easy. Passing the test brings no boasting rights.

If you didn’t pass, and are feeling bad about it, here’s a suggestion. Start reading the Bible as if it were the very Word of the Maker of all the world, and the Redeemer of your soul. If you didn’t pass, and are not feeling bad about it, seek His grace and forgiveness.

This is the twenty-first installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday November 24 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Ask RC, Bible Study, Biblical Doctrines, church, preaching, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Year of Our Lord- Marking Time in His Kingdom

The world is half full of half-empty thinkers, and I am one of them. Puddleglum is my patron saint. And nothing exposes the vast expanse of emptiness in the top half of the glass like listening to the evening news. Every year we seem to have a parade of ground-breaking Supreme Court decisions, all about culturally public affirmations of the lordship of Christ.

More than fifty years ago the Supreme Court ruled that prayer to the Almighty would no longer be sanctioned in the state’s schools. To this day, however, we still don’t know if prayers are permitted prior to football games, or at graduations. We dicker over crosses on public lands, over the Ten Commandments in courthouses, and during this time of year, over whether there is any room in the inn for Christmas crèches.

We half-empty folks, perhaps rightly, bemoan that we not only often lose these cases, but the hard fact that we have them at all. Time was that while we did not have an established church in America as such, we all understood where we came from. There is no question that corporately speaking, we are growing more forgetful. We are, as a culture, eager to keep Christianity on the reservation, somewhere safe inside our hearts and minds where no one will notice. We are as militant in our secularism as al Qaeda is in their Islam.

Half-full people, on the other hand, are quick to point out that the federal government still finances the office of the congressional chaplain. No one seems to mind. Our coinage, though on the inside is still junk metals, nevertheless carries with it “In God We Trust.” We may be down in the late innings, but the game isn’t over yet.

All of these tokens, cultural symbols of what matters, matter. While what we seek is absolute submission from the heart of all men everywhere, we have slipped into a cultural gnosticism if we believe there is nothing to be gained by a symbolic acknowledgement of the lordship of Christ. Civil religion will save no one, but then, neither will civil agnosticism. But we have better news.

It is true enough that in certain academic circles we still have archaic cultural warriors who want us to begin using CE and BCE as a measurement of time, these abbreviations meaning “Common Era” and “Before the Common Era.” It is likewise true enough that while BC is clear enough (Before Christ) we have been dumbed down such that we can’t handle the simple Latin of Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. But none of these cultural drifts can undo the fact that we, Christians and pagans alike, measure time, one of the most elemental of elements, by the birth of Jesus Christ.

In a little town of Bethlehem, backwater village in a backwater vassal state of the Roman empire, in a veritable stable, a baby was born. There was no ticker tape parade. There was no three-inch headline in the local paper. But that birth henceforth marked the very hinge of time. Everything that happened before this event would be marked as happening before this event. But better still, everything that happened after this event happened not just in time marked by our Lord, but in time belonging to our Lord. This is His year, as every year is.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that revival is just around the corner. It doesn’t mean that we are well on our way to victory in the culture wars. It means, however, that this little babe is now Lord over all things. It reveals that He will bring in each one that has been given to Him. It means He is about the business of bringing all His enemies into submission. That we live in 2024 AD reminds us, whether or not we hear that reminder, that our God reigns.

It is good and appropriate that we should mourn at the naked public square. It is a sure sign of a sad decline that those in positions of political power will not kiss the Son. We would do well to remember that even this is the fruit of the reality of His reign. The hearts of all kings are in His hand. This babe, born king of the Jews, is likewise king of these United States, of Canada, England, East Timor, Iraq, Red China. He does not stand outside the United Nations knocking, but is already Lord over all.

We would do well to watch our language. We who are His servants often, with well-intentioned zeal, determine to “grow” the kingdom of God, to “expand its borders.” But we, even empowered by the Holy Spirit, can do nothing of the kind. We cannot grow the kingdom, expand the borders where Christ reigns, for already He reigns everywhere.

All authority, in heaven and on earth, has been given to Him. Our calling isn’t to make His kingdom bigger. Our calling is to make His kingdom clearer, to make manifest, visible, tangible, the already existing but shrouded reality that Jesus Christ is now and ever more shall be Lord. It is a glorious calling, and these are glorious times, for this is the year of our Lord.

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Striking Out- How Lefty Women Want to Punish Their Men

Trump Derangement Syndrome certainly comes with some strange symptoms. There are, of course, any number of reasons to not like the president elect. I could give you a quite long list myself, though I’m sure anyone could compile a voluminous list of reasons not to like me. TDS, which has reached pandemic levels after the election, is a whole other matter.

We’ve witnessed hollow promises from celebrities to leave the country. We’ve seen the emotional meltdowns. We’ve seen pundits blame Kamala’s loss on Latinos being racist and married women being sexist. We’ve seen hair cutting rituals, uglifications if you will. We’ve seen unions calling for national strikes, and random threats of shooting white males.

Now we are seeing public pledges from female TDS sufferers to abstain from sexual conduct with men. They are, to punish Trump supporters, refusing to fornicate. They are taking TDS inspired vows of chastity. I, for one, wish them well. I think it’s a great idea for all women to stop fornicating. It’s such a great idea, I’m in favor of all men doing the same. In a spirit of cooperation and bipartisanship, may I encourage not just TDS sufferers, but Trump supporters to link arms in making such vows.

Often the vows are connected to the single greatest accomplishment of Trump’s first term, appointing Supremes who overturned Roe. “If we can’t slaughter the children you sire,” these gentleladies seem to be saying, “we won’t put ourselves in circumstances where we might conceive.” Kinda makes you wonder if there just might be not just correlation but causation in the radical spike in fornication rates since the original Roe decision. Maybe the legal freedom to murder increased the sense of freedom to fornicate.

When God blessed Adam and Eve with the marital act, He did not restrict it to the context of marriage between a man and a woman as some kind of loyalty test, or out of a sadistic desire to make us squirm. He did it to bless us, just as is the case with every word of His law. He doesn’t take from us but gives to us. He always knows better than we do.

It will be interesting to see, in the coming months, whether this particular symptom of TDS will diminish. Will it have the same staying power as the celebrexits that never seem to happen? If not, it will be interesting to see how many lives will actually improve. God blesses our obedience, even when it is motivated by spite. We stumble upon the blessing. The men who would be cut off would likewise find blessing. And maybe there will be marriages made and children born and blessed.

The God of heaven and earth makes straight lines out of crooked sticks. He overturns Roe via a man known to be less than gallant toward women, and who blamed pro-lifers for poor Republican showings in the mid-terms. He may use that same man to spread TDS and in turn to slow the raging waters of the ongoing sexual revolutions which have proven to be nothing but mass suicide. Stranger things have happened.

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, politics, RC Sproul JR, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

8 Years with Lisa; Tariffolly; The MEANing of Jesus & More

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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The Oxymoronic Arrogance of Reformed Folk

It’s an irony that hits close to home, so it’s one I make note of regularly. We who confess to being Reformed, Calvinistic, embracing the doctrines of grace, begin our confession of our distinctives with the doctrine of total depravity. We affirm that sin impacts all that we are. Our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts and our desires are depraved. We affirm that we are unable, unless God should change our nature first, to even want to be changed.In short, we have a profoundly low, albeit biblical, view of ourselves in our fallen state. (For a strong exploration of Reformed theology, see After Darkness Light, Essays in Honor of RC Sproul here.)

The irony is that if we were in the high school yearbook we embracers of the doctrines of grace would rightly be voted “Most likely to be arrogant.” We begin with a humbling doctrine, but we end as prideful jerks. What gives? It is because of our depravity that even an awareness of our depravity does little to diminish our foolish pride. To put it another way, what else would we expect from sinners such as us?

We grow our arrogance, I suspect, out of one truth, and one lie. We embrace the biblical truth that God chooses His own. We deny that we are chosen based on His foreknowledge of any choices we might have made. What we often feel, however, is that we were chosen precisely because we were so worthy. We’ve turned out so well, we reason in the dark corners of our hearts, it makes perfect sense that He chose us. Didn’t He choose well when He chose me?

The truth that leads us astray is that we are, when considering election, entering into some deep waters. Which, we are foolish enough to believe, makes us think we are rather accomplished swimmers. We are tempted to believe that, because we not only look into such deep doctrines, but have the courage to embrace them, that we’re a better class of believer. I thank you Lord that I am not like other men. I know the five points of Calvinism. I know the difference between an Arminian and an Armenian.

The doctrine of election is true; it is biblical. As such we have a duty not just to affirm it and to teach it, but to believe it. We need to believe it from our hearts, to believe it enough to put to death our pride. We need to believe in it enough to believe in His power to rescue and revive the dead. We need to believe it enough to know down to our core that the vilest criminal, the cruelest Muslim, the most heartless adulterer is just what we are by nature. What sets us apart isn’t anything good in us save His grace at work in us.

We need to believe it enough to cry out in gratitude at the amazing grace that saved such a wretch as me. We should not believe in election because we in our brilliant minds have managed to peek behind the curtain, to look into the secret things of God. We are to believe in it because it reveals the glorious truth that He has loved us, despite our being utterly unworthy. He’s done so from the foundations of the world. His grace isn’t a slight fix to a small problem. It is instead the victory of Jesus over death. We are to believe it because it, however slowly, puts to death our pride. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, Doctrines of Grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul, RC Sproul JR, Reformation, sovereignty, theology | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Live Study Tonight, I Thessalonians 4 – Pleasing God

Tonight we continue our study on I Thessalonians. All are welcome to our home at 7 est, or you may join us for dinner at 6:15. We will also stream the study at Facebook Live, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you’ll join us.

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