Why are we not more grateful?

Posted on February 6, 2023 by RC

When Paul seeks to communicate in the book of Romans the universal reality of sin he notes two universal sins of the unredeemed. First, they do not acknowledge God as God. Second, neither are they grateful. While we have been redeemed, we carry the same sin struggles into our new life. We continue to have a problem with gratitude. Why?

First, we do not understand what we are due. That is, just as unbelievers suppress the truth of their guilt before God, so do we. We, because we yet struggle with sin, deny the sin we struggle with, then conclude that any whim or wish we have that goes unmet is a sure sign that we are not being treated as we ought. When Jesus was asked if those killed by the falling of the tower of Siloam were worse sinners than others He wisely changed their perspective. The question isn’t why were those people killed. The question is why wasn’t I killed. We are, in ourselves, due His eternal judgment. Everything we experience in the here and now is grace.

Second, we do not understand what we have been given. It is more than enough, an infinite windfall of grace that our sins have been forgiven. Such deserves gratitude from us from top to bottom. There is, however, so much more. We have not only been forgiven but adopted. God has, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, made us His own precious children. He has blessed us with the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. He never leaves us nor forsakes us, never lets us go. We walk through all our days, the good and the terrible, in the palm of His hand.

Third, we do not understand what we have been promised. Everything He has already given us is secure forever. The forgiveness we have we will always have. Our adoption has made us a part of His forever family. There is, however, more to come. He has promised that He will complete the good work that He has begun in us. He not only declares us just today but promises that He is making us just, and that we will reach that end at our end. He has promised not only to reconcile us through His Son but to make us like His Son. We will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. We will spend eternity in His glorious presence, beholding His countenance, filled to overflowing with every blessing. He has made us joint heirs with Jesus.

The problem isn’t that He is stingy and we need to just get used to it. The problem is that the “blessings” we think we are missing out on are curses He protects us from while the “curses” we think He refuses to take away are blessings by which He remakes us. He is the God who gives. Pray with me that He would bless us with greater gratitude all our days.

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Identifying I.D.

Posted on February 3, 2023 by RC

The culture wars are heating up again. Such, I suppose, ought not to surprise me. Evangelical professor of sociology James Davidson Hunter published his book Culture Wars in 1992. Therein he argued that the real dividing line in modern culture was not between right wing and left wing, not between Christians and non-Christians, but between the orthodox and the progressives. The orthodox, he argued, were all those who affirmed some sort of transcendent source of truth and morality. The progressives denied the transcendent. The orthodox included then not only evangelical Christians, but conservative Roman Catholics, orthodox Jews, fundamentalist Muslims, and even old-school Mormons. The latter, by contrast, included liberal Protestants, nominal Roman Catholics, unobservant Jews, non-strict Muslims, and doubting Mormons. Our “allies” in the culture war together affirmed that there was a god and that this god has revealed himself and his will for men. What they disagreed about was who this god is and what he has told us.

The culture wars, rightly understood, are ultimately only one manifestation of the broader war first declared in Genesis 3. There God promised the serpent that He would put enmity between him and the woman, between his seed and her Seed. He promised in the end that the serpent would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman but also that his head would be crushed. As we remember this reality, and that this war will not be fully finished until Jesus returns, we remember to live our lives in light of this war. We prepare ourselves for battle, and we seek the wisdom to discern who our enemies and friends are, as well as where the battle lines have been drawn.

It is not difficult, for instance, to discern the Devil’s hoof prints all over naturalistic Darwinism. That this is folly is easy enough to discern. Those, on the other hand, who stand ready to affirm the historicity and the inerrancy of the Genesis account of creation are our friends and co-belligerents. Where though, do we place that movement known as Intelligent Design? Are these scholars and scientists friend or foe?

Advocates of Intelligent Design have a great deal going for them. First, they rightly reject the obvious folly of Darwinism. In an age where the acceptance of Darwinian dogma is virtually a loyalty test for acceptance into the academic realm, these men have stood firm and faithful. They have been wounded grievously by our enemies. Second, these good men have made strong, even compelling cases for the necessity of design in the creation of the universe. They are, in a manner of speaking, not only thinking God’s thoughts after Him, but are teaching others to do the same. And third, they have, happily, embarrassed our enemies. Darwinists come off rightly as half-armed when battling wits with ID advocates.

For those of us glass-half-empty people, however, there remain important questions. It is well and good to reject Darwinism. However, this is not at all the same thing as championing the truthfulness of the Word of God. Do we long for the day when the world affirms that there is a maker of heaven and earth or do we long for the day when the world confesses that Jesus Christ, by whom all things were made, is Lord of heaven and earth? Are we, when we seek to answer the question of origins without appealing to the revelation of the Originator, answering a fool according to his folly, as we ought (Prov. 26:5), or are we answering a fool according to his folly as we ought not (v. 4)?

In the end, Christian advocates of Intelligent Design at least have this right — that the God who made the world reveals Himself in and through the world. We need never fear learning from the creation. It, after all, declares His glory day after day. On the other hand, it is not merely the general revelation of God where we must stand, but on the Word of God. There is the solid ground. There is safety and security. We need not seek to curry favor with those who would gainsay the Word of God. We need instead to call them to repentance.

Our allies in the great war are all those for whom our Commander has died. That includes, of course, not just Christians committed to the biblical account of creation. It also includes those committed to Intelligent Design. It even includes those who trust in the finished work of Christ alone, while affirming theistic evolution. All of us, wherever we are on this spectrum, however, need to strive daily to be more faithful to His Word, to be set apart and distinct from the world around us. And all of us are called to love one another along the way.

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Nothing New Under the Sun

Posted on February 2, 2023 by RC

It’s Groundhog Day again. For some today elicits memories of waiting to hear the long-term forecast delivered by a rodent in central Pennsylvania. For others it brings back memories of the Sisyphus-ian hardship of Bill Murray, reliving the day over and over in the movie of the same name. The former asks what the sun has to say about the winter’s stamina. The latter suggests there’s nothing new under the sun.

The book of Ecclesiastes is no walk in the park. It is wisdom literature, which is not a genre any of us are overly familiar with. It is highly philosophical, which is a discipline few of us have mastered. What makes it most difficult, however, is likely that much, though not all of the book is an extended argument built on the practice of granting a false premise to see where it leads. What if, Solomon asks, there were nothing beyond the here and now? What if this world is all there is? Solomon gives an unflinching look into the gaping maw of meaninglessness that is the hostilely indifferent universe. He finds vanity, striving after the wind.

The bulk of what he exposes is the utterly bereft teleology of naturalism. There is, if there is only the here and now, no reason to do or to be anything. Purpose is banished to non-being. One cannot discern any certain truths, as all our understanding is limited by our finitude. One cannot discern real right and wrong as there is no standard above us by which to measure. And one cannot know what to do because every goal leads straight to the same meaningless grave.

Solomon, however, also exposes the banality and utter drabness of a closed universe. He reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9). There is no variety, no complexity to be harmonized, no delightful surprises. The future is painted in the same monochrome as the past. And the future after that is the same.

The dreariness of the clockwork world, however, isn’t real. Like the stubborn, cynical dwarves in paradise who insisted they were locked in a crowded and dark stable in C.S. Lewis’s Narnian conclusion, The Last Battle, those who insist we live under the sun are as blind as if there were no sun. We live in a world that is under the Son, where stars sing and dance, where tiny, unique ice sculptures fall from the sky, where quantum particles giggle playing hide and seek. We live in a world with a beginning, a wretched cataclysm, a vague promise, fits and starts and a hero who doesn’t merely cheat death but crushes it. We live in a world with an end, where saints from across the globe are perfected, and sing eternal praise to their husband, their king, their Redeemer.

We live, because of Jesus, in a world in which all things are being made new (Rev. 21:5). This is the day the Lord is remaking. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Posted in apologetics, beauty, Biblical Doctrines, Biblical theology, creation, eschatology, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, philosophy, post-modernism, RC Sproul JR, wonder, worship | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sacred Marriage; The Biden Papers, Turning It Up to 11

Posted on February 1, 2023 by RC

This week’s podcast.

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Last Night’s Concluding Study on Believing God

Posted on January 31, 2023 by RC

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The Grace of Scandal

Posted on January 31, 2023 by RC

That principle of hermeneutics I have been seeking to teach the world can be quite helpful. It affirms “Whenever you see someone in the Bible doing something really, really stupid, do not say to yourself, ‘How can he be so stupid?’ Instead say to yourself, ‘How am I stupid just like him?’” That means that we should learn to recognize ourselves in the foibles of those in the Bible.

Consider this common failure among the disciples. How many times do we see them jockeying for position, arguing who will be at the right hand of Jesus, bickering over who will be the greatest? We’re so familiar with it yet somehow we manage to miss the same spirit in us. We, fools that we are, turn their folly into an occasion for pride, thinking, “I thank you Lord I’m not like other men.” We may not literally clamor for the seat at Jesus’ right hand. We do, however, compete with all the zeal of an Olympic athlete in a good game of spiritual king of the hill. We parade our piety, display our doctrine, sing our spiritual gift. We confess with our lips our utter unworthiness to receive God’s grace, then turn around to see if everybody noticed how humble we are.

Which is why scandal can be such a potent means of grace. While I still face the same temptation to present myself as better than I am, while I may have once earned a black belt in self-deceit, my very public scandal eliminates me from the game. When you can’t win, you’re free to stop playing. When you are lying on the ground at the bottom of the hill, your nose bloodied, your legs broken, covered in muck, all from your own folly, you get a deeper understanding that the victory is found on a completely different hill, one the real King climbed- Calvary.

Sure, it means people, even your brothers and sisters in the Lord, consider you a by-word. They scoff and they mock, treat you with contempt, determine you are not worthy of grace and forgiveness. This too is a means of grace, because I am a by-word, due scoffing and mockery, owed contempt and utterly unworthy of grace and forgiveness. It helps to be reminded of that. It helps me remember that it is all of grace. It helps me to rest in Him, and to praise Him. And it helps keep me from looking longingly at that other hill.

My sin is shameful, dishonoring to my Lord. It is something to be repented of, not something to be celebrated. What we celebrate instead is first the forgiveness of the sin, because of Jesus. Second, we celebrate how the Spirit uses something so ugly to beautify me, something so dirty to wipe me clean. He covers the scandal with grace, and in His grace, reveals the grace of the scandal.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, communion, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, repentance, scandal | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Believing God Study Concludes Tonight

Posted on January 30, 2023 by RC

We will once again be sharing our home Bible study through Facebook Live (RC-Lisa Sproul) this evening, 7 eastern. Those who’d like to meet face to face, you’re also invited for dinner at our home at 6:15. Tonight we consider the promise of God that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is (I John 3:2).

Join us, one way or the other, and we pray your faith will be strengthened.

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Why did God destroy Sodom?

Posted on January 30, 2023 by RC

There are, in our day, two principle competing views on how to answer this question. Because we live in a world where those committing sexual perversion have become a protected class, certain circles of the church have rushed to accommodate them. The up and coming theory, however anti-intuitive it might be is this- God destroyed Sodom not because it was a city given over to perversion, but because it was a city that failed to exercise hospitality. God’s wrath was poured out not because the men of Sodom, pounding on Lot’s door, wanted to sexually assault the angels, but because the angels were not treated with grace and compassion. It wasn’t what they wanted to take, but what they failed to give.

The more conservative wing of the church, of course, takes an older view, a more intuitive view. The narrative here goes like this- Sodom was a city where sexual perversion had taken such deep root, that when angels came to visit they were viewed as fresh meat. This grave evil that gave birth to this grave crime inspired God’s grave wrath.

While the second view, the more intuitive, the more historical view has more to go for it than the politically correct more modern view, I’m afraid they both seriously miss the point. Yes, the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness. Yes, sexual perversity is both a result of God’s wrath and a provocation of God’s wrath. But a more careful look at the story tells us why Sodom was destroyed. It was destroyed not because of the evil of the unbelievers. It was destroyed because of a lack of a remnant. God destroyed Sodom because of the failure of the church, of the believers.

Remember Abraham’s careful conversation with God, his virtual negotiation for the city of Sodom. Would God spare the city if there were fifty righteous there? Forty-five? Forty? Finally God agrees that He will spare the city for ten. But a mere ten could not be found. Don’t miss though what might have been. This dark and evil city would have been spared had there been but ten righteous people. Despite the perversion, despite the scope of the evil, the city would have been spared for just ten righteous.

We live in a dark and evil land, amongst a dark and evil people. We too, in ourselves, are dark and evil. But we, by His grace, have a righteousness that is not rightly our own. We have a perfect righteousness. And by that, we can be the very reason God might spare our nation, our culture. We plot and we worry about how to take back this institution and that. We strategize and we compromise, that we might earn a place at the world’s table, for the sake of the world. When what we are called to do is to seek first His righteousness and His kingdom. What we are called to do is the right thing.

It is possible to retreat from the battle, and excuse our fear as pursuing personal righteousness. We call this folly pietism. I fear, however, that we are falling off the other side of the horse. Here piety is called pietism, and worldliness called being missional. The mission, however, is piety. Rescue your neighborhood. Rescue your city. Rescue your nation. Rescue those who are caught up in perversion. Rescue the Lots of the church. Do it by seeking His righteousness. Remnants save cities.

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, Ask RC, Big Eva, church, grace, kingdom, post-modernism, RC Sproul JR, repentance, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Poor in Spirit

Posted on January 27, 2023 by RC

The world is full of hypocrites, and the solution to this problem is twofold: If you are more modern, you deal with the gap between your obedience and what you pretend to be by trying harder to be good. You try to make your sin go away. If you are postmodern, you deal with the problem not by trying to do better, by getting rid of your sin, but by getting rid of the idea of sin. If there is no right and wrong, no one can rightly accuse you of acting like you are right when you are actually wrong.

The church is likewise full of hypocrites. Because we claim to be citizens of heaven but are suffused with the world, our solutions often look just like the world’s solutions. We either, if we tend toward the modern, try harder to sin less and shorten the gap between what we pretend to be and what we are. Or, if we tend to be more postmodern, we muddy up God’s law, revel in a soft grace, and accuse our conscience of being a legalist. The Bible’s solution, however, is neither to try to reduce the sin nor to reduce the idea of sin. It is instead to repent. We deal with our hypocrisy, our folly of pretending to be better than we are, by confessing how bad we actually are. We enter more fully into our sin by entering more fully into repentance.

Consider this: How quick are you to repent? If you’re anything like me, you’ve just this moment added several more things to repent of. First, pride. I suspect that you, if you are like me, think yourself a pretty decent repenter. You likely wish that others would learn from your wonderful example and do likewise. Indeed, now that I mention it, you can think of several people that owe you an apology, and aren’t you the one being so gracious about it up until now? Second, lying. I suspect that you, if you are like me, have in thinking all of the above lied to yourself in an egregious way. You are deluded, your delusions springing forth from your deceitful heart like so many dandelions on a spring day. Third, pride again. Here your pride is less about you and more about Jesus. That is, our failure to understand what failures we are is in turn a reflection on the work of Christ. We diminish His work on our behalf when we diminish the scope of our own sin. Fourth, unrepentance. That is, because, like me, you are a bigger sinner than you are willing to face you have not repented for your sins like you ought. You have repented lightly for dark sins.

What should you do? You could get mad at me for pointing this all out. Or, you could repent. You could ask that God would forgive you for thinking too highly of yourself. You could ask that He would empower you to be swift to see your own sins and swift in turn to confess them both to Him and to those that you have wronged. You could ask that you might have earned the right to have etched on your gravestone: “He was quick to repent.” And you could thank God for His provision of His Son so that we can be forgiven. You could ask Him to gently remind you each time you find yourself unhappy about the sins of your family, your neighbors, your fellow parishioners from your church, your parents, your elders, and others that such would be a prompt to you to assess honestly your own weaknesses. That we are sinners is a problem solved by the coming of Jesus the Savior. That we don’t know we are sinners — that is a problem for the Holy Spirit, who convicts and sanctifies.

The answer to every problem, no matter how complex, is simple — repent and believe the gospel. As frustrating as our own blindness might be, the light has come into the world. As maddening as our weaknesses might be, the Sovereign One has come and dwelt among us. As embarrassing as our pride might be, the one who is poor in Spirit has sent the Spirit to lead us into all truth, including the ugly truth about ourselves.

As we consider our calling to seek first the kingdom of God — as we consider how we might make known the reign of Christ — we are quick to judge the world. The coming months are likely to bring more political unrest. Were I a betting man, I would guess in turn that economic hardship will get worse rather than better. We can expect to see more cultural decline. All of which will be for nothing if we do not learn the first lesson — repent and believe. Before we take over the levers of power, before we dominion our way back to prosperity, before we press the crown rights of King Jesus over the culture, may we remember the crown of thorns and repent. And when we have repented, let us repent again for the anemia of our repentance. Then, let us believe that He is at work in us both to do and to will His good pleasure. And all these things will be added unto us.

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Christ Is Lord

Posted on January 26, 2023 by RC

It is ugly out there. We live in a world where money is debt, boys are girls, babies are burdens, libraries are kiddy strip clubs and free speech is considered too expensive. A man is sent packing from the Temple of Consumption, the Mall of America, because his t-shirt says “Jesus Saves.” Newscasters weep on the air over the horror of a hockey player who won’t “wear the ribbon.” The marginalization of conservative evangelicals is racing forward with all the care of the Pamplona bulls and all the speed of a bullet train.

The devil has us just where he wants us, fighting the temptations of a surrender driven by despair or a carnal counter-assault driven by disgust. What in the world should we do? Repent and believe the gospel. We repent for our decades long defense of our own standing, wherein we sacrificed our witness in order to be heard. We repent of seeing the world as a safe, neutral space. We repent for being so dazzled by the bells and whistles at Vanity Fair that we wouldn’t see, just behind the facades the death camps being built. We repent for turning the wanton murder of millions of unborn into a chit in our political negotiations.

We also, however, believe the gospel. We start with believing that we need to repent. We are not in this mess because of the failure of the world. It is simply doing what it has always done. We are here because of the failure of God’s people. We move, in believing the gospel, to rejoicing that He forgives the repentant, because of Jesus and His sacrifice for us. From there we believe the Good News, that Jesus Christ is Lord, that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Him, that our enemies are but paper tigers soon to drown in a lake of fire.

The Pharisees hated Jesus not because He insulted them, nor because He disagreed with them. They hated Him because He was upsetting their patrons, the Roman Empire. Christians were expelled from the synagogues because it wasn’t politically safe for the Pharisees to be seen with them. Before long Christians were being crucified by the thousands, burned alive, their deaths providing entertainment for the patrons of the stadia. Not because they believed in justification alone. Not because they believed in the trinity and the incarnation. Not because they believed the Roman gods to be demons playing dress up. But because they believed Jesus was Lord.

Every bit of cultural decline is both that for which we must repent and that which is part of His sovereign plan, for our good and His glory. Because He reigns. Now.

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