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1c7faf1
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Perhaps the most shockingly transcendent thing about the God we worship is that He is pleased to stoop down to us, to draw near, to know us, love us, walk with us, and call us all by name.
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R.C. Sproul Jr. |
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154cb7f
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It is a profound political reality that Christ now occupies the supreme seat of cosmic authority. The kings of this world and all secular governments may ignore this reality, but they cannot undo it. The universe is no democracy. It is a monarchy. God himself has appointed his beloved Son as the preeminent King. Jesus does not rule by referendum, but by divine right. In the future every knee will bow before him, either willingly or unwillin..
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soverignty-of-god
gospel
secularism
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R.C. Sproul |
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41dff8f
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It is one thing to fall victim to the flood or to fall prey to cancer; it is another thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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R.C. Sproul |
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3948f06
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The promise of God is not that He will never give us more weight than we want to carry. The promise of God is that He will never put more on us than we can bear.
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R.C. Sproul |
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1cde53f
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If there is a secret, a carefully guarded secret, to human happiness, it is that one expressed in a seventeenth-century catechism that says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." The secret to happiness is found in obedience to God. How can we be happy if we are not obedient? How can we be obedient if we do not know what it is we are to obey? Thus the top and the tail of it is that happiness cannot be fully discovere..
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R.C. Sproul |
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3fd822f
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The suffering of the Christian or anyone else in this world is never ultimately an accident. All suffering is within the pale of divine sovereignty. All suffering comes within the broader context of the sovereignty of God.
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suffering
gospel
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R.C. Sproul |
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b0eba21
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How can we love a holy God? The simplest answer I can give to this vital question is that we can't. Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him.
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R.C. Sproul |
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2f36ec1
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The kingdom of God is not our only inheritance. In His last will and testament, Jesus left His heirs something else, something very special: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27)."
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R.C. Sproul |
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b1ae361
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Just as the church needs members with different skills, our world must have various forms of labor, interdependent and thus valuable. A world full of ministers would be without churches, bread for the Lord's Supper, and printed Bibles to read.
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christianity
ministers
economics
theology
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R.C. Sproul Jr. |
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8c593a5
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If you should ever be blessed to be far enough from the cacophony of civilization when a heavy snow falls, you can even hear the very music of the iced dew's delicate descent. It is the repainting of a landscape in a thousand hues of white. It is the dance of the wind.
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R.C. Sproul Jr. |
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bbb0154
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It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God.
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faith
god
christian-faith
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R.C. Sproul |
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d14447b
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I was new Christian. My conversation had been sudden and dramatic, a replica for me of the Damascus Road. My life had been turned upside down,, and I was filled with zeal for the sweetness of Christ. I was consumed with a new passion. To study the Scripture. To learn hoe to pray. To conquer the vices that assaulted my character. To grow in grace. I wanted desperately to make my life count for Christ. My soul was singing, "Lord, I want to be..
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R.C. Sproul |
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f434964
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Those who understand God's sovereignty have joy even in the midst of suffering, a joy reflected on their very faces, for they see that their suffering is not without purpose.
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suffering
providence-of-god
sovereignty-of-god
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R.C. Sproul |
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d482914
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Death frightens us. When we see another person die, we are reminded that we are also mortal, that someday death will come to us. It is a thought we try to push from our minds. We are uncomfortable when another's death rudely intrudes into our lives and reminds us of what we will face at some unknown future date. Death reminds us that we are creatures. Yet as fearsome as death it is, it is nothing compared with meeting a holy God. When we en..
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R.C. Sproul |
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c97e1e0
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Because we are more adult than actually mature, we tend to take our sins and baptize them, dressing them up as spiritual maturity.
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R.C. Sproul Jr. |
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e7f9e2d
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What kind of a concept of God do we have that we would say that God is paralyzed by human choices? If His freedom is limited by our freedom, we are sovereign, not God. No, we are free, but God is even more free. This means that our freedom can never limit God's sovereignty.
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R.C. Sproul |
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009829f
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To be a saint means to be separated. But it means more than that. The saint also is to be involved in a vital process of sanctification. We are to be purified daily in the growing pursuit of holiness. If we are justified, we must also be sanctified.
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R.C. Sproul |
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ae7fcf3
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three stanzas says the same thing: May the Lord bless; may the Lord make His face shine; may the Lord lift up His countenance upon you. The Israelite understood blessedness concretely: to be blessed was to be able to behold the face of God. One could enjoy the blessing only in relative degrees: the closer one got to the ultimate face-to-face relationship, the more blessed he was. Conversely, the farther removed from that face-to-face
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R.C. Sproul |
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78fac02
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It is precisely the presence and help of Christ in times of suffering that makes it possible for us to stand up under pressure.
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R.C. Sproul |
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0f43d30
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The call to delight in our heavenly Father is not one that can be rightly obeyed with bootstrap effort. One cannot grimly determine to rejoice in the grace of God. The only way to rejoice the way David did is to be overcome with emotion. David's joyous dance was true to who he was and true to how he felt about God. It was David becoming like a child, so much so that he insisted on giving in to his willingness, even his eagerness, to become ..
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R.C. Sproul Jr. |
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ae23a76
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We can no more assist the Holy Spirit in the quickening of our souls to spiritual life than Lazarus could help Jesus raise him from the dead.
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regeneration
theology
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R.C. Sproul |
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a6313b9
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Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering.
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R.C. Sproul |
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f2012f9
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Instead of seeing all of this as God's extraordinary grace, we come to expect the comfort and joys that God gives us as the baseline, the measure of what we believe to be our due. When our comfort level drops below our expectations, we are shocked and angered, and even foolishly express our outrage to God Himself.
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R.C. Sproul Jr. |
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96fb301
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The tongue is a restless evil, full o deadly poison. This was the realization of Isaiah. He recognized that he was not alone in his dilemma. He understood that the whole nation was infected with dirty mouths: "I live among a people of unclean lips." in the flash of the moment Isaiah had a new radical understanding of sin. He saw that is was pervasive, in him and in everyone else."
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R.C. Sproul |
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b40f874
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What accounts for Luther's behavior? One things is certain: Whatever defense mechanisms normal people have to mute the accusing voice of conscience, Luther was lacking.
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R.C. Sproul |
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4723fd9
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Was Luther crazy? Perhaps. But if he was, our prayer is that God would send to this earth an epidemic of such insanity that we too may taste of the righteousness that is by faith alone.
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R.C. Sproul |
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db360ce
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Together my wife and I are building the kingdom of God, exercising dominion, beating back the weeds of stinky dippers, tending the garden God has put us in. This is why my dear wife vacuums the floor, for it is part of the garden she has been called to dress and to keep. But she is doing this not as raw duty, but because she understands that she is exercising dominion over the dust, for the glory of Christ.
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homemaking
tending-the-garden
vision-for-the-home
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R.C. Sproul Jr. |
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e5dff3c
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To suffer as a Christian carries no shame. Peter concludes: "Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator" (1 Peter 4:19). Here, Peter erases all doubt about the question of whether it is ever the will of God that we should suffer. He speaks of those who suffer "according to the will of God." This text means that suffering itself is part of the sovereign will o..
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R.C. Sproul |
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0e3d2dd
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Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15)."
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R.C. Sproul |
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72db21c
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We are not really surprised that God has redeemed us. Somewhere deep inside, in the secret chambers of our hearts, we harbor the notion that God owes us His mercy. Heaven would not be quite the same if we were excluded from it. We know that we are sinners, but we are surely not as bad as we could be. There are enough redeeming features to our personalities that if God is really just, He will include us in salvation. What amazes us is justic..
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R.C. Sproul |
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822b9de
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Jesus endured His suffering in order to redeem His people. But those He redeemed are not thereby delivered from all pain and misery. Indeed, as we shall see, we His people are called to participate in His suffering.
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R.C. Sproul |
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1138f83
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Jesus suffered so deeply because the extent of evil in the world is so vast. Every consequence of every sin of each one of His people was placed on Him. To carry this dreadful burden was His vocation. To bear this pain and disease was His mission. The magnitude of this horror is beyond our understanding. But He understood it because it was His to bear. Jesus endured His suffering in order to redeem His people. But those He redeemed are not ..
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R.C. Sproul |
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4d98d74
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Everyone has the right to do his own thing. This slogan is as crass as it is silly. If it were followed by everyone resolutely, society itself would be an impossibility. No one would have any true rights protected, because it at any given moment my rights could trample your rights
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R.C. Sproul |
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316bcf8
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If there is a secret, a carefully guarded secret, to human happiness, it is that one expressed in a seventeenth-century catechism that says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." The secret to happiness is found in obedience to God."
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R.C. Sproul |
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53e7705
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The journey has but one guarantee: Christ promises to go with us and to bring us out the other side. Our Lord finishes what He starts. He does not abort His handiwork in the middle of its creation. He does not leave us staring at walking trees.
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R.C. Sproul |
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6ea673f
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Sanctification is a process. It is a gradual process. Run for your life from those who promise you instant sanctification.
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R.C. Sproul |
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9468a8b
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The kingdom of God is not of the people, by the people, or for the people. It is a kingdom ruled by a King, and God does not rule by the consent of His subjects but by His sovereign authority. His reign extends over me whether I vote for Him or not. 'The
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R.C. Sproul |
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59da736
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If we are unconverted, one thing is absolutely certain: We hate God.
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R.C. Sproul |
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b0858c5
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When you struggle with your faith, when you face the dark night of the soul, when you are not sure of where you stand with the things of God, flee to the Scriptures. It is from those pages that God the Holy Spirit will speak to you, minister to your soul, and strengthen the faith that He gave to you in the first place.
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R.C. Sproul |
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6f2fbdf
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The Spirit inspired the Word when it originally was written. Today, He uses it to illumine us, and He applies it to our souls and hearts.
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R.C. Sproul |
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f932a2a
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Kung asks the right question. The issue is not why does God punish sin but why does He permit the ongoing human rebellion?
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R.C. Sproul |
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98a3fdf
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Jacob's Ladder represents a bridge between Jacob's secular mindset to make it in this world and the reality of Heavenly things.
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R.C. Sproul |
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960649f
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Dominion is all about conquest; that's what we're made for. Men live for a cause, and this is the cause-the crusade to which we have been called-to make manifest the reign of Jesus Christ.
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R.C. Sproul Jr. |
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54af758
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We break our promises to one another. We break our promises to God. But God never breaks His promises to us.
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R.C. Sproul |