I expected it to be Billy Graham. Living in his 100th year, I expected news to come that he had gone on to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was preparing myself for it. Instead it turned out to be R. C. Sproul. Only minutes ago my son texted me with the news that R. C. had gone first to be with his and our Lord and Savior. I wasn't prepared for that.
I have a stack of Tabletalk monthly devotional magazines two feet high in my basement. Our last Tabletalk came Saturday. I have an old VHS capable television set up in a spare room, the only purpose of which is to watch R. C. Sproul's old teaching tapes. R. C. has meant more to me in my Christian walk than any other minister. I just checked my past posts and have referenced him dozens of times....just about always giving the Ligonier web address at the end.
R. C. was born and raised here in Pittsburgh, a few miles from where I was raised. Educated in America and in Europe, many Christians in Pittsburgh do not know that he first went to Westminster College just north of here. I don't even think that Westminster College realizes that the greatest teacher of Christianity in the entire world for the last fifty years is an alumnus.
If by chance you have never heard R. C. Sproul preach or teach or read any of his books....please take advantage of this sad news and visit Ligonier Ministeries even right now at ligonier.org. I picked just one of the posts where I mentioned R. C. to add here. It's from earlier this summer.
Count The Cost
One of the failures of today's evangelicalism is that we fail to mention the cost of discipleship when we evangelize and I have been guilty of this as much as anyone. I put a couple thousand miles on our vehicle recently and that usually means listening to a few more sermons from R. C. Sproul than I usually do. I had to go back into his archives a little bit to find one that I had not heard and I'll give you easy directions to listen to it at the end of this post. Need I add that what you will hear will be eons in wisdom and knowledge beyond what I can type out? I'll write this post as if addressed to someone who is seriously inquiring about his eternal soul and the gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm only going to address the issue at hand.
You have close friends....maybe you have a wife and children....maybe even grown children. If your plans are in just joining into fellowship of a church because it's something that you think that you should probably do...don't worry about the cost of discipleship. You may annoy a person or two, and you may even offend someone, but you probably won't find that there is a quantifiable cost to you involved in your decision to become a Christian.
Your parents....whom you deeply love...may show deep disappointment in you. R. C. had this happen to him with his mother, and I experienced the same thing. It's very difficult and in my case it turned out to be decades of praying for wisdom in presenting the gospel to her and asking for forgiveness for the times that I felt that I failed miserably.
A good friend will stay your friend but you will either let him alone in his life without Christ or you will try again and again to present the gospel to him and find that although you are still friends you really don't have much to talk about anymore. Still, unless your parents disown you and all your friends avoid you like the plague then this also does not appear on the cost ledger.
Doctrine does come with a cost. The word doctrine is simply a biblical truth that often is not simple! If you stay with the basics then there will be little to no cost to you. Do you have a serious hobby? Most people do. Is there something you have worked at for years and you excel at? Maybe your a scratch golfer? I was a scratch golfer....I'd hit the ball and have to scratch my head but maybe you actually know how to play the game? If you apply yourself to the Word of God in like manner then it will most likely cost you. You may have to leave the church that you love. Other .....Christians may consider you divisive.
These are really minor costs compared to what others have paid. Your wife may wind up leaving you. Your kids may hardly ever bring the grand kids over. I've witnessed these things with friends. We have all read stories in the news where Christians lost their business or their livelihood because of their Christian faith while every one of us should never allow much time to pass without thinking about and praying for Christians around this world whose cost to them was their lives or their families.
These words were brief and not very profound. My intention was not to make a list of things that will cost you but rather to point out that we fail to mention any costs at all as we ....'share the gospel.' This sets the person in question up for some rude awakenings that may result in their abandoning their faith. This also adds enormously to an American church filled with people who stop short of even considering the cost of discipleship.
I really cannot just give directions to R. C. Sproul as a post. I have to at least describe what I'm trying to lead you to. And I've done that....so please consider listening to this sermon to straighten out what I may have brought confusion to.
Ligonier.org
Click on 'learn' at the top of the page
Scroll down and click on 'sermons'
Scroll down again and go to the 'next' page and 'The Cost Of Discipleship' is about half way down.
I have a stack of Tabletalk monthly devotional magazines two feet high in my basement. Our last Tabletalk came Saturday. I have an old VHS capable television set up in a spare room, the only purpose of which is to watch R. C. Sproul's old teaching tapes. R. C. has meant more to me in my Christian walk than any other minister. I just checked my past posts and have referenced him dozens of times....just about always giving the Ligonier web address at the end.
R. C. was born and raised here in Pittsburgh, a few miles from where I was raised. Educated in America and in Europe, many Christians in Pittsburgh do not know that he first went to Westminster College just north of here. I don't even think that Westminster College realizes that the greatest teacher of Christianity in the entire world for the last fifty years is an alumnus.
If by chance you have never heard R. C. Sproul preach or teach or read any of his books....please take advantage of this sad news and visit Ligonier Ministeries even right now at ligonier.org. I picked just one of the posts where I mentioned R. C. to add here. It's from earlier this summer.
Count The Cost
One of the failures of today's evangelicalism is that we fail to mention the cost of discipleship when we evangelize and I have been guilty of this as much as anyone. I put a couple thousand miles on our vehicle recently and that usually means listening to a few more sermons from R. C. Sproul than I usually do. I had to go back into his archives a little bit to find one that I had not heard and I'll give you easy directions to listen to it at the end of this post. Need I add that what you will hear will be eons in wisdom and knowledge beyond what I can type out? I'll write this post as if addressed to someone who is seriously inquiring about his eternal soul and the gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm only going to address the issue at hand.
You have close friends....maybe you have a wife and children....maybe even grown children. If your plans are in just joining into fellowship of a church because it's something that you think that you should probably do...don't worry about the cost of discipleship. You may annoy a person or two, and you may even offend someone, but you probably won't find that there is a quantifiable cost to you involved in your decision to become a Christian.
Your parents....whom you deeply love...may show deep disappointment in you. R. C. had this happen to him with his mother, and I experienced the same thing. It's very difficult and in my case it turned out to be decades of praying for wisdom in presenting the gospel to her and asking for forgiveness for the times that I felt that I failed miserably.
A good friend will stay your friend but you will either let him alone in his life without Christ or you will try again and again to present the gospel to him and find that although you are still friends you really don't have much to talk about anymore. Still, unless your parents disown you and all your friends avoid you like the plague then this also does not appear on the cost ledger.
Doctrine does come with a cost. The word doctrine is simply a biblical truth that often is not simple! If you stay with the basics then there will be little to no cost to you. Do you have a serious hobby? Most people do. Is there something you have worked at for years and you excel at? Maybe your a scratch golfer? I was a scratch golfer....I'd hit the ball and have to scratch my head but maybe you actually know how to play the game? If you apply yourself to the Word of God in like manner then it will most likely cost you. You may have to leave the church that you love. Other .....Christians may consider you divisive.
These are really minor costs compared to what others have paid. Your wife may wind up leaving you. Your kids may hardly ever bring the grand kids over. I've witnessed these things with friends. We have all read stories in the news where Christians lost their business or their livelihood because of their Christian faith while every one of us should never allow much time to pass without thinking about and praying for Christians around this world whose cost to them was their lives or their families.
These words were brief and not very profound. My intention was not to make a list of things that will cost you but rather to point out that we fail to mention any costs at all as we ....'share the gospel.' This sets the person in question up for some rude awakenings that may result in their abandoning their faith. This also adds enormously to an American church filled with people who stop short of even considering the cost of discipleship.
I really cannot just give directions to R. C. Sproul as a post. I have to at least describe what I'm trying to lead you to. And I've done that....so please consider listening to this sermon to straighten out what I may have brought confusion to.
Ligonier.org
Click on 'learn' at the top of the page
Scroll down and click on 'sermons'
Scroll down again and go to the 'next' page and 'The Cost Of Discipleship' is about half way down.
NOTE: These directions are from this past summer. You would have to search deeper to find the sermon today.
