Surviving Incredulity World: Why What We Don’t Know Hurts Us

Posted on February 26, 2026 by RC

Lies are a double-edged sword. Not only are they designed to get us to believe things that are not true, but they encourage us to not believe things that are true. Every lie borrows its credibility from some other truth. Which then loses its credibility. Tell your friend his coogie sweater looks great. Then tell him the bridge is out just around the corner. If he’s smart enough to know the first is a lie, he’s apt to believe the second is a lie. You spared his feelings, but caused his death. Such is the work of the Father of Lies.

I remain utterly dumbfounded not only that Democrats and their PR team, the mainstream media, tried to convince us that Joe Biden was mentally sound. The only thing more shocking is that any one of them would at this point be believed about anything. Ever. By anyone. Ever.

Nor is this the only example. Every COVID lie that had no argument in its defense save the mantra, “Believe the science” makes every scientific claim now suspect. If “the science” told us whole nations would be underwater by the year 2000, if “the science” told us Wuhan lab had nothing to do with COVID, then “the science” is a donkey. We have been inundated with a tsunami of lies that would make the devil himself blush.

Which feeds an apocalyptic skepticism. Not skepticism about the apocalypse, but a skepticism that is apocalyptic in its devastation. We are overdrawn in trust, sitting on a 38 trillion foot mountain of disbelief. As I type, the President’s State of the Union address is just hours away. He will not only say things that are not true, but will say things he knows are not true. He will say things we who generally stand in his corner will know are not true.

Then, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger will get her chance to do the same for the blue team. It is not true that the problem rests solely with the left wing. It’s not even true that the problem is contained within the confines of the swamp. Hollywood lies. Wall Street lies. The internet lies. And we now find ourselves unwilling or unable to believe even the truths we are being shown. We’re Charlie Brown resolutely refusing to try to kick the football. We won’t get fooled again.

In such times believers have much to be thankful for. We have a message to us that is true in all that it affirms. A message that is true we are called to proclaim to those living in a world of lies. We have an absolutely trustworthy Father above us. The One who is the truth intercedes for us. The Spirit of Truth indwells us. We have our old man to wrestle with, to be sure. But by His grace we are on the Truth Team.

Let us cherish this blessing, and live without fear. We not only know the truth, but the Truth knows us, and loves us now and forever.

*Oops, they did it again. USA Today ran this headline post State of the Union- “Trump claimed gas is under $2. What’s the real price?” Did he though? No, he did not. Weirdly, the article itself acknowledges he didn’t, but feared people might be confused by what he said. So they “clarified” with a lying headline. How helpful of them.

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Sacred Marriage; Sovereign Grace; State of the Communion

Posted on February 25, 2026 by RC

The body of Christ, the bride of Christ and more on today’s podcast, hot off the presses and made especially for you.

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Gently Restore: The Lost Art of Biblical Correction

Posted on February 24, 2026 by RC

The devil, I suspect, delights to play both sides against the middle. He encourages God’s people to careen into the ditch on one side of the road. Then he encourages corrective measures that lead to others of God’s people careening into the ditch on the other side.

We live in an age where the greater weakness in the church is a reluctance to make affirmations. Whether on issues either of theology or morals. The mass of evangelicals have drunk deep of the world’s postmodern conceits. Thus we think it simple kindness to never mention the grievous sins or heresies of our professing brothers and sisters.

Then there’s the rest of us. We know not only the difference between right and wrong, true and false, but the importance of differences. We consider ourselves heroic, pushing against the cultural tide in denouncing our spiritual siblings. The Bible, however, calls us to something different,

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself (Galatians 6:1-3).

When we correct our brothers, and we of course are called to do so, encouraging one another toward righteousness, no one, I suspect, objects to the idea that we think we are right and our brother wrong. After all, if there’s a disagreement then our brother likewise thinks we are wrong. What upsets the applecart is when there is disagreement, and I not only think I am right, but think I am better. How quick we are to consider a wrong idea to be a grave moral failure. We do this, I’m pretty sure, because we’re foolish enough to think that our correct doctrine is the surest sign of our moral superiority.

A spirit of gentleness, as the text above suggests, is grounded in a deep grasp of this most foundational moral and theological principle, “There but for the grace of God go I.” It is a false humility that argues we are all on the same plane. It is a false pride that thinks the difference is grounded in us.

This follows from the text. Who are the spiritual ones? When a man is overtaken in a trespass, how do we know whom to send? Are the spiritual ones the ones with the most impressive theological library? The ones with the most honorable advanced degrees? No, the spiritual ones who should be called in are recognized precisely because they exhibit a spirit of gentleness, who recognize that they might also be tempted, that aren’t deceived into thinking they are all that and a bag of chips.

Reformation did, does and always will mean bringing correction. And it will always be destructive when driven by a spirit of pride. The One whose image we are being re-formed into never breaks the bruised reed, nor extinguishes the smoldering wick. Let us learn from Him.

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No Study Tonight

Posted on February 23, 2026 by RC

We will not be meeting tonight for our Truth You Can Count On Study tonight. God willing we’ll be back next week.

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Is it a sin to be wealthy? Prosperity and Providence

Posted on February 23, 2026 by RC

No. One can certainly get wealthy by sinning. One can certainly sin while being wealthy. But it is surely not a sin to be wealthy. Though few are so crass as to express this sentiment, it nevertheless often reveals itself, ironically among the wealthy. Wealth, remember, is a relative term. Most of us like to think of ourselves as somewhere safely in the middle. But I suspect 99% of you reading this are in the 1% of the wealthiest humans to walk the planet.

Wealth, like wine, is a blessing from God that can be misused. Prosperity can bring with it a bevy of temptations peculiar to it. One temptation common to many of God’s blessings is that we forget they are God’s blessings. That is, we lose sight of the Giver of the gift in loving the gift. Every good gift, however, should be seen as a window through which we behold the grace and the beauty of the Giver. Wealth has this added danger- it can encourage us to lose sight of our dependence of God. See Proverbs 30.

Which brings us to how to rightly respond to the gift of wealth. First, give thanks, knowing that it comes from the hand of God. Were we to recognize we are all in the 1% we’d push back against the envy that crushes gratitude. We see wealth as wicked because we think it’s something other people have that we don’t. But to 99% of those who ever lived, we are the other people.

Second, recognize that we are but stewards of what God has given us. Better yet, recognize that you are the steward of what God has given you, and I am the steward of what God has given me. Sometimes we use the truth that we are stewards of what is God’s as a pretext to judge how others handle what God has given them. We think this one shouldn’t have such a big house but should be financing missions, and that one shouldn’t have such fine clothes but should be supporting the local soup kitchen. How prone we are to pride ourselves into thinking we could steward the money God gave the other guy to care for than he does.

We can debate on the requirements God makes of His stewards, whether the tithe is still binding, to whom it should go, gross or net. What we must not do is add to God’s requirements. Nor subtract from them. That is, not only is it not a sin to enjoy the wealth God has given you, it is likely a sin to not enjoy it.

God commands His people in Deuteronomy 14:26- “And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.”

Which means the key is gratitude, not how much or how little we have been given to steward. We need not repent of our wealth. We likely need to repent for our failure to recognize it, and give thanks to the Giver. Wealth is no more proof of greed than poverty is proof of laziness. Work hard. Remember your dependence. Give thanks. And enjoy.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Ask RC, Biblical Doctrines, Devil's Arsenal, Economics in This Lesson, ethics, grace, kingdom, politics, proverbs, RC Sproul JR, wisdom, work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Learning from the Master, Not From Our “Masters”

Posted on February 20, 2026 by RC

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” “If you can read this, thank a teacher.” Such is the wisdom one can expect to find on a car’s bumper. Wisdom, however, is found in God’s Word, which, surprisingly, says not a peep about “education.” Yet it does call us to seek wisdom. Even as it calls us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It speaks of truth, and it speaks this truth — that Jesus is the truth that sets us free.

We, once upon a time, understood education to be that which both grounds us and sets us free. It has now become that which sets us loose and costs us everything. And all because we serve the false god of mammon. Consider first how a modern, or should I say a postmodern, education sets us loose. As Allan Bloom taught in The Closing of the American Mind, our universities fervently affirm there’s no truth and no right and wrong. Ninety-eight percent of all incoming college freshman enter the hallowed halls persuaded of relativism.

Over the course of four years, that assumption is systematically entrenched. Thus, students walk away from their college educations utterly adrift. But they are not free from another perspective. Students pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for the privilege of learning the truth that there is no truth to learn. They walk away slaves to debt.

Why would anyone make such a trade? Foolishness. We’ve learned that a college education is key to a well-paying job or to a better graduate school. Which in turn is the key to a well-paying job. We need a well-paying job so that we can afford either private education or to live in the “good” school district. So our children can get into the best colleges, so that they can get into the best graduate schools. They can then, in turn, make the money to keep the process going for our grandchildren. I call this “hell’s hamster wheel,” and it is time for all of us to get off.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with learning a set of skills that increases our productivity. Studying a trade or a profession can be a good and healthy thing, a tool toward fulfilling the dominion mandate. We did not, however, originally create the university for this purpose.

Education once aspired to be “liberal.” Liberal in this context isn’t intended as a political designation for those who desiring a more intrusive state. Neither does it describe theological liberalism, which denies the truthfulness of God’s Word. Instead, liberal here refers to the liberty of the graduate. We equip a liberally educated person not for a mere job but to think God’s thoughts after Him. To see His world as He would have us.

A free man, for instance, is not prone to accepting the status quo. He doesn’t assume four years down at the state university is an undiluted good. A free man is not given to buying into a deadly nostalgia that assumes his alma mater hasn’t changed in the twenty-five years since he went there. A free man rejects the wildly implausible notion that sending his son or daughter off to Vanity Fair for four or more years is a great way to bless his heirs.

Free men are wise enough not to buy into the lottery-like unspoken pitch that if you don’t spend a hundred thousand dollars on an “education,” your child will starve. A free man thinks deliberately about his own future and the future of his children. He finds wisdom where God keeps it, not in the knowledge of the experts but in the simplicity of the Bible.

Fathers, I understand, worry. A sound, biblical education may prepare children for heaven, but how will they live? Steeping our children, as they prepare to enter adulthood, in God’s Word will surely feed their souls and adorn them with beauty, but how will they find food, clothing, and shelter? We are not the first to struggle with such worries. Nor are we likely to be the last.

Jesus says, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:31–33).

Jesus’ truth here must set me free. May I never lose sight of the truth that our daily bread, to mix a metaphor, is the fruit of God’s provision through hard work. It is not the result of my wisdom in pursuing specialized training. Better still, may I be free enough to know that I am, with my children, a slave of Jesus Christ. He, and not the priests of higher education, is my Master. Such means that I am free.

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What Have You Told Them? A Thought Experiment

Posted on February 19, 2026 by RC

Imagine, if you would, that you know something immeasurably important. Then, imagine that you have been charged with the task of telling as many people as possible about this immeasurably important thing that you know. The one who gave you this charge has warned you that many will not only not like the message, but won’t like you if you deliver it. They’ve even been known to kill people who told others this message.

This next part won’t be too difficult to imagine. Imagine you like you. Not that you think you’re all that. It’s just that you like to see yourself happy, healthy, and well-liked. If that’s the case, and I suspect it is, you might face this temptation- to gather a crowd. You might zero in on the “as many people as possible” part of your assignment. Or at least you might start there. Eventually, you reason, you’ll get around to the message.

You notice, however, that, well short of delivering the message, any time you get even in the neighborhood of the message, your crowd not only shrinks, but many of them turn against you. As long, however, as you deliver a message that doesn’t offend your audience, your audience continues to grow. In fact, many of them grow to love you. Some of them even want to be like you.

So you teach them how to gather a crowd. The message, after all, is supposed to be delivered to as many people as possible. You warn them about what happens when you say things the crowd isn’t eager to hear, how they get mad, start hating you, and leave. This person you’ve trained has gathered a big crowd, and joined you in training others to do the same.

Soon there is an army of crowd gatherers. You all share your crowd gathering ideas with each other, what works and what doesn’t. You throw parties for those who have gathered the biggest crowds. Books are written. Conferences are held. Alliances are formed. You are a member in good standing of the crowd gatherer crowd.

Now suppose that the boss shows up. You get the memo he’ll be arriving soon. Everyone goes all out to gather the biggest crowd ever, to show the boss what a great job you’ve done. You drive him down to local gathering place, and pull up to your reserved parking space. A grin covers your face as the boss takes in the gathering crowd, pouring into the gathering place. You explain that the little ones have their own gatherings within the building. Then you talk about how much the crowd loves the band that plays each week. You show him all the events.

Your heart begins to race as the band heats up. The gathering is swaying to the beat, eyes focused in the distance. Your team’s logo hangs from the building’s cross beams, shrouded in fog. There isn’t an empty seat in the house. Indeed there are multiple gathering places where you are streamed, you explain.

The boss, however, has just one question for you as you stand to make your way onto the podium- “But what have you told them?”

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This week’s Truth You Can Count On Bible Study

Posted on February 18, 2026 by RC

“What is truth?” Pilate asked. Too often believers ask the same. In this study we dive into the encounter between Pilate and the Truth, wondering if we would have done any better. Check it out.

Posted in apologetics, assurance, Bible Study, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, philosophy, politics, post-modernism, RC Sproul JR, theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Moses’ Mom; Tariff Toppling Tariffs; Battling Believers

Posted on February 18, 2026 by RC

Lisa and I discuss the faith and courage of Jochabed, Moses’ Mom. I consider the case for tariffs as a means to tear down tariffs, remember the prophet Ezekiel and explore the dynamics of church politics. If that’s not sufficient reason to tune in, I don’t know what is.

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in 10 Commandments, Big Eva, church, Economics in This Lesson, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, politics, prophets, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The One Point Sermon: All Jesus All The Time

Posted on February 17, 2026 by RC

Our calling is to preach the whole counsel of God, and to do that, we have to preach the whole counsel of God.

But there is still more to it. Systematic theology reminds us that the Bible is one book. Indeed, because the God who wrote it is one (Deut. 6:4), it is likewise one. We cannot and must not pit one passage against another. John 3:16 neither trumps nor can be trumped by John 3:3. Neither, however, can John 3:16 trump or be trumped by Psalm 14:3.

In order to preach a passage rightly, it must be preached in context. Context, however, isn’t simply the verse or chapter before and after but the totality of the Word of God. Thus, when we preach a particular passage, if we do it well, we actually are preaching the whole counsel of God. We preach the whole Bible every time we preach any passage of the Bible. We cannot rightly explain the love of God without including an understanding of the wrath of God. In like manner, we cannot rightly explain the wrath of God if we do not include the love of God.

How can we capture the whole counsel of the Lord without swallowing the entire day of the Lord? It’s hard enough to preach one small passage without having various notifications chiming away to let us know folks might miss their tee time without having at the same time to preach the whole Bible.

The solution comes when we remember that we not only ought to preach the passages as they come and that we not only ought to teach the whole of the Bible whenever we preach any of the Bible, but that we must always preach Christ and Him crucified. This, however, isn’t the third point in this written sermon on sermons. Instead, it subsumes the other two points. That is, there is one hobby horse we must never dismount or allow ourselves to be bucked from. The one message that all the Bible proclaims, from cover to cover, is the story of Jesus Christ.

Thus, when Paul boldly declared that he would preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified, he did not mean that all of his sermons would be taken from the last pages of the gospels. Paul was certainly familiar with the end of the gospel of Luke, where we find the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Our tendency when we come to this passage is to look at it in the context of the hidden Jesus. That is, we want to understand how it was that Jesus was not recognized and how He seemingly disappeared. What ought to fascinate us, however, is the glimpse we are given of the revealed Jesus.

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus gave the one sermon above all others that I would like to have heard. Beginning with Moses, we are told, Jesus explained all of the Old Testament. Here was an Old Testament survey lecture given by the Master Himself. But the great thing about this sermon wasn’t so much that it explained the Old Testament, but that it explained Jesus. That is, Jesus preached rightly. As we are told, He “expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

The book of Genesis then, isn’t ultimately only the story of the Creation or of the patriarchs. It is also the story of Jesus. The book of Exodus doesn’t exist merely so that we would understand how God’s people came to the Promised Land, but also so that we would understand the Promised One. The book of Leviticus isn’t simply a collection of arcane rules regarding sacrifices. It is also an exposition of the Ruler over all things who is our one sacrifice. The book of Esther, we are told, doesn’t even mention God’s name. But it, too, if we would rightly understand it, speaks of God’s Son.

Of course we weren’t there. We didn’t hear that sermon. But we know at least this much, that the story was all about Jesus.

In the church where I serve, we find it rather easy to remember to preach Christ and Him crucified. We remember to do this because every week we remember to remember after the sermon. That is, we preach not only the text, not only the whole of the Bible, not only Christ and Him crucified, but we preach also the table. After we hear the Word preached, we eat and we drink the Word visible.

One of the advantages of celebrating the table of the Lord every week is that it reminds us of what it is we are to preach. The table, which without the preaching of the Word would just be a table, adorns the preaching of the Word, adding a means of grace to the means of grace of preaching.

Even after the preaching of the Word, we must labor not to forget how and why we have preached. Though it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like, from time to time a congregant will greet me after the service and say, “That was a great sermon, pastor.” I always respond by saying, “I get to preach a great Gospel.” It is for this reason that our fathers were known to place on their pulpits this written reminder of the very purpose of preaching: “Sirs, we would see Jesus.” May we honor those fathers in our sermons, and better still, honor the Jesus whom they preached.

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