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RTS 2024 Generosity Report

Many of our Reformed Theological Seminary friends and supporters have probably been receiving the RTS 2024 Generosity Report that was just recently mailed out. It is a testimony to God’s generous provision and to the faithful, sacrificial giving of thousands of our partners. We give thanks for what the Lord has supplied, what he has enabled us to do, and indeed what he has given us the privilege to do for him, for the church, this last year. Below are just a few of the highlights. In 2024, RTS donors contributed $12.9 million to RTS, supporting 2,038 students, and enabling them to take…

Ten Principles for Christian Giving (Part 1)

Very often people ask or wonder “what are the basic biblical principles for Christian giving?” As we seek God's answer to that question and contemplate our own giving to the Lord's Church in response to the clear teaching of His Word, perhaps it would be wise and helpful to review those principles. First, I would encourage you to read the following passages in the Word of God itself: Matthew 6:1-4; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8:9-15; and 2 Corinthians 9:6-7. In our review of these four New Testament passages, we find at least Ten Principles for Christian Giving: The Lord Jesus expects and requires us to give.Jesus said to his disciples, “when you give” not “if you give” (Matthew 6:2)! Hence, Christian giving is not optional, but rather…

Those Who Led You

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We’re going to be looking today at just verse 7. This might be called, “Finishing-Well Sunday.” I was telling the elders just before we came in that by my calculations I’ve been able to have the privilege of serving the Lord’s Supper in this congregation along with them 137 times in the last seventeen years. And this will be my 138th and last as your pastor, though I trust the Lord will give us many opportunities to commune together in the years to come. And one of our ruling elders emeritus said to me a few weeks ago, “Ligon, sometime in your last few months with us would you preach on finishing well?” Well that’s actually the topic of Hebrews 13:7 and it’s also going to be the…

How Faithfulness Looks at the End

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 4. We’re going to look at Paul’s last written words to Timothy. Now these aren’t Paul’s last words to Timothy because in this very passage we learn that Timothy is going to see Paul again. But this is the last letter of Paul to his young mentee, Timothy, a man that he views as a son in the Lord and who looks us to him as a father in the faith. And in these words, we do find, as Denny Terry reminded us tonight, Paul in a very difficult situation. And that is an encouraging thing for us to think about as we think about how we finish the Christian life. I mentioned to you this morning, I think in the second service, that one of our ruling elders emeritus had asked me a number of weeks ago,…

Don’t Fall in Love with Money

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me again to Hebrews chapter 13. We’re going to be looking at verses 5 and 6. Now already scanning the congregation, I note a number of people who are here tonight who were not here this morning, so if those who were here this morning will bear with me for just a very brief moment I’ll remind everybody to look back to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 1 and allow your eyes to run down all the way through verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 and get the…

Honor Marriage

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We’re going to be looking at the fourth verse today, but before we look at that verse I want to ask you to look back to Hebrews 13:1 and follow your eyes down the page to verse 4 and actually go farther to verse 5 so that you understand the flow of thought. The author of Hebrews is telling us how to live the Christian life. Much like the apostle Paul in the first eleven chapters of the book of Romans tells…

The Reformed Doctrine of Baptism & New Testament…

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Colossians chapter 2, Colossians chapter 2. We will begin reading in verse 8. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and…

Covenant in Hebrews

As we have already mentioned, Hebrews has more occurrences of diatheke than in the rest of the New Testament. This relative prominence of the covenant conception in Hebrews may be attributed to the authors’ preoccupation with the comparison with the old and with the new religious systems of Judaism and Christianity. I mean it is natural that you would revert to the covenant concept to help you describe the distinctives of the era brought about by the advent of Christ. In Hebrews 7:22,…

Covenant in the Synoptics, Acts and Pauline Writings

We have already looked at definitions of covenant and we have, or definitions of diatheke and berith, and the arguments over that translational controversy. And we have looked at one passage in the New Testament in some detail, the passage in Hebrew 9, which is difficult to translate. Many Bible translations will start in 9:15, with the word covenant, and they will switch to testament and then back to covenant again by the time they get to verse 18. But we have really not done a New…

The Davidic Covenant

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to 2 Samuel 7. We are going to rapidly overview to the Davidic Covenant and especially the establishment of the house of David in II Samuel 7 The Davidic Covenant Robertson says that the climax of the Old Covenant is found in the coming of the kingdom in David’s day. When the king sits on his throne, the kingdom has come. That principle holds true for both the Old and the New Covenant eras. To understand this, we will first…