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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…

I Love the Lord because

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Psalm 116 as we continue to make our way through the fifth book of the psalms. This psalm is the personal tribute of a person who has experienced an overwhelming answer to prayer and it supplies us words to pray and to praise with when we can't find the words we need to lift up to the Lord in gratitude for the answers that He has given to us in prayer. If I were to outline the psalm for you, it would go something like this. In the first two verses, you have an overarching resolution that the psalmist makes. He declares his love to God and his determination to pray without ceasing as long as he lives. And so there's an overarching resolution that's made in the first two verses. And then after that, the psalm breaks…

Before Herod and Pilate

The Lord's Day Morning October 16, 2011 “Before Herod and Pilate” Luke 23:6-25 The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 23. We’re going to be looking at verses 6 to 25 together. I would invite you, as you’re turning there, to look immediately prior to this section that we're going to read, and then just a little bit after it. You’ll notice that the passage is going to begin with the words, “When Pilate heard this,” which should make you wonder, “What is it that Pilate heard that led him to do what he does in the rest of that sentence and brief paragraph?” And if you’ll look back just a couple of verses, you’ll see what it is that he heard. In verse 5 of Luke 23 you read that the body of…

Non Nobis Domine (Not to Us, O Lord)

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Psalm 115. As we read this psalm together tonight, I want to point out several parts of the passage as we look through it. The opening declaration of the psalm is the destination to which the psalm is going even though it is stated out front. Now how do I make that argument? Because of what it said in verse 2. In the second verse, we have a taunt from the unbelieving nations against Israel, and that is the context for this psalm. Times are hard in Israel, and the opening word of giving praise to God for victory is where the psalmist wants the people of God to get to but they’re not there now. Right now, they’re being mocked by pagans and they’re beings asked, “Where is their God?” Now the third to the eighth verses…

Are You the King of the Jews?

The Lord's Day Morning October 9, 2011 “Are You the King of the Jews?” Luke 23:1-5 The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 23. We’ll be looking at verses 1 to 5 this morning as we continue through the gospel of Luke. I'd invite you also, as you’re turning there to Luke 23:1-5, to allow your eyes to look back to verses 66 to 71 of Luke 22. Those verses contain the account that Luke gives of Jesus before the…

Skipping Mountians and Fleeing Seas

If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Psalm 114. This psalm is a remarkable recounting of the redemption of God, of His people, in the exodus. And it's marked by exuberance. I dare say that the exuberance of the text of this psalm is every bit the match for Miriam and the women on the shores of the Red Sea. If you look at the two poems which are sung on that occasion or the song that's sung on that occasion and compare it to this psalm, you’ll see the same kind of exuberant…

Beaten and Questioned

The Lord's Day Morning October 2, 2011 “Beaten and Questioned” Luke 22:63-71 The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 22. We’ll be reading from the sixty-third verse to the end of the chapter as we continue to work our way through the gospel together. Luke is showing us the mistreatment that Jesus endured during the night in anticipation of His trial before the Sanhedrin in the very early morning hours. And…

There’s No One Like Him

As we continue our way through the fifth book of the Psalms, I'd invite you to turn with me to Psalm 113. This psalm is a part of a set of psalms known as the Egyptian Hallel, a series of praise songs that are related to the Passover celebration and which praise God for His work of creation and redemption. And tonight as we look at this psalm we find yet another exhortation from the psalmist to us to worship God. And we should never get tired of God telling us in His Word to do the basic…

Living in the Right Kind of Fear

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Psalm 112. I'd like you to keep your finger there at Psalm 112. I want to show you something about the two psalms on either side of it. If you allow yourself to look back at the beginning of Psalm 111, it begins with that ascription, “Praise the LORD” that Paul referred to in the prayer tonight. And then if you’d look forward to Psalm 113, it too begins with the exhortation, “Praise the LORD,” so each of these three…

I do not know Him. I am not one of them. And I…

The Lord's Day Morning September 18, 2011 “I do not know Him. I am not one of them. And I don't know what you are talking about.” Luke 22:54-62 The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Luke 22 as we continue our way through the gospel together. Last week we were looking at the betrayal of the Lord Jesus by Judas. And in this passage this week, we come to the denial of Jesus by Peter. It is a solemn passage. Jesus had only a…