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RTS and the Current State of Theological Education

Some of you may have seen this important article over at The Gospel Coalition about the decline and relocation of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) by Collin Hansen, who is a graduate of the school. Reformed Theological Seminary has been friends with TEDS for many years. Over the years, a number of our faculty have done their studies there before coming to RTS, and a number of our graduates have gone on to do doctoral work there. We wish TEDS all the best in this new stage of their institutional life. The last twenty years have been tough for accredited graduate theological education…

God’s New Family: An Exposition of Ephesians…

The Lord's Day Morning July 30, 2006 Ephesians 5:21 God's Household Rules: Marriage and Family (1)” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Amen. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 5. If you have the outline that was provided today for this message, you’ll also notice the outline of Ephesians 5:18-21. We’re going to go back today to verse 21, the last verse of the passage we studied together last week, because it is a transition verse from the section that we've been studying into this new section that deals with marriage and with family. The Apostle Paul has given one negative command and one positive command in Ephesians 5:18. You see them there in the outline as Roman numerals I and II: “Do not get drunk” is the negative command; the positive…

The New Walk (5): More Reasons Why – Filled With…

The Lord's Day Morning July 23, 2006 Ephesians 5:18-21 “The New Walk (5): More Reasons Why — Filled With the Spirit” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter five, as we continue through Paul's letter to Ephesus and to us. We've said since Ephesians 4:17 that it has been Paul's concern to exhort us to live distinctively as Christians in this world; not to be like the world, but rather to be in the world and not of it; to be distinct in our desires and our behavior and our living from the world. And in Ephesians 4 and in the first part of Ephesians 5, Paul gave a series of concrete examples of ways in which we were to be different from the world. We were to be different from the world in our truth-telling; we were to be different from the…

The New Walk (4): More Reasons Why – Wisdom

The Lord's Day Morning July 16, 2006 Ephesians 5:15-17 “The New Walk (4): More Reasons Why – Wisdom” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Amen. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 5 as we continue our way through this great letter of the Apostle Paul, not only to the Ephesian church, but to us. We've been looking at this section that stretches from Ephesians 5:5 all the way down to verse 21. We've said that throughout this passage Paul is concerned to give us arguments, reasons, incentives, motivations to the living of the Christian life. God loves us very much, and He knows that we face many temptations, from without and from within: from the world, from the devil, and from the flesh. And because He loves us very much, He arms us with…

The New Walk (3): More Reasons Why Children of Light

The Lord's Day Morning July 9, 2006 Ephesians 5:8-14 “The New Walk (3): Children of Light” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 5, as we continue our way through this great letter of the Apostle Paul — not just to the church of Ephesus, but to us, as all Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for our reproof and correction and training in righteousness. We've said that this whole section in Ephesians (from…

The New Walk (2): More Reasons Why (Sexual Immonrality…

The Lord's Day Morning June 18, 2006 Ephesians 5:5-7 “The New Walk (2): More Reasons Why” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Amen. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 5 as we continue to work our way through this book. Let me just remind you that in Ephesians 4:17ff, the Apostle Paul begins a section of the book which we've been studying for a number of weeks, where he exhorts us to live distinctly as Christians, to be different from the world. And he says…

The New Walk (1): More Reasons Why (Sexual Immorality…

The Lord's Day Morning June 11, 2006 Ephesians 5:5-7 “The New Walk (1): More Reasons Why” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Amen. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 5, as we continue to work through this great book together. I would simply draw your attention to this: When we moved from Ephesians 5:4, the last verse that we studied last week, to Ephesians 5:5, the verse that we're going to begin studying this week, we moved into a new section of Paul's…

Sexual Immorality, Coarse Talk, Thanksgiving and the…

The Lord's Day Morning June 4, 2006 Ephesians 5:3-4 “Sexual Immorality, Coarse Talk, Thanksgiving, and the Glory of God” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Amen. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Ephesians, chapter five. We’ll be looking at verses 3 and 4 today. Before we read this passage together — a passage that deals with the issue of sexual immorality, and contains Paul's exhortation to the Ephesians and to us as believers to be different from the world, to…

Bitterness, Forgiveness, and Being Like God

The Lord's Day Morning May 28, 2006 Ephesians 4:31-5:2 “Bitterness, Forgiveness, and Being Like God” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Amen. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Ephesians, chapter four. We finally come to the end of this chapter, but Paul's line of thought continues on into chapter five. In fact, this section from Ephesians 4:25 doesn't really end until about Ephesians 5:4. The same train of thought continues. The Apostle Paul has been calling on…

Talk, Edification, the Holy Spirit, and the Glory of…

The Lord's Day Morning May 21, 2006 Ephesians 4:29-30 “Talk, Edification, the Holy Spirit, and the Glory of God” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Amen. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Ephesians 4. In this whole passage from Ephesians 4:17, running all the way to Ephesians 5:4, Paul is calling us to live like Christians: to live out the grace of God in our lives, and, in so doing, to promote the unity that God has created in the body, and indeed, to promote His glory…