R.C. Sproul Memorial Service

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable my mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless His Holy Name for ever and ever on behalf of the Sproul family welcome to this memorial service for dr. Robert Charles sproule known simply as RC to millions of Christians around the world to his congregation at st. Andrews chapel the many friends of Ligonier ministries and Christians worldwide he is remembered as a theologian pastor faithful churchmen possessed with a quick wit a keen mind and a large spirit your presence today is a deep comfort and encouragement to the Sproul family in is a testimony to the goodness and kindness of our Lord in using RC sproule to touch so many lives our see grew up in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where he met his beloved wife Vesta they enjoyed 57 years of marriage two children 11 grandchildren one granddaughter deceased and seven great-grandchildren God brought our sea to saving faith in Christ during his freshman year of college and then later called him to a prolific public teaching ministry God's Word calls us to rejoice with those who rejoice to weep with those who weep and it is our union as believers in Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection to allow us to shed tears of sadness this day for the departure of a beloved brother and a father in the faith and yet at the same time to rejoice in the hope of glory dr. Sproul now enjoys unmediated view of the god whom he served proclaimed so faithfully and long to see would you now stand as we sing together [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] be seated let us pray our Father we come into your very presence in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who has prepared the only way of access before your throne of grace and as we come this day we come with overflowing praise for your most holy name we declare that you are the God who was and who is and who shall be forever that you have established your throne in the heavens and that your sovereignty rules over all we praise you father that those whom you for new you have predestined and those whom you have predestined you have called and those whom you have called you have justified and those whom you have justified you have glorified and we come this day with great confidence knowing that our brother in the faith RC sproule is now in your very presence beholding the greatness and the grandeur and the glory that belongs to you alone and we praise you for the grace that you demonstrated in his life we praise you that you called him to yourself and that you gave him gifts and we all in this room have received untold blessing from your hand through the ministry and through the friendship of this dear brother many of us here today have been converted under his preaching and we all have been edified and encouraged and equipped and further sanctified and for this father we bring you thanks this day we have gathered here that ultimately our hearts would be lifted up to the heights of heaven and that we would extol your greatness for what you have done in our brother our Sea Scrolls life and how it has been lavished upon us we ask now that you would open the windows of heaven and pour out the fullness of your grace upon us draw near to us as we draw near to you we pray that you would be our comfort that you would be our strength that you would be the very foundation beneath us and that you would support us and uphold us in this hour in which we sense this great loss in our life the father you are more than sufficient to make up every loss that we will ever experience in our life and so now in this service we ask that every song that would be sung every testimony that would be given and the message that will be brought that it would all cause our hearts to to rise to the heights of heaven and ascribe to you the honor and the glory and the blessing and the Dominion that belongs to you alone so visit us in this hour rend the heavens and come down and be among us your people in this hour we pray this in the name of him who is seated at your right hand in the name of him who is our Sovereign Lord and redeeming Savior Jesus Christ our Lord amen I'll be reading from Revelation chapter 5 this is God's holy word then I saw on the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back sealed with seven seals and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals and no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it and one of the elders said to me weep no more behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and at seven seals and between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain was seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne and when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints and they sang a new song saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels numbering myriads of Myriad's and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing and I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever and the four living creatures said on men and the elders fell down and worshiped I'm guy Rizzo I was asked to speak here concerning my personal friendship with our safe this was RC who in the mid-80s I first saw hanging around the men's grill at the golf club sitting at a big table surrounded by books with yellow legal pad and a pen sitting there scribbling out but I much later found out to be one of his books one day I heard RC say to a friend the Bible is the Word of God inerrant and inspired without contradictions if there are any contradictions in the Bible and I believe it to be the Word of God then God would have to be contradictory and therefore no God at all this was RC wide corner in the locker room over there or where he was having breakfast at 5:00 a.m. and asked him about apparent contradictions I dove into the Bible to find you always explain them away gave me more to think about and allowed the development of an ongoing dialogue this was RC who gave patient explanations with a consistent logic even when I asked the same question different ways to the point I almost annoyed myself he never called me an idiot or just plain stupid until much later after we had become friends this was our see who all I was a heathen agreed to do a Bible study at the club for six or eight people to answer questions and teach he started in Luke and after three years he'd gotten a chapter three but he had gone through most of the Old Testament in explaining it and leading up to it this was or see who enjoyed being with the guys playing cards hunting golfing enjoyed laughing and joking teasing and being teased but whose actions never betrayed his convictions this was our see who never condemned anyone or acted condescending who loved people I can't recall all the guys who had come to him with personal or spiritual problems and he provide for them I started another Bible study at a new club about seven years ago and this was our see who enjoyed coming who allowed himself to be called my little helper whose head would shake and whose hairy eyebrows would raise when I mispronounced something misstated something were started down some path to bun orthodoxy but he would answer everybody's questions there in detail and often with great humor this was our see along with Vesta shared my wife penny and my and my trials and joys those of our family and so forth these last 25 years who showed us love and set us an example as a couple best is devoted for care for our see is a real-life picture of Ruth and his uncompromising love for her was immeasurable as he considered her as treasure even if he called her she who must be obeyed this was RC who was a family friend teacher and spiritual father who was so real that he admitted to being a sinner and never gave the impression he was righteous himself whose actions and attitude always showed that he truly believed the expression at the same time just and sinner this was RC a winsome loving caring man with the dedicated of affection to his Lord and Savior who said when I die I will be identified with Christ's exaltation but right now I am identified with his affliction well our sees afflict didn't know more although there's a gaping hole in my heart at the loss of my friend who I truly loved I'm joyful for him and I know I will see him again when we both worship our Savior eternally eulogy I'm pretty sure I learned the meaning of the word from our see several decades ago he loved words he loved to help you understand the meaning of words he also loved an economy of words so it doesn't feel quite right to be doing this without him sitting right there on the front row while I'm speaking and having him check his watch every couple minutes amen amen second Corinthians 4:7 but we have this treasure in Jars of Clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us many of us would have difficulty telling of our walk with the Lord without the entrance of dr. Sproul into some point of our journey for me it was as a college student about 26 years ago in a church parking lot late on a Sunday night over on the east coast of Florida but where were you where were you when our sees Bible teaching ministry made an impact in your life what story would you tell in the days since he's gone to be with the Lord so many testimonies of gratitude have been published and even continue to be written and it is clear in one sense that if you ever heard RC teach or if you met him he belonged to you in a personal way God used RC and as many others who have served over the years at Ligonier ministries could attest it was not a little intimidating to work for RC R C's mind was exacting rapier sharp and he possessed a memory oh did he have a memory he remembered everything and he was an omni competent man gifted in so many disciplines beyond just biblical and theological studies in all transparency to be able to have served doctor stroll at Ligonier is a kindness from the Lord that I will never be able to explain we look at his ministry as one that was blessed by God and we see also the blessing of God and the large amount of teaching that he has produced and leaves behind were that all of us could be as productive for the Lord's Kingdom Jesus taught us to pray hallowed be thy name our see reminded us that this is our mission to pray and to work so that as many people as possible understand that God is holy the God should be regarded as holy throughout the whole earth this is the Seraphim song and this was our cease heartbeat no one can replace RC strong and his vision was not to find one person to succeed him instead his vision was to see the truth of the gospel living and active in the lives of those millions of Christians around the world who right now are growing and their understanding of who God is of who they are their need for a savior and the precious opportunity we all have to serve Christ in our generation we can now glorify God and understand that in a better way no matter what calling has been given to each of us in a very real way if God used our see in your life you honor his memory as you live today coram Deo in the presence of God as he walked up the steps of this pulpit Sunday after Sunday he confessed to some of us the truth that he took encouragement from something that Spurgeon would pray as he ascended his own pulpit those many years ago Spurgeon would pray I believe in the Holy Ghost from the Apostles Creed and our see would confess that and pray that even as he ascended the steps of this pocket right here RC knew that without the sovereign grace of God at work in the proclamation of the gospel all of our efforts are in vain revelation 14:13 says blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on yes says the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them RC was steadfast RC was immovable RC was abounding and the Lord's work and by God's grace our cease Labor's were done in the Lord and they were not done in vain soli Deo Gloria to God alone be the glory when I think of RC sprawl I think first of all perhaps of vitality and when I heard that she was in the hospital I thought oh he'll be out soon he's done this before not just because he done it before but I thought of his vitality because he's so exude inviting he exuded life he enjoyed life those of us who are privileged to spend time with him whether publicly or privately because he was the same man both places could see that enjoyment see it especially with Vesta his love his companion his counselor his co-worker that life inspired us because our ceased role was no dour Calvinist he enjoyed the goodness of God's creation but in a very profound sense the life of RC sprawl was the Word of God Moses at the end of his life handed the scriptures to Israel and said this is no empty word it is your life and I observed that over and over again in my opportunities to see RC that the word was his life he lived out the word he lived in the word he lived for the word and there was a marvelous authenticity and all that he did it was serious because it was God's Word I've done theologians that I felt played games with theology and saw it was a matter of scoring against others it was never that way for RC for RC it was life it was eternal life or eternal death whether you knew the word the Living Word the eternal word the Incarnate Word the inscripturated word he had a passion for the truth and he marshaled all the marvelous natural gifts that God had given him in the service of the truth in the service of the word he had a phenomenal memory not just for the mistakes of those around him but much more importantly a phenomenal memory for philosophy and for theology for history the queen of the sciences oh no and for for the Scriptures he was connected to the great history of the church he knew that history he knew its theology he knew the ways in which that history and theology had lived out of the Word of God and he wanted to preserve it and teach her to pass it on and he did it so marvelously he stands in that great American heritage from Jonathan Edwards to Charles Hodge to BB Warfield to J Gresham machen to John Gerstner great theologians great because they were biblical great because they were faithful great because they were balanced great because they were profound great because they were clear great because they knew how to prioritize what was important and RC was all of those things he prioritized God and Christ and the Scriptures and justification and he taught us all marvelously those things what a teacher what a teacher he had that very nearly unique gift in history to combine profound learning with fascinating teaching ability he was the learning of Jonathan Edwards combined with the communication skills of George Whitefield if this were not a serious occasion I would say he had the profound learning of BB Warfield combined with the communication skills of Amy Semple McPherson he lived out God's truth in all that he did he taught us and we will not see as like a light has gone out a champion has fallen a friend is gone the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever I want to express my love to you Vesta thank you for loving me and I think allowing Arcee to love me as well a great treasure in my life I never expected to have the honor of knowing him personally I was a mildly dispensational Baptist what hope was there for me I was like a guy in the Civil War with gray pants and a blue coat I was being shot by both sides and then almost out of nowhere RC stepped into my life and I just want to speak of that in three ways first of all as a friend it just seemed to me out of nowhere that I was given an invitation to come and speak at a Ligonier conference and I I had some history with some people very close to RC namely John Gerstner John had actually come to Grace Church and done a series and in his wonderfully inimitable way he said about me since you're a dispensationalist you're gonna end up a heretic he later told RC that didn't happen because I don't think logically nonetheless for reasons I don't know vesta RC opened his heart to me and invited me to Ligonier to speak and then he assigned me to speak on the doctrine of election which I actually thought at the time he had invented and he was there with his diet coke on the front row and his feet crossed and I I knew this was a test and it was the most public test a human being could ever have to put his theology on display before the great theologian himself he opened up my life to the riches of reformed theology I had discovered it on my own it's as if I I saw the glory tucked away in Iraq and somehow through his ministry and the connections that he made with other people and writers even going back in history the full glory of the doctrines of grace exploded on my conscience he even had the temerity to ask me to debate him on baptism this was terrifying to me I never studied for anything that hard in my entire life if anything came out of that it proved that if I get desperate enough I can work hard and especially when I know who my teacher is he even nicknamed me Boris that's another story but he always endearingly said to me Johnny Mac and the last time we had a conversation here he said to me finally why is it Johnny Mac that I always have to tell you what you believe I adored him for that so many other things but I saw him not only as a friend I saw him as a great defender I'm the last man standing of a group of three that gathered together in Florida 1995 in one of the most amazing days of my entire life evangelicals and Catholics together had come out the year before and RC was profoundly disappointed because the man behind that was a man that claimed RC as his mentor and he had abandoned the true gospel and for some reason again I don't know why I ended up there but it was James Kennedy RC sprawl and myself there representing the true gospel against those who wanted to accommodate Rome's gospel bill bright Charles Colson and J I Packer 1995 we met in a private room for seven hours and I sat next to Jim Packer it was a massive education the power in the room unmistakeably for the seven hours was RC sprawl I had always hoped that somehow RC would write the history of that day but I I don't think he could bring himself to do that because it would have been so much about him I'm the last man standing and I will tell you this he was without question the force in that room for the truth and as I indicated and something I wrote he actually got on the table up on the table and pointed a finger at an adversary and said I don't think you get it this is about whether you're saved or not as affable as press ibly charming as he was he was a defender of the faith even when he was looking in the eyes of a very cherished friend he never wavered on the gospel he was strength to me I always felt like whenever I got into a battle whether it was way back in the inerrancy conference there was RC when it was the gospel there was RC when it was the charismatic movement there was our seed always standing faithfully for the truth it was a sad reality in my life that the Lord put us on two coasts because I didn't have the time with him I really wanted but whenever I did it was an indescribable treasure and then one other category I think you have to understand this this is the greatest time in the history of the church for the expansion of sound doctrine you might say this is the greatest explosion of the truth in history and the truth of course is captured in the doctrines of grace and reformed theology people look at the church today and what's going on very often they say to me this is a very sad time there's so much bad preaching there's so much unbiblical ecclesiology there's so much poor spiritual leadership there's so much disinterest in the doctrine of sanctification there's no there's no real sense of holiness and worship and you know all these things at the same time there's never been a time in the history of the world where sound doctrine is so available in a split second anywhere on the planet and the point of the spear for that entire movement in our time was RC sprawl he is this eras great former because he was my friend because he was my fellow soldier and defender and because I follow him as the leader of this explosion of truth I honor him today by expressing my profound love for him and as Bob said the deep hole in my heart that he's not here anymore but I thank the Lord that he let me into his life for all the blessing it has brought to me thank you there seemed to be only one passage of scripture that was appropriate for this occasion today and I want to read to you from the sixth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the Train of his robe filled the temple above him stood the Seraphim each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one called to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said woe is me for I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts then one of the Seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth and said Behold this has touched your lips your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for and I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us then I said Here I am send me and he said go and speak to this people dear Vesta and sherry and RC junior and your family's children grandchildren great-grandchildren we have loved you so much in these past days and prayed for you and this is a season for us to join you both in sorrow but also to join and Thanksgiving to you that you who love Darcy best and knew him best were willing to share him with us who so many of us felt he was a big part in our lives and he was your life in Christ and we bless you for sharing him with us and I think we should bless you also for guarding him from us sometimes and our prayer is that in these days as one and another shares with you the blessings that they have experienced you will sense that by God's grace in your lives he was able to be more than either he or you imagined and we pray also that that thin curtain that separates heaven from earth will have folds in it through which something of the Blessed sense of the Lord's presence that he now experiences will flow over to you be lent to you to reassure you that he sees the Lord's face that he delights in his presence and that Jesus has done yes everything Wow I had a kind of imaginary conversation with VAR c about this passage to which I felt almost obligated to turn with you today but in that imaginary conversation he reassured me that no matter how well or how badly I expounded it he no longer needed the exposition of it because he was already experiencing the reality for which his whole life he had longed and I want us to think not just about our see we have heard so much about God's goodness to him and God's work through him and he would want us to turn for a few minutes to think together about the God who did that work under guard who was so good to him and one of the things that strikes you in the pages of Scripture is that while all of God's servants are called to proclaim all the counsel of God he creates some men gives them specially strong shoulders to be a very special burdens and was usually in Scripture and in history come relatively early on in their lives and ministries think about Jeremiah and his call or about Ezekiel and his call or of course very especially the prophet Isaiah and his call the way in which the call of God the revelation of God to them becomes the burden of their lives so that in Isaiah's case the Holy One becomes his chosen favorite way of describing the Lord when those of us who knew RC well I think would say we had known no one to whom this his special burden had been given in our own time to proclaim the glory as well as the mystery of God the Holy One and to speak of his greatness and majesty in such a way that men and women and boys and girls would be bowed down before him and lost and Wonder and in love and in praise and it involved a whole series of things for Isaiah as well as I imagined for RC the first this extraordinary encounter with the holiness of God high and lifted up his train filling the temple hearing this heavenly Sanctus being sung as though each time these amazing preachers say the word its significance dawns on them as though they love to the meaning of language and pondered the reality of God to which it pointed and learned something of his majesty and his glory our see used to love these little Latin tags picked up from the history of theology this he would often remind us as the mysterium tremendum at fasts canons this majestic sense of the holiness of God so gloriously attractive that we cannot take our eyes from it so awesomely beautiful that it seems to cover us in shame even to contemplate it and these strange creatures who behold the face of God and Thomas binney's great him eternal light how pure the soul must be when placed within thy searching sight it shrinks not but with candlelight can live and look on thee the spirits that surround the throne can bear that burning bliss but that is surely there's alone for they have never ever known a fallen world like this and yet even created holy creatures veiled their faces veil their feet before the blinding glory of the majesty of the holiness of God that causes us of course to tremble in his presence but is why along with an encounter with the holiness of God those who come to know him also experienced a strange deconstruction by his hand and so with the prophet Isaiah I am undone I am lost and he feels himself to be divinely deconstruct by this ineffable holiness that emanates from God's presence you know in the previous chapter Isaiah had pronounced six wars on others and neither God nor scripture like the number six it is the number of imperfection they love the number seven and so the very reading of the Prophet causes us to ask therefore where will the seventh war fall the climactic ultimate wall and as Isaiah's deconstructed in the presence of God he pronounces the war upon himself I am undone deconstructed and this of course is how the gospel works as Martin Luther said God created the world out of nothing and he will make something only of those he first of all brings to realize that in his presence they are nothing RC had I think two preeminent gifts like Isaiah the one was this massive and dramatic sense of who God really is and the other was a gift of superlative communication to express that Wonder and glory but my friends that was only the outside that was only the external occasionally we were permitted to see the internal the inside the awful shaking deconstructing revelation of our own sinfulness and to discover as Isaiah the great prophet as our brother RC as the Great Communicator as we discover in so many different ways to discover that that sin is woven not just into our weaknesses by which it expresses itself but woven into the greatest gifts God has given us I'm a man of unclean lips called to preach about the holy God and so I need to be deconstructed Oh says Thomas Benny how shall I whose native sphere as dark whose mind as dim before the ineffable appear and on my created spirit bear that uncreated beam only if we are deconstructed by God's presence and only then does Isaiah experience and get a taste of the pardoning grace of God the call so hot the Seraphim cannot touch it and bring it with tongs from off the altar of sacrifice taking away the guilt atoning for the sin this great dramatic picture of the gospel in the Old Testament and pointing to the altar not in the Temple of Jerusalem but outside the city wall where the dear Lord was crucified who died to save us all I sometimes wonder which soaked most deeply into Isaiah's soul the wall or the call but you see this reality always produces two things the first dispassionate conviction this passionate grip of the constraining love of God upon us that leaves us no choice but to serve him and then it produces something that seems to be almost the opposite of it but there are some men in whom you see it in Isaiah was one of them it does not usually come immediately but it always comes it is with that overwhelming sense of the holiness of God and sinfulness about hearts an amazing sense of the tenderness of the Lord Jesus Christ and so Isaiah will soon say that the Savior is a wonderful counselor who is mighty God and everlasting father who is Prince of Peace but it will be many chapters before he is able to say that a bruised Reed he will not break or a dimly burning wick he will not quench before he realizes that the Holy One he is seen upon the throne of glory is also the man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief who came to bear our sorrows and to carry our grief this is a marriage our world cannot understand the awesomeness of the majesty of God before whom we bow as sinners and the tenderness that is produced in our hearts to speak of the Wonder and the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ I think I saw our see himself grow in that I say these two things do not usually come together and the second usually takes longer to have those little tear ducts open to have the voice begin to break when we speak of the tenderness and offer the meek and lowly Jesus who bears our burdens to sinners and to appeal lovingly to come and to trust him on this of course is what flows this amazing sense of the holiness of God this agonizing sense of being deconstructed this wonderful taste of the Lord's saving grace and then this great obedience to the call to go it saw mrs. Oh Isaiah overhears it and volunteers for it not knowing all that it will mean as our si did so many years ago hearing the voice of the word of the Prophet the voice of God saying is there anyone else here who will go for us Here I am Lord I'm not sure what I'm doing but I will go then my child go and speak the whole gospel is here isn't it come and see feel and cry taste and savor go and speak those of you who listen till the guinere will remember our sees love for a book by the Danish philosopher theologian Soren Kierkegaard I think he loved the title more than the book the book is called concluding unscientific PostScript I think he would castigate me if I didn't have a postscript but this is not a concluding unscientific PostScript this is the concluding eternal PostScript and it's this isn't it that those who see the holiness of God and are deconstructed by God and discover the grace of God and live in obedience to the voice of God and brought at the last to the final vision of the glory of God I've only ever once asked someone to repeat an illustration they've used in a sermon and I had the temerity to ask RC once to repeat a story he told that moved me deeply I think in so many ways he was in the mould of Samuel Rutherford made of opposites fierce logic tender love I never forget him telling the story of his old father to whom he had almost to drag to the dinner table and how after his father's passing he had this constant dream of meeting his father again still frail and sick and we and the dream came over and over again until one night the dream changed and he saw his father healthy and Wow and the heavenly presence and as he was being shown round the heavenly presence as I remember RC said I asked dad and the dream dad where do we where do we go to see the glory and this was our season good theology coming out his father in the dream responded you don't need to go anywhere RC it's everywhere here this is the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning where the bride eyes not her garment but her dear bridegroom's face where we do not even look on glory but on our saviors face not at the gift he gives us but on his Pierce at hand for the lamb is all the glory in Emanuel's land and they are the Sanctus that he loved to sing in this very place is sung again as it is in the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts may the whole earth be filled with his glory how much we shall miss him how much we loved him but none of us would wish him back from that which he taught us to live coram Daryl in the presence of God to live so la fille de by faith alone to live Sola scriptura on the authority of scripture alone to live Sola gratia by the grace of God alone to live Solus Christus belonging to Jesus Christ alone whom Isaiah here saw and all we want to add is this then Holly Dale Gloria to God alone in your life as in his be all the glory let us pray our gracious God we are so conscious today with your servant David that we are able to say that a prince and a great man is fallen this day in Israel we thank you for the assurance of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray that the memory of his ministry to us will continue to bear fruit we commit to your love our dear friends his family we pray for this church bereft of its core pastor for the ministry that he founded the reffed of its founder and leader and we pray that in your mercy you will do yet more than we have seen and we ask this with the forgiveness of our own sins desire to trust in Jesus Christ to live in obedience to him for the rest of our lives we pray this in his name Amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] our sovereign and gracious Lord our holy and loving father we thank you for the life of your servant RC as you chose and called RC to know you and love you to glorify and enjoy you forever to rest in Christ and to proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ so now our Father help us we pray by the power and the consolation of the Holy Spirit to rest in Christ and fix our eyes upon Christ the author and finisher of our faith who has delivered up for us for our trespasses and raised for our justification and do by his death took away the sting of death for we are beggars indeed O Lord and so we come to you most merciful father and ask you sustain us and grant us your abiding peace as we eagerly await the triumphant return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for his glory kingdom and in his name we pray amen we stand to receive the benediction to all of you who trust on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and forevermore amen please remain standing as the family recesses [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

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Keywords: rc sproul memorial, rc sproul, memorial service, memorial, funeral, r.c. sproul, ligonier ministries, rc sproul funeral

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Length: 79min 31sec (4771 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 21 2017