“Ignite a flame in our hearts that we may not neglect you,
but pursue you with everything we have.”
The final request to God from Dr. R.C. Sproul (1939-2017) In his concluding prayer from his last sermon, “A Great Salvation”, to the congregation at St. Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, FL on November 26, 2017
Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to run after their drinks,
who stay up late at night
till they are inflamed with wine.
They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
tambourines and flutes and wine,
but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,
no respect for the work of his hands. Isaiah 5:11-12
Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,
Isaiah 5:18
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put
darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter
for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and
clever in their own sight.
Isaiah 5:20-21
Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
he whistles for those at the ends of the
earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal strap is broken.
Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize
their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue. In that day they will roar over it like
the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress;
even the light will be darkened by the clouds.
Isaiah 5:25-30
Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.
Acts 27:29
Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose
very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it
with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things
in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to
take hold of the hope offered to us maybe greatly encouraged.
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
Hebrews 6: 17-19a
These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold,
which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine
and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:7
“You ask me what I shall do if I am called by the emperor. I will
go even if I am too sick to stand on my feet. If Caesar calls me,
God calls me. If violence is used, as well it may be, I commend my
cause to God. He lives and reigns who saved the three youths from
the fiery furnace of the king of Babylon, and if He will not save me,
my head is worth nothing compared with Christ.
This is no time to think of safety.
I must take care that the gospel is not brought into contempt
by our fear to confess and seal our teaching with our blood.”
(Source: Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (1950)(Hendrickson, p. 167).
