Nathan W. Bingham

So as our way of saying thank you, in addition to the DVD, we'll unlock lifetime digital access to this series and its study guide as well. If you're planning to give a year-end gift to Ligonier Ministries by check, remember all checks need to be postmarked by December 31st. Thank you. Are science and Christianity opposed to one another?

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One of the most famous conversations recorded for us in the Bible is the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus at night in John chapter 3. And what they discuss is of vital importance for each and every one of us. I'm glad you're joining us for this Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham. Each Sunday, we feature the preaching ministry of R.C.

Sproul, the founder of Ligonier Ministries and the first minister of preaching and teaching at St. Andrew's Chapel. We're still in a short sermon series in John's Gospel, which means that until midnight tonight, you can request the hardcover edition of Dr. Sproul's line-by-line walk through the Gospel of John when you give a year-end donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.

So what did Jesus mean when He told Nicodemus that people need to be born again? And is it ever proper for us to call ourselves born-again Christians? Here's Dr. Sproul.

And aren't we thankful for God's mercy and grace? It honestly leaves me speechless sometimes as I think about the sovereign mercy and grace in my own life. Today's message on Renewing Your Mind was a sermon from R.C. Sproul that he preached while he served at St. Andrew's Chapel, a Presbyterian church in Sanford, Florida.

And these sermons in John were the beginning of a project to produce a commentary on John's gospel. You can walk through this popular gospel, often the first one to be read by new believers, with R.C. Sproul as your guide when you request his hardcover commentary with your year-end donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.

Your support this month is vital to help fuel the outreach of Ligonier Ministries in 2025 and the expansion of Renewing Your Mind. So let me thank you in advance for your generosity. Every gift makes a difference.

If you'd like to know more about our strategic plans for the new year, you can go back and listen to the December 13th episode of Renewing Your Mind wherever you listen to podcasts to hear a special discussion about how, with your support, we are seeking to equip global pastors and the next generation.

Make your donation before midnight tonight, and we'll get this commentary on John's gospel in the mail as our way of saying thank you and to help you dig deeper into this gospel. Jesus continued his conversation with Nicodemus and told him that the Son of Man must be lifted up. Find out what he meant next Sunday, here on Renewing Your Mind. Renewing Your Mind

Calvin is passionate to say there are promises, promises that you can trust, and everyone who trusts those promises will be saved.

Can Christians have assurance of their salvation? What is saving faith? And how do we know that the Bible is the Word of God and is authoritative? These are just some of the questions that John Calvin and other Reformers wrestled with and brought clarity against the backdrop of the Roman Catholic Church. You're listening to the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and I'm glad you're with us. On Saturdays, you're hearing messages from W. Robert Godfrey's monumental church history study series. So far, he has taken us back to the early church. We've seen the Middle Ages. And today, in part three of that series, we're in the time of the 16th century Reformation.

You can add this 12-message installment on the Reformation to your collection when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. When people speak of Reformed theology, they sometimes use the shorthand or nickname Calvinism after the Reformer John Calvin. So what did Calvin believe? Here's Dr. Godfrey, the chairman of Ligonier Ministries, on the theology of John Calvin.

Well, we return in this lecture to our friend John Calvin. I hope maybe having gotten this far, you see he's a little more human and friendly than some people have made him out to be. But I want to return to this subject of certainty or assurance at the heart of Calvin's theology. I think he felt the pressure to

on the Protestant movement that the Roman Catholic Church brought to bear by its insistence that it was the absolutely reliable source of truth. Satellito, in his letter to the Genevan Church, Cardinal Satellito had made that point. He said, the church alone is inerrant. It never makes a mistake. And therefore, you can rest your soul on the church and its teaching.

Saddle Lady even went so far as to say, if the church were wrong and you believed the church, God would not hold it against you because he's commanded you to believe the church and whatever it teaches. And so they said the only safe path, the Roman Catholics said, the only safe path is to follow the church correctly. completely unwaveringly.

And Calvin wrestled theologically with the question, how do we find assurance apart from this church that is absolutely authoritative? And of course, the Protestant answer was, we find that in the Bible. But Rome says, first of all, how do you know that the And secondly, how do you know what's the right interpretation of the Bible? Now, those are fair questions.

And the Reformation as a whole answered that rather simply. They said, first of all, we believe the Bible is true. Now, the Roman Catholic Church agreed with that. The Bible is true. It is God's Word. It is God's revelation. God was successful in revealing Himself truly in His Word. Secondly, the Reformation said the Bible is sufficient.