We have many reasons to be excited about prayer—and to pray with urgency! Guy Richard shows us that as we pour out our hearts to the Lord, we and the world around us will be changed. Informative, encouraging, and practical, this brief book will serve as a helpful primer for pastors, elders, study groups, and Christians who seek encouragement and instruction on prayer and its blessings. Written for the church, the Blessings of the Faith series introduces and celebrates Reformed doctrine and practice—each book features a brief and practical overview of its topic with discussion questions and an extensive Q&A section.

When Jesus commanded His followers to go and make disciples of all nations, He instructed them to baptize those disciples in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Since baptism is a central part of life in the church, why has it been controversial and divisive among so many Christians? In Baptism: Answers to Common Questions, Dr. Guy M. Richard tackles the key questions people have about baptism: What does it mean? Is it necessary for salvation? Who should be baptized, and how should we baptize them? As he searches the Scriptures, Dr. Richard helps us think through what the Bible teaches about baptism and encourages us to deal graciously with our brothers and sisters in Christ even when we disagree. Endorsements “Dr. Richard is a sure and trusted guide on the issue of baptism. This is a delightful resource, particularly for paedobaptists. It will be a go-to and concise guide to give to parents who are bringing their covenant children for baptism. An absolutely essential resource.” —Dr. Derek W.H. Thomas “This is a good introduction to baptism, written in an irenic spirit and covering a wide range of relevant material. I expect that many will find this helpful and will come to a richer appreciation of what baptism signifies.” —Dr. Robert Letham

Baptism and the Lord's Supper are central parts of life in the church. But what do these sacraments mean? In Baptism and The Lord's Supper, Drs. Guy M. Richard and Keith A. Mathison provide clear answers to common questions related to these important subjects. More than mere rites and rituals, the sacraments are means of grace given by the Lord Jesus for the communal life of His church. By examining what the Scriptures say about baptism and the Lord's Supper, Drs. Richard and Mathison help us to understand the place and purpose of the sacraments in our communion with Christ and His covenant people.This set includes Baptism and The Lord's Supper.

The Bible teaches us that Christians are those who believe in Christ. But what does true saving faith look like? Is it a blind leap in the dark? Is it knowing God? Does it translate into something that those around us can see? How much faith is enough?Here Christian faith is examined from biblical, theological, and historical perspectives. Its aspects of intellect, relationship, trust, works, and maturity are explored to answer these questions and to show us what faith truly is.Basics of the Faith booklets introduce readers to basic Reformed doctrine and practice. On issues of church government and practice they reflect that framework—otherwise they are suitable for all church situations.

life. As a result, I grew like wildfire. But I also now had access to students and professors who aided in my Christian growth. Most, if not all, of my professors had served or were serving as pastors. They knew how to come alongside and encourage maturity in their students. And I sought them out for this very reason.

But seminary also gave me well-roundedness. It exposed me to a variety of professors and students who were different than I was. Some of my professors and fellow students had tremendous hearts for the Lord; some were intellectual giants; and some were the godliest people that I have ever known. The variety of these influences helped me not to be lopsided in my Christian experience. Since it is true that we become like what we are around, I am thankful that I was around such well-rounded influences. It has made all the difference in my ministry over the years.

Besides all these things, seminary gave me a network of friends to call whenever I need help or guidance. When the church I was serving needed to do a capital campaign, I relied on this network. When the same church was faced with its first major discipline case, I again relied on this network. The contacts I made during seminary have also provided many writing and speaking opportunities for me over the years, in addition to new ministry opportunities. The three ministry positions I have served in since graduating have all come to me as a result of the network that I established while I was in school.

Seminary education has never been more important than it is today. That is because the Christian worldview, which has long been the dominant worldview in many places around the globe, is no longer dominant. Like never before, the church needs individuals who are better trained for ministry than they ever have been. If there was a time when seminary was not worth the investment, that day has long since passed. Ask any other seminary graduate who is actively serving in ministry, and my guess is that the things that I have shared here would be confirmed.

uncommon ability within you to understand, apply, and communicate the Word of God? Do they see a gift for making difficult Bible passages easy to understand? Have they witnessed a tenderness within you toward God’s people?

This was one of the most helpful things for me in my own journey. My wife and close friends all told me that I should go to seminary. Whenever I taught Sunday school or led a Bible study, people frequently came up to me afterward and encouraged me to go. My pastor was instrumental in this process as well. The collective testimony from all these sources was confirmation of what I was already feeling within myself. It helped me to see that I wasn’t crazy for thinking of leaving a well-paying job with a great future in order to go back to school.

If you are sensing a desire to go to seminary and those closest to you are encouraging you in this direction as well, then I think you should go. You don’t have to have everything all figured out before you do. God will answer all your questions in good time, and He will use your classes, your classmates, and your professors to do it. You also don’t have to have every detail sorted out before you start. God will provide for you as you move forward. Pray, and step out in faith. Ask largely or, in the words of the psalmist, “open your mouth wide,” because the Lord promises that He “will fill it” (Ps. 81:10). Take Him at His word. Walk by faith and not by sight. And, as you do, my prayer will be that our great God and King will use you mightily for decades to come, all for the praise of His glorious grace.

the things that we do and the words that we say. It may be hidden for a season, but it cannot remain that way. It will manifest itself visibly in our lives. In that sense, we cannot be "chosen" and remain in a "frozen" condition. There may be times when genuine Christians feel "frozen" or cold-hearted toward God and His Word and, at these times, our fruit may indeed be hidden or less visible. But this will not be a permanent condition. There is no such thing as secret Christianity. Sooner or later, either the secrecy will drive out whatever Christianity there may be, or the Christianity will drive out the secrecy. Genuine Christianity will always manifest itself visibly in our lives.

The second reason I say that the phrase frozen chosen is a contradiction in terms is because Jesus teaches that sound doctrine ought also to bear fruit in our lives. Not only should genuine faith produce visible fruit but sound theology ought to as well. This is one of the main points of the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4–15. The seed of the Word of God that is sown onto the good soil of the Christian heart does not remain hidden. It bears fruit, "thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold" (Mark 4:20). In other words, sound theology ought always to affect our lives visibly. It should affect our worship, our prayer lives, and the way we love our spouses, do our jobs, interact with other Christians, endure trials and tribulations, and reach out to the lost. If it doesn't, there is something wrong with the doctrine (the seed), the soil, or both.

What is more, the doctrine of predestination itself—which is the basis upon which anyone would claim to be "chosen" in the first place—is intended to lead us to warm-hearted worship, not to cold-hearted complacency or pride. Paul tells us as much in Romans 9:22–24. His point is that everything God has done in regard to His decree of election is for the express purpose that those who are "chosen" might know and revel in "the riches of [God's] glory" that are for us.

In other words, the doctrine of election ought to affect our lives. It ought to warm our hearts and lead us to worship and serve the Lord because of His great mercy toward us. It ought never lead us to a "frozen" condition but to cry out, with Paul, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" It ought to lead us to declare with our lips and our lives: "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Rom. 11:33, 36).

as it was in the Old Testament, but it is now specifically commanded by the Lord to be administered to every disciple as an outward sign of God’s covenant with them.

If we allow that baptism functions in the same way in the New Testament that circumcision did in the Old—a point that I will be arguing in a later chapter—then Romans 4:11 is an important passage in formulating an answer to our question, What is baptism? This passage states that circumcision functioned as a “sign . . . and seal of the righteousness that [Abraham] had by faith.” Circumcision was a sign that represented or pointed to the right standing that Abraham had in the sight of God, a standing that he had received by faith. It was an outward reminder that Abraham had been changed, an external marking that indicated he belonged to the Lord and was in covenant with Him. Circumcision did not earn Abraham his acceptance with God. It simply marked him out as one who was in right standing with God already. It was a visible pointer to an inward spiritual reality that belonged to Abraham by faith.

But, according to Paul, circumcision was not just a sign; it was also a seal or an official imprint or inscription. The word that is used here is reflective of a signet ring that would be pressed into hot wax to certify the official character of a document or of a high-ranking official’s seal that would guarantee the authenticity of some correspondence from or action by that official. The point is that circumcision was designed to function as a guarantee to Abraham confirming all the promises of the covenant to him. It marked him off as belonging to the Lord in a visible way and confirmed to him his rightful place in the covenant.

If in fact baptism does replace circumcision in the New Testament, then this means that baptism functions in the same way that circumcision did, namely, as a sign and seal of the righteousness that is ours by faith. It is an outward sign that points to an inward spiritual reality and marks us out as belonging to the Lord. It is a confirmation that everything Jesus accomplished on the cross is ours by faith in Him.

With this in mind, we can say that baptism is a rite of washing or cleansing in water that is commanded by the Lord Jesus Himself to be a sign and seal of the inward washing of all our sins and thus of being counted righteous in God’s sight only through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ will not perish. Although our sins and our rebellion clearly deserve an eternity of destruction, that is not what we will receive from God. He will be merciful. He will spare us from destruction. He will not give us what we deserve. Jesus has ensured that. Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift (2 Cor. 9:15).

But John 3:16 also stands as a warning that there are only two types of people in the world: those who are perishing and those who believe in the Son and are thus spared from perishing; those who "remain" under God’s wrath for eternity and those who believe and receive eternal life instead (John 3:36). Each person's response to Jesus determines which of the two categories he or she is in. Those who respond to Him in faith and obedience (which is the fruit and, thus, the proof of genuine faith) will not perish but will have eternal life. Those who do not respond in faith and obedience will not be shown mercy. The wrath of God will remain on them for eternity.

The good news of John 3:16 is that, though we were all at one time numbered among the perishing, now, through faith in Christ alone, that is no longer the case. We have been shown mercy. And for that reason, we will not perish.

Paul, believing is more than simply acknowledging a few important truths. It necessarily involves the heart. Even the demons believe the facts about God (James 2:19). But they hate those facts, just as they hate God Himself. They do not believe in their hearts but only with their minds. Paul says that faith believes both with the mind and with the heart. It trusts and puts its hope in the things it knows about God, just as it trusts and puts its hope in God Himself.

Romans 10:9–10 goes even further by adding a third component to believing: we must also "confess with [our] mouths." The reason for this is that believing and confessing must go together. We must confess "Jesus is Lord" with our mouths precisely because we must believe Him and His promises with our hearts (see Matt. 12:33– 34). True faith always reflects itself in our speech and actions, albeit imperfectly. If our faith never manifests itself in our speech and life, then it is not a real faith. It is not a believing in the heart.

This means that genuine faith will gladly submit to the lordship of Jesus. It will trust Him and entrust itself to His Word. It also means that faith will necessarily be repentant. It will not persist in an attitude of defiance and rebellion against the Lord but will acknowledge Him to be Lord in every area of life. And it will bear the fruit of love for Christ and His people. The most glorious thing by far in this passage, however, is the promise that Paul holds out to us. He promises that, if we believe in Jesus in the above-mentioned way, we "will be saved." Regardless of who we are or what we have done—remember, Paul himself was a murderer, a blasphemer, and a persecutor of Christians (Acts 7:58–8:3; 1 Tim. 1:13)—we will be saved from the guilt and condemnation that our sins have brought upon us (we "will not be put to shame"). We will be saved unto the glorious "riches" of God freely bestowed upon "all who call on" Jesus as their Lord and Savior. He—and He alone—is the "Lord of all." There is no other name under heaven by which anyone can be saved.

go hand in hand.

Mark makes this connection even more explicit in his account of the life of Christ. In 1:14-15, Mark records Jesus as proclaiming a gospel that overtly calls people to "repent and believe." For Jesus, faith and repentance obviously go together. The gospel calls us to both.

This is not to deny the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Jesus is not adding anything to faith but, rather, defining what faith actually looks like. Justifying faith is not a bare or naked faith, so to speak, but a repentant faith—that is, a faith that is always accompanied by repentance. To be sure, it is possible for genuine faith to be impenitent for a season. The example of David remaining unrepentant for a time after his sin with Bathsheba demonstrates this (2 Sam. 11-12). But an impenitent spirit cannot last forever. Christians may not be repentant immediately, but they will be repentant eventually. God will see to that, just as He did with David, because faith and repentance necessarily go together. Where one is, there the other will be also.

The same gospel that calls us to faith also calls us to repentance. If we focus only on the call to faith, we are focusing only on one side of the coin and ignoring the fact that there is another side. To draw a parallel with one of Jesus' most famous teachings, proclaiming faith but not repentance is like teaching people to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" without ever mentioning that they are also to render "to God the things that are God's" (Matt. 22:21). We are dangerously close to presenting a half-truth as though it were the whole truth and, thus, of committing a whole lie.

in the helicopter, they will set off in the direction that he advocates. They will follow his instructions (à la John 14:15). Their actions will demonstrate the genuineness of their faith.

When notitia, assensus, and fiducia are present together, true faith exists. And when true faith exists, good works will necessarily follow. The good works are not part of faith; they flow from faith. It is faith alone that receives God's gift of justification, but the faith that justifies will never be alone; it will always manifest itself in good works.

us. No matter how dark our pathways may get, no matter how black the clouds over our heads may be, we, like Job, are to strive with all our might and hold on until the day breaks — and it will eventually break. We are to say with Jacob: "I will not let you go until you bless me."

That is what struggling with the providence of God looks like. It is not to be a joyless endurance. It is not a senseless pain that is only to be tolerated until it can be eliminated altogether. It is trusting God in the midst of hardship and resting content in what He has sent our way, knowing that He really does intend all things for our good and for His glory. It is struggling well.

In the second place, struggling with God means that we are to struggle alongside God. The tension between the already and the not yet indicates that Christians are sinners. Although we are not what we used to be, we are clearly not yet what we will be. We have been made new in Christ, but we are not yet perfected. This means that the Christian life will necessarily be one in which the believer struggles with the sin that still remains within him (à la Rom. 7:15–25). The Christian must strive to put sin to death and to pursue holiness and righteousness. But he or she does this by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:12–14; Phil. 2:12–13). We are to strive, Paul says, because God is striving within us. We are to struggle together with God against our sin and against the evil one. And in this too we are not to let up. We are to hold on until the day breaks and the shadows flee away. We, like Jacob, are to struggle all night long and prevail.

As Christians living between the times, we should expect to struggle. We should expect to struggle with frowning providences, and we should expect to struggle against sin and against the Evil One. The presence of a struggle should not concern us so much as the absence of one. Living between the times means that we will struggle. But we must learn to struggle well. We must not let go until He blesses us!

after wind” (Eccl. 1:14ff.). But in Christ, everything and everyone has meaning and purpose forever.

in death.

on the move even when we cannot see what He is doing. Be encouraged.

how dark our sins may be, we know that Jesus really is able to wash us whiter than snow.

grace and favor of God when we toy with our sins. We cannot carry fire close to our chests without being burned.

One of the Bible verses that I keep taped to the shelf in front of the desk in my office is James 4:2: “You do not have, because you do not ask.” I keep this verse in a conspicuous place in front of me to remind me every day of the extraordinary power of prayer and to encourage me to spend time each day praying.

I have found that I need this reminder, mostly because I tend to forget over time just how important prayer really is. I need to be reminded that prayer works, that God really does answer prayer, and that earnest, fervent prayer really does have “great power as it is working” (James 5:16). That is the whole point behind James 4:2: “You do not have, because you do not ask.”

It is interesting to me that James nowhere qualifies his statement with a litany of Scriptural conditions and qualifications designed to make the more theologically precise among us feel comfortable with what he is saying.

He doesn’t mention anything about praying “in Jesus’ name” (see John 14:13–14; 16:23–24). He doesn’t mention anything about ensuring that our prayers are “according to [God’s] will” (1 John 5:14–15).

James doesn’t mention anything about persistence in prayer and how God’s timetable is not always the same as ours (see Luke 11:8; 18:1; and Gen. 25:20–21, 26, where we are told that God granted Isaac’s prayers regarding his wife, but twenty years went by before he actually received the answer). To be sure, he does stipulate that our asking is not to be a selfish asking that intends “to spend [what we ask for] on our passions” (v. 3). But there are a whole host of conditions and qualifications that James could have mentioned but does not. He simply says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.”

It seems as though James wants us to feel the full weight of what he is saying here, and he knows that if he were to add conditions and qualifications, we would miss the whole point. If he were to nuance his exhortation,  we would gloss over it and take it too lightly. He doesn’t want us to focus on conditions and qualifications but on the one simple truth that
prayer works.

You see, when you and I focus on qualifications and conditions, we tend to minimize prayer. We downplay its power and efficacy. And when we do so, we tend not to engage in it as earnestly and as frequently as we would otherwise.

We need to feel the full weight of James’ words and to be reminded that God really does answer prayer: “You do not have, because you do not ask.” I wonder, do you really believe that? More importantly, does your prayer life bear it out?

Sometimes life can be overwhelming. Troubles and afflictions can seem to come in waves. One washes over us only to be replaced with another, and another, in seemingly endless repetition. We fight to catch our breath and stay afloat. But before long, we find ourselves questioning God. “Why are You treating me this way?” we ask. “How long must I go through this?”

Where do we turn for help at times like this? One of my favorite places to turn for help is 1 Peter 1:6–7. Here, Peter reminds us that joy and grief can coexist in the Christian life, because grief is circumstantial but joy is not. Joy, as Peter reminds us, is grounded not upon what happens in our lives but upon all that God has done and even now is doing in and for us through Jesus Christ. He “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” and “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (vv. 3–4). We do not rejoice in our circumstances; we rejoice in God and all that He is for us in Christ.

Interestingly, however, this also affects our circumstances. That is Peter’s whole point in vv. 6–7. The circumstances that bring grief into our lives are intended by God to purify our faith so that it will be genuine to the end. Peter’s reasoning goes like this: if gold is purified through fire, such that all the impurities (the things that are not really gold) are removed and what remains is genuine gold, and if faith is “more precious than gold,” then it only makes sense that faith should be purified through fire as well, so that all the impurities (the things that are not really faith) can be removed. The end result of this process of purification is that nothing but genuine faith remains in the end.

In other words, purification is necessary to ensure that our faith will “result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Just as the fire is necessary to purify the gold—such that genuine gold remains in the end—so the fire is necessary to purify our faith—such that genuine faith remains in the end. And genuine faith is the only thing that will ensure we “obtain . . . the salvation of our souls” (v. 9).

The seventeenth-century Scottish Puritan Samuel Rutherford once summarized the message of 1 Peter 1:6–7 by saying that when we get to heaven and look back over the circumstances of our lives, we will see that God had done only what was necessary in our lives to bring us to heaven and that, had He done anything other than what He did, we would never have come to enjoy the “eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17) that we will then be enjoying.

Hold fast in your affliction, my friends. For by it, God is ensuring your place in glory.

What role does risk-taking play in the Christian life? Should Christians take risks? And, if so, how do we know how far to go? Is there a point when our risk-taking becomes foolishness instead of faithfulness?

As I have wrestled with these questions over the years, I have been regularly challenged by the testimony of the Gospels, which presents an overwhelming picture of what we might call “faithful risk-taking.” Time and again in the Gospels, we see examples of people taking risks that are motivated by their faith in Christ. In Matthew 8–9, for instance, we see no fewer than six examples of individuals who took a risk and stepped out in faith: the leper who alone approached Jesus (8:1–4), the centurion with the paralyzed servant (8:5–13), the paralytic and his friends (9:1–8), the ruler whose daughter was ill and the hemorrhaging woman (9:18–26), and the two blind men (9:27–31). In four of the six situations, we are explicitly told that Jesus responded to the individual’s faith—as it was manifested in risk-taking—by granting each what he or she desired.

We see this same emphasis on “faithful risk-taking” in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. Both the five-talent and the two-talent servants went “at once and traded with” the talents that had been entrusted to them. In other words, they put those talents at risk for potential loss. But the one-talent servant did not do so. Fearing loss and shunning risk, he buried his talent in the ground where he knew it would be safe from all loss. Tellingly, the reason he did this was because he did not really know the master (v. 24) and was a “wicked and slothful servant” (v. 26). The five-talent and two-talent servants knew the Master differently than the one-talent servant. They knew him in such a way that they did not hesitate to take a risk with his property. And in each case, we are told that the master blessed their faithful risk-taking with 100 percent returns. It is interesting that the five-talent servant earned five talents in return, and the two-talent servant earned two in return—a 100 percent increase, though I do not want to read too much into this. Jesus’ point would have been unaffected if the five-talent servant had earned only three and the two-talent servant only one. But the 100 percent return seems to suggest what Matthew 8–9 also teaches, that God responds to faithful risk-taking not just moderately but overwhelmingly and abundantly.

But how far should we push this? Is there ever a point when our risk-taking can become foolish? And, if so, how do we recognize that point? Quite simply, I think, the key lies in faithful risk-taking. It is not risk-taking to which God responds. It is faith. God responds to faith that manifests itself in taking risks and stepping out by trusting Him. If our risk-taking is faith-full, it cannot be foolish—no matter how incredible the risk or unlikely the outcome (see Matt. 21:21–22).

love and not by selfish pride.