Nichols, one of Sproul’s successors, does a fantastic job at bringing the reader into the story of God’s grace through His servant R.C. Sproul. As you work through each page, it is as if you are listening to Sproul himself, sitting at the fire next to him and hearing his own story.
Down through the centuries, God has been pleased to raise up a long line of godly men who were ‘pillars of truth’ in their day. These men were identified as the “reformers” of their day in succeeding generations, calling men and women back to the Bible. Like the people in Nehemiah 8:1, they long to let the Bible loose and roar! As one scans the landscape of Church history, we find very quickly that most of these men were gripped by the truths of sovereign grace and emboldened to further the cause of Christ on the earth. Bishop J. C. Ryle identifies these men in the following manner:
“God stirred up and brought out [men] to do his work, without previous concert, scheme, or plan. They did his work in the old apostolic way by becoming the evangelists of their day. They taught one set of truths. They taught them in the same way, with fire, reality, earnestness, as men fully convinced of what they taught. They taught them in the same spirit, always loving, compassionate, and, like Paul, even weeping, but always bold, unflinching, and not fearing the face of man. And they taught them on the same plan, always acting on the aggressive; not waiting for sinners to come to them, but going after, and seeking sinners; not sitting idle till sinners offered to repent, but assaulting the high places of ungodliness like men storming a breach, and giving sinners to rest so long as they stuck to their sins.”[1]
