Another Solo DL

Well greetings welcome to the dividing line at least. I hope it's working. I'm not really 100 certain we had some well I had. I'm like I doing this. Rich is on a well-deserved vacation, and I'm not even sure when he's back.

I hope he's back Monday. Because if we're gonna do a live program in studio, it'll have to be on Monday. But the next day available is Thursday after that, but anyway, I'm sitting in the kitchen again.

We are testing out a few things and I thought for a second here I had fried my laptop that would really that's that's a negative thing really negative thing, but for a second I thought I had and so We're doing a lot of testing and that means of providing power.

Didn't work. And I've never heard the computer make that noise. Okay I'm trying not to break anything. Just just trying to do a program. That's all we're trying to do. So anyway, hey, I wanted to start off today I mentioned on the theology matters micro blog, which I need to do more with and I apologize for not doing more with I Mentioned this morning.

Do you ever wake up? I'm not sure why they call them an earwig or An ear bug or something like that. But you I woke up this morning with a with a song in my heart. Yeah, okay with a song running through my mind and I I Don't remember the last time I even heard it.

I'll be honest with you But as you get older that doesn't really seem to matter. I'll remember stuff from my youth and it's been 40 years but It was a I Don't know we we did sing it in quote-unquote big church, but it was normally with with youth and This is sort of by the way, this is this is sort of for our our homeschool kids.

We have a lot of homeschool kids that watch dividing line and this is for you guys. That's what we're doing it right off the right off right off the bat right to start this was a song that we sang back in my old churches when I was a kid and Some of you may have I think most of you have heard of it.

It's called count your blessings and The only thing that was stuck in my mind primarily at the first was the chorus Count your blessings name them one by one count your blessings. See what God hath done.

Count your blessings. You have to sort of have a little pause there name them one by one count your many blessings. See what God hath done it. I Just couldn't get it out of my mind and I started thinking more and more about how rare That mindset is in the church today and I ended up looking up One of those Gaither guys guys the long hair singing this song and Some of the rest of the lyrics are really good.

When upon life's billows you are a tempest tossed when you are discouraged thinking all is lost count your many blessings. Name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy? You are called to bear count your many blessings. Every doubt will fly and you will be singing as the days go by. So amid When you look at others with their lands in gold think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold.

Count your many blessings. Money cannot buy your reward in heaven. Nor your home on high. That's really not appropriate today with with equity and critical theory. You know, it is an older and older him.

You'll have to forgive her for that. So amid the conflict whether great or small do not be discouraged. God is over all. Count your many blessings. Angels will attend help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

So this is that was from the Baptist hymnal and I certainly remember seeing it but what's what's really struck me about it was just how unusual this Mindset is amongst Christians today and I got to thinking and this is for the kids again.

I got to thinking about my mom now. My mom died 11 years ago more than 11 years ago now and Thankfully, I can still remember her voice and have wonderful memories, especially of Thanksgiving and Christmas and our turkeys and Dressing and playing pit if you've never played pit.

If you're one of those folks stuck playing video games all the time get it get a group together and play pitch. It's a lot of fun really is anyway I was thinking about my mom and I was thinking about the fact that She instilled something in me early on in life that has stuck with me and It was you know, she wasn't an educated woman.

She loved to travel but only got to go a certain number of places. She kept a list of how many states she had been to and never got to all 50 she would like to have and I think I think she got to go to Hawaii once but wasn't not a jet plane very often and these days I don't want to be on one either but She Did not have an easy life and certainly never had much of the world's goods but She would say over and over again There are two kinds of people in the world those who choose to be happy and those who choose not to be.

You can't you can't change what the Lord has called you to do so you can just choose to be joyous in the midst of what he's called where he's called you to serve and you know, She came from she came from a generation she my parents remembered the depression and She often talked about hearing the milk wagon Coming down the street early in the morning.

The clip-clop of the horses it was not yet motorized where she lived and so it was different generation and that generation Did not have the modern idea that we are supposed to be Given everything on a silver platter and that if If I don't have what the person across the street has or the person in the neighborhood over has That I am to be displeased about this I am to covet what they have they should give up what they have so I can have it.

This was never the mindset of her generation. It wasn't the way I was raised. I was not raised at all to be jealous of. The kids in my school, for example had more than I had. It was it was made a part of my thinking very very early on that You have what you have and you have the gifts you have based upon the sovereignty of God and his purposes in your life and You are to use the gifts and the things you've been given in the greatest way possible to honor Christ and you just never.

I Don't find my I never found myself sitting there. But if I just had that if I just and I never used that as an excuse either in other words I was not raised to be a victim. I Was not raised even though there were plenty of people of all sorts of races that had so much more than we did it just never crossed my mind to view myself as a as a victim as someone who should be Complaining and and things like that.

No, my my mom taught me that that you find joy where the Lord has placed you and So you are to count your blessings and really if if We all had that attitude kids and adults alike if we were to focus upon What a blessing truly is if we were to if If we really had a biblical doctrine of God if we understood his holiness we understood his greatness and if we really had a biblical doctrine of man and understood our unworthiness and The grace has been extended to us.

That's why I've always said and kids if you haven't read it yet. It might be a little bit tough until you're a little bit older, but the hiding place by Corey ten boom. Just the things that the ten boom family went through and yet maintained.

That thankfulness to God for all that they had been given. That's what we need. Oh. The difference that it would make in our lives the difference it would make in our happiness and our families. Not just our personal lives, but in our our husband and wife relationships parents with kids just how many of our problems are really just based upon our Covetousness we want things.

We don't have we and and when you want more than what God gives you. Then you will never truly experience happiness with the gifts that he does give to you. And when you think about how much you know, it depends on each individual, but you know, I look at my family and I think of all the health that we've had and I and I think of the safety that we've had.

I've never been in a serious car accident. The only accident ever been in I've been little bumps at low speed and I wasn't driving. I've when I think of how many miles I've now ridden on a bike not all I'm outdoors anymore but I've written over a hundred thousand miles outdoors and A bicycle is absolutely invisible to most cars and trucks and things like that.

I've had a few close calls. I've never been hit. I know lots. I have lots of friends who haven't hit and I know people have died and I know that there are times I get on that bike and I'm like, oh, I've never been on a bike.

And I I don't even think about the grace. It's been extended to me over the years that I would have not only the safety to do that. But goodness I think about some of the some of the climbs I've done and the cliffs I've looked over and and The teeny tiny little tires that I'm racing down a hill on.

And I haven't had a blowout that has broken every bone my body and things like that. It could still happen, but it hasn't happened and I I need to be thankful for all of those things. But we just tend to focus upon the negatives.

We very rarely tend to focus upon the positives. We don't Having an attitude of Thanksgiving. I mean, okay, November is still a long ways away. Well, actually not. But it's it's coming fast. Thankfully, but it's still a ways away and and that's the one time we think about Thanksgiving.

It shouldn't be it shouldn't be. Thanksgiving is a Christian Attribute it's an attribute of the Christian life. It's part of the Christian character and that's what thanking God for all your blessings count your blessings and Recognize that many of your may the difficult things you go through kids when you go through stuff.

Right now that seems like such a trial such a difficulty. It can be physical things. It could be injury. You could break an arm or a leg. Some of you are fighting disease. Some of you don't have a lot of the world's goods.

It's all sorts of things that can at the time seem really difficult and really hard. Very often in life later on you realize how much of a blessing they were how how God sustained you how? God ends up changing you so that you can be used in ministering to others because of what you went through in the past.

There's just So many things like that That you learn to trust him. You learn to trust him over time. It's difficult when you're younger, but you learn to trust him and that's what you need to learn from those that are older than you Who've lived this Christian life many many many more years than you have that God is trustworthy and you can count your blessings and I Know it's completely countercultural right now.

I Realize that that that's the exact opposite of what we are told today That we are to I mean, that's that's what that's what's so evil about critical theory in all of its forms from a Christian perspective.

There is no room for Thanksgiving in critical theory where somebody explained to me, please how this useful tool Has any room within the worldview that it presupposes for Thanksgiving contentment and counting your blessings?

I Mean the whole concept of intersectionality the whole concept it's based on victimhood. That you are owed certain things. No, you're not. No, you're not I Should have what that pertinent No, not according to God's Word it is such a Horrific, it just eats the soul out of the Christian faith.

It really does. It's it's sad to see so many people Buying into it, but but they are and so anyway, um Count your blessings name them one by one. I would I would Challenge not only the kids But all parents and everybody else older folks like me watching take the time turn that stupid squawk box off and close the lid on that laptop and Turn the music off or at least find something like Handle to listen to it doesn't it actually helps you to think that keeps you from thinking.

There's some music that helps you think and there's some music that keeps you from thinking just that's that's a reality. Take some time and Think about all of the blessings think about stuff. You've never thought of but think about how many intersections you've gone through.

How many Infections you've been protected from. You might say well, but I got one but yeah, but you could have gotten 30 there are so many things to be thankful for and It's not and this isn't just well, okay.

I need to think about where I have more stuff than somebody else says no. No, sometimes Sometimes one of the greatest blessings is that you don't have What someone else does all of us if you've lived if you're past 35.

You have seen people who have been absolutely destroyed by their lust for things and by obtaining them. I Mean when they were younger it was something it gave them drive. Okay, but then once they obtained all destroyed them.

It just it just tore their heart out and they've been left with nothing. Sometimes the greatest blessing is that God said no. No, you can't handle that. That's that's not for you and Sometimes that's the greatest blessing that you can ever have.

So count your blessings name them one by one count your many blessings. See what God has done that that was how I woke up this morning and I'm sort of glad that I'm sort of glad that I did speaking of which I think my brothers and sisters who are Heading for The Southern Baptist Convention meeting Next week I I have so many friends in the convention.

I was ordained as a Southern Baptist I was member of Southern Baptist Church until 1989. I Taught for Southern Baptist Seminary until I don't know what about ten years ago something along those lines.

I forget when it was that I got booted out from my being reformed, but but I did and Enjoyed it and Appreciated it and anybody who's sitting around going out what happens there doesn't really impact me.

It does and We all know that the technical membership and the actual functional Numbers of the Southern Baptist Convention are two completely different things for almost all denominations. The actual functional membership is much smaller than the membership on tape on the paper but still you have major educational institutions and What's gonna happen is going to give us a Greater insight as to really where we are in Fundamentally the degradation of the of the local church and evangelicalism as a whole.

It's terrible that the world's watching the way that the world is and Reporting the way that the world is well It's more terrible is the fact that as I sit back and I haven't said a lot about it. But as I sit back and as I watch what's going on and I see the politics I see the exact same politics of personal destruction that You see every political season in the United States you know, the midterms are right around the the bend and certain Certain groups behave in certain ways.

Okay, that's just all there is to it and It's sad to see the politicization of all of these things and the the utilization of political tricks and maneuvering and and all that kind of stuff my hope and prayer would be that there would be a revival breakout and there would be a Recognition on the part of so many of these young leaders that this This woke movement this critical theory is So far removed from anything that can be described as having been derived from Scripture and from a scriptural worldview.

My hope would be that you would not only see the people that are driving This movement and mark them and avoid them but the day themselves would repent and Recognize that what they're promoting will result in the destruction of everything.

It's been built up over the years. I Cannot help but just you know, your heart is broken when you see What's going on? You know, there's gonna be so many people who want to try to find some type of middle ground but in this situation there This is this is how the left destroys every denomination.

They push they push they push and then when the meeting comes it's like, okay now we need to compromise well, they've moved the center point the center point was was here and They've been pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing now, they're out here and they say well, let's compromise to here.

Which is now way to the left of where the center point had been and if you're not willing to go from over here all the way to over here then you are hateful and unloving and and Divisive and and everything else.

I Would I would like to think that there might be a way to see the convention avoid splitting but There's just a part of me. It says I it seems inevitable This is such a foundational issue. It's it goes to such a deep level that I I'm skeptical as to whether anything can really change as far as that's concerned whether it'll happen at this convention or Over the course of period of time afterwards, you know, who knows?

I I have no way of knowing but I certainly pray for those that are going. I hope that they will. I'm hoping that What I'd like to see is if there has to be a parting the ways. This is this of you know, when people come to me as a pastor and say no, I have to leave my church.

We've had a lot of people come to us at our church this year Saying well, you know, I never ever thought We'd come here, but our church went woke. All of a sudden over the past year everything's changed and the beliefs have changed and the emphasis has changed and and What I was trying to say to folks is if you're going to leave a church try try as Much as it depends upon you to leave in peace.

So that if you were to encounter Those folks at a restaurant or Someplace that there would be no issues and saying hello and things like that try to leave in peace and then don't Bring your criticisms into your next church.

Don't It always worries me tremendously when I encounter people even if they're coming and saying wonderful things about my church if They've got a big focus on Negatively describing the church they came from that always worries me.

That's a problem. That's just simply being transported over to your neck of the woods rather than where it was before and so as Much as it depends upon us, you know, if there has to be a part in the ways May it be one that is gracious and appropriate.

I Don't know what's gonna happen. I'm looking forward to Hearing from folks that are there. I hope that there are good and focused conversations. But the fact the matter is there's no way to dodge the fundamental foundational issues that are facing the SPC right now.

It's just there's just no way and the vote percentages Are gonna tell you a lot I mean record number of people coming and so both sides. Both sides of the spectrum are saying yes our people that are making up that record number.

We'll find out we will find out. I'm not sure exactly next week's gonna be really challenging a number of fronts. But hopefully the week after What I want to do on the program and it may be a long program we'll see.

When I did something similar this once and I think it was Was it on the same topic or at least in the same area? I remember we did a three-hour program once that was that was long as we had done. We had to take a break halfway through and stuff like that.

But I want to do on on Twitter. I Threw out a question got a lot of responses. I thank you for the responses When I threw this out on Twitter, but I got a lot of responses when I when I asked if If you had to explain to someone to a critic of the faith.

What? Pollinarian ism was Eutychian ism Nestorian ism and what the hypostatic Union is. How confident would you feel that you would be able to do so and I Got a lot of different answers. The only answers that I just rolled my eyes that were done.

Does it matter? I bet there's no Christian out there that could care less about any of those for the ones is like That's worry about them too much. They're not actually going out doing anything. They're just happy in their little enclave, but it was clear to me that it's been a long time since we covered those things first of all and Secondly we need to Delve into it and you might say well why?

Well Because so much of the foundations of our worship and our theology and Especially when we talk about the doctrine of Christ because that's about the doctor about the relationship of the divine the human in Christ.

That's that's the issue. Whether we recognize it or not that is the intersection between our theology our doctrine of God and Our soteriology our doctrine of salvation is of course Christology our doctrine of Christ and Hence if we if we want to have a solid biblical foundation.

Then we've got to know what the issues are and we've got to know how those issues have been addressed in the past that doesn't mean And it will require us I guess to talk a little bit about what I'm gonna be talking about here in a moment and that is What is authoritative what what is our fundamental authority in Defining these issues that's really the question and Finding that balance what we want to search for we want to what I work toward is balance.

We want to on the one hand affirm Solo scriptura, we want to have the highest view of scripture. God has spoken God has given us his word. It is to function in a particular way in the church and We are to always be reforming.

But we're also not the first generation of Christians and So it's absurd to just simply ignore what every generation before us has said. But it's also equally absurd to not recognize that there are generations before us Didn't really get the answers overly correctly.

Maybe we're functioning with bad information bad presuppositions things we've learned we're not the case, but Becoming mature in this field really requires you to be able to hold on to that balance between Respecting what Christ has done through his spirit in the church over the history of the church to this point and then recognizing That not everything that was written by even men that we respect from the past Is really reflective of God's truth as found in Scripture.

Hard balance. Very hard balance. No one ever finds that balance perfectly in this life. But it's something we should always be striving for and that's why Theology should be done in community in the church amongst the elders amongst the whole congregation between congregations.

I'm so glad that that I can write to men literally around the world some of whom I have great respect for in how they understand things how they see things and We can have conversations and we can engage these things.

But you can never get away from the fact that you must Be able to test any tradition on the basis of Scripture. Or you end up either with the very obvious Overthrowing the scriptural authority on the basis of tradition you have in Roman Catholicism or something like that.

Or you have the equally dangerous stuff. We saw with Dave Hunt many years ago, remember? Dave those are your traditions speaking James. I have no traditions. Oh Yes, he did he he had his traditions and Once you say you don't have any.

Then they become your ultimate authority, that's the that's the problem and so finding that that balance. It's it's a challenge. It's something we work together to be able to accomplish. Is something we need to be doing so we'll do we're gonna do a either a program or a series on the key issues of Christology, I think the homeschool kids are more than capable of Learning terminology like Apollinarianism or Eutychianism and Astorianism.

They're just long words. They're just names. Once you know what the context was what they mean, it's not that complicated. But we do need to understand those things and understand why we take the positions that we do.

Speaking of which Speaking of which it seems that two days ago sitting in this very on this very uncomfortable unpadded wooden seat I stirred up a little bit of a controversy because I just happened to mention in passing that I had listened to a reasonable faith broadcast and They had played clips of some guys from SES Criticizing William Lane Craig on the issue of divine simplicity and in listening to Craig's responses.

I was like Well in comparison to what they were saying, you know, that makes sense. I mean. And evidently there's that was grist for many a Facebook group I Don't know where you guys have the time to do that.

I really don't but there are Folks reformed folks reformed Baptist folks who? Inhabit the dark inner workings of Facebook and we're Coming up with even here's another reason why we need to get rid of James White and We don't want to have anything to do with him and stuff like that.

Okay, that's. But Some of the stuff that I saw and I I didn't spend didn't invest much of my time I'm Preaching on Sunday. I've got the next we are gonna do by the way. Yeah, we are finally gonna do the next sermon in the baptism series.

Put that off for a long time. We're gonna cover John's baptism and then one passage in the Gospel of John About the baptism practiced by Jesus's disciples and We will think it's probably not to be your normal uber long apology a sermon either.

We might get out of there on on time for once. But we're gonna be considering Why it is that John's baptism and then the disciples that the baptism the disciples themselves practiced In the days of Jesus John chapter 4 Is not more often seen as the vital and important element that it is in Asking the question, you know, what's the immediate predecessor of Christian baptism and there are a lot of you who just automatically jump to circumcision well, if the Apostles were baptizing at Jesus's command who were they baptizing and for what reason and Wouldn't that be the immediate predecessor.

We'll be thinking about a few things like that. So we're gonna go ahead and do them on Sunday and that'll be live on YouTube and Facebook and unless we've gotten bounced off by them, but you never know anyway.

So the the issue That caused so much controversy again, I'm thankful for some brothers I've already contacted and who have been providing me with some stuff to read and things like that and especially one particular brother and you know who you are and you know how much you mean to me and It's great to have people you can just go to that.

You just know they're gonna have the resources it's it's a blessing but The issue is divine simplicity and what that means and Normally in in most Discussions of theology when you see something about that it is defined along the lines of the fact that God is not complex and and that is all this language has a history that we we struggle a little bit with in our modern context because all these words one of the one of the biggest difficulties we face in Talking about God is when we talk about anything that is unique about God, which is a lot and We the danger is we tend to import the meanings that we use in the human realm into the divine realm even when we try to filter that out even when we try to avoid doing and So when we talk about God's being in Contrast to the divine persons we Say that God is Simple and not complex.

It doesn't mean that it's easy to understand God because he's simple and not complex. That's like a mathematical Formulation or something. No, what we're talking about is the actual makeup of his being and if God's being was complex then it would be made up of Constituent parts that are different from one another and so if God is like a massive Star Wars Lego spaceship If his being is Actually made up of a bunch of smaller parts Then there's all sorts of questions about what if you remove a part?

Is each part divine? Can you can you have one-tenth of the divine nature? Does would one-tenth of divine nature still be divine and and all the other? Questions that mankind comes up with when you start asking Things like this that honestly most of the biblical writers never gave a second thought to So when we confess that God is simple and not complex All I've ever meant by that and I think all most Christians who've even thought about it only a small percentage ever thought about anything Beyond this is that what we're saying is that God's being is properly basic simple supreme and Is not constituted of lesser parts that together come up to Being divine.

No, you can't divide God's being up. I've taught that for Forever. The Sun is not one-third God He does not share one-third of the divine being you can't divide the divine being up into parts and pieces.

Agree with all of that so if you define that as divine simplicity great, but In history people have gone way beyond that and of course Aquinas Went way way way way way way beyond that but he wasn't the first one to do it all the way back to Augustine.

You had a Concern on the part of some people that the divine attributes Could be seen as parts of God and So if you do think of for example God's holiness God's love God's mercy. We think of these as the interactive type of Attributes that we experience as He works providentially in the world and in relationship creatures but then we think of the omnis like omniscience and omnipresence of Having all knowledge being present in all of his creation things like this.

Are they? Separate are they separatable out from the being of God. Can you can you contemplate? The omniscience of God if God is not fully God and hence Can you contemplate the omniscience of God if God is not omnipresent?

So so the argument is God has to be really God for you to Understand any of his attributes. Because you're talking about the one being of God that cannot be divided up. And so the language that ended up being used was That all of his attributes are one that they are the same and If all you're talking about is that To truly speak of the omniscience of Yahweh.

You must accept everything that scripture reveals about Yahweh. Okay, I can understand that but that's not the same thing as saying That God's omniscience is the same as his omnipresence when we make statements.

We have to ask where we're driving these statements from and if they're true about God. They're true because they came from scripture because God has revealed these things and so we can make true statements about God.

There are some people say you cannot make two statements off about God. He is so ugly unique. You can't make two states, which means God cannot actually reveal himself in a way that is glorifying to himself.

I reject that. If we're made in the image of God God has chosen to communicate with us so God can reveal truths about himself. I don't know I don't see how you can Read the scriptures and come up with anything other than that if you just start off with Plato or something like that.

Okay, I can see how you can have some problems, but let's start with. With a biblical worldview first if we can please and So I believe you can we can make true statements about God because God is one.

But God has chosen to reveal many truths about himself. Doesn't mean that there are many selves. God has revealed many truths about himself. So his omniscience is not his omnipresence. They're not the same thing the true statements one can make about the one aspect and the other aspect based upon scripture Should not confuse us.

They should enlighten us. It just seems like there is this idea. That Unless you conflate them all together. You're gonna blow God up into parts and pieces. Well a friend of mine As I said before sent me a quote.

And I wanted to just give it to you. It is from Basil Caesarea epistle 234 and Here is here is what he here is what he said. But God he says has absolute simplicity of being and These attributes of his which you have reckoned as knowable are of his very essence.

The absurdities involved in the sophism are innumerable. When all these high attributes have been enumerated are they all equally names of a single same essence? Is there the same common meaning in God's holiness and his loving kindness his justice and his creative power?

His sovereignty and his foreknowledge his bestowal of rewards and of punishments his majesty and his providence in Mentioning any one of these attributes are we declaring his very essence? So what what Basil recognizes is.

There are true statements we can make on the basis of divine revelation. Concerning God's holiness that are different than God's loving kindness now if you want to argue. But both have to be held together as representative of the one being of God.

Sure. Duh, that's monotheism. But there is no reason To then conflate these things out of some imagined fear that if you don't do so somehow you're gonna end up Dividing God into parts and passions and things like that.

So as I've been reading Statements from people, you know, they're they're literally saying if you don't believe this then you're not going to believe in In immutability and you're not gonna believe in an eternality and all these basic things and I just want to go.

Would you mind differentiating between immutability and eternality if they're the same thing you better use the exact same words, right? No, we have to differentiate between them and to say they're the same thing and one thing is extremely confusing and so that's that's what I had brought up and.

So there's people running around with their hair on fire now when we're actually talking about something that's. Where where do we draw the line? When we look historically Between that which is rooted firmly in the revelation that is the honest us and that which has now crossed into pure philosophical speculation that there is a huge period of development and At first what you're doing is you're answering important questions.

What what what question did Nicaea address? Well, is it possible to have a Jesus who is less than truly God? Well, since the New Testament identifies him as Yahweh did it the Testament says he's the creator of all things.

If You have a mere creature Jesus, then you you no longer have the incarnate Lord of Glory you don't so there are fundamental issues that are of Biblical import that have to be Defended have to be defined questions about them have to be answered, but how far do you take that?

One of the differences that I've always pointed out between Calvin and Edwards and many others but Just those two particular individuals here. You have two of the most brilliant minds of the modern age and One of the differences between them that I detect is That Calvin said where scripture makes an end of speaking so must we Edwards especially in his speculative theology on Adam and the nature of the will of man decides to go past that point and.

And even his friends would admit that that led him to Confusion and contradiction. And so where do you draw that line? And Where do we draw that line in church history? I mean, I'll tell you very very clearly.