Overseers and the Flock in the Digital Age, then, Calvin on the Knowledge of God and Man

Alpha & Omega Ministries

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

Comments are disabled.

00:08

Yeah, well, we're this first time after everything changed that we're trying to do this remotely and Yeah, nothing's working.

00:16

So Whether it gets recorded or anything else, who knows but we're we're here.

00:22

Thanks for being with us on a Tuesday afternoon Later in the day than normal.

00:28

I believe it's seven o 'clock Eastern Daylight Time not Standard Time Daylight and And So, yeah, it's been a interesting day in my house and maybe an interesting day when

00:42

I get home not really looking forward to what I may run into when I get there, but We will see when we when we when we turn so anyway

00:52

Lots of stuff we could be talking about in the news. I'm gonna skip all that for maybe

01:00

Thursday I know next week I'm gonna have to be really flexible Wife's going out of town and got other stuff going on at the house

01:12

This between trips this time around Has been trying to get everything done at the house that has needed to be done for you know

01:20

Sometimes years just had a new fence put in the back and I realized a lot of you folks don't

01:25

Get that When I lived in Pennsylvania I remember very clearly a lot of a lot of yards didn't have fences or if they did they were just a little short chain

01:35

Link thing you could jump over real easy, you know Moved out here to Arizona and You know we when we moved in in 1974

01:47

I've been here over 50 years now. We had these Wood slat fences that were

01:54

I don't know over there around six feet something like that and You just gotta realize you put you put wood in the

02:01

Arizona Sun If it's not alive connected to the ground getting water or something.

02:06

It's um, it's toast That stuff does not last very long at all. So everybody would be replacing those those things and eventually putting up block wall fences and I was telling

02:19

I was telling the g -ster back in st. Charles. I said, yeah, I'm having to have a Whole new fence put in along the alleyway and I told him how much it would cost and it was costly

02:28

He's I have to get no fence can cost that much. That's ridiculous And then

02:34

I send him a picture of this seven foot concrete wall Concrete block wall and he's like, oh, that's not a fence.

02:42

That's a wall It's like well here in Arizona, especially along alleyways in Phoenix You need

02:50

Need something there. I think you could have pushed the old one over It was there. It was there we when we bought the house in 98, so it's been there a while So anyways been doing a lot of stuff and still got a lot of things to do before the next trip

03:03

Lord willing leaving July 5th,

03:08

I think and again Heading back to Conway, Arkansas gonna be teaching apologetics if you've been thinking about doing that now's the time to get on board and Always enjoy that class way too much to cover

03:26

Long days. I mean 8 a .m. To 4 p .m Thursday Friday and 8 to 1 on Saturday as I recall so that's tough on the students

03:36

It's not all that easy on the professor either. So keep that keep that in mind but pray for those young men as they are preparing for ministry, and I really believe a knowledge of apologetics vitally important Vitally important.

03:52

In fact, you know what? Hold on a second I might it might be in that stack.

04:06

Um, you just gotta be careful playing with stacks of books There a book came out a couple months ago from Westminster Chapters from a conference.

04:19

It was held I think in 2023 on the future of reformed apologetics. It's a good and necessary defense of presuppositional ism, though, of course, you know

04:30

Dr. Olyphant doesn't like that term presuppositional ism. I get it I've heard him talk about it, but I don't know that we're ever gonna get rid of that You can't really call it

04:39

Vantillian ism, he wouldn't have appreciated that Dr.

04:44

Olyphant calls it covenant apologetics, but that doesn't really explain Okay, anybody can take their name and go and that means and you expand it out go but There's been a lot of attacks upon presuppositional ism recently a lot of folks who claim to be precepts

05:05

Aren't any longer they've become to a mystic and natural law folks and things like that and Anyway, the the book came out a few months ago

05:17

It's too late for me to use it as a textbook this time around But I will in the future because it does an excellent job in responding to a lot of them

05:26

Just really straw man misrepresentations from people that we can really respect You know,

05:31

I when I first taught apologetics at Golden Gate Baptist Seminary back in the 90s The scroll

05:40

Gerstner Lindsley book had come out on classical apologetics and it was just Terrible I It was it just did not seem to have any understanding of What Vantill was actually saying it was it was really a straw man attack

05:59

And there have been a number of them since then and there have been more even recently So there's a lot of a lot of people from the reformed side attacking

06:08

Vantill but not really dealing with what Vantill actually says and I'm just really thankful for Eli Ayala.

06:15

He's producing a lot of neat material for Apologia Studios on this subject on a regular basis

06:22

And so if you're not taking advantage of that you should it'd be really really really helpful

06:28

For you, um, so I want to start off Well, I guess being seven minutes in I already did start off didn't

06:36

I uh, but uh, I One of the great privileges I had years ago my wife is actually taking a trip with her sister to Europe since she

06:50

Had to stay home and take care of kids and take care of the house all those years. I was traveling to Europe and She figured once she retired she'd come along with me.

06:59

Well didn't work out that way, I'm not traveling to Europe anymore and So she's going with her sister for a few weeks and they're gonna visit

07:09

Zurich and I Told her I said, I'll take out loans. You can buy a McDonald's there

07:14

I can't imagine What things cost in Zurich now?

07:21

I mean I was there. What was that about? 20 13 14 15 somewhere around in there and it's been about 10 years a little over 10 years maybe since I was there and Back then everything was

07:36

I would I think it averaged out to about three times as expensive as Anything in in Phoenix, you know went and got a quarter pound of cheese

07:48

It was gonna cost you three times what it cost you in Phoenix, I can't imagine what it's now because what that costs now in Phoenix is three times what it did back then so Wow anyway beautiful beautiful country, but more millionaires in the in the population than anyplace else and that's why everything's so expensive.

08:10

There's just so much money floating around and So I Had the opportunity to do a chapel service and here you've got young students and Most of them can understand

08:29

English Very well, I remember in Zurich I taught the book of Hebrews and that was a tremendous privilege as well to be able to do that for those students, but I taught from Acts chapter 20 and It was an unusual

08:50

Now sometimes you just you you could you don't remember most of your sermons but sometimes

08:58

Things really click and you You feel like the Lord really did something in a special way and Talking to people living in a very secular society

09:14

And And talking about Declaring the whole the whole counsel of God the whole purpose of God Really very very memorable.

09:25

It really really was and so I want to look at this in light of the astonishing reality that things have degraded so badly in Online interactions

09:42

That there are people who are literally defending now the idea That what you do online

09:51

Should be irrelevant to the elders of your congregation That you can go online and you can post memes mocking pastors mocking elders using sexually unclean language and and then you can likewise

10:12

Then hide your activities and you can you can listen to that Listen to that Podcast you're not supposed to listen to in other words don't inquire.

10:25

They're not the only ones But they're the most popular ones You can listen to whatever you want to listen to it doesn't matter how subversive of the authority of the church

10:36

They throw the elders it is It You can do whatever you want online and the elders the congregation if they have any concern whatsoever about Your theological activities your theological beliefs the people you're associating with so I just cannot imagine in 1995 that there was anybody

11:06

You know, you know, I probably started doing my first teaching in Reformed Baptist circles around that time period

11:14

I would say probably about 30 years ago and There was there

11:20

There would have been no one who would have defended the idea That the people in your church

11:27

Their theological beliefs are none of your business And They can

11:35

Be talking about what do they want to talk about with other members of church? They can believe what they want to believe and It's you just you just need to stay out of it.

11:45

It has has nothing to do with you or You're micromanaging their thinking and all the rest of something.

11:51

You're like what? What? What do you what are you talking about? Everybody would have understood, you know, if if you were meet if you were a clan member and you're sitting, you know in the front row

12:05

Sunday morning and Then Thursday night or Friday night. You're out burned across on somebody's lawn wearing your your white sheet

12:17

Everybody would have said no. No, no. No. No. Yeah, the elders need to need to be aware of that that can definitely bring a tremendous amount of problems into the congregation and Need to sit down and talk to people about ethnic animus and hatred toward Fellow creatures made in the image of God and oh and everybody would agree to it now.

12:41

Oh, no. No, no now It's almost it's almost a spiritually good thing to be an anonymous person so that you can say whatever you want to say and You can do it with perfect confidence

13:00

That there are no authorities above you You are autonomous. You are out there doing your own thing

13:06

And it's just so obvious that reform theology has never viewed the church in that way

13:13

And Certainly in in my lifetime there was an understanding derived from passages such as Acts chapter 20 that elders needed to Watch over your soul

13:30

That doesn't mean they need to follow you around and read every book you're reading or anything else but if you are exposing yourself to Sinful false teaching

13:42

Then it's always been the concern of the elders concern for your soul concern for the fellowship

13:50

But not anymore now we literally have People Defending this as a this is a spiritually good thing

14:01

And in fact, you know, you may go to church with your wife and kids and stuff like that But you know, you can you can get most of your teaching and and your your encouragement to be manly

14:13

From people online, you don't need to you know, if you're not getting it from your church, you know You can you can get it from people online

14:20

That's that's what's going on So I just wanted to remind us what scripture says in Acts chapter 20

14:27

Remember the context Paul has called the Ephesian elders to himself Paul spent years in Ephesus building and founding that church giving it a solid foundation and Now he he knows he's

14:45

He's going into imprisonment. He's not going to see them again. And So these are his final words to them.

14:54

He says beginning verse 26 therefore I Testify to you this day and testify in Greek is martyr.

15:02

Oh which we get martyr And that's the verb form used here. I Testify I martyr eyes to you this day

15:13

That I am innocent of the blood of all Why would he say that for I Did not shrink back

15:22

I was not embarrassed To declare to you all

15:30

The counsel or purpose of God and so I Mean we could we could spend the rest the hour just unpacking the implications of that that How many how many today?

15:49

That stand behind the pulpit Can say what Paul said I'm I am innocent of the blood of all for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole

15:58

Purpose of God. I did not shrink back And we We all know that there are passages of scripture that are extremely challenging and that will offend a number of people in the congregation if we make application and Their entire topics that you're taught in seminary to not even talk about not even not even raised in the pulpit if you want to have a growing and healthy church

16:29

That's how you define healthy obviously and So Paul can say no one's gonna be able to blame me

16:40

Because I I declared to you the whole purpose of God Everything That God has revealed to me everything that as an apostle of Jesus Christ.

16:52

I understand I've declared to you and So I am innocent of the blood of all men.

16:58

I have done my duty and having said that he now says to the elders who will now need to take that a full explication of the counsel of God and And Teach and preach it pass it on to the next generation in the church

17:21

You know, we think of what Paul said to Timothy the things that you've heard me teach and declare in public

17:28

Pass on to trustworthy men this isn't some kind of secret oral tradition that has

17:37

Immaculate conception in it or any that kind of Foolishness that Rome comes up with on the basis of these texts

17:46

But it it does give you an organic sense of The fact that from the

17:55

Apostles perspective the next generations were to be trained up from within the church itself

18:02

It wasn't that you're gonna go shopping, you know have an online pastoral search thing

18:10

Seems to me I mean second Timothy 2 2 is one of the only places I can think of in all Scripture where you have some semblance of command about teaching

18:21

Raising up the next generation that kind of stuff and I think whatever we do in seminary

18:31

Bible College seminary it needs to be done in light of that apostolic example

18:39

And in many many times it's not so that's the context and so now he says to the elders

18:47

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock. So there there needs to be a

18:55

Constant Paying of attention There you don't get to take time off from this

19:04

You know be ready in season and out of season is what Paul's gonna say at Timothy Guard beyond guard for yourselves pay attention to yourselves so This is in the plural it's one of the reasons why

19:24

The ecclesiology I grew up with Was not a biblical ecclesiology

19:31

Where a local church would be run by deacons and they would hire a pastor, but they had the ultimate authority to hire or fire and So many pastors just Lived every day

19:51

Under the threat of their families and their livelihoods From deacon boards that were filled with people that weren't even qualified really to be deacons biblically

20:01

Let alone to be functioning as they were functioning and that is as elders There is to be a plurality of elders that is how told an accent

20:13

Went through the churches strengthen the churches by Ordaining elders setting apart elders in those churches.

20:19

That's how they are supposed to function. And so he Says to them plural look out for yourselves and It's not difficult to you know, it's never been difficult to be able to provide examples

20:41

That were widely known of Failures in ministry

20:49

Collapses in ministry not finishing. Well We just we just know about it so much faster today

21:02

I suppose I could think of a couple of positive things about that. But most everything else is negative

21:11

Sadly but we just we hear about it we hear about far and wide and You know fifty hundred years ago that mechanism wasn't there.

21:21

It doesn't mean the failures didn't take place. It's just that they didn't Get advertised nearly as widely and so We we know that they're one of the best ways

21:38

You know if you have elders Who recognize that they are equal with one another then they can hold each other accountable

21:47

I've seen lots of elder boards where you had one big Massive powerful personality and everybody else just There were just yes men

21:57

They did whatever the guy said If you're in a situation where you've got a guy and he says

22:02

I'm gonna do X Y & Z and there is nobody Amongst the elders that can stand up and say no,

22:10

I that's not what we've been doing. That's not what we've been going That's not wise. Here's why? then you don't really have a functioning eldership and That that needs to that needs to be part of it so be on guard for yourselves pay attention yourselves and for all the flock

22:30

Among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers

22:37

Episcopal Bishop overseer same office same thing and in a

22:49

Truly founded church a church following after the Holy Spirit under the beings the Word of God It's the

22:55

Holy Spirit that places people in these positions And You know, you might go why

23:05

I know I knew a guy he said the Spirit put him in there and he was this and He was that okay. Yeah, I know Sin happens failure happens

23:13

It does but you can't take that and then comes the conclusion that there is never an instance where the

23:21

Holy Spirit actually does what he says he's going to do and Appoints men gifts men and keeps men

23:32

It has happened It often happens without a whole lot of fanfare and hence, you know a whole lot of publicity but it happens

23:43

God does it So the Holy Spirit makes the elders the overseers

23:49

Puts them in that position to shepherd the Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood now we could

23:57

Go into You know dea to haima toss to do a do and talk about all the grammar and syntax and the way it's been understood and some people say blood of his own son and Is this really a reference to deity of Christ But that's that's not my my goal right here

24:22

The point is that the Holy Spirit places men in the church to shepherd the church which he purchased with his own blood and so the it is the preciousness of the flock it

24:39

Is the importance of the flock? That is in focus here It is a people that have been purchased with his own blood.

24:48

However, you understand that however you play with the the language the point is that the church has been purchased at a price and We know

25:05

We can go to Ephesians chapter 5 Remember during the Mahler debate. I pointed out that over and over and over again.

25:13

What is Paul's Statement about the church that God is making her holy

25:22

Blameless without spot or wrinkle is in Ephesians. It's Washington's very frequently associated with the blood of Christ the self -giving of the

25:33

Messiah This is all intended to have

25:39

And you know part of it's a lot of our backgrounds Where We had it presented to us that you know

25:50

Christ was doing what he could for everybody and if we sort of cooperate then we're sort of saying thanks to Jesus and and But he does it for everybody and and so, you know, he's gonna fail with all his other folks but with us we've we've made it possible for him to succeed and the idea of That form of synergism

26:14

Really ends up sort of perverting the biblical perspective and that is it's

26:20

God's intention to make the church in a certain way and he has the power to accomplish that and It's God's intention that the church be holy spotless blameless without wrinkle without out any

26:40

Mark of imperfection and we look around go. Wow. We're not even close. Well Yeah, I mean we we do know that in its fullness that is yet future

26:56

However, we are we are called to strive for that and hence when the overseers are

27:05

Shepherding the flock there is going to be a regular Constant consistent

27:15

Emphasis upon purity of speech thought action deed

27:26

Zealous expenditure of energy and service visiting the widows and the orphans

27:36

Evangelizing Seeking to save the innocent outside abortion clinics, which is one of the things we do today, obviously and so This is what the elders should be doing there to shepherd the

27:49

Church of God because it's precious It was purchased with his blood there is a personal element to that that is you know evangelical churches are

28:01

Are schizophrenic Because an evangelical

28:08

Arminian Church That holds to penal substitutionary atonement Is schizophrenic

28:17

Really is it's holding to contradictory beliefs penal substitutionary atonement is a

28:27

Reform doctrine because it's personal The elect are known to God Christ dies in their behalf.

28:32

It's personal and so the church Is personal to God in that sense?

28:39

purchased with his blood the Arminian aspect of that denies that but Most people can't get away from it because it's so clear in the

28:50

Bible. There certainly are a lot of people denying it today so here is

28:55

Paul saying to the to the the overseers This is where God has put you and he says

29:04

I know verse 29 that after my departure after I go away savage wolves

29:14

Will come in among you not sparing the flock now just in passing couldn't the couldn't the

29:20

Holy Spirit cause every heretic that walks into the congregation to Just explode and confetti

29:28

I Need to see this guy walking down toward the front. Oh Wow, there you go.

29:34

There's another heretic that God just took care of for us. Well, he could but he doesn't and so Paul realizes that he has a

29:48

At least the church in Ephesus not so much churches in Galatia but the church in Ephesus so many people who know him close personal relationships

30:00

That Those infiltrators those people who will sneak in Will do so after he's gone and so they will come in among you not sparing the flock.

30:13

They're savage wolves They're savage wolves theologically

30:20

They rarely in the congregation and in front of the overseers and deacons

30:31

Display their true nature. They are wolves in sheep's clothing they will show their savage nature as As Paul said they they snuck in secretly

30:49

To spy out the Liberty we have in Christ Jesus. That's how they come in. They sound like us.

30:54

They talk like us They attend service, but it's what they're doing on Thursday night or Friday night

31:00

That makes the big difference they won't spare the flock and From among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

31:15

So You know, I see people What was the thing recently there was

31:25

I'm not sure if it was the g3 thing, but I saw some Roman Catholic saying well so much for sola scriptura and I'm like Okay, shall we talk about the pornocracy in the in the papacy?

31:40

please Yeah, I won't that that's a that's really really really reaching for it, especially when the

31:49

Apostle himself says I know it's gonna happen and It's gonna happen within an eldership within a church that I spent three years training people

32:03

Notice the verse 31 therefore be watchful Remembering that night and day for a period of three years.

32:09

I did not cease to admonish each one with tears if an apostle Can invest that kind of time into the eldership of a church and then still say after I'm gone

32:18

They're gonna be men who arise from your own ranks And they're gonna speak perverse things

32:26

Stuff I've never taught you for what reason to draw away the disciples after them

32:34

They want followers in our day. They want clicks. They want views They want online popularity and You know,

32:44

I think in some ways is almost worse now in the sense that You can do this anonymously, you don't you don't have to you don't have to marry him

32:54

You don't have to bury him. You don't have to visit him in the hospital That stuff that you do as pastor when you've got an online flock they can just take care of all that stuff on their own and you'll just take the clicks and maybe the donations a little patreon support here there and everywhere, you know, and There you go

33:16

So therefore be watchful remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears and Now I commend you to God and the word of his grace

33:25

Which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all Those who have been sanctified

33:32

Having warned of the coming of perverse false teachers. What does Paul direct them? He directs them to the

33:39

Word of God to the God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up It is able to build you up, but sometimes doesn't happen.

33:49

Yep. God has his purposes God sometimes brings judgment upon an area a a healthy

33:54

Unified Church is a blessing upon any nation So why do we have any healthy unified churches in the

34:02

United States right now given what we're doing? Good question. Good question. But here's the point

34:10

You are to shepherd the flock of God and Part of that Responsibility is to recognize that there are going to be people who are going to rise up Amongst the eldership and within the flock itself will speak perverse things and you must warn and you must exhort and The idea that We today literally have people who are saying you know what?

34:38

It's it's it's pastorally abusive For you to be concerned about these

34:46

You should people should get to believe they should be able to do whatever they want if you want to go online and call people homosexuals or gay or talk about I Won't even go there this kind of stuff and and accuse people of things accused ministers who've been in the ministry for 40 years and Been Married for 43 and and all right, that's perfectly fine

35:15

You go ahead because that's not going to impact us at all Well, let me tell you something

35:21

If you think people having people like that in your congregation is not going to impact you it will it will

35:30

Now, of course again, if you're just looking for a congregation online, you know clicks and stuff like that That's different but what an amazing day we live in when we have

35:45

Moved so far away From basic fundamental truths to accept and believe

35:55

Silly silly silly things like this. All right. I just looked at the clock and realized well, it's going by really fast and So I need to get to this this is

36:08

I had this this is The first three books of the Institute's I have a

36:15

No, it's at home I have a full -size

36:21

Institute's huge That I had bound back in the day this one. I had bound let more cheaply.

36:28

It's leatherette type stuff It's not real leather, but it's lasted real well, and it is thoroughly marked up and Some of you old old old old old folks

36:39

Without to make ministries know that back when we had offices on 16th

36:44

Street south of Camelback We would have studies in the

36:50

Institute's once in a while. And I was those were those are great days. We had nothing

36:57

With porous church mice, but just in love with God's Word and God's theology and and so this was this was one that I used back then so a lot of this this marking in here all the

37:10

Yellow and purple and stuff like that came from that and I just I just I've said many many times

37:18

When I open up book one chapter one I Feel like the the ink may smudge

37:29

Because if I can give Calvin any Tremendous Commendation It is the fact that his writing is rarely once in a while, but rarely dated

37:48

It speaks Centuries after he wrote it with just as much force as when it was first written

37:59

And That is that is highly highly unusual. I certainly would never claim anything like that for my writing and in comparison massive amount of material produced by Calvin my little pitiful few books so What I want to do is

38:18

I want to there's only Certain number of pages but so much of it is so good.

38:25

I Want to get into the census divinitatis the sense of divinity the sense of Knowledge of God knowledge of God in the sense of divinitatis are not identical.

38:40

Sometimes they're used in parallel And one of the reasons I want to do this is

38:48

There's a lie going on around the internet has been for a good year now year and a half and I and people will will just jump into a thread on X and we'll just say shut up and debate

39:03

Stephen Wolfe and I always go on what?

39:11

Because there's a number of people who have tried to set a debate up and We never agree on a topic

39:21

The topics he wants or I considered the exceptionally vague and Wide and Not good for a debate

39:32

I have in fact, hold on here. It should be over here. I think

39:38

I have specifically Let me see here

39:48

Yeah, I have specifically spoken of debating him on the issue of He says the presuppositional ism is inconsistent with the reformed tradition and I believe and there are many other people who believe that Presuppositional ism is the inevitable continuation of Calvin's thought in book one of the

40:12

Institute when you take what Calvin teaches in book one of the

40:17

Institute's on the knowledge of God the knowledge of man how we obtain these things and the census divinitatis and You then put the church

40:28

In the situation of being in a post truth post Christian Period like we are in now

40:39

Where you are to celebrate men who pretend that they're women Women who pretend that they're men

40:48

People who pretend to be one of 147 different genders and Have embraced a cosmology of Utter despair

40:59

There's no judgment. There's no heaven. There's no hell. There's no future happiness. There's a future life That was not the situation that Calvin was presenting was was facing

41:11

That was not the culture that he's speaking into so if you take the biblical framework that he utilizes and presents especially here at the beginning of the

41:26

Institute's and You make application in our day. What's that gonna look like? It's gonna look like presuppositionalism.

41:35

And so I have said You know when people contact us we'd like to do to help facilitate debate, okay fine.

41:45

Well here I will defend presuppositionalism against even wolf as being the necessary and proper

41:58

Continuation of Calvin's thought in regards to the sense of divinitatis knowledge of God things like that So it is a continuation of the

42:08

Reformed perspective now He's not the only one to deny that Fesco denies that as there's a number of people that to try to attack that They all end up sounding like they have secret statues of Thomas Aquinas in their in their closets in place, but anyway

42:25

But I've said I'll be willing to do that. And then I said, you know, because what he wants to do is

42:34

The state can enforce the first table of the law. So in other words the state can enforce true worship and My response is well that becomes an all mill versus post mill debate why because a

42:53

Post mill person would say yes Once the thing he denies is necessary takes place and that is the great move of the spirit that Draws the coastlands to seek after God's Torah Fulfillment of the promise the

43:10

Sun asked I'll give you the nation's heritage, etc, etc So it just simply becomes that that doesn't actually address the issue because it becomes an all mill versus post mill debate and I'm not interested in doing eschatology debates so my my suggestion that would be much more to the point was sacralism has damaged the witness of the church and the gospel sacralism has damaged the witness of the church and the gospel now that He's rejected that and I I certainly understand why

43:52

Even though there are people, you know, the the web and group is now going whole hog on sacralism and It's it's pretty amazing to be very honest with you

44:08

There is no way you can be a sacralist and a Baptist at the same time So, I don't know how long it's gonna take but eventually those guys are gonna have to go, you know

44:23

This doesn't work out. I mean look they're getting an Anglican to do this stuff right now. Anyways, so It's just a matter of time till they figure that part out

44:35

But It's just so self -evident that sacralism has damaged the church witness and I can give you hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of examples anybody who studies church history good

44:50

And Like I said last time, you know once we do that deep dive into the period after Nicaea deep dive into Nicaea to You just have example after example after example after example after example of where sacralism has fundamentally

45:12

Damaged the church's witness the church's theology the church's practice It's just it's not even a question so I I can certainly understand why he won't touch that one 10 -foot pole either

45:27

So that's that's my thinking and looking at this is Maybe to bless all of us in Not thinking about all the corruption in the

45:39

United States government today, which seems to be universal I don't know how anything.

45:46

I don't know how we've gotten as far as we have and to think with Calvin about these

45:52

Foundational issues which I think can give us great clarity and has value Long far outside of National politics or anything along those lines, so I'm just gonna start reading make some comments along the way my goal

46:10

Not today is to get into the discussion

46:21

Yeah discuss things like this besides if all men are born and live to the end that they may know

46:28

God and yet if knowledge of God is unstable and Fleeting unless it progresses to this degree It's clear that all those who do not direct every thought and action in their lives this goal to generate from the law of their creation

46:38

This was not unknown to the philosophers Plato meant nothing But this when he often taught the highest good of the soul is likeness to God where for and he goes on Therefore it is worship of God alone that renders men higher than the brutes

46:51

Through it alone. They aspire to immortality. I want to get actually all the way through to chapter 5 and Section well really all the way through chapter 5 in regards to the the knowledge of God I'm just seeing all these things that I've marked here and you start reading is like, oh, yeah, that's oh then there's

47:18

It's better to start at the beginning. So we've only got like 12 minutes anyways, so Nearly all the wisdom we possess

47:27

That is to say true and sound wisdom consists of two parts the knowledge of God and of ourselves

47:37

I'm not gonna get very far if I make comments in every sentence, but it is important for us to realize

47:45

That The young generation that has come up in public indoctrination

47:52

Doesn't have a context to even place these words Because knowledge epistemology has been so atomized so Degraded in our day

48:07

God's not there. There is no transcendent ordering principle You don't know where the laws of logic came from even if you know what they are

48:18

So this idea of even being able to Talk of wisdom

48:26

The knowledge of God ourselves the relationship between these things. This is stuff that you have to introduce to people it's beautiful, but you have to introduce it people

48:37

I mean the scripture does it for us, but That's one of the struggles that people have when they convert if they're not being taught consistently

48:45

In the Word of God, but while joined by many bonds which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern

48:53

In the first place No one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God in whom he lives and moves.

49:00

Acts 17 20 For quite clearly the mighty gifts with which we are endowed are hardly from ourselves

49:09

Again hardly from ourselves. Well modern person goes they have to be that's the only source they are for ourselves

49:17

Indeed our very being is nothing but subsistence in the one God then by these benefits

49:25

Shed like dew from heaven upon us. We are led as by rivulets to the spring itself

49:31

Indeed our very poverty better discloses the infinitude of benefits reposing in God The miserable ruin into which the rebellion of the first man cast us especially compels us to look upward

49:43

Thus not only will we in Fasting and hungering seek thence what we lack, but in being aroused by fear we shall learn humility

49:56

For as a veritable world of miseries is to be found in mankind and we are thereby

50:02

Despoiled of divine raiment our shameful nakedness exposes a teeming horde of infamies

50:08

Each of us must then be so stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness as to attain at least some knowledge of God Thus from the feeling of our own ignorance vanity poverty infirmity and what is more depravity and corruption?

50:24

we recognize that the true light of wisdom sound virtue full abundance of every good and Purity of righteousness rest in the

50:32

Lord alone When I first read and marked these words

50:41

They did not strike me as if they were written in a foreign language.

50:47

I Calvin wrote the final edition Institute's 1559

50:52

Latin. He did a French translation after that before he died in 1564

50:59

So I don't mean that kind of language Just that because I have this entire sentence mark thus from the feeling of our own ignorance

51:09

Vanity poverty infirmity and what is more depravity and corruption? We recognize that the true light of wisdom sound virtue full abundance of every good and purity of righteousness rest in the

51:20

Lord alone How many of those words have?

51:27

almost any meaning To the youngest generation I mean

51:35

Calvin assumes a context Calvin assumes a an ability to understand that you want to Want to have the true light of wisdom

51:51

You want to have sound virtue? You want to have full abundance of every good purity of righteousness

51:59

Who speaks like that our language is so focused upon ourselves anymore these transcendent things that that make us more than just Animals not present.

52:22

God can restore them. I'm just simply saying I'm talking about the culture is outside of Christ to this extent

52:28

We are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God And we cannot seriously aspire to him before you begin to become displeased with ourselves

52:38

What man in all the world would not gladly remain as he is what man does not remain as he is

52:43

So long as he does not know himself that is while content with his own gifts and either ignorant or unmindful of his own misery

52:52

There's a good description of modern man ignorant unmindful of his own misery

52:59

How does that happen now? Constant entertainment Never have a moment of silence always have something playing in the ears, right?

53:11

You know those type of people They're hiding from something It's silence contemplation meditation hearing the conscious speaking

53:23

Accordingly the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to see God But also as it were leads us by the hand to find him.

53:31

That's the first Paragraph Yeah, I would be willing to state that there are many many books being published today in the

53:42

Christian publishing world, which is Totally different than it used to be that do not have the amount of basic wisdom and Benefit in a 175 page book that you have in that one paragraph

54:05

Seriously Section 2 again It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself

54:18

Well Let's say that's true Then you need a clear word from God to be able to do that For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy

54:30

This pride is innate in all of us unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness foulness folly and impurity

54:41

Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and also to the Lord who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured

54:50

For because all of us are inclined by nature to hypocrisy Lot of folks don't believe that it's a lot of People who call themselves the children of the

55:03

Reformation don't believe that anymore a kind of empty image of righteousness in place of righteousness itself abundantly satisfies us and Because nothing appears within or around us that has not been contaminated by great immoral immorality

55:20

What is a little less vile pleases us as a thing most pure Wow, there's This is again where the the ink smudges

55:30

He would have applied that differently in his day But think of the modern church think of the situation we're facing today

55:40

What is a little less vile pleases us the thing most pure so long as we can find our minds within the limits of human corruption

55:50

If you don't have an external standard That comes from God and does not change then you're always just gonna be comparing yourself with others like you and hence you can be quite convinced of your

56:06

Righteousness and holiness and things like that Just so and I remember when

56:12

I first read this just so an eye to which nothing is shown But black objects judges something dirty white or even rather darkly modeled to be whiteness itself if all you ever see

56:26

Is dark objects and something just slightly less dark will seem like the brightest white

56:35

Indeed we can discern still more clearly from the bodily senses how much we are diluted in estimating the powers of the soul

56:41

For if in broad daylight, we either look down upon the ground or survey whatever meets our view around about We seem to ourselves endowed with the strongest and keenest sight

56:50

Yet when we look up to the Sun and gaze straight at it the power of sight which was Particularly strong on earth is at once blunted and confused by a great brilliance and thus we are compelled to admit that our keenness

57:02

And looking upon things earthly is sheer dullness when it comes to the Sun So what happens in estimating our spiritual goods as long as we do not look beyond the earth being quite content with our own righteousness wisdom and virtue we flatter ourselves most sweetly and Fancy ourselves all but demigods

57:23

Good description of liberal theology right there suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God and to ponder his nature and how completely perfect are his

57:34

Righteousness wisdom and power the straight edge to which we must be shaped Then what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us

57:45

Will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness What wonderfully impressed us under the name of wisdom?

57:54

will stink in its very foolishness What wore the face of power will prove itself the most miserable weakness?

58:04

That is what in us seems perfection itself corresponds ill to the purity of God true words true words glad I had my

58:19

Jehovah's Witness friend who bound this I've told you put some ribbons in here

58:32

Amazing technology and I don't even have to worry about the battery die and Amazon can't come along and and erase the book either

58:43

There's definitely I'm not saying there's something wrong. I've got a huge Kindle library. It's you know when you travel it's

58:51

It's great, but I like I like having the paper books around to it's it's good stuff so we haven't gotten to everything yet, but we've started laying a foundation and Just to consider these these basic foundational issues in our day my long -term goal is

59:13

We need to be able to think clearly On the foundation of God's Word So that we are not trapped by the dead ends of What we're facing today in our culture

59:28

If we want to be able to really address any apologetic issue any challenge It comes up if we understand where we're coming from if we understand what our foundations are

59:38

Then we will be we'll be ready to go. All right, so I'm not sure what this program is gonna look like when we get it done

59:46

Everything's gonna work and I'm assuming from what rich said is I need to play the outro music as well and So I will start that right now and we will say we will see you