Blessing & Begetting of Faith - Art 23-24

The Lamb’s Book of Life and Election Before the Foundation of the World

We had scheduled out what we were going to do when we first decided to teach the confession and each week we we we have our schedule and It's not always one. So tonight I'm going to be doing two actually I'm going to be doing the benefits of faith and then article 24, which what does it say in the book brother?

The beginning of faith. Okay, so so we're actually going to be looking at article 23 and 24. I don't have my book in front of me. Printed it in my notes here, and I didn't have the title so forgive me for that.

But I want to begin with a question before we read the article tonight. I want to ask a sort of a thought provoking question. When was your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? When was your name written in The Lamb's Book of Life,.

I'll I'll I'll take anyone who might want to take a shot at that. Yes. Okay. And says before the foundation of the world anybody want to argue with an I? Wish I had that. I wish I had that video. What'd you say brother?

Okay for the foundation of the world. We were chosen and that you're reading that from Ephesians. Ephesians, yeah. Absolutely, yeah chosen and elect are the same thing when we elect a president we choose a president, you know, even though we don't really.

Yeah. Maybe before that well certainly before the foundation of the world is the the language of Scripture right and The the article that we're about to read is actually going to say something to Reference what you're saying Lee because the article says from all eternity.

Which is interesting, but I wanted to before we read the article I wanted to seek to answer that question and I would agree with you and and Anybody who wants to fight and we'll be fighting on the same side.

Revelation 13:8 and the Names Written from All Eternity

Because the Bible says in Revelation 13 8 I want to invite you to turn there before we read the article to Revelation 13 and verse 8 because it does speak to this issue and I asked the question because I do think there's some confusion about this.

I think there are those who believe that their name is written in the Lamb Book of Lamb's Book of Life when they believe in Fact I have heard preachers say Come forward Receive the Lord Jesus Christ and your name will be written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

I've ever heard that. Wow, I didn't know that I Don't remember that one. Wow, okay. Well, that's interesting. I Learned something new every day. Wow. Well, listen to this we're going to start in the ESV it starts with the word and which means it's connected with the previous verse.

I'm going to read 7 and 8 verse 7 says also it was allowed to make war on the Saints and to conquer them and Authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation and all who dwell on earth will worship it.

Everyone whose name Has not been written Before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. So this tells us that the names that are in the Lamb's Book of Life Have been there From before as Lee said before the foundation of the world and we could say as the article says from all eternity.

It's not as if God is sitting up there with his big pen, you know with his notepad. Saying whose name am I going to add today? Whose name who's going to believe in me today? Who is going to become a faithful follower of Jesus today?

God has determined From before the foundation of the world the names now that is offensive to some people. That's hard to understand brother Andy just spent his time talking about the nature of saving faith is something that God does.

May we never forget that, you know that he referenced the psalm. He says they will be willing in the day of my power. Some translations. I like say they will be made willing. Made willing sounds like an oxymoron to say someone is made Means they're unwilling but to be willing means they're not made and yet the scripture using the term made willing because God is the one who is Causing us to want to as my old professor said God gave me a new wanna.

You know the new want the new desire and so with that being said in our minds I'd like to now read article 23 as. And study it it says speaking of faith. All those that have this precious faith. And I love the fact that they use the adjective precious.

It is a precious thing to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Says all those who have this precious faith wrought in them by the Spirit can never finally nor totally fall away. Seeing the gifts of God are without repentance.

So that he still begets and nourishes in them faith repentance love joy Hope and all the graces of the Spirit unto immortality and through many Storms and or excuse me and though many storms and floods arise and beat against them yet They shall never be able to take them off that that foundation and rock which by faith.

They are fastened upon Notwithstanding through unbelief and the temptation of Satan the sensible side of this light and love be clouded and overwhelmed for a time. Yet God is still the same and they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation.

Where they shall enjoy their purchased possession. They being engraved upon the palms of his hands and their names having been written in the book of life from all eternity. To call this the benefits of salvation is really to say An understatement this one paragraph expresses so much about the concept of faith and the blessings of faith and It begins by reminding us that this precious faith was given to us by the Holy Spirit The one who came to bring it to life in our heart.

It says wrought in them by the Spirit and It automatically jumps into the first and great blessing says all those who have this precious faith wrought in them shall never Finally nor totally fall away.

Now we've talked about a lot the concept of eternal security. People talk about once saved always saved what a. What a cheap Trinket of a name to put on such a precious doctrine. And it really is because oftentimes when somebody says once saved always saved it's in the negative.

Well, you don't believe in that once saved always saved doctrine. And why do you think people deny once saved always saved? Because they want to have the idea that you have to if you come to Christ experience a life change and There are people who don't there are people who say they came to Christ and there's no life change and they'll say that person fell away.

You say but wait a minute. Did they ever truly come? Did they ever truly experience the gift of regeneration? Did they ever have the spirit wrought in their heart the change? And That's the point of this Opening line.

It says those who have this precious faith. And by the way, I've read through this. There are ten pronouns in this all of them pointing to people who have faith those they them. They're all pointing back to this concept of those who have faith.

It says all those who have this precious faith wrought in them by the Spirit can never Finally nor totally fall away. Why? Because they're able to stand on their own two feet. No. Because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

And by the way If you want to make a little note there because it's not in the notes below which surprises me. Sometimes they reference scripture and don't reference scripture in the notes, but that is Romans chapter 11 verse 29.

Romans chapter 11 verse 29 says specifically. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. What does repentance mean? First and foremost simply stated it means to change the mind. All right, there's more to it than that.

But the simplest. The simplest definition of repentance means to turn. To change the mind to turn go in one direction turn going the other direction. God does not give a gift and later say I'm taking it back.

God does not give someone salvation only later to turn around and say you can't have it anymore and That's the point that the brethren are making here in this passage. They can't fall away not because they're not because they're too good, but because God is too good.

That's the whole thing about salvation and eternal security it's that God is the one who is too good to change. And he goes on they go on it's a so that he still begets and nourishes in them. Faith repentance love joy, hope and all the graces of the Spirit unto immortality and Through many storms and though many storms and flood arise and beat against them.

Yet they shall never be able to take them off that foundation in rock by which faith they are fastened upon. I Love that the idea of being fastened to the rock. You know Jesus talks about two houses. One is built on the sand and one is built on a rock by the way, that is referenced.

That's Matthew 7 24 and 25. That's the first reference that they give and the idea Jesus said he said some men build their house on sand and when the winds come and The storms beat down upon that house.

It will fall because it is founded upon the sand. It does not have a good foundation this is but southern other men will build their house on a rock and That house when the winds come and the storms blow it will stand because it's founded upon the rock.

See, this is the thing. It's not the strength of your of your faith that saves you. It is what your faith is in that saves you. You know, we can have a weak faith and sometimes we do. Sometimes our faith weakens because of something that happens.

Sometimes our faith struggles because of something we're going through sometimes we Experience times where we have almost what I would say a time of faith drought here had a faith drought where it felt like it was really dry in your soul and you were you just felt very Very separate and yet God is still there.

That's the point that they're making. God doesn't change. In fact, it goes. I'll jump it down a couple lines. It says God is still the same. God is still the same even when we're in a drought. God is still the same even when we're struggling.

God is still the same. In fact, it says this it says notwithstanding through unbelief and temptations of Satan the sensible sight of this light and love be clouded. And overwhelmed for a time. You see the brothers are not only talking about people who are struggling with their faith but they're talking about people who are going through times of I would say in a sense going through times of Having given over to sin.

Can a believer I want to ask this and please know that I am not encouraging sin in any way. But can a believer give way to sin for a season? I would say yes. I think we would. I think we'd agree brother you'd agree with that that a Believer can give way to sin for a season.

I'm not saying it's right. I'm not saying it's good. I'm certainly not saying it's something that we should encourage. We don't go around saying because you can you should but the reality is. Any man who has been a Christian for any length of time that doesn't say he hasn't had some struggles.

That he hasn't given way to sin at certain points as Amen, amen any man who says he has no sin is a liar. So Their point in this is that God is still the same. Even when we fail, you know, we talk about sanctification.

What is sanctification. The same sanctification is the process by which we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ as the textbook? Theological definition. Justification is how a man is declared righteous before God.

Sanctification is how a man is conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and you figure you start here. The image of Christ is here and a lot of people think that it is a straight Upward climb and I Will I will only give my own experience because that's the only experience I've been able to have haven't had anyone else's.

But I can tell you from my experience. It looks a lot more like like this and There are times where there are struggles and there are times where there are battles. And again, I'm not encouraging the struggle.

But I'm also saying if we are struggling. That's that can be a good thing because it means that we actually care About the things we struggle with. People who don't struggle with sin are lost. Because it's the lost man who doesn't care whether or not he's sinning.

He's not struggling. It's like this. I've explained this in my remember my wife and I were talking about this years ago. And I I thought this was very helpful and she did too. I said everybody who's dead is like the fish that are dead in a stream and they're going along with the Water of the stream and as the stream goes and the water carries the dead fish.

But when if one of those fish miraculously came to life and started to go against the stream. He's going to be fighting a battle now. Against all of those dead fish that keep smacking it in the face and he's going to be fighting the current which is trying to take him the other direction and they're going to be times when that living fish is Is worn out by the struggle.

But he's still alive because God has made him alive that's the difference right but it's still a struggle and so. The point here is God is still the same. You know if we are if we have moved away from God or what's the old thing if you are far from God who moved?

You know, it's you you've the one who's moved far away. So come back. He's still where he was when you left. And so the brothers recognize That God is still the same and they go on to say this and they that being those who have precious faith remember there are ten pronouns all of them point back to that first those with saving faith and They shall be sure to be kept By the power of God not the power of Paul Turner or the power of Jack Bunning or the power of Andy Montoro or the power of Keith Foskey, but the power of God they're kept not by their own power, but by God's power.

That's it this key Unto salvation where they shall enjoy their purchased possession. They didn't purchase it, but it was purchased for them They being engraved upon the palms of his hands. And their names haven't been written in the book of life from all eternity.

What a blessing. Why is it that we can persevere? Because our names are written in the book. Why is it that we were saved to begin with because our names are written in the book? Why is it that we ever came to faith is because our names are written in the book is because God has chosen us.

It's because he has chosen to be good to us. It is his goodness that has saved us and He fastened us upon the rock and so I think that Clarifies I hope what article 23 is telling us about the benefits and by the way These are early Baptists remember the Baptists.

This is their first English confession and they are clearly identifying themselves as believing in Salvation as an eternally secure Possession of the elect not something that goes up and down with the winds of men's Devices or attitudes.

Faith Comes by Hearing the Word of Christ

So now on to article 24 the beginning of faith and This is an important one. Because not that any of them are less important, but this one is particularly important because there are some who accuse Calvinists specifically of Believing that God Because he saves whom he chooses Does not have to use means by which to save them.

But that God can save them any way he chooses and By that I've heard people people who call themselves Calvinists say well We don't have to preach the gospel. God's gonna save them if he's gonna save them and he's not going to use.

He doesn't need us. He's he'll save who he's gonna save and He'll do what he's gonna do. You understand what I'm talking about. That's something called hyper Calvinism and hyper Calvinism isn't a Calvinist like brother Andy who drinks a lot of coffee.

That's not he drinks. Andy drinks decaf, so that's a he's a unhyper Calvinist. But a hyper Calvinist is a person who because of their Calvinism do not believe that Man has any responsibility regarding the gospel that God is ultimately the one who is going to save and therefore there is.

It's it's all of God and none of us in regard to The means of salvation. I'll give you a good example of this and I may have told the story before. But I remember years ago. We were at the fishing hole and you know what the fishing hole is.

It's our booth. We go out and we share the gospel. We give out tracks. It's been a while since we've done it because of coded but it's really an enjoyable time when we start doing it again. I hope every one of you plans to be a part of it because it's you know it's some of the best conversations I've ever had standing in front of that booth and talking to people and When we're handing those tracks out and talking to people one time a guy came up to me and He said he looked at the sign.

He says you're your Sovereign Grace Family Church. You guys are Reformed right? And I said, yes, he says well, then why are you doing this? I Said what you mean? He said well, why would you be out here trying to share the gospel?

God's gonna save who he's gonna save. And I said Well, we're not hyper Calvinists. We're Calvinists, but we're not hyper Calvinists. We believe that God uses means to bring about his ends and we're part of the means that God uses to bring about the ends that he has determined and this man I found out through the course of our conversation was himself a hyper Calvinist and He was arguing with me.

This was unnecessary. What we were doing was unnecessary and he pointed to a little girl who walked by he says if God wanted to save that girl He'll do so with or without you and I said sir. I have people to preach to I'm gonna go back to doing that because that's what God called me to do.

Ordinary and Extraordinary Means in Conversion

I Think our conversations over so having heard that little anecdote. Let me now read article 24. Faith is ordinarily begotten by the preaching of the gospel or Word of Christ without respect to any power or agency in the creature.

But it being holy passive and dead and trespasses and sins doth believe and is converted by no less power than that Which raised Christ from the dead? So what is that article saying? First of all that article is saying that there is something that precedes faith and yes Regeneration precedes faith.

We've discussed that in our last with brother Andy, but something else precedes faith the content of the message that precedes faith. We know that from Romans chapter 10. What does Romans chapter 10 tell us?

Faith comes by Hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. There has to be something to believe in before a person can believe. I've heard people who say I believe. I say what do you believe in? I don't know.

But I'm good. I believe but I have no idea what I believe in. Then you don't believe in anything. If you don't know what you believe or might I say if you don't know in whom you believe then your faith is useless.

We have to believe in Christ and we have to hear of Christ to believe in him. So the preaching of the gospel is a necessary precondition to the exercising of faith. Now I do want to make a point and I I think I understand the Intention of the brethren here as they wrote this but if I Will say there are times where I have to I have to sort of go back 400 years in my mind and try to figure Out why they use certain language.

I do my best, you know I do study and things but there are times where I'm not exactly sure but I think I know and I'll give you what I think and if you disagree with me, then we can We can be just Disagreeing and it doesn't matter they're not on this.

It's not scripture. But when they say faith is ordinarily begotten by the preaching of the word of the preaching of the gospel word of Christ. I think that what they are saying is that there are times where there may be other ways means that God uses.

But then we have to ask the question. What would be an Unordinary or maybe that's not a word. Well, what would it be? What would be the in order? What would be an inordinate? Way or not ordinary way and my first one that came Extraordinary.

I love you. Y 'all know me. I love words words are my favorite thing and But but okay, so what would be an extraordinary way? I'll give you my first thought and this just kind of came to me and that was a gospel tract.

That's not preaching but as Jeff Pollard man, I Have listened to a lot. He he Chapel Library out in Pensacola. He produces a lot of literature and we've got some of their literature on our table out there.

He believes in tracts and they've given out tracts 40 years their mission ministry and he calls them paper missionaries. He says you put a paper missionary in somebody's hand and even though you're not preaching the gospel to them.

They're getting the gospel in written form. And so That could be an extraordinary way God might use and I've heard of people reading a gospel track. I've heard of people throwing a gospel track on the ground somebody else picking it up.

Reading it and getting saved. This is not something that is impossible. God uses Extraordinary means but they're still getting the content of the gospel, right? They're still getting the message. How they got it wasn't through the standard proclamation of the word.

What would be something else? Can y 'all think of anything? I that was the one that came to my mind. Just reading the word. That's yeah. Amazing. That's a good thought. You know a lot of people do that a lot of people just give out the Bible think about the who's that group that gives out Gideon's yeah, and and you know, they believe that giving the Bible to people is a way to Convert people because that is the Word of God faith comes by hearing hearing by the Word of God this is the Word of God we're gonna put it in your hands and I Mean, I love the Gideons.

I love what they do you know and I Don't know a lot of their theology. But I know their their method of putting the Bible in people's hands is a wonderful thing when we set up our booth At the fair. I always like to be close to them because we don't give out Bibles.

We give out tracks and bookmarks, but I always tell kids I say I'm giving you a bookmark. That has a Bible a gospel message. I say if you don't have your own Bible you go see those men and they'll give you your Bible to go with your bookmark.

Right and they and they're happy to just for me to send them over to them. And so yes, that would be an Unordinary or extraordinary way. What's another maybe I've heard that too. Yeah, and certainly that story is not unique.

I've heard some similar things from missionaries and things that have come back and and it's it's hard sometimes I think we sometimes get a Somewhat of a Western worldview of How God works and we think oh, well God's not doing that or doing this.

And I think we have to be careful to say what God's not doing. I think there are some crazy things that happen and charismatic movements and stuff and certainly don't want to affirm craziness, but think about What what's his name who came here?

Scott Scott. Yeah Scott tells the story of the of the man who the generation before it had the dream that he was going to meet these people and They're gonna have this great message and that was what opened up the gospel to get there.

So again that would we say that's extraordinary. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely, brother and and time doesn't allow us to go through it all but prior to there being a written word God still spoke.

Right, and so I think that could be another way that the brothers when they say the ordinary means is to preach in the gospel. But of course if we look through the Bible, there's all kinds of extraordinary ways God revealed himself to Noah and to Abram and to Isaac and Jacob and all these others.

The Power of God in Regeneration and Perseverance

So yes, certainly. Well for the sake of time I'm gonna I'm gonna draw to or begin to draw to a close because the next thing it says it says that the you know It's ordinarily gotten by the preaching of the gospel without respect to the power of the creature that's the point of this is it comes through the gospel not through the person and It comes through the power of the Spirit not through the desire of the individual and the salvation of a sinner is No less powerful Than the raising of Christ from the dead.

That's that's an amazing thought. People say have you ever seen a miracle? Every time Someone bows the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a miracle and it's a bigger miracle than seeing Lame person walk.

It's a bigger miracle than seeing a blind person. See it's a bigger miracle than seeing a deaf person here. It's even a bigger miracle than seeing Lazarus walk out of the tomb. Because the same power that did all those other things is the power that brings a dead in sin sinner To life in Christ.

I want to read to you. And I thought this this is a song we're going to sing Sunday. We've never sung this song here that I can remember. But it's a hymn and I want to read the lyrics to you. Many of you will probably know it it's.

No, it's not that one. But I'll read it as if it's a poem, but we're going to sing it on Sunday. The title is I know whom I have believed. It says I know not why God's wondrous grace to me he hath made known.

Nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for his own. I know not how this saving faith to me He did impart nor how believing in his word wrought peace within my heart. I know not how the Spirit moves convincing men of sin revealing Jesus through the word creating faith in him.

I Know not what of good or ill may be reserved for me or weary days or golden days before his face I see. I know not when my Lord may come at night or noon day fair. Nor if I walk the veil with him or meet him in the air.

But I know whom I have believed and am persuaded That he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Let's pray Father in heaven. I so thank you for the opportunity to be reminded of the blessings of faith That comes through the gift of your Holy Spirit by the power of the word preached Proclaimed and received by those whom you have set apart Before the foundation of the world.

I pray even now Lord that you would continue to sanctify us that you would continue to clean us from the depth of sin that we deal with and Lord as a church that you would draw us closer to you and that our church Lord would be a biblically functioning church and Lord that we would love you and love your word and love your people.

We pray this in Jesus name.