1689 LBCF chapter 4 "of Creation"

Reformed Ex-mormon iconReformed Ex-mormon

2 views

0 comments

00:21
Okay, we'll go ahead and get started. Sorry for the, I know that you did. I know that you did.
00:27
I'm happy I caught it in time. It's good to see you guys tonight. I want to make sure that we're utilizing this equipment correctly, and I'm not very tech savvy, and so I'm thankful for Brother Rick.
00:39
That's right. I know how to break computers, I don't know how to fix them. Tonight, we are going to be in Chapter 4 of the 1689, going through creation.
00:50
Get this guy pulled up. As we open up there and get ready for tonight, would anybody like to volunteer to pray us in for the evening, for our topical
01:00
Bible study on creation tonight? Any takers?
01:11
Patty, please do. Thank you. Amen. Thank you,
01:52
Patty. Well, I'm really excited to be going through Chapter 4 with you guys, and especially to be talking on creation.
01:58
The last semester of my seminary, this is actually a chapter that I was able to write a little paper for, was on the exposition of Chapter 4.
02:07
I'm really excited and I'm just really excited to go through this chapter.
02:16
Last week, we finished up in Chapter 3, in our chapter of God's decree and just looking how
02:23
God's sovereignty works. We walked away from that chapter saying we can't ever comprehend it.
02:28
That was one of the main things I think we got. But ultimately, we know that God is sovereign.
02:35
He's decreed all things, everything that comes to pass, comes to pass immutably because it's God's will for it to come to pass that way.
02:43
If you notice, there's going to be a lot of probably reiteration in Chapter 5.
02:49
From what we were in from Chapter 3. Why is that? Well, Chapter 5 is divine providence.
02:54
It's going to see some of the maybe the more intimate ways of how God's decree plays out within history.
03:00
Why would you think, I know that we started in Paragraph 1, we got through Paragraph 1 last week on God's creation.
03:08
Why do you think the confessions between the Savoy Declaration and the
03:13
Westminster Confession and the 1689, why do you think that they've placed creation between God's decree and God's providence?
03:21
That's, I think, pretty important for us when we consider that. Maybe even more importantly, turn to the back of the confession, the very last chapter is the last judgment.
03:33
This would be what's known as bookends. This book was put together with order and things in mind when it did that.
03:41
Why is it that it starts off with decree, then goes to creation, then providence, and at the end of this book, it ends with the last judgment?
03:49
Why do you guys think that would be the case? I don't know whose hands to pick because we're all throwing them up all at once.
04:07
You're the one who wrote the paper on that. I know. Sorry, my fault. It would be my conjecture that I think the reason that they put this here is another emphasis in saying we didn't come about, creation didn't come about, what's around us didn't come about out of random occurrence, such as what the atheists would put forth of like a
04:28
Big Bang Theory, that creation is tied directly to the active decree of God.
04:35
That's why it would find its place right here. Those things are all tied together. So the decree of God, creation itself is tied together to God's decree.
04:45
The providence is God's holding together of that plan. It would be an okay way to define that quickly for us tonight, is the
04:52
God's seeing to the plan being done. So creation finds its place right there. Then the reason that the last chapter in this confession, again, my conjecture from this, is again, all these chapters that it talks about all the way until the second coming of Christ, is still within God's purposeful, sovereign, decreative hand.
05:13
His providence is being seen in those things. Creation has a purpose in it. It's not just random.
05:19
That's what I would argue why this chapter is in there. It's not Chapter 20, it's not Chapter 10, it's
05:25
Chapter 4. It's an important spot right here in our confession, in this confession for us tonight.
05:35
At the time of creation, God all -knowing,
05:42
God beyond comprehension, knowing everything.
05:47
That's amazing. Anyway, He created this fantastic world.
05:56
We live in a position that's so special, so unique, so perfect for what it was intended to be, everything.
06:09
We as humans have destroyed a lot of it.
06:19
It's amazing. The more we know, the more we know we don't know.
06:25
We continue on in our ways of discovering this incredible creation that is
06:35
God's creation. It's amazing.
06:42
As our human knowledge increases and increases, I would think it would bring more appreciation of humans to God.
06:56
I'm overwhelmed every time I think about it, what is this creation?
07:02
It's so marvelous. It is. It absolutely is. Well, for tonight,
07:10
I'm going to read for us the three paragraphs tonight. I know we already discussed last week from paragraph one, but we'll read paragraph one to three for tonight.
07:21
We might get to chapter five later, but let's go ahead and read paragraph one through three.
07:27
It says in here, in the beginning, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was pleased to create or make the world and all things in it, both visible and invisible, in a six -day period, and all was very good.
07:46
He did this to manifest the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness.
07:52
Some of the, obviously, Genesis is going to be the biggest place where this is drawing from the wording that this is being put forth.
08:02
Was there anything, before we look at paragraph two and paragraph three, is there anything that we remember talking about last week, towards the end of last week's
08:09
Bible study on that paragraph? We didn't talk about it, but we did talk about it.
08:19
Yeah. Ages to growth, and the interesting thing is that we're throwing off the idea of an age to growth.
08:26
So that wasn't in their minds, but when we look at it through modern eyes, we have to stress that that wasn't what they're addressing.
08:40
Again, this is what was laid out and it's countering it with the other false religion, where either things have always been typical throughout history.
08:56
There wasn't really any beginning. You have to recycle and recycle. What happened yesterday is what happens tomorrow, and the day after that is the day after that.
09:06
There's no need for a God. Also, I think the pagan mythologies of the
09:15
Roman or Greek gods, they would create, destroy, and then some of the first creations become demigods or whatever.
09:24
It still addresses the issue today. It's not like it's not relevant. Right. Right. Right.
09:45
So there was still argumentation back then of a different account than what the Bible has.
09:50
It's not maybe the narrative that's taught today from secular individuals, but this confession has worded things in such a way that it's still able to combat against those false teachings.
10:01
In my opinion, the reason it can combat about those things is because these verses or these paragraphs in here, these wordings, are coming directly from the
10:11
Word of God. In fact, the very beginning of this, the paragraph 1 where it says, in the beginning, so this is one of the areas that the 1689 has added additional wording for us over the
10:22
Westminster and Savoy. Not that the Savoy or Westminster had done something wrong when they did it, it just was lacking a little bit, and so the
10:29
Baptists saw it necessary to put this in here. But that very first phrase in paragraph 1, in the beginning, is added here for us comparatively to the
10:40
Westminster. And so this is important for us because that language is seen in John 1.
10:45
Right? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Nothing came into being apart from Him.
10:53
I'm probably butchering that quotation of verse 2 right there. I apologize. But another important thing that I would say in this text, in this paragraph here, is that even the reference is to Genesis chapter 1.
11:12
Right? It's not to Genesis chapter 2. The reason I bring this up is in the next paragraph, we're going to see it addressing the unique creation of man within creation itself.
11:27
And so paragraph 1, just like chapter 1 in Genesis does for us, is it's teaching to us that God's creation, everything that has come about, it is exhaustively created by God.
11:40
And then paragraph 2 and chapter 2 of Genesis 2 is telling us, well, inside that exhaustive creation of God, there is this unique being that God has created that's the image bearer here in His creation.
11:56
So we'll see some of that here in a little bit. I know last week we talked about how the historical view of things is that God created in six days.
12:06
Or that He created in a very short amount of time, which is combating today's views within the
12:12
Christendom and outside of Christianity too. The teaching that God is not involved with creation and is not involved with what's around us.
12:23
Or that God used the means of evolution to bring about what we're in right now. That's unbiblical and it's unconfessional in this paragraph, right?
12:33
I see Don smiling, right? I know that Don... When scientists come in and they try to inject things that they find, the idea that there is evolution from one species into another is totally false.
12:56
There is no evolution from one species to another. There's evolution within a species.
13:02
You get modifications that adapt into the environment, but not evolution from one species to another.
13:10
It just doesn't happen. Creatures are unique to that whatever they are.
13:19
A worm can't become a snake or a bird can't become a reptile.
13:25
It cannot happen because of the chemical, the genetic material makeup.
13:34
It can't happen. Right. And that would go along with... So turn to Genesis 1 with me.
13:41
We'll be in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 today just jumping around in those chapters here, talking topically on creation.
13:49
And what you're referring to right there is that in God creating animals, that he created animal kinds, right?
13:57
So that's why today we can have multiple types of dogs, but dogs can't go and breed with a lion, right?
14:04
They can breed with inside the group or the kind of dogs, and cats can breed within the kinds of cats, and worms can breed with inside the...
14:14
I don't know how worms breed, but they can breed within the kinds of worm, right? That's how creation has been set up, right?
14:23
So when we look here at chapter 1, verse 1, it says, In the beginning was God... Sorry, I'm quoting from John 1.
14:29
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the
14:36
Spirit of God was hovering over the surfaces of the water. Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.
14:46
We know how this story continues to go, that as the days progress, there is more and more creation that God puts forth.
14:55
When we come down to verse 25, God made the beast of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, and God saw that it was good.
15:08
Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
15:26
And God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him male and female.
15:33
He created them. Great, wonderful text for us, right?
15:40
So that's exactly what Don was just getting at. Let me just read this paragraph one again, just to remind us of this, that in the beginning,
15:51
God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So we see right in the beginning of that verse that the
15:57
Spirit was hovering over the waters. When we go to John 1, and you're more than welcome to go there if you'd like with me, but John 1, it says that in the beginning was the
16:08
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being.
16:18
So we can look at this, and we could infer from a multitude of texts that all three persons of the
16:24
Trinity were active in some way or another within creation, right? That's abundant to us when we look at this text, and that's what this confession is saying, the
16:33
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He was pleased to create or make the world and all things in it, both visible and invisible, in a six -day period, all very good.
16:47
He did this to manifest His glory and of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. Yes, Jonathan, what are you thinking?
16:57
John 1, 4, 3, 5, Genesis 1, 4.
17:09
Genesis 1, 4? So if God is light, why was there darkness, and why did
17:19
God have to create day? That's a great question. Is that darkness associated with Satan?
17:27
If it is, does Satan fall before the creation? Or is that something nothing related?
17:37
You're asking a multi -tiered question right there. So maybe.
17:45
I'll turn it over to Rick. Rick, you can come up here and answer that question. How I would answer it is that Jesus, the
17:52
Word that's described in John 1, is eternal just like the Father and Spirit are, because He's the
17:58
Son. And so the Son, when it says that the light was created, it's not speaking about the light that Jesus is.
18:07
It's not speaking about the Word being created in that text. So I think that that's where you're coming from, from that first question there.
18:14
When we look at the light and darkness, there's a lot of conjecture and thinking on what that means.
18:25
Ultimately, Rick, what would you say that that is? What's the light and darkness there in verse 4 that you would think of?
18:36
Because it says later on, I think it says on another day that it creates the light of the day.
18:44
So I would most likely point out that that was the Son. So it creates – yeah, the
18:49
Son is later on. So God is the light, but that doesn't mean that it's – it wasn't like – what is such a light?
19:09
It's radiation. It's energy. It's a photon.
19:18
But that is – that's not what God is. God is not a photon.
19:24
God is not energy. It's not radiation. So the light that it's talking about is how
19:31
God manifests himself in this universe.
19:40
One of those – it's light, a physical light. So that's not – so in the beginning, yes,
19:47
God is light. But when it says there is light, verse 3, that God says, let there be light, that's when – okay, now he's putting that part of physics into play.
19:59
And so what – at this point, like in Revelation, God says, use the light, use the light, because there's not just the name for Son.
20:07
Everybody uses the source of light. And so I think that's what's going on here now. Okay, God interacts with the streets, gives the light source, right?
20:14
The light is absolutely important. He's putting the laws of physics.
20:23
And then, well, where is God? If God is omnipresent, there's going to be light everywhere, but there's not going to be any shadow.
20:32
So now he's saying, hey, I'm going to have – if you direct the storm to have my source of light only come to one spot, and I don't know if that's how it is.
20:40
That's what goes on in my mind. We're not told exactly how it is. Right. As far as maybe like your third or fourth or fifth question in there.
20:50
As far as Satan goes, this – go ahead, yeah. Yep. Yeah, he created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless, yeah.
21:21
He created those physical laws that were going to govern the formless.
21:27
Maybe. That he just created. And then to add on top of that, if you finish this in a sentence, the earth is formless and void, darkness is over the surface.
21:37
The surface of what is formless? Good question.
21:43
Well, just think of it like a block of clay. You've got a block of clay and the earth, and then you start shaping it.
21:52
So, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created earth, earth, heaven, and the earth, all stuff, but from the formless, it evolved.
22:04
Savvy? Like it? It's one of those things – like the way I would look at it too is like we're talking about all of creation, right?
22:13
What did all of creation look like before it was even done in the first day of being created?
22:20
I don't know either, right? So, I think that's a fair analogy that Rick just employed. Imagine taking that clump of clay and just dropping it on the table, and it's right there.
22:28
Now you've got to start scooping it up and making it into your pot and your spoons and all that kind of stuff, right?
22:58
The sun and the moon aren't made until later on. What's the source of life? Oh, it's
23:05
God. So, we're not told. Wouldn't he then be physical?
23:12
If he created earth before he created sun and moon, wouldn't he then be physical life like you were talking about before?
23:22
So, he's the source of the life, yes, but he's not like, oh, there's the sun, but there's no sun yet, so I'm going to die.
23:32
Okay. And so my mind even takes me for like in 1
23:47
Timothy it says that God dwells in an inapproachable light that no man can see or has seen, right?
23:54
And so whatever that light is, it's not like the light of the sun that's been created.
24:01
It's far superior, right, because you can look at the sun. It's going to hurt your eyes after a couple seconds. But the light that God is talking about, which
24:08
I think is probably what's going on here in the very first couple of verses like Rick is saying, is this light that you and I will never see.
24:17
It's the glory to great rest. I don't know. That's where my mind is going to.
24:23
When he stopped with somatics, this was written for all time. If you're going to say this to a caveman, which in fact those early men were, what are they going to know?
24:36
Was it God made a light? Okay, yeah, yeah. They don't know anything about what we're talking, somatics.
24:47
Yeah. And that's trivial. Yeah, it is.
24:53
It can definitely be. It's accurate in one thing, and it's scientifically accurate, but it's not a science.
25:01
And there's poetic language to be used, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't really happen.
25:07
Right. But, yeah, it's for all time, like John was saying. And then also, for now, it's not just for intelligence, for anybody.
25:16
So we kind of say, oh, yeah, God made it. Yep. And before there was anything else, who was? Before there was any other light source, who was the light?
25:25
Stars, suns, who was? Yep. And then as far as your question goes about Satan and whatnot, so.
25:32
. . It's a completely different question. It's a completely different question. Yeah, it's nothing.
25:38
Yeah, not in this text right there. So before there was a sun and a moon, okay, when that happened, there was darkness.
26:15
Now, I associate darkness with saying the sin and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that bad stuff. I'm like, okay, that happened before the creation, but why was there darkness if there essentially wasn't?
26:31
No, I don't want to say that. Why was there darkness? Immediately, what
26:38
I would say is creation. Satan didn't exist before creation, okay?
26:44
Because in John 1, verse 3, that we just read, is
26:50
Satan a created being? Did he come from God's, part of God's creation? Yes. And it says that Jesus was involved with creating all things.
26:58
And then when we look in Genesis, it says that the creation of all things happened here in Genesis 1. So I would say, I don't know exactly in this if verse 1 in the heavens and the earth, maybe the heavens is speaking about all that is in the heavenly realm, so all angelic beings were created on that day, or if that was a different thing.
27:17
I don't know. There's going to be a lot of speculation in regard to that stuff. However, I would say
27:22
Satan did not exist eternally before creation took place.
27:30
The darkness is not represented. So, the sun and moon were created.
27:51
God is light. So I immediately think that when
27:56
God created space, there's no earth, there's just light. If God was light before the moon, or before the sun, why would there be darkness?
28:09
But then, like you said, he wasn't physical light, but yet before the sun, he was kind of like the physical light, but he wasn't incomprehensible.
28:24
It's very incomprehensible. It's very incomprehensible.
28:30
It's challenging, no doubt, right? Clearly, there's two different definitions.
28:41
Physical light is present right now. We turn the lights off, and there's no light.
28:48
And there is no darkness, it's just absence of light. So if you have no light, there's darkness.
28:53
But don't we label that as darkness? Isn't what? Don't we label that as darkness, though?
29:00
Darkness, in that definition, is the absence of God.
29:07
God enlightens. God gives you clarity. Jesus is the light of the world.
29:15
That doesn't mean he has illumination optical.
29:21
It means he illuminates us. Jesus reveals.
29:30
It makes sense. Don, thank you. Is the question somewhat answered there?
29:36
Love it. Thank you, Don. Appreciate you. Love it. So let's go to paragraph two in the confession now.
29:43
Let's look at what goes on here. I am going to read paragraph two, and I want— let me first mention this real fast.
29:53
So paragraph two in the 1689 is split up into paragraph two and three.
29:59
In the Westminster and in the Savoy, there's only paragraph two. However, paragraph two in the
30:06
Savoy and Westminster includes paragraph three. So there's a splitting, an additional adding of a paragraph here.
30:14
And when we look at this, my argumentation for why the founders of this document— on the law that was written on the heart of Adam and Eve, and they had a particular view of the covenant that took place there in the garden.
30:34
And so we'll probably talk about that today. So let's read paragraph two. Just know, if you ever get your hands on a
30:40
Westminster or on a Savoy, you would open this up and say, why is there not three paragraphs? Because paragraph three and two are combined in those things.
30:47
And I think that's why the Baptists did this, is like what I said. So let's read paragraph two here.
30:53
It says, Even so, they could still transgress the law because they were left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change.
31:39
A lot to take in on that text, on that paragraph. So again,
31:44
I really like how this confession, both in all three of those documents and in the one that we have before us,
31:50
I like what they have done here, right? They give the general scope that God created all things, and now narrows in on man as being this unique creation of God.
31:58
And that's exactly what happens in Scripture. Chapter one of Genesis, it talks about how man was created, but it also talks about everything being created, right?
32:06
And the reason I bring this up is I remember talking with LDS, just to be upfront, my
32:12
LDS parents. They would say, this is a clear contradiction in Scripture because in chapter one, man is created, and in chapter two it says man is created.
32:22
That's a contradiction. You can't have man created twice in that text. The issue with this is what's known as a recapulation.
32:29
God is revealed to Moses when Moses is writing this down. The way that he's writing it down is in the form of recapulations.
32:37
He gives the general brush stroke, saying this is how God created all these things in these days. Now let's focus in on, in chapter two, the creation of mankind, this creature that Christ will someday die for.
32:51
Let's focus in on this in this chapter two. And so there is no contradiction here of why in chapter one it records that God created male and female, and then in chapter two it talks about God creating man and then putting him to sleep and taking from him this rib and making it into woman,
33:08
Eve. There's no contradiction there. This all took place on that day like it says in chapter one, but this is just highlighting and going into depth more on that particular creation of God.
33:23
One of our most hurtful things that invaded our society,
33:29
I have no idea what started it, but this idea of sexual transformation, a male becoming a female, female becoming a male.
33:40
That is such a cruel violation of God's law. Yep. And if God, you know,
33:51
God did his wrath upon man for violating eating the fruit of a tree of knowledge.
34:02
Yep. My goodness. God must be absolutely so furious at mankind for this violation of your being.
34:15
And it's such a violation of God's law. Humanity is damned. Yep. I appreciate you bringing that point up because that's important in the confession.
34:26
The confession in those days, they weren't dealing with transgenderism, right? That wasn't going on rampantly like we see today.
34:34
So what Don is doing for us and what he's talking about is in chapter two, it's very clear that God, in chapter one, it's very clear that God made man and he made woman, right?
34:45
And so these things are implicit for us that we need to remember that part of God's plan, part of God's creation includes both of these male and female within it.
34:58
And we cannot confuse those two types or we cannot confuse. And when
35:04
I talk about confuse, I mean, there's schools that have cat litter boxes in them right now because not only can you claim to be a man even though you were not born with male genitalia, but you can claim to be a cat and go and poop in the back of a classroom in the middle of class in a litter box.
35:25
Shaking heads, right? Like that is ridiculous. That is being turned over to a debase, reprobate mind.
35:35
Rick, it looked like you were going to say something on that. I'm going through the creation process. A huge part of what
35:44
God does is he separates things, divides things, and makes things. So he separates the light from the dark, separates the water from above, water from below, separates the land from the water on earth, then he separates the different kinds of animals he does, and then the last ball separating from the rest of it.
36:08
Then he separates man from woman. He just keeps doing these things, and we forget that we want to erase all the distinction.
36:20
Like race is a distinction between man and animal.
36:28
Racism is so the opposite because the enemy wants to erase racism.
36:34
That's what egalitarianism is all about. There's no difference for anybody, or even something like socialism, communism.
36:43
We're all – there's no difference. All those are contrary to God's created order, or even nation's order.
36:52
We're not going to do anything about immigration. We're all – there's no difference at all. Right. All these are in some way a rebellion against God's created order.
37:01
Some of those things we all blend everything together. One, law.
37:08
Yeah. One, conformity. Yeah. One, conformity. You're just saying God's very good, right?
37:14
Yeah. Yeah. He came not to bring peace, but to restore it. Yeah, it's true.
37:19
Predestined. Absolutely. Absolutely.
37:27
So – yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say that. It's a bad thing to say, oh, you're divisive.
37:33
But I think that's the way to look at it. Yeah. It's a division.
37:39
Yeah. You have the choice. You're going to be a teacher.
37:47
Yeah. It is divisive. It is. And it's always been that.
37:58
Right. There's almost that desire of I need to get along with everybody.
38:05
Yeah. Let's just – we can – you can think of that bumper sticker, co -exist, and the cross is there at the end, right?
38:12
Co -exist. We can all co -exist together. It's like, no, that's not how this works, right?
38:18
So, yeah, I completely agree with you on that. So here in this – in all three of these documents like we've talked about, what's put forth for us here in paragraph two, specifically paragraph two and paragraph three, is a rudimentary definition of what the image of God is.
38:39
And I really appreciate this. So he created humanity. He made them male and female, and he made them with rational and immoral souls, thereby making them suited to that life lived unto
38:53
God for which they were created. So I would just pause there and make mention of this.
39:00
The LDS would do something like this. They would say before the fall, they could never procreate, right?
39:06
And the reason that they would say that is because after they partake in the fruit, they says that their eyes were open, right?
39:12
And so they would say, well, that's obviously sexual desire. Before that, they had a mind like children. They would never think that, never do that.
39:19
The fall had to take place. Therefore, the sin, it wasn't really that bad of a sin. It was actually a fall forward, not a fall backwards.
39:26
It was a fall forwards. It needed to happen for sex to take place. That's the LDS teaching of this, right?
39:33
The issue, what this confession has said in this, and what I think scripture even tells for us, that it would be ridiculous to think that God created male and female and said, all right, you do this command of mine, but you really won't ever be able to do that command, right, which is to be fruitful and multiply, right?
39:53
So when we look at this, the command of God to tend the garden or to have dominion over the animals or to multiply and procreation, these things were created to them, and they were able to fulfill those things.
40:12
They had the ability to fulfill those things. It's not like God told them, hey, I want you to hammer this nail into this wood, but you don't have a hand and you don't have a hammer to do that with.
40:24
It's not like God created them and commanded them something that they could not do. He created them and commanded them to do something that they had the possibility of being able to do.
40:34
They had the ability to be able to do those things. Again, we believe that all of the fall and Christ and redemption, that was always
40:42
God's plan A. It's not like that was a plan B after the fall, but they had that ability to do that.
40:48
So that's one thing in here that I would encourage you to look at in this. Another thing to take notice of is that here in the next sentence it says, they were made in the image of God.
40:57
And I would pause here and say that right before this, what we would see is that they were given a purpose.
41:03
So part of being an image -bearer, I would argue, is having a purpose in life, having a purpose in God's plan as part of being this image -bearer.
41:12
And it says that they were made in the image of God, being endowed with knowledge. So we are separated from animals and the nature outside of us, all this other creation of God's, because we have a unique knowledge.
41:26
We have the ability to learn and teach and to gain and to lose.
41:32
Sounds good. Thank you. All those kind of things. So we have knowledge. So that's what this confession is putting forth as part of the image of God.
41:41
It would also be righteousness. So there in the garden, Adam and Eve were able to walk with God there.
41:48
They were able to be in his presence. And so because of that, they had true holiness. They hadn't ever sinned yet.
41:55
And so that's part of the image of God. One quote that I would like to read to us tonight is
42:01
Sam Waldron. He's one of my favorite pastors and teachers on multiple things.
42:09
But in this text, he says regarding the image of God, because there's a thought that since the fall has taken place, we are no longer the image of God, that we've lost that.
42:21
And that would come from Genesis chapter 5, that when Adam procreates with Eve and they have
42:27
Seth, it says that Seth was after the image of Adam. It no longer refers to the image of God.
42:33
It now refers to the image of man. And so some people would say that the image of God was lost.
42:39
And I would discourage anybody from doing that. I think everybody is an image bearer of God. However, that being said, let me read this real fast.
42:48
It says here, Sam Waldron says concerning the image of God, that after the fall, mankind is a very distorted image of God, a very inaccurate replica.
42:58
The image, therefore, needs to be renewed in the redemption of men. It is through the fall of Adam that the image has now been twisted, broken, and distorted, as it now bears a very poor image of God.
43:13
It is through Christ in the heart of new covenant members that man can be renewed to this image of God through the
43:21
Spirit. So when you look at the things that this confession lays out as part of the image of God, which is knowledge, righteousness, the true holiness, the law of God that was written on the hearts of Adam and Eve, what are all the things that we saw in the book of Hebrews when we were looking at what the new covenant member has?
43:39
They have the law written on their hearts. They're in relationship. They know God. There's knowledge.
43:46
Their sins have been taken away, and their iniquities are remembered no more. There's righteousness that is imputed to them.
43:54
These things, the image of God, what's being put forth here is that the image of God, when we fell, those things were removed or twisted or broken.
44:04
We're now renewed of those things in Christ. Oh, bud.
44:10
I know. I know. I'm not. Oh, thank you, bud. There we go, bud.
44:16
Here. I know. Oh. Oh. Oh. There you go.
44:26
Immediately. Immediately. Thanks, Nehemiah. Getting me to feel great already this evening.
44:35
God created man and woman. That's a great example of that right there, right? Thank you, Christine. So part of this as well is that they had the law of God written on their hearts.
44:46
So the idea of this is that the law that's spoken of in here is what I would refer to as the transcendent law.
44:53
There in the garden, Adam knew that it would be wrong of him to pick up a stone and kill
44:59
Eve, right? Where does it say that in Scripture? Well, it doesn't necessarily say that in Scripture, but I think that would be a pretty easy to understand thing.
45:08
Here's Adam. He went to sleep, and there was no woman. Wakes up, his side's hurting a little bit, and now there's this woman next to him, right?
45:16
He sees all this creation around him. He's in communion with God. He knows that part of having dominion and being fruitful and multiplying and subduing the earth is going to be with this help meat that God has given her.
45:29
He knows intimately that it would be wrong for him to hurt his closest neighbor, which is Eve, his wife, and to kill her.
45:36
That would be wrong of him to do, right? He knows that intimately. So that's part of what I would put forth as the transcendent law, which is the
45:42
Ten Commandments, that Adam knew he had a duty to God, and he also knew that he had a duty to his neighbor,
45:49
Eve, right? He knew those things intimately. Now, when we look at positive law, so that would be called transcendent law.
45:58
The positive law would come about in the next paragraph. Follow me down to the next paragraph. It says,
46:03
In addition to the law written in their hearts, they received a command not to eat of the tree of Eden, who were happy in their communion with God and had dominion over the creature.
46:18
So if God had not told Adam—think about this for a moment. If God had not told
46:24
Adam to not— if he had never said anything about not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, would
46:30
Adam intimately know, I can't eat of that tree? No, because that was something that had to be told to him, right?
46:39
So this law of not eating of the tree was positive in how it was given to Adam.
46:45
It wasn't an inherent part of creation. It wasn't an inherent part of the image -bearing of Adam as knowing
46:52
I can't kill Eve, right? I know that intimately just because of how nature is and the creation.
46:58
I know that as an image -bearer. However, Adam had to be told particularly, eat of all 99 of these other trees, but don't eat of this one.
47:07
That had to be told to him to do that. This is what's known, and this is, again, why
47:13
I think this paragraph 2 and paragraph 3 is split into two different paragraphs for us in this confession, is because it's teaching to us
47:24
Reformed Baptist theology that's saying that this law that was given to Adam, this one that was there in the garden, this positive law of not eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it was actually a covenant of works, okay?
47:39
A lot of Presbyterians would look at this, and they would say it was a covenant of grace that was enacted there in the garden.
47:46
And the issue I take with that is what's the definition of grace? Unmerited favor, meaning that it's outside of my doings.
47:55
And the promise, so look with me in Genesis 2. It says in verse 16 and on, it says,
48:04
And Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may surely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from it, for in that day you will eat from it, you will surely die.
48:20
Then Yahweh God said, It is not good for a man to be alone, so he always ended up creating a woman there. But in verse 17, what was the reward for Adam if he had not eaten of that?
48:30
Life, right? Living. He didn't die. But what is the curse if he does eat of it?
48:37
Death, right? So this is positive law. His required obedience is what would maintain that life and communion with God there in the garden.
48:48
Does Adam ultimately complete those things? No, he eats of it, and thus we're in the state we're in today, in a fallen state.
49:00
This is a covenant, and the reason I say it's a covenant, and like what you brought up several weeks ago,
49:08
Patti, with the covenant of redemption that you mentioned in the book of Hebrews, right? This covenant here, the reason
49:15
I use the word covenant, that's not said here in the Scripture, but when you look at other texts, like Genesis 12, 15, 17, several other places,
49:26
Genesis 9, I think it is, when God has covenants, there's certain language that He uses when
49:32
He reveals a covenant. Part of the nature of covenants is that it's imposed by God to His image bearers, and there's rewards based off of obedience, and judgments based off of disobedience in all the covenants.
49:48
That's what we see in each one of them. And so what we would see here in this is God is imposing a rule upon Adam.
49:55
He doesn't ask Adam, hey, which tree would you not like to eat of, and we can make this agreement here.
50:01
Let's sign a piece of paper together in a treaty that you get these trees, not this tree, right? No, God says eat of them all, but you don't eat of this one, right?
50:10
It's God imposing this upon man. And then not only that, but there's a positive reward if, hey, if you don't eat of this, you get to stay in communion with me, you get to be in the garden, you get to live out all your days here with me, right?
50:23
And then if you do eat of it, if you break this law, this positive law, this covenant of works here, you're going to die.
50:30
You'll surely die that very day. This is covenant of works.
50:37
That's the difference. We're going to see this branch off here in future chapters of the major differences between Baptists and Presbyterians, but that's the beginning seed is when we look at this, is this a covenant of grace or is this a covenant of works?
50:53
And I would say it's very clear that this is a covenant of works. This is God imposing something on it. What is the covenant of grace?
51:00
Well, we see it all throughout the book of Hebrews, right? Again, I quoted it to us earlier just a second ago.
51:05
This is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah when I, not like the covenant I made with them and their forefathers when
51:11
I took them out of the land of Egypt for I did not care for them, but this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel that they will no longer teach each one of his neighbors saying,
51:20
We know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them. And it says, for I will be their
51:25
God and they will be my people and I will remove their transgressions and their iniquities. I will remember no more. That is the covenant of grace.
51:32
Again, when we look at that text right there, that covenant of grace, in that text and those words, there's no obedience for you and I to have.
51:43
It's still God imposing something. God is the one that's saying, I make this covenant with you, but it's now no longer on your obedience.
51:51
It's on the finished work of Christ. It's the mediator's obedience that actually earned this for you.
51:56
And so that's the covenant of grace. And so we see the differences there. Jonathan, you look like you have a question.
52:01
Okay. Both. Yes.
52:20
What's that? Yeah. It's both.
52:29
Yeah. That day.
52:44
Yep. Great question. So no.
52:50
But let's think about this for a moment. Okay. So in the garden, they eat. So they break.
52:57
So part of that law that was written on their hearts, right, that I would contend about is that they know that they had a duty to obey
53:04
God. So they broke that law and they also broke that positive law of don't eat of the tree.
53:09
So they violated God. They violated his law. Through that, they lost life in being in the presence of God.
53:20
They were kicked out of the garden. They are cast out and there's a cherub on that. It says this place there so that they can never return back westward.
53:27
They're cast out or back westward. They are cast out of the east of the garden.
53:34
Physically cast out. So they are no longer in the presence of God, which is speaking about spiritual death.
53:40
But when we think about physical death, it's showing a covenant of works that they're going to have to follow and maintain in the future.
53:48
But there is something that dies in the garden. Have you read that part of the scripture yet? Okay. Let's let everybody pause.
53:54
Let's go to Genesis 3. This is perfect for this chapter too. So this is perfect for this text, right?
54:06
Even though this text of chapter 4 in the Confession is not talking about the fall quite yet, we can see what the fall does for us right here.
54:14
So in Genesis 3, verse 20. We'll just read verse 20 through 24.
54:21
Actually, let's go ahead and read the Proto -Evangelium. We'll read Genesis 3, verse 14 on it.
54:28
It's a little bit lengthier of a text. 14 and on. So this is after they've admitted to God that they've sinned.
54:35
They've said, yep, we did it. It wasn't that clear. It was more or less Adam said, it was the woman that you gave me in the east as well as the serpent in the garden.
54:44
And so now God rebukes the serpent and then rebukes the woman and then rebukes the man. And so it says,
54:49
And Yahweh God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than any cattle and more than any beast, every beast of the field.
54:57
On your belly you will go and thus you will eat all the days of your life. I will put an enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.
55:07
Now I want to pause here and remind us, this is another place that the Presbyterian looks at. They say this first telling of the gospel.
55:14
This is a covenant of grace. And again, who is God speaking to in this text?
55:20
Speaking to the serpent. God doesn't make a covenant of grace with a serpent. This is the first promise of the gospel, right?
55:28
That at the hill of Golgotha, at the cross, the seed, Jesus will crush the head of the serpent there.
55:35
That's what this is teaching. It says then to the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and conception.
55:42
And in your pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.
55:48
Emily, were you in much pain with the birth of Nehemiah? Then to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which
56:00
I commanded you, saying you shall not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you will eat of it all the days of your life.
56:07
So time out right there. Notice that Adam brought death not only to his wife and himself, but cursed is the ground.
56:15
So Adam brought not only curse to himself, but he brought it to all of creation. So the chapter that we're reading right now, all of it is cursed because of the fall of Adam.
56:23
It says both thorns and thistles, it shall grow for you and you will eat the plants to fill by the sweat of your face.
56:29
You will eat bread till you return to the ground because from it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you will return.
56:38
So that's God saying, I would say that this is partly God being gracious in the physical punishment of Adam because he's saying, look, you're going to live, but it's going to be a life that is going to be about with pain and suffering and sweat and you will die.
56:55
The dust, the very dust I took you from, you will return there. It's going to be brought. Now the man called his wife's name
57:02
Eve because she was the mother of all the living. Now listen to this though, Jonathan. So same exact day, so the fall is taking place, same exact day.
57:10
Then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and he clothed them. How do you make garments of skin?
57:24
From a dead animal. So it doesn't say for us, but picture this is what it paints for us in this text, right?
57:31
You've just admitted to God that you've sinned, right? God says the whole ground is cursed.
57:40
Come here, Adam. The sheep that you named, it doesn't say it was a sheep. It was most likely a sheep just because of the types that we see all throughout the
57:46
Old Testament. Come here, Adam. You see the sheep that you just named just momentarily ago? It skins them and covers them.
57:57
So who suffered the death in that text? The sheep did. Who suffers the death for you and I?
58:05
Christ does. So even in that, in the garden at the very beginning of the fall,
58:12
God showed to them, yeah, you deserve death, but there will be a coming lamb that will be sacrificed in your place.
58:21
And so even though, yes, they would suffer physical death and it would be prolonged, it's later on.
58:27
Yeah, so Genesis, I believe it's Genesis 5 is where it talks about the death of Adam, I believe.
58:38
But yeah, it says that he lives until the age of 996. I believe off the top of my head. 998?
58:44
What age is it? 992. 930. Oh, is it?
58:52
I get those two mixed up all the time. Is it 930? Okay, 930.
59:03
What? You were probably reading part of the genealogy there.
59:25
Yep. So one of the biggest things that I would try to argue for, and I think that we see this, again, this confession is wording things that you might want to say, okay, where does it say that exactly in Genesis, right?
59:49
Like the law of God written on their hearts or those kind of things. I would tell you that this is getting this type of language based off of other texts, and specifically in the
01:00:02
New Testament, right? So if Christ renews that which was lost in Adam and part of that which is what
01:00:09
Christ renews in us is a heart of flesh, you could infer from that kind of text, that's all throughout the
01:00:18
New Testament, that Adam before the fall had a heart of flesh of some kind. It was after the fall that he had a heart of stone.
01:00:25
Now he had a nature that was bound to sin. And that's what then carries on throughout his posterity throughout creation.
01:00:34
So you and I, when we were born, we had hearts of stone. God changes our hearts from that to a heart of flesh.
01:00:41
He renews in us that image that was distorted at the fall. That's what this is starting to paint for us, right?
01:00:51
So it's remarkable things. We're at 8 .03
01:00:57
right now. Is there any words that you guys want to say on this? I could go into depth on my understanding of God's law here in these paragraphs, and I love it.
01:01:07
And so sometimes I have to be shut up about it. But is there any comments or questions or thoughts that you guys have from these paragraphs?
01:01:22
Nothing? Okay. So next week, be prepared.
01:01:29
We will be in Chapter 5, which I'm assuming is going to be kind of a little bit of a rehash of what was discussed a lot of in Chapter 3.
01:01:38
And so I would expect that we'll get through the entire paragraph next week, which is seven paragraphs.
01:01:45
I think it just uses a lot more wording that we've, like I said, we've already discussed this from Chapter 3.
01:01:55
Yeah. Anybody want to pray us out for the evening? Rick, would you mind praying us out?
01:02:02
Okay, thank you. Amen.
01:02:42
Well, thank you guys for Bible studying tonight. A lot to think about.
01:02:48
A lot to think about. Jonathan?
01:02:57
No, and that was a good rabbit trail to go. A lot of good stuff. I'm happy that we had
01:03:05
Don here and Rick here and Carl here because I'm thankful everyone's here, so I don't think that's what
01:03:11
I'm saying. But I definitely could not have answered the question that Jonathan posed as such eloquently as you guys had done.
01:03:20
So thank you, guys. I know. I know.
01:03:28
Trust me, I know. Look. She already knows.
01:03:39
Shepherd already knows, huh? Well, God bless you guys.
01:03:51
Carl. Oh, hey. Appreciate you. I've got a rhyme for you.
01:03:59
Oh, do you? So God was talking to Adam and said, you need to help me.