1689 LBCF Chapter 20 Explained

Okay, so this morning, we're moving on in the confession, and we're moving up to chapter 20, the gospel and the extent of grace thereof. Okay, let me just get set up here a little. All right, again, you can see how the progression of the confession goes, starting with the word of God and then coming through the state of man, falling into sin and justification and repentance.

The Gospel as the Fulfillment of the Covenant of Works

And here we come to the gospel, and the confession says this. The covenant of works being broken by sin and made unprofitable unto life, God was pleased to give forth the promise of Christ, the seed of the woman as the means of calling the elect and beginning them in faith and repentance.

In this promise, the gospel, as to the substance of it, was revealed and is there an effectual for the conversion and salvation of sinners. Okay, there's the scripture references for that. Very simple, this one is not a very controversial doctrine, but obviously, we've already talked about the covenant of works in this class and how that was the covenant that God enacted with Adam and Eve.

They broke it by sin, therefore, the covenant of works is now useless, it's not profitable. And so God gave the promise of the new covenant, all right, and the new covenant was fulfilled in the blood of Christ, who is the seed of the woman, and that is the only means by which now people are called to Christ, okay?

That makes pretty much sense, you know, and it is the means that God gives them faith and repentance, and that's everything that we need to know about salvation is revealed in the gospel. Any questions?

The Gospel Revealed Only Through the Word of God

Again, this is a very, very simple one, not too difficult and not too controversial either. Paragraph two says the promise of Christ and salvation by him is revealed only by the word of God. Neither do the works of creation or providence with the light of nature make discovery of Christ or of grace by him so much as in a general or obscure way, much less that men destitute of the revelation of him by the promise of gospel should be enabled thereby to attain saving faith or repentance, okay.

Again, a lot of words, basically all it means is the gospel as revealed in the scriptures is the only way that people can come to faith. This is interesting because even in our day and age, we find that there are people who maintain that you can come to Christ apart from the preaching of the word.

Even in reformed circles, you find some, or so-called reformed circles, you find people who say this. I have some pastor friends who we get into a discussion in this all the time and they tell me, oh no, you can, it's possible, you know, you can have, God can reveal himself in a vision and whatnot and of course I turn to Hebrews chapter one, but they're fully convinced that somebody can come to faith apart from hearing the word of God.

Our confession makes it very clear that we believe according to the word of God that that is the only way that somebody can come to salvation. Even though you can see God in nature, that's what it says, you know, the light of nature, the works of creation and even providence.

I mean, these are all things that God uses, you know, to govern his world, but none of them are sufficient to bring a person to Christ. It is only the word of God as it is preached or witnessed, you know, by the reading of the word or by somebody relaying it to them, okay?

That's the only thing that will bring someone questions or thoughts, you look like you have a question.

I just know I've heard differently,.

It's interesting what I've heard.

Oh yes, you will hear it, that's what I said. This one is much more controversial than the first one because, but I mean, well, here, Romans 10, all right, what does Romans 10 say? Well, let's just turn to it.

You don't have to turn to it, I'll turn to it, okay?

Romans 10, all right. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard?

And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, okay? So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God.

It makes it very clear that the only method of bringing someone to faith is through the preaching of the word of God or the witnessing of the word of God. It doesn't have to be an official preacher preaching.

You know, it can be one Christian, you know, relating to a neighbor, but that's the only way that somebody is saved. That's why we place such a high emphasis on evangelism. I mean, if God could save people apart from evangelism, why bother?

Why would we spend all this money and send missionaries and have people go out onto the streets?

No, okay?

Does that make it pretty clear? Okay, let's go to paragraph three. Paragraph three says, the revelation of the gospel unto sinners made in diverse times and by sundry parts with the addition of promises and precepts for the obedience required therein as to the nations and persons to whom it is granted is merely of the sovereign will and good pleasure of God, not being annexed by virtue of any promise to the due improvement of men's natural abilities.

By virtue of common light received without it, which none ever did make or can do so, therefore in all ages, the preaching of the gospel has been granted unto persons and nations as to the extent or straightening of it in great variety according to the counsel of the will of God.

Basically, what that's saying is, over the course of history, the gospel has gone to different places at different times and that's all in the sovereign will of God. And that's his province alone, okay?

And why was the gospel given to certain people.

And not others?

That's a question that we can't ask. I mean, you can ask it, but you're just not going to get an answer, okay?

Why?

Because that's up to God, all right? Remember, God has, well, in fact, one of the conversations that I had, maybe I can share this with you a little bit. Somebody asked me this, well, you believe in election?

I said, well, of course. I mean, as being a Reformed Baptist pastor, that's one of our doctrines is election. He said, what if one of God's elect was in a remote area of the world? Then, you know, can't God save them apart from the preaching of the word?

And the answer is no. What God does is he will send missionaries to that person in his time to save them. That's what he does. In fact, we're looking today in John 17 in the sermon and we're going to be looking at the perseverance of the saints.

And one of the things that Christ prays for, and he says is that, of those you have given me, I have lost none, all right? So all of the elect will come, okay? And God will use secondary means, all right?

If you go back, remember when we talked about the decrees of God and the providence of God in the confession, we saw that God will use secondary means to accomplish his purpose. He's the first cause of all things, but there are second causes that he uses.

And one of the things that he has said that he will not do in this age is to, by direct revelation, save people apart from the preaching of the word. That is left up to us. And it's one of the arguments that you get, well, you're limiting God.

No, God has limited how he's going to do it. And God has the right to do that. He can say, you know, I am not going to save anybody. That is your job, is to give them the gospel and then I will save them, okay?

And so that's, and that's why we, again, why do we place such an emphasis on missions? You guys should know, we give 10 of all the tithes and offerings that come to our church, we give back in the realm of missions, okay?

Why?

Because that is God's ordained method of bringing people to salvation, of bringing his elect, okay? And again, you see in some of the scripture proofs there as well. Any questions on that? One of the things that you can, you know what, let me say this.

When somebody asks me, what is a Reformed Baptist church? What makes a Reformed Baptist church different than all the other Baptist churches? Obviously there's a number of things that differentiate, but you know what the thing that I highlight when somebody asks me that question?

The sovereignty of God. We believe that God is sovereign and he does whatsoever he pleases, okay? And that's one of the things that separates us because even though other Baptist churches say that they believe in the sovereignty of God, they negate it by some of their other practices.

You know?

And this is a case, especially we emphasize the sovereignty of God in salvation. God has chosen who he will save and he will save them. All right, then again, this ties in a little bit with what the sermon will be this morning.

The Gospel as the Only Outward Means, and the Spirit's Regenerating Work

All right, paragraph four of this says, although the gospel be the only outward means of revealing Christ and saving grace and is as such abundantly sufficient thereunto, yet that men who are dead in trespass may be born again quickened or regenerated, there is moreover necessary and effectual and superable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul.

For the producing in them a new spiritual life without no other means will affect their conversion unto God. In other words, what this is saying is given the other side of the coin. All right, we just talked about apart from the preaching of the word, no one will come to faith.

But apart from the work, the sovereign work of God in their hearts, all the preaching in the world would be in vain. So in other words, let's just use the example. I get up there this morning and as I always do, I make some sort of application and challenge sinners to repent, all right?

And I give them a clear gospel message, okay? Two people sitting in the congregation, both not saved. One hears the word and repents, the other one says, no, it's not for me. What's the difference? That's exactly right.

Apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, no one will be saved, okay? And that's why it's our job to be faithful and not to concern ourselves with numbers or how effective, I mean, well, let me rephrase that.

I wanna be as effective as I can as a preacher. I wanna make sure that I'm clearly expounding on the gospel, all right? But I also have to understand, I can be the most eloquent that I've ever been in my entire life and be the most persuasive that I have ever been.

And yet apart from the work of God in their heart, they're not gonna receive it, okay? So, and that explains why you can have two people, equal in every other respect, and yet one repents and the other one doesn't because it's the sovereign work of God.

So that's the questions, because that's all, that's, again, this is a pretty simple chapter, but it's an important one. And again, if you think about it, it really, to understand this is super important for us because it affects how we approach our non-Christian friends, how we approach the subject of missions, the mission of the church, all of those things.

Why do we have people go out onto the streets? Why do we have people stand in front of the abortion clinics? Why do we send people into the impoverished neighborhoods and try to help? Why do we do all of these things?

Spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, all right? And then it's up to God who he saves. Really takes the pressure off. There was a book written a number of years ago, back in the 1950s, by a very, very prominent pastor in the Midwest.

And he gave some tips for, quote, what he called soul winning. And one of them, make sure you use breath mints. You don't want somebody to go to hell because you've got bad breath. I mean, you see how ludicrous that is.

Now, don't get me wrong. If you have bad breath, use breath mints, you know? And you don't want to go out evangelizing, you know, unkempt, unbathed, and you don't want to do those things. But nobody's going to go to hell because you didn't take a breath mint, okay?

So in that respect, it's kind of a, we have obligations put on us, but not the obligation of seeing that souls are saved. That's completely up to God. Our obligation is to be faithful and to do what he has called us to do.