Keep sharing good news without ads.
LBCF Chapter 21 Of Christian Liberty and the Liberty of Conscience
Chapter 21 of the Confession of Christian Liberty and the Liberty of Conscience. This chapter is divided into three parts with one paragraph in each part so it's a fairly short section but an important one.
This chapter is almost letter perfect with the Savoy Declaration and I note that for this reason the Westminster Confession has an additional fourth paragraph which both the Congregational and the Baptists decided to exclude.
So I don't usually do this but because I think it's important at the end of going through the Confession I'm going to actually put up the fourth paragraph and show what the objection was to it. This chapter was formulated out of concern for three factors which were present in the Church, Ecclesiastical Totalitarianism, Civil Totalitarianism, and Perverse Reactionism.
All right, what do we mean by that? Ecclesiastical Totalitarianism simply means that the Church has supreme authority over humans on earth. Supreme authority, that's the operative word. Obviously the Church has authority but Ecclesiastical Totalitarianism says it has supreme.
An example of that, Rome during the Middle Ages, all right, where they had their fingers in every aspect of life, okay. Second one, Civil Totalitarianism says exactly the opposite except with the state, the state has supreme human authority.
An example of that, Henry VIII, well I was thinking more of Henry VIII but you might be able to say that as well. Obviously the state has its fingers over every aspect of society including church matters and family matters, all right.
Now Perverse Reactionism usually comes as a result or an overreaction of the first two and that's the casting off of all authority leading to excess and sinful practices, all.
Right.
So what's it?
Nothing new under the sun.
All right, now this was exactly the subject of the fourth paragraph in the Westminster that was deleted by the Baptists. Now that's not to say that, what's that?
Which one?
The one Perverse Reactionism, all right. Now that's not to say that our confession doesn't have something to say about that but it's just that the Presbyterians added a full paragraph and like I say, I'll put it up and show you why and then when the American Presbyterians got a hold of it, they actually made a change, actually eliminated something from the paragraph but we'll get to that in due time, okay.
This chapter begins the third part, remember when we were beginning said that you could actually break the confession into four parts, all right. The general outline, first six chapters, first principles or the foundation, okay.
Chapter seven through 20, the covenant, that's what we've just finished, the covenant ended with the gospel and its gracious intent. Fourth is 31 and 32, speaking about the future, eschatological things and the one we're going to look at tonight, starting Christian liberty and Christian living.
Now this has to do with matters tonight, obviously we're talking about Christian liberty, Christian living but in the next chapters coming up, religious service, Sabbath questions, civil magistrate, all things that we would encounter in daily living, okay.
So let's start, part one, which is also chapter one, paragraph one, is the composition of Christian liberty, what is Christian liberty, all right and the first part of the first paragraph is under the gospel, now here's the first half of the paragraph and what we see is firstly it's described negatively and it's freedom from guilt, the liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel consists in the freedom from the guilt of sin, all right.
So when I say described negatively it's not saying there's something wrong with it but just showing it's freedom from something, all right, so it's described negatively. Also, it's freedom from the guilt of sin, from the condemning wrath of God, when you are saved and you come into the new covenant and again under the gospel this is the benefits, this is what Christian liberty is all about, freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God and the rigor and curse of the law, okay, there's for now no condemnation.
In Christ.
Still talking about describing it negatively, it goes on and talks about freedom from the power of sin, okay, and in their being delivered from the present evil world, in other words, remember we've talked about the fact of what are the, in fact even last week, talked about we face evil on three fronts, the world, the flesh and the devil basically, all right, and what we're seeing here now is we are not slaves to this world, as a Christian you have been freed from the bondage to sin, so you are no longer a slave to it, we now belong to Christ and these are, you know, let me just pause here for a minute, isn't it interesting when most people talk today about Christian liberty, what are they talking about, yeah, I have freedom to do this, I have freedom to do that, I'm not under the law, I'm under grace and there's such a perversion of what it means, this is at the heart, now Christian liberty does speak to that, all right, but this is the heart of it, you know, the main part about Christian liberty is we're no longer under bondage to sin, okay, bondage to Satan and the dominion of sin, there it happened, the world, the flesh and the devil, right there, okay, so we're free from the power of sin and then we're also free from the punishment of sin, from the evil afflictions, notice that they put the modifier evil, as a Christian you're not free from all afflictions, I think everybody knows that, right, if you're alive if you're talking about, you know you will have afflictions, all right, but it's the evil afflictions, okay, the fear and sting of death, the believer should have no fear, the sting of death has been removed, all right, Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 15, all right, we have victory over the grave, all right, none of these things should have any fear, you know, for us, I've had an opportunity to be by many a bedside of dying people, both as a pastor and then of my previous occupation, you know, dealing with homicide, it was frequently done and just what a marked difference from when a believer is going, you know, as when somebody who's not a believer is dying and you can actually see the fear in the eyes of the non-believer, whereas with the believer, sometimes it's almost like you see their smile and the countenance on their face, they're expecting to see the Lord, all right, everlasting damnation, we don't have that fear anymore, we have liberty over that, then described positively as also in the free access to God, this is the positive side, with Christian liberty comes access to God, all right, and we're gonna actually pick up on that a little bit more and the second part of it is childlike obedience and they're yielding obedience unto him not out of slavish fear but a childlike love and willing mind, here's the big difference, are we slaves to Christ, yes, but it's not the same as being slaves to sin, being slaves to Christ is that we are yielding obedience to him, not out of slavish fear but because of the love that we have for him, all right, so it's the desire, it's a positive thing, all right, any questions on the paragraph 1A, which is really just kind of giving a definition of what liberty is, all right, paragraph 1B then talks about the difference when the church was under the law, okay, and under the law it talks about its common substance, now notice, this is just a follow up of the first part of the paragraph, all of which were common also to believers under the law for the substance of them, in other words, the same things that we enjoy, they had the substance, true believers had that substance, just not the full measure, and that's what you see here, the subsequent enlargement, but under the New Testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, it's a new covenant, better covenant, we have greater access, okay, we also have freedom from the ceremonial law, all right, and the freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law to which the Jewish church was subjected, and greater boldness in prayer, greater boldness to the access of the throne of grace, I mean, what a blessing it is that the access that we have, we boldly come, you know, bold I approach the eternal throne, you know, great Wesleyan, all right, and full of supplies of the spirit, and in fuller communications of the free spirit of God than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of, in other words, it's the new covenant, a better covenant, and access that we have is greater than what we have to all of those things, the throne of grace, communication spirit of God, et cetera, okay.
Paragraph two, or part two, is the corollary of Christian liberty to the liberty of conscience, and here's the foundational principle, first one is where you, God alone is the Lord of the conscience, that's the basis, all right, everything else that we talk about liberty and conscience comes from that statement, God alone is the Lord of the conscience, and then the rest of the paragraph talks about its basic implications, and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word or not contained in it, now where do you think, why do you think they have that in there?
Sure, the Roman Catholic Church, especially back in the Middle Ages, put all kinds of stipulations and commandments and precepts of men on its parishioners, all right, and so the founders and the framers of our confession made sure they put that in, so that anything, you can't bind somebody's conscience, we are free as a church, we can set down some rules, if you will, we would like you to do, but we can't bind your conscience by it, we can ask you to do things, but if it's not mandated by scripture, if it's not something that we can point to, it might even be a matter of preference, like for example, there are churches that say all men should wear a suit and tie, okay, they're free to do that, unless they make it a command with sanctions if you don't, because they can't bind your conscience, okay, and you see all kinds of legalism come in, specifically you see it in the fundamentalist churches, all right, a bunch of you here tonight would be in trouble in a fundamentalist church, you can't have that beard, facial hair, that's not church, facial hair is a no-no, ladies, anybody wearing slacks, no, you can't do that, in a lot of fundamentalist churches, you have to wear you have to wear a skirt, all right, you can't wear slacks, what's that?
I said that one's all right, yeah, says the man whose wife isn't here, no, but you get the idea, and that's why this is in here, because we have, you know, we have a habit as people of making rules that are not in accordance with scripture, and so the way they put it, commandments of men, which are in anything contrary to his word, or not even contained in it, okay, so the next thing is now it's necessary requirements, still talking about the corollary of Christian liberty, and how does that affect your liberty of conscience, firstly of followers, all right, so that to believe such doctrines or obey such commands out of conscience is to betray true liberty of conscience, okay, you see what it's saying, now this again is to the people sitting in the pews, all right, if you're obeying that, and saying that it's a matter of conscience, when it's not clearly mandated by scripture, you're betraying liberty of conscience, all right, and then they go to the next one of leaders, and the requiring of an implicit faith, an absolute blind obedience is to destroy the liberty of conscience and reason also, yes.
We see this right now, especially in the secular, most guiltful people, yeah, and that's so, look how crucial this is, Christian liberty, go back to paragraph one, remember this is a unified whole, paragraph one, what is the whole purpose, purpose is I have freedom in Christ, I am no longer slave to sin and all of these things, all right, and then by obeying or, and the leaders putting these edicts out, they're destroying the very liberty that Christ came to give, and so you wind up with people living in slavery again, voluntarily, and it's sad, because we have true liberty in Jesus Christ, okay, all right, part three is the corruption of Christian liberty, and again, here's the essence of it, they who upon pretense of Christian liberty do practice any sin, right, and this is where you find most often today, if you start hearing conversation about somebody in a church about Christian liberty, this is really where they're going, unfortunately, what they're saying is, I have liberty to do this, you know, when it's clear that it's not something that is commanded by scripture, or it's in most cases, it's something that would be condemned by scripture, okay, or cherish any sinful lust, lust as we know, lust starts from the heart, all right, and what's the fruit of it, so if you're, let's just go back for a second, so if upon the pretense of Christian liberty, notice how they say, pretense of Christian liberty, do practice any sin or cherish any sinful lust, what's the result of that, we have the fruit, the impact on the gospel, as they do, thereby pervert the main design of the grace of the gospel to their own destruction, what's the design of the gospel, to set us free from slavery to Satan and sin, and to bring us into the gracious gospel of Jesus Christ, all right, and so what you're doing, if you are perverting Christian liberty, you're actually perverting the gospel, and that's a very dangerous place, it's impacting Christian liberty, so they wholly destroy the end of Christian liberty, so it's destroying the gospel, destroying Christian liberty itself, which is that being delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, all right, that we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness, righteousness before him all the days of our lives, that's the whole purpose of Christian liberty, now you can see how this paragraph here, paragraph 3, 3b in particular, addresses the idea of what they called, what was it, perverse reactionism, I lost the word for a minute, perverse reactionaryism, all right, notice this deals with that, it's saying that if you start throwing off the bonds of scripture under the pretense of Christian liberty, you're actually going against the whole purpose for the gospel and Christian liberty, all right, so now this, the Westminster is pretty much word for word for these first three paragraphs, as is the Savoy, but I want to put in, I just want to show you the fourth paragraph of the Westminster Confession of Faith, I put it on a different color so you, you know, don't want you to confuse it with the London Baptist Confession, all right, that's a joke for Presbyterians who are out there and are very legalistic and don't have sense of humor, all right, now this is the fourth paragraph, and because the powers which God has ordained and the liberty which Christ has purchased are not intended by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another, they who upon pretense of Christian liberty shall oppose any lawful power or the lawful exercise of it, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical, resist the ordinance of God, and for their publishing of such opinions or maintaining of such practices as are contrary to the light of nature or to the known principles of Christianity, whether concerning faith, worship, or conversation, or to the power of godliness, or such erroneous opinions or practices as either in their own nature or in the manner of publishing or retaining them are destructive to the external peace and order which Christ has established in the church, they may lawfully be called to account and proceeded against by centuries of the church and by the power of the civil magistrate.
Now, both the Congregationalists and the Baptists felt that it didn't need to be said this way, that it was unnecessary, and they did have a problem with one thing in particular, all right, what do you think, what phrase in here do you think they had a problem with?
Yes, and by the power of the civil magistrate, in fact, when the American Presbyterians got their hands on it, they X'd out that phrase. They X'd out that phrase and put a period right there. Yeah, and you'll see it, like even in the Presbyterian version of the Trinity Hymnal, that last phrase is not there, but it is in the original Westminster faith, Confession of Faith, all right.
Now, again, the Baptists, the Congregationalists, for whatever reasons, they just felt that it wasn't necessary, and in some cases, maybe they thought it went too far, but it didn't need to be said. I just put that up for your perusal.
Any questions? Why did this one go so fast? You're free to go fast.
Huh? You're free to go fast.
Yeah, but I'm not ready for the next session. If I had known it was going to go this quick, I would have done two tonight, but that just gives us more time to practice. Any questions on liberty of conscience?
Now, remember, this is the basis for the next whole part, you know, the things that come next. The next chapter is on religious worship and the Sabbath day. Oh, that's why I couldn't do the next one, because the next one is going to take too long.
See, I knew what I was doing. Okay? All right.
