1689 Session #7

We have arrived at the final 1689 session

This is going to be session number seven where we're talking about London Baptist confessional chapters 3 5 9 10 and 20

So let's start on chapter 3 which is titled God's decree When we look at the first paragraph of chapter 3

We see an idea that is going to start to run through all of tonight's session and that is the idea of first causes and second causes

So what chapter what what chapter 3 paragraph 1 is talking about is that God has decreed and purposed?

every single thing that happens Everything that has ever happened and ever will happen in the universe has been both

Decreed by God or he spoke it and willed it to happen and that he purposed for it to happen

Now the immediate question is well, what about sin and this paragraph answered that it says that God has no fellowship with sin

But that vessels of wrath sin out of their own rebellion and this sin

Advances the purposes of God's decree So think of it this way very important to understand the idea of first and second causes

First causes are the things that only God has put into place. There is no such thing as first causes outside of God Because God is the only one who can act in a truly arbitrary way what

I mean by that is a lot of times we will try to say something arbitrary like if I just Run of the mill said pickle or something right here

We might think well, that's a random word to say That's an arbitrary thing to say and and that's not a bad use of that word definitionally for us, but human beings can't actually be arbitrary because as I was

Thinking of a weird word to say like pickle in this context I was actually not being arbitrary at all because I was trying to decide and think of a word that is

Arbitrary to say and this is where God is entirely different because God is acted on by no one and he reacts to nothing

He is Arbitrary in all his actions in the way that we understand it.

That means that God is Completely free and completely in charge of everything that happens.

He reacts to nothing. He causes Everything in the first cause and when he created and he started things in first cause there are second causes that God has also

Appointed second causes are the things that man do by their own volitional will but that God has already appointed

Because he has set it in action with first causes so vessels of wrath, which are those who are the unelect?

Those who are going to show the glory of God by their rebellion of him. They sin because they want to sin

They love to sin. That is their nature But the sin that they do Advances the purposes of God's decree.

We see that with the Pharaoh with the ten plagues We see it with Pilate as he is as he goes along and and even

Caiaphas the high priest during the time of Jesus as he prophesied that it was better for one man to die than than the many

And that is an example of how vessels of wrath advance the purposes of God But with no fellowship of sin in God God did not cause any of those men to sin, but he did appoint it because of their volitional will

So like I said God decreed that Jesus would die for sinners He did not coerce or have fellowship with the murderous plot of the leaders

They are responsible for their sin, but they were ordained in their rebellion to complete the decree

All right, moving on to paragraph 2 paragraph 2 starts to help us understand this decree a little bit better And that is that God did not decree because of his knowledge of the future.

This is what provisionalists and Some Arminian strains of thought believe which is that yeah, of course

God predestined things to happen But that's because he looked down the corridors of time and he saw the things that were gonna be that is actually properly understood against the nature of God because that would show even if God looked down the tunnels of time to see what was gonna

Happen then he would be changeable because he would be reacting to something God is

Completely all -in -all he is not changeable. And so his decree has nothing to do with his knowledge of the future

So God doesn't react to anything remember and he cannot change so he does not react to anything in the future

Secondly in this paragraph It says that God has decreed everything for his own good pleasure and all of history is ordained according to this decree

God put everything into motion and decreed and purposed everything that happens because it brings him the most glory and there's nothing selfish about that because the highest good that is possible in this universe is

Simultaneously and exactly the thing that brings God the most glory to bring glory to God is

Definitionally good and so God has decreed everything to happen to give him maximal glory

Even those who fellowship with sin, but God himself does not paragraph 3

The eternal fate of all angels and men was decreed before creation by God's good pleasure this goes into Predestination or for ordination that means that the number was decreed before God created everything

He knew which angels were gonna fall. He knew man which men were going to fall

He knew that Adam was going to fall now He did not fellowship with Adam and Adam sin Adam sinned because he wanted to sin, but God had decreed that these men would fall

He was he was the first cause of making a man who was good But in the second cause when man by his volition broke

God's law God appointed that time and he used it to bring himself maximal glory.

These are difficult doctrines So here's what we get and this is the way I try to sum it up It's a very hard thing to get but only those only those who are unelect

Get what they desire in their own will the elect those who God has saved They do not get what they want as they're born as their natural man declares

But their desires have been changed by the Holy Spirit so The only people who get what they want are the people who are in rebellion to God They are doing everything that they want and everything they feel like but for us as the elect our desires are changed by the

Holy Spirit and so our Very will and our desires are changed. We become a new creature who is able to love

God's law. All right paragraph 4 Paragraph 4 is is another difficult one

The number of the elect is certain and definite the hope and freedom that that gives us in evangelism is absolutely huge So we don't know who the elect are we don't have spiritual eyes to see them we also don't know the means by which the elect are going to be brought into the fold because as we're born we are born as Elect if we are in that certain number, but we are not regenerate when we're born and so God uses means so in evangelism

We should not ever feel like we're selling something In fact, that's not the way that it's ever it's ever mentioned in Scripture what we're doing is we are making witness and testifying of the things that we have seen and And of the

Word of God and we are urging and making pleas to men Based on the reality of God's law and the reality of grace in the cross but we should have hope in our evangelism and we should do it and also, we should understand that we should not go into a type of hyper

Calvinism a fatalism or Where where we go? Well, it doesn't matter if I evangelize or not

Like the people that are saved are gonna be saved that is that's wrong on many levels one of the reasons it's wrong is that because when our desires are changed we desire to do what

God has commanded and God has Commanded that we go and disciple that we evangelize that we testify that we bear witness of what has happened

So to deny that is to put into question our very elect status the other thing is that we are excited about the hope and the change that we have in Christ and so it's a thing that we should

We should talk about and not really be able to shut up about we will always talk about and evangelize the things that we love

It's very easy for me with a group of certain guys to start talking about golf It can be a really easy common point of interest and it's easy to talk about So it should be the same way with the most important thing in our lives, which is our faith

So we should not become hyper Calvinist where we're fatalist and go Well, it doesn't matter if we evangelize or not.

The elect are are chosen Yeah that may mean that you're not elect because you don't care about the law of God which is which is a

Status and a marker of the elect is that we love God's law. All right paragraph 5 Salvation itself was given completely out of God's mercy love and compassion

Without regard to any other circumstance or motivation. It's not about your family.

It's not about What you can do it's not about what you're gonna do in the future or your talents or anything like that Salvation was given to glorify

God and to show his mercy love and compassion and we learned in 1st Corinthians That what

God usually does what he normatively does is that he elects the foolish to shame the wise

So we're kind of a ragtag group here who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and who now will judge angels one day

But that is not because of our natural birth. It's not because of the talent that we have it's because God has elected us completely of his own

Mercy love and compassion by his own good pleasure All right paragraph 6

Even though salvation in all of its parts is completely given as a supernatural miracle of God.

He uses means to do this Okay, so the elect become elect through means or they they actually get regenerate through means

The effectual calling of the Holy Spirit Normatively happens through the preaching of the gospel So most of the time the way that people come into the kingdom the way that their elect elect status is

Consummated so to speak is that they hear the gospel and are Convicted in their heart and given saving faith through the effectual calling of the

Holy Spirit And once we have saving faith, there is there is the whole ordo salutis that Corey talked about But Preaching is not the only way it happens

The very circumstances that someone is born into can be means that bring about salvation so the family and this is an area where as Baptists we have to get better we have to Build the the grounds and and basically

I've heard it described as putting all the kindling around ready to ignite With our kids where we disciple them where we set everything in order to where if God brings the fire that it's ready to burn that's normative means of Someone being regenerate usually it's preaching it can be other circumstances

It can even be visions and dreams that can happen rarely But we know that it does happen and as reformed people we should not poopoo on that idea

And we should not look at it with hostility God does call to people in visions and he and it puts them on a path of seeking his word and then oftentimes they are

Receptive to hear the gospel. That's a means that he uses and finally ending chapter 3

There's a mystery to this and it's important the the statement says the doctrine of the high mystery of Predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care.

That's really important for us Assurance not arrogance should be the result of the doctrine of election

We should be comforted and at peace in the assurance that what God has chosen

He will never lose if you've been placed into Jesus's hand Nothing and no one can ever take you out of his hand

What it often does though is that reformed can be the most arrogant people that we we think that we have the best doctrine

We think that we are all It gonna be perseverance of the Saints and we can act with an arrogance towards others that is not becoming we should not be arrogant

We should be humble knowing that God has chosen the foolish things to shame the wise But knowing that God has chosen us so we should be assured and confident of our salvation

We have to be really prudent when we handle the doctrine of predestination and God's eternal decree

It is not something that we want to go to people on the street and ask them if they're elect or not.

We we There are two things that are equally true. That is that men all men who are elect are

Predestined and also it is equally true that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved

We just happen to know that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord are the elect who are predestined

But the order the order matters and when we make our appeal to those who are lost we make the appeal based on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need for repentance because of law -breaking and That is the means by which the elect are saved really important for us to get that, right?

So it comes around again. God's decree is so tied up in the confidence in evangelism

Election should give us confidence. It's not on us We are not the source and power of salvation

God is we're not selling anything We are making our appeal and we are calling men to repentance with the authority of Jesus Christ who has all authority on Heavens and on the earth and we go in his name to do that.

All right, that's chapter 3 On God's decree now on to chapter 5 which is about divine provenance.

All right Chapter 5 paragraph 1 God has directed Everything in all things to their telos the telos means they're in purpose or they're the end result

According to his wisdom goodness and power to his glory. So God's providence is about this that that God set

Into work a natural order paragraph 2 will reveal this a little bit more and that that goes back to this idea of God is the first cause

Philosophically, he would be called the prime mover or the unforced force and we know this it's it's foolishness

The atheism movement has been basically defrocked Because the thing that they could never answer is that there has to be a force a mover in the beginning and many

Christian philosophers have have hammered that point in Our confession makes light of this of this argument that God is the first cause that he appoints everything and all second causes because of his good will and That the actions of the creation are of their own volition, but they always accomplish the purposes of God That is what providence normatively works out as okay.

So paragraphs 1 & 2 If you want to think about it this way, it's kind of the idea of how

Natural law works itself out now natural law is a very important topic natural law can

Can show us that there are there are laws there are things that men Live by but it does not ever show us the gospel

We need divine or special revelation to get to the cross to get to how God has actually saved people But natural law gives us this idea that it's it's a bad thing to kill a bunch of people

It's a bad thing to steal people's stuff. Now. There are reprobates they go against it but natural law kind of goes along with the promises to Noah in the

Noahic Covenant that God would never destroy the world by water again And and what kind of goes into that is that man is never going to be

So utterly terrible as they were in the days of Noah where God regretted that he had made them

And and so there is a restraint of evil that comes in and so that's where God directs things things naturally to their telos and we see that with human beings the telos of those who are vessels of Destruction is to sin at increasing rates and to grow in their sinfulness and to harden in their hearts

So that they will start to call things that are good evil and things that are evil good

But also we see the telos of those who have been regenerate the purpose of those who are regenerate is to from one degree to another to be conformed more into the likeness of Jesus Christ and That's what's called sanctification

So all of telos God's divine providence works through nature Which means everything that he created works towards a purpose trees go upwards not downwards orange trees have oranges not apples

There is order in the universe and that is a lot of times how many providential things work out by things doing

What they are ordained to do in the natural way that they're ordained to do it But paragraph 3 tells us that God is not limited to that because in his ordinary

Providence he makes use of means yet He is free to work without above and against them at his pleasure

What that means that miracles do happen and God can do anything. He wills by any means that he wills

He can save people from sickness and illness by any means it can be through a surgeon's hand or it can be through the eradication of a disease through prayer and the anointing

Anointing of oil and prayer of elders that can be a means that God will use to heal sickness

We shouldn't be so afraid of that Sure, there are shysters and there are hucksters who blaspheme the name of God and take his name in vain by wrongly

Attributing to God false miracles and things like that but there are real miracles that God performs and he continues to do those and we should pray for those things to happen and then

Accept them by faith when we do see them happen All right paragraph 4 What what paragraph 4 tells us is that God ordained but did not originate

The sins of angels and man and that includes the fall God knew it was going to happen God ordained for it to happen

So remember those second causes he knew those second causes he appointed them to happen

But he did not have fellowship with sin this brings him maximal glory through the redemption of the cross through the revelation of his divine justice of his mercy of his

Compassion all things that were not able to be displayed outside of the fall

All sin all sin works to God's purposes Because man is a sinner by nature through Adam that kind of goes back to that divine providence of the

Telos, right? Sinners are going to sin because it is our nature to sin and God God knows that and so he has appointed all things to work to his purposes

But we understand there's a limiting cause that God does not sin. He does not tempt man or cause man to sin

He created man man is a center sinner and God has appointed man's behavior in his volitional will to accomplish

God's purposes All right paragraph 5 the natural consequences of our past sins are

Useful in growing us in holiness and resistance to future sins We've seen that going through the the book of Mark with Peter is that we're gonna see as he keeps showing fear of man as he

Denies God as he as he makes rash vows But then doesn't fulfill them as he runs away that all of those things those the consequences of sins

Which is despair him falling down weeping. Those are going to be milestones that he is going to look back on and that's going to prevent him from falling so deeply into those sins in the future and That is the same way that God works at us in his providence that he allows us to have the natural

Consequences of our past sins to grow us in holiness and resistance It's like Gandalf said

When he was trapped by Saruman and he escaped and then he went back and Saruman asked him back into the tower

Gandalf said nay the guest who escaped from the roof will think twice before he comes back in the door the best way to grow natural resistance to sin is to remember its poison and to remember the

Consequences or to even still be experiencing the consequences of sin The second thing we get out of paragraph 5 is that humility is key to dependence on God for sanctification

When we are proud we miss the lessons in Humility, we start to learn that we are dependent on God for sanctification as well as our justification and glorification

We know that we're justified by Christ But too often we try to finish the work that God started through the work of the flesh and that is folly as Galatians would tell

Us so we need to humbly submit ourself and depend on God for him to grow us in holiness

Finally in this in this paragraph It is discipline to experience the foul fruits of sin so that we will remember its poison when it later will appear sweet again

See, sometimes we forget the pain of sin And so discipline is for us to experience those fruits and remember it next time so that we don't fall into sin again

All right paragraph 6 To sum it up. It would be this it's kind of the opposite of what we just looked at in paragraph 5 the wicked

Will grow in their sin. They will be judicially hardened by the Lord to increase their own corruption

So that's the opposite right as Christians are learning from the national consequence natural consequences of their sin and growing in sanctification

The wicked are doing exactly the opposite They're growing in their pride and their hard heartedness to increase their corruption and increase the judgment that's on them

It is perilous therefore to surround Oneself around the things of God and then withdraw because even those early gifts may be taken away and the early gifts are the

Fellowship the the good feelings of being in church of being around God's people of even taking of the elements of communion

When people put themselves into that situation it is perilous for them because if they're not truly regenerate

Then those those early gifts can be taken away and as Hebrews warns us They are often never given back

Because if if being around the people of God and hearing the gospel and professing that you believe it with your mouth is not enough to give you

Regeneration and to grow you then then you are at a different level of rebellion against God and so it's a it's a perilous situation and God uses that in his providence to show wickedness and also to chase in and to To divide the church in ways that show those who are approved in those who are not alright paragraph 7

That's this the church or the elect of God They get a special manner of God's providence and I take this to mean that they are given spiritual gifts

Okay, so we are given spiritual gifts. They are not ours. They are of the Holy Spirit spiritual gifts

We don't take talent assessments or personality surveys to determine what our spiritual gifts are spiritual gifts are prayed for And they are given to us supernaturally by the

Holy Spirit and that is to equip the church for the working out of everything that the church is supposed to do and We have to have people with gifts of administration people with gifts of mercy people with gifts of preaching people with gifts of teaching and so on and so forth and What we have to understand and this is very this is very important one for me to understand is that when

I preach It's not because that the effectiveness of a sermon is not because of my public speaking

It's not because of some natural talent or ability It is because of a spiritual gift of preaching that should keep me as a preacher from growing proud in Any supposed ability that I have because the ability

I have is not from me It is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And so all things should be to Christ. It's not my talent

I am merely a conduit For what God wants his people to hear

Delivered with conviction through the Holy Spirit convicting hearts in the Holy Spirit even the very study of the word to deliver to the people is a gift of the

Illumination of the scripture by the Holy Spirit to equip me to be able to give our congregation what we need

Went from one Sunday to another So I it's it's much like the election thing. We should not be proud.

God chose us because we're foolish I should not be proud as a preacher. God chose me to give himself

Maximal glory and the way he does that is by me Constantly pointing back that I don't even really know what happened

I I try to be faithful and I try to pray and then God brings that spiritual gift and it really is an amazing thing

It's just a conduit But that applies to everyone in the church Every member of the church is equipped with spiritual gifts for the furthering of this mission and we should pray for them and we should

Thank God that he gives them to us. They are supernatural things. All right enough that it's kind of a hobby horse chapter 9

Is about free will so it's kind of the other side of all this with degree and providence Paragraph 1 says that man does according to his desires either the natural man unto sin or the elect unto righteousness

We've talked about that a lot. So let's move on to paragraph 2 only Adam had a natural will to do good

There are only two humans who have ever lived who had a natural will to do good That is going to be Adam and it's going to be

Jesus Christ. They had a natural will to do good They were not internally corrupted So man though, even though that's true only man only

Adam had a natural will to good do good That means that we and when we are born we have a natural will to sin

But having said that men can do good things in a natural or common sense, but they cannot do them righteously

Because even when we do good we do it wrongly Bereft of God's glory and thus it's against the very purpose of God's Existence or of our existence.

So the purpose of our existence is to glorify God That's why man is created to radiate.

We are God's image and so we should glorify God But when we are in rebellion against God, even the good things we do

In a natural or common sense are not done righteously because we hate God and do not regard him in our heart

And so we are still fighting against the purpose of the existence of man And that is a that is a struggle

All right, paragraph three man has no avenue within himself of attaining salvation

He has nothing to offer because his very nature is against God that that is really a

Succinct way of talking about what we call the doctrine of total depravity It doesn't mean that men are dead and not moving.

It means that they are dead spiritually. They're not seeking God There's none who seeks him. No, not one We have no way within ourselves of attaining salvation

Because every thought that we have is against God in our natural man. So there's no way to save God We have nothing to offer him.

There's nothing that God needs. There's nothing that he lacks from us remember that goes with his nature and Even if he even if in an impossibility he did man has nothing to offer him because we are rebels against him

All right paragraph four Salvation brings freedom from sin

That is a huge thing to say right when God converts a sinner and translates him into the state of grace

He frees him from his natural bondage under sin and by his grace alone enables him freely

To will and to do that which is spiritually good It's kind of the opposite of what we saw in the last paragraph is that man has nothing to offer because his nature is against God but when

God converts a sinner now, we are in a state of grace Which means that we can actually do righteous deeds and that salvation gives us freedom from sin

We're still at war with sin, but sin does not have the upper hand to enslave us We have all the tools that are necessary for righteousness

And so we fight not only with a hope but with an assurance of victory over sin Both the final victory over sin and glory where we will send no more more

But also the temporal victory over sins that ensnare us as we cast those off We pray prayers of repentance and we walk and using the natural and spiritual means that God has given us to make war on sin

So having said that we still do sin because our original corruption remains but sanctification is

Progressively making us into a new man that defeats the natural man from one degree to another

All right paragraph five It's a very short one This will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the state of glory only that means that we will only be

Unchangeably sinless in glory not before that's why Adam fell Adam was mutable

He was not unchangeable. And so he was made in a sinless condition But he was in a changeable sinless condition and he fell for the record

I I think it was for one time and I don't want to speculate too much, but that's how Satan and the demons fell

They were changeable and they made their decision and fell and I believe I think and I think most believe

That the other angels who are still in in the glory of God that they are now Immutably holy and will never fall into sin.

They were given this one time for man We are given this lifetime to where we are still changeable

But when we are translated into glory, we will be immutable and sinless what that mean?

We will never sin it will never happen again. So there will be no further redemption It was a once -and -for -all sacrifice to redeem us.

All right kind of going long Chapter 10 is about effectual calling Corey talked a lot about that So I think we can move quickly paragraph 1 to summarize it it would go this way the elect are eternally saved

But the calling happens at an ordained time before you were ever created before the world was created you were

Eternally saved you are the elect but that happens at an ordained time All right, so you're unregenerate until you're regenerate

But if you are the elect there is no possibility that you would die in an unregenerate state Because you were chosen before the foundation of the world, but the calling still happens in an ordained time

So we make our appeal to others and evangelize because we do not know the status of people and we don't know how

God has ordained the time or the method of their coming into regenerate status

So this calling when we are eternally saved When that when the ordained time happens and that effectual calling of the

Holy Spirit takes place It then changes us into a new creature with a new heart and a new will

Everything that we have we are saved by grace and the grace is that we have the effectual calling of the

Holy Spirit and regeneration So God of his own good pleasure Regenerates us by calling us through the

Holy Spirit and then we are given saving faith in a regenerate state There is no one who has saving faith.

Who's not regenerate God gives us a new heart and that new heart has faith in him and that is the way salvation works

Now paragraph 2 gives us a little bit more insight on that and that is that man is passive in this calling and it comes

Only from the same power of God that raised Christ from the dead So the penalty for sin was paid by Jesus Christ, but he was a righteous man he committed no sin and so therefore he was raised again from the dead and He is the firstfruits of resurrection

That means that we have the power of salvation through the resurrection of Christ from the dead

We are tied to that that is the sacrifice accepted and that is victory over sin and death in Christ's resurrection

And we will be bodily resurrected one day because Jesus's bodily resurrection was the firstfruits of that resurrection

Man doesn't do anything. We are called effectually by the Holy Spirit saved by the

Holy Spirit Given faith through the Holy Spirit and then we walk according to the

Holy Spirit It's not on it's not of our deeds or our works lest any man should boast

All right, paragraph 3. We'll just go through this quickly It's kind of a controversial one, but it's this and the in the the confession leaves it open for us

It says all of the elect including infants are Regenerated and saved even without the normative means of the ministry of the word

So those who are elect as infants, they will be saved now there's a lot of argument about whether all infants are elect or whether some infants are elect the the infants of Christians so on and so forth.

I'm not gonna try to answer that here. I do have my very strong opinions about that There are people who disagree with my very strong opinions about that So I'm gonna leave it at that But God knows all the elect and his means of saving them are outside of the normative means of the ministry of the word

There are I believe there are elect infants who die in infancy and they were Regenerated by the

Holy Spirit in much the same way that John the Baptist was that's descriptive in the case of John the Baptist But it does tell us we also know that David expected to see his lost son again that that was

That was miscarried from Bathsheba And so we we have to be tentative about making doctrines about that But we do know that God saves infants and that he can do that through miraculous means paragraph 4

Some people show outward signs of some gifts. They hear the word, but they are lost and they will certainly perish

No one outside of the Christian religion can be saved no matter how hard they try to accord with natural law or morality

Or the tenets of other religions. This is a hard line Mormons do not worship the same

God as the Bible Jews and Judaism do not worship the God of the Bible. They deny the

Sun Muslims do not worship the God of the Bible Hindus None of those other religions worship the

God of the Bible and they will perish in their sins Under damnation if they do not repent and turn to Christ There is no religion that can save outside of the

Christian religion There is no adherence to law or morality that can save outside of Jesus perfectly fulfilling the law on your behalf

I know people don't like that in our day and time but that is bedrock core doctrine and core

Cardinal orthodoxy of the Christian faith. There's only one way to the Father and that is through the Son He is the way the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father, but by him All right, let's round this out and end it chapter 20, which is the gospel and grace

All right paragraph 1 the substance of the gospel is the person and work of Jesus Christ The Gospels big right the

Gospels about the kingliness of Christ his his coming kingdom of peace and the good news of that Peace it was co -opted from the

Roman Caesar Augustus who brought the Pax Romana and Christians used the

Evangelion of the gospel to to basically appropriate that where the Romans were using and apply it to the gospel of the kingdom of heaven

But the substance of this gospel the way it comes about Was through the person and work of Jesus both his kingly work

But also his sacrificial priestly work and his prophetic work the gospel that gospel which the heart of which is atonement that Jesus died for the sins of those who he is elected and he is

Effectual in calling them that gospel is effectual for the conversion and salvation of sinners

That is the normative means of the effectual calling is by hearing this gospel You are a sinner

You need to repent you need to place your faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross to take away the penalty of your sins and who rose again to deliver eternal life to his people that message is the normative means of effectual calling

All right paragraph 2 the book of nature which we've talked about right that's things according to their telos the purposes of things the

The law that seems to be a law unto ourselves in Romans 2 that there's there are these ideas that we see things that are

Right and not all men do everything bad all the time Normal men can do good things in the common or natural sense

But that book of nature does not illuminate the gospel. The gospel is only revealed in Scripture You can't look at the stars and see the wonder of a creator and get to the gospel from there

You can get to the existence of God and so no one has any excuse God created us and we owe him allegiance

But the special revelation of the Word of God is the only one that tells us how to have peace

With our God and that is through the gospel of Jesus Christ Paragraph 3 the gospel is darkened to sinners until or unless God enlightens.

It's not about understanding facts It's not about propositions It is about darkness that becomes light when

God calls or effectually calls people and he shows them the light of his gospel and the

Way of salvation so preaching the gospel is granted to persons and nations We should preach the gospel as people but also nations should preach the gospel

It should be a part of the culture and the civilization If we want to be blessed by God as a people then we as a people need to Proclaim the gospel and shrine the gospel have it on our doorposts and on our signs everywhere finally paragraph 4

To sum it up The Holy Spirit's work is what saves people and the gospel is the normative means a lot of that has been repeated the normal way

That people are saved is by hearing the gospel The way that they are saved by hearing the gospel is through the work of the

Holy Spirit No one is saved outside of the work of the Holy Spirit But the normal way that that happens is through hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ so the gospel itself is an outward means and We learned earlier that God is not restrained to outward or natural means not in the salvation of infants who are elect

Not in the salvation of many who have not heard the gospel, but hear a vision or see a vision

Not hear a vision see a vision or have a dream and then go in search of the scripture

To go ask somebody and then the gospel is preached So God can use a lot of ways to get people to come to the gospel and to hear it and to and to believe it

But the gospel is the normal outward means and God saves through the Holy Spirit Now what this should all do in looking at the confession we finish it up This confession should give us the the guardrails for the confession and elders in this church should hold to it.

Very very strongly That doesn't mean that we think it's scripture It does mean that we we are going to teach within this confession because it is the statement of beliefs of the church

Members can disagree at points. That's fine But they have to understand where this train is going that we are going to preach this way that we're going to go

Along with this confession there could be minimal Minimal differences of opinions about wording we saw that in the bivocational section, but we largely and substantially

Adopt this confession as elders and we're going to preach it that way the other thing that I think we should see especially from the last two weeks is that We have a tremendous amount of hope in winning the world because God has decreed

Everything and because of that we as Christians should not have fear of man We should go out boldly because God has done the work beforehand and I hope that that motivates us and I hope that this this time

Has been really helpful and will be a good resource for the future as we look at the statement of beliefs

And I'm sure take more specific bites of the apple in later days as we look at other more complicated doctrines within the confession