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 three five nine ten and twenty. So let's start on chapter three, which is titled God's decree.

God's Decree and the First and Second Causes

When we look at the first paragraph of chapter three 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 three paragraph one 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 advanced 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 provisionalist 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 sinned. 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 four. Paragraph four 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 going to 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 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 and 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 six. 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 poo-poo 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 going to 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.

Divine Providence and the Telos of Creation

On God's decree now on to chapter 5 which is about divine providence. 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 in 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 that 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 five 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 five 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 disciplined 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 six. To sum it up. It would be this it's kind of the opposite of what we just looked at in paragraph five.

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.

All right 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 gonna 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 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 it 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.

Effectual Calling, Regeneration, and the Means of Grace

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 in 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 Sun. 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.

The Gospel and Grace as the Normative Means of Salvation

All right, paragraph 1 the substance of the gospel is the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now the gospel is big, right? The gospel is 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.