1689 London Baptist Confession (part 33)

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Our Father in heaven, we come before you this morning just in awe of your love, your kindness, your grace toward us.
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Father, a week where we can just see the tumults of the world, all the things that are going on around us.
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And even as a man who proclaimed
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Christ died this week, we would just see how even in the midst of him being honored, there would be so much dishonor brought upon you and the cause of the gospel.
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Father, we would pray that you would give us this morning, not just discernment as we listen, as we look to your word, but discernment as we walk through this world.
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Father, the reason we come to something like the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith is that we might better learn, better distill down what the
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Bible says, that we might be able to defend the faith and give a reason for the hope that is within us.
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Lord, bless each one here today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, big week this week, major, we're not going to talk about that.
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We've been talking about for a few weeks now, the sanctification and what the
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Baptist Confession of Faith said about that and even, as I look, about good works.
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And we're just to the end of that section. And I think what R .C. says here, and I read this last week, and I think this is right.
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We don't understand the gospel until we understand that whatever we do as Christians in this world is at the very best, nothing more than our duty.
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There is nothing meritorious about what one is obligated to do.
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Our Lord says, obey me. Our Lord says, follow me.
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Our Lord says, serve. Our Lord says, give.
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Our Lord says, pray. He says, read the scriptures. And when we do these things, does that gain us standing with God?
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Do we obtain merits? Do we obtain favor?
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Let me put it another way. Can we obtain favor with God? Is there something that Corey can do?
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Because Corey, we know that the prayers of a righteous man can availeth much, so let's go to Corey and ask him, is there something that any of us can do here to obtain merit before God?
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And the answer is no. Our merit is entirely in the person and work of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. We need his alien righteousness. We need that imputed to us.
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Nevertheless, our works are of importance.
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Our works are of value. We talked about it last week that the confession says that our good works are accepted by him or not accepted by him, but accepted in him.
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Our works are accepted by God, but how and why? Because we are in Christ and our works are therefore valued as if they are done not in our imperfection, but in his perfection.
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Is that a question, Bob? Okay. Here's what the confession says.
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Works done by unregenerate men, the unsaved, although for the matter of them they may be things which
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God commands and of good use both to themselves and others, yet because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith, nor are done in a right manner according to the word, nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful and cannot please
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God, nor make a man meet able to receive grace from God, yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God.
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So, what does it say there? An unsaved person can do good things, but because they don't believe
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God, in other words they're not Hebrews 11 .6, they're not done out of faith, it's impossible to please
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God, therefore everything that they do is sinful and yet it says that when they do sinful things or if they fail to do these things, that's bad, and if they do sinful things, that's even more displeasing to God.
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You know, we've had, I've had many discussions over the years with people who say, well what about Jehovah Witnesses who are faithful to the light that they've received, faithful to the revelation that they have, faithful to what they know, well what about that?
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What about the Jehovah Witnesses who come to your door and they're like, they're sincere in their belief that they need to warn you, right?
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That's why they come to your door, they need to warn you that you're in error and you're in danger of going to hell.
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So what about that? What about somebody who's faithful to what they know, okay? So that's ultimately man -centered, and so we could say, you know, my seminary prof, you say this all the time, he says they may be sincere, but they're sincerely wrong, right?
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What about the argument that if they live up to the light that they have, then God will give them more light? Bob. He's sincere.
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What about the cannibal, Bob says, who is appeasing the spirit of the village by eating his neighbor?
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Thank you for that on a Sunday morning. He's sincere.
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He's sincere in his belief system. You know, he's living up to the light that he's been given.
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Or eating the missionary. I understand missionaries are low in calories. So we'll pass on that one.
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Okay. But the confession says, even if unregenerate people, even if unsaved people outwardly do the things that God commands, is it possible that an unsaved person goes to church?
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I think so. I think we'll have some here today. Is it possible that an unsaved person could give to the church?
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Is it possible that an unsaved person could get baptized? Could they pray?
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Could they share the gospel? That's a shocking one, right?
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All those things are commanded. So, you know, then will they be able to say, well, wait a minute, Lord. You don't understand.
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You don't know all the things that I did. Maybe you do. But you're not giving me credit for them. I don't think what you're doing is fair in sending me to hell.
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Does that sound like a passage of scripture to anybody? Lord, didn't we do this?
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Didn't we do that? We did it all in your name. We gave to the church. We swept the parking lot.
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We turned off the lights whenever we left. We took our kids to youth group.
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And the point is, they're judged by their intent, which is always wrong.
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Because their ultimate goal is not to bring glory to the Lord. It's to either salve their conscience or to look good in front of other people.
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Neither one is satisfactory. And neither one is exculpatory. Meaning, it's not an excuse.
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And it's not going to bring them any favor with the Lord. Did you have a question, Bob? Yes. Back in the 80s,
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MacArthur did say God would give them more light. But then he changed. Can you explain? Yes, I can explain.
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John MacArthur in the 80s changed from saying that God would give them more light if they were faithful to what they knew.
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He would give them more light. And then he changed his position. We call that sanctification.
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There, I just answered the question. I don't really know, but I'm sure that's the case.
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I mean, I saw John over the years change a few of his positions. And every time it was toward a more faithful position.
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I'll just say that. He was always faithful, but then he got more faithful. Okay, moving on.
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We're going to talk now about perseverance of the saints. Perseverance of the saints. Some people like to call it preservation of the saints.
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That would be me. I like to call it preservation of the saints. Because it puts the emphasis where it needs to be.
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And the emphasis is always on the sovereignty of God and his supervision.
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His superintendence, I guess, is better of our salvation. Let me just read a bit of what the confession says here.
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Those whom God hath accepted in the beloved in Christ, effectually called and sanctified by his spirit, and given the precious faith of his elect unto, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved, seeing the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.
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I love that. He doesn't repent about the gifts and callings he gives.
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Whence he still begets and nourisheth in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the spirit unto immortality.
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And though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, yet they shall never be able to take them off that foundation and rock which by faith they are fastened upon.
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Notwithstanding through unbelief and the temptations of Satan, the sensible sight of the light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured for them.
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Yet he is still the same, and they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation, where they shall enjoy their purchased possession, they being engraven upon the palm of his hands, and their names having been written in the book of life for all eternity.
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Let me summarize that. It's as easy as this.
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Christians can sin. Sometimes they will sin gravely. Sometimes their sin will be such that they think to themselves,
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I can't possibly be saved after what I've just done. I can't even see the
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Lord, figuratively speaking. He can't possibly be near me.
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And yet, if they were his, they will return.
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We're going to expand on that a little bit. But there's a lot of, you know, what do we hear in evangelical circles?
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It's this. I mean, I don't care what sort of church you go to, unless it's ranked
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Arminian. Actually, I won't even say Arminian, unless it's ranked
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Pelagian. Pelagian being the idea that Adam's fall had no impact on us and that we have a completely free will, and therefore, you're able to be saved and then unsaved, and saved and unsaved, and it's completely dependent upon you, right?
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What we hear in evangelical churches is, once saved, always saved, right?
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Isn't that the attitude? Which I find really amazing in these one -point Calvinist churches.
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The one -point Calvinist church is, of course, the one that we're talking about here. They believe in this one, the perseverance of the saints, because here's the deal.
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You know, a lot of churches will teach that you have a free will, your salvation is up to you and everything else, but once you make that decision, nobody can reverse it.
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Not you, not God, no one. I'd like to get a mortgage like that.
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It's like, no matter what you do, it's yours forever. I don't care if you make the payments, whatever.
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It's all good. One day there might be a government program like that.
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But I digress. Let's look at Romans 11 .29.
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And actually, the confession just mentioned this. Would somebody read
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Romans 11 .29? Passing over the gifts part for the moment. What does it mean when
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God calls somebody? Okay, so he calls them, well, he elects them in eternity past, and then in time, he calls them, right?
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Which means he effectually brings about their salvation. So, if we're told in the word of God that the callings are irrevocable, and I mean, we can go to Romans 8 .29
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and 30, I just didn't want to go there again, even though it's very handy. The golden chain of salvation, if we look there, we see that, you know, those whom he chooses or foreknows, there's an unbreakable chain where he elects, he loves, or he loves, he elects, he calls, etc.
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You know, he sanctifies them, and he glorifies them, and all these things are true. And it's unbreakable. It cannot be undone.
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There's nothing in there to break it. And here's the idea. In the confession, it says,
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Seeing the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Once he grants salvation, he doesn't change his mind.
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So, again, I like preservation because it's his work that keeps us in him. But if we look at it from our perspective, it's definitely perseverance.
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You know, who is going to be saved? Those who endure to the end, those who keep my word, etc.
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We see that all throughout Scripture, all throughout Jesus' teachings. Now, there are times where we talk about apostasy or someone who apostatizes or an apostate.
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What does that mean? Have they left the faith? We'll see, right?
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It's just like, you know, what Pastor Mike says about when somebody makes a profession of faith, what do we know about them in terms of them being saved or not?
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Your three -year -old says, I love Jesus and I believe the gospel. Keep on believing.
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We'll see, right? It's time and trials, as Pastor Mike likes to say.
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We'll see over time. We'll see when the storms of life, the trials, the difficulties come along.
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How do you respond? You know, if we think about the parable of the soils, what happens is the troubles of life come along and people just, it's too much for me, and they walk away from the faith.
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Well, does that mean that they were saved and lost their salvation? We'll get there in a minute.
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R .C. says apostasy means literally standing away from. It is the condition of people who have, or who, having made a profession of faith and joined the church, whether they joined the church or not, they joined the body of Christ, allegedly, later repudiate that profession and depart from the church.
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In other words, they say, I'm no longer a believer. I no longer believe in Christ and I'm done.
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I'm walking away. 1 John 2, 19 and 20, pretty much personifies this.
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John writes this, They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
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But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us, but you have been anointed by the
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Holy one and you all have knowledge. I won't get to what my note here for a second, but let me just say this.
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It's pretty clear that what John's saying is when people leave, when they apostatize, when they depart from the visible body of Christ and when they say, you know what?
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I no longer want to be associated with you, that they were never really of us, that they came in, they appeared to be one of us, but internally they were not saved.
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And that's why they're leaving. That's why when we do church discipline, we can't say ultimately whether that person is saved or not, right?
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Because like Bob said, we'll see what we can say is right now, this person is unrepentant, which is not consistent with the work of the
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Holy spirit. And because of that, we have to treat them like what an unbeliever, an apostate, somebody who has departed.
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Now, my note, I said, ESV is actually pretty terrible here. I'm commending the
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ESV. No, um, it is actually, let me see where I should have underscored it.
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So I would see it. Oh, I think the end of verse 20, where it says you have all knowledge, because actually the sense of it in the
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Greek is, you know, all things, the verb is a perfect tense, meaning it's a one time action with ongoing permanent consequences.
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So when it says, you know, all things, it really is, or you have all knowledge.
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It really is kind of the concept of, uh, once you know something, you know, that you know about Jesus Christ, you have permanent knowledge because you've received that from God.
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Um, so did they lose their salvation? The answer, of course, is no, they were not saved twice in the verses in first John.
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Strong contrast is used to show that they were not part of us.
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That is to say they were not believers. And why? Because there's a purpose clause, clause there in verse 19.
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It says that it might become plain that they are, or they all are not of us.
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So the idea that a saved person can become unsaved is unbiblical.
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It's based on an unbiblical idea of the will. You know, it's like when Jesus says, no one is able to take them out of my hand.
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No one's able to take them out of the father's hand. What does he mean? He means no one's able to do that.
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It doesn't matter what they choose to do. They will, they can't leap out of the father's hand and nobody can grab them out of the father's hand.
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R .C. says this, those who persevere are those who are truly saints. That is those who are truly believers who are numbered among the elect.
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You know, will Jesus lose any of the elect? No. He says, here's all that the father has given me and I will raise them up on the last day.
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Every single one of them. I will lose none. Think about it. If Jesus did lose one of the elect, if he did lose one that the father gave him, would he have been obedience?
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No, no, he would have in fact failed. He wouldn't be
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God. This gets, I'll get to you in a second. This gets to the heart of who
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God is and what God does. if he lost even one, how could you trust him to know that he wouldn't lose you too?
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Oh, well, so -and -so just went by the wayside and I guess God wasn't able to hold him, but I know he'll hold me.
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Uh, the London confession does say that the elect can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace.
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That makes, that gives you a little bit of comfort, but listen, read that again. You can't totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but boy, you can, you know, break your spiritual neck as it were, you know, you can, you can suffer a lot and say people can and will say it will sin.
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They can even enter into a time of apostasy, a temporary state of apostasy.
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Sproul says this about David that he fell into the sordid sin of adultery as well as murder by proxy.
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I don't know which one's worse. I don't know. Let's not get into that, but fell into the sordid sin of adultery as well as murder by proxy, right?
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He used other means to commit a murder. So his fall was a radical one with serious consequences for the whole nation.
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But when Nathan confronts him, he breaks, he repents and his, really his model of repentance becomes a good model for us to follow.
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It's one of repentance and restoration of the Lord can call
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David a man after his own heart. It's not because David's perfect. It's because David responds rightly by the grace of God.
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Let's look at X 13 versus 21 and 22 X 13 versus 21 and 22 because when you want to know about David, you go to the book of X X 13 versus 21 and 22 and if somebody would read that please.
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I saw the reference. I thought it was kind of crazy. Gary, go ahead. Now, is that interesting?
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Because here we have an ax testimony about David from the
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Lord and you just think, well, why of course we could find it in the Old Testament too, but why would
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God say that knowing what David was going to do or even in acts?
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Why would he allow it to be said knowing what David did, right? Because again, it's not about perfection.
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It's about how you respond when you are confronted in sin. I find it.
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I'm never discouraged. I'm well, in fact, I had the opportunity recently of having somebody basically,
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I don't want to say confess their sin to me because that makes it sound like, you know, I gave them 10 our fathers and five
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Hail Marys and sent them on their way. But listen to somebody explain how they had come to understand that the way they had been thinking and acting was all wrong.
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And so I guess you could say it was confession in that sense. The response to that is just,
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I cannot even tell you, I don't know if you've had that experience, but when you listen to somebody like that, it literally brings tears to your eyes.
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Why? Not because you think, you know, it's not like the pastor, Mike, how could you do that?
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It's. It's like, I'm so happy to see the
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Holy Spirit at work in you to convict you of that and bring you to a right understanding of things. What is disappointing is quite the opposite.
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When somebody is in sin and steadfastly refuses to admit it and refuses to repent and refuses to have that change of mind.
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That's where you started thinking, okay, either I'm wrong and I can be wrong, but if I'm looking at the word of God rightly,
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I can't be wrong. Or maybe this person isn't saved or maybe
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I just need to be patient and trust the Holy Spirit over more time to sort of give them that you are the man moments.
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The, you know, what's great about baptisms. What's great about baptisms to me isn't so much.
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I, I, it's not so much that somebody is, you know, getting dunked. I rejoice in that, especially here.
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Um, you know, because knowing that they may survive the experience back there is good.
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It's not so much just the act of them getting dunked, but their testimony where they talk about turning from sin and turning toward Christ.
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That's always encouraging. It's always delightful. We like to see that as Christians.
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We'd love to hear people repent. Now he does give a couple more examples.
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Sproul does hear of men in the Bible that have different experiences.
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He talks about Peter and Judas Iscariot says both Peter and Judas were disciples who had followed
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Christ. Each made a profession of faith and each seemed to be converted. And again, you know, having been teaching through the gospel of John, the idea that it would be
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Judas who is going to betray Jesus was shocking to the other apostles.
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This whole idea. I mean, this, this would be the last thing from their mind because they knew Judas. He was one of their friends.
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He did everything that the rest of them did. And if you've ever been here for church discipline,
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I think you can kind of identify when, with how it must have seemed when they knew it was
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Judas for sure. Um, because when somebody is announced,
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I remember on one occasion it was like, it wasn't just that you could maybe hear a pin drop. It's like there was a sudden lack of oxygen.
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All the breathing stopped. I felt like I could hear everybody's heartbeat. It was that quiet. And this is kind of the shock that comes about when
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Judas betrays Jesus. But what happens when
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Judas finally, the depth of what he's done hits him?
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Does he repent? He feels sorrow, right?
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He is sorrowful, but ultimately he commits suicide because he can't live with it.
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Peter, on the other hand, was full of pride. He said he would never fall away in less than 24 hours after being told exactly what he would do.
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I mean, it's almost like you think, well, Peter, just lock yourself in a closet, you know, just don't go anywhere.
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Just don't do anything. But he denies Jesus three times, even employing curses.
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I mean, he's just wanting to make sure that everybody knows that he has nothing to do with Jesus. And I like Sproul notes.
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He goes, it wasn't in the presence of authorities. It's not like he was brought before the Sanhedrin and put on trial or anything like that.
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He says, this is in the presence of a servant girl. Peter was so terrified that he would suffer the consequences of being close to Jesus that he repudiated, repudiated him.
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But after Peter made the third denial, Jesus being led from the judgment hall in chains, looked up and his eyes met the eyes of Peter.
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Jesus did not need to say a word. Let's look at Luke 22 for a moment. Luke 22 versus 60 to 62.
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But Peter said, man, I do not know what you were talking about. And immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.
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And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter, remember the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.
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And he went out and wept bitterly. What was the difference between the two disciples?
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I mean, when you think about it, when Jesus finally identifies
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Judas, at least to a couple of the disciples, he says to Judas, what you do do quickly.
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Get with the program, speed it up. Well, didn't Jesus care about Judas?
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Didn't he have any emotional attachment to him? Wasn't there something he could have said that was going to change his mind?
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He did care about him. I don't think it was easy at all, but he was there to perform a mission, a task.
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And he knew what Judas, what his part was in it. But Peter, Spro writes,
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Peter was one of the gifts the father had given to him, to Jesus, one for whom he was going to die and who was going to be redeemed by his death.
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He knew the plans and purposes of the father. He knew the plans and purposes of the father would be accomplished.
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Just think about Peter's future. Now he's disgraced.
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He's ashamed. He's failed the master. Jesus goes on and he's crucified.
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And Peter's still stumbling around. But when he sees the resurrected
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Lord, and he, I mean, he's always been the leader of the 12, but as he emerges as the leader of the church and the things that he does, the sermons, he gives and everything else.
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Do you think that his rock bottom experience here of denying the Lord three times, do you think that helped him?
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Do you think that helped Peter? And if so, why Erickson? I think that's so true.
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I think, you know what? It's easy for anybody. I think it's easy.
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I'll get you to you in a second, Corey. I think it's easy for us to become self -righteous, to think that we're somehow better than others.
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Now, I'm not suggesting that anyone go out and commit, you know, heinous sins so that we can have humility.
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But I think, you know, his denials of Christ, first of all,
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I think they would have emboldened him going forward. But secondly, I think they would have given him that sense of compassion and empathy for anybody who was struggling.
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You know, it's like, you want to talk about struggling? Jesus told me I was going to die, deny him three times.
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And I said, oh, that's never going to happen. And it happened. There's a lot of humility that comes with that kind of failure.
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Corey. Yeah, I think he certainly understands the grace of God on a whole new level.
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And, uh, in fact, Jesus said to him in Luke 22, verse 32, he said, when you have turned again, when you have repented, strengthen your brothers.
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Um, so Jesus knew that Peter was going to fall. He predicted that prophesied it.
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He knew that Peter was going to deny him, but he also knew that he would be granted repentance. And he knew that he was the leader.
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He knew that this was the, the going to be the leader of the church, not the
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Roman Catholic church, but the leader of the, the young fledgling church. He says, strengthen your brothers.
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And I, and I do think there's a very real sense. Would it have been better, you know, in a, in a theoretical sense of Peter had never done that.
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Yes. Um, but in a very real sense, because Jesus first prophesied it.
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And because, um, I think the Lord did use it to strengthen him and to also say, uh, to the other guys, you know, here, here was
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Peter. And now here's Peter. Yeah. I think it helped all the way around what it was. It, you know, again, was it the best?
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Well, only because it was God's plan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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Okay. We can go to one more, uh, scripture. Let's look at John 17 for a moment.
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Let's look at the intercession of Jesus for believers. John 17 verses 11 and 12.
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This is a high priestly prayer where he's praying for his own before he is crucified.
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Would somebody read verses 11 and 12 of chapter 17, please. When you see that phrase kept, keep them in your name or later.
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I kept them in your name. We don't see, you know, they kept themselves.
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They preserve themselves. He prays to the father, keep them in your name.
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Now, when Jesus goes to the father and praise father, keep them in your name. Is Jesus going to get what he prays for?
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Yes. So the father is going to keep them. And then notice also that he says, when
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I was at them, I kept them in your name. Now, it was the idea of the name of God have any significance.
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He's saying father for your honor, for your glory, keep them just as I, when
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I was in charge of them for your glory, for your honor, I kept them.
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So this whole idea that maybe, you know, we could be lost, that God might lose somebody, that somebody might be able to jump out of the father's will.
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It would be a disgrace to God. That idea is so foreign to scripture.
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The idea that somebody can lose their salvation. Sproul says, we persevere only because God in his grace and power preserves us in and of ourselves.
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Each one of us is capable of serious and radical falling. We are capable of full and final falling contra the
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LCF. That's the London Baptist confession of faith. If left to ourselves, and he goes on, he says, but God does not leave his people to their own devices.
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The Lord intercedes for us constantly. He's constantly praying father, keep them, preserve them.
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Don't let them utterly fall away. Our high priest is interceding constantly for our perseverance.
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We will not fall away, not because of our own righteousness, but because we have a faithful high priest.
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We have a faithful God. We have a God who is zealous for his glory and will bring about all his own purposes.
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We need to close in prayer. Father, thank you for the high honor of being your children.
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Something that we don't deserve. Even as we think about Peter, we're all capable of serious sin.
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As we think about David, we're all capable of heinous sin. But father, if you have called us, elected us, drawn us, all the things that are set of us in scripture.
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If you have set your Holy spirit as a seal upon us, father, your word is clear.
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The Lord Jesus Christ praise that we might not be lost, that we will be kept by your power and your power alone.
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What an amazing promise father. We thank you for salvation, full and free from beginning to end, not of us, but for us and for your glory.