With prayer, okay, you may need to set a few more chairs up. That's perfectly fine. I don't mean to require of you that you Sit in the available seats you can you can be on social and Anti-social and all of that and just go sit in the corner or something
Alrighty, let me pray for us and we'll get we'll get started here, okay?
Hey Tim could you yeah, that would be great Try to drown out my competition there that works good deal Let's pray Father, thank you for this glorious day and for this Opportunity for us to be together I do pray for these for these next several weeks that you would set them apart and And help us better to understand your word better to understand who you are so that our Delight in you might increase To some real extent in some real sense I pray all or that you would present yourself and set yourself before us As we study together this Westminster Confession of faith Thank you for those who've gone before us Who have expended themselves? Who have given their energies The sweat of their brow and in some cases literally their blood in order that we might have framed for us This wonderful understanding of who you are and of your dealings with your people May we not lose sight of them and the sacrifices that they made But in all of that, oh Lord, we would pray even more that again you would set yourself before us and Bring glory to yourself and bring great joy to our hearts as we as we study this document together Gratis your spirit. Grant us the encouragement of your spirit. We pray in Jesus name. Amen Welcome, this is a course in the Westminster Confession of faith and for the next Several weeks the next 12 or 13 weeks. We're going to we're going to make a stab at exploring this this document and then In the spring quarter beginning actually March the eighth we're going to get The first Sunday in March is a part of our Sunday school quarter, which I didn't know until this morning But I'll come back to that in a second then the spring March April and May Bob is going to teach the second half and And after that class, there'll be a vote taken and you all will be able to cast your vote in favor of the person Who you'd like to have No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding because I know who would win that vote. I know I I'm kidding All right, so that's what we're going to do now. Let me let me begin if I could by just quickly Orienting you to the schedule The first the first thing for you to look at is the schedule as it's printed on the handout that everybody get a copy of the handout Are you near one so that you can look on it's just something to to sort of guide your thoughts as we make our way through this This schedule is wrong Right out of the shoot, okay, we've I've messed up It's it's okay up to January 25th Okay, it works up to January 25th, but February 1st is the weekend of our missions conference and And we always do a joint Sunday school thing the weekend of our missions conference So that means that everything gets pushed out a week farther. So what is there for February 1st? Will be February 8th okay chapters 9 and 10 of the confession will be February 8th and then I again I didn't know this until this morning, but March 1st will actually be the last Sunday of this Sunday school quarter and So we we make up For that lack for the it's not a lack that'd be a horrible way to put it For the loss of the Sunday for the missions conference we pick that up on on March 1st So everything is accurate through January 25th everything else you just need to push ahead a week Okay, so February 8th 15 22 and March 1 will round out the end of the quarter in the class The second thing that I want to Want to mention is a resource. They're actually are are many resources which Can be of great help to you as you as you study the confession of faith Charles Hodge has a Commentary on the confession of faith which which I really like It's it's a bit dated he died at the end of the 19th century The last quarter of the 19th century so it's it's a bit dated But it's is very good what I have for you is GI Williamson's Westminster Confession of Faith for study classes it looks like this and you can buy this for $7 we were able to get these at a pretty good price So for $7 you can pick up a copy of this if you don't already have it and David Petrack is going to be Manning the book table after the class Bob said Mike you need to take $21 bills with you to the Sunday school class so you can make change I Didn't Not surprisingly he told me that on Thursday You know 90% of everything gets lost between Thursday and Sunday for me That got lost so these are $7 you can do it one of two ways you can you can give us a 10 and make a $3 contribution to the church Or you can make your own change and give us seven unless somebody's got 21s wrapped up in a sock or something stuck in your jacket pocket But this is the this is the text that we'll be using now I want to say that as is true with any book I don't agree with everything that Williamson Outlines in his understanding of the confession of faith and its implications there and there are Points of difference in interpretation But in the main this is a very very helpful exposition It was done originally in the 1960s, so it's much more current a very helpful exposition of the confession of faith and it's a resource that I think you would want to have Not only for this class but for the next semester and and then you know to Lord returns or you die whichever one comes first Then you can pass it on the future generations and they can use it. So you can pick one of these up after The class and again, this is the the text that we'll be following in our breakdown of the study Through the course of the next 13 weeks 12 13 weeks, okay questions about that And David where's David David's right here? And he'll get you one if you don't have the money this week if you've only got part of the money or whatever just bring it next week But but be sure that you have one Now what I wanted to do this morning is is take a little bit of time to set this this whole This whole class in the next class in in some kind of a context for us
So I want to talk in just a minute about the nature ground purpose and limits of a confessional standard Before that I want to say something about about how we're going to proceed as a class the ideal thing From my vantage point Well, there was one or two ways that you can approach something like this you you can approach it in in in the way that is symbolized by The way this class is set up with rows of chairs and a guy behind a lectern at the front of the room If if I were to ask you what your expectations are given the arrangement of the chairs and everything in this classroom You would say you're going to talk we're going to listen You're going to dump we're going to catch You're going to one load we're going to gather it all up, okay? There are probably 50 people in this class
That's one way to approach a large group setting like this the much more desirable thing For me would be to have a big conference table in here with about a dozen of us I'm not asking anybody to leave don't misunderstand but with about a dozen of us sitting around that table with with the coffee and notepads and and and have this be much more interactive I want it to be as interactive as you want for it to be it's going to be tough to do that with with 50 or so people in the class But I really do want to make sure that you have an opportunity to make the comments You want to make and ask the questions that you want to ask so I may not remember to say that again I want to be on record as having said that as we make our way through this stuff I want for this to be as interactive and and Dialogical as it can be okay, so please feel free to raise questions to make observations as we make our way through now To lead us into a bit of a discussion of the the nature and and Ground, etc. Of a confessional standard Let me say a couple of things
One of the reasons that we're doing this class and one of the reasons that we will continue to do a class like this is because we recognize That in our particular cultural moment There are there are many many people who come into the church with with little and sometimes no Categories for understanding who God is and what God has done Okay The people who make observations about about the state of things in our particular country and at this particular historical moment Talk about that sort of thing all the time how what Francis Schaeffer described as a Christian consensus and By a Christian consensus he meant a Shared understanding of any number of things one of which was the existence and character and doings of the God who is there a Consensus which which really did characterize our culture through the 19th century and well into the 20th century But through the early part of the 20th century and particularly in the last half of the 20th century has gradually been eroded So that when you meet people on the streets you talk with people on the streets increasingly They they don't share what had been shared two or three or four or five generations ago Okay, that's that's the nature of the world in which we live as you as you interact with people where you work as you interact with Neighbors as you engage people at Sam's or Kmart or your grocery store You you can't assume that those people mean When they use the term God what you mean when you use the term God You can't even assume increasingly that people have that word in their vocabularies except when they miss a four-foot plot on a golf course and Then interestingly enough, it does show up in their vocabularies And and and we recognize that the general state of things in our culture requires of us That that from year to year we we sort of rebuild foundations. We keep coming back to foundational things We want our folks to know and to understand and we realize that people out of this culture are coming many times without The benefit of a generation or two of training and exposure to these things, okay? And I mean, I don't know how frequently you're with non-Christians how much opportunity you have to talk to non-Christians You got plenty of opportunity because they're all around you. I like you know I mean I'd get angry at myself because I don't take advantage of that opportunity frequently enough But if you do avail yourself of the the The tremendous opportunities that exist to talk to non-Christians about the Christian faith you'll find out very soon That they don't they don't share the vocabulary. They don't share the categories, all right? And we recognize that as people come into St. Paul's from that kind of a world We need we need to help them understand the categories The second thing is We recognize also that that Christians who do have some understanding Pretty significant understanding of the teaching of the Bible And who come to St. Paul's come from many differing denominational backgrounds, okay? So we have you know, we kind of get two streams that are feeding into into our life here at St. Paul's and and at both points We think it's very very important to communicate Regularly systematically what we understand the teaching of scripture to be We do that because we want people who come to St. Paul's to know what we believe, but beyond that We do it because we do believe That the Bible is the word of God and we do believe That the that teaching the content of the Bible in a systematic fashion is good for our souls. It is good for our souls Okay, and we want folks who come to St. Paul's to be on the same page now What is a a confessional standard? What is the Westminster confession of faith? What is the nature ground purpose and limits of a standard like this? Well a confession of faith is Is simply a systematic presentation of the teaching of scripture and If you look at the table of contents in Williamson's book You will see that the chapter headings go like this Chapter one or the chapter headings of the confession of faith go like this of the holy scriptures Chapter two is of God and of the Holy Trinity chapter Three is of God's eternal decree chapter four is of creation chapter five is of Providence and the confession makes its way through chapter after chapter Treating the teaching of scripture is see in a systematic fashion So and what what we mean when we say that is that we take we take the whole thing Okay from Genesis to mats From Genesis to your concordance Now we don't include the maps. That's you know those are helps But from Genesis through the revelation we take the whole teaching of scripture and we ask first what does the Bible teach about itself? Okay The second what is the Bible teach about God? Third, what does the Bible teach about God's plan what does God what does the word teach about About creation. What does the word teach about Providence so beginning at Genesis and working all the way through this whole thing The attempt is made to gather the teaching of scripture on each of those subjects and present that teaching Again in a in a regular systematic fashion. That's what a confessional standard does a confessional standard is a theology Now don't don't let that word theology bother you too much Recognize That that you all no matter where you are Have a theology You all have a theology. I have a theology you have a theology no matter how long you've been a Christian Whether you're a Christian or not everybody has a theology and What the confessional standard seeks to do is help us shape our Theologies based upon its understanding of the teaching of the word of God Okay, it helps us to put foundation stones in place and and erect a superstructure on that foundation I remember back in the 70s some of you remember the 70s some of you have read about the 70s in your history books Back in the 70s is when I became a Christian and I and I remember one of the one of the sort of the battle cries or the banners of the Jesus movement back in the 70s was Don't give me theology just give me Jesus and and that some of you are not in your head. You remember or you've read
That that that rallying cry was in part a reaction to What was perceived to be an irrelevant? Culturally conditioned and restrained institutional church And and Jesus freaks who who had never heard the gospel and who came into these churches Unfortunately all too often didn't find themselves what welcomed particularly well and Their reaction was to to reject the whole thing and one of the ways that they rejected the whole thing was by I Know now in my later years throwing the baby out with the bath water by by throwing out Any systematic approach to the teaching of scripture don't give me theology just give me Jesus Well, you understand the minute you say give me Jesus the minute you say that you believe in Jesus the minute You've made some sort of profession of faith in Jesus you You are Necessarily involved in a theological enterprise It is an inescapable thing Okay Everybody has a theology Whether Christian or not and the confession of faith Is a theology it is an attempt to present the teaching of scripture and it is it is for us a Guide and to help as we seek to understand the teaching of scripture regarding God and the world that he's made in his dealings with his people and with all men and nations So that's the first thing regarding the nature of a confessional standard the second thing is You you must always remember and and I try to remember it is a secondary standard It is a secondary standard It is not the primary standard What is the primary standard What is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice? What were to do what were to love how were to live it is the Bible itself? Okay, the confession of faith is an imperfect document It is imperfect either in what it expressly declares or It is imperfect in what it omits in what it leaves out Failing to treat adequately or appropriately some aspect of the teaching of scripture. It is an imperfect document Okay, it's awfully good Arguably the best that's ever been put together But it is an imperfect human document and and always we have to remember that the scriptures are the final authority in matters of faith and practice and notice that the confession of faith begins where It begins with the Bible. That's not just convenient That is very significant that the confession of faith begins with what the Bible teaches about itself Of we're concerning the Holy Scriptures because that is the point of departure For our understanding of who God is the world that he's made and his dealings with us, okay? So the nature of the confession is that it is a systematic presentation of the teaching of the Bible and it is a secondary Standard and moving then to point to the ground of the standard is of course the Scriptures the Bible as the word of God God's only infallible rule for matters of faith and practice and again Note that that is where the confession begins it begins with the Bible and what the Bible teaches about itself now The confession works as as as we all must With with three tools if you will as it seeks To present the teaching of scripture And again the confession of faith of those who drafted the confession of faith are not different from us It is God's part graciously to make himself known to reveal himself which he has done both in the things that he has made and In what he has communicated by his words and deeds in the course of history which are Recorded for us in words of scripture. It is God's part to reveal it is our part to understand Okay, God doesn't do the understanding for us Our labor and our work is the labor of seeking to understand what God has revealed and in the task of Understanding there are these three things that are operating and they're always operating all at the same time Understanding Pre-supposes this is an understanding is a is a kind of a comprehensive term. It's a big term Understanding involves first of all our interpretation of the Bible the first thing we have to do is interpret what's there? If if we're working in the original languages in in Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek You have to work with lexical aides and grammatical tools and all that sort of thing to understand what is here All right, that's the first part of understanding is interpretation We're fortunate in our day to have the scriptures in the vernacular to have the scriptures in our own language So a great deal of this work has been done for us We're also fortunate to have all kinds of books and resources available to us Which can elaborate even for even for us as laypeople the subtle nuances of The meanings of words and of syntax and grammar and all of those kinds of things are marvelous tools out there Study Bibles are are more concise examples of those tools commentaries Whether one volume or multi-set kinds of things Other kinds of lexical aides. There's all kinds of stuff out there that you as lay people can have can access if you can write Big enough check that will help you in This basic business of interpreting what is there seeking to understand what this particular passage means with this particular Sentence means or word or paragraph or chapter or what this particular book is all about and what this particular book Particularly teaches That's the first part of interpretation the second part of interpretation That leads to understanding Is combination or combining what you've interpreted this is this is the business of Putting together in a in a way that makes sense What what one portion of scripture teaches along with another portion of scripture? Okay, now a great example of of The the difficulty that there is in this Is the early Crystallological controversies in the life of the church. I don't know if you're aware of this But in the first handful of centuries in the life of the church There was a lot of discussion and a lot of diversity of opinion and even heresy regarding the person of Christ and That discussion and conversation in some case heresy emerges because you have scripture teaching to very definite things about the person of Christ What are they his manhood and his godhood his he's his real humanness and His real divinity or deity Okay, now again these formulations are formulations that we that we sort of take for granted. We say the nice seem creed Frequently here at St. Paul's and we use Language that was arrived at through a lot of struggle and difficulty as those Early church fathers sought to combine These different aspects of what the scriptures teach regarding the person of Christ You know that the language light god of god light of light very god of very god be gotten not made being one with the father That's all that and there's wonderful language, but that's all that very very lofty Reference to the divinity of Christ, but then the same document refers to the same Christ being born of a virgin being born of a woman reflecting the framers Understanding of the teaching of scripture regarding the humanity of Christ. Okay, folks It took centuries for that for that to be resolved in the life of the church Okay, and the third thing that goes on as you're engaged in this understanding Obviously is adjustment Okay, now this is it's it's it's sort of an ongoing thing a kind of a three It's not really three steps, but three aspects to this labor of seeking to understand the teaching of scripture You have to interpret a particular passage then you come to another passage that seems to teach something different or Additional and you've got to combine and pull these things together and while you're doing that combination There's always going to be an adjustment a refining of your understanding of the teaching of scripture. Okay, the job is never finished We've got a finished document the Westminster confession of faith. Okay But the job is never finished. It's never done. We're always Interpreting combining and adjusting Seeking to understand the teaching of scripture so as to so as to present for ourselves and for the world a systematic Internally coherent and sensible presentation of the teaching of scripture Okay, so The nature of the standard is that it is a systematic presentation. It is a secondary standard The ground of that standard is the scriptures themselves and this is the process that we're engaged in as we do this and again Let me just let me just say everybody's got to do this There are no exemptions from this this process if you're going to be a Christian if you're going to be a thinking person at all If you're going to read the Bible and try and make sense of it, you will you will be involved in this process Okay, you will be involved in this process. Yeah, Roy That's a that's a loaded question No Yeah, the the question is what kind of what kind of weight? Should we give to or do we give to the classic formulations from Calcidon and Nicaea and Ephesus and and all those yeah, right right The the question being asked is what of what benefit are these things or are these things that benefit the classic formulations from the previous centuries and and and I think the answer is that they are of great benefit and great help and and if if I may be so bold that I I believe one of the reasons that evangelical Christianity in America one of the read not the only one But one of the reasons that evangelical Christianity in America is so lacking in in persuasiveness and in influence in our culture is because we're not standing on the shoulders of giants You know J.I. Packer in his book a quest for godliness Which is a discussion largely of John Owens view of the world spirituality and all of that refers to the Puritans that whole period of time in English history refers to the Puritans as As being like California redwoods giant redwood trees and I've I've never seen redwoods other than in pictures But I know that that there are some places where where they actually have carved holes in the trunks of these things and put roads through them You know two lane roads that go through Through the trunk of a tree and his point is that they tower over everything and dwarf all of the rest And and that is to me wonderful imagery For thinking about some of these classic formulations They tower over everything else They're tremendously important for us tremendously helpful to us and And we neglect them at our own peril. I know I didn't say anything and sitting wrong. Did I?
At our peril we neglect them We're not standing on the shoulders of giants and and we need to I mean, I don't know how many of you have had this experience I remember the first time I read for example the Westminster Confession of Faith just the first few chapters the first four or five chapters
Honestly, I understood you know the which which you've said Roy about making the connections and articulating and all that kind of stuff I understood very little of what I read But I had this you know this internal experience this this sort of subjective experience of realizing That I was dealing with something that was high and wide and deep and profound And true it doesn't have the ring of truth like the Scriptures But there but there is there is a loftiness about it a grandeur in it a glory in it That that summons you that said that says keep coming back because there's more here for you to drink, you know So the answer is these things are really are of tremendous benefit and tremendous help to us And they are they're worth our consideration Always remembering that they are secondary standards. We can make idols of these things and I I think I've seen that happen at times where where an idol has been made of something and We don't want for that to happen But but but we need to recognize that God has given gifts to his church, right? It's a Ephesians 4 God has given gifts to his church Summy gave his evangelist some he gave his pastors some he gave his teachers These folks are are teachers to us. They're dead but their work lives and They are teachers and God has given to his church and they're and they're given by God to his church because he loves his church So that his people might be instructed You've heard me sort of joke about this some of my best friends are dead people and That's true because when I read them they helped my soul They're dead and gone, but their work isn't and God still uses it so they they do have a great place in our life
Quickly here Nature and ground then the purposes what are some purposes of a standard? Well, you know, I've mentioned one of them a
Dozen times probably already the first purpose is they set forth the teaching of scripture
Again, it's an imperfect standard, but but they're you know, there's all this these centuries of work that have gone on before us What why should we in our day? Reinvent the wheel You know, I mean we can save ourselves a lot of grief a lot of hassle if we'll if we'll listen to the teachers from the past Who have sought to set forth the teaching of scripture and and wrestle with that in the context of our own wrestling with the teaching of scripture The second thing that they do is they stand over against Heresies and they correct Heresies, okay now every one of us in this room is a heretic Okay And and if left our own devices we'd wander down some strange paths someplace and we'd probably take people with us and Draw them into our own confusions and foolishnesses, okay? I know in in our UF in Reform University Fellowship the are you in the Reform University Ministries when they're doing Bible studies on college campuses They have to tell their Bible study leaders to let people be heretics You can't expect a new Christian to come into a Bible study or a non-Christian come into a Bible study and And doubt all his eyes and cross all his teeth. I mean, they don't even know where the eyes and teas are How can you expect them to doubt everything well and cross everything? Well, okay? So we we have to recognize that that in our myths we've all got We got oh, we all have wrong notions where different levels in our in our understanding and development and these things So there's a sense in which to a greater or lesser extent we're all heretics So when I'm wrestling with the teaching of scripture It's a wonderful thing to be able to go back to a standard as I'm wrestling with the teaching of scripture a wonderful thing to be able to go back to a standard and Ask of that standard is what I'm thinking is what I'm concluding Consistent with what the church has understood for centuries. You see it it serves as a as a protection Against heresy now I want you you got to understand this If you don't already you got to understand this This is about the well-being Of God's people Okay It's it's not just about about understanding things well. It's not just about articulating things well We believe there is a correspondence between truth and the well-being of our souls There is a correspondence between truth and the total well-being of the people of God you see so When we talk about protecting ourselves against heresy by having a standard here You know, we're not talking about About wanting to create a kind of a theological club that everybody gets into because they carry the right card They say the right things and do the right things. That's not what this is about We're concerned about about people's well-being the well-being of their souls and the well-being of the church corporate and Heresy leaves people down bad paths to plays to places. They don't want to be Where where their souls can be destroyed where their lives can be destroyed where things can be horribly damaged I got to tell you as a pastor One of the things I I deal with more than anything else is the fallout that there is in the world from wrong Understandings and an aberrant Understandings and bad applications of the teaching of scripture I'm forever cleaning up messes that other people have created and I you know I worry that people who leave St. Paul's are going to go some some pastor is going to say the same thing about me You know, he's cleaning up my messes
But a concern to have a standard which protects us against heresy is a concern to ensure the well-being of the people of God That's that's what we care about. Okay, so that's a second person purpose third purpose Sort of a corollary to that is that these are wonderful means by which to educate encourage And strengthen the people of God okay to educate Encourage and strengthen the people of God they have this this sort of negative benefit of protecting us against against heresies and and Wrong headedness that sort of thing they have this positive benefit of educating encouraging strengthening nurturing building people up in the faith Okay, and then and then fourth they There's another benefit. They do serve to preserve the unity of the church all right They serve to preserve the unity of the church Now that's that's awfully important as well now there are a couple of qualifying things that need to be mentioned here Um, the first is this and Charles Hodg mentions this in his commentary on the confession of faith Nothing should be required of a member of a local church that Christ Does not require for admission to his kingdom Okay Nothing should be required of a member of a local church that Christ does not require For admission into his kingdom and what Christ requires for admission into his kingdom basically is this The the plea of the public in in the temple lord have mercy on me a sinner That I mean I cannot require anything more of anybody who wants admission here to St. Paul's then then the the simple plea of the center Lord have mercy on me a sinner and acknowledgement of his own condition His acknowledgement of a need of a Savior and his his profession of faith in the one whom God has provided. Okay um When it comes to leadership in the church however We're at a different level and in order for leadership properly to shepherd and lead a particular congregation people they need to be of one mind And a confessional standard and agreement about the overall teaching of the Bible. Okay A confessional standard is a way for people who God is calling into leadership positions in his church To be united to lead particular congregations in particular directions. Okay um What what we don't what we don't need uh and and really what we don't want Both we don't need it. We don't want it is for there to be division among the shepherds division among the leaders and the teachers. I think we all probably have If not a personal acquaintance or experience with that we've heard about it and read about how devastating that is for congregations when there is division At a philosophical level among leaders of a congregation So a confessional standard then which does again set forth in a systematic way the teaching of scripture Is a way for aspiring pastors ruling elders deacons and other leaders in the church to say that's what I believe This is where I want to participate in the exercising my gifts And while we don't require anything more of people than Jesus would require for admission into the membership of the church Once you get into this thing We want people to grow up into maturity so that they embrace that same standard because we believe that it is what the scriptures teach Okay So in the Presbyterian church in America, which is just one branch of christ's church And I don't want to make that clear too. We are just one branch of christ's church There are other legitimate branches of christ's church all around the world And we're a small bread we're a twig couple hundred thousand members in the Presbyterian church in America One of the things that drives me nuts when I go to Presbyterian meetings in general assembly meetings sometimes is What I perceive in some people to be kind of an exaggerated sense of self-importance like the whole world is watching us the world doesn't even know we're here 200,000 people Okay Now don't don't hear me minimizing or diminishing in any sense What a wonderful thing it is that God has done in raising up the Presbyterian church in America But I want us to recognize that we are one branch in the worldwide church of Jesus Christ which crosses generations and centuries We're one branch in that But as a branch we want to be working and moving in the same direction And as a branch in the worldwide work of christ We want at appropriate points To be supporting and appreciating and encouraging other branches of the work of christ But we don't want to be doing that by by in any way qualifying or marginalizing our distinctives This is who we are this is what we're committed to Direction that we're going you pray for us and we'll pray for you We differ with you about this or we differ with you about that But we are brothers and sisters in christ We all care about the same thing in the end But this is who and what we are and this is who and what you are and this is who and what you are over here Okay, there is a right there is a right kind of appreciation across denominational lines That a confessional statement allows us to have but it also allows for the leadership of that church to say We're yoke together. We're moving forward. This is the direction that we're going. Okay, so it is a basis for unity Within branches of christ church. Okay, one of the limits very quickly
I've already mentioned this It is a human document And so by definition it has all kinds of limits Okay, I'm not going to elaborate that you just recognize it is a human document And so it has all kinds of limits Because it's a human document Second, it is not an end in itself Okay, a confessional standard as a theology is not an end in itself anymore Then a pathway up a mountain to a place where you see beautiful vistas is an end in itself The pathway the goal of the thing is not to be on the path The goal of being on the path is to get to the place where you can see things you never would have imagined possible to be seen Okay There are wonderful things to be seen along the way Beautiful trees wonderful flowers great smells good fellowship and communication as you're making your way Okay, but the goal is not to be on the path the goal is to be at the end of the path where you see things and enjoy things and delight in things That that you can only imagine at this point, okay? So the confessional standard itself is designed to lead us someplace and it is designed to lead us to a place of deeper understanding of appreciation for and delight in God himself Okay, what's the first first answer the first question of the shorter catechism Right and chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever The glorify him and enjoy him Okay If you've not read any of John Piper stuff. I commend it to you. It's worth considering his His little spin on that And his little spin is that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him when our enjoyment in God is the greatest God is the most glorified these two things go together you see God's glory and our joy And this this path this confessional standard is designed to lead us to the place of greater delight in God so that God is more greatly honored and glorified in our lives Okay, it's not an end in itself and that's another thing that drives me crazy sometimes just being A little autobiographical and personal it seems as though sometimes the end Is the path for many people the path is critically important for all of these reasons Don't don't go out of here him hearing me say that the path doesn't matter the pattern matters The path matters infinitely Okay, if you get on the wrong path you're going to be in a bad place The path matters, but the path is not the end the path leaves us to something greater And that is to greater understanding of appreciation foreign delight in God himself Okay It's interesting that Just encourage you to think about this It's interesting that when Paul comes to the end of his exposition of the gospel in Romans When he gets to the end of chapter 11 Which is which is kind of the break in that letter the first 11 chapters are his exposition of the gospel the last six chapters are his application of the gospel How does chapter 11 end? It ends with a doxology it ends with a song of praise and it's it's almost as though Paul Is saying to his readers. I've done the best I could but I've only scratched the surface It's it's beyond me To capture and put down on paper the glory of the gospel so he just ends up with a song Okay, that's where this thing is supposed to lead for us The path is important, but the path is not an end. It is designed to lead us To greater understanding of appreciation for and delight in Excuse me the God the God who has made us And redeemed us to himself Now just just a couple of words In the last couple of minutes here About the confession of faith this thing didn't fall out of the sky It wasn't found We can we can laugh a little can't we I mean it wasn't found under a rock in palmyra in the york with a little Set of spectacles that somebody puts on and and you know There's this mysterious riding on these tablets and it gets trained Wasn't like that It was the work of a group of people over an extended period of time the long parliament Called for an assembly of divines On July 12th or on June 12th 1643 To put this thing in its historical perspective and I don't have time to That would be a nice way for me to put it. I don't have time to rehearse for you the history leading up to that The other way I could put it is that I don't know the history leading up to that point So I couldn't do it even if I had time But suffice it to say that there is a significant both Civil and ecclesiastical history that leads up to the establishment of of this long parliament And it's it's summoning an assembly of divines on June 12th 1643 They met for the first time on July 1st 1643 and continued until February 22nd 1649 To draft the confession of faith the shorter catechism a directory for worship and rules of discipline For the church those four documents They bet in 1,163 sessions Which met typically from nine in the morning till two or three in the afternoon Initially there were about 120 Total participants total members in this assembly there were 10 lords 20 commoners And the rest were divines Now the original number was about 150 but but several of them either could not make any of the meetings or Over over conscience because the king did not call this assembly but the parliament did It's a matter of conscience. They felt that they couldn't participate And so a little bit later another 20 were added Would bringing the number back up to about 150 so he had 10 lords 20 commoners And about 120 divines And they represented The waterfront theologically the Episcopalians Presbyterians congregationalists Erastians That's a word for you to look up in your funk and wagons for next Sunday Okay, and they all gathered together The average attendance out of that 150 or so was 60 to 80 I was very encouraged by that fact Now that those guys weren't any better able to get to meetings in their day than we are in hours On the first day of the assembly there were 69 Of those who had been called present so for that period of time from july 1st 1643 to february 22 1649 Monday through friday With some interruptions and some breaks but through the course of that period of time in 1,163 sessions they drafted these these documents So when I prayed at the beginning of the class that god would help us Not to lose sight of the energies expended by people To produce these documents. That's that's what I had in mind And as you know from even a cursory Reading or hearing of the history of of that whole period you will know that When Charles aceded the throne all of the non-conformists In the 1660s were banished from the kingdom they were forced to leave many of them suffered and died and Take John cummer's class on on the history of the the Scottish Covenantors and as an example of the kind of thing that did happen at that time Okay, so that's that's an introduction to this and Just a little bit of historical perspective For you any questions are yeah, Greg
Should we
Yes Question is given the fact that it was drafted 350 years ago Different time different place different circumstances should we be in favor of emending the document? From time to time the answer is yes, and when a confessional standard was adopted by the Presbyterian Church in America They made changes. They made adjustments And there have been adjustments to the document made in the century since it was first written touching touching particularly their understanding of The nature of the church and in its relationship to the state The nature of the government of the church. That's where this whole erasity and controversy comes in And also in their understanding of the Pope the Roman Church You know, there were there have been some some changes in in In the intervening centuries. So yeah, in fact I would I would really like to see some scholars take this document and And I mean, I'm not interested so much in a change initially, but I'm sure interested in what this does Document means for us at the end of the second millennium as we head into a third millennium I'd love to see this document work through by some scholars who have who have a sensitivity to our cultural moment And who can who can help the rest of us understand what the implications of this cultural moment are for us And what benefit the document like this can be for us and for our world You know working out the implications of this thing in our own day because it's It you know, our day is different from from 1950 from a half a century ago You know the years that many of us were born things have changed really significantly So that's that's a long answer. I think yes. I think it should be Reviewed rethought where where further understanding of scripture clarifies things or elaborates things that should be included I'm not prepared to say what those things are you know But but then particularly the application of it in a different period in history
Yeah, right. Yeah Yeah, I I'm aware of the dangers that there are there Those early formulations while while retaining their original integrity have been elaborated have been enlarged upon That's all I'm talking about the West Westminster for example um Says a great deal more in the chapter on Christ as the mediator than the calcidonian formulation does about Christ so You know further centuries of reflection and theological consideration and able the elaboration of confessional statements
Sure Sure, and it's interesting it's interesting to note that when the devines met when the Westminster devines met as a part of the official documents of their meetings They affirmed their commitment to the apostles creed and I seem to create the calcidonian formulations They included those documents in the official minutes and and uh Well in the official minutes of their of their proceedings. So they knew that they were depending on on The previous centuries as well Okay, anything else Yes, they were they were they were there were lords commoners and and ministers um and Theologians that there were What what what was a divine? Okay Not bet middler. Okay, you know Divine Lords commoners and the devines were ministers um there were those who were Parish ministers, but then there were those who were also teachers and who were doctors of theology who Who were numbered among the devines? Okay, let me pray Thank you lord for um for the gifts you've given to us and for these wonderful people who've gone before us Give us an appreciation of their labors enable us to stand on their shoulders just as they stood on the shoulders of those who went before them And father as we come to worship now many of us have not yet been at worship We ask you that you would hallow this time that you would set it apart that you would visit us with your presence that you'd manifest your delight in your people and encourage the souls of the saints O Lord grant us an answer a blessed answer to this prayer. We make it in Jesus name. Amen