Thank you for for this day and for this time, and we do pray that you would be with us that you'd help us by granting us your spirit Father, you know better than do we how daunting a task it is to consider things which were considered by you before the foundation of the world so please as a Father would have pity upon his children have have pity upon us have mercy upon us as we seek to wrestle with these things and And I do pray, O Lord, that these things would prove to be of great comfort and encouragement to us, your people Rather than things that would be stumbling blocks in our paths Again, may they encourage our faith and strengthen our faith Rather than have the opposite effect be with us to that end. We pray in Jesus name amen Okay, we are we're going to wrap up chapter two If if we could do that Just just a few minutes. We were looking last week at
the second chapter which deals with with God and the Trinity and We didn't quite get finished So I want to take just a couple of minutes and
Talk for a minute about the non-communicable attributes of God Remember we made that distinction last week between the communicable attributes and the non-communicable attributes spent most of our time talking about the communicable attributes and I just I just want to take a minute to talk about this other aspect of or this other type of of these attributes We talked last week about not about communicable attributes saying that those were things which we share
characteristics of God which we share by virtue of the fact that we're created in his image and we listed A whole bunch of them there are a whole bunch of ways in which by virtue of the fact we're created in the image of God We we are like God We talked about things like love and justice Mercy compassion the fact that God feels He does have passion for things it cares about his own name it cares about his people those kinds of things Those are all communicable attributes We talk about non-communicable attributes. What are we talking about?
Right things that are not shared by us things that are unique to God Okay, let's let's list some of those things. What are some of those things? Unchanging
eternal patient Okay Infinite who said holy He is holy We we will share in that holiness and we and there is a sense in which we share in that holiness now We share in it positionally by virtue of our union with Christ and hopefully In fact, this is something that's treated in the in the next chapter in chapter 3 as as God continues to work in our lives that That positional holiness that that holiness which is ours by virtue of the fact that we're united to Christ by faith um Becomes increasingly a reality in our lives so that holiness grows For us and with it happiness But you know holiness and happiness are Our twin our twins. They're they're different sides to the same coin There's no happiness without holiness. There's no holiness without happiness Which jars folks I think sometimes and And causes a paradigm shift for them, but it but it really is the case Where there is pure holiness there is pure happiness and where there is true happiness. There is true holiness Okay, but that is something that we that we share or have the potential for sharing With God not infinite holiness, but but holiness as it touches Human beings made in God's image. Okay. Some other unchanging eternal infinite. What else did we say? I'm missioned What's that mean? Possessing all knowledge we talked about that quite a bit last week Contrasting God's knowledge with our knowledge It God knows all things in all of all things actual and potential in all of their actual and potential relationships Which is just a staggering thing and I did you all go home last week after church and get a shovel and go turn over a shovel full of dirt And see all the critters running around in there. Okay All right, I'm missioned. What else? I'm nipotent. I'm knee potent. What does that mean? All powerful Okay, what else? I'm the present
Everywhere present You remember what we said about that I alluded to some of these last week remember what we said about God being I'm I'm the present
It isn't it isn't spatial God feels all space But he doesn't fill all space in the way that we think God fills all space like there's You know like I'm I'm occupying a certain amount of space my head is up here in my feeder down there in this space The totality of the being and perfections of God are present In their entirety everywhere The entirety of the being and perfections of God are present everywhere in all space Okay, he is everywhere present Okay All sufficient okay, we'll take that God is sovereign
Okay Hey We have a we have a limited sort of sovereignty Some we have some control over things
Right Okay, we don't Yeah Hey remember remember last week I said when the theologians talk about these they try to categorize the attributes of God They're not always in agreement about about what those categorization should be So I think we're maybe struggling here a little bit with exactly how you locate some of these things as you seek to understand them But what we're talking about when we when we talk about God at this level Is is God's real uniqueness that he is that he is different from us Yeah, we are not peers in this thing. There are ways in which he is infinitely different from us Okay Something never to be forgotten um And as you read through the scriptures You you see these experiences periodically which God's people have When they are exposed To God in all of his unveiled majesty and glory Okay Isaiah 6 is probably the classic passage in that regard When Isaiah is given a vision of God seated upon his throne high and lifted up And what is it that Isaiah is immediately aware of when he sees God in all of his greatness and glory He's he's aware of his own sin and corruption And you know the language that he uses in Isaiah 6 is the language of of blessing and cursing wheel and woe when a woe is pronounced it's it's a pronouncing of a curse when Jesus confronted the The hypocrites of his day He used that language woe to you hypocrites white washed tombs You know you're pretty on the outside but on the inside you're full of dead men's bones It was it was a pronouncement of judgment Well when Isaiah was brought into the presence of God and was given this vision of God He pronounced judgment upon himself woe to me For I am undone I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips Okay There's another picture of that I think in Daniel's visions when Daniel is given these these Points of access into the throne room of God and is given access to the counsel of God and God reveals to him the things that are to come When you read in the text Daniel after he has these visions is left exhausted Devastated nauseated so overcome as he By by this vision of God and his glory John is the same way when John beholds Christ the risen and glorified Christ He falls on his face as a dead man in the presence of Christ Okay, so you you get these You get these These little pictures these little screenshots through the scriptures Which describe what it's like for a fallen finite creature to be in the presence of a holy infinite God Okay, and and and the chasm between Us and him is infinite It's it's infinite and people become aware of their frailty and their weakness Their sin and their corruption when they're brought into the presence of God and that's what these characteristics are intended Um to to communicate to us and for us for our benefit Something of how majestic and great and utterly different God is from us, okay Okay Now there's one other thing on this list that that We have maybe some others, but but there's another one that refers to the to the being of God and and You remember the bill caused the the bill caused the record why is there air you know, I just remember him on this He did he does this thing, you know, this was this this recording and the title of it was why is there air Okay It's interesting the comedians Very often the best comedians are among the best philosophers They asked the most penetrating and piercing questions in their humor and that sort of thing And and that obviously I haven't forgotten that that record And the title of that record why is there air it really raises the question why is there anything at all Why is there something rather than nothing Okay, why is there something clearly there is something Right And people you know if you if you've even dabbled in in some of the some of the philosophy of the world in the course of your years You know that people wrestle with this question at the most profound levels Now they wrestle with the nature of human identity and I I remember you know, I remember When I was in college Hearing these these conundra presented, you know like what is the sound of one hand clapping and And if a tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to hear it does it make a sound and You know all of that kind of crazy stuff Am I a man dreaming that I'm a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming that I'm a man? I mean, you know, it's all this It's wild stuff But at the bottom of the whole thing you got to ask the question whether I'm a butterfly dreaming I'm a man or a man dreaming. I'm a butterfly. There's something here and why is there something rather than nothing Why is there something rather than nothing? Okay, and the most um To me the most um profound Of the attributes of God it touches the nature of the being of God that God simply has the power the ability the capacity To exist in and of himself Okay, God is God exists. He has the power to be Now that's not true of you You are and everything that you see is dependent and contingent Okay, you are dependent. You are contingent. You exist But you do not have the power in and of yourself to exist That's that's set you apart. God is set apart from you in that regard God has the ability to exist. Why is there anything at all because God exists? Okay Typically we speak of the creation. We say that God created all things out of nothing Well, that's not exactly accurate What's being said there when we say that the creation is ex me hello or out of nothing We're saying that God didn't use any pre-existing material He didn't he didn't have some stuff to work with in order to manufacture a shape or produce or order the universe What is the first chapter Genesis tell us God spoke You see the God in himself has the capacity the power to be and within that ability of existence He has the ability to speak things into existence. He speaks and it stands fast Okay But it isn't as though there was nothing before the creation there was something Something existed and that something was the infinite personal triune God who is there who speaks the worlds into existence And who Hebrews tells us continues to uphold those worlds by the word of his power Okay, if God ever withdraws his attention from the things that he's created if he if he fails for a nanosecond to exert His influence and power In upholding the universe it would all vanish it would all disappear The universe does not have the ability in and of itself to exist It requires the existence of an eternal God who continues to uphold it all By the word of his power um and and again that sets God apart from us. We're contingent. We're dependent God is not he is independent and has the power of existence Simply the capacity to be okay? Yes, great question If the Trinity that that's that's a great way to segue into just a couple of comments about the Trinity if the Trinity Is all sufficient possessing all power and is independent Why create let's let's talk about the Trinity for just a minute We talked about this I think last week This is one of those points when we talk about about God one of those points Where we simply embrace the mystery that God exists as one God try personally That's the that's the clear and capable teaching of scripture and and as I said last week God is not like a pie divided into three parts So you got the Holy Spirit here and the Sun here and the Father here, okay Each of the persons of the Godhead possesses all of the attributes of divinity The Holy Spirit is fully God the Sun is fully God the Father is fully God one God existing in this in this in this mystery this tried personal unity in the Godhead analogies break down that they all fail no analogy captures Exactly what the Trinity is that people people will use the Sun and they will say that the that the core Of the Sun the thing that produces the heat is the Father and then then the flames the part of it that we see is the Sun And then the radiant heat that we experience is the Holy Spirit, okay But you see where those analogies break down because they divide this thing in the parts and the Godhead is not divided into parts And wherever the Spirit is the Father and the Son are fully present whether the Father is the Son and the Spirit are fully present So there's no division in the Godhead And all these analogies will break down even the the analogy of roles I am one person, but I have three roles. I am a husband. I'm a father. I'm a pastor Okay, but I but I am not all of those roles All at the same time in all relationships there are divisions in those things and they break down you see The Trinity exists as one God try personally all of the persons of the Godhead possessing All of the attributes of divinity, okay, and if some of the things that you say about the Trinity Are these that there is perfect harmony Among the persons of the Godhead the Father loves the Son the Son loves the Father the Father and the Son love the Spirit the Spirit loves the Father and the Son The Son submits to the purpose of the Father the Spirit submits to the purpose of the Father and the Son There's there's never there never any votes In the Trinity there's never any well, you know, we win this one two to one, you know There is a perfect harmony a perfect unity of purpose a perfect a perfect unity of mind among the Godhead There is also perfect love among the members of the Godhead Perfect love the Father delights in the Son the Son delights in the Father the Father and the Son delight in the Spirit and vice Versa, okay, there is a there is perfect affection among the members of the Godhead remember I said last week when the confession talks about God not having passions What the confession is talking about is this capriciousness that's so characteristic of human beings this That we're not predictable, you know, we say somebody is Is a passionate person what we're suggesting is that person has a capacity for being out of control Okay, or for being uneven in some way God is never uneven and he's never out of control But God is passionate he has perfect passion as it's expressed In love among the members of the Godhead Okay, God does have passion for his name. He has zeal for his own name He will protect and defend his name as I've said you many times if God doesn't have zeal for his name who will have zeal for his name Nobody Nobody So God does have that there there is passion properly understood in the Godhead Okay, and there is perfect infinite love and affection expressed Among the members of the Godhead one for another and so there is in the Godhead perfect fellowship Okay Perfect fellowship among the members of the Godhead Okay, now all of this presupposes the idea of personality We're not dealing with a rock here. We're not dealing with with with an unmoved mover a first cause We're dealing with with a person an infinite person okay um and and uh that Personality expresses itself in creativity and design and all of those kinds of things things we talk about in chapter three But there is perfect fellowship among the members of the Godhead Right you get those moments with with a friend or with a spouse or something where everything is just The word from the sixties or everything is just copicetic You know Where everything just it's like it's almost like a dance You know I know I apologize for another another The illustration from from the world of the realm of athletics, but athletes will talk about being in a zone golfers will talk about being in a zone where they i mean i Very rarely but occasionally i've experienced this where you stand over a shot and there is no there's no question about execution There is perfect harmony between you and the club and the golf ball and the target And it's it's that that you don't want to stop playing when you get into a zone like that Where everything is fluid and harmonious and per Or it seems that way in this form There is that kind of unity and fellowship and harmony among the members of the godhead. Okay Yes This last summer as a matter of fact you want to talk about it
You want to talk i mean it really it was it it was 185 yards. It was a five iron against the breeze And i you know i stood and i made and it was a perfect swing and the club had made perfect contact with the ball And the trajectory of the ball was perfect and i said to Annie i said Annie this one's gonna be close It's gonna be close and i heard this Like that and i knew it hit the stick I knew it hit the stick we got up there it was in the cup It was great It's like yeah right This and i got i saw this guy come down the next fairway i said yeah, yo, yo Come over here go look in the cup Okay, so i i have witnesses anyway Perfect harmony. There's a Trinity for you and me the club and the ball, you know perfect car Now when you consider all of this stuff The question that Gary asks Really is it really is a good question why in the world Why would god create Why would he create it's not you know, it's beauty too It's now like god needed to do something Because he had this s this longing for some aesthetic experience Right there is beauty in in the godhead the beauty of holiness like i don't remember the passage But but that passage comes to mind in the scriptures the beauty of holiness Jonathan Edwards has a series of or a sermon entitled the excellencies of christ and in that he's not just talking about moral Perfections, but he's talking about the beauty that christ is You know so god didn't have to put paint on a canvas in order to satisfy this longing for an aesthetic experience It exists within the godhead In fact that existence explains why we have a longing for an aesthetic experience Why we respond to beauty because there's already that experience in the godhead So the question is why if all of that exists why does god create for his pleasure For his glory Does he does he need to create in order to receive glory? Does he need to create in order to receive greater pleasure? No, he doesn't So it is true he creates for his own glory. He creates for his own pleasure
Why does he create? Why does he create why does he create the world? It isn't it is an act of sheer unmitigated Mercy and condescension You know, I mean we tend we at rightly we think when we think of redemption god redeeming sinners We think of god's grace we think of god acting in a condescending way to those who are unworthy of forgiveness But the same thing is true of creation Okay God it is it is a sheer and he doesn't need to do it. He in fact when you consider what flows from That creation the fall and the need of redemption although in a sense there's not a need of redemption God was not under obligation to redeem From our vantage point there's a need when you consider everything that flows from the fall You do you do wonder don't you you do puzzle Why did god do this in the first place think of all of the grief he could have saved himself if he'd not done this Okay So that you know the answer to the question Why does god Why does god create That he might be glorified that he might know great pleasure That his that his glory and his pleasure might be put on display in his fellow shipping With his creatures His glory and pleasure being put on display as he fellowships and relates to these and he's created Okay the angels human beings But human beings as the apex of that creation. It's it's it's it's condescension. It's mercy It's grace. It's kindness You don't have to do it But he doesn't Right is that I mean I'm that's I'm staggered by that I need you all God doesn't need us God has himself and he is perfectly content with himself But in an act of supreme condescension The infinite eternal self-sufficient perfectly happy God Creates the world that we see around us That we might have fellowship with him
In our perfected in our perfected state We are the image of God
um No No, we're not we're not reproductions, but yeah, but but we what we are is those We are those beings those creatures of his who who reflect his glory who manifest his glory in our perfected state We manifest his glory glory bearers We are Yeah Okay Any other thoughts about that before we Before we move on Right right yeah
Yeah, yeah We are created that's good. We are created to experience his glory. You know this Um, this is the thing that really staggers me John you You know you mentioned that in our perfected state we are we're replications in some sense and there's some sense Obviously there are differences in which that's true. You mentioned that that Gary that um That we're made to experience his glory um I'm I've been struck for years by this contrast between Isaiah's experience in chapter six and what John says In his first letter About the children of God. Let me read this to you
If you'll if you'll indulge Me this reflection for just a minute
John three God this is this is staggering I'm sorry first John three the first letter of John Behold what manner of love the father Has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him Beloved now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be But we know that when he is revealed We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Now the contrast between Isaiah chapter six Who who was and and Moses before him you know Moses Asked the Lord let me see your glory and God said to him no man can see my glory and live Isaiah is brought into the presence of God And is given this division of God in his glory and he's crushed by it Okay And here you have this statement in John's letter That that when God is revealed we shall be like him for we shall See him as he is
The staggering thing is that when I am fully perfected Okay, when God's Saving work in my life Comes to its final conclusion meaning that my body and soul Are reunited and are perfected In that capacity as a perfected body and soul I will have the ability to look upon the glory of God and not be consumed by it Not be crushed by it I will be able to behold the weight of that glory
And and that is what my calling is as a human being That's what I was designed to do in the very beginning Is be a glory bearer One who in his in his being Reflects the glory of God Behold that glory and reflects that glory rather than being crushed by it I'm you're going to hear me read something in the service if you weren't at the early service um You'll hear it in the second service is this quote from CS Lewis in which he talks about this inconsolable longing the inconsolable secret So I'll tell you the thing the bottom line motivator in your life In any human beings life The thing that is driving any and everybody Is a longing for the vision of God That's what's driving every human being ever created is a longing to be in the presence of God and to hold his glory sin Corrupts that motivation And drives us to seek the satisfaction of that longing in everything other than the presence of God Okay, but the bottom line motivation is the longing to be back in paradise To be back in Eden to be back in the presence of God and to behold his glory Because of sin we've been made sojourners and wanderers living in a barren wasteland Because of sin the motivation gets all screwed up and our hearts get attached to all the wrong things And Lewis calls those things idols the bible calls them idols Lewis says they're things that break our hearts in the end because they can't satisfy us They can't do it the thing we're made for is to be in the presence of God with a you remember you know the angels in the presence of God they have to cover their eyes Symbolically they they They portray this idea the the glory of God is so imposing that even perfect angels can't look upon him But the statement of scripture is that the Christian is one Who will stand before God with head raised up and eyes wide open to behold his glory Being perfected being brought into conformity with the image of Christ and enabled to stand in the presence of that glory And bear the weight of that glory and not be consumed and in fact it is in that Beholding that glory in the end that my deepest longings will be satisfied. It is seeing God That and nothing else that in the end will satisfy me That's what we're made for That's what we're made for Okay
And that leads us to chapter three of the confession
So let's um Let's take a stab at this all right, I want to begin Um, and I think that this discussion is probably going to go over to next week um, I want to begin at section seven and eight or at section eight of chapter three okay
Sometimes um, sometimes it's good to start at the end rather than at the beginning if you're in if you're in Williamsson where it's page 37 at the bottom
In in chapter three we're dealing with the decree of God now. Let me give you let me give you some some definitions here um, they're They're they're I think they're helpful for understanding what we're talking about When we come to the decree of God And Some of you some of you may have heard these distinctions. I actually got them from the Communicants class material that we use with our high school students which steve smallman who is a pastor of McLean press Church, Church, PCH, Church in Washington DC wrote When we talk about the decree the decree and creation and providence
are all related They're all related to one another Okay The decree has to do with God's design Okay, what we're going to what we're talking about in chapter three is God's design where God's purpose
In the creation Okay, the design the purpose always precedes Or at least it should precede the creation itself right Um, I told you the story about the steps, you know We needed to build these steps for our kids to get from our driveway up to our backyard Because there was this flagstone wall that they they couldn't scale so I got in touch with the carpenter and the carpenter said This is how you can do it and I went to the building's supply store and I got boards and nails and all that stuff And I had a design and the miracle of the whole thing was that it worked Okay, in my case that was a miracle But there was a design that preceded the creation The creation is the building or the construction
In keeping with the design or purpose Okay, and then providence is God's care or maintenance Of the thing that he has created Okay, so there's design there's construction creation And then there is the maintenance the care of the thing that has been constructed Okay And these obviously these things are related to one another This is what we're dealing with right now in the third chapter the decree of God And the decree the design exists If we can we have to use this language the only language we have it exists Prior to the creation Okay, the design exists prior to the creation Before anything was built or constructed Okay God does things with the purpose and the purpose was in his mind clearly Without ambiguity or uncertainty Ambiguity or uncertainty in the mind of God would mean that God is not God Okay I mean we we have to be somewhat ruthless and tenacious As we think about these things Okay The design the decree of God the purpose which God had Everything that he had in mind for the creation must have existed in the mind of God without ambiguity Prior to the creation if there is ambiguity in the mind of God if there is uncertainty in the mind of God God is less than God Okay
Yes, yes, yes, it is every everything is envisioned now the reason I want to begin it at section eight Is for this reason we we realize when we come to this stuff
There there are two things which characterize us as we come to consider the decree of God I mean what are they what are the two things that we got to keep in mind About ourselves as we come to a discussion of the mind of God the decree of God
Okay, maybe there's more than two. I'm thinking of two. Okay, that's the that I mean you're you're you're you're you're you're heading at both of them at the same time Okay, you two fundamental things
Okay, you're headed the same direction Yes, and confuses the first two God is God and we are not okay We've got to keep in mind that we are finite Okay So we do see things sequentially chronologically we're we are time bound creatures We are we are caught in this in this moment a moment we can we can project backward we can project forward We can think in terms of history, but we can't live in any way other than sequentially And we have to consider think we just do we consider things sequentially logically. Okay, that's a function of our finitude The thing that you're talking about Stephen is a function of our finitude Having to this having to having to acknowledge these things have been revealed having to make distinctions between what is revealed and what is speculation all of those things are expressions of the limited nature of our knowledge Okay, we're finite Okay, what's the second thing? We're fallen Okay Anything else you can say about a human being can be gathered under those two headings as we come to the decree of God We're finite and we're fallen Let me just suggest to the this to the pasturally Compassionately carefully We get into trouble when we forget who we are We get into trouble when we forget who we are when we forget that we are both finite and fallen Okay, I am not God you are not God the two of us together the 50 of us together are not God Okay, we we are a pin prick And the vast ocean of the being of God and the knowledge that we could pull in this room right now vast as it may seem to us is a thimble fall Compared to the vast and limitless knowledge which God possesses Okay, we get into trouble when we forget these two things And these two things are designed the the remembrance of them the recollection of them Is designed that's it's designed to produce a humility in us Okay, and and if we forget who we are We're we're gonna get in trouble and and and here's what here's what invariably happens when we forget who we are
We are no longer creatures before the creator But we become judge and jury Passing judgment on who God is and what God does Okay, without the benefit of infinite knowledge and and all of the rest now the reason again the reason that I want to start with section eight There is great pastoral wisdom in what is said here in section eight Let me read it We're dealing with the decree of God which takes which
Under which heading chapter three discusses also predestination Okay, and that's what's particularly in mind in this eighth Section of chapter three the doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care special prudence and care All right, folks The doctrine of election the doctrine of predestination is not a billy club that should be people over the heads with All right, it's not a litmus test of somebody's faith All right, it's not a test of somebody's orthodoxy and and Um, I fear for us as reform people that we convey the idea Steionity is summarized In predestination that the whole of the gospel gets reduced and distilled down to this one concept Now it's a part of the gospel as far as I'm concerned But anytime you isolate one thing you take it out of its larger context no matter how large that thing might be in its relation to other things If you take one thing out of its context and isolate it It becomes a heresy Okay, it becomes a heresy Heresies are diversions from orthodoxy Okay, and Roger Nicole was one of my systematic teachers in in In seminary and and Roger Nicole used to say that a heresy is a truth in isolation a Truth in isolation take the humanity of Jesus was Jesus truly human Yes, he was if you isolate that it becomes a heresy was Jesus truly divine yes He was if you remove that truth from what the scriptures teach about his humanity It becomes a heresy Heresy is a truth in isolation. I don't want for us As as much as I love At one level the teaching of scripture about predestination I don't want it to be isolated and we have to handle it with special care and prudence because it is a high mystery It is a high mystery, okay
Doctor of the doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special care prudence and care that men attending the will of God revealed in his word and yielding obedience there unto May From the certainty of their effectual vocation be assured of their eternal election And this is the second thing about this about this doctrine And you read this in John Calvin particularly you can I don't have the sections with me, but I can get you the sections You can find him yourself in the institutes where he talks about these very things How necessary it is for us to handle this with care and then the second point is The design of predestination the reason for its presence in the scriptures is that the elect of God might have assurance about their standing before God That we might have assurance The doctrine of election is a pastoral doctrine the doctrine of predestination is a pastoral doctrine It is not supposed to be controversial It is controversial and it is because we make it controversial as fallen sinful people all right But it is designed to be a source of great comfort for God's people and in layman's terms what predestination and election Mean is this basically The father loves you now and the father loves you now because he loved you before the worlds were created And because he loved you before the worlds were created he will not stop loving you until he brings you safely home That's what it means The person who has come to faith in Christ understands that in the mystery of God's providence He or she has been set apart from before the foundations of the world And the love of God is the explanation for that election not anything in you But simply the love of God it is the love of God which sets you apart from before the foundation of the world And it is that same love which brings you to faith in Jesus it is that same faith which will Same love which will protect and defend you through the course of your life And it is that same love which will bring you safely into the full enjoyment of your salvation That's what this is about. It is intended to give comfort and encouragement to people who find themselves in a hostile world in the midst of a great conflict Okay now You know, this the places where this shows up in the Bible are Ephesians a place where where people were thrown to lions In Romans where Christians were being persecuted and blamed for all kinds of things um You know, it's it's addressed to folks who are in the midst of trouble And the the framers um of the Of the confession were so wise in my humble opinion they were so wise to include this section to remind us of these two things Karen Prudence in the handling of it and the reason that it's given to us is that we might have assurance Of our eternal election that we might have assurance of our salvation So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise reverence and admiration of God and of humility diligence and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel Okay results in praise results in consolation and comfort okay Let me let me just stop right there and see if there's any anything you want to say Since we're gonna have to stop in a couple minutes We'll uh, we're gonna have to come back to this next week Okay, yeah, Larry
Well, the question is is there one decree or or many um, that's a that's a Technical question Right right right It is one purpose of God It is it is the one Purpose of God that we're considering here. It is multifaceted, but it is one purpose and it isn't It isn't There aren't any can there is no contingency about it at all
Um Well, we can come back to that
Yeah You know, I mean, what I want to say about this is what what what I typically tell the folks who are new to St. Paul's and go through the inquires class is that at the end of the day what all of this is is to produce in us is a sense of on reverence and worship before God rather than passing judgment upon God Because of our sin and our limited understanding we tend to do that um But but the design in this stuff is is to is to leave us bowing before him and worshiping
to That's right right Kristie and then trans No, wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
There is nothing let me just say There is nothing more practical than theology and there is nothing more inherently theological than our practice The things that we do we do because of convictions that we have So the two are the two are there's you know, but go ahead
Yeah Sure, sure. How do you With friends and family members and other people how do you how do you deal with this? Um, I talked them about it. I mean That's you know, let's talk But I again, I wouldn't I wouldn't want on for this to be and I don't think it's designed to be something that separates Christians Now There's another sense in which it could if can have that effect The gospel always separates people and when you you know, you start peel in a way and getting getting to deeper and think deeper as a kind of a weird word I'm not wild about the word deeper, but when you start wrestling with some of these things There can you know, there can be these tensions as people grapple with the teaching of scripture But I'll tell you my approach in this is always to cast it in these pastoral terms It's always to say Look, this is why this is here Here not to be something that separates us. It's here because Steve Brown calls predestination and election gods family secret You know, it's like this. It's like this thing that the father has given us that he's told us which Which you know raises all kinds of questions and there's a lot of mystery in it But this is given to us by a father who loves his people and he wants them to know of the permanence and constancy of his love That's how I approach it when I talk with folks about it
Trans I'm not a pantheist. I'm not a pantheist There is a distinct that that was that was a comparative illustrative language We are not we're not literally a pinprick in the being of God as though as though all of the pinpricks put together Make up the being of God. I'm some not a pantheist Where where God is Everything that is There is a distinction between God and the things that he has made But but if you were to put me in front of the being of God, I would be a mere pinprick against that You know that Infinite vastness Okay
Ah, yes We don't even have to assume that we can take the teaching of scripture about it Yeah Right
Didn't intend what For any to Yes, he did And you know what this is we need we need next week to deal with this all right and so we'll do it all right We're gonna stop now you can stay and talk if you want but I need to go so I want to deal with this I want to deal with this and I really want for there to be conversation about it next week I wanted to set the stage with who we are all right we we can't ever forget who we are and And we do as Larry said we do have to bring our minds under the teaching of scripture our our deal here Is to take what the scriptures say wrestle with them and submit to them That's that's what we're called to do and where things remain unresolved in our minds We have to live with that tension with the lack of resolution Trusting that that God in the course of our lives will bring us bring us greater insight into the teaching of his word Or at the end of the day when we stand before him. I mean, I know a lot of this stuff is gonna come into focus Then that'll never come into focus for me now because I continue to be plagued by the problem of sin I can't see what is there clearly because I'm a sinner So but but we're gonna come back to this so call all your friends this week and tell them that next Sunday's gonna be a lot of fun Okay word willing. Yes, this is a gap great See bar. Okay. Thank you very much. Let me pray and we'll we'll go. Thanks sweetie You can always have the floor in my classroom
Sure Father be with us as we come to worship make our hearts glad as we reflect again upon The savior of the world the Lord Jesus who has come to rescue and redeem us We pray in Jesus name amen