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Voddie Baucham - Introduction to 1689 confession of faith · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Well, good evening. Oh no, we have to do better
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Speaker 1: than that. Good evening. Oh right, it is good to
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Speaker 1: be here. I uh just finished a trip or left
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Speaker 1: here and ended up in Atlanta and preaching there for
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Speaker 1: a couple of days, and then in Houston for a
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Speaker 1: couple more days, and Detroit for a couple of days.
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Speaker 1: Back to Houston. Then the Charlotte finished in Charlotte, flew
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Speaker 1: to London, left on a Monday, got there Tuesday, preached
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Speaker 1: one place Tuesday night, one place, Wednesday night, the conference Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
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Speaker 1: Sunday morning, Sunday night. Left on Monday, got here on Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: and the movers arrived yesterday. Yes. So we talked about
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Speaker 1: this a long time before this sudden move came up,
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Speaker 1: and I had already had this sort of on the calendar,
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Speaker 1: was thinking about it, and when Bridget saw it, to
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Speaker 1: be honest, with all the things that were happening, I'd
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Speaker 1: kind of put it away in the back of my mind.
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Speaker 1: And she said, why would you schedule this during this time?
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Speaker 1: I said, I didn't. I scheduled it and then this time.
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Speaker 1: So pray for us, but this is actually a very
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Speaker 1: nice break in the middle of having boxes all over
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Speaker 1: the house and shifting from one place to another. Listen.
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Speaker 1: I love the sixteen eighty nine. I love Confessionalism in general,
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Speaker 1: but I love our confession. And just to give you
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Speaker 1: a little background and kind of why, I was asked
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Speaker 1: to do this at our church in Houston that we
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Speaker 1: planted in two thousand and six, and when I came
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Speaker 1: here from for the last three years, we had made
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Speaker 1: a ten week course on the sixteen eighty nine a
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Speaker 1: prerequisite for entering our membership course. Yeah, so you had
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Speaker 1: to do a ten week course on the sixteen eighty
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Speaker 1: nine before you could enter the new member's course. And
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Speaker 1: I taught this course, this ten week course three times
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Speaker 1: a year. So I've done this a number of times
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Speaker 1: and have really grown to love the Confession more and
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Speaker 1: more as I've done this. The reason that we started
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Speaker 1: doing that was we had our these small groups out
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Speaker 1: meeting the evenings and at one point I led a
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Speaker 1: small group through Sam Waldron's book, A Modern Exposition of
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Speaker 1: the sixteen eighty nine. And after leading the first group
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Speaker 1: of people through that, I don't remember how many families
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Speaker 1: we had in that small group, say five or six
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Speaker 1: families in that group that met, they said, everybody in
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Speaker 1: the church ought to go through this. Everybody. So a
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Speaker 1: few months later, let it again and this group, after
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Speaker 1: going through the concision, Ah, everybody in the church. Everybody
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Speaker 1: should go through this. So, being the great leader that
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Speaker 1: I am, went back to my fellow elders and I say,
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Speaker 1: you know what, maybe everybody should go through this, and
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Speaker 1: we did. So I'm very excited that all the groups
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Speaker 1: are now going to be going through the confession. Before
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Speaker 1: we go through it, let me just give you an
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Speaker 1: example of one of the things that I face on
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Speaker 1: a regular basis. You know, ACU is a confessional school,
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Speaker 1: and so people who come and teach ADCU subscribe to
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Speaker 1: our confession. And here's a gentleman. People have often asked,
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Speaker 1: you know about the delay was starting the seminary, and
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Speaker 1: part of that is we have to have enough theology
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Speaker 1: faculty to teach at the undergraduate and the graduate level,
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Speaker 1: and our theology faculty has to fully subscribe to the
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Speaker 1: sixteen eighty nine. And here's a letter that I got
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Speaker 1: from one gentleman who is willing to come to Zambia,
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Speaker 1: willing to come and be a part of our work. Here.
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Speaker 1: I'm a graduate of very prominent Baptist seminary in the US,
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Speaker 1: and currently serve as an elder at a church on
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Speaker 1: the East Coast in the US. That church coast to
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Speaker 1: the New Hampshire Confession, which is a cousin of the
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Speaker 1: sixteen eighty nine I could subscribe to at least ninety
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Speaker 1: five percent of the Second London Confession, but there are
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Speaker 1: a few issues to which I would take exception. Those
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Speaker 1: areas are detailed below. Problem number one, Chapter twenty two,
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Speaker 1: paragraph seven and eight. Problem number two, Chapter twenty six,
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Speaker 1: paragraph four, Problem number three, Chapter thirty, paragraph three, Problem
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Speaker 1: number four, Chapter twenty six, paragraph nine, Problem number five,
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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six, paragraph ten, and the final problem, chapter thirty,
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Speaker 1: paragraph three. Other than that, though he's with us right,
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Speaker 1: it's like I love you. But if I could just
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Speaker 1: take that right hand off, and maybe the left knee,
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Speaker 1: and perhaps six ribs from this side, and maybe an
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Speaker 1: ear over it, yes, yes, I'll take you. See, our
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Speaker 1: confession works together as a whole, and it's very important
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Speaker 1: for us to understand that sixteen eighty nine federalism is
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Speaker 1: not just a sort of haphazard collection of ideas, but
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Speaker 1: it is actually a confession that is built to hold
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Speaker 1: and work together, and that's what I want us to
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Speaker 1: look at on this evening. How the Confession is meant
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Speaker 1: to build, how the Confession is meant to hold together
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Speaker 1: and to be taken as a whole. When we think
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Speaker 1: about our confession, we have to put it in an
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Speaker 1: historical context, and that historical context is seventeenth century Baptist life.
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Speaker 1: And when we read the Confession, we have to read
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Speaker 1: it in the context of seventeenth century Baptist life. We
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Speaker 1: have to read the words that they choose to use
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Speaker 1: in light of the fact that they were written by
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Speaker 1: seventeenth century Baptist We have to understand the historical context
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Speaker 1: and the historical setting in order for us to be
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Speaker 1: able to appreciate the Confession and to appreciate what the
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Speaker 1: Confession is trying to communicate. There are a number of
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Speaker 1: ways that we can read the Bible, and there are
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Speaker 1: a number of ways that people do read the Bible.
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Speaker 1: Jim Renahan, who is probably, I would argue, the foremost
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Speaker 1: authority living authority on the Second London Baptist Confession. Doctor
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Speaker 1: Renahan has taught for many years at the Institute for
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Speaker 1: Reform Baptist Studies, which was housed that Westminster seminary in
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Speaker 1: Escondido in this San Diego area that is a Presbyterian seminary.
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Speaker 1: But within that Presbyterian seminary there was this Institute for
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Speaker 1: Reform Baptist Studies, and students could go to Westminster study
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Speaker 1: at IRBs and get a Westminster degree but basically having
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Speaker 1: studied sixteen eighty nine instead of Second London in their
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Speaker 1: framework more than just the confessional courses. But that is
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Speaker 1: now moving and there will be a standalone Reform Baptist
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Speaker 1: seminary in Dallas. Well. Doctor Renahan was the bulwark for IRBs,
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Speaker 1: and he been talking about the Confession, talks about the
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Speaker 1: number of ways that we can read scripture. One way
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Speaker 1: that we can read scripture is we can read scripture historically,
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Speaker 1: and reading scripture historically is going to the text, trying
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Speaker 1: to understand what happened and when it happened, trying to
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Speaker 1: put things in historical order, maybe even looking at the
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Speaker 1: overall plan of redemption. But that's that's one way that
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Speaker 1: we can approach the scriptures. And you can approach the
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Speaker 1: scriptures this way as a Christian or as a non Christian,
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Speaker 1: you know, as a new believer. I was a student
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Speaker 1: at a secular university in the US. When God called
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Speaker 1: me to preach, I never heard the Gospel. Again, I've
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Speaker 1: told you this before till my first year in university,
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Speaker 1: and you know, I am following the Lord, and you know,
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Speaker 1: have this call to preach and want to begin to study.
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Speaker 1: So I take courses at the secular secular university that
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Speaker 1: I was attending, and I took a course on the
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Speaker 1: Gospel of Mark from a professor, doctor Verner Kilbert. Doctor
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Speaker 1: Kilbert was considered one of the foremost authorities in the
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Speaker 1: world on the Gospel of Mark. I mean, this man
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Speaker 1: knew the Gospel of Mark like the back of his hand.
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Speaker 1: He knew the Gospel of Mark inside and out. I
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Speaker 1: mean he just you know, you would say something about
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Speaker 1: a section in Mark and he would go, yes, that's
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Speaker 1: this verse that verse, and you know, you know this
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Speaker 1: Greek manuscript has this reading of it, and this Greek
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Speaker 1: manuscript has that. I mean, he's that level of knowledge
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Speaker 1: of the Gospel of Mark. The man was not a Christian.
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Speaker 1: He was not a Christian, but he was an expert
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Speaker 1: and reading the Gospel of Mark from an historical perspective, right,
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Speaker 1: So you can do that as a believer. Or an unbeliever. Secondly,
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Speaker 1: you can read the Bible from an ethical perspective. That's
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Speaker 1: reading the Bible not for what happened and when, and
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Speaker 1: not trying to get it in its historical context. But
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Speaker 1: you can read the Bible trying to find out what's
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Speaker 1: right and what's wrong, what is expected of me, what
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Speaker 1: is required of me. That's an ethical reading of the text.
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Speaker 1: And there are a lot of people who read the
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Speaker 1: scriptures that way, Christians and non Christians. There are a
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Speaker 1: lot of people who think they're Christians who read the
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Speaker 1: scriptures this way. In fact, one of the marks of
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Speaker 1: a false professor is that they only read the scriptures
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Speaker 1: this way. As an ethical text, there you have to
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Speaker 1: tick the right boxes. Salvation is about ticking the right boxes.
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Speaker 1: And so I've got to find out where the boxes
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Speaker 1: are really I've also got to find out where the
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Speaker 1: loopholes are. Amen, how much ungodliness and I enjoy and
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Speaker 1: still tick the box. Okay, that is the way you
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Speaker 1: can read the scriptures. And again, believer, non believer, you
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Speaker 1: could read the scripture this way. As believers, you can
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Speaker 1: read the scriptures this way. A third way is a
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Speaker 1: theological framework. We read the Bible theologically, and our goal
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Speaker 1: is to understand what it is that God says about
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Speaker 1: himself and about us being made in His image? What
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Speaker 1: is God saying about days of reading appropriate? All three
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Speaker 1: ways of reading are appropriated, but this third way informs
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Speaker 1: the other. So your theological understanding of who God is
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Speaker 1: is going to inform your historical reading of the text.
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Speaker 1: Amen Kelber would have one understanding of the history of
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Speaker 1: the Bible, I would have another, all right, because of
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Speaker 1: a theological framework, your theological framework is also going to
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Speaker 1: understand your ethical reading of the text. Right, So when
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Speaker 1: we're going to the Bible and trying to understand what
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Speaker 1: it's teaching us from an ethical perspective, our theological framework
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Speaker 1: is going to inform that. When we talk about confessions,
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Speaker 1: we are talking about reading the Bible from a theological framework.
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Speaker 1: We are trying to ascertain what the Bible is saying
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Speaker 1: about God and about us. We're trying to bring all
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Speaker 1: these things together from the totality of scripture so that
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Speaker 1: we understand the most important things that God says about
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Speaker 1: himself and about us. Now, when we talk about confessions,
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Speaker 1: there are some wonderful benefits to confessions. They unite believers.
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Speaker 1: They distinguish Protestants from Rome. They distinguish Protestants from one another.
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Speaker 1: Confessions have origins actually in the New Testament and their
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Speaker 1: essential disciple making tools. So let's look at these before
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Speaker 1: we move into it. When we talk about the New
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Speaker 1: Testament and confessions and the New Testament being confessional, it's
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Speaker 1: important to understand that there are confessional statements in the
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Speaker 1: New Testament, these statements that sort of give rise to
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Speaker 1: and give us the idea that it's important to confess
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Speaker 1: certain things and versus Second Timothy two two, what you
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Speaker 1: have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses
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Speaker 1: in trust to faithful men who will be able to
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Speaker 1: teach others. Also what you've heard from me in the
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Speaker 1: presidents of faithful witnesses earlier on. He kind of clarifies
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Speaker 1: that Second Timothy one thirteen fourteen follow the pattern of
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Speaker 1: sound words that you've heard from me in the faith
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Speaker 1: and love that are in Christ, Jesus, by the Holy
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Speaker 1: Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good, deposit and
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Speaker 1: trusted to you. So Paul is not saying to Timothy,
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Speaker 1: you need to remember and hold in your mind or
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Speaker 1: even to an equal degree, everything that you've ever heard
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Speaker 1: from me. That wasn't the case. There was a pattern
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Speaker 1: of sound words, there was a foundation, there was a basis,
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Speaker 1: there was a root, if you will, and confessionalism is
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Speaker 1: about this root. People say, well, I believe the Bible.
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Speaker 1: Looks the Bible is a big book. Amen. And there
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Speaker 1: are people all over the place who say that Jehovah's
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Speaker 1: witnesses said they believe the Bible. Mormons said they believe
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Speaker 1: the Bible. Right, even Muslims will say that they believe
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Speaker 1: the Bible if read and interpreted appropriately. So saying that
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Speaker 1: you believe the Bible doesn't really get us anywhere. Okay,
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Speaker 1: we've got to be a little more specific than that.
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Speaker 1: What do you even mean when you say Bible? So
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Speaker 1: if I start listing off the apocrypha, are you going to, well,
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Speaker 1: you know, let's go to Maccabees. Oh wait a minute, No,
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Speaker 1: I don't know Macabees. I'm not Well, you said the Bible, Well, no,
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Speaker 1: I don't believe that's Bible. Ah, guess what you're waxing
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Speaker 1: confessional now, because now you're saying, here's what I mean
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Speaker 1: when I say Bible. Do you follow me? So I
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Speaker 1: know that there are a lot of us out there
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Speaker 1: who want to just be able to say, you know,
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Speaker 1: the Bible, no confession, but the Bible. Bible's really big,
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Speaker 1: and heretics believe it right. Heretics will grab that Bible
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Speaker 1: and point different verses and rip them out of context.
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Speaker 1: So that's not enough. We got to beat the Roman
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Speaker 1: Catholics have apocryphal books in their Bible. Are we going
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Speaker 1: to say that's Bible? No? So confessionally, we've got to
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Speaker 1: be clear there no creed but Christ. Amen. Now you
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Speaker 1: just let the Mormons in and the Jehovah's witnesses in
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Speaker 1: our only creed is Christ. Because a Mormon could say
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Speaker 1: amen to that. Jehovah's witness could say amen to that. Huh.
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Speaker 1: Somebody who's involved in the most celtic versions of Seven
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Speaker 1: day Adventism could say amen to that. No Creed but Christ.
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Speaker 1: Well then you have to go, well no, because they
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Speaker 1: believe in a different Jesus than we do. Really, now
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Speaker 1: you're waxing confessional again, because now you're saying, when I
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Speaker 1: say Jesus, what I mean is dot dot do you see?
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Speaker 1: So I mean people I like to sound pious, you know,
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Speaker 1: as though they're above it. All, no creed but Christ.
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Speaker 1: You simpletons might need confessions, but not me. I have
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Speaker 1: Jesus really saying Jesus as Jehovah's witnesses. No, my Jesus
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Speaker 1: dot dot dot. You just got confessional. You said no
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Speaker 1: creed with Christ. If you really believe that, then I
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Speaker 1: would say, okay, how about the Jehovah's witnesses, and you
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Speaker 1: would go, no creed but Christ, because that's your only creed.
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Speaker 1: You can't give me another answer. You see the problem.
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Speaker 1: We've got to be more specific than that. All right,
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Speaker 1: tewod teventy three fourteen. But as for you, continue in
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Speaker 1: what you have learned and firmly believed. There are a
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Speaker 1: number of places where we have short creedal statements, which
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Speaker 1: was also in Christ Jesus right, And what we have
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Speaker 1: following is a short creedle statement, and many of the
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Speaker 1: early creeds and confessions are based on these creedle statements. Now,
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Speaker 1: when we talk about confessions, let me give you a
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Speaker 1: little brief history of confessions. We just came out of
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Speaker 1: a couple of days ago. Reformation Day right, five hundredth
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Speaker 1: Reformation Day or did you have Halloween right? Reformation Day
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Speaker 1: October thirty first, fifteen seventeen, five hundred years ago. That
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Speaker 1: was fifteen seventeen. The Augsburg Confession, which is the Lutheran Confession,
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Speaker 1: was written in fifteen thirty and that's just thirteen years
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Speaker 1: later that we get the Augsburg Confession. Now here's where
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Speaker 1: it gets a little tricky. The Augsburg Confession is a
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Speaker 1: Lutheran confession. Lutheranism is not reformed, so the Augsburg Confession
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Speaker 1: is not a Reformed confession, even though Luther was credited
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Speaker 1: it was starting the Reformation. You'll understand it tomorrow. No,
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Speaker 1: we'll talk about that when we get into our confession.
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Speaker 1: Lutheran doctrine and reform doctrine not the same on a
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Speaker 1: number of accounts, but Protestantism comes out of this same stream.
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Speaker 1: So the Augsburg Confession is important in that regard. The
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Speaker 1: Belgian Confession fifteen sixty one, the thirty nine articles. Anybody
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Speaker 1: know whose confession that is? Nope, Anglicans. Church of England. Okay,
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Speaker 1: Church of England is so far gone it's not even funny.
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Speaker 1: Some of the greatest heretics in the church today are
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Speaker 1: Church of England. If you read the thirty nine articles,
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Speaker 1: you'll ask yourself how they even got in. They're embarrassed
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Speaker 1: by the thirty nine articles, Okay, because they don't hold
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Speaker 1: to that Orthodox Confession that was fifteen seventy one. The
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Speaker 1: Canons of the Senate of Dort that was sixteen nineteen.
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Speaker 1: So now we're entering the seventeenth century. The First London
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Speaker 1: Baptist Confession sixteen forty four, the Westminster Confession of Faith
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Speaker 1: sixteen forty six. Here's what that's important. That's important because oftentimes,
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Speaker 1: because the sixteen eighty nine is written along the same
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Speaker 1: pattern as the Westminster Confession, a lot of people assume
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Speaker 1: that the sixteen eighty nine is just a copy of
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Speaker 1: Westminster with some Baptist ideas added to it. But Westminster Confession,
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Speaker 1: what year sixteen forty six? Right, first London Confession what
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Speaker 1: year sixteen forty four? Folks, there was a Reformed Baptist
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Speaker 1: confession before there was a Presbyterian confession. Huh ours cam first?
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Speaker 1: All right, now the sixteen eighty nine, Well, let me
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Speaker 1: move on. After the Westminster you have the Savoyd Declaration
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Speaker 1: of Faith and Order. That's sixteen eighty five. Savoy is
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Speaker 1: the confession of the Congregationalist Puritans. Okay, chief among them
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Speaker 1: is John Owen. Now, the Savoy Declaration was patterned after
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Speaker 1: the Westminster Confession, and the sixteen eighty nine was patterned
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Speaker 1: after Savoy following Westminster. There's a reason for that. This
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Speaker 1: was not about copying each other. At this point. What
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Speaker 1: is happening is reformed doctrine is sort of it's being
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Speaker 1: not sort of, it's being synthesized. All right. You see
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Speaker 1: where we come down this historical corridor. There are also
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Speaker 1: a couple of things happening there. There's violent and I
22:31
Speaker 1: mean violent persecution of Protestants, especially in England. They don't
22:36
Speaker 1: call it bloody Mary for nothing, right, but there's violent
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Speaker 1: persecution in England if you're one group, another group, so
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Speaker 1: on and so forth, depending on who's on the throne.
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Speaker 1: So for Westminster sixteen forty six, Savoy sixteen eighty five
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Speaker 1: and Second London sixteen eighty nine, to all be written
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Speaker 1: based on the same outline is actually an idea of
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Speaker 1: showing a united front among reformed Protestants. It also made
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Speaker 1: it easier to see the areas where the groups differed,
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Speaker 1: where they did not agree, because they were written along
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Speaker 1: the same format, So you didn't have to go well
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Speaker 1: over here they had that in this part of the confession,
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Speaker 1: and over here they had that. No, it was written
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Speaker 1: on the same format, so that there could be this
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Speaker 1: kind of clarity, and also in the development of the
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Speaker 1: presentation of theology itself. This format. If you look at
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Speaker 1: this format and you look at the way systematic theologies
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Speaker 1: are written, modern systematic theologies they follow this similar format.
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Speaker 1: So what are the sources of market confession You just
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Speaker 1: kind of heard. One the first London Baptist Confession of
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Speaker 1: sixteen forty four, two, the Westminster Confession sixteen forty six
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Speaker 1: forty seven, three, the Savoid Declaration of Faith and Order
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Speaker 1: of sixteen eighty five, and four the labors of Elder
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Speaker 1: William Collins and other contributors to the sixteen seventy seven
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Speaker 1: General Meeting. So sometimes you'll see on our confession sixteen
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Speaker 1: seventy seven slash eighty nine, this process started at that
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Speaker 1: general meeting in sixteen seventy seven and ultimately comes to
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Speaker 1: fruition and is accepted in a general meeting in sixteen
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Speaker 1: eighty nine. Okay, but it's not the Confession of sixteen
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Speaker 1: seventy seven. It's a confession of sixteen eighty nine and
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Speaker 1: It's important to note that because the Saboid Declaration was
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Speaker 1: very influential, the Congregational Puritans were very were very influential.
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Speaker 1: John Owen was very influential. Interestingly enough, John Owen. Some
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Speaker 1: of the strongest arguments for pedal baptism that you're going
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Speaker 1: to find are arguments from John Owen. But John Owen,
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Speaker 1: for cradle baptism, I'm sorry for John Owen was a
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Speaker 1: paidal Baptist. Those Congregational Puritans, they were paid o Baptists.
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Speaker 1: They baptized infants. But theologically, I mean, John Owen is
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Speaker 1: running in that direction, but he doesn't get there. The
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Speaker 1: Baptists are there. The Baptists were there since sixteen oh nine.
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Speaker 1: That was the first Baptist church was an Amsterdam sixteen
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Speaker 1: oh nine. So when there was a disagreement, it was
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Speaker 1: usually tracking with Savoy as opposed to tracking with Westminster.
26:06
Speaker 1: So those are the sources of our confession. Here's what
26:11
Speaker 1: that does not mean. That does not mean that basically
26:16
Speaker 1: our confession was just a compiling of these things. Understand
26:21
Speaker 1: what's happening since fifteen thirty. Even before fifteen thirty, we
26:26
Speaker 1: have the earliest creeds of the church, right the Apostles creed,
26:31
Speaker 1: the Nicene creed, the creed of Chalcedon. We have all
26:35
Speaker 1: of these creeds, and these creeds become more robust, and
26:39
Speaker 1: these creeds build upon each other. As they become more robust,
26:44
Speaker 1: and as new heresies raise their heads, the creeds sort
26:47
Speaker 1: of expand in order to speak to the particular heresies
26:52
Speaker 1: of the day. Well, when you read these confessions, what
26:55
Speaker 1: each of these confessions is doing is reaching back to
26:59
Speaker 1: that credle hairs that all Christians hold in common. Okay,
27:04
Speaker 1: so nobody was trying to invent the wheel, nor did
27:09
Speaker 1: anyone need to. All of these groups were trying to
27:13
Speaker 1: do the same thing, basically, say, here is what we
27:16
Speaker 1: believe the scriptures to teach, and here is the historical
27:21
Speaker 1: line that we come from. This is not new We
27:25
Speaker 1: did not make this up. This goes from the Bible
27:29
Speaker 1: to us through faithful men throughout Church history. Amen. That's
27:35
Speaker 1: very important, especially today, because the spirit of the age
27:40
Speaker 1: is the spirit of contemporaneity. It's just a fancy word
27:44
Speaker 1: that means newer, must be better. Right, That's what I
27:50
Speaker 1: was just I told us just back in the States,
27:53
Speaker 1: and my phone, my screen had cracked and it was bad,
28:00
Speaker 1: and I went to you know, a place to get
28:03
Speaker 1: it fixed, and it was gonna be so expensive to
28:06
Speaker 1: get it fixed. I was like, ah, you know, I
28:07
Speaker 1: got a trip coming up. I'll just go back, you know,
28:10
Speaker 1: and I'll get it fixed when i'm there. And they
28:11
Speaker 1: got bad last few days. Pieces started to crumble off,
28:15
Speaker 1: like it's so bad. But I waited, I held out.
28:18
Speaker 1: I got there, I got my screen fixed, and you know,
28:21
Speaker 1: you walk into the Apple Store and right now it's
28:27
Speaker 1: just I mean, in one other store on the malls
28:30
Speaker 1: in London, there was a line outside the Apple store.
28:34
Speaker 1: Apple store is fulling the inside of the line outside
28:36
Speaker 1: the Apple Store. Why because there's a new iPhone. In fact,
28:46
Speaker 1: there's two. There's iPhone eight, an iPhone X, and everybody's
28:57
Speaker 1: rushing in to get the newest and the latest. And
29:01
Speaker 1: if you were to stand in line and ask them, well,
29:03
Speaker 1: what exactly does the new iPhone have that the old
29:06
Speaker 1: one doesn't, they look at you and eat, what are
29:08
Speaker 1: you talking about? It's the new one? Yeah, but you
29:13
Speaker 1: know what exactly are the improvements that were made in
29:16
Speaker 1: this one that would justify you spending the amount of
29:19
Speaker 1: money that you're about to spend to go buy a
29:21
Speaker 1: new one. What it's the new one. Where have you been?
29:29
Speaker 1: It's newer, it must be better. Well, the people who
29:34
Speaker 1: are going to be in these groups studying this material
29:41
Speaker 1: are going to be people who live in that world. Amen.
29:47
Speaker 1: And if you live in the world of newer is better.
29:49
Speaker 1: And somebody says, let's open the sixteen eighty nine, ha ha,
29:56
Speaker 1: that could be a little difficult to grasp. All right,
30:01
Speaker 1: all right, let's move ahead here for the sake of
30:06
Speaker 1: for the sake of time, let's look at confessions and
30:13
Speaker 1: disciple making. And this is an important idea. This comes
30:17
Speaker 1: from the preamble to our confession. This is what they said.
30:22
Speaker 1: Remember this is sixteen eighty nine. And verily, there is
30:25
Speaker 1: one spring and cause of the decay of religion in
30:28
Speaker 1: our day which we cannot but touch upon and earnestly
30:32
Speaker 1: urge a redress of, And that is the neglective worship
30:36
Speaker 1: of the neglective, the worship of God in families by
30:39
Speaker 1: those whom the charge and conduct of them is commanded.
30:45
Speaker 1: May not the gross ignorance and instability of many, with
30:49
Speaker 1: the profaneness of others be justly charged upon their parents
30:53
Speaker 1: and masters who have not trained them up in the
30:57
Speaker 1: way wherein they ought to walk when they were young,
31:00
Speaker 1: but have neglected those frequent and solemn commandments which the
31:04
Speaker 1: Lord hath laid upon them. So to catechize and instruct
31:08
Speaker 1: them that their tender years might be seasoned with the
31:12
Speaker 1: knowledge of the truth of God as revealed in the scriptures.
31:18
Speaker 1: This is an important discipleship tool. When we talk about discipleship,
31:26
Speaker 1: we're usually not thinking about confessions. Give people an assurance
31:31
Speaker 1: of salvation, Teach them to have a quiet time, show
31:35
Speaker 1: them how to evangelize, show them how to discover their
31:38
Speaker 1: spiritual gifts, send them on their way. Right, and we
31:42
Speaker 1: say discipleship achieved, and they know little or nothing. From
31:50
Speaker 1: a theological perspective. Confessions standardize the content of discipleship. It's
31:57
Speaker 1: number one. They standardize the content of the dicipleship. What
32:00
Speaker 1: do people need to know? What do people need to know? What?
32:06
Speaker 1: Our Baptists forefathers believed that the confession was a concise
32:10
Speaker 1: answer to that question. And we say, ah, that's not concise.
32:14
Speaker 1: Yes it is, Yes it is. Have you seen a
32:20
Speaker 1: systematic saying? I wish it brought Brikoff's systematic theology in here. Right.
32:27
Speaker 1: Confessions are very concise compared to that, all right, And
32:32
Speaker 1: it also fills in the gaps. It fills in the gaps.
32:35
Speaker 1: There are things that we just would not teach, that
32:38
Speaker 1: we would not talk about were it not for our confessions.
32:43
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. It's a little risky here.
32:50
Speaker 1: You know. They say, lawyers, are I supposed to ask
32:53
Speaker 1: questions in court? Letst they know the answer? Well, I'm
32:57
Speaker 1: not in court, so I don't know the answer. But
33:00
Speaker 1: if we were to say together the Order Salutists or
33:05
Speaker 1: the Order of Salvation, right, what will we say? For
33:12
Speaker 1: most of us it would be starts with the jay
33:19
Speaker 1: justification and then huh and be looking at the confession? Well,
33:31
Speaker 1: we say we will say signification and anyways say glorification. Right.
33:37
Speaker 1: I mean, you hear somebody talk about salvation, the Order Salutists,
33:40
Speaker 1: that's what you're going to hear. Justification, signification, glorification, justification, signification, glorification.
33:48
Speaker 1: You read the confession, it's justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification. We've
34:01
Speaker 1: just completely lost the doctrine of adoption, which is incredibly important. Right.
34:11
Speaker 1: Justification says I've been declared righteous. Certification says God's making
34:16
Speaker 1: me righteous. Glorification says, one day I'm going to be
34:20
Speaker 1: completely righteous. Right, that's good. I have been forgiven from
34:25
Speaker 1: the penalty of sin. Right, I am being cleansed from
34:32
Speaker 1: the presence and power of sin. One day I will
34:36
Speaker 1: be delivered completely from sin. That's awesome, that's good stuff.
34:40
Speaker 1: But guess what adoption says. I have been declared righteous.
34:46
Speaker 1: I have been made God's child as much as Jesus
34:50
Speaker 1: as God's child because I'm found in him. I'm being
34:54
Speaker 1: conformed to the image of Christ, because I've been adopted
34:57
Speaker 1: into the family of God as he is so or daughter.
35:01
Speaker 1: And I will be glorified because God is going to
35:05
Speaker 1: save his child whom he adopted. Now, how many times
35:13
Speaker 1: do we talk to people who are struggling with their salvation,
35:17
Speaker 1: struggling with believing God loves them? Right? What's missing the
35:24
Speaker 1: doctrine of adoption. And even if you've been rooted and
35:29
Speaker 1: grounded in josification, sanctification, glorifying, even if you've been rooted
35:34
Speaker 1: and grounded than that, and you never think about the
35:37
Speaker 1: doctrine of adoption. If you have the confession as your guide,
35:42
Speaker 1: you won't be able to get away from it. Right,
35:46
Speaker 1: you won't be able to escape it. It'll be right
35:49
Speaker 1: there and you'll go, ah, I forgot this, Okay, See,
35:54
Speaker 1: when you're making disciple. That's just one example. So if
35:58
Speaker 1: I'm supposedly discipling someone and I'm not using a guide,
36:02
Speaker 1: let alone a confession as a guide, I'm not using
36:05
Speaker 1: a God. How many things like that am I going
36:08
Speaker 1: to skip over? How many things like that am I
36:11
Speaker 1: going to neglect in this process of discipleship, discipling my children,
36:16
Speaker 1: raising my children? How many things are we going to
36:19
Speaker 1: neglect and raising our children? There are so many things
36:22
Speaker 1: where we're raising children that are just right there in
36:25
Speaker 1: our faces. Amen, Especially when you got nine of them
36:31
Speaker 1: just right there in your face, and you spend so
36:33
Speaker 1: much time just responding to the things that are right
36:36
Speaker 1: there in your face. If you don't have some kind
36:38
Speaker 1: of guide, the next thing you know, they're grown and gone.
36:41
Speaker 1: And there are dozens of things that you just never
36:44
Speaker 1: got to because of the tyranny of the urgent. Right,
36:51
Speaker 1: how much more is that true with people that we
36:53
Speaker 1: don't have living with us for two decades, where they
36:59
Speaker 1: just have to be relations of ours at church for
37:03
Speaker 1: however long you're with us, until we get moved along
37:05
Speaker 1: or they get moved along or whatever. How much more
37:09
Speaker 1: likely are we to just have serious gaps? Right? Okay,
37:19
Speaker 1: but there are still a lot of people who have
37:21
Speaker 1: a problem with confessions. Listen to this from Sam Waldron.
37:25
Speaker 1: In modern exposition, sadly, we live in a non credal,
37:31
Speaker 1: even an anti credle age marked by existential relativism, anti authoritarianism,
37:37
Speaker 1: and historical isolationism. Historical isolationism is the idea that all
37:41
Speaker 1: we know is our own period in history. Right, this
37:46
Speaker 1: is the greatest time that there ever was, No time
37:49
Speaker 1: before ever mattered, no time after matters. Many professing Christians
37:53
Speaker 1: regard creeds and confessions as men made traditions, the precepts
37:58
Speaker 1: of men, mere religious opinion. That's that's what people think,
38:06
Speaker 1: and we've got to deal with that. We've got to
38:08
Speaker 1: be aware of that. We got to know where it
38:10
Speaker 1: comes from. One place that comes from is the idea
38:13
Speaker 1: of mysticism. Mysticism. Listen to this from Charles Hodge. A
38:20
Speaker 1: mystic is one who claims to see or know what
38:23
Speaker 1: is hidden from other men, whether this knowledge be attained
38:26
Speaker 1: by immediate intuition or by inward revelation. In most cases,
38:32
Speaker 1: these methods were assumed to be identical as intuition was
38:37
Speaker 1: held to be the immediate vision of God and of
38:40
Speaker 1: divine things. Hence the wide sense of the word mystic
38:46
Speaker 1: Are those who claim to be under the immediate guidance
38:50
Speaker 1: of God or the Spirit? Do we know anybody like that?
38:57
Speaker 1: Is there anybody like that on television? How many Christians
39:02
Speaker 1: have been under the sway of this mysticism. Let's move
39:11
Speaker 1: forward and look at this from John Piper. It's not
39:17
Speaker 1: enough to say that God's revelation in Scripture comes to
39:21
Speaker 1: us in human language. It comes in the language of
39:24
Speaker 1: particular humans in particular times and places. There are no
39:29
Speaker 1: distinctively divine language conventions. That is, when God spake through men,
39:40
Speaker 1: he did not always use the same language, or the
39:42
Speaker 1: same style or the same vocabulary. Rather, all the evidence
39:47
Speaker 1: points to the fact that God always availed himself of
39:50
Speaker 1: language and style and vocabulary and particular usages of individual
39:55
Speaker 1: biblical writers. Even in the prophetic speech speeches where God
40:00
Speaker 1: is directly quoted, there are language traits that distinguish one
40:05
Speaker 1: author from another. Quietism? What is quietism? See if you
40:15
Speaker 1: recognize this, The quietest Christian is one who doesn't make
40:21
Speaker 1: any decisions because the Holy Spirit makes them for us.
40:25
Speaker 1: Such a person is also likely to construct a dosetic
40:31
Speaker 1: hermeneutic of scripture. The human characteristics of the Biblical documents
40:35
Speaker 1: are ignored. Historical biblical theological contexts are regarded as irrelevant.
40:41
Speaker 1: If a text speaks to me in whatever way, the
40:46
Speaker 1: careful exegesis of it is dismissed as intellectualism. I got
40:53
Speaker 1: a word from the Lord, and then we rip a
40:56
Speaker 1: scripture out of context the word said to me, And
41:00
Speaker 1: then somebody who knows the Bible comes back and says, well, actually,
41:04
Speaker 1: what that text means is Ah, you just trying to
41:07
Speaker 1: put God in a box. Anybody know that person? All right,
41:20
Speaker 1: let's move forward. Why are confessions legitimate? Number one? They
41:31
Speaker 1: are useful means of public affirmation and defensive truth. A
41:37
Speaker 1: useful means of public affirmation and defensive truth. What do
41:40
Speaker 1: we believe? What do we mean? Our confessions are helpful
41:45
Speaker 1: in this regard. I have met a lot of Jehovah's witnesses.
41:50
Speaker 1: I've been here, I mean a lot of Jehob's witnesses,
41:54
Speaker 1: and I find it useful and helpful to go back
41:58
Speaker 1: through confessions and creeds, earliest documents in Christianity, basically demonstrating
42:05
Speaker 1: what you believe has been refuted by Christians since Christians
42:11
Speaker 1: began to refute heresy. Right, that's important. That's important. Not
42:16
Speaker 1: everybody responds to that the same way, but it's important. Secondly,
42:22
Speaker 1: confessions serve as public standards for fellowship and discipline, public
42:29
Speaker 1: standard for fellowship and discipline. Someone sins, who decides what
42:36
Speaker 1: a sin is? Well, the Bible decides what a sin is. Amen.
42:40
Speaker 1: We don't just get to all of a sudden invent
42:43
Speaker 1: new sins. We have a confessional framework, we have a standard. Right.
42:50
Speaker 1: They serve as a concise standard by which to evaluate
42:55
Speaker 1: ministers of the word. How do we evaluate ministers of
42:59
Speaker 1: the word? Somebody stands up here and says something that
43:03
Speaker 1: is not in line with the truth. Right, someone else
43:08
Speaker 1: has a problem with it. What do we do? The
43:11
Speaker 1: one with the most education wins, the oldest one wins,
43:14
Speaker 1: the biggest one wins, the one who speaks the loudest wins,
43:18
Speaker 1: or our confessional standard settles that. Amen, and confessions contribute
43:29
Speaker 1: to a sense of historical continuity. We are a part
43:32
Speaker 1: of something, and we didn't just make up. We're a
43:36
Speaker 1: part of something that's been around since the Bible all right,
43:41
Speaker 1: in the time that we have left, let's look at
43:45
Speaker 1: the outline of the confession. But I want to put
43:48
Speaker 1: it in categories. First, the first six chapters of the
43:56
Speaker 1: confession give us a biblical found or give us a
44:01
Speaker 1: theological foundation for a biblical worldview, a theological foundation for
44:05
Speaker 1: a biblical worldview. That's chapters one through six. Okay, chapter
44:10
Speaker 1: one of the Holy Scriptures, and chapter one is amazing.
44:14
Speaker 1: When chapter one is long, right, Chapter one is long.
44:20
Speaker 1: To find a chapter that long, you got to go
44:21
Speaker 1: all the way to twenty six on the Church. I mean,
44:23
Speaker 1: chapter one is long. But if you can use somebody
44:27
Speaker 1: to listen that to that, or if you can just
44:29
Speaker 1: sort of pick pieces out of that, and as we
44:32
Speaker 1: go through this together, it's important to look at chapter
44:35
Speaker 1: one for a number of reasons. Because when people are
44:39
Speaker 1: opposed to the idea of confessions, one of the things
44:42
Speaker 1: we said was what what no confession? But what the Bible? Right? Well,
44:58
Speaker 1: chapter one on not confessions, on the Bible, and it's awesome,
45:05
Speaker 1: And the first thing that we do in our confession,
45:06
Speaker 1: because people believe that confessions are problematic because they undermine
45:10
Speaker 1: the Bible as the soul authority for faith in practice.
45:15
Speaker 1: I'm going that's interesting. You believe that the Bible is
45:19
Speaker 1: the sole authority for faith in practice, for all matters
45:22
Speaker 1: of faith in practice? Yes, what verse in the Bible
45:26
Speaker 1: says that? Huh? Well, yeah, even verse I mean, of course,
45:37
Speaker 1: there's no verse that says that. Wait a minute, because
45:41
Speaker 1: almost all of the confessions say that, but there's not
45:50
Speaker 1: a verse that says that, do you see. So what
45:58
Speaker 1: our confession does is our confession sort of collects those
46:03
Speaker 1: things that the Bible says about itself, right, and states
46:09
Speaker 1: that in ways that can be clarified and understood and
46:13
Speaker 1: agreed upon between us. All right, at the end, we'll
46:21
Speaker 1: look at some of these because this is important and helpful.
46:24
Speaker 1: But that's where we start. We start with what do
46:29
Speaker 1: we mean when we say scripture secondly of God the
46:33
Speaker 1: Holy Trinity. Well, there we go again. That word's not
46:36
Speaker 1: in the Bible, right, but it is necessarily contained by
46:45
Speaker 1: the way. That's a confessional statement. Things that are necessarily contained,
46:50
Speaker 1: things that when you read the Bible. You see now
46:54
Speaker 1: what we have to do when it comes to theology.
46:58
Speaker 1: The Bible brings us narrative, right, it brings us a narrative.
47:03
Speaker 1: It brings us letters, it brings us history, it brings
47:05
Speaker 1: us these prophetic statements. But the Bible, for the most part,
47:09
Speaker 1: is not just giving us theological constructs. There are some
47:13
Speaker 1: places where we have those. You read the Book of Romans,
47:16
Speaker 1: and he's giving you justification and sanctification, and we have
47:19
Speaker 1: these words there, right, But sometimes we need to have
47:24
Speaker 1: words in order to explain those things that the Bible
47:29
Speaker 1: just presents. Trinity is an example of that. Or Triune
47:35
Speaker 1: the Triune God is an example of that. We don't
47:39
Speaker 1: have that word in scripture, but in the English language,
47:43
Speaker 1: there's not a better one to describe what the Bible
47:46
Speaker 1: presents that. This is, yes, okay, so what's the Bible.
48:01
Speaker 1: The Bible's where we know God. Okay, so we just
48:04
Speaker 1: determine that number one, number two, who's God, because that's
48:07
Speaker 1: principally what the Bible is telling us, right number three,
48:11
Speaker 1: God's decree, huge, huge chapter. And there's a reason that
48:18
Speaker 1: this is important. Let me give you another principle. This
48:21
Speaker 1: is a principle that I get from rent a hand.
48:26
Speaker 1: We have to read the Confession horizontally as well as vertically.
48:34
Speaker 1: In other words, it's not just chapter one leads us
48:38
Speaker 1: to chapter two, leads us to chapter three. So let
48:43
Speaker 1: me give you an example. When somebody wants to talk
48:45
Speaker 1: about free will chapter nine, you can either jump into
48:54
Speaker 1: a discussion about free will, which usually starts with our
48:58
Speaker 1: anthropology or our doctor a man, what we believe about man? Right,
49:02
Speaker 1: And this person is going to say that they believe
49:05
Speaker 1: this about man. And they're going to say that they
49:07
Speaker 1: believe this about God. Right. God wouldn't do this. God
49:11
Speaker 1: wouldn't do that. God did this, God did so on
49:14
Speaker 1: and so forth. Right, that's what happens when you start
49:16
Speaker 1: a discussion with someone about free will. But if you,
49:20
Speaker 1: as I, only have to go first to God's decree
49:28
Speaker 1: and then remember that by the time you get to
49:31
Speaker 1: free will, things change. You know, what, do we have
49:38
Speaker 1: the companies of the Confession? You guys? Do you guys
49:41
Speaker 1: bring your copies of the confession? I'm gonna take that
49:46
Speaker 1: as a no. All right, let me read this on
49:53
Speaker 1: God's decree. Look, paragraph one, Chapter three. God has decreed
49:57
Speaker 1: in himself from all eternity, by the most wise and
50:00
Speaker 1: holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all
50:04
Speaker 1: things whatsoever comes to pass. Yet, so as thereby is
50:08
Speaker 1: God neither the author of sin, nor have fellowship with
50:12
Speaker 1: any therein, Nor is violence offered to the will of
50:15
Speaker 1: the creature. Nor yet is the liberty or contingency of
50:18
Speaker 1: second causes taken away, but rather established in which appears
50:23
Speaker 1: His wisdom in disposing all things, and power and faithfulness
50:29
Speaker 1: in accomplishing his decree. Well, if that's true, whenever I
50:38
Speaker 1: start talking about man's free will, I have to talk
50:42
Speaker 1: about it in the context of a worldview that understands
50:46
Speaker 1: God's decree. Okay. And this is the problem that we
50:51
Speaker 1: run into when we try to talk about issues in isolation.
50:56
Speaker 1: This is also the problem we run into when we
50:58
Speaker 1: get a letter like the one. The brother said, I
51:01
Speaker 1: mean ninety five percent agreement with your confession except here, here, here, here, here, here, right. Well,
51:12
Speaker 1: if you read the confession horizontally, each one of them.
51:15
Speaker 1: And I wrote him back, and I said, brother, thank
51:18
Speaker 1: you so much for your willingness, and so on and
51:20
Speaker 1: so forth, and I said, you know, basically, based on
51:23
Speaker 1: the objections that you have, he basically fell into one
51:26
Speaker 1: of two categories, either a dispensationalist right who liked the
51:32
Speaker 1: language of the six eighty nine or new Covenant theology,
51:39
Speaker 1: which is very sinister and very popular, especially at the
51:44
Speaker 1: seminary that he came from. I said, based on your objections,
51:49
Speaker 1: you're more likely in the new Covenant camp, which is
51:53
Speaker 1: opposed to sixteen eighty nine federalism and cannot fully subscribe
51:59
Speaker 1: to it. And ultimately he just said, yeah, you're probably right.
52:06
Speaker 1: What if he'd come, What if he had come, what
52:14
Speaker 1: if he'd start teaching in the theology department. I it's
52:17
Speaker 1: just a little disagreement here. Ay, it's just a little
52:20
Speaker 1: disagreement there. And all of a sudden, you know, when
52:23
Speaker 1: you're reading the Confession horizontally, we've got somebody teaching in
52:29
Speaker 1: this area over here, something that denies boom boom, boom boom.
52:39
Speaker 1: It's hugely problematic. But when we don't think about the
52:43
Speaker 1: Confession rightly, we don't get that. We just think it's
52:47
Speaker 1: a collection of statements. Right. I like this one, I
52:53
Speaker 1: don't like that one. But you have to read it horizontally.
52:56
Speaker 1: This all works together. So for of creation, five, divine providence, six,
53:06
Speaker 1: the fall of man of sin, and the punishment thereof
53:10
Speaker 1: those are the foundations, the theological foundations of a biblical worldview,
53:15
Speaker 1: and it's in the first six chapters of the Confession.
53:17
Speaker 1: It's very important to understand that that's how those work.
53:23
Speaker 1: The second section a biblical view of salvation. For worldview thinking,
53:33
Speaker 1: that's chapter seven to ten, God's covenant, Christ, the mediator,
53:40
Speaker 1: free will, effectual calling. Okay, this gives you the premise.
53:50
Speaker 1: This gives you God's response to what we just saw
53:53
Speaker 1: in chapter six, the fall of man sin, the punishment thereof.
54:00
Speaker 1: What is the answer to that? How does that get fixed? Well,
54:05
Speaker 1: God has a covenant, He gives us a mediator. That
54:11
Speaker 1: mediator has something to do with our free will, which
54:14
Speaker 1: actually is not free and effectual calling, which is the
54:19
Speaker 1: only way that fallen man can be saved. Right next,
54:26
Speaker 1: we get the order salutis, And that's in chapters eleven
54:30
Speaker 1: to fourteen. Eleven to fourteen linked inexorably to those chapters
54:36
Speaker 1: that came before it and those chapters that come after it.
54:39
Speaker 1: When we read the Confession horizontally, right all the way
54:44
Speaker 1: back to God's decree. All right, So when we read,
54:52
Speaker 1: for example, on justification, chapter eleven, paragraph one, those of
55:11
Speaker 1: God effectually calls. He also freely justifies, not by infusing
55:16
Speaker 1: righteousness into them, as Rome would say, but by pardoning
55:21
Speaker 1: their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous,
55:26
Speaker 1: not for anything wrought in them or done by them,
55:28
Speaker 1: but for Christ's sake alone. Not by imputing faith itself,
55:32
Speaker 1: the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to
55:35
Speaker 1: them as their righteousness, but by imputing Christ's active obedience
55:40
Speaker 1: unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death
55:43
Speaker 1: for their whole and soul righteousness they are receiving and
55:47
Speaker 1: resting on them and His righteousness by faith, which faith
55:51
Speaker 1: they have, not of themselves. It is the gift of God.
55:58
Speaker 1: This is absolutely important in light of God's decree. Okay, adoption, sanctification,
56:17
Speaker 1: saving faith, all right, These are all important parts of
56:22
Speaker 1: us understanding the order salute us that we've been prepared
56:25
Speaker 1: for in the section prior. Hold on the next section
56:41
Speaker 1: Reform thought and the fruit of righteousness. Reform thought and
56:45
Speaker 1: the fruit of righteousness. This is really about the Christian life. Okay.
56:53
Speaker 1: So if we've just looked at salvation, now we look
56:56
Speaker 1: at what that brings. First, we have chapter twenty of
57:02
Speaker 1: the Gospel, and the extent of the grace thereof Chapter
57:07
Speaker 1: twenty is where we deviate from Westminster. Okay, this is
57:12
Speaker 1: a chapter that was added to the sixteen eighty nine
57:15
Speaker 1: that is not in Westminster. All right, So if you're in,
57:21
Speaker 1: if you're past chapter twenty, you're going to have offset
57:24
Speaker 1: chapter numbers when you're cross referencing with Westminster, if you're
57:27
Speaker 1: trying to see what the differences are, all right. The
57:30
Speaker 1: problem is Westminster doesn't have our chapter twenty okay, of
57:36
Speaker 1: the Gospel and the extent of the grace thereof. Of
57:39
Speaker 1: Christian liberty and the liberty of conscience. This is a
57:42
Speaker 1: quintessential Baptist doctrine, extremely important and not what people generally think.
57:49
Speaker 1: We think, you know, Christian liberty, liberty of conscience, I
57:51
Speaker 1: get to do what I want. That chapter is not
57:55
Speaker 1: about that at all. Of religious worship and the Lord's Day,
58:00
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two is a huge problem for people who
58:06
Speaker 1: are Calvinistic but not reformed. This is one of the
58:10
Speaker 1: areas where they have to get off. Okay, this is
58:14
Speaker 1: where they push the button, pull the cord, stop the train, right,
58:18
Speaker 1: jump off of it moving if they have to. Okay,
58:23
Speaker 1: This idea of religious worshiping the Lord's Day, this idea
58:27
Speaker 1: that's the Fourth Commandment still has any moral bearing on
58:32
Speaker 1: believers today. This idea of the moral law as such
58:38
Speaker 1: hugely problematic. And if somebody has a problem with this,
58:44
Speaker 1: then usually I'm going, Okay, you say you have a
58:46
Speaker 1: problem with that chapter. Don't you also have a problem
58:49
Speaker 1: with chapter nineteen because chapter nineteen is on the law
58:52
Speaker 1: of God, And they got well, yeah, actually, yeah, of
58:56
Speaker 1: course you do, because one part of the confession is
58:59
Speaker 1: can connected to another part of the confession. By the way,
59:02
Speaker 1: you also have a problem with chapter seven and God's Covenant,
59:08
Speaker 1: and most of them completely missed that. And I've had
59:11
Speaker 1: the experience of talking to people who've said, well, yeah,
59:14
Speaker 1: I might have a problem with chapter nineteen, and I go,
59:16
Speaker 1: but also chapter seven. Oh no, no, I have a problem
59:19
Speaker 1: with chapter seven. We go back to chapter seven and
59:21
Speaker 1: I start reading and they go, yeah, yeah, chapter seven. Yeah,
59:28
Speaker 1: problem with chapter seven because it's connected. Okay, We've got
59:34
Speaker 1: to keep this in mind, and as we're going through this,
59:37
Speaker 1: when we look at a particular chapter, try to figure
59:42
Speaker 1: out and connect it to those those other chapters that
59:44
Speaker 1: matter of lawful oaths and vows, end of marriage. That
59:54
Speaker 1: that's important. We're talking about lawful oaths and vows and marriage.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: Are a number of people, for example, who who have
1:00:05
Speaker 1: a problem with marriage ceremonies. This chapter on lawful oaths
1:00:09
Speaker 1: and vows, by the way and an oath and the vow,
1:00:14
Speaker 1: there's two different things. And oath is you know, raise
1:00:19
Speaker 1: your right hand, put your hand on the Bible. Right.
1:00:23
Speaker 1: You're sworn in at court. At court, you swear to
1:00:26
Speaker 1: tell the truth, the whole truth, number the truth. I
1:00:27
Speaker 1: unless you guys say here, but something right, so help
1:00:30
Speaker 1: you God, I do right. That's an oath, all right.
1:00:35
Speaker 1: A vow is when you will agree to something by
1:00:41
Speaker 1: repeating after someone. Marriage ceremony, by the way, is oath
1:00:45
Speaker 1: and vow. Right, oath and vow. It's do you I do?
1:00:55
Speaker 1: And repeat after me, I so and so on, So
1:01:01
Speaker 1: take you and so and so to be my right
1:01:04
Speaker 1: oath and vow? Did we just make that up? Our
1:01:11
Speaker 1: confession has it right here and right before the chapter
1:01:15
Speaker 1: on marriage? Wow, because what do you do in marriage?
1:01:22
Speaker 1: Take oaths and vows? Okay? And hey, yeah, there are
1:01:28
Speaker 1: those people who yeah, we just know, we just we
1:01:31
Speaker 1: declare ourselves married. Not so much, all right. Chapters twenty
1:01:36
Speaker 1: six through thirty gives us reform thought and the people
1:01:40
Speaker 1: of God, reform Thought, and the people of God. So
1:01:46
Speaker 1: this is how we live and how we respond to
1:01:49
Speaker 1: God's salvation in the previous chapters, in chapters twenty to
1:01:53
Speaker 1: twenty five. Now we see what this does for us
1:01:58
Speaker 1: as the people of God. Chapter twenty six of the
1:02:01
Speaker 1: Church Long Chapter very Important Chapter Chapter twenty seven, the
1:02:07
Speaker 1: Communion of Saints. Chapter twenty eight Baptism in the Lord Supper,
1:02:12
Speaker 1: twenty nine, Baptism thirty Lord Supper Okay, Baptism in the
1:02:19
Speaker 1: Lord's Supper. The front door and the back door of
1:02:21
Speaker 1: the church. We come into the church, baptism put out
1:02:28
Speaker 1: of the church, no Lord Supper right, barred from the table,
1:02:37
Speaker 1: table fellowship, Lord Supper communion. This is evidence of our
1:02:43
Speaker 1: continuing in faithfulness with the people of God. Right, and
1:02:47
Speaker 1: it's the privileges removed from us should that evidence no
1:02:51
Speaker 1: longer be there. So those chapters and then Reform thought
1:02:57
Speaker 1: in the Last Things chapter thirty one of the State
1:03:02
Speaker 1: of Man after Death and the Resurrection of the Dead,
1:03:05
Speaker 1: and in chapter thirty two of the Last Judgment. When
1:03:11
Speaker 1: we think about the confession in these categories, and there
1:03:14
Speaker 1: are few other ways that people have put these together,
1:03:21
Speaker 1: but when we think about it in these categories. And
1:03:22
Speaker 1: when we recognize that the Confession is sort of moving
1:03:27
Speaker 1: like this and covering things in this way, it helps
1:03:30
Speaker 1: us to look at the Confession, like I said, horizontally,
1:03:35
Speaker 1: and how all of these things fit together. All right?
1:03:42
Speaker 1: How you can't have a problem with the Lord's Day
1:03:47
Speaker 1: in the Sabbath without having a problem with chapter nineteen
1:03:50
Speaker 1: and chapter seven. You just you can't do it, all right.
1:03:57
Speaker 1: You disagree with chapter seven, You disagree with chapter nineteen.
1:04:00
Speaker 1: That's why you can't accept right the chapter on religious
1:04:05
Speaker 1: worship in the Lord's Day. All right, For the sake
1:04:14
Speaker 1: of time, That's all I'm going to cover tonight. We
1:04:21
Speaker 1: have a couple of questions. Chapter one, Paragraph one. The
1:04:27
Speaker 1: Holy Scriptures is the only sufficient, certain and infallible rule
1:04:30
Speaker 1: of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Although the light
1:04:34
Speaker 1: of nature and the works of creation and providence do
1:04:36
Speaker 1: so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God
1:04:39
Speaker 1: as to leave men unexcusable, yet are they not sufficient
1:04:43
Speaker 1: to give that knowledge of God and his will which
1:04:46
Speaker 1: is necessary unto salvation. Therefore, it pleased the Lord, at
1:04:50
Speaker 1: suntry times and at diverse manners, to reveal himself and
1:04:54
Speaker 1: to declare that His will unto his Church, and afterward,
1:04:58
Speaker 1: for the better preserving and and propagating of the truth,
1:05:02
Speaker 1: and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the
1:05:05
Speaker 1: Church against the corruption of the flesh and of the
1:05:08
Speaker 1: malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the
1:05:11
Speaker 1: same holy unto writing, which make it the holy scriptures
1:05:15
Speaker 1: to be most necessary, those former ways of God revealing
1:05:18
Speaker 1: His will unto people being now ceased. That's the heart
1:05:23
Speaker 1: of Word of faith theology. That's a dagger right through
1:05:28
Speaker 1: its heart because it's based on continued revelation, secret knowledge,
1:05:34
Speaker 1: right to dagger through the heart. Here's the other issue.
1:05:39
Speaker 1: The Confession was not written to address issues. The Confession
1:05:45
Speaker 1: was written to give a concise account of what we
1:05:50
Speaker 1: believe are the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Now.
1:05:54
Speaker 1: Because of that, the Confession touches on everything that would
1:05:59
Speaker 1: be essential right now. Having said that, it doesn't mean
1:06:05
Speaker 1: that we can't then extrapolate from that and make statements
1:06:12
Speaker 1: about certain things like that could be a jumping off
1:06:16
Speaker 1: point right as a statement for the health and Wealth
1:06:20
Speaker 1: and prosperity Gospel, but also the chapter on Providence, the
1:06:27
Speaker 1: chapter on God's Decree that helped them work prosperity gospel.
1:06:31
Speaker 1: And this is the thing that amazed me teaching through
1:06:34
Speaker 1: the Confession as many times as I did, Right, is
1:06:38
Speaker 1: obviously you see where there are things that are pointed
1:06:42
Speaker 1: at the pedal Baptists, a lot of things that are
1:06:44
Speaker 1: pointed at Rome, so on and so forth. But there
1:06:47
Speaker 1: are so many times in the Confession you read this
1:06:50
Speaker 1: and it's like they anticipated these modern movements. Why, because
1:06:55
Speaker 1: there's nothing new under the sun. This is not the
1:06:58
Speaker 1: first time we've seen a versus the health and wealth
1:07:00
Speaker 1: and prosperity gospel. Right, It's a form of gnosticism been
1:07:04
Speaker 1: dealt with for a long time. So what this does
1:07:08
Speaker 1: is it deals with the theological basis upon which these
1:07:11
Speaker 1: heresies is built. And that's what's important. We can then
1:07:15
Speaker 1: extrapolate and state other things. Right, But because there's nothing
1:07:21
Speaker 1: new under none of these heresies is new. They're addressed
1:07:27
Speaker 1: many times over, many times over. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
1:07:38
Speaker 1: the sixty and eighty nine is not the scriptures, right,
1:07:41
Speaker 1: The sixty eight nine is not the scriptures. In fact,
1:07:44
Speaker 1: the first chapter is about the scriptures. Now the Confession,
1:07:48
Speaker 1: and I would take issue with the idea that God
1:07:51
Speaker 1: is revealing new things to men today, right, because chapter one,
1:07:56
Speaker 1: paragraph one, these formal ways of God's revealing as well
1:07:59
Speaker 1: to as people now haven't been ceased. Right, we don't
1:08:01
Speaker 1: have that, so we wouldn't operate on that basis however,
1:08:10
Speaker 1: And this is the difference between us, for example, and Presbyterians.
1:08:14
Speaker 1: So our Presbyterian Brethren around the world, because they have
1:08:21
Speaker 1: a Presbyterian form of government, or our Anglican Brethren because
1:08:24
Speaker 1: they have an Episcopal form of government, they have structures,
1:08:28
Speaker 1: superstructures above the local church, so those superstructures can add
1:08:33
Speaker 1: to their confessions. Right. Baptists are congregational. We don't have
1:08:40
Speaker 1: superstructures above the local church that have authority over the
1:08:43
Speaker 1: local church. So you might have a group of Baptists
1:08:47
Speaker 1: who make a statement about a certain theological issue in
1:08:52
Speaker 1: their context in their area, but the idea that Baptist
1:08:55
Speaker 1: on the whole would do that would actually not fit.
1:09:02
Speaker 1: This is why you have, for example, the Philadelphia Confession
1:09:06
Speaker 1: and New Hampshire Confession, because you know, then in the
1:09:09
Speaker 1: United States you've got groups of Baptists adopting this right
1:09:14
Speaker 1: and trying to suit it to their environments. So confession
1:09:18
Speaker 1: is not infallible. The scripture that's what's infallible. But at
1:09:23
Speaker 1: the same time, we do not have God giving scripture
1:09:28
Speaker 1: level revelation two men after the scripture, So yeah, yeah,
1:09:38
Speaker 1: the question isn't things? Can things be edited out of
1:09:41
Speaker 1: the Confession? And the two examples that you use are
1:09:45
Speaker 1: the most common ones. The one about the pope being Antichrist.
1:09:50
Speaker 1: That's an instance where we have to make sure we're
1:09:53
Speaker 1: not reading seventeenth century Baptists through the eyes of twenty
1:09:57
Speaker 1: first century Baptists. They're not right that like the Left
1:10:01
Speaker 1: Behind series. They're not saying that the pope is the
1:10:04
Speaker 1: Antichrist in the sense of we're looking for Nicolai Carpathia
1:10:07
Speaker 1: and the you know what I mean. They're not dispensationalists
1:10:10
Speaker 1: like that, that's not what they mean. But when you
1:10:12
Speaker 1: look at the definition of Antichrist, especially when you look
1:10:15
Speaker 1: at the fact that the Scripture is always plural, there
1:10:18
Speaker 1: is no person on earth who better fits that description
1:10:24
Speaker 1: than whoever holds the office of the Pope, because he
1:10:28
Speaker 1: puts himself up as alter Christus or another Christ. So
1:10:35
Speaker 1: we have to make sure that we're not reading left
1:10:38
Speaker 1: Behind into the Confession as though the guys are writing
1:10:44
Speaker 1: the Confession trying to say, you know, as we look
1:10:46
Speaker 1: at you know, look for Nicolai Carpathia or you know,
1:10:49
Speaker 1: the seven years of Tribulation, and ah, I think that guy,
1:10:52
Speaker 1: that's not what they were saying. They're talking about this
1:10:55
Speaker 1: office and what it means to be Antichrist. Right. The
1:11:01
Speaker 1: other thing is the statement about elect infants dying in infancy. Infancy,
1:11:06
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with the statement. Didn't need to be
1:11:09
Speaker 1: in there, right, But there's nothing wrong with the statement.
1:11:16
Speaker 1: It doesn't even address the other side of the equation.
1:11:21
Speaker 1: So yeah, there are things like that that are especially
1:11:28
Speaker 1: uncomfortable to us when we're not used to reading seventeenth
1:11:33
Speaker 1: century Baptist, right, But when we read it in light
1:11:37
Speaker 1: of and through the eyes of seventeenth century Baptist, they're
1:11:41
Speaker 1: far less problematic than they seem at first. Blush, you know.
1:11:50
Speaker 1: And by the way, those were my two main objections
1:11:53
Speaker 1: when I first was introduced to the confession, like, man,
1:11:56
Speaker 1: this is awesome. Why they have to say that, you know.
1:12:00
Speaker 1: But again, the more I've gone through this, and the
1:12:02
Speaker 1: more I've learned about the seventeenth century Baptist and their context,
1:12:06
Speaker 1: and you know, and and about my own things, you know,
1:12:10
Speaker 1: reading back into it. Yeah, because all of us, when
1:12:13
Speaker 1: we hear the term Antichrist, we're thinking about the dispensational
1:12:16
Speaker 1: list and the rapture and the you know that that's
1:12:20
Speaker 1: not that's not with seventeenth century Baptists we're talking about. Yeah,
1:12:31
Speaker 1: all right, let me pray for us. Father, We thank
1:12:38
Speaker 1: you for those who have gone on before us, for
1:12:44
Speaker 1: those who's whose work has blessed and benefited us greatly.
1:12:53
Speaker 1: Thank you for footsteps to follow, for giants on whose
1:13:00
Speaker 1: shoulders we can stand. Grant by your grace that we
1:13:04
Speaker 1: might never neglect or take this privilege for granted, nor
1:13:09
Speaker 1: put too much stock in it. For even the authors
1:13:13
Speaker 1: of our confession made it very clear that yours is
1:13:18
Speaker 1: the final word. Thank you for the ways in which
1:13:21
Speaker 1: our confession of faith magnify your word, magnify Christ, magnify
1:13:27
Speaker 1: your work in saving your people. Grant that it might
1:13:33
Speaker 1: motivate us to proper, heartfelt, biblical passionate unceasing worship. For
1:13:44
Speaker 1: we pray this and Christ's name and for his sake. Amen,