Tag: God’s sovereignty

Posted in The Reformation and Westminster Confession Series

Week 7 Westminster Confession: Justification

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

Oh NO Mr. Bill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The audio of week 7 is missing. Nowhere to be found on my hard drive. Here’s an outline of the lessons plan. You will need and EPC copy of the Westminster Confession and of course a Bible ( I normally read from the NIV (Reformation Study Bible of course) due to the common use of this text (although I strongly recommend the ESV Study Bible as well when asked).

Radical Presbyterianism
The Westminster Confession of Faith
Week 7: Justification and Saving Faith

2 Corinthians 4:13-15 13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Romans 2:5-
2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Read Chapter 11 section 1 of Westminster Confession
Romans 3:24-28
Read Chapter 11 Section 3:
So we are justified by Faith – what is faith?

Faith:
“A firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence towards us,
founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ,
both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts
through the Holy Spirit.”
John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Read chapter 14 section 1 – of Westminster Confession – Saving Faith
Faith is a gift from God read:
Hebrews 12:2-3 .
We also show our salvation in our behavior:
Hebrews 6:11-12

So this leads to a very common question: “Am I saved”?
• Are you aware of the debt of death your sins bears?
• Do you; despite that knowledge, know and believe that God loves you?
• Have you submitted to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?
If you answer yes then you have been chosen by God – otherwise you couldn’t even feel that way.
Romans 8:15-17
Hebrews 10:14
Our confidence in salvation is not in our own confession of Christ but in Christ himself!
Read Chapter 11 Section 5
Matthew 6:9-1
Corinthians 11:30-32
Chapter 14 Section 3:
1 Corinthians 10:13

Hebrews 10:22-25 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another– and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

The truth is that many try to say there is a war between my Choosing God and God Choosing me in scripture they will point to texts that in essence say, “Choose you this day….”  But then they want to ignore texts that say things like, “You were saved by grace not by works …”  The reality is that the Christian must have a doctrine that allows all of scripture to be true.  You can believe that God sovereignly chooses to save whom He will, and that because of that I am able to choose God in return.

You cannot say both,  “God is sovereign over all the world, God rules over every mote of dust in the universe” and “I can deny His grace”.  Well you can say it but you can’t say it and remain, biblical or logical.  God is either God or He is not.

don’t read Phillipian’s 2:12 without reading verse 13 also:

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

This paradox of the faith is not to be denied.  I must work out my faith with fear and trembling while at the same time being comforted by the truth that God works in and through me for His good purpose.

Amen, hallelujah, and all glory be to God!

Before you get very upset I would suggest you study all the scriptures above.  Your argument is ultimately with scripture not with this mere mortal man.

Peace

 

 

Posted in sin and culture

No Lasting City

Posted on by Rev Bill Crawford

My team lost. I feel all the discouragement that comes with that truth. I’m concerned about the future for the Church: our rights regarding declaring sin, avoiding it, and I believe we may even be forced to commit it (by being forced to pay an Abortion Surcharge as part of Obamacare). I’m not at all naive about the meaning of this election in regards to issues that really matter to me.

BUT

I just can’t find a lasting reason to be upset. Because God is still on His Throne:

Revelation 4:1-11 ESV Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

and we have “no lasting city here”:

Hebrews 13: 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

A little perspective: When Rome fell to the barbarians it was the center of Christianity – yet the faith survived. When Islam defeated Constantinople – the faith survived. After World Wars disillusioned a continent – the Faith survived.