Category: The Reformation and Westminster Confession Series

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