2 LBCF 1.1 (Part 2)
Truth for Life • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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-Something that is near and dear to my heart is for people to know God’s Word so that they can live out God’s Word. You will probably hear the phrase “Biblical knowledge for biblical living” quite often from me in the future. You are not able to live rightly without knowing what God has revealed. But, you cannot know rightly that which you do not live out. The two go hand in hand.
-The confessions and creeds of the Christian church that we have studied and will study came from a place of not only summarizing what Scripture reveals about certain subjects, and not only from a place of refuting error that is so prevalent, but these creeds and confessions were created to be teaching tools so that Christians would know what it is they believe so they can then know how to live. They exist to help teach the church what the Bible says so they can live in light of truth.
-During the times of the Puritans, it was important to have good theology nailed down as the Reformation was still quite new—but even in that short time, heresies arose (even apart from the Roman Catholics), so they wanted to ensure a pure religion. Those with more Presbyterian leanings created the Westminster Confession of Faith, and years later the Baptists came out with some confessions, culminating in the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith adopted by assembly in 1689 (although it was written several years earlier).
-Being Baptists, we will study the Baptist Confession, but just know that the confession is very much based on the Westminster confession. I will not bother listing or reading the two confessions side by side because they are so similar, but I will at times highlight some of the differences.
-The confession’s beginning chapter starts with the subject of Holy Scripture—how do we know what we know about God and Christ and salvation, and why it is important. I want to read the first paragraph of the confession:
Confessing the Faith: The 1689 Baptist Confession for the 21st Century (I. The Holy Scriptures)
The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. The light of nature and the works of creation and providence so clearly demonstrate the goodness, wisdom, and power of God that people are left without excuse; however, these demonstrations are not sufficient to give the knowledge of God and His will that is necessary for salvation. Therefore, the Lord was pleased at different times and in various ways to reveal Himself and to declare His will to His church. To preserve and propagate the truth better and to establish and comfort the church with greater certainty against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and the world, the Lord put this revelation completely in writing. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures are absolutely necessary, because God’s former ways of revealing His will to His people have now ceased.
-The first sentence of this paragraph is not found in the Westminster Confession. Historians speculate several reasons why the Baptists added the sections of the sufficiency of Scripture. Some believe it is because the Quakers were growing in number and many Baptists were leaving the church for the Quakers. The Quakers taught that the Bible is secondary to the Inward Light and God speaking directly and personally to all people. Others believe it was added because of the Roman Catholic emphasis of the church and the Pope speaking added teaching and revelation. Still others think that it was a swipe at paedobaptism (baptizing babies) by some other denominations which is not found in Scripture.
-The Baptist Confession refutes these beliefs because we believe that the Bible is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of faith. It says that it is the ONLY standard, asserting its unique status of being God’s recorded revelation. It says that it is sufficient, meaning that Scripture is all we need for these matters. This is not a claim that the Bible contains all truth. The Bible doesn’t tell us that 2+2=4 or that e-mc2. However, the subjects upon which the Bible touches are truthful, and we do not look to any other source for that truth. It’s all that we need. I think of Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and what Jesus says to the Rich Man who is burning in hell. The Rich Man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers. And this is the rest of the exchange:
29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”
-Jesus through parableoi`GHNJMK-+*=-095X is saying that the brothers have the Scripture and that’s the only God-given tool for knowing God and His ways—it is sufficient for them to find salvation. The confession also says that it is certain—all of the Bible is true within its historical, cultural, literary, and religious contexts. Russ Bush and Tom Nettles explain:
None of the statements of Scripture fails to represent reality accurately. This is the same idea that is properly conveyed by the word ‘inerrant’ as it is used in scholarly evangelical discussions today. ‘Certain’ refers only to the character of what is actually written. It affirms that nothing misleading or erroneous exists in Scripture.
-And then the confession says that it is infallible. This is related to certainty or inerrancy, but gives it a little more punch. If we define certainty and inerrancy as the truth that the Bible does not contain any errors, infallibility takes it up a notch and proclaims that Scripture doesn’t have the capability of containing error—it would be impossible for Scripture to err. Any supposed contradiction that people think is found in the Bible is because they’re reading it wrong or are not looking at the background of what is behind what has been said.
-And again, this sufficiency and certainty of Scripture entails the subjects it contains—as the confession defines it, it is the standard/rule: of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. No, it won’t give you all the answer about Quantum Theory or the speed of light. But it does tell us about God, His saving work, and our expected obedience. Or to sum it all up—the Bible tells us the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.
-The Bible is the special revelation of God. However, that does not mean it is the only revelation of God. The Bible is the only sufficient revelation of God, but Scripture itself speaks of another. The confession describes it as the light of nature and the works of creation and providence. Theologians refer to it as natural/general revelation, but it speaks of God revealing Himself through His creation and through His works and acts within that creation. God created the universe and everything in it out of nothing, and we could say that His signature is on what He made. Just like certain artists have a certain way of doing things and they place their signature on their work of art so you can look and tell it is one of their pieces, so God has left His mark and signature on the universe. You can look at the universe and see that God made it—He reveals Himself in His creation.
-This is noted by the psalmist:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
-The apostle Paul also recognized that creation stands as a witness that there is a God, and mankind can look at creation and know a few things about God:
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
-As the confession summarizes, through this light God demonstrates His goodness, wisdom, and power so that people are without excuse. There is no excuse not to believe that there is a God. All you have to do is look at the sun and stars and planet and mountains and oceans and animals and know that there is a designer—there is a powerful God who brought it all into existence. Humanity has no excuse not to seek out this God. And yet, humanity is so blind and ignorant and sinful, we misread what is there. Or, as Paul put it (continuing in Romans):
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
-Humanity is without excuse—God revealed Himself through His creation. However, there is something that natural/general revelation cannot do, and that is tell you how to be saved and be in relationship with this God who created everything—as the confession says: it is not sufficient to give the knowledge of God and His will that is necessary for salvation. For humanity to be saved, God had to specially reveal Himself and His redemptive plan through Christ, which He did through the Holy Scripture. Through about a 1500 year period with over 40 authors, God progressively revealed His plan of salvation that led to the cross. Or, as the confession states it, it pleased God to at different times and in various ways to reveal Himself and to declare His will to His church, as the writer of Hebrews declares:
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
-God revealed Himself to various prophets and apostles over time who were inspired to write what God revealed to them. This was done (according to the confession) so that the church would have the truth and could share the truth, and so the church would be established and have a solid foundation so as to stand strong against sin and Satan. God preserved His revelation in Scripture so that the church would have a sure foundation and a fountain of comfort from which to draw truth and help, light and life. Therefore God committed His revelation to writing because now, once that writing was closed, God no longer reveals Himself in those ways. Therefore, as one author stated the matter:
The Scriptures are the foundation left by the apostles and prophets and they provide us with a perfect rule by which to order our lives. Since general revelation is insufficient and God’s former ways of revealing Himself have ceased, Scripture is necessary.
-We need Scripture because God is not going to raise some new prophet to give some new revelation. As one Puritan explained:
Expect no new revelation from God, for God hath established his Word forever, he will not alter the thing that is gone out of his Mouth; heaven and earth shall pass away, before one jot or tittle of God’s word shall pass away. Expect no new revelation, nor any other prophet to be raised up, to discover the mind of God to you, or to make void any thing that is not written, or to teach you otherwise to believe, act, or do, that you may be saved.
-This means that God has revealed to us what we need to know to be saved, and nothing will be added or taken away from that. The gospel has been signed, sealed, and delivered, and it is all about Jesus Christ. Do you know Him?
-Christian, does creation cause you to worship, seeing His goodness and power and wisdom? And then, do you grow closer to God every day as you see how He revealed Himself through His Word. This is all we need to know Him and love Him and serve Him and to live for Him. Commit yourself to getting into His Word daily.