New Term, New Start!

Lot's of things are beginning again this week. On Sunday night Paul Levy began a new series on Romans which will continue this coming Sunday evening at 6pm at the church.

We're recommending a short book to go with the series, a series of short devotions going through Romans by David Cook. It's well worth getting hold of a copy.

This Sunday

Am Service - University of West London Student Union Building (The new fancy name for TVU). Paul Levy preaching on Genesis 3. Chris Cradock will be teaching the Adult Sunday School class at 10.00 on God's Providence (chapter 5 of the Westminster Confession).

PM Service - Drayton Green Building. Paul Levy preaching on Hebrews 13.

Adult Sunday School - Westminster Confession

Time for an apology. I've not been keeping up with putting my notes from our Westminster Confession Class on this blog. I'm sorry. There are a couple of reasons for this.

To put them up on this blog they need to be tidied up, rather than just put up the moment I finish preparing them. As a result I have a pile of notes from previous weeks mounting on my desk and I just haven't got round to doing it.

Secondly, I feel a little uncomfortable putting my notes online. To be honest, they are nothing original. If you'd like to hear a great set of talks on the confession go to the Cambridge Presbyterian Church website where there are recordings from their classes - they've helped me greatly in thinking how to teach it, and I don't want them to think I'm trying to get credit for what they did! Equally, the relevant sections in Calvin's Institutes and (the sadly out of print)James Philip's notes on the confession.

I may still try and put something together on each chapter and put it in the resources section of our website.

WCF 3:2 - Notes From Andrew Rae

2. God has all life, glory, goodness, and blessedness in and of himself. He alone is all-sufficient, in and to himself, not standing in need of any creatures which he has made, nor deriving any glory from them, but rather manifesting his own glory in, by, to, and on them. He alone is the fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things. He has absolute sovereignty over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatever he pleases. In his sight all things are open and manifest; his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent of his creatures; so that nothing to him is contingent or uncertain. He is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands. To him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatever worship, service, or obedience he is pleased to require of them.

This morning we are continuing the Chapter on God and the Trinity. Last week Iain looked at the Trinity – and we saw that there is one eternal God consisting of 3 persons - father, son and Holy Spirit. And these 3 are fully God….. yet distinct from one another. Iain will continue looking at the trinity next week….. this morning we are circling back to paragraph 2. If I was to sum this up in one sentence it would be that God is Great and the distinction between God the creator and us his creation is ENORMOUS!

God is so GREAT that in some respects it is virtually impossible to study and grasp what he is like. I remember my first trip to the Rocky Mountains. Shortly before we came to them a minister - who had recently come to the country - told us that it will probably be the most beautiful drive you will ever experience. And sure it was. I took so many pictures trying to capture the extreme beauty of it all. When I got back from the trip and showed my pictures to my friends…….. the pictures were totally inadequate and could only show a glimpse of the actual beauty of the mountains. In a similar way studying God’s character, while worthwhile doing, can only give us a tiny glimpse of his greatness.

Now what a difficult task it was for the men who wrote the Confession to define/describe God. They were criticized for even attempting to describe God - that it is spiritual arrogance to even attempt to define him – since to do so means that we are examining God say like you would examine an animal in a laboratory….. the whole emphasis of scripture is that God examines us not the other way around. Now anyone who reads the confession will see that this was not the attitude of the authors – indeed they had a very high view of God. And we too as we study God’s character need to do so with humility and a clear grasp of his greatness.

The first point is that God is GREAT in terms of his All Sufficiency. He is absolutely independent of us in that he does not need us and we do not add anything to him. The confession says “He alone is all-sufficient, in and to himself, not standing in need of any creatures which he has made, nor deriving any glory from them”…….. In Paul’s speech to the Areopagus in Athens…. in Ch 17 verse 25 he says that “he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else”. In other words God does not need us rather it is the other way around – we need him.

“God has all life, glory, goodness, and blessedness in and of himself”…. His GLORY does not come from us but from himself and his works. Job 22 says that “is it any pleasure to the almighty if you are in the right. Or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?”. He also has all life, goodness and blessedness. He doesn’t just have the qualities but notice that the confession says God has ALL life, glory, goodness, blessedness – again he has ALL of each of these and does not need us in order to have these in full measure.

As Paul said in Athens “he himself gives EVERYONE life. Think for a minute of what God is like to have ALL life come from him – we are not here by chance but EVERY single living thing owes its very life to God. All things that are good are from him – and all blessings comes from him – think of every single blessing that you have had in your life. These have not come because of your hard work, your wise choices etc…. they have ALL flowed from God who is totally good. In Romans CH11 v36 Paul when he bursts into praise says “For FROM him and through him and for him are ALL THINGS”. And then he adds “To him be the glory forever! “. He is not like a coach who takes a great sports talent and makes him or her greater – no ALL that we have we owe to him - All that we have is thru God. There is no one that can do anything to benefit God, indeed the opposite is true – that ALL we have we owe to God.

It follows from the above that God is GREAT in terms of his sovereignty – he rules over us and all of creation. The Confession says “He has absolute sovereignty over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatever he pleases.” In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which Daniel interprets for him. In the dream he sees a tree – great and strong – and then he sees a “watcher” in heaven who has the tree chopped down, but leaving the stump and roots. The interpretation being that Nebuchadnezzar had grown a great and mighty kingdom and that he would be driven out of his kingdom to live with the beasts of the fields until he acknowledged that God rules over even the greatest of man’s kingdoms and gives it (kingdom) to whom he wills. Now all this came to pass and at the point when Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God’s sovereignty he said “He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”. And so Nebuchadnezzar – one of the great rulers of the ancient world - acknowledged that God has the absolute right – even over a great ruler like himself – to do whatever he pleases and that NO-ONE can hinder God’s plans. Not ordinary men, not great rulers / powers, not even Satan himself.

Indeed Ephesians 1 verse 11 says that “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works ALL things according to the counsel of his will”. God does not just have sovereignty over a particular area of life, a particular region etc but he as the confession says he has ABSOLUTE sovereignty and Works ALL things according to his Will. Nothing takes him by surprise, he does not need to operate a “Plan B” – such as we might need to do when things don’t work out. Nor is there uncertainty with him. We might face uncertainty when we try and direct things and then hope for a particular outcome. Not so with God........ he directs ALL things according to his will and he has the limitless power to work all things out according to his plan……

It follows that if he is absolutely sovereign over EVERYTHING then his knowledge must be GREAT too. We read that “In his sight all things are open and manifest”……His knowledge extends even to our thoughts…… Psalm 139 says “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. “

His knowledge is also infinite…..There is no limit to his knowledge. He knows all things from the past, all things in the present and all things in the future. Think for a minute of the many prophecies in scripture and how they came completely true down to the finest detail. He could not do this if he did not both know and direct the future. Think also of Jesus with the Samaritan women at the well and how he knew her past in great detail. Think of how much learning each of us has had – 12/13 years of school, many of us 3-4 years of university, many work courses – we go thru our life learning, never gaining all knowledge. Think for a minute about God – he has never had to learn anything because his knowledge has always been infinite!
His knowledge is also infallible. The book of Job says “Be assured that my words are not false; one who has perfect knowledge is with you.”

His knowledge is also not dependent on anyone. Romans 11 v33-35 says :”Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”.
The effect of this is that God does not need us to enhance his knowledge, nor is his knowledge dependent on what we do or do not do, nor is there anything less than certainty in his knowledge as he carries out his plan.

Now last Sunday night we were looking at Hebrews 8 where it says that God will not remember our sins anymore. Now Some may say that surely this means there are limits to God’s knowledge. And for us…. When I forget my keys or wallet as I often do its because there are limits to my knowledge and abilities. I forget them because I simply can’t remember where I put them. Not so with God. When he says things like ‘he remembers our sins no more he is simply putting this into language we understand.

And lastly God is great in his Holiness. The confession then goes on to say that he is “most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands”. Psalm 145 says that “The LORD is righteous in ALL his ways”. He is 100% free from any moral imperfection. His counsel and judgments are always fully righteous. Indeed all that he does is 100% holy 100% of the time. He delights in what is holy and he has a righteous hatred towards what is not holy.

All his commands are also holy – Psalm 19 says that his law is perfect, his precepts are right and his commandments are pure. What a contrast between the laws and rulings of God and of man. Think of all the unrighteous laws that have been made such as abortion just to name one – how different is the law making of God as compared to man. Isn’t it amazing and wonderful that the sovereign ruler is righteous in all his ways.

It follows that as we see God for who he is – that he is absolutely sufficient and not in need of us, he is absolutely sovereign over all things, his knowledge has no limits and he is absolutely holy……. When we recognize these things, the natural reaction is to worship him, serve him with our whole heart and obey his commands. And this is a key to true worship – it is not how we worship, what music we have, what style we have that is the key to worship but that we focus on God, gaze on the beauty of who he is. It is then that we will experience real, God glorifying worship with him at the centre of it.

WCF 3:3 - The Trinity

3. In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.

It is fair to say that in much of the church today the Trinity is a neglected doctrine. If you were to think about how we pray or sing, or what is taught in our churches, you may find it difficult to discover what we believe about God as he is revealed in the Bible.

It is also true to say that the Trinity is a misunderstood doctrine. If we do teach about the trinity, it is often using unhelpful illustrations like an egg (yolk, white and shell), or H2O (water, ice and steam). This leaves most of us with ideas about the Trinity which were condemned as heretical by church councils years ago!

However the Trinity is a vital doctrine. It is so important we grasp what the Bible teaches about who our God is. We do not make God up, he has revealed himself to us, and he tells us that he is the Trinity. Our salvation is at stake in the doctrine of the Trinity – much of the hard thinking and biblical study that went into formulating the doctrine came as a result of attacks on the identity of Jesus Christ, and therefore on his work. Many, if not most of the great creeds and confessions of the early church were formulated precisely to get right what the Bible teaches about the trinity.

It is important to emphasise that the Trinity is a Biblical doctrine. Although the word “Trinity” is never used, the concept is clearly taught as we learn from our one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It is nevertheless a difficult doctrine, and this is only to be expected as we are talking about God, who as the confession has already taught us is altogether unlike who we are. We are at the very edges of our understanding as we come to this topic. We must hear and submit to what we are told about the Trinity, we cannot just dismiss it as “too difficult”. Yet as we put all we are taught together we must recognise that in doing so we may have to use words and language carefully when referring to our creator, but not quite in the same way as we may use it when referring to created things.

There are some very clear boundaries we need to set in place when we are thinking about the Trinity, and they are these (we must never deny any one of these statements)
- There is one God.
- The one God eternally exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- The Father is God, The Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God.
- The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinct from one another.
Point 3 of Chapter 2 of the Westminster Confession of Faith is upholding all of these statements.

THE ONE GOD EXISTS AS THREE PERSONS
This point stresses “the unity of the Godhead”. There is no more foundational Biblical truth that “there is one God”. Deuteronomy 6:4 (the Shema) was the basic statement of faith for the Jews. In James 2 we are told that even the demons believe this. This stands against atheism (the belief there is no God, which is foolishness and a suppression of the truth), and against polytheism (the belief there are many Gods). It also underlines all we have seen in chapter 2 of the WCF. If there is one God, he is consistent and reliable and faithful.

However the one God is not a lonely, isolated one. He exists as “three persons”. He has always, eternally existed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are distinctions between the three persons, but we must not understand the word “person” here in the same way as we think of human persons (clearly separate beings). They dwell in communion in the divine nature without being compounded.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not three masks for the one God, as if sometimes he appears as Father, sometimes as Son, sometimes as the Holy Spirit. No – just think back to the baptism of Jesus (Luke 3) where we see all 3 in action together.
All 3 persons are of “one substance” (think “Godness”, what makes God to be God), “one power” (none are more or less powerful than the other), and “one eternity (they have always been three in one).

There are many places in the Bible where the Father is said to be God (e.g. John 6:27). The Son is said to be God clearly in John’s prologue (John 1:1-18), in Colossians (1:15-20, 2:9), in many places in the gospels Jesus audience knew exactly what he was claiming by his words and works. The Holy Spirit is said to be God in a very revealing incident in Acts where Anaias and Saphira are judged for their lies – they lied against God/the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel of John in particular emphasises the Trinity. The close connection, and also the distinctions between Father, Son and Spirit come through. The words and actions of the Son are the words and actions of the Father, which the Spirit will continue to do. Yet it is clear they have distinctive tasks (you cannot say that the Father died on the cross for our sins for example).

The Trinity comes together in some of the key formulas used in the New Testament. We are to go into all the world baptising in the name (notice, the ONE name) of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We often say the grace together from the end of 2 Corinthians – a verse which emphasises God is Trinity (“the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”).

As we think about all this we begin to see the problems with most, if not all, of the common illustrations and children’s talks we give for the Trinity. You cannot illustrate God! Nothing is simultaneously three and one (particular h20 atoms are never water and steam at the same time).

However the Trinity is a vital doctrine today to emphasise and teach, particularly as we think about the challenges facing us in our culture. Many people either emphasise plurality (post modern society, no absolutes) or unity (Islam). We can tell people of the God who is both one (therefore there is truth and certainty and absolutes), but also three (so there can be real relationships with him and in his universe, there can be real community and distinctiveness).

THERE IS ORDER WITHIN THE TRINITY

The last sentence in this point in the WCF is emphasising the fact that there is an order within the Trinity. It is an easy statement to misunderstand. The equality of the persons is not being denied, nor is it saying that the Father created the Son who then both created the Spirit. Notice the key word “eternally” in both statements. This is how it has always been.

“The Son is eternally begotten of the Father”. This statement draws together what the Bible says about the Son being “of the Father” in John 1:14, 18 to show that in some way the Son has always been a Son to the Father. It also emphasises the Son is of the same being as the Father, upholding his divinity.

The Spirit is also fully God, being sent by the Father and Son acting as their executive agent (in a sense) in the world to do their will. The Spirit knows the mind of the Father and the Son.

Adult Sunday School Notes

These are Andrew Rae's notes from the Bite Size theology class

7. Not all things in Scripture are equally plain in themselves or equally clear to all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly stated and explained in one place or another in Scripture, that not only the educated but also the uneducated may gain a sufficient understanding of them by a proper use of the ordinary means.

8. The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old) and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time it was written was the language most generally known to the nations), being directly inspired by God and by his unique care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authoritative, so that in all controversies of religion the church is finally to appeal to them. But, because these original languages are not understood by all the people of God, who have a right to, and a vital interest in, the Scriptures and are commanded to read and search them in the fear of God, therefore the Scriptures are to be translated into the common language of every nation to which they come; so that, the Word of God dwelling abundantly in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner and by perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures may have hope.

This morning we are looking at paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Holy Scriptures chapter. The first point to note is the CLARITY of scripture. Now that is not to say that all parts of scripture are equally clear – indeed Peter himself refers to Paul’s writings as “some things in them are hard to understand” (2 Pet3:16) and secondly some theological truths – such as the Trinity – are only partially understandable by the human mind. However the confession is stating that those truths related to salvation – that we need to know, believe and obey are very clear in scripture.

The Confession’s claim of clarity is based on the fact that the scriptures assume that the common man is able to understand them. Deuteronomy 6 says “these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise”. Not only did scripture assume that the average Israelite was to understand the scriptures but he was to be able to teach it to their children, applying it to each and every situation of life and that even their young children could understand.

The second reason for the claim to clarity is that the NT was written primarily to gentile churches – who had little or no background in any kind of Christian society, nor did they have a Christian upbringing to draw on, nor did they have an understanding of the history and culture of Israel Nevertheless these letters were written to churches with the expectation that these gentile Christians would understand them.

Thirdly Clarity is also inferred thru the fact that the bible was inspired by God and as God is both the author and perfect it only stands to reason that he would make plain what needs to be plain.

It is a tremendous blessing that scriptures are clear on the important things. The Roman Catholic teaching – which the confession was addressing – says that interpretation of scripture is the responsibility of the church clergy – what a blessing it is that our faith does not rest on the ability, integrity etc of men but that we can go directly to the Bible and gain understanding for ourselves.

Secondly we are blessed in that the scriptures are not for the intelligent only but have the power to ‘make wise the simple’ according to Psalm 19 or as the confession says both the learned and unlearned can understand. Indeed I remember as a teenager a church I was in where a mentally handicapped man in the church loved the Lord and clearly understood the gospel.
So if the scriptures are clear then why do people misunderstand them? Here we must steadfastly affirm that the problem does not lie with the bible itself but with the men and women who misinterpret it. Think for a minute of the disciples – they often misunderstood – in spite of Jesus being crystal clear on things such as his purpose for coming, his death etc. At times they misunderstood because they lacked faith, other times their own desires and cultural baggage got in the way.

From time to time we may also hear people say that the bible is too hard to understand. We must resist this idea and affirm that scriptures are clear and that both the educated and uneducated can understand and should seek to do so.

And as we read and pray (which the confession refers to as ‘ordinary means’) over the scriptures we need to be humble as we listen/ read, and be submissive to the teachings of the bible. We also need to use good principles of bible interpretation as we read.

Secondly we see in Paragraph 7 the SUFFICIENCY of scripture – that it contains all we need for salvation. Psalm 19 says that the Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul and later in 2nd Timothy refers to the scriptures as “able to make you wise unto salvation” and “able to make the man of God competent, equipped for every good work”. With regard to salvation scriptures are completely sufficient teaching us clearly everything we need to know.

The application of this is that we can be joyful because there is nothing else we need outside of scripture. Here we need to learn from history and steadfastly maintain the sufficiency of scripture. For instance the Jews believed that God brought many revelations that were not in scripture and eventually these traditions got handed down as truth. And by the time Jesus came to earth these traditions were at the core of their religion –Likewise the Roman Catholic church believe that Christ and the apostles spoke many things not in the bible that have been handed down thru the church and as a result put traditions on a par with scripture. We too need to hold to the sufficiency of scripture and be careful of traditions and beliefs outside the bible creeping into our faith. We also need to be careful of people who claim to have special revelations from the Spirit – these as a minimum need to be subject to the authority of scripture and tested by it.

A couple of weeks ago we spoke about the fact that God’s word is its own authority, in other words ‘self attesting’… Para 8 makes it clear that the Scriptures, as written in the original language, are inspired and their own AUTHORITY. The implication of this is that in all theological debates (whether by church elders or at the member level), we are to appeal to the bible for our answer. This may sound obvious however the Confession was speaking into a situation where the Roman Catholic church saw themselves as having the authority . It is easy to believe the Bible has the final say in what we believe and how we live, yet in practice do something different. For instance it is possible to allow world philosophies such as pluralism, feminism etc to creep into our theological thinking. Do we test these ideologies based on what the bible says and reject them if they are not in line with the Bible OR do we make the bible’s truths fit in with these ideas.

Other ways we can fail to give the bible final say is by allowing traditions to creep in and be an equal authority with scripture – or to respect a preacher so much that everything he says is considered as truth without it being subject to the bible’s testing it as truth. Or perhaps we hear or say that ‘other churches don’t believe this’...... or ‘we have never heard that taught before” (with the implication that therefore it cannot be true)........We need to decide what we believe based only on scripture and not based on traditions, what others may think or what we have been previously taught, .

We should also note that while we say that scripture is inspired and the authority, it is the original manuscripts in the original language that are inspired, not the translations that we have in our own language. Now while we do not have to learn Greek and Hebrew to understand the bible, nevertheless it is valuable to use a word for word translation such as the English Standard Version (ESV) as these are far more accurate than what is referred to as a ‘thought for thought’ translation or a paraphrase. Also it is worth noting that the chapter and verse divisions in the bible were designed many centuries as a help to us however they were designed by man and as a result we should be careful not to let them govern our study of the bible (ie sometimes reading a chapter in isolation of the next chapter can lead to missing out on the meaning)

The last point is that the Bible is to be used UNIVERSALLY by & for all peoples. The Confession says that although it is the original manuscripts that are inspired….. because people do not speak these languages the scriptures are to be translated into the languages of the people. This was in direct opposition to the Roman Catholic church which at the time forbid the translation of scriptures into everyday languages and declared that indiscriminate reading of the scriptures was highly dangerous! So what may seem to us to be obvious, was actually quite radical at the time and yet it was grounded in scripture. In Acts chapter 17 we see the Berean Jews commended “for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. “. Not only did they examine the scriptures each day but they tested the doctrines of the apostle to ensure they were in line with God’s word. And so rather than rely on the church clergy to read/ study God’s word and be the only source of interpreting scripture, the Bible emphasizes that every believer should study the bible in order to know whether what is being taught is in line with the Bible’s teaching.

As a point of application we should value and support the work of those who translate the bible into foreign languages, particularly those who do not yet have a bible in their own language yet. Secondly on a more local scale we have language bibles available here at IPC for those who are more comfortable reading in their own language. This may seem like a small part of church life however it is an important one as it enables everyone to read and understand God’s word. And if you are a church greeter my hope is that you would see this as not simply offering someone a bible in their own language as a means of being welcoming but that you are giving them one of the most important things one could ever give – an opportunity to read God’s word in their own language.

In summary there is clarity in the scriptures – what we need to know, believe and obey regarding salvation is clear and clear enough for both those are educated and uneducated to understand. Secondly what is contained in the bible is Sufficient for us to gain an understanding of these truths and to make us wise unto salvation and to equip us for every good work. The scriptures are also authoritative and thus ALL we believe is to be based on the bible. Lastly we saw that the bible is to be made available universally to all peoples of all languages. And thru the bible being available to all in their own languages we can together as God’s church/people - study God’s word & through it gain a knowledge of how to Worship God, receive comfort from the word and have a certain hope for our future. __________________

This Sunday

Paul Levy will be continuing his series on Justification on Sunday morning, and on Sunday evening Iain Clements will be preaching from Habakkuk 2.