A new Series of studies and reflections on the Standards and Catechisms of the ARP....based on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

 A new Series of studies and reflections on the Standards and Catechisms of the ARP....based on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

---I would like to start a new series today and we may want to call it Biblical Theology because that is what it is actually.  Some do book studies and we have done that, and will continue to do that. We have looked at Ruth , and Jonah as well as I John in the NT. You can go on the web look up my sermon site and find them when you put in search if you are looking for that study/studies if you want to refresh what was said there to your memory.   mackirk.blogspot.com

Why do this study now?  Well every Church has some kind of standard.  Of course most of them say they have the Bible, and we start with that of course.  Most of the Westminster Confession, common to reformed churches ( even the historic Anglican 39 articles has that too), is full of Scripture, and that is its value.

My concern is that many say that they start with the Bible, but unfortunately a huge number of these people start with what they think they already know, and that is the problem.  The culture around us is not the Standard.

Do we need such a thing as a Biblical study by topics?  Well it helps to have a systematic way of looking at different subjects.  For example there is a whole chapter in the WCF on the Trinity, on Adam and Eve and their fall into sin, Redemption by Christ and how that is accomplished and applied to believers. Also the final judgment and return of Christ is discussed...

  I have said this before but I find the children's catechism a wonderful short summary of the doctrines of the Bible.  It is shorter and more pithy than the Shorter Catechism ( which you may note is in the Sunday School material on the first page of every week's study)

I will start with chapter 9 " on free will" of the WCF.  Why ? Because it is rather forthwith and gets to the heart of things;it is direct in its application of what we need to know about sin, death and salvation through Christ.

I assume we know that the Holy Bible is the Standard and the application of it is discussed in the discussion of the Trinity.  The WCF is rather direct about that, and we shall probably have time to go back, and take a look at it all again, but most of us have no problem with these things as the Bible being the Standard, and our thinking about the Trinity .  

1.  So we begin."  In the garden Adam and Eve had free will and had the power to choose what is right and wrong, but could fall from it."Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to

do that which is good and well pleasing to God: but yet mutably, so that 

he might fall from it." Confession of Faith, ch 9, in ARP.

2:16-17 of Genesis.  You may eat freely of every tree but not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil....in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

2. What happened?  The fall in which we sinned all.  " Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to

any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being 

altogether averse from that good,and dead in sin, is not able, by his own 

strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto"

We are not able to convert ourselves .  We have lost free will as unbelievers. Romans 8:7- "  the carnal mind is enmity against God ....to be carnally minded is death...."  ( the 39 articles of the Church of England remind us of the same issue. Art 10.  Man cannot after the fall of Adam prepare himself by his own natural strength  and good works to faith and calling upon God)

We have lost the idea of original sin in our culture and in most of our Churches.  The age of accountability does not exist. We are all accountable at all times and in all our lives .......

The Children's catechism is helpful here by the way......

 36. What is that sinful nature which we inherit from Adam called?

A. Original sin.

Q. 37. What does every sin deserve?

A. The wrath and curse of God.

Q. 38. Can any one go to heaven with this sinful nature?

A. No; our hearts must be changed before we can be fit for heaven.

Q. 39. What is a change of heart called?

A. Regeneration.

Q. 40. Who can change a sinner’s heart?

A. The Holy Spirit alone.

Q. 41. Can any one be saved through the covenant of works?

A. None can be saved through the covenant of works.

Q. 42. Why can none be saved through the covenant of works?

A. Because all have broken it, and are condemned by it

Q. 43. With whom did God the Father make the covenant of grace?

A. With Christ, his eternal Son.

Q. 44. Whom did Christ represent in the covenant of grace?

A. His elect people.

Is this Biblical ?  Yes.   

The whole of the Bible paints a picture of unredeemed man as a sinner and need of salvation. But if we have not been regenerated by God through the Holy Spirit, we are unable to choose Him.  

Does this make sense Biblically?   Well the culture and many churches say just to go ahead...walk the aisle, raise that hand.  Believe.  But the unregenerate person is being asked to do something they cannot do without the help of God.

We cannot change our nature.  We must be as John says be born from above, born again.

The Confession of faith is there for us with its Scripture references for every idea to get us on the right track of God's Word.

So asking our unbelieving friends and family to respond without the Holy Spirit's call is like knocking on a door that is locked and will never open. Bingo!

3.  The chapter on justification, that is salvation says for our last point.  chapter 11.  Romans 3:24  We are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."Those whom God effectually calleth he also freely justifieth;a not by 

infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by 

accounting and accepting their persons as righteous: not for anything 

wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone: not by 

imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience, to them as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and 

satisfaction of Christ unto them,b they receiving and resting on him and 

his righteousness by faith: which faith they have not of themselves, it is 

the gift of God."  

How does this happen>?  By faith without the deeds of the law 3:28

Conclusion- These ideas above may be Biblical and I think they are, but many have rejected this Biblical idea and ideas of how we receive God.  People think that they can do it by themselves without God coming into their hearts to redeem them and make them alive in Him .  This happens before faith .  It is the gift of God.  

" For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast."  Ephesians 2:8-9