SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH 3.1-2
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-You may have heard the saying THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS. That is actually a twisting of the original phrase. The original phrase said that GOD IS IN THE DETAILS. Like everything else, the devil tries to steal things from God and make it his own. The phrase is supposed to point out that the details of a certain matter are important. It’s not just the big picture that matters, but also the smaller details that matter.
-And it is true and biblical that God is in the details. We often wrongly think that God is in charge of the overall plan but whatever happens in the smaller stuff is just stuff that happens on its own. God has the big picture, but the minutia is just kind of left up to chance or whatever man decides to do with it. God takes care of important things, but the more mundane things are left up in the air. But that is not at all how it works. God has control over it all—big picture and all the small details that go with it.
-We are using different confessions and creeds to tackle important doctrinal beliefs that give us a solid foundation of faith. I have been using the Second London Baptist Confession as of late and this week and next week I want to tackle chapter 3. Tonight’s topic is important and not too controversial, next week’s topic includes some paragraphs that I don’t fully adhere to, but we’ll just lay it out there and you can come to your own conclusions about what the Bible says.
-But tonight we want to talk about God’s decrees. God has a good and eternal will and purpose and He is moving His creation to fulfill that will and purpose. And we note that it is not just the overall picture that God decrees, but God moves the details according to His purpose. And I want us to know that this includes us and our lives. God has a purpose for you and me and He moves our lives and the circumstances of our lives accordingly. Your life is not left to chance or blind luck. We become used to those phrases, but there is no such thing as good luck or bad luck. There is no such thing as randomness. God is in control and He either allows things or He does things to move history along to its intended goal—and all of us are a part of it.
-But let’s look at the first two paragraphs of this chapter to give us a pathway in this discussion:
Confessing the Faith: The 1689 Baptist Confession for the 21st Century (III. God’s Decree)
3:1 From all eternity God decreed everything that occurs, without reference to anything outside Himself. He did this by the perfectly wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably. Yet God did this in such a way that He is neither the author of sin nor has fellowship with any in their sin. This decree does not violate the will of the creature or take away the free working or contingency of second causes. On the contrary, these are established by God’s decree. In this decree God’s wisdom is displayed in directing all things, and His power and faithfulness are demonstrated in accomplishing His decree.
3:2 God knows everything that could happen under any given conditions. However, His decree of anything is not based on foreseeing it in the future or foreseeing that it would occur under such conditions.
-As we take this journey, we do so carefully and with much humility. We have God’s revelation of Himself to us in Scripture, and we see what it says, but we must remember that God is eternal and we are not and we might not be able to fully grasp the significance of everything that God has said about Himself. Just like last week when I spoke about Trinity, we carefully walk the path without treading into weeds that are too deep, getting ourselves lost in details that Scripture does not clear up for us.
-We first note the fact that there is nothing that happens by chance or happens outside of God’s power and will. There is nothing that happens in the world or in our lives where God says, WOW, I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING. Or where He says, THAT’S SOMETHING BEYOND MY CONTROL. The biblical witness is that God has providential control by His decree over everything. The prophet Isaiah records God’s words as:
9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity. Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 who announces the end from the beginning and reveals beforehand what has not yet occurred; who says, ‘My plan will be realized, I will accomplish what I desire;’
11 who summons an eagle from the east, from a distant land, one who carries out my plan. Yes, I have decreed, yes, I will bring it to pass; I have formulated a plan, yes, I will carry it out.
-God has a will and purpose that He decrees within Himself. He is not influenced by anything from the outside, and there is nothing outside of Him that can prevent or resist His will. And for the most part we can get on board with this concept as long as things are going good. But what about when things go bad (from our perspective) or we cannot make sense of things? Then we don’t like it so much and we realize we may not understand as much as we think, and we humbly have to return to faith and trust in God’s character.
-As much as we do not like to think it, but the trials and troubles are as much a part of God’s decree as the mountaintop experiences. And we recognize that these are as much a part of God’s perfectly wise and holy counsel as everything else. No, we might not understand God’s purposes behind them at the time or even in this lifetime, just like Job was never given an explanation. But if we are going to say that God has eternally decreed the one, we have to say that He has eternally decreed the other, do we not?
-That being said, the writers of the confession are quick to answer what would be the greatest objection—that would make God the author of sin. But they say God is able to act upon His decree in such a way that He is neither the author of sin nor does He have any sort of fellowship with people in their sin. This is the clear message of Scripture:
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
5 Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
-We also have to be careful of attributing sin to God for things that are not sin. We think that if someone dies in a natural disaster of some sort, and if we attribute that to God’s providential decree, that it is sin or a moral evil. But a natural disaster is not a moral evil. We don’t like it that someone dies in a natural disaster, but it is not a moral evil. Yes, God decreed the natural disaster and He did decree that person’s death, but being God He has the right and power to do so.
-And this is the part where we just have to humbly trust—God is able to take the bad stuff that happens and even able to take the moral evil of His free creatures and use it to bring about His perfect will. We think of Joseph—his brothers in their sin and wickedness sold him into slavery. And yet God used that to bring it about that Jacob and the family would then be able to go to Egypt to be saved from the famine and be in place for the next part of God’s plans. Or, the greatest and most humbling example, wicked men arrested, beat, insulted, crucified, and killed Jesus. They did it—they are guilty of it. And yet it was God’s decree and God used it to bring about salvation. And we see this delicate balance in:
27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed,
28 to do as much as your power and your plan had decided beforehand would happen.
-Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles and the Israelites conspired together to do it and they are guilty, and yet it was in God’s power and plan which He decided beforehand would happen. Jesus Himself declared:
11 Jesus replied, “You would have no authority over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of greater sin.”
-If it wasn’t God’s decree for Jesus to be handed over to Pilate and to be handed over to crucifixion, then it wouldn’t have happened. But then, we might say or argue: well, if God’s decree is set and cannot be changed why pray? It’s not just a matter of obedience, but God uses the prayers of His people to bring about what it is that He has decreed. Here again we walk carefully. The confession describes it as the fact that God’s decree does not violate the will of the creature or take away the free working or contingency of second causes. Prayer would be such a second cause.
-I think of the story of King Hezekiah. Hezekiah becomes sick and God through the prophet tells him to get his affairs in order because he’s going to die. Hezekiah cries out in prayer to God and God answers the prayer and gives Hezekiah 15 more years. Was God lying when He said Hezekiah would die? No. So, did God change His mind? No. It was God’s decree that through Hezekiah’s prayer that Hezekiah would be given another 15 years of life. We might try to get real philosophical and ask, well what if Hezekiah didn’t pray, would he have died? The answer is that God decreed that Hezekiah would pray and be given 15 more years. So, did God force Hezekiah to pray? No. But God is able to use the free actions of His creatures to bring about His decree.
-So, did God know that Hezekiah would pray and just base His decree on that? Yes God knew Hezekiah would pray, but no God’s decree is not based on His knowledge nor on the influence of outside forces. The second paragraph tells us that it is not a matter of God looking down the corridor of time and seeing what would happen and then making decisions from there. God knows all things at all times, and His decree is not based on what He knows or sees, but it based on the counsel of His own will.
-I know that this is kind of headache-inducing stuff here, but what it ought to cause us to do is to look at our circumstances, both good and bad, and know that it is part of God’s decree, therefore I can trust that God is moving me toward something. Even in the dire circumstances God is using it to move His decree forward in some way—whether it is for personal growth or if our circumstances actually affect the life of another. This is where we find that verse:
28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,
-And then Paul goes into the great promises that nothing can separate us from the love of God. God’s wonderful decree for us is that if anyone is in Christ, we will forever be in Christ and nothing can change that. God has decreed it and so we rest in it. Our feelings or circumstances don’t change this fact. But God has also decreed that Christ is the only means of salvation, so those who do not believe will have to face God’s wrath. So, per God’s perfect decree, if you have not believed in Jesus you are lost and you need to believe. If you have believed, may your faith be strong in Him and may the fact that you are forever His give you comfort and peace and joy and hope in whatever God has decreed to put in your path.