Welcome to another edition of the Morning Devotional. My name is Pastor William Hill, the pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church located in Evansville, Indiana. Today is Thursday, October 19th, 2023. This is edition number 181 of season eight. As we conclude now this study of the Westminster Confession of Faith in yesterday's edition, we looked at the final paragraph of chapter 33. Today I just want to run through each chapter of the Confession. Just give you a brief summary. It's not going to be exhaustive. I'm going to do it as quickly as I can. 33 chapters in the period of 10 to 15 minutes, God willing, that will give you just a thumbnail sketch, a simple sketch of each of the chapters that we have before us in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Let's pray first before we run through all 33 chapters of this historic confession. Father, as we complete this study of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and as we are just reminded of much of what we have considered over the last 180 editions of the devotional, we pray that this summary would help your people, we pray that it would help us all, that we would walk according to your ways. Forgive us for our sins, help us now, we pray for Christ's sake. Amen. Well, as I mentioned, I'm just going to do a very brief summary of each chapter, 33 of them, and I'm not going to cover everything. I'm not going to answer many questions. I'm just going to give a couple of snapshot items of each chapter, maybe apply things as we go here and there, and God willing, He'll use that for your good. Chapter one, of course, is on on Holy Scripture. It begins this way because the confession is built upon the Word of God. It's not much sense to have a confession that is in opposition to the Word of God, and so the Westminster Assembly begins where it ought to. The Word of God is given that it might help us as we fight the world, the flesh, and the devil. We have there in that chapter the list of the 66 canonical books of Scripture. And we are told that scripture is authoritative because it comes from God himself. Scripture being the only infallible interpretation of itself. We can use commentaries, we can use study Bibles, that's all fine and good and they may be helpful, but the only infallible interpretation of the Word of God is in fact the Word of God. Chapter 2 deals with the doctrine of God and specifically the doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity. We serve, we are monotheistic, but we serve one God, three persons, the same in substance, equal in power and glory, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And they are unique in the sense that it is peculiar to the Father to be of none, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from the Father. And so the confession begins where we must begin. We must begin with the doctrine of God, otherwise we will likely reinvent God in our image. We need to know who He is before we can consider who we are. Chapter 3 is on God's eternal decree, that is, that whatever comes to pass in this world, whatever it may be, God has eternally foreordained, unchangeably ordained whatever comes to pass. And it deals with matters pertaining to the doctrine of election. That is to say, how is it that you and I have ever come to know Jesus Christ in the first place? Well, it's because of God's eternal decree to bring unto us that very work of Christ applied to us by the Holy Spirit that we might be rescued from our sin. doctrine, this doctrine of predestination, needs to be treated with care. It needs to be treated with a great deal of humility. It should not promote in us any kind of boasting or arrogance or pride, but instead it should invoke in us great gratitude and thankfulness that God would even bother to redeem a single person, let alone redeem many that He has indeed determined to redeem. Chapter 4 is on God's work of creation. In the space of six days and all very good, He created all things visible and invisible. And that chapter zeroes in on that crown jewel of his creation, that is that he made man male and female, regardless of our culture and what they try to tell us today. God made man male and female in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. He put the law of God upon them and gave them power to fulfill it. Yet they are not God. They are subject to change and we know that they did. Chapter five is on the doctrine of providence. It is one of my favorite doctrines. Everything that happens in our life is due to the providence of God. There are dark providences. There are good providences. But God, the great creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of His glory, but also as the chapter completes at the end, also for the good of the church. That is to say, the things that are happening in our world today, the things that we see, the things that are not so pleasant, they are being ordered for the good of the church. You may not be able to explain that. I certainly can't, but God knows what he is doing. He is infinitely wise and he is ordering these things. And so the events that fall out in your life today, those good things that you can turn and give praise and thanksgiving to God You can do the same in those dark things, the things that we don't wish for, but God and His wisdom brings into our lives that we might grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. God usually uses means in His providence. He doesn't have to, because He is God, but He typically uses means to accomplish His purposes. Number six is that dreadful chapter on the fall of man when man created in the image of God were given that command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were placed in the garden into perfect paradise and they fell from that state that God placed them. And because they fell, we too fell in them, with them and in them when that occurred. So we are sinners, we have inherited their sin because of what they committed as that representative, that federal head of all of humanity. That is precisely why Jesus is called the second Adam, because he did what the first Adam could never do. Chapter seven is the means by which God is going to reverse the effects of the fall. He is going to covenant with man, and he does. There are numerous covenants in the Bible, but the two major covenants is that first one that he made with Adam and Eve, the covenant of works, and then that one he made again with them for us, the covenant grace. Under the covenant of grace there are various covenants. We're not going to bother to repeat all of that, but God condescended to us, to covenant with us, that he might bring about to us a Redeemer. And so chapter 8 is on the solution to sin, Christ the mediator. There are many different aspects of Christology, the theology of Christ here in this chapter. He was born of a virgin, born of her substance, one person, two natures, the God-man and the manhood. He is the prophet, the priest, and the king, the head and savior of his church. And on it goes, he is the only mediator between God and man. Of course, this then highlights for us that very words of John, in John 14, that there is only one way to the Father, and that is through the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other solution to chapter 6, the fall of man, than Jesus Christ Himself. Chapter 9 deals with matters of free will. It's a very volatile subject in our world today. It deals with subjects related to our ability to choose and all of the aspects that surround it. Chapter 10 is the means by which God calls you to himself, that effectual calling of the work of the Holy Spirit who opens our eyes and our ears that we might hear the truth of the gospel and turn and be saved. Chapter 11 deals with the doctrine of justification, the article upon which the church stands or falls. It is that doctrine, that foundation of justification, is the work of Jesus Christ. The instrument of our justification is faith alone in what Jesus Christ, who Jesus Christ is, and indeed what He has done. And so justification is the work of God's free grace wherein He pardons all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, imputed to me, imputed to you, and received by faith alone. No works here, no works necessary. It is simple faith in Jesus Christ and Him and what He has done that brings us into that perfect holy state with a holy God. And so God sees us as the justified sinners, as holy as we'll ever be, but there's still work to do. As adopted children, chapter 12, we now move from the courtroom of God, where we've been declared not guilty only because of the righteousness of Christ, we have been now moved into the family room of the Most High, and we're treated like sons and daughters, and we have all of the benefits that are there in that chapter afforded to us It is a wonderfully encouraging chapter for Christians. Chapter 13 is on the doctrine of sanctification. That is to say that we are being made more like Christ in our daily life. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace. He renews in us Himself after the image of God. He makes us more like Jesus Christ through various things that happen to us in our lives. Chapter 14 is on the doctrine of saving faith. The grace of faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word of God. Chapter 15 is on the doctrine of repentance and evangelical grace. Every minister of the gospel should preach it. A sinner, when repenting of sin, sees his sin out of a sight and senses not only the danger of it but also the filthiness and odiousness of his sins as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God. They apprehend the mercy of Christ, are penitent, grieve for their sin, they hate their sin, they turn from it, purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments. The Christian life is a life of repentance. You and I must always be busy keeping short account with sin. Chapter 16 is on good works, that doctrine that flows naturally out of those who have been united to Christ, live in the family room of God, they want to please their Father, and the Spirit works in us those things that demonstrate our love to Him. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. These good works, of course, do not merit anything of God, but they are blessed of God and they are rewarded in the Christian because of that which Jesus Christ has done. Chapter 17, deals with that perseverance of the saints. How is it that we're ever going to end where God has promised us to be? How are we ever going to end up in heaven? How are we ever going to be in glory while we are there? That happens through the work of the Holy Spirit who perseveres us to the very end. Now, with that said, we must take hold of the means that God has given to us to help us in our journey, in our pilgrimage. We cannot neglect those means for fear that we might fall into grievous sins and But even then, for all those who have been united to Christ, they can never ever lose or be kicked out of the family room of God. That's chapter 18, the assurance of grace and salvation. Imagine a salvation that you could not be confident you possess. You'd constantly walk around in fear, worrying that you'd done something you shouldn't have done, whatever, and God has now removed you from His comfortable presence. Well, that doesn't happen to His people. Those who He determines to save, He does indeed save. Chapter 19 is on the law of God and the three uses of the law as a mirror to drive us to our recognition that we need a Savior, that we are sinners. It is designed to keep order in our world, but it also, for the Christian, Is that what we use to measure our growth in grace? And how is it that we love the God of heaven? And so if you're a Christian today, you should love the law. You should want to do what it says, that if you love me, you'll keep my commandments, Jesus tells us. And so this is chapter 19. Chapter 20 is on Christian liberty and liberty of conscience. We have more liberty in Christ than the people of old, and we do have liberty of conscience. Of course, we understand that we cannot use that argument if we violate the word of God as it plainly states or teaches, but we do have liberty in areas that God is not as clear as we might like, and we've discussed many of those different things. Chapter 21 is on religious worship, the regulative principle of worship, how it is that we are to worship God as those who have been united to Christ, live in the family room of God, we desire to worship God. Well, how are we going to do that? Well, he tells us how. And it speaks to matters regarding the Christian Sabbath or the Lord's Day. Chapter 22 is on lawful oaths and vows, putting very simply, we do what we say we're going to do. We cannot make vows or oaths that are sinful, of course. But those lawful ones that we do make, we are obligated to keep. A man swears to his own hurt and he does not change. Chapter 23 deals with matters in relationship to the Christian and the civil magistrate and our attitude towards the civil magistrate. How are we to respond? We are to pray for them. We are to honor their office, and in fact, Christians can indeed serve in that capacity. Chapter 24 is on the subject of marriage and divorce. There are only two reasons for divorce in the Bible. That is sexual immorality or such willful desertion that can be no way remedied by the church or the civil magistrate. It highlights what marriage is. Contrary to our world today, marriage is between one man and one woman. It outlaws polygamy. It tells us why marriage was instituted, ordained. It is a great gift of God. Divorce, then, therefore, should not ever happen unless, of course, these exceptions are met. Chapter 25 is on the doctrine of the church, both the visible and invisible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 26 is on the communion of saints, that fellowship we enjoy as brothers and sisters in the Lord, a closer relationship that you experience in your own family. Chapter 27 begins a discussion of those means of grace that God has given to his church to help his people. We have a general discussion of the sacraments which are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace immediately instituted by God. The sacraments being baptism and the Lord's Supper. Chapter 28 details for us the doctrine of baptism and it tells us who should be baptized, it tells us how we should be baptized, And then chapter 29 gives us the other sacrament, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. That sacrament that you probably enjoy either weekly, monthly, however often you do it in joyful celebration of all that Jesus Christ has done. Chapter 30 is on church censures, that is to say the discipline of the church and the way the church should deal with unrepentant sinners within her midst. Chapter 31 deals with synods and councils. That is to say, the church is not to be run by a lone ranger, a loose cannon. The church should be united to other churches. There should be an accountability across all aspects of the church. And it gives to the church in this chapter, the various responsibilities of the synods and councils or presbyteries, sessions, general assemblies. Chapter 32 is on the state of man after death, what happens to man after they die, what happens to their body, what happens to their soul. And then chapter 33 is the end, the last judgment, what occurs when Jesus Christ returns. And so this is again a very, very quick summary through the entirety of the confession. I left much out. I recognize and I would encourage you to read through it. Use it for encouragement, for further understanding of the Word of God. Continue your study in the Westminster Confession of Faith. There are many wonderful books out there on the Confession. If you write me, the information is there before you on the screen. I can send you some resources that will help you. I've put together a number of audio projects with the Westminster Confession, a monthly reading plan of the Westminster Confession, both to audio and you can also read it as you listen, the Shorter Catechism, but there are many resources available. So write me if you have any questions or comments and I'll be glad to send you those resources. It's been a great joy to work through the Westminster Confession. I've benefited from it, again, to remind myself of much that I was taught in seminary and and perhaps learned a number of things as I went as well, but I trust these times have been helpful to you as you seek to understand the word of God better. I trust that the Lord has used this to grow you and mature you in the faith once delivered to the saints. May God bless you. Amen.