Thank you, Brenda, for that. If that tune gives your heart a little bit of a rise, you know you must be Scott. And Londonderry Air is the name of that tune. Of course, most of us might know that tune from the song Danny Boy, and so a Scottish-Irish but been used. In fact, I did a little study on that tune. And actually, a woman wrote it down when she heard someone outside her window whistling it. And then from there, it took off. It was published. And so a wonderful, a wonderful tune, Londonderry Air. Well, I'm going to begin this morning, and of course this evening, we had in the bulletin a sermon titled, but we are doing question and answer this evening since it's the first Sunday of the month. And so we will take up that sermon later. But tonight, we will answer questions. So if you have some questions, you can text them to me, or you can write them down and get them to us, or ask them tonight if you would like. But anyway, that's what we'll be doing this evening since it is the first Sunday of the month. But I do want to introduce, this is paragraph four of the 1689 Confession of Faith. 1689 Confession of Faith follows the outline of both the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is a Presbyterian Confession of Faith, and the Savoy Confession of Faith, which is a Congregationalist Confession of Faith. The difference between the 1689, which is the Baptist, Second London Baptist Confession, and the other two, is that both the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists were Paedo-Baptists, that is, they baptized infants. And of course, we don't believe that the Scripture teaches that, and so we are Reformed Baptists, and, you know, Reformed is a word we emphasize coming, the doctrines that come out of the Reformation, and also Baptist, we recognize, which is a term that rose up about at the 17th century, end of the 16th, early 17th century, where there were a group of people that believed that you should, the scripture teaches that you should be baptized upon your confession of faith, your profession of Christ. and which sets us a little apart. In fact, there are some Reformed people that say we're really not Reformed since we don't believe in paedo-baptism, but we are Reformed because we believe in these wonderful Reformation doctrines which speak to salvation, which we call soteriological doctrines or salvation doctrines. And so we do believe those. And so we're reformed, but we don't believe in paedo-baptism. We believe in, if we're going to stay with the Latin, credo-baptism, from the idea of creed. Credo in Latin means I believe. It's translated I believe. And so upon belief, and But we do follow it, and this general outline, and it is a very beautifully developed outline of a confession of faith. It's just not willy-nilly. It's just not people throwing out subjects, but it builds upon itself, and it anticipates later chapters and earlier chapters and some of the some of the things that are introduced and addressed in the earlier chapters will be more fully developed in the later chapters. And it's really, the more I've studied it, and I've known about this for many years and have given attention to it for many years, but never really a formal study of it as I am doing now, and the more I study it, the more magnificent I see a document that it is, and I am surely indebted to James Renahan in his wonderful commentary on this confession of faith. I'm seeing some things that I've never seen before, and he's affirming some things that I already believe and it is a wonderful, it's surely a wonderful help. Also, Sam Walton had done one earlier, and his commentary surely was helpful, and helpful to me in the past. But Renahan really, I think, exceeds that. Well, so it develops this way. It begins with the word of God. So we've looked at the word of God, All we can know about God is what he has revealed to us in his word. He's also revealed himself in nature. We'll see that in creation. But more specifically, a sure and certain word to us is in the Bible. And so you must get that right. If you don't get the Bible right, nothing else will fall into place. You must get the nature of it right. and the characteristics of this word of God and the substance of it. Because if you don't get that right, then you will be hopelessly flailing around trying to come up with some kind of a standard of what you should believe. But it is the word of God. It's breathed out of God. It is breathed out of God just as surely as the breath that was breathed into Adam. He breathed this upon the pages. of this book, and he used men, obviously, to do that. He moved men. Holy men of old were moved. It's not a private interpretation. It doesn't come from them privately. It's not some understanding that they arrived to by giving themselves to a contemplation of higher things than man, and they came to these high truths. no, or these high statements, no, that's not how it came. It was breathed, they were moved by the Holy Spirit to write these things, you see. And what's interesting, we actually surely get in this understanding, we get an understanding of how God moves upon men to do His will. Unforced, God does no violence to the will of the creature, We'll see that when we study Providence. But he doesn't force it. We're not robots. We're not programmed. We have free thought. We have an ability to act upon. We'll see this when we look at how he created man and this paragraph on that. And you'll see how we are free. no violence is offered to us, and yet we do the will of God. The independent thinking, meaning independent in the sense uncoerced, it's not independent in the sense that God had nothing to do with it. I mean, all of us are dependent upon God, even for our breath. There's no forcing of this, and yet we see it in the scripture, you see. These men used their vocabulary, they used their understanding, they used their education, though some of them were beyond their education, because they were astounded that these ignorant fishermen knew these things, you see. So God moved upon them to write this, but their vocabulary, if you study it, you study it like literature, you can see that John had a certain vocabulary, a certain cadence, Paul had a certain vocabulary, certain cadence. Luke had a vocabulary and a certain cadence, and Matthew, on and on and on. And yet, though they're writing it, God is using man to do it, the infallible, inerrant, certain word of God is written. And then from there, we investigate from the Bible this God, who has revealed himself to us. He's revealed himself in Trinity, in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And see, there are those that don't follow creeds or don't follow confessions, and they get all mixed up. They get into heresy, and they call, you know, they say that we're the ones that are missing, that we would be the people of heresy, They're in heresy. If you don't see God as Father, Son, and Spirit, how could you be following the Word? And we see who He is, that He's an uncreated being. And we see that He's not dependent upon anyone, that He doesn't have to look outside Himself for knowledge or for understanding. this God who has created us, loved us, and loves us. Well then, from there, we began to an investigation of the work of God. The first work of God is the work of decree. The second work of God is the work of creation. The third work of God is the work of providence. which is decree applied to creation. So now logically between decree and providence would be the doctrine of creation. Why is there something as opposed to nothing? Why are we here? What is this about? But you see, and people that don't follow the word of God, They come up with all, surely you have to come up with some kind of explanation of why we're here. So they come up with implausible, implausible explanation that it made itself. How can it make itself? You see, and again, we look at this building. The presupposition when you look at this building is that someone built it. None of us would sit here thinking that there was some kind of bomb or explosion that threw this building together. That would be, we don't think that way in any other way, and yet these scientists, and they're really not scientists, science investigates reality through certain methodology. That's what science is. Science is not in the business to philosophize. Science is about measurable facts that come from empirical data. And so there were people that would say, well, why are preachers arguing with scientists? I mean, why aren't other scientists arguing with scientists about evolution? Well, there are some other scientists arguing with scientists about evolution, but they don't get a hearing, see? Because there's politics involved in this thing. If you don't say the right thing, you don't get a hearing, you see? And so they don't get a hearing. In fact, I was reading a book, and actually it was in Mount Olive Tape Library, which is not very far from here, because now that tape library has been given to a school in South Carolina. But there was George Calhoun, a great Mississippian, he ran this tape lobby. He'd go all over the United States and maybe even the world and tape these things. And he had this one, you could have gotten a theological education. And what he would do, he would loan these tapes out. So you'd take a few. and then you'd mail them back, then he'd mail you some, and very cheap, I mean like for a quarter of tape or something, and you could have gotten the greatest theological education known to man if you could have plowed through all of this. Well, anyway, he had one by Greg Singer. Greg Singer wrote a book from Rationality to Irrationality. I know that's a book that you would really like to go out and buy and read today, but it was the, it was how Philosophically, we have moved away from that which is logical and that which is rational to now irrationality. I mean, we're seeing it all around us that a man can decide to be a woman. That's irrational. The guy needs to go sit on a couch. Maybe not a psychiatrist because they're irrational, but he surely needs some biblical counseling. In fact, I just heard And I saw it this week that there was this man who is standing. behind a pulpit in some kind of church, the Church of the Woke or something. And so he's there in these robes, and he's got a sash on, and it's got the rainbow colors. And he says, and I want to announce today, it's my pleasure to announce I am transitioning. Someone said, well, you're becoming a woman. He said, no, no, no. I'm just stopped. Stopping pretending to be a man. Okay. He's irrational. There's no way that can happen. Someone needs to sit him down and say, now, sir, or whatever, let me help you here, see. Well, you see it. It is irrational for us to think that any of this could come into being through an evolutionary product or power. There's no way. This is not the product, I should say, of evolution. There's no way. I mean, we wouldn't even have to go to anything very complicated to see that. And my friend David Miller, and I've used this before, David Miller said that that would be like someone telling us that a tornado hit the Claiborne County junkyard and we went out to assess the damage and when we got there, there was a 747 airplane fully assembled, loaded, and ready for takeoff. Now, who would believe that? And in fact, if I came in here talking such nonsense, you would say, well, now it's time for us to put him away. I knew he was going that direction, but let's put him away now. Creation. Why is there something as opposed to nothing? Well, here's what the confession says, and I think what might be good this morning as an introduction, that I should just read it to you. Now, these words are not wasted. There's not one wasted word in all of this confession. It is the most magnificent literary production that one could read when it comes to theology. In the beginning, It pleased God. And I want to say that God is not a part of His creation. He stands apart from His creation. Before anything was created, God was here, you see. Where? Wherever here is. What was He standing on? Well, he's a spirit, a most pure spirit, and doesn't have a body like men. Just this one phrase, in the beginning, God, exhausts every rational faculty we have. We must just simply receive it because there's none of us that could rationally define it or embrace it. It is faith. And faith is a substance. It's a reality. In the beginning, it pleased God. So now God is pleased to do this. It brings him pleasure. Please God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. for the manifestation, that is the showing forth of the glory. So now we're talking about his glory. What is glory? Well, in the Old Testament, the concept of glory is kind of a concept of heaviness. To feel the heaviness of God, you see. It's like trying to lift something. One time, it was about, four or five of us moving a piano when I was able to move pianos. And we lifted it. And I remember holding this thing. And the guy in front of me and on the side of me, they gave way. And when they gave way, from their part, I felt the weight of the piano, you see. And I knew that I, it was beyond me. Well, that's the idea of glory in the Old Testament. The idea of glory in the New Testament is the brightness of light. He dwells in light inaccessible that no man can approach. Brighter than the noonday sun, this glory. Glory is a noun. Glory is an adjective. Glory is an expression. What is glory? Well, all we can do is manifest, or maybe I should say multiply words. Words on top of words to come. And it's just like the word love. I mean, how do you define that? How do you define love? Is it a feeling in your stomach, butterflies? Is it something that fills your heart, Is something that gives you great pleasure significant? Is it warmth? Is it something that encourages? What is love? How do you define it? Just multiplying these words? No, it really doesn't do it justice to define it. But here's the thing, if you've ever been loved, All I have to do is reference it, and you know what I'm talking about. If you've ever seen the glory of God, I just simply have to reference it, and you know. We know what this confession is saying. To show forth the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. It is good. And it is a manifestation of goodness that God has created us. So God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, it pleased him to create or make the world And all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days and all very good, you see, creates all things or makes them. Now, this confession, this paragraph leaves out what the Westminster and the Savoy puts in to create or make a world out of nothing. Now, why would the Baptist leave out of nothing? Well, it's not because they believed that there was something that God used in order to create, but they're just trying to be consistent because even in this confession, we'll talk about man, we'll talk about God creating man, and he used dust, didn't he? He just didn't speak him into being. He used dust, the dust of the earth. So they're trying to be consistent there. It is not that they denied that, and they talked about primary, primary, creation, and secondary creation. Primary creation is out of nothing. There was nothing until God brought something into being. Now, it was just God. Just Father, Son, and Spirit. But He's not created. Though God is reflected in His creation, His image is stamped all over His creation, He's not a part of His creation. He's a part from His creation, you see. He was here before creation, in the beginning. If you could go back to the beginning, what would you find? Nothing but God. God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He made it, all things, the world, all things therein, not only the visible things, the matter that you can see, but the meta, physical, the things you see that are not physical, measurable, but indeed exist. He did it in the space of six days. None of this era stuff, none of this, you know, millions and millions of years. In fact, many of our forefathers believed that the world was about 6,000 years old. Probably is somewhere around 6,000 years old, not millions and millions. But see, because what the evolutionists do, they say, okay, well, this thing had to evolve. Well, how could that happen? Well, it would take a long time. Okay. And so how long are we talking about? We're talking about millions and millions or billions and billions of years. Why do you think that? Because that's what it would take. That's how long it would take for this to come into being. This came into being by evolution. And it has to take billions of years to do that. So we believe the earth is billions of years old. See the circular reasoning. Six days. Paragraph two says, and after God had made all other creatures, after, you must read every word, after he made the rest of them, he created man, male and female. Now of course, obviously he made Adam out of the dust. The catechism question for the children, this is the hard one, for them to do, we'd have to go over and over and over it. Of what was man made, man was, God made Adam out of the dust and formed Eve from the rib of Adam. So Adam was made out of the dust, Eve was made out of Adam. But also male and female, we find that genetics finally caught up with the word of God. and we find that every male has female in him. XY chromosomes, we discovered XY chromosomes. Women don't have Y chromosomes, they have XX. They only have X chromosomes. There's no masculinity in a male, but there's femininity, I'm sorry, there's no masculinity, I'm back to that guy in that robe. There's no, anyway, there's no masculinity in female, but there is female in male. He made male and female. With reasonable, meaning reasonable, not that it would be reasonable for him to do this, but sentient, that is, they have reason, reasonable, and immortal souls. Immortal meaning not subject to death, not subject to mortality. And the word mortality comes from the Latin morge, which means death. They're immortal. Reasonable and immortal souls. Do you have a soul? Yes, I have a soul that will never die. That's what I told that Muslim in Malawi at the airport when he was trying to challenge Christianity. And I said, he said, well, he couldn't be God because he died. I said, he did die. That's no question. Christ did die, but he didn't become unborn. He didn't move into non-existence. Just like you will not because you have a soul that will never die and you will stand before this Christ that you deny. Because when you die, you won't become unborn and you won't go back into non-existence. Rendering them fit, capable, made them In such a way, when did them fit unto that life, to God, for which they were created? You were created for this one thing, and that's what we say in the catechism. What is the chief end? What is the end of man? That is, what is his purpose? The chief end of man is to love God and give him glory. forever. You're fit, you're made, you're created for that life. And that's what Augustine said, that his life, that he was without hope, he had no being, no reason for his being until he found his reason for living in God. The old preachers used to talk about a God-shaped vacuum, and you can fill it with drugs and with pleasure and with alcohol and with gambling and with pride. You can attempt to fill all of that, but it will not satisfy. These things will not satisfy. You have no satisfaction until you find your satisfaction in Him You're wayward. You've missed your purpose. Your life is drudgery. It has no meaning. You're miserable until you find your purpose. Fit unto the life of God for which they were created. Being made after the image of God in knowledge We're after the image of God, not in body, but in these aspects, in knowledge, meaning you can think, you can learn, you can advance in understanding, in righteousness, indeed, that you can be right, that you can be holy, you can be pure, the image of God. and true holiness, true holiness, again, separate and pure. That's the image of God. That's much, much more. We will never, never get to the bottom of that statement, but it is surely this, that you're in God's image and knowledge and righteousness and in true holiness, having the law of God written in their hearts. That's what Calvin called census divinitatis. We see it in Romans 1.19. We also see it here in Romans 2. 14 and 15. This law of God written in their hearts and power to fulfill it. And yet, under a possibility of transgressing, going out of the way, doing what God has forbidden. You see, we teach our children, wherein is sin? You know, what is sin? Sin is any want of conformity unto, lack of conformity unto, want of conformity unto, or transgression of the law of God. It's negative and positive. You can't be what you need to be, you see. And you can't do what you need to do. The possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will. I'm not sure that's a good thing, to be left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change. Adam and Eve were in a pristine environment and what they do, they sinned. We are in a less than pristine environment. And if God released us either in common grace or particular grace, if he took his hand off us and turned us over to our own will, we would run to sin and to death and to destruction as fast as we could get there. Besides the law written in their hearts, they received the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which whilst they kept, they were happy in their communion with God and had dominion over the creatures. But as soon as Adam sinned, their eyes were open. And what happened? What happened to that happy communion? It turned into stark fear. They ran and hid, ignorantly thinking they could hide from God. Adam, where are you? Not that God didn't know where he was, but he wanted Adam to know where he was. You want to be happy? The word blessed in the New Testament could be translated happy. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God. Happy. He made us to be happy. But our father Adam lost it for us. But our brother Christ has brought it back to us. Here he is. Would you be happy? Come to him. Let's pray.