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All right, so this will be our
last night going through chapter six of the Westminster Confession
of Faith. This will be our third week in
chapter six, and the title is called Of the Fall of Man, Sin,
and of the Punishment Thereof. And so we'll be going through
paragraphs four, five, and six. I'll just go ahead and read paragraph
four for us to start. From this original corruption, whereby
we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good,
and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions. So that's how that one opens
up. And we began our discussion of this paragraph last week.
Right at the end, we got into a little bit of it there and
some of our discussion time went over that. So the first bit of
this is gonna involve some review, but also some new things. But
this is the doctrine of total depravity. Since we are in Adam
and he is our head, we receive the sin nature that he has passed
down to us. A father, no matter if it's a
great father, a terrible father, whatever type of father it is,
a father always leaves an inheritance to his sons, always. And it may be good stuff. It
may be a large sum of money or a house, things like that, but
it could also be bad things. You can inherit bad things like
debts. you can inherit from your father.
Consequences of his sins, you can inherit. The temptations
that he was tempted to, you can inherit a proclivity to temptations
like that. And as Adam is the head and father
of us all, He has left us the inheritance of original sin. Because when he sinned, we sinned. So whatever he reaped from sin,
we also reaped. Now I don't want to just throw
Adam under the bus 100%. He left us a good inheritance
too, in that we are made in his image and he was made in the
image of God. So it's not like Adam only gave us the worst possible
things. But we do inherit a sin nature,
which is very, very bad. The divines tell us here that
because of this inherited sin, or original corruption, is the
phrase they use here, we are utterly indisposed, disabled,
and made opposite to all good. In Romans 7, Paul says, I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Or as
Jesus says, can a good tree bear bad fruit or a bad tree bear
good fruit? And the answer is no, of course
not. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. And so a sinner, the
divines would have us remember here, cannot produce righteousness. There's nothing within him that
is a righteousness generator if he doesn't have the Holy Spirit.
It'd be like that bramble bush bearing figs. It's not possible. Think of all the trees that we
have here in the mountains. It's such a beautiful place where
God's glory is on display through his creation. There are trees
all over the place and they bear leaves and seeds and cones and
different types of fruits. and it's all according to their
nature. And this is one of the first lessons that the Bible
teaches us. Genesis chapter one, verses 11 through 12. Then God
said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed
and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind,
whose seed is in itself. according to its kind, whose
seed is in itself. And it was so. And the earth
brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to
its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself
according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
So the trees are only gonna bring forth according to their own
kind, according to the seed which is within them. An apple tree
is not going to one day just bear pears. and a pear tree is
not going to one day bear apples. Therefore a bad heart, a heart
that's dead and rotten and corrupt and sick and wicked and deceitful
can't bear good fruit. The clearest exposition of this
doctrine comes in Romans chapter three. And Paul here is quoting
from a number of Psalms as well as Isaiah and Ecclesiastes. And he's doing the work of systematic
theology here in Romans three. Who can remind us what systematic
theology is? Can anyone give a pocket definition? That's okay. So systematic theology
is when you look at God's word, or at least for Protestants,
that's what we do. We look at God's word. You look
at God's Word and you mine God's Word for all the information
you can find on a particular topic, and then you organize
that information, you synthesize it, you distill it down, and
put it in neatly packaged statements and explanations. That's systematic
theology. Reading the Bible is one thing.
You're going through the narrative or the letter or the doctrine,
whatever it may be. Systematic theology is different.
you're pulling from a lot of different places and distilling
it topic by topic. That's why when you open a book
that says systematic theology on the front, you find it organized
by topic, not by Bible book, but by topic, doctrine of sin,
doctrine of man, doctrine of angels, whatever it might be.
And this helps, this type of work helps God's children understand
various aspects of God and his creation very well. This is an
important work. We see it being done by biblical
authors. That's exactly what Paul is doing
here in Romans 3. He's systematizing. He's pulling
together the Old Testament doctrine of sin and in a lot of ways just
quoting directly but also throughout the chapter adding explanation
about what God's Word tells us about sin. He says this in Romans
3, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after
God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable.
There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is
an open tomb. With their tongues they have
practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips,
whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are
swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes." And Paul, throughout Romans,
gives us more explanation and illustration of this terrible
sickness of sin that is in all of us. But here, this is him
just laying it out. This is the Bible's theology
of sin and its effects. Paul could not be more clear
how universal it is. I didn't count, but he says so
many times, no one, none, no, not one, no one, just over and
over. Everyone's infected. And then
he describes how terrible this infection of sin is. Now, last
week, John brought up the question of civic righteousness. I thought
about that a little and I wanna touch on it again now that we're
into paragraph four here in a more focused way. Once we admit the
doctrine of total depravity, we do have to ask ourselves,
how though do we account for the apparent goodness that we
see unbelievers do? When the unbeliever helps the
old lady across the street or gives money to a family in need
or to a good cause, how do we account for that? And I think,
I think the best answer is that these actions only have the appearance
of goodness. They are not good in and of themselves. The reason I say that, it is
good to help build laity across the street. It is good to give
money to people in need, but it is impossible, it is impossible
in God's economy, in biblical theology, to separate a particular
action done by a person from the person performing it. You
can't separate an action done by a person from the person performing
it like it's its own totally distinct, unique act. So when God's looking at these
actions, he's not just saying generic person A helped someone
across the street. That gets you to checkpoints.
No, he's saying this man, either a sinner or a righteous man helped
someone across the street. And God does not judge deeds
or works. What does God judge? Yeah, he
judges the heart, he judges people. He judges people. He judges the
people who commit the deeds and he judges them by their deeds.
And if God deems the unbelievers have no good deeds credited to
their account on judgment day, then we have to conclude that
that is because at bottom, none of the deeds of unbelievers are
truly good or truly righteous. Now, unbelievers can do things
that truly benefit themselves and benefit others and serve
some type of societal or civic good, but they can't be inherently
good because an apple tree is not going to grow pears. So a
good deed is not gonna come from a bad heart. But then we still
have to ask, well, but why? Why do they do these beneficial
things? If you're saying they're not good, why do they look good
and why do they do them? What motivates them? Is it because
their conscience accuses or excuses them? It's true that an unbeliever
does have a conscience and it can guide him away from certain
sins. It's a type of common grace is
a word theologians sometimes use. Or a conscience could bring
an unbeliever a sense of rightness when he chooses to do the right
thing, when he begins to, in an external fashion, line up
with God's law. If an unbeliever sees a baby
lying in the road and he goes and picks the baby up and takes
him somewhere safe, he has chosen the right thing to do in that
scenario, the objectively right thing to do. Nevertheless, his
conscience cannot positively direct him toward true goodness. That can only happen through
the direct agency of the Holy Spirit. When the rich young ruler
addresses Christ, he says, good teacher. And Jesus says, why
do you call me good? He's trying to get to the bottom
of what this young man thinks goodness really is. Jesus says,
there's only one who's good, and that's God. So apart from
God, we see no one can be good, and we can only come to God through
faith in Christ Jesus. No one comes to the Father, but
by me. That's what Jesus says. So the conscience is a gift from
God to all men, and it can approve certain actions as the right
things to do. but the conscience on its own cannot direct an unbeliever
in a positive and active sense toward true righteousness. The conscience is never spoken
of in scripture as being able to lead a sinner to faith in
Christ apart from the direct activity of the Holy Spirit.
So without the direct activity of the Holy Spirit, without him
working through the word of God preached to our hearts, the unbeliever's not gonna have
true righteousness and holiness, which is what leads to good works
ultimately. So all of the righteousness of
the unbeliever is just filthy rags at the end of the day. It
may be righteousness in a horizontal sense, in a man-to-man-to-man
sense, in a civic sense, we could say, these are good things to
do. This person has done good things for the world, but there
is no vertical righteousness. There's no true righteousness
or goodness within him. To further answer the question
of why, why does though the unbeliever do these beneficial things to
himself or for himself and for others? We can note that it could
be because of a particular end, a particular goal that he's working
towards. Like, I want to do all these
good things so that I can get into heaven when I die. People
think that, they think at the end of the day, if my good deeds
balance out my bad deeds, that'll be enough to get me into heaven.
Or it could be that he's doing these good things so that people
will like him. We oftentimes do things because we want to
be liked by others. And people like nice people. Or that he'll
be remembered well. You see that massively in the
ancient classical writers. Constantly they're doing good
deeds. so that they will be remembered
well, because that was their idea of eternity. How can you have an everlasting
life to be remembered in the hearts and minds of your descendants?
That's how you can attain immortality. So I'm gonna build these structures
and give this money to the poor and support this and that cause,
and then I'll live on even after my body is laid into the grave.
Or maybe someone's doing something, an unbeliever is doing good things
so that he will build up credit and people will then do him favors
when he gets into a tight spot. Or it could be because a society
is a good godly society and the law is actually functioning as
a terror to evildoers. That'll definitely dampen you
from wanting to do some really bad things. And godly societies
incentivize righteousness in some ways. Even ungodly societies
sometimes incentivize righteousness. I heard that, you know, Trump's
proposing a increase of the tax credit for families that have
children. That's incentivizing righteousness to get married
and have children. Now, once again, that's a civic
righteousness. So don't, you know, don't think that having
children is gonna earn you holiness points in heaven, but it is a
civic type of good, a civic type of righteousness. So there are
many, many reasons why an unbeliever could do beneficial things but
they won't be truly righteous or good before the judge of all
the earth, before the throne of God. Because the unbeliever
is truly, as the confession says, made opposite to all good and
wholly inclined to all evil. Any questions about paragraph
four before we go to paragraph five? Yes. You often hear in
evangelism, you know, sharing with someone and they seem so
close to the gospel. Cornelius, he was a man who was
a God-fearer. So there's people who fear God,
but don't know who he is yet. Or maybe the Ethiopian eunuch
who's reading the scriptures and wants to understand there's
people. And it does say that God draws. So they come step
by step. And there are people, perhaps,
that are closer to the gospel than others. How do you explain
that? That's a good question because,
you know, a dead corpse doesn't come slowly back to life in the
way God works. You go from being, you know,
one of those dead dry skeletons in the valley of dry bones to
just in the twinkling of an eye being made alive again. So that's
a good question, but we definitely see that in scripture. I fully
believe that there is a category of people who are lost objectively,
but they are clearly not far from the kingdom. And I would
say that the Holy Spirit, the activity of regeneration is in
a moment. Sometimes a word that theologians
or scientists might use is that regeneration is punctiliar, meaning
it happens in one exact infinitely, you know, you can't reduce it
any more small point of time. But salvation is a slow process. Because salvation isn't just
regeneration. So you have this calling that
goes out. And when the calling goes out,
it's a real seed being sown in someone. And that's the real
activity of God working there. And you could be being drawn. The Bible says that you're being
drawn. And think of a well drawing up a bucket. That could take
time. And then even after you're born again, your growth in holiness
takes time, your progressive sanctification. And then we're,
of course, not glorified until heaven. So I would say that we
can never know infallibly if someone is going to be saved,
but we can see certain markers that indicate whether someone
might be on that road. And I mean, I've seen that before
in my own life in ministry. So I still would not say that
Cornelius had any righteousness before God, but God was surely
drawing him to faith in Christ. Well, we don't have any category
in scripture of someone who is a God-fearer who doesn't end
up coming to faith in Christ. There's no one who remains a
God-fearer that's outside of the cup, that we have a clear
example of in scripture. So I think it would just be,
you know, almost like a hopeful transitional category from our
perspective. God knows, of course, infallibly who's going to be
saved and is not yet saved yet. And there has been debate in
the church over Well, are they really apart from Christ? Is
the wrath of God really on them if they were elect and Christ
has already paid for their sins? And that's, those are good questions. I don't, I don't think we could
get into that aspect today, but. Yeah, sure. I suppose that the people who
are in covenant with Christ being our children are among those,
like you said, they can have the Holy Spirit in the womb like
John the Baptist did, but that most of the children in Christian
families would be those who are like I think you're hitting on
a good point, but actually it's more hopeful than that because
Cornelius was not in covenant with God. And so our children, I would
say, have a better state that they're in than Cornelius in
his household, because they are not strangers to the kingdom
and the covenant and the oracles and the promises and the worship
and the glory. But it's true that there's a sense in which
they're natural branches on the olive tree, but we don't know
infallibly that they're going to bear fruit yet, that they're
going to bear good fruit. We don't know infallibly that
they're not going to be clipped off because we are to judge people according
to their fruits. So we can give a baptized child
a judgment of charity that they're a Christian and a believer. So
I think there is a relationship there, but it's not the exact
same, which of course, you know, I guess you understand what I'm
saying, that Cornelius was seeking, you know, that's a word we use
today, a seeker, even though no one seeks after God, you know,
he's being drawn. But I would say our children
are even closer. They're being drawn because they're getting
preached to every week and they're baptized and they're in covenant.
But you're right, there's this strange time that we can't exactly
pin down all the details on before someone is confessing Christ,
believing him in their hearts and demonstrating the fruit of
repentance. And we just have to be hopeful and continue using
the means of grace to draw people that are in that category and
praying for them. John, do you have any follow
up to that or any clarifying thoughts? No. The one thing I was thinking
about with helping the lady across the street, and the language
of the confession is very strong, right? Opposed to all good and
inclined to all evil. Almost like that that fellow
would be doing that almost against his will. Or he's just got really
selfish ends in mind. I think there's some mystery. I don't think we can see with
a microscope what all is going on in the human heart. You know,
we see the example of Pharaoh, or in Proverbs, you know, the
king's heart is in the Lord's hand like a water course. And
with Pharaoh, God hardened him when he wanted to harden him.
Or the people in Romans 1, who are given over to their sin,
which implies that God was restraining them beforehand from being as
bad as they could be. So, do you have a belief that
unbelievers exist? for the sake of God's relationship
with his people. In Romans 9, it says, look, God
is patiently enduring the wicked because he's got a whole plan
to make his love and his glory and his grace known to his children. So I think of the wicked as a
controlled opposition, if you will. And of course, a lot of
them have come across in the kingdom. But what I was thinking
about was in the same way that we read in God sends his word
and the hail melts. The wicked in our society today,
by God's grace to us, are not as wicked as they could be. Right. So I see God's active hand. I think a lot of times coming
out of medieval theology people wanted to systematize it all
and get it all nailed down and this is what a human is and this
is what their conscience and this is how it all but I Think
when I see scripture together on this question in this point,
I see the restraining hand of God actively governing unbelievers
so that they're not as wicked and bad as they could be and
that's for the sake of his children in other words like Sennacherib
When he needs Sennacherib to be more wicked, more, he dials
him up and sends him to go conquer the northern kingdom. So I think
there's a relational element between God and his kids that
impacts how wicked the wicked are. That's, I think, my main
point. Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's a really
good point. I completely agree. The only clarifying note I would
make, assuming you agree with this is that, you know, the difference
between unbelievers and like the hail is the unbelievers still
have a will and God doesn't operate in a sense that's like they're
robots. Right. Yeah, he doesn't. But
he does control and foreordain everything that comes to pass.
He made their nature. He did. He did. And he foreordained what
happened in sin. Yes. Yes. Yeah, it's a meaningful,
I do agree, you have to deal with the will of man in that
transaction, as opposed to God sending his word for the help.
Right, because he doesn't judge the precipitation on Judgment
Day. Right, right. Did that come close to helping
your question? I know those are things that,
the questions you asked, I don't know that anyone can put an exact,
super clear, explicit, you know, here's how it all works out.
questions of God's mysterious providence and hope and things
like that. But does that help? I do think a lot of people believe,
I believe, you probably believe, James, that we can't see that
moment when somebody's born again. And it could be, we don't know. I mean, somebody could be born
again and then start on the outside becoming interested in the things
of God, and suddenly the Bible catches their ear, or they go
to a Christian group, and then they hear the gospel. I mean,
there's a sense in which there's probably some mystery there in
terms of when God does his work in the heart that's the actual
born-againness. Yeah, 100%. We don't have to
rely on a experience of crisis, which is, especially in the 20s,
well, really from the second great awakening, and then through
the 20th century, the revivalist evangelistic emphasis emphasized,
you make a decision for Christ, then you're born again. That's
your new birth. But that's not really exactly,
I think, the picture of the whole Bible. Of course, that can be
the way God works. Yeah, that's right, that's right. But
it doesn't have to be a crisis conversion, and we don't need
to look for a moment. All right, well, let's move on to paragraph
five. Paragraph five of the confession reads like this. This corruption
of nature during this life does remain in those that are regenerated.
And although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified, yet both
itself and all the motions thereof are truly and properly sin. So this one is an important aspect
of the fall that we have to understand. There are some who believe that
when a believer is saved or possibly when he received some type of
second blessing or baptism of the Holy Spirit or some state
of Christian perfectionism that he will no longer sin. Or even
that his sin nature will be completely and totally undone in this life.
But this is contrary to scripture. It's contrary to the tradition
of the church. I would even argue it's contrary to reason and it's
certainly contrary to experience. Probably the clearest refutation
of the false doctrine of perfectionism is in Romans chapter seven. And
this is a chapter that I've referenced many, many times, but I think
it bears repeating here. I'm just going to read an excerpt
from it. In speaking of the law and its use as a ministry of
death, Paul writes this. Has then what is good become
death to me? Certainly not. But sin that it might appear
sin was producing death in me through what is good, so that
sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For
we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not
understand. For what I will to do, that I
do not practice. But what I hate, That I do. If
then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that
it is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that
dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present within
me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good
that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil that I will not
to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to
do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find in a law that evil is present with me, the one who
wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God
according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? This is clearly the experience
and lament of a born again Christian. Listen to some of the things
Paul says here. He says he wills to do the right thing. And when
he does the wrong thing, he says it's no longer him, it's sin
that's dwelling within him. He says he delights in the law
of God in the inner man. Only a born again person could
say these things with integrity. And Paul is an apostle whose
every word here in Romans and in the other books of the Bible
that he wrote was divinely inspired. So we know he's acting integrity.
We know he's telling the truth here. Now, someone might say,
well, that was Paul's experience, but it doesn't have to be a universal
description. I would say first, have you ever
met anyone in this life that's holier than the apostle Paul?
I don't care what the person says, the answer is no, they
haven't met anyone like that. And if they're saying it's themselves,
well, I think that just disqualifies their statement right there.
But maybe someone is being dishonest or they're being deceived in
some way. Thankfully, Romans 7 is not the only place of scripture
that proves this doctrine. 1 John 1.8, if we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Then
two verses later, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him
a liar and his word is not in us. Now, 1 John was written by
the apostle John to believers. This letter was written to people
who have Jesus Christ as their advocate and who have God as
their father. And John isn't just writing about
past sins committed before following Christ, he's talking about currently.
If we say we have no sin currently, we are deceiving ourselves. And if that isn't clear from
chapter one, he writes this in chapter two, my little children,
these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if
anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation
for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole
world. So John's saying, I don't want
you to sin. That's why I'm writing you this letter. I want you to
avoid sin and pursue righteousness. But if you do sin, Christ will
plead on your behalf. And he is the one who removes
God's wrath that you and your flesh deserve. Why is Christ
pleading on your behalf? Why is he removing your wrath?
Because he's your Lord and savior. These are unbelievers. The divines also cite Galatians
5.17, for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other so that
you cannot do the things that you would. Now, this is an interesting
sentence here. The flesh lusts against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh. Does Paul here mean that because
the flesh lusts against the spirit, you cannot do the good things
that you desire? like he's talking about in Romans
7, or does Paul mean that because the spirit lusts against the
flesh, you cannot do the evil things you would otherwise desire?
Which is it? Is it you cannot do the good
things you would because the remaining corruption of sin,
or you cannot do the evil things that your flesh desires because
of the renewing and restraining power of the spirit of God? Does
anyone have a thought? Can you read the verse again?
Sure. I got Galatians 5.17, and I can read it from this, because
that's King James that I was reading. This might be a little
simpler here. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit
against the flesh. And these are contrary to one
another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Or in the King James, it says
the things that you would. So what does he mean there? I think
speaking as a believer, he's saying this is sometimes why
you sin. In other words, it's a believing
voice that's speaking or an unbelieving voice. And like in Romans 7,
it's a believing voice. And he's speaking to believers.
So I think he's saying, look, these two are in competition. And so that's why sometimes you
don't do the thing that you want to do, like Paul said in Romans
7. I think it's a good opinion.
I come to a little different place, and I'll explain it in
just a moment, but I'll be honest, I don't think we can know for
certain what the Westminster divines, if they take one position
or the other. I don't think they're clear here,
and that doesn't mean they didn't think about it. I think that
was probably intentional, that they didn't come out really strongly
explaining one way or the other, but they do cite this text. I
have always assumed that Paul was saying, because of the war
within you, You can't do the good and godly things you want
to do in all the ways you want to do them. Because that's exactly
what he's saying in Romans 7. So I was thinking Galatians 5,
17 is just pulling from Romans 7 in a sense, he's saying the
same thing. But I think that the other perspective actually
makes more sense in the context of what Paul is saying in Galatians. I think that probably, and I'm
open to correction here, But I tentatively would suggest that
what's primary in Paul's mind is you can't do the evil things
that you and your flesh want to do because the spirit is warring
against the flesh. And I think that's because of
context here. So I'm gonna read just the last
section of Galatians 5, starting in verse 16, which is one verse
before the proof text, Galatians 5, 17. This I say then, walk
in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other, so that
you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led
of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the
flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Of the witch I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such things there is
no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with
the affections and lusts. For if we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another. So Paul's
opening exhortation here in this last section of Galatians 5,
he exhorts the Galatians to walk in the spirit. He says, walk
in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
That's verse 16. That's right before Galatians
5.17 that we're talking about. And then in Galatians 5.17, he
says, the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary to one to the other. So you cannot
do the things you would. And then he closes by saying,
and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let
us also walk in the spirit. So I think that what Paul primarily
has in view here is that because of the power of the Holy Spirit
within you and the grace of regeneration and the growth and holiness,
you will not be as bad as your flesh wants you to be. You will
not fulfill all the wicked desires of the flesh. That's what I think. And Paul's not saying something
opposite to what he's saying in Romans 7. What he's saying
is that though the battle will continue to rage on, and though
you won't be free from all its effects or enticements to sin
in this life, you will have more and more victory. The Spirit
will grow you in holiness. You will be able to resist temptation. You will sin, you will lose battles,
but you'll win the war. I think that's probably what
Paul has primarily in view, and I'll admit this is newer to me
as I was studying this. I spent a lot of time studying
this particular doctrine and thinking through it in that context
of, this I say then, walk in the Spirit, you won't fulfill
the lust of the flesh. That's how he opens that up. And I read commentaries
and I think that's primarily what he's saying, is because
the spirit is warring against your flesh, you won't do the
things your flesh wants to do. I think that's a lot more hopeful
than if all we had was Romans 7 repeated. But both things are
true. I mean, both things are true,
that you also won't do as much good as you want to do. because
of Romans 7, because the flesh is at war within you. So I don't
think you're wrong, but I think maybe primarily what Paul has
in view is more of a victorious encouragement to the Christian. Yeah, I agree. I agree. When
you read it in context with 16, it seems like that's what he,
because he says that you would, and it's kind of singular. He
didn't say like if you would in either case, he's saying he's
focusing just on one of those. Right. And the one that he seems
to be focusing on in the context is that you won't do what you
would do apart from the spirit. Right. But I'd never really,
I don't know, I've read the Bible several times and I'd never latched
onto that. And I was reading John Brown's
commentary of Galatians and he explained it so clearly and it's
just like the light bulb went off and now I can't unsee it.
You know how things work like that sometimes? So just, I thought
it was encouraging thing here. But the non-Christian's different.
The non-Christian has no fight within him. He isn't struggling
with sin, at least not from a pure heart. He may find certain sins,
especially displeasing or damaging to his life or his conscience,
however mangled it is, or the law or other pressures, internal,
external. He may be accused in such a way
that he seeks not to commit certain sins. The unbeliever might be
in that position, but he will have no victory. No ultimate
victory because he'll only be clipping bad fruit from the tree.
He won't be addressing the root problem. He's not gonna be giving
himself a new root, regenerating himself. He can't do that. He won't do it and he can't do
it. So the unbeliever doesn't have this battle within him between
new nature and old nature. He's only old nature. That's
it. There is no spirit, no Holy Spirit. He's just flesh. But if there's
this struggle and fight, and oftentimes frustration, and if
you are striving, if you are sometimes having victory to resist
temptations, then that's a very good sign that you are different
from the unbelieving man. That means you're in a battle.
Being tempted with sin doesn't mean you're not one of God's
elect. Sometimes we can think that.
I keep getting tempted with this same terribly wicked sin that
I don't even want to tell anyone about. And sometimes I fall to
it. Could God have forsaken me? If you're feeling terrible and
fighting the sin, it's not an infallible proof. You're God's
child. People can come under some type
of conviction, but it is a good sign. And if you're fighting
and having victory, that is a very good sign. So don't be discouraged
just because you're going through temptations. Now having said
all that, I think that both these perspectives
that we started out that conversation about Galatians 5.17 are important
to remember. We're not gonna be as good as
we want, but thankfully we won't be as bad as we otherwise would
want and as bad as our flesh wants. The new man is powerful. The new man isn't just sitting
inside you under complete bondage to the old man. The new man is
the victorious dragon slaying man. The spirit's strong within
you. strong within you. This should
be a great comfort to us, even though we won't see the ultimate
victory until the very end. Any questions on paragraph five
before we go on to the last paragraph, which will be much shorter? All right, last paragraph of
chapter six, last paragraph of the fall of man of sin and the
punishment thereof is paragraph six here. Every sin, both original
and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God,
and contrary thereunto, does in its own nature bring guilt
upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God
and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all
miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal. So we're just gonna
look at some of the proof texts to start. The divine site 1 John
3, 4, whosoever committed sin transgresses also the law for
sin is transgression of the law. That's a good verse to memorize.
I've been asked multiple times during outreach at Apple, what
is sin? Sin is any transgression of the law of God. It's right
there. That's what the apostle John
says. They also cite Romans 3, 9, and 19. What then, are we
better than they? He's talking about Jews, people
in covenant with God. Are we better than they? No,
and no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles
that they are all under sin. And then verse 19. Now we know
that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them that
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world may become guilty before God. So we're all guilty. Ephesians 2.3, we're by nature
children of wrath, even as the rest of mankind. Galatians 3.10,
for all who rely on works of law are under a curse. For it's
written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things
written in the book of the law and do them. Romans 6.23, for
the wages of sin is death. They're just going, what is the
punishment? What is the end result of this
sin? It's guilt, it's death, it's misery. Matthew 25, 41,
then shall he also say unto them on the left hand, depart from
me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. That's like half the proof texts.
They really throw a lot of proof texts to cite how terrible the
punishment and condemnation that sin brings is, that sin brings
to the sinner. Every sin brings guilt. Every
sin brings guilt. And guilt is not just a feeling.
Sometimes that's how we use that word, even in church. I feel
guilty. I feel convicted. That's certainly
a part of it, and that's a grace of the Lord, that you feel guilty
and you feel convicted sometimes. But this guilt that the divines
are referring to that Paul is talking about is objective. It's
a real guilt. Like when you go into court and
the judge says, you are guilty of this crime, doesn't matter
how you feel. You are guilty because you broke
the law. That's what sin is, lawbreaking.
Sinners are truly and objectively guilty before the judgment seat
of God. And therefore, because of that, the punishment that
you get, the sentence that you get because of your guilt is
wrath, meted out in death with all miseries, spiritual, temporal,
and eternal. If spiritual miseries, you have
miseries unique to this life, spiritual, physical, whatever
they may be, you have miseries into eternity. So when a sinner
stands before the judge of all the earth, if he is not dressed
in the righteousness of Christ, then he will be cast into the
unquenchable fire of hell. And we are all sinners deserving
of this. But the guilty verdict can be
overturned. The guilty verdict can only be
overturned though if God's infinite wrath is satisfied and a perfect
record of sinless law-keeping and righteousness is presented
to him. You don't get into heaven just
by having not guilty. It's different than a court of law there. Not
guilty is not gonna do it. You have to be perfectly righteous.
You have to have the holiness of God if you want to see God.
Be holy and be perfect even as he is holy and perfect. But we'll
get into that more in the upcoming chapters when we talk about Christ
and righteousness and judgment. The only final note that I'll
make is that the divines here point to the truth that there
are consequences for every single sin, even for those sins committed
by believers. By those of us whose transgression
is forgiven and whose sins are covered, there are still consequences. First, there is still the guilt
of hell that our sins are deserving of. It's just not on us. We don't get that consequence.
Consequence doesn't just disappear. We just don't get it. Because
of Christ's offering on the cross, and it being one of perfect and
infinite merit, those sins will not count against us on the last
day. But they still have a real consequence that Christ really,
truly had to pay. Also, though this isn't primarily
in view here, our sins also bring us real non-eternal consequences
in this life. If we are drunkards and gluttons,
even if we're born again, we may suffer in our bodily health,
in our relationships, in how long we live. If we give ourselves
over to immoral lusts, we may ruin our marriages. We may have
civil penalties for our sins. We may undergo discipline from
the Lord that is mysterious. And out of nowhere, bad things
start happening to us. Out of nowhere. You know, it
feels like that sometimes. And then we reflect and maybe start
putting some dots together. Having our sins forgiven does
not mean that they are consequence-free. Something that We remember easily
when we're teaching our children sometimes, okay, you committed
this clear sin, you've repented, there's still a consequence.
You're still losing this privilege, you're still getting spanked,
whatever it might be. But sometimes as adults, we like to lie to
ourselves and almost forget, no, we still have discipline
too. It's just oftentimes not as clear and direct as getting
spanked from your parent. So we still have to strive after
perfection and we still have to be careful how we walk. And
as Paul points out, we should never sin that grace may abound
because the consequences are real. All right, what questions
do you have on paragraph six or on the whole chapter? Because
we're now done with chapter six. All right, well, if we have no
questions, let's go into a time of prayer requests. because it was kind of jumping
back. with people sometimes about the
consequences of sin for believers and whether or not that is the
operation of God's law or something else, right? Is there another
category? Oh, because we're not under the
law, you mean? Right. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Temporal
versus eternal. Yes, yes. Is there a category
for being under the law of sin and death temporally when you
sin? meted out by a fatherly hand,
but just what category do we put those consequences in? Can
you mention that? Well, I can't remember if it's the confession
or one of the catechisms says that we're not under the law
as a covenant of works, but we are under the law as a rule of
life. And I think that's a helpful way to think about it. Yeah,
we're still under the law, just not as a covenant of works. We're
under the law as it is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path,
but we can stray from the light and God needs to put us back
on the path. And sometimes that might involve some discipline,
some rough handling. But yeah, like you said, we don't
have to get into it tonight, but I'd love to hear more at
some time, even if you wanted to give us a snippet now, but
you don't have to. Okay, okay, okay.
WCF Chapter 6 (Pt. 3)
Series Westminster Conf. of Faith
In this lesson we look at the last three paragraphs of WCF Chapter 6: Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof. We especially touch on the topics of civic righteousness among unbelievers, the remaining corruption in the regenerate, and the guilt and punishment that every sin brings.
| Sermon ID | 424252031182375 |
| Duration | 48:27 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Language | English |
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