Hello friends, Denny Prouto here with a lesson on Westminster Shorter Catechism question and answer number 8. Question 7 asks, what are the decrees of God? Answer, the decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Then question 8 asks, How doth God execute his decrees? Answer, God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence. Notice these two things, creation and providence. They are packed together in this answer, and properly so. The proof texts are as follows. First, Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11, "...thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." And then Daniel 4, 35, "...he doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth." In both heaven and on earth, God carries out His decrees and his decrees are brought about, they're implemented, they're carried out in the works of creation and Providence. As we look at this idea of Creation and Providence, I've got a couple of other texts on the whiteboard and then a couple of concepts I want us to look at. But first of all, note again that Creation and Providence are packed together. They're two separate things two separate items and they're covered a little bit later in the Catechism. I'm going to read the questions and answers with regard to them in a moment. But they're two separate things that are packed together with the word and, creation and providence. And this becomes quite important in our understanding of the teaching of the Catechism. And of course we maintain that the Catechism is setting forth the teachings of Scripture. Now listen to question and answer number nine. What is the work of creation? The work of creation is God's making all things of nothing by the word of his power in the space of six days and all very good. This is the work of creation. and then connected with the work of creation is the work of Providence. Or, as the question asks, what are God's works of Providence? God's works of Providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all of His creatures and all of their actions. So, God's decrees are carried out in God creating the world and everything that's in it, and then superintending the actions of all that is in the world and all of the creatures that are in the world. God's works of creation and providence. And so God implements His decrees in this way. Now when we speak about the decrees of God, what we're speaking about is the secret will of God. I didn't mention this in the earlier lesson and want to now. Deuteronomy 29, 29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons, that we may observe all the words of this law. The secret things belong to God. That is, the things God has decreed. And we are not privileged to look into the mind and the heart and the determinations of God. These are the secret things. They belong to God. What are the revealed things? Well, Deuteronomy 29 again. the secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may observe all the words of the law." The revealed will of God is that which is given to us in His Word and we are to observe His Word, we are to learn what the Word of God tells us and then we are to carry out the Word of God and to understand the Word of God. We are to understand what God has to say with regard to creation and we are to understand what God has to say concerning providence. but the secret things involve the decrees of God and we only learn of the decrees of God when they are revealed to us in God's providence. When God brings about his decrees openly and we see what has taken place, then we understand and we see the decrees of God implemented in creation and we can look at the created order. Otherwise, we cannot look into the secret things of God. Now, another question arises when we speak about the decrees of God. I spoke about this briefly under the heading of question and answer number seven. That's the idea of human freedom and divine sovereignty. And I want to look at this other text Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. This is a text that has to do with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to it. This man, that is Jesus, the man Christ Jesus, And of course we'll look at the Lord Jesus as he's both God and man and two distinct natures in one person forever. We'll look at that idea later. But the text says, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. In other words, God decreed from all eternity that Jesus Christ would go to the cross. This was his secret will and plan until it was revealed in the actual implementation of that plan and Christ did indeed go to the cross. So the beginning of the text again, this man delivered over by the predetermined. It was determined beforehand. You see this is the idea by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. God knew beforehand what he would do. And the idea of foreknowledge is that God does know everything that will take place in your life and in my life and in the universe before it occurs. and this means that everything in our lives, in your life and my life, that takes place is predetermined by God. Foreknowledge here and predestination are synonymous. If God knows that you're going to go to a particular school before it takes place. He has planned before it takes place that this is indeed what will occur. These ideas involve the decrees of God. this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death." You nailed him to the cross by the hands of godless men. Who put Christ on the cross? It was Godless men who determined in their zeal and their hatred for Christ and their hatred for the things of God, they determined themselves, they acted freely, they were not constrained, they acted freely and they nailed Jesus Christ to the cross. They were and are responsible for their actions. And so what this text does is tie together human freedom and divine sovereignty. We might ask the question, is it possible for God to design a universe in which human beings like us act freely and come and go freely and at the same time God be in absolute control of all things? Is it possible for human freedom and divine sovereignty to coexist? The answer is yes. Now this text in Acts 2.23 affirms this fact and we would say human freedom and divine sovereignty do coexist. So the answer to the question, can God create a universe in which human beings act freely and at the same time God is absolutely sovereign? Can God create such a universe? The answer to that question is yes. And the answer to that question is apparently so. He has. God has created such a universe. This is indeed the case. And so there's no conflict, you see, between human freedom and divine sovereignty. Now, as we examine the answer, God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence, we note that The answer to the Westminster Shorter Catechism here admits no deism. What is deism? Deism is the idea that God created the universe and then he stepped back and just allowed the universe to go forward. The analogy that's used in this regard is the analogy of a clockmaker. The clockmaker puts together the clock, winds it up, and then lets it go. And things then begin to transpire. The clock runs. And in the analogy, God winds up the universe, as it were, and then he lets it go. But the answer to the Catechism says God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence. God does not create the world and then step back, no. God creates the world and then superintends all that takes place in the world. And so The answer to the Catechism, and it should be answer 8 rather than answer 7, answer 8 admits no deism, and answer 8 admits no theistic evolution. What is theistic evolution? Well, theistic evolution is the idea that evolution and the biblical doctrine of creation can be brought together. And those who believe in theistic evolution would state that God superintended the evolution of the world and the bringing forth of creatures and animals and eventually human beings over tens of thousands and perhaps millions of years, that God superintended this evolutionary process. But what does this idea do? This idea mushes together the idea of creation and providence. The Catechism takes these two things as separate and they are not mushed together. The Catechism does not admit to the idea that God created the world over a long period of time and that he superintended in his providence the bringing about of this created order over millions of years. That's not the idea that's presented in the catechism. And so the catechism asks the question again, how does God execute his decrees? God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence. God is in absolute control of all things and as we sit in the theater of God's creation and observe His works and also observe how He has guided our lives and He guides the lives of all human beings in the world and He guides, in fact, the movement of all the planets and all of the stars, and He guides, in fact, all the movement of the atoms and molecules of the universe. God is in absolute control of all these things. Nothing happens by random or by chance, as we have indicated before. God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence. And as I say, as we take time to sit in the theater of creation and observe all of God's wonderful works and how God is carrying out his decrees in his creation, we can marvel at the wonders of our great God. and give Him thanks that He has put us in such a wonderful creation and that we as individuals are preserved and carried in the palm of His great hand. God, God carries out, executes His decrees in the works of creation and providence and we and thankfully are left to marvel at him. Thanks for listening.