This morning we are beginning a brand new series of sermons. We are going to be going through the theology and practice of the Westminster Standards. I think that this will take us a little bit more than half a year, maybe two-thirds of a year or so to work our way through it. this morning I want to introduce the series by tackling a couple of questions and the first most obvious one is why should we take up a series on the Westminster standards and why at this time in the life of the church does this seem advisable and wise? well really two reasons and let me give these to you and then we'll go through them We're taking up this series on the Westminster Standards for the sake of unity and uniformity in doctrine and practice according to the great attainments of the Church. So we're looking for unity and uniformity. And the second reason for taking up the standards at this time is for the sake of our children. And if you will look around you, you will see that there are quite a few children present here. and our ministry wouldn't be complete unless we address their needs. So for our first reason, we take up the standard seeking increased unity and uniformity and doctrine and practice according to the attainments of the church, those things that the church has learned and come to recognize as a body. And as we're looking at this, I want to highlight something. We're going to be looking at a couple of old documents. We're going to blow the dust off of them, but we're looking at this question. Why were the Westminster Standards originally drafted? And if we can understand something of why they were originally drafted, we will see a lot of the use that they are to us now, during this present age. You'll remember something of the context. Here we're having to refresh ourselves on some history, some British history. There was a war between Charles I, the King, and his Parliament. The Parliament came to recognize pretty early on that as long as the Anglican Church remained established and recognized by the government, they were going to have a hard time swaying the people away from Charles. It was a saying of the English king, no bishop, no king. In other words, the kings looked to the bishops for support, and they received a lot of support from the bishops. The Parliament, recognizing the danger of the Anglican system and the support that it was giving to the King, disestablished the Anglican Church and its system of bishops. And having done so, they recognized that they needed some sort of replacement, some sort of a substitute. But they didn't know what to put in its place. I'm going to read something to you. This is the ordinance of Parliament for the calling of the Assembly of Divines to be seated at Westminster. It's written in legal language, but how I wish that our government could write such laws. Certainly an extraordinary thing. Listen to what they say. Amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God upon this nation, none is nor can be more dear unto us than the purity of our religion. How I could wish our Congress would say such a thing, that nothing is more dear to us than the purity of the religious life of our people in this land. But this is how they begin. And for that, as yet many things remain in the liturgy, discipline, and government of the Church, which do necessarily require a further and more perfect reformation than has yet been attained. And whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, that the present Church government, that is the Anglican Church, its Episcopal form of government, and for those of you that are not familiar with this ecclesiastical language this is basically government by bishops in each level of the church government there's always one man in the Episcopal system that is on top so in the local congregation you're looking towards your priest or parson, one man who is governing that body you get a bunch of those priests or parsons together for an assembly, they are going to be ruled by a bishop You get a bunch of those bishops together, they're going to be ruled by an archbishop. And you get all of those guys together and they're going to be ruled in England by the king. So it's always one man at the top of these assemblies. This is the Episcopal Forum. But here's what they say. They've taken it away because it is evil and justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom. a great impediment to reformation and growth of religion, and very prejudicial to state and government of this kingdom. And therefore they are resolved that the same shall be taken away, and that such a government shall be settled in the church as may be most agreeable to God's holy word. and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church at home, and your agreement with the Church of Scotland and other Reformed Churches abroad. And for the better effecting hereof, and for the vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the Church of England from all false calumnies and aspersions, it is thought fit and necessary to call an assembly of learned, godly, and judicious divines. So here they've basically given us three reasons that they were calling the Westminster Assembly to draft these very standards. Three things. First, to pursue a more perfect reformation than what they had attained. Here the Parliament is recognizing that the reformation in England had not been fully accomplished as it had been in other lands, like in Scotland. Basically, the king and his presiding over the church had inhibited the reformation of the church in Scotland. So here they say we must pursue a more perfect reformation. That's one end. We must pursue greater unity with the Church of Scotland and other reformed churches. There's a great unity emphasis throughout all of this. Presently we are divided in many things from the Church of Scotland and the reformed churches of the continent, but it is not desirable that it remains so. So we must seek unity and union. And they also say here that they would like to clear the doctrine of the Church of England from what they call false aspersions, false accusations. They want it to be clear. Now as the Scots respond to this, because they are going to receive an invitation to send divines there, to the Westminster Assembly, we'll find that they are only interested in the first two. They're not interested in protecting or preserving the Church of England with respect to its errors, but they are very much interested in pursuing a more perfect reformation and unity with the Church of England. So here is a second document. The General Assembly, when it sent its commission, that is its divines and elders to the Westminster Assembly, they give some reasons why they want this to be done. This is part of their commission. So here are the responsibilities of these divines. to propose, consult, treat, and conclude with that assembly in all matters which may further the union of this island in one form of church government, one confession of faith, one catechism, and one directory for the worship of God." So here you see They've picked up on what the English Parliament is interested in, and they're going to help them prosecute this business. You want a more perfect Reformation? So do we. You want unity? So do we. And they even begin to sketch out what that unity would look like, sharing one form of church government. and one directory for the worship of God, not so that God would be worshipped in a different manner in all places, but so that no matter where you would go in the three kingdoms, Scotland, England and Ireland, the worship of God would look the same. One confession of faith and one catechism for instructing the people of God. Well, the Westminster Assembly is seated with these great aims and they begin their work Now, what we find is that their work takes an unexpected turn. First, they thought that they were simply going to improve and perfect the articles of the Church of England. But they came very quickly to recognize that that was something of a fool's errand. There was no purpose in it. Rather, we'll simply set these things to the side and pursue this union and unity, uniformity with the Church of Scotland. And so they enter into something called the Solemn League and Covenant. They actually swear vows before God that they're going to pursue these great ends. Unity and uniformity as they go forward in Reformation. And so the first article or the first vow of the Solemn League and Covenant read in this way. You'll see how now England with its aims and Scotland with its aims are beginning to come together. and share the same ends and views. And this is the vow that we shall sincerely, really, and constantly, through the grace of God, endeavor in our several places and callings. Now listen to the language. the preservation of the reformed religion in the Church of Scotland in doctrine, worship, discipline and government against their common enemy, so here they swear the preservation of the reformation in Scotland and the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland in doctrine, worship, discipline and government according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches. So here they said that they are going to preserve the attainments of the Reformation in Scotland and that England and Ireland are going to have to come along in Reformation. This was a concession statement. At first it just sounded really subservient to recognize that Scotland had the greater attainments and we're just going to follow Scotland along so they didn't want to just say that but they did recognize that the Church of Scotland had gone further and attained more and that the churches of England and Ireland were going to have to come up as it were to that standard But there's also in view, notice the great end of unity that they have in view. See, we've gotten something of a... Oh, I don't know, I don't know if you've heard it, but they call the Presbyterians sometimes the split peas. You've got all these different kinds of Presbyterians, this kind and that kind. As many different kinds of denominations as there are stars in the heavens. But this was not the original end of our forebears in drafting these standards. Not to divide churches, but to unite them. Unite the three kingdoms and their churches and bring them into the closest possible conformity with the best reformed churches of the continent. That was their great end and design. Now what a good and godly one it is. We'll talk about that more. And so they say, and we shall endeavor to bring the churches of God in the three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity and religion, confession of faith, form of church government, directory for worship and catechizing, that we and our posterity after us may as brethren live in faith and love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us. so they also had their children in view that their children having this common confession of faith, common catechism, common form of government, common directory of worship that they would dwell together in peace and love as brethren and that God in the midst of this unity would be pleased to dwell in the midst of them what a striking thing but in conclusion These sound like very dry documents, but if I can say, if you take the time and you look at them, it's some of the most beautiful things that you can imagine in the world. And it very nearly worked, and not only in Scotland, England, and Ireland, but when this great plan of the Solemn League and Covenant fell apart, representatives from the Reformed churches in the Netherlands had been communicating, interested in vowing with them concerning the Solemn League and Covenant. The moderator of the Westminster Assembly, Twiss, had also been told that he's to look into this matter, including the Netherlands in this. What a great and glorious design. And how we have come to very low expectations by comparison. But it will not always be so, for those of you that believe the Millennial Doctrine. We will begin to come together again, and these aims will be accomplished. So in conclusion as we look at what they came to at the end of the day, we must go forward in reformation and we must seek unity and uniformity in accord with that reformation and its high attainments. Those are really the two points that we should take away from these documents. but this really brings us to a second question what is our purpose in taking up the standards this is why they did why they called an assembly of divines to draft these documents and of course we can say that these documents are very useful in uniting churches kind of grand scale things and as ministers and presbyteries we do that sort of thing when we get communication from other presbyteries who are interested in Perhaps uniting with us? That's our first question. Tell us something about your standards. And let's see if we have these things. Do we have a common confession of faith and catechism? Common directory of worship? Common form of government? Let's look into these things and pursue unity. These are grand scale issues. but here during this time in the life of the church we have what we might call some microscopic issues we have a great many people that are traveling to hear this word preached and we also ought to as a body be seeking the closest possible unity and uniformity in doctrine and practice it's part of our biblical responsibility and it is a biblical one turning your bibles to first Corinthians chapter one because we have to ask the question okay this is what our forebears in the faith were doing they were seeking unity based on the attainments of the church by attainments of the church basically how the church had come to understand the doctrines of the bible how much have we come to understand as a church not as a particular individual, this one or that one, but as a body, how much have we come to understand? Some of you, I don't know, but you might already find this a little bit counterintuitive, because the trend in theology during modern times has always been to come to unity based on a more vague theology. Not a greater explicit agreement on more and more things, but a more vague theology. I'll tell you a bit of a personal story as we get ready for 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I was teaching Latin at an Assemblies of God school. And it came time that that movie came out concerning the Passion of Christ. I remember it released on a Wednesday because of the conversation that ensued on that Wednesday. I only taught Wednesday through Friday, so I had been away from the students for almost a week's time. And when I came back on that Wednesday, I found the place positively abuzz, as they were looking forward to looking at this movie, The Passion of Christ. But it caught me a little off guard. I had a student blurt out to me as I was walking in the door, Mr. Dilde, are you going to go see The Passion of Christ tonight? and my knee-jerk reaction was not tonight or any other night and so rather than having Latin that day we had an hour-long lecture on Christology and theological Nestorianism the division of the natures and looking at images of Christ well You probably can guess what happened. It was maybe two or three days before I found myself in the principal's office. How old am I? But here I am in the principal's office. Well, there was a student in my class who had a mother that was also teaching there at the school, second grade, and she had taken some offense because her child, having been moved by what he heard in class, had not wanted to go to the movie, which they were wanting to do as a family thing. And so I was in the office there and this teacher comes in and she said, I know that this is a Christian school but why don't we just teach all of the things that we all agree on. See this is the whole purpose I'm bringing this up. Pursuing unity based on a very vague theology. And that was the first thing I asked her was, well what would those things be? And she said, Well, we all believe the scripture is the word of God, and I said, but not all that would take the name Christian would even give you that much. So how much is it that we really all agree on? I talked to her about some other things, the fact that I was a licentiant and under obligation to teach the whole truth of Jesus Christ. that this school could very well let me go if they found that unacceptable but I had sworn before God with my hand lifted up to heaven that I would teach the entire counsel of God and that I wouldn't withhold truths because they were unpleasant or painful or anything else but she wanted to pursue that unity not by agreeing on this issue of the images but by not discussing it at all and just retreating to a more vague theology we all believe that the Bible is the word of God and we all believe that Jesus is God although at the end of the day there Jesus would look very different than the Jesus that I was talking about and the images tell you something about that well this is not the method of the Westminster standards and it's not the biblical method the idea is that historically the church is supposed to be growing in its understanding of the scripture attaining more and more biblical understanding and then we are to be uniting based on that understanding but look at what Paul tells the Corinthian Christians chapter 1 verse 10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. You hear what Paul is telling these Corinthian Christians who had become divided on a great many issues. He's telling them our great end or goal here is to all learn to think the same thoughts. about doctrine and practice, and speak the same words. He says, we want you to even speak the same things concerning all these things. And you must understand, if you would understand the first epistle to the Corinthians, this is what Paul is doing throughout the entire epistle. Once he gets particularly into his practical section, but what does he do in that first opening section? He talks about them not being divided over teachers. unity and uniformity based on the teaching, the content of the teaching and not this or that personality but when he gets into that very practical section at the end he would have them to be united concerning things like head covering Apparently there have been some disagreement concerning these things. Some women wearing them, some not. And what does Paul say? I'm going to teach you concerning this. And then he says, but if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. In other words, this is what all of the churches of God are practicing. And I want all of you Corinthian Christians to think the same thought and to speak the same words concerning this matter. even something as particular as head coverings and he goes on end of chapter 11 leave off being divisive concerning the Lord's Supper and your practice of it they were practically divisive it seems as if some wealthier men were starting into the Lord's Supper not waiting for the poorer brethren practically divisive in their celebration of the Lord's Supper. Paul tells them to leave off those divisive practices, but to celebrate it according to its institution. Chapters 12 through 14. They had a great many spiritual gifts that they were exercising to puff up the self. Paul says that's not the reason that the spiritual gifts were given. You see the constant emphasis on unity. You were given spiritual gifts so that you might edify the brethren, the church, the union, all of you. Chapter 15, some had denied the resurrection of the body. Paul would have them to all embrace the same doctrine there you see he's doing the same thing and he tells you what he's doing in the epistle right up front that's his great end or design so we're to be pursuing unity and uniformity and doctrine and practice and according to the attainments of the church as far as the church has come to understand we ought to be walking by the same rule and minding the same things Now let me give you the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal, and indeed this will be accomplished in glory, is that we will all come to share one mind with Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate goal. Thinking the same thoughts and speaking the same words with our great head, a fully unified body. But of course we know that there is a problem with this. As long as sin remains with us, and we should be clear that theological and practical errors are sins. And as long as sin remains with us, each one of us is going to depart from the truth in some measure and doctrine and practice. And what's that going to do? That's going to have a great tendency to work division in our midst. You see what happens? You have one holding the truth of a matter and one departing from the truth in the matter. What's going to happen? They're going to end up parting ways. Or you have one departing from the truth in one way and one departing from the truth in another way. What happens? There's a parting of the ways. But we say, but since we're all going to have errors and since we're all relatively unique in the kinds of errors that we're going to hold, how is there going to be any church union at all? What's going to hold us together? Well, there is a proximate goal that we're taught in the Word of God to look to. So the ultimate goal is one mind with Jesus Christ. But in the meantime, we are to seek unity and uniformity in accord with the attainments of the church. How far has the church come in its understanding of doctrine and practice as it's taught in the Word of God? Turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3. Now Paul had just been talking about, you want to read the whole context, I'm not going to do all of it this morning. What he gives us ultimately is a principle that can be applied to a great many things. But there had been some difference of mind concerning some things and Paul is patient with it and he says, well, You know, this is the truth of the matter, and if anyone errs from this truth, I'm sure that God is going to teach them, instruct them, and bring them along. However, or nevertheless, verse 16, whereto we have already attained as a body and as a people, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. So he's saying, although we'll have a difference of mind on some particular things, to that point that we have attained as a people, let us walk by that same rule and mind the very same things. So let me sketch out for you something of the historical model, sort of a grand model. The church in the earth is to be moving towards one mind with Jesus Christ, the church as a body, and it has been. and I just compare the Westminster standards say to the Nicene Creed and how much more understanding has come the Nicene Creed faithful but faithful in a sliver of the truth very important truths to be sure but it's nothing like the Westminster standards the church has attained a great deal more and has been going forward to share one mind with Jesus Christ ultimately the goal is in all things each member in each generation is called to come up to the attainments of the church. We're called to come up to that. Now, there's no expectation when somebody joins the church, that they understand, have you seen the volume of the Westminster Standards? There's no expectation that somebody understands everything in there, but you see the responsibility is to come up to the attainments of the church, to understand what the church has attained, to embrace those things, to believe them, so that we might again all be unified in doctrine and in practice. And the idea, this is hardly thinkable in this age, is once we have come up to the attainments of the church to advance, to go further. Now this, in this dark age of the church, and we'll talk about this, seems almost unthinkable. I mean, can we imagine, I don't know how much you know of the men that were actually sitting at Westminster, but can we imagine assembling such a body of men to actually go further? than Gouge and Godecker, Rutherford and Gillespie. They simply don't have the man. I'll talk about that some more in a minute. Now you should understand, this keeps the bridle or the bit very tight in the mouth. Failure to embrace any truth of the Word of God is sinful. But that sin becomes aggravated when the church is teaching you otherwise. See, in other words, the church is teaching you the truth of the matter, and that aggravates your sin when you don't believe it I tell you the guilt of the world, the western world since the writing and distribution of the Westminster standards is much greater than what it was in former ages because now these biblical truths have been taught by the church with a clarity that had never been before and for failure to embrace these things we are guilty as a people aggravated, our guilt is aggravated in the sight of God Make a rather bold claim, but I don't think I'm alone in this, that the Westminster Standards embodies the highest attainments of the Church in her history. The very highest. It really subsumes all of the earlier faithful creeds. The Nicene Creed, it's in there. The Council of Chalcedon and its brilliant description of the relationship of the two natures of Christ, it's in there. all of those formulas have simply been subsumed and this is the greatest attainment of the church let me read to you some of you will know the name of Philip Schaff he was a great modern Lutheran historian one of the greatest he was responsible for an eight volume history of the church up to the time of the Reformation this quote actually comes from his three volumes on the creeds of Christendom He is also responsible for 38 volumes of the Antinocene and Post-Nicene Fathers. This man knew a little something about the history of the church and the theological development of the history of the church. But he is a Lutheran. He is not a Westminster Confessing Presbyterian. But this is what he says about the Westminster Confession. The Westminster Confession, together with the Catechisms, is the fullest and ripest symbolical statement of the Calvinistic system of doctrine. Going beyond the Synod of Dort, Heidelberg Catechism, you remember the three forms of unity? It transcends those and goes further. In theological ability and merit it is equal to the best works of the kind and is not surpassed by the Lutheran formula of Concord. Very significant thing for a Lutheran to say. He said the Lutheran formula is not better than the Westminster standards. This is very striking. its intrinsic worth alone can explain the fact that it has supplanted the older Scottish standards of John Knox and John Craig in the land of their birth and that it was adopted by three distinct denominations by the Presbyterians in full and by the Congregationalists and the regular Baptists with some slight modifications The doctrines of the confession are stated with unusual care, logical precision, clearness, caution and circumspection and with an eye to all their various aspects and mutual relations. The style of the confession and catechisms is clear, strong, dignified and well adapted to the great subject. This also is a very striking confession from a Lutheran. The selection of the scripture proofs is careful and judicious and reveals a close familiarity with the sacred writings. the merits of the Westminster standards have been admitted not only by the Presbyterians but also by liberal Episcopalians and even by Methodists who entirely dissent from its theology and then in his footnotes he goes on to cite people from these various groups that concede that this is the fullest and ripest statement of theology that they've ever seen even though they don't agree with it on all points very striking things and so we have a responsibility before us to walk by the same rule and with this I have a practical application I want you to write this down and not forget it as we begin to go through the standards you will no doubt have questions I want you to ask those questions whether it be a question about what was preached or whether you want to hear further development on something I will consider actually preaching further sermons if there seems to be some congregational interest in a particular aspect of some particular doctrine. So here what I'm commending is more interface than what you've had with your pastor so far. If you have a question about something, I want to address it. And if it seems as if enough people have this sort of question, then I'll preach further sermons about these things. Why is this important? Because I want us to all be thinking the same thoughts and speaking the same words about all of these things. So I have a bite-size of work to do every week. Don't fall behind. But do that bite-size worth of work so that we're ready for the next week. Also, I might say that, as I mentioned, our generation is having some trouble just coming up to the former attainments of the Church. And so we have quite a task in front of us. This is very much, this is offensive to modern years I know, but this is very much like the dark ages of the church. I know that we have a lot more books and everything else, but we are in a new dark ages of the story. You say, Pastor, why would you say that? Remember what happened in the dark ages in scholarship. You had a generation of theological juggernauts pass away. Augustine, Jerome, and men of that variety. They passed off the earth, the dark ages ensued, and the very best and brightest men could simply copy their work. Just copy it and pass it on to the next generation. You had no men that were capable of advancement for a thousand years. You have to understand that. For a thousand years there wasn't any significant advancement upon Augustine and a whole lot of regress in a great many. And this is very much like that. The very best men in this age seem to be capable of doing nothing else than being a scribe for former divines. And this is what I'm doing for you as a scribe of those divines. I want to write these things out for you, as it were. I want you to come up to these attainments of the church in the hope that maybe this generation of children or their children will be able to make the advance that is so desirable we shouldn't sacralize the Westminster standards they were not meant to be the end of theology they were just the next step and there ought to be a confession coming in the future that subsumes all of these things and goes further than these things That's what we're looking for. I know that we cannot do it, but we must prepare the way for our children and our children's children to do so. So we're taking up the standards for the sake of unity and uniformity in accordance with the highest attainments of the church, but we're also taking up these standards for the sake of our children. and as you look about you and you see all of these children you know that this is a seasonable thing to be done and they must be trained we have to pass this precious inheritance on to them so that they might receive it and as I mentioned go further than what we have gone and see clearer than what we have been able to see so this recommends a two-fold approach there will be a lot of preaching concerning them in this series and directed to them but also a lot of preaching to parents about how to teach these doctrines to their children and this is really the key of course we know that a minister is to rightly divide the word of truth which means in a sermon he is to give something to the most advanced man sitting there in the congregation and also be able to partition it out so even the weakest of intellect in the congregation is able to give something children And indeed we find that as the children begin to talk, they are able to get a little something according to their capacity. But for all of you that have children, you know that to tell a child something one time is not sufficient, neither in doctrine nor in practice. But you have to tell them over and over and over again. I had to get over this naivete in my own parenting. Didn't I just tell you that? And then I find, well, you have to repeat it for about a hundred days before it seems like it works in there and then they get it. Like the light bulb goes on. It's very much like kneading flour into dough. You've got to keep working it in there and working it in there and working it in there. Sermons are part of that, but not even the greater part. Parents really have the responsibility of working this stuff into their children in a very practical and concrete way. Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 6. later on we'll talk a little bit about why because the question will always come up, well why creeds and confessions and is it even biblical to have such a thing? we'll talk about that later but this text in and of itself is a great defense of having a catechism because in some ways Moses presents the most basic of all possible catechisms in what is known as Shema which is a summary of the faith hero Israel, verse 4 The Lord our God is one Lord. In other words, Jehovah is your God and he is one. Monotheism, a summary in the briefest of all possible statements of the faith. Jehovah is your God. And then he summarizes ethics for them in one comprehensive principle. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. It's a summary of all of ethics. You can take that one statement in ethics and what will Jesus do? But he'll break it into two logically. He says, what does it mean to love God with all that you are, except also to love his image bearer? Love your neighbor as yourself. And then those two become logically broken up into ten. Well, what does that look like? Well, it looks like the first and second table of the law. And then you say, well Moses, what does that practically look like for us in our concrete situation? Well, that's Deuteronomy 6 through 27. That's what the Ten Commandments look like in the Promised Land. So here you have a great defense of catechizing in general. Here he gives them a catechism. The two things that I want you to be lisping in the ears of your babies to teach them right from the beginning that Jehovah is their God and they are to love Him with all that they are. And verse 6, And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. In other words, you're going to take these truths that I'm teaching you, and you're going to work them into your children all the time. What does it mean except sitting down and rising up and lying down and walking by the way? Except a very verbose way of saying all of the time and in all situations. Teach your children to work. Work with them. and teach them that it's a religious responsibility and obligation. Teach them while they're working, whether it's older and they're doing yard work, or whether they're younger and they're just starting to learn to put away their dishes or fold a little bit of laundry, that they're working for the Lord Christ in those things. They're to do their best work for the glory of their Master. You start to work those things. They don't need to hear it one time. We didn't need to hear it just one time. We need to hear it over and over and over again. This is the way that truths get worked into children. When you teach them science, teach them that the Lord God made all of these things for His own glory. When you teach them any discipline, any intellectual discipline, teach them that it's a revelation of God, His character, His glory, whatever it might be. This is how you work a theistic worldview into their minds. This is why it was always a great failure for Christians to think, well, I'm going to send my child away to the government school for 10 hours and then try to deprogram them when they get home. Once they learn that science and math and history has nothing to do with God, you're not going to be able to undo it in 15 minutes at home with a Bible lesson. You need to work that stuff into their minds. Remember, they're sinners. this is not natural or native to them it has to be worked into them so practically speaking I will be doing a lot of discussing on how to train our children in these things and finally I don't know about you but sometimes as a head of household I've been reading a passage of scripture and I thought to my family in the context of family worship and I thought well what am I going to do with that? I have no idea hardly what I just read, much less how to help my family understand it. And no doubt for a while you'll continue to come across a lot of passages that are like that. I'll tell you a story about seminary. One of the best things I learned at seminary, though not the best, a simple statement that seemed to make impact on no one else but me in the room. my church history professor was lecturing on Calvin and he said this he said Calvin's institutes were not intended primarily as a systematic theology but as an exegetical handbook and the light bulb went on see Calvin was writing an exegetical handbook when you read the Bible this is what you ought to get out of it and if this is not what you're getting out of it you've gone wrong The Westminster Standards can also be used as an exegetical handbook. So you might read a passage and you might say, I don't know what to do with all of this. But we learned a little something about the civil magistrate. And I remember what the standards had to say about that. Let me teach you about that. And we learned a little something about church government. I see a little echo of that. Let me talk to you about that. And I see something about the Fifth Commandment here. Honor thy father and thy mother. Remember when we had that in the larger catechism? Let's talk about that. So you might not understand all of it, but there will be a lot of material here for taking home and working these truths into your family as you are reading through the Bible in your family worship. Learn to use the Confession of Faith as an exegetical handbook. And there are two resources that I think will help you. that you can use. One is Stephen Pribble's little book. I don't remember the title of it exactly, but it's a scripture index of the Westminster Standards. So if you're working your way through a book, you can flip open Pribble's index, and if they used it as a proof text anywhere, you can go to that. Another possible resource is Steve Mooring's EPP computer program, which can also work as an index. If you click on a verse, it'll tell you if that appears anywhere in the Westminster Standards as a proof text. These are great tools for finding out how the Westminster divines were applying these Bible verses themselves. What they were doing with these passages of scripture. And as Schaff says, this was a generation of exegetes the greatest that the world has yet to see. The greatest that the world has yet to see. In other words, we have not surpassed or gone further than what they have gone. So let me give you just a little bit of a pep talk. For the sake of unity and uniformity and for the sake of our children, do not miss a sermon. You might not always be able to be here bodily, but get them off the internet, get them off sermon audio and listen to all of these things so that we can be thinking the same thoughts and speaking the same words about these things and walking forward together. That's my great end or design and as we see it as the most biblical one. And also, don't get left behind, but interface with your pastor if you have questions about these things. Ask your questions. I was just reading this this morning, and God always gives seasonable things. I've been working through the Gospel of Matthew with Dr. Collenges, an old Puritan divine who wrote that section for Matthew Poole in his commentary. And he said how godly it was for the disciples in that time to go to the Lord Jesus. their preacher of the gospel when they had questions. He started to teach the people in parables and they go with two questions. What does all this mean and why are you doing it? And we're a little unclear about what you're saying ourselves. And could you give us some insight into the particulars of this parable? And he does. He doesn't reprove them or rebuke them. It was a godly thing for disciples, learners, students to go to their master and to ask for further information and clarification and points where they were confused and so let us also be doing that now very briefly what is our method that we're going to be using in the study of the standards you could also call this how to listen to these sermons to make sure that you're following along We're going to be using the confession itself as a rubric to all of the standards. So we're going to be following the confession, but where it interfaces with the catechisms, with the directory of worship and with the form of government, we're going to talk about those things as well. I should say, it won't be exhaustive. We won't cover every sentence in all of these standards, but it will be comprehensive. In other words, we'll cover all of the ground, even if we don't cover all of the sentences. So the outlines that you will receive will look like this. You'll get a doctrinal proposition from the Confession of Faith. This is the way to look in the outline. A doctrinal proposition. Some of those we're going to develop, and some of those we're not. Now again, I want this to take less than a year. So we can't develop all of them as fully as they could be developed. Some of them are very obvious and not much debated. So I'll simply mention them and then we'll move on. But in those areas where there has been much difficulty or much controversy or even great practical usefulness, we will plant ourselves on those and work those over. We'll develop them biblically Historically, because you have to understand almost every sentence in the standards has come out of some controversy in the life of the church where they found it necessary to rule on the matter according to the word of God. So we'll look at it historically, we'll look for the biblical justification and also practical applications. And as I mentioned earlier, each section will also be developed in such a way as to help you teach these things and impress these things upon your children. So that is going to be our method. So let us call upon the name of the Lord and ask him to bless our endeavors. Please rise. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. www.SWRB.com We can also be reached by email at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N, Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.