In Eric Bechler's sermon on the Lenten Baptist Confession, the focus is on God's decree, specifically His sovereignty and predestination. The sermon explores the concept of predestination and the apparent conflict between God's will and human free will, emphasizing that God's decree is predetermined, unchangeable, and made independently from eternity. It is highlighted that God does not ordain things arbitrarily; rather, His purpose is defined by His own will and holy counsel. The sermon stresses that nothing occurs without God's decree, yet God is not the author of sin. God's decree upholds the liberty of creatures, and secondary causes (natural forces and free actions) are used to accomplish His purpose. The sermon concludes with the notion that belief in a God who is in full control gives meaning to every moment, even amidst suffering, as everything has a purpose within God's eternal plan.

Our focus on the Lenten Baptist Confession over the next seven weeks will be of God's decree, specifically God's sovereignty and predestination. Predestination and the supposed conflict between God's will and man's free will has caused much confusion and many disagreements over the ages. So let's jump in and see what we have here. In the first part of this paragraph, God hath decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his will freely and unchangeably. No Webster defines the word decreed in theological terms as a predetermined purpose of God.

The purpose or determination of an immutable being whose plan of operation is like himself unchangeable. This is a really helpful definition for our purpose today, and it includes a couple of ideas that need touching on. One is God's decree is predetermined. God and his decree are unchangeable. God hath decreed in himself.

God has done this. He's done this by himself, not with anyone or anything else or their help. He did it by himself. And he did this from all eternity, from even before time began. Our sovereign Lord has ordained all things, and all things have been predetermined.

And how did he do this? It says in this paragraph, by his own will and his holy counsel, freely and unchangeably. God did not ordain all things arbitrarily or at random. God had a predetermined purpose defined by his own will and his holy counsel. God did this freely.

God was not coerced. God was not manipulated. We know God doesn't change. God doesn't change his plans. He is immutable, he's unchangeable, as are what he has ordained or planned.

God did not take a peek into the future to make or adjust his plans based on how certain people act or react. God did this on his own freely and unchangeably. Let's read a couple of verses regarding this, a part of the confession. From Isaiah 14, 24 through 27, the Lord of hosts has sworn saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall it stand.

That I will break the Assyrian in my land and upon my mountain tread him underfoot then shall his yoke depart from off them and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? From Psalm 115 verse 3, but our God is in the heavens.

He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Hebrews 6 17 which was just read, wherein God willing more abundantly to shoe unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. The next section in our paragraph touches on what God has decreed. God hath decreed in himself all things whatsoever comes to pass. That's everything.

That means there is nothing that happens that God has not decreed. Whatsoever comes to pass is His will. As R.C. Sproul has said, there is not one Adam outside of his control. He's perfectly sovereign.

For scriptural support, we turn to Paul's letters to the Romans and Ephesians, Romans 8.28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 11.36, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. And Ephesians 1.11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. So as there is God, neither the author of sin nor hath fellowship with any therein.

Here we read that God is not the author of sin. We know God is righteous. We know God is good. We know God is holy. We know God is light.

God does not create sin. God ordains it for his own holy purposes. Remember that our redemption came about by the sin of Judas, the Jewish leaders, the Jewish people, and the Romans in the crucifixion of Jesus, the Son of God. Even this was ordained by God. Again, turning to Scripture back in Genesis 18 25, that be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked.

That be far from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth do right. James 1.13, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." In 1 John 1, 5, this then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. In the next section we read, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is liberty or contingency of second causes taken away but rather established. We'll touch on two points here, Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature.

What does this mean? I'll defer to the website, thecalvinist.net, to give some explanation. When God ordains sin, he does no violence to the will of the creature, nor is their liberty hindered or taken away. Everyone committing sin and evil does so because they will and desire to do so. In the example about the crucifixion of the Lord, everyone in the act was a willing participant.

Judas, the Jewish leaders, the Romans, all really wanted to do these things and they were not forced to do so. Nonetheless, the scriptures are clear that they came to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. According to Reformed theology, God's decree establishes the liberty of creatures because their liberty is found within God's decree. This high and mysterious doctrine shows the wisdom of God in disposing all things and power and faithfulness in accomplishing his decree. How has he determined everything that takes place in time and yet he is not the author of sin or we are not forced to do those things which God ordained but freely carry out God's decree?

All these things remain truths revealed by scriptures but not fully comprehended by the full the human mind. Our authority in accepting this statement to be truthful is because the scriptures teach these things asserted in this chapter, not because our mind can comprehend the truths confessed. And regarding the phrase liberty or contingency of second causes, another website, monogism.com, offers an explanation regarding the primary and secondary causes. The theologians speaking of those forces truly operating in the world as secondary causes, God is the first cause, but the forces of nature and free actions of personal beings whom God has created are the second causes. And it is extremely important if we would be true to the Bible that the existence of secondary causes should not be denied.

Only it is important to observe that the two causes are not on the same plane. They're not coordinate, but one is completely subordinate to another. In every event in the natural world, God has completely accomplished what He willed to accomplish. He's not limited in any way by the forces of nature or by the free actions of his creatures. They act truly but they truly act only as he determined they shall act.

The correct way therefore expressing this relation between the secondary causes and God, the great first cause, is to say that God makes use of second causes to accomplish what is in accordance with his eternal purpose. Second causes are not independent forces whose cooperation he needs, but they are means that he employs Exactly as he will for me that was very helpful Hopefully it was for you therefore just because God is decreed or ordained all things doesn't mean he doesn't Utilizes the force of nature or free actions of his creatures to accomplish them. These means are not taken away, they are utilized, they are established. We can refer to some scripture as well for this section of the paragraph. John 19 11, Jesus answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.

Therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. Acts 2 23, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Proverbs 16 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Finally the last part of the first paragraph here we read, in which appears his wisdom in disposing all things and power and faithfulness accomplishing his decree. Refer to Numbers 23, 19, God is not man that he should lie, neither the Son of man that he should repent.

Hath he said and shall he not do it, or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?" In Ephesians 1, 3 through 5, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. I'd like to close today with an observation from R.J. Rush-Juney about God's decree. Hopefully it will be interesting for you. Simply stated, it tells us this, that the Lord is God, that God rules over all things and not chance.

You and I sit down frequently and try to plan our lives. We figure on so much time for work, so much time for play. We budget, we plan our finances, and decide that a certain sum will have to be set aside monthly for set payments, leaving us a specific sum of money for other purposes. We earnestly and sincerely try to plan our lives, but of course the trouble is that they don't plan well. Unexpected things happen, events which we cannot control, and neither our time nor our money prove our own.

Illness or extra expenses wipe out all our planning and sometimes years of hoping. Then we start planning and hoping all over again. It has its value. It gives us minor victories which would be impossible without planning, but we always know that we can never control every factor in our lives or in our work or in our world. We plan, but events outside our control continually compel us to alter and adjust our planning.

If God's planning were like our planning, then most of God's creation would have to be outside His control and moving under chance. It would make chance more important than God, because God's plans would be liable to change if events overruled His planning. We know that this is not so. There is no chance in the world. As James, the brother of Jesus, declared at the beginning at the Council of Jerusalem, no none to God are all his works from the beginning of the world, Acts 15, 18.

God's planning is perfect planning. It leaves nothing to chance in neither man nor events, but only God controls the course of his plan. What does this mean for us? It raises, of course, some questions about how to reconcile God's decree and human freedom and responsibility. Such questions we cannot answer.

We don't have the mind to grasp all their implications, but this one thing we know, that to believe in a God who is in full control gives meaning to every moment and every act in our lives. Nothing that happens to us is senseless or meaningless. The world is not out of hand or God out of the driver's seat. He is in full and absolute control. This means there is a purpose to all things which faith and patience can discern and trust in.

Every one of us suffer things and undergoes trials and tribulations which sorely try our spirits. It would make life senseless and cruel if we could believe no more than that these things were meaningless and chance acts. But if we can believe as we are asked by Scripture to believe that all these things are a part of God's decree and have a meaning in terms of Him, then we know that nothing is senseless, nothing is wasted in our lives or in all creation. Then we know that there is an eternal purpose in and behind all things, And our strength is in trusting in God and His workings. It enables us to say, although I do not know why these things have happened to me, I believe in the love and purpose which stands behind them and brought them to me.

Because the Lord planned this, I know that His purpose is to His eternal glory and to my strengthening and fulfilling in Him." With Paul we can say from Romans 8 28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are the called according to His purpose. Amen.