Busenitz, Lawson, MacArthur, and Sproul: Questions and Answers

the first question the doctrines of grace are a new concept what are some tips for showing mercy and grace and introducing them without compromising the Scriptures I think you just preach the Bible as it is I mean you pick a book in the Bible chapter one verse one preach your way through that book God sets the agenda you come to those issues as they arise in the text you speak very clearly you speak the truth in love you do need to have some sensitivity as to where your church is how hard you push down on the gas pedal at those certain points you may be turning a battleship around instead of a rowboat and it takes a little time dr. MacArthur has said you preach with patience and and then you move on to the next literary unit as you preach through that book in the Bible and it has a wonderful balance that's already built into the scripture itself it's like you cook one side of the hamburger then you flip it over and you cook the other side you don't just keep grilling one side and so there's both divine sovereignty and then human responsibility sometimes it's within the same verse and within the same cluster but I think that's the best way and people understand that you don't have an agenda you haven't gone out of your way to introduce this it's in the Bible right there now what's amazing in so many New Testament books is that it's on the front doorstep of that book like we said with Ephesians 1 there are countless other New Testament books exactly like that so it's there but you know the old saying as Luther said you don't defend a line you just turn it loose and that's what we do but with much patience and instruction and I think a lot of pastoral care and sensitivity and love goes a long way and you know rome wasn't built in a day and you don't turn everything around in a day simplerev Ramon de always reforming I mean it's it's an ongoing process and you move from one truth that crystallizes to the next truth but you're putting bricks in a wall and it's not just a one brick wall it's multiple texts and multiple in his dreams he's always trying to do an impression of me so um so you were saying yes what I was saying is uh but it's it's overtime well you know my favorite one of my favorite theologians gave advice on that it was John Wayne it's a pilgrim tell me he says smile when you say that partner seriously one of the best tactics that I know is when you want to deal with the hard sayings don't present them in the first person let Jesus teach you go to Jesus and because there will be a certain attention that people will give to Christ that they won't give to me or to you or anybody else in and let them know that this is what he taught yeah and you could start with John 15 you did not choose me I chose you not too confusing I think another element i think another element and that's the words of Jesus another element that is important is to present the sovereignty of God as the most comforting doctrine in Scripture and I think you come to comfort your people I remember a huge influx of people into our church and I actually met them in a private room it all come from the largest charismatic church in the area and they had they were actually they were the children and grandchildren of staff members of that church and I was sitting talking to 25 or 30 of these people in a room and I said what brought you here and they said we cannot any longer live under the sovereignty of Satan it's it was a crushing thing to believe that Satan was sovereign it reached the point where they had a pastor a prophet came on a Wednesday night and put his hands on their pastor and said he's going to do miracle it's going to be a prophet to the world he's going to carry the message across the world he's going to be God's prophet for this time that night he had a brain aneurysm and died the church I know very well I went to the funeral that young man and I said what happened to the prophecy the answer I heard was that the potential was so powerful Satan killed him I always said that's an extreme situation but I don't I don't think there's anything more wonderful than living under the sovereignty of God that is the most comforting of all doctrines yeah John just to add to that after the book signing I met a man who has driven a great distance to be here at this conference and shared with me he had been listening the sermons and his wife has passed away six months ago after suffering was with Alzheimer's and he had tears coming down both cheeks his son was next to him and I said let let me encourage you that was the perfect day for your wife to go to heaven because God had numbered all of our days when as yet there was not one of them and it was the all-wise allotment of God to give that number of days and it's you you trust in the providence and in the sovereignty of God and that's the most comforting truth that there is and I told him that's what I when I learned that my father passed away you know the cell phones put in your hand when you are preaching in a conference and you step off the platform and your wife says your father just passed away you just rest and this was the appointed time this was the perfect time in God's all-wise Providence and you you can't just replay everything in your mind if I'd only done this if I'd done that I should have been there not been there I mean you rest in the sovereignty of God so just to affirm that John that's it's the most comforting truth that he works all things after the counsel of his will let me just put a little twist on this and I'd love for you dr. Busey nuts to speak to this thinking in terms of bringing these doctrines to the church and how a pastor with patience and over time leads people into the word and the riches of God's Word and that's a tremendous task that you have there at the Masters seminary so if you just care to comment in terms of not entering the church but on the pastoral preparation side to prepare them for leading congregations into these truths yeah absolutely I had the incredible privilege of growing up at Grace Community Church under the preaching ministry of dr. John MacArthur and so he is for me a model of how this works itself out in practical pastoral ministry and to emphasize and to preach and teach from the scriptures the doctrine of God's sovereignty when times are good equips your people to cling to that doctrine when times are hard and I saw that modeled I've seen that modeled my entire life and to see the the practical outworking of that when the trials come people remember the doctrine that they've been taught they see it in the scriptures and they have hope thank you been talking about the doctrine of election and it came up the issue of for knowledge and for nation so we have two questions in that field since God for ordained everything that has happened and will happen and nothing happens without him allowing it to happen did he for ordained Satan and the fall the Westminster Confession I believe is chapter 3 says that God from all eternity at immutably death ordain whatsoever comes to pass semicolon and and after that after the semicolon it says but not in such a way as to do away with secondary causes or violating the will of man and so on and echoing what agustin said centuries before is that God ordains everything that comes to pass in a certain sense and you have to use that qualifier carefully in a certain sense but if it's true that God ordains everything that comes to pass and it's true that God ordained Satan's creation the ordains even my sin that I commit because that's part of everything that comes to pass now so that doesn't mean however that God is the author of evil but he is the author of everything that comes to pass again in a second in the secondary sense at least and so I say to people evil is evil Satan is Satan and it's improper to call good evil or evil good but even though evil is evil and Satan is Satan it's good that there is evil and it's good that there is Satan because as Luther says it's God's devil that has a deal with the devil we don't we're not a eternal dualism but rather God is sovereign over all of these things and he brings all of these things out of his eternal purposes to bring everything together for good for his ultimate purposes so I don't think we should shrink from acknowledging if God is sovereign then it has to be that in a certain sense he ordains whatsoever come to pass if a simple way to look at it is this God knows before I sin that I'm going to sin we all understand it God also has the power to vaporize me before I commit that sin right and when you talk about God's permitting it you know that's not some weak answer really because he does more than permitted but they might get vaporize at the very least at the very least God chooses to let me do it rather than not to let me do it so insofar as God who is capable of stopping me from doing something chooses not to stop me from doing it in a certain sense he ordains that I do it otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it that's simple and then simple right you get it I think I think the other the other end of it is that he doesn't stop us from doing it because it serves his ultimate glory to allow us to do it otherwise how could he put on display all those attributes of his nature that are related to how he deals with sinners justice wrath judgment mercy grace compassion forgiveness without sin none of that is on display God is fully glorified when he fully displays all of his attributes which necessitates the reality of evil in the world so that that can also be put on display for his own glory so what if God what if God allows vessels of Wrath are we going to question that because therein he displays his glory I would venture to say that when you come to praise the Lord and you come to worship you might worship him for his omniscience omnipotence omnipresence you might worship him for his immutability you might worship him for his creative power but my guess is that that which elicits the most profound worship out of your heart are all those attributes of God put on display in your salvation which is a result of your sin and that's what we're going to be doing all forever in heaven as we look at Revelation chapter 5 we hear everyone saying worthy is the Lamb that slain that that will be the ringing worship of heaven surrounding the salvation of God which was brought into being because God didn't stop sinners from sinning thank you with regards to Romans 8:29 why is for new presented with predestination are we predestined because he foreknew who would accept him I almost said a bad word in fact I'm still tempted I don't want to just say no how was the heck no I think we are not in we got it I mean this is the most common view against the biblical view of predestination the idea of the pressing view of predestination namely that God looks down through the corridor time he knows in advance who's going to say yes to the gospel and who is going to say no to the gospel and those whom he knows from all eternity will say yes to the gospel he then predestined so that his predestination is based on his for knowledge that's not an explanation of predestination it's the denial of predestination there's no possible way that God can predestinate anyone or anything which he did not for know obviously those whom he predestined he knows who it is who made predestined and so there's a reason why in the golden chain foreknowledge starts starts the chain before predestination thank you we also appreciate your two-word answer Megan Winton yeah I and I we talked about it with John 10 today I know my own and my own know me that verb conozco to know in a loving relationship he put four in front of it it's those whom he previously loved with a distinguishing love John Murray and his commentary on Romans has a special appendix on just the word produce Co for knowledge and that Romans 8:29 does not say those the it does not say what he foresaw it says whom he foreknew it's not referring to events or circumstances in the future that he foresaw it's referring to individuals whom he previously loved and he helps clarify that in the next chapter in Romans 913 Jacob I loved and Esau hated so it's it's far more than just knowing about but intimately loving beforehand before the foundation of the world and if you examine carefully all of the elements that are listed in the order salutis in the golden chain if you come to the called those whom he foreknew that he also predestined those whom he predestined that he also called and it's all the elliptical sense of that passage is all whom he foreknew that he predestined all whom he predestined that he called all whom he called that he justified you have to understand what it means to be called of God in that context because it's not just the outward call because not everybody who's called outwardly response to that call but all who are called in this case respond and are justified and so all whom he foreknew that he predestined all who they're predestined are the called and all who are called or justified all or justify to glorify so it can't mean linguistically that the prescient view is in view here if if it's talking about an eternal effectual calling does that make sense yes thank you you have to say that yes still want to get good grades from you we have another question here in the doctrine of salvation are we saved by jesus's life or death or both and the short answer is both anyone like to elaborate well I think maybe that's what I was conveying last night that we're saved by God were saved by God imputed to us a righteousness that is alien to us that is the very righteousness that he possesses manifest and lived out in his son whose life is placed as a substitute for ours and we're also that is you could say the active righteousness of Christ as theologians have talked about it but but we also have been saved by the passive righteousness of Christ who became a sacrifice for sin for our sins so I think you have to take the whole thing I think this is this is correct and even though people have tried to argue against that I think the active righteousness of Christ in living that life of 33 years and and a holy harmless undefiled life and all points tempted like as we are yet without sin there is therefore a life a life that can be credited to our account just as there is a death that can be credited to our account both of those are essential elements of understanding the fullness of how that imputation works and that's essentially what's being said in 2nd Corinthians 5:21 our sins imputed to him his righteousness imputed to us that was that that was at point lessening all Jesus it was died for our sins and be punished for our guilt that would simply restore us to the situation Adam before the fall it would make us innocent but give us no positive righteousness that's why we need the life of Christ as well as the death of Christ to have salvation we've heard a lot of Spurgeon quotes and somebody worked a Spurgeon quote into the question Charles Spurgeon said I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the law how would you explain the use of the law as we share the gospel with individuals today will the laws the divine standard by which we are measured and Spurgeon said that in the conversion of the sinner that there are ten mules that must pull ten plows that break up the soil so that then the seed of the gospel can be sown into that ploughed up soil that if all we do is just scatter the seed without plowing up the ground it just remains on the surface and so there is much use in preaching the law because it exposes our sin and reveals us to have fallen short of the glory of God and it is the law that reveals to us our need for Christ and really to go back what was just said - and then to realize that there is one who in my place kept all the requirements of this law and his active righteousness can be credited to me as you study the four Gospels Jesus did not have a pathway to do evangelism he met the woman at the well Nicodemus the rich young ruler a lawyer various different people with different bridges in essence that he crossed over and with the rich young ruler he certainly used the law to expose his heart to him we don't have the full account of everything that he said to everyone else but nevertheless and the laws written on the heart also I think that's a key thing is the only Ally you have in the sinner the only ally you have in the center is the law if he is a sinner who knows the Word of God then you have the law of God written if he is a sinner who does not know the law of God you have the law of God in the heart Romans 2 and the law of God in the heart is activated by the conscience which either accuses or excuses that is the only Ally we have in the heart of the sinner is the law of God and we cannot abandon that that is all we've got if that's if that law which that sinner knows the written law or does or doesn't know the written law like the Jews but like the Gentiles has the law of God written in his heart and that conscience is given by God to make that law bite at him when he sins just even an ignorant sinner then that is all we've got are you here today trends well we got to get away from the law because people don't want Authority we got to talk about idols of the heart and because people can identify with that you are if you do anything other than that go at the law of God written and the law of God written in the heart which is part of being human you have literally walked away from the only Ally you have in the Fallen heart and that is the law of God and you go at that law and you expose that law and the violations of that law and you come to the to the sinner with the hope of forgiveness and restoration reconciliation and this also shows how prescient and prophetic Spurgeon was looking to the future my friend Steve Lawson is one of the ten mules dr. Sproul you might be pleased to know that most of the people here this is their first time at a Ligonier conference and their first time in st. andrew's chapel now they've not had the experience of entering st. andrew's chapel on a Sunday because the narthex has rearranged for our conference but ordinarily on a Sunday they would have a different experience if they were to come through that entrance and come into st. Andrews would you like to explain that a little bit in terms of the law and the gospel in terms of how you've designed and what you've put out there in the narthex well part of it is architectural manifestation of the law and the gospel itself you walk into the North X on Sunday morning it's dark and you make a transition from the secular to the sacred as you walk through the door but you're confronted immediately by the law and out there there is a three or four hundred year old copy of a scroll of the Torah open to Genesis I'm sorry Exodus 20 I know it was in there so on so the first thing they confront is the law before they enter into the sanctuary and into the nave and in the in the ancient world the Gothic design was to was to shape the church in the form of a cruciform with a crucifix where you have the vertical and then the two wings of the shape of the cross the vertical symbolizes what what we call propitiation where God is satisfied in his wrath and judgment by the gospel and and on the cross section of expiation where we see our sins have been carried away from us through the work of Christ and you also come out of the darkness and into the light and into the center part of the church which is called the nave out of which the Navy was named and it had to do with going all the way back to the Cipriani formula you know I can't even remember what out of the apart from apart from the church there's a new station extra ecclesiam nulla Salus out of this apartment Church in their salvation and the idea being that the the nave is like the Ark where people flee for safety for resume for salvation from the coming wrath and so there's all that symbolism that's involved in the and is that what you that was so everyone should come back Sunday to hear you preach and experience entering from the law to the gospel right thank you another question regarding doctrine of salvation regarding profession versus possession of faith and the showing of evidence is there a minimum level of evidence that should be seen in the life of the believer to know if you are saved if so what is that evidence well first John gives a series of 9 tests depending upon how you divide up the book of 1st John we're regeneration is the root and there is sanctification as the fruit and there is the necessary evidence of changed and regenerated life and so we have the scripture itself now there is there is not it's not given as a spectrum from 1 to 100 and so where are you on this the Spirit of God would have to either convict or assure a heart of what I see taking place in my life and it's not a multiple-choice it's not that you get to pick 3 out of these 9 evident of the necessary fruit of the new birth it's it's all a work of grace and it evidences itself in the one who is born from above so it's presented as it's there or it's not there one of the great and ghastly errors not just air but heresies that permeates the evangelical world today is the doctrine of the carnal Christian the doctrine the carnal Christian was first set forth in a theological framework that taught this that at regeneration the holy spirit can come in and save a person without changing the person at all there had to be a second stage where there was lordship introduced on the throne of the soul where for a person to be spirit filled and so on and not be carnal but the idea was you could be a believer and be altogether carnal no the Bible says we are carnal we'll sort were sold under sin and as long as we're in this life we still have a certain fleshiness that accompanies our walk as Christians but if you're 100% flesh 100% carnal you're 100% unconverted but this is an excuse for people to say well I answer the call I raise my hand I signed the card made the pledge therefore I'm saved even though there is no evidence of it whatsoever you can still be in a state of utter carnality and be a safe person John MacArthur wrote the definitive work against that thank goodness for that Jon that you stood up into that battle field which was so vital because otherwise you have multitudes of people going back to 1969 who are saying Lord Lord who and Jesus are going to say please leave I don't know who you are you workers of lawlessness or iniquity because I am I going too fast there's no such thing as a totally carnal converted person of course the book is the Gospel according to Jesus the author is right here would you like to add to that question or answer I'm going to be speaking in a little bit on the perseverance of the saints this speaks to that doctrine because eternal life persevere z-man's fest ly in in every life in which it has been granted by God we talked about that a little earlier and the other qat I absolutely agree that there's no such thing as a a carnal Christian in the sense that there's no changed life but that that was the idea that in fact there were books being produced at the time I wrote the Gospel according to Jesus that said as a statement of fact if you ever believed in the Lord Jesus Christ you can now be an unbelieving believer deny Christ and have no evidence of any salvation in your life and you're on your way to heaven you'll get there one book called the hungry inherit said you'll get there but you won't inherit you'd be like you'd be like they'll be like a ghetto in heaven burn for non lordship people call it get out of hell huh we call that ghetto yeah all that ghetto hell I know I understand that you you managed to get that word in there I'm very proud of you there you go read my mind again students we have some more theological questions but let's drop back for a little bit and maybe ask a bit more of a question in your own formation could each of you identify a figure or two from church history who impacted your ministry or your own theological formation yeah that's a wonderful question I have the privilege of teaching historical theology at the Masters seminary and there's many different individuals who immediately come into my mind I recently worked on a project tracing the doctrine of justification by faith prior to the Reformation and so some of the individuals who come to my mind are those who I studied for that project and one of them is Clement of Rome who the Roman Catholic Church considers to be the fourth Pope and yet he has one of the clearest statements of justification by faith alone in all of patristic literature in the 32nd chapter of first Clement I love to tell Roman Catholics that I meet that their fourth Pope was actually a Protestant and so uh sir first one yes so for those of you that didn't hear he said so was their first one beyond Clement of Rome someone else yes certainly on the theological level Agustin and then on the exegetical or expository level his counterpart in the East Chrysostom the father really of expository preaching so to trace some of those individuals prior to the Reformation is just so encouraging to recognize that the evangelical convictions that we hold dear they're summarized in the five SOLAS they were held by generations of believers in the first fifteen hundred years of church history as well and the faith that we hold dear it's not just 500 years old it's 2,000 years old and we rejoice with all of those generations of believers throughout all of church history with whom we resonate at that level thank you and this is a question for all of you so my guy is your guy a little fella from Southampton our North Hampton not solving Northampton Massachusetts we're talking about Jonathan Edwards dr. Lawson yeah God uses different people in our lives as we're at different stages we read different books and so it doesn't necessarily mean that this is the towering theologian like Jonathan Edwards but it's who God used in my life almost like a key to unlock a far more reformed understanding of salvation and Providence in the godhead and all of that it was reading Thomas Watson's book a body of divinity as he preached through the Westminster Confession and I'd never read anything like this there was more of God in the table of contents than there was in other books that were being written the first half was the attributes of God in the second half the table of contents was everything flowing out of God and I was profound impressed and he writes in such a simple way it's almost like eating candy it's just easy pithy sentences that are easily digestible and that's what I needed at that time because I was chewing on this and trying to understand this and I remember coming to a solidified understanding of the doctrine of election and the effectual call of God and it was it was really almost like I was saved all over again it was just it's so stunned me that I I literally for the next three months almost didn't say anything I felt like job at the end of job at the end of job I just need to be quiet because I've been wrong for so long and then I read the chapter on Providence and realized it's God is sovereign in it's beyond just salvation it's everything and that that thought had never even entered my mind and and so reading a simple of a Puritan pastor suffering under the great ejection is Thomas Watson God used that book in a wonderful way and then I remember wrestling with so what do I do with this sovereignty because if everyone's going to be saved he's going to be saved then why am i living in a garage apartment in an alley in Dallas why don't I just go back to the bank and have a nice job and I remember just standing in the bookstore and reading Spurgeon sermons and how on fire he was for God and the gospel in Christ and he would preach the sovereignty of God and then plead for sinners to be saved and like dr. MacArthur quoted last night we urge you on behalf of God be reconciled so then to follow up with Spurgeon to see that that we who believe in the sovereignty of God ought to be the most powerful preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ so those two men in church history for me were game changers being throw Whitfield in as well they I don't know that we've ever had that conversation but the first two Puritan books I ever read one of them was body of divinity and you talked about the simplicity the the terseness the short sentences and I remember the analogies all kinds of natural analogies flowers gardens grass animals Suns stars rain and I needed those those were those were openers for me and then the second book that just completed to use your phrase rocked my world was Stephen char knocks existence in attributes of God and I I couldn't even imagine that anyone could have that many things to say about God and it's a book for your life it's a book for your your entire life to try to continue to read and read and read not not even just the material in the book but the idea that a man could apply himself to the scripture to come to all of that vast grasp of the divine nature showed me a depth of commitment to scripture that I had never ever imagined since God is love and love does not seek its own how do we reconcile that with God doing everything for his own pleasure so since God is love and love does not seek its own how do we reconcile that with God doing everything for his own pleasure I love questions like that the first first thing is that well two things the love of man that is defined for us in 1st Corinthians 13 is a true and authentic example of what love is but it doesn't begin to compare with the vastness of the love of God secondly we stumble over statements like that because we have a tendency to pour into words like pleasure our general concept of pleasure that which just feels good as a lot of nice cool ideas associated with it but biblically the concept of God's pleasure is that that is pleasing to him and the only thing that is ultimately pleasing to God is that which is perfectly good and if we understand the relationship between the love of God and the goodness of God then we see the connection with the pleasure of God it's God's good pleasure that which really you know when I say I walk on and fear of blasphemy when I sometimes wonder about the economy of the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit when the Spirit inspires statements like God's good pleasure I think such a redundancy has never been written by any mortal being because what other kind of pleasure does God have except a good pleasure there's no such thing as a bad pleasure in the nature of God but because of our weakness and even you've got Stoops to our weaknesses by amplifying that word pleasure by the prefix good but I think we have to distinguish the pleasure of God what is pleasing to God and what is not what is sometimes pleasing to us that is not pleasing to God I also think it's a short-sighted question because God so loved that he gave His only begotten Son love in the case of God did not merely seek his own but in satisfying his own desire he redeemed humanity and brought them to glory and the testimony of Jesus is to say greater love has no one than this that a man lay down his life for his friends so I think that's a short-sighted question and in the process of God seeking his own pleasure he has embraced a complete redeemed humanity of unworthy sinners as an expression of his love it is it is his love that sought us to bring us to him not not for his own pleasure alone but he found pleasure in our eternal pleasure in him got direct this next question to you dr. Busey Nets this regards of the world in which we find ourselves and so the question is given that the nature of the issues that we're facing today how should the church be preparing pastors to minister to this next generation yeah I think the answer to that question is the same answer that has always been and that is that we preach Christ and in fact at the Masters seminary we tell our men that we preach Christ and what we mean by that is what Paul meant by that in first Corinthians 1:23 when in the midst of a countercultural anti gospel antagonistic society Paul said we preach Christ crucified it's foolishness to the Greeks it's a stumbling block to the Jews but the Lord Jesus Christ is and always will be the solution for society's ills and problems and it's the heart of the gospel as even was said earlier in the qat so we preach Christ and we recognize that the Scriptures are the word of Christ as it says in Colossians 3:16 and that the Scriptures are empowered by the Spirit of Christ and we do this then for the glory of Christ so we preach Christ to a world that hates Christ but needs Christ we preach the word of Christ we preach the word of Christ empowered by the Spirit of Christ and we do it for the glory of Christ and as long as we seek to do that then we have what the world needs and it is the knowledge of God that has been revealed in the scriptures is all that is needed for life and godliness we have what the world needs and if we're faithful to do what God has called us to do then we trust that he will bless his word and his kingdom will advance things all the time that say that as culture changes with cell phones and internet and all of that sort of thing the generations change from time to time and so you have to make a different approach to Generation X or Y or Z or whatever it is in our day and age and you I hear all the time well logic is no longer relative to people so we can't address people through the mind in order to get to the heart with the bypass the mind and speak directly to the heart well here's something that's very important theologically the constituent nature of human beings remains the same generations change culture changes and all the rest but the human constituent nature does not change and the way to the heart and to the soul is through the mind through the Word of God and so these truths don't change and so I'm just seconding the motion which we are over here amen thank you another theological question regarding the immutability of God how should we take passages that seemingly show God having changing emotions for example the light or displeasure so how do we reconcile the doctrine of the immutability of God with these passages that seemingly show God changing emotions well whenever we develop doctrine and you're talking about theological dogmas and so on we're dealing with the principles drawn from the scripture and so we articulate the doctrines in a certain language that we use when we come to the Scriptures themselves we see that the Bible speaks in different ways metaphors and so on and we talk about anthropological language and when we see God being described as repenting and changing his mind and all of that well in a literal sense you you can't square immutability with changing God's mind okay well obviously when the Bible speaks about God changing his mind that's speaking anthropologically describing God to us in human terms and by the way the only way God can speak to us is through human language because that's the only language we have and even when we abstract it we're still using human abstractions and and moving away from metaphor when the Bible says that he owns a cattle on a Thousand Hills it's not that we're to say oh well God is like a rancher in the sky that every now and then comes down to earth gets in a shootout at the OK Corral with the devil or something like that no it's human forms that's what we mean by anthropomorphic language it's speaking in the forms of human conversation and that's why you distinguish between narrative language for example and language that's found in the didactic expressions of Scripture if you only build your theology on the basis of narratives you have to say well God didn't know in advance whether Abraham would be obedient to his call to sacrifice Isaac and then suddenly there was an epiphany where God realized that Abraham was going to follow through and so he stopped him and all that not come on we know better than that because in the didactic portions we are told that he doesn't change and he can't die and he doesn't lie and all of that even though these metaphorical expressions and figurative forms of speech are used throughout Scripture that's just like let me just say one other thing I hear the question all the time when we pray can we change God's mind and I always tell my students you know there's no such thing as a stupid question but that's a stupid question because if you think about it for 10 seconds you know what would it be what would cause God the change is mine God has decided he's going to do something does he and he overlooked my counsel and so that when I inform him of a better way then that causes him to change his mind or did he skip over some detail and he failed to understand it in his omniscience come on who has been God's guidance counselor prayer changes me it doesn't ever change God's mind because God is ultimately immutable yes so be your last question this is for each of you on the panel when you depart from this earth what is the one statement you would leave on your tombstone I told you I was sick he said I told you I was sick I I remember being in a Q&A with John Piper a few years ago and similar question was asked what do you want people to say about you when you're dead that kind of thought never enters my mind I think said my mind immediately goes to Paul's statement that it is required of stewards that a man be found faithful and I I would want to be remembered as having been faithful to proclaim the the Word of God and live the Word of God that that really is the beginning and end of my life that that is what I live and breathe for is to be a channel through which the Word of God can flow in every way possible and to just be able to finish by the grace of God well enough that faithful to to the Word of God would be would be sufficient for me well this is going to sound like I'm copying but my mind immediately went to Matthew 25 and to the words of the Lord Jesus there in that parallel that parable well done my good and faithful servant and we recognize that that's only possible by God's grace so maybe I would choose the word grace I thought also of the words of Richard Baxter who in the Saints everlasting rest said on the door of heaven write the free gift but on the floors of Hell right deserved because that is what we deserve and our entrance into eternal glory to worship around the throne of the Lamb is only possible by His grace yeah I think I would just want it to simply say Jesus Christ is Lord and in a sense be testifying to the gospel through what is on the tombstone whatever that would be and just pointing people upward the Christ have you ever been have you ever been to aspersions Greg I found it and he found a year ago and really hard to find it is hard to find you remember was written on it um Wow I cannot John no because it was so nondescript he's so obscure so hard to find but it really doesn't matter but it's not what's on his tombstone that matters it's what lives from his teaching and his life but that was a that was a sad day for me emotionally to try to find that place why on the backside of Northwood that in the end his legacy far extends far beyond any tombstone so will yours did you join with me in thanking our panelists you

Channel: Reformation Bible College

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Length: 56min 28sec (3388 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 25 2015