Sermon: Blessings of Westminster Standards: Practical Benefits

All right, turn with me in your Bibles if you would, to first Timothy chapter four. As has been said already, uh, this evening is the last installment of a preaching series on our faith focused, topic rooted, confessionally connected. And tonight we are going to conclude the series considering practical benefits of the Westminster Standards. Before we get to some of those practical benefits, though, I want to give somewhat of a short apologetic of how

in fact the confession could be practical and how it could be beneficial. So we're gonna consider from one Timothy four. Uh, that's gonna be our entryway into this topic. Before we get there, I don't want to assume that after these four weeks, you have it in your head quite yet what the Westminster standards even are. So if someone would be so bold, what are the three documents that comprise the Westminster standards?

Anyone want to take a shot at it?

Great Catechism. Shorter and larger. Great. And the confession of faith. All right, good job. The Westminster Larger and shorter Catechisms and the Westminster Confession of Faith. So we're gonna consider the practical benefits of those documents for our own Christian lives. But first, let's start in First Timothy chapter four, and before we get there, let's pray and ask for God's help and blessing. Well, father, we come to you now

and we desire to hear from you in your word. We ask that you would make it profitable for us. We know that all scripture is God breathed and is profitable for us. And we ask that by your spirit you would apply this holy word to our lives that we might grow in knowledge of you and in grace. And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our savior. Amen. Alright, first Timothy chapter four, looking at just verse 16,

keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this for By so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Well, dear friends, and Lord Jesus Christ, as Pastor Kevin said this morning when he was introducing the book of one Timothy to us, you reminded us that this is a book written by the apostle Paul to his young spiritual mentee, Timothy. And Paul is concerned by false teaching and by the false teachers. And so he is issuing this letter to address the issues that he finds in the church. We could say that Paul's letter in some ways is reactive.

He has noticed that there are issues in the church. He's reacting to the issues in the church, which is why he is seeking to address the issues. But in first Timothy chapter four, the apostle Paul is giving somewhat of a proactive word, a proactive word in the form of a personal exhortation to Timothy. It's a personal exhortation to this one man Timothy directly. And what he does in verses 11 through 16 is urges Timothy to set an example in his life,

in his behavior, and to devote himself to sound teaching as a faithful. Pastor Timothy is to be marked by his sound teaching and an example that is worthy of the gospel. And as we heard in our verse, he is to pay close attention to both his life, his example, and his teaching the gospel, the doctrine of his teaching. These two things are going to help Timothy be and continue to be a faithful teacher, unlike those who have swerved from the faith.

So Paul's exhortation is from one church leader to another church leader, but the exhortation to pay close attention to his life and to his doctrine is not only for church leaders, but it's for all Christians. It's for everyone. And we know this because Paul is concerned with the faith of Timothy's hearers at the end of verse 16, persist in this for, by so doing, you'll save both yourself and your hearers. Paul is aware that the hear Tim Timothy's hearers

are going to hear the message and take it to heart, but they're also going to see his example and they're going to follow his example. So if Timothy's hearers are going to persevere in the faith, Paul says you need to persevere in the faith, both in the sound teaching and sound living. So just to be crystal clear, do you notice how closely connected teaching and behavior or faith and practice are in these verses? You see that verses 12

and 13 set the example set. Uh, an example for the believers in speech and conduct in love, in faith, in purity has to do with his life. And verse 13, devote yourself to the public greeting of scripture to the, to exhortation, to teaching. So life and teaching. And then in verse 16, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. So there's a close relationship between the two here, but that's true throughout the rest of the scriptures.

We could use those words doctrine and duty just to give it two Ds for the alliteration. Those could be the simple heading for the entire book of Ephesians or the entire book of Romans, for example. It's a simplistic summarization to be fair, but it's an easy way to remember sort of the logic here in Paul's letters. So in Ephesians one through three, Paul is reminding the Ephesians of all that God has done for them in Christ.

He's telling them the gospel, he's reminding them of the gospel. And then at chapter four, verse one, Paul writes, therefore I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. In other words, in light of these gospel realities, live then like this. The gospel has implications for how you are to live. And of course, let's be clear, the order is of the utmost importance, right? This gospel first

and then our response comes to the gospel. We're not living so that we can be saved. We're responding to our salvation. By the way, God asks us to live the way he reveals his will. The imperatives we could say are grounded in the gospel indicatives. We are to be godly because the gospel produces godliness in the lives of believers. This morning, pastor Kevin mentioned that sometimes people think that doctrine gets in the way of worship.

A doctrine doesn't actually lead to worship. Doctrine is gets in the way of worship. I loved his line. Uh, people might fear that we get big heads and little hearts, but it's also the case that some people, maybe some people, you know, maybe it's even you, that doctrine gets in the way of Christian living.

Uh, just as pastor Kevin warned us not to buy into that false dichotomy, that doctrine and doxology are at odds. Be careful not to create a dichotomy between doctrine and duty. Doctrine and duty are not at odds. It's not as if you pick one, I'm gonna be the doctrine guy and I'm gonna be the faithful Christian living guy. We're not choosing which one to study Christian doctrine or Christian living. We're to study both doctrine leads to living,

it leads to doxology, and it sound doctrine ought to be manifest in our lives. If you just flip back to chapter one of one Timothy, notice that Paul actually says that there are ways of living that are inconsistent with sound doctrine. So he says in verse 10, the sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjures and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. He's warning, Paul is warning Timothy

and he's warning the church of people who are living in a way that is inconsistent with sound doctrine. There is a way to live in a way that's inconsistent with sound doctrine and vice versa. There is a way that you can live consistently with sound doctrine. So don't think that doctrine is inherently impractical. Doctrine is not inherently impractical. Doctrine informs us and instructs us how to live and to order our lives in a way that pleases God.

That's what truth does it. It helps us to order our lives in a way that pleases God. So just to summarize this thought, you cannot make a legitimate separation between sound doctrine and duty or belief and behavior. There's no legitimate separation between the two. And therefore then Paul says to Timothy and the Holy Spirit says through Paul, to us, pay close attention to your life and the teaching or to the doctrine.

So where do the Westminster standards fit into this?

Well, as has been stated several times over the last couple weeks, we would submit to you that the Westminster standards are a faithful summary of what the scriptures teach. They are articulate the sound doctrine of the scriptures succinctly and precisely. And to be clear, this is not to say that the Westminster standards are scripture. It's not to say that they are equal in authority to scripture, they are subordinate.

But in so far as the Westminster standards faithfully and accurately summarize the teaching of the scriptures, they are useful. They are useful and profitable to us as Christians. In one Timothy four, we've just seen how Paul is urging Timothy to watch his life and his doctrine. That's what the Westminster standards are trying to help us do as well. The same concerns as Paul. They instruct us what we are to believe and how we are to live.

So for that reason, since that's the concern of Paul, since it's the concern of the Westminster standards, I want to encourage you to make use of them. Yes, the Westminster standards teach robust doctrine. They're not light on doctrine, but doctrine is for living, doctrine is for living. And so this makes the Westminster standards both practical and beneficial. What I want you to do is to grab a copy of hymnal in front of you.

Um, if you didn't know, after all the hymns, there is a section on creeds and so invite you to turn with me to 8 47 into page 8 69.

So at 8 47 you'll see the Westminster Confession of Faith, and at 8 69 you'll see the shorter catechism. And what I wanna do here for just a moment is sort of walk you through both the confession and through the shorter catechism, long more, uh, more at length with the shorter catechism than the confession. But I just want you to see the basic structure and outline of the confession and of the shorter catechism so that as you approach them,

you'll see how the concerns which I spoke of from one Timothy, are true here in the confession of faith as well. So you'll notice as you flip through the confession of faith, there are 33 chapters. We could summarize these 33 chapters of the confession of faith into two major headings, doctrine, and duty. So doctrine, look at chapters one through 18, holy scripture, God in the trinity, God's covenant, Christ, uh, salvation,

right all the way through 18. And then, uh, for chapters 19 through 31, we get into duty. So the law of God, what does the law require of us, of Christian liberty, of Christian worship, laws and oaths, marriage, the church, so on and so forth, until we get to chapter 32 and 33, which deals with the end times and somewhat doctrine, somewhat duty because the end times are meant to help us live in the present times, right?

The doctrine of the end times. So it's kind of a mix of both. Do you wanna put it in doctrine? Do you wanna put it in duty? Uh, maybe it doesn't matter too much. So confession of faith summarizes for us what the, what the scriptures teach us to believe. The theology of faith chapters one through 18, 32 through 33 and how we're to live, they give us a practical Christian ethic, chapters 19 through 31. The larger catechism is not in, uh, the hymnal.

So you're gonna have to pick up a copy of the larger catechism yourself. But if you just take note, the larger catechism structure is very similar. The sections dedicated to doctrine are questions one through 90 and the sections dedicated to the duty of Christians 91 through 1 96. And that's gonna be true then of the shorter catechism. So flip over to the shorter catechism. And if you look at question and answer three, you'll see that

right here we actually have this summary, this short summary laid out for us. The question is what do the scriptures principally teach? And the answer the scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God doctrine and what duty God requires of man. So that is the very short summary in question and answer three of the entire teaching of scripture. And it's also gives us the headings or the framework for the shorter catechism.

So let's just walk through the shorter catechism so that you can see how this gets unpacked. So questions four through six concerns God's nature, uh, seven and following concerns what God does in his decrees and what he has done in the works of creation. Uh, question nine and in Providence, question 11. And then we have what God has done, his response to the sin of mankind. So from 13 onwards, and then how God has responded to sin

by making mankind partakers of the benefits of redemption. So you see that beginning at verse 20 or at, uh, question and answer 20 and so on and so forth. So we'll speak of Christ in his nature and then, uh, going all the way through our salvation, how do we become partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? We see that in 29 and 30 through justification, adoption, sanctification. And then you get to question and answer 39.

And here we find again that second heading, what is the duty which God requires of man? The answer, the duty which God requires of man is obedience to his revealed will. And so then from there, what is God's revealed will in some it's the 10 commandments. And so you'll see from 41 all the way through 81 in unpacking of the teaching of the 10 commandments, as God's revealed will, what is god's? What is our, what are we to do, uh,

in response to God's will? And then question and answer 82 reminds us what we all know of ourselves, right? Are we able to keep the law perfectly? No. Okay, so what then are we to do? 85 through 87 believe, repent and believe in Jesus Christ. And so then it speaks of what faith is, what is repentance unto life? And then from 88 onwards, it speaks of how we are built up in our faith in Christ and three primary ordinary ways,

the word sacraments and prayer. And you see each of those three unpacked from, uh, 88 through 1 0 7. So question and answer three offers a summary of the scriptures teaching. What do the scriptures teach? What man is to believe concerning God? What duty God requires of man and question and answer three sets the framework for the entire shorter catechism. I did not lose you, did I? Okay, hopefully that's helpful as you come to approach

the shorter catechism, you notice then in this question and in this catechism, doctrine and duty are linked together. They're closely linked. What we believe about God is important. How we live in light of God's revealed will is important. Okay, so how then is this practical? How then is this practical beyond what I've already said? If you were to think back just over the last month, I would hope that each of you could name a, a few things

about the benefits of the Westminster standards, how you could practically benefit. For example, we considered how the confession promotes unity of thoughts, unity of worship, unity of understanding, unity of accountability, not just in our church, but in churches that confess the same. So like our denomination, the PCA. We also considered how a confession like this connects us with the church of the past and of the future

and of the present. Pastor Kevin said this morning, the confession enables us to stay steady and growing in turbulent times. So over the last number of weeks, we have considered many practical benefits of the Westminster standards. And so what I wanna do tonight is just to give you some somewhat of a testimony, a testimony about how the standards have been practically beneficial to me. And I don't want to make the sermon about me.

What I want to do is hopefully give you an account. Maybe you've never encountered anyone who has found a confession like this to be helpful. I want to be that testimony. There are things that you can benefit from and perhaps you will be inspired to go find and seek the same benefits as you use this tool. So I'm just gonna give you three primary categories, how the confession and the catechisms have been practically beneficial in my own life.

The first is studying. Studying the standards have been tremendously helpful as a guide and an aid to my personal study of scripture. If you flip back over to 8 47

to the first chapter of, of the Confession of Faith, this is the first subject and it's the longest subject of the confession. Holy scripture. The chapter belief, um, the chapter establishes what we believe about scripture and why we believe what we believe about scripture. So in paragraph eight, scripture is inspired by God. In paragraph four, scripture is authoritative because God is the author of scripture. And paragraph 10,

therefore it is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. Paragraph five, scripture is infallible.

Paragraph one, scripture is necessary. It's necessary to impart knowledge of God, knowledge of his will, knowledge of the way of salvation. Paragraph seven, scripture is clear. Paragraph six, scripture is sufficient. Okay, what the first chapter of the confession is doing is teaching us what we are to believe about scripture and why we believe it. And it's practical. It's practical. It has been practical for me as I read the Bible.

When I open my Bible and I remember all that I've just recounted. It reminds me that I am opening the inspired word of God. When you open your Bible, do you expect God to speak to you? The confession reminds us that this is the inspired word of God. It is practical so that when you open your Bible, you approach it in humility, you approach the word of God, expectantly God is going to speak to me and he's going to speak clearly

and he's going to speak authoritatively because his words bear his authority on this point of clarity, uh, the Westminster confession here in chapter one has offered a really helpful nuance for me and a useful hermeneutical principle. Uh, looked there at paragraph seven. All things in scripture are not alike, plain in themselves nor alike, clear unto all. Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded

and opened in some place of scripture or other that not only the learned but the unlearned in a due use of the ordinary means may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. Not all things in scripture are alike clear. Do you know that to be true? I do. I have found that to be true, man. I really don't know what this means on first read. So what do you do if something isn't clear in scripture? Do you just close your Bible? Forget it.

I can't get it and it's not worth trying. No, you should not do that. What we are told in paragraph nine is that the infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is scripture itself. So when something, when there's a question about a scripture, you should go running to other places in scripture that are more clear about what is unclear. Scripture interprets scripture. So if you're confused at why something is in the Old

Testament RDA somewhere in the New Testament, that helps explain for you what you're reading. We see how Jesus, um, how that happens even in the scriptures. And uh, as Jesus explains to those disciples on the Emmaus road, what they are under what they are reading in the scriptures, he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, how everything in the Bible pointed to him. Go find in the scripture where you need clarity.

So this chapter has helped me become a better student of the Bible. And it is not just true of this chapter of the confession, it's true of the catechism. So I walk you through some of the structure of the shorter catechism. It should help you to get the whole logic of the Bible. It is meant to help you see how the Bible is one big story, how there is cohesion from start to finish.

So studying, studying the Bible, the confession, the catechisms, the catechisms are meant to help you become a better student of the Bible. Second category teaching standards have benefited me as a teacher of the Bible. And one of the primary ways this is true is in the language that it's imparted to me that theological and biblical language that it has imparted to me. So if you flip over in the shorter catechism to questions 33

and 35 on justification or sanctification and, uh, justification, 33 and 35 of catechism 33 asks, what is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein heth all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ and imputed to us and received by faith alone. And then 35 asks, what is sanctification? Sanctification is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man

after the image of God in our enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. Both sanctification, justification and sanctification are graces of the gospel. They always accompany one another. We remember that from Romans eight, right? The one who is justified will be glorified. Sanctification comes after justification, before glorification. They always accompany one another. But there are important differences.

Sanctification is not justification. Justification is not sanctification. And the language here and these two answers helps distinguish the two. What is justification? Justification is an act. It's an act. It's an act whereby God declares a sinner righteous. It's a complete and finished act once and for all, once and for all. Sanctification, however, is the work of God's free grace. It's an ongoing and progressive work.

And you hear just in those two words somewhat some of the difference. When God declares a sinner righteous, he is not immediately perfected, right? We know that to be true in our own lives. But when a sinner is declared righteous, he is thrown into, as it were, the process of sanctification. The ongoing work where we, where we are renewed in the image of Christ and where we are enabled to die to sin and live to righteousness.

Simple yet precise language like we're given here in these two question and answers helps you to understand the theology of the Bible. And as it helps you to understand the theology of the Bible, it helps you to pass it along to others so that it's clear to them, right? So that's how it's helped me as a teacher, but it's also helpful in its format. Pastor Jason last week talked about catechesis. If you weren't here on Sunday night last week,

would encourage you to go back and listen to those 10 minutes. I have personally found that the question and answer format of the catechism is effective both for the teacher and for the learner, whether adult or child. One of the graduation requirements at RTS where I went to seminary is that we had to memorize all 107 question and answers of the shorter catechism. Now please, please, please do not take that as an opportunity to confine me in the back

and ask me what question 65 is. I, I won't have it for you. Okay? It's been a while, but I have been through this process and I have grown in my appreciation of how a question and answer format can help you to retain information. It's easier when you are responding to a question to be able to produce an answer. And so practically it has given me ready answers for the most important questions in the Bible. I have ready answers for the most important

questions out there. And so it's not only helped me, but it's helped me, helped me learn, but it's also helped me to teach. I don't have to come up with a curriculum to help teach my children the most important answers to the most important questions. I don't have to go create a curriculum, I have it right here. I can begin to help them to understand the message of the Bible by just using questions and answers that other faithful Christians have

already come up with. So the Westminster standards practically are beneficial for teaching, for teaching others and all of us in some context, whether that's in your family or in your workplace, whether it's with Christian friends, whether it's with those you're evangelizing, you will be teaching the Christian message to others and you have it here in succinct format in the Westminster standards. Finally, third category is counseling.

Westminster standards are a beneficial tool for counseling.

And maybe we could ask Pat later if he's found them helpful for counseling others. I'm just going to talk for just a minute how it's helped me counsel myself, my own soul care at I've been a Christian for a really long time. At various points of my life, I have struggled with bouts of doubt and in particular with assurance of salvation. Some occasions I've asked myself, I've asked others, am I saved? It is if you've been there

sometimes a really, uh, a place of great despair. If you don't know the answer to that question, am I saved? Pastor Jason did not get to this chapter. Chapter 18 of the Westminster Confession is a tremendous chapter on the assurance of salvation. You can see it in just a couple of short paragraphs. How succinctly, how precisely, how sensitively it speaks of the assurance of salvation. It reminds us that Christians in this life can

have assurance of their salvation. It exhorts us to attain this gift, this gift of an assurance of our salvation. But it also teaches that true Christians can in fact wrestle with assurance of salvation

and how tremendously helpful that is for someone who is in that place, right to have hope. That just because I'm wrestling this with this question doesn't mean that I am not truly saved. It gives hope to a shaken Christian like I have found myself in at various points that at due time the spirit may in fact revive this gift in me. This assurance of salvation, it gives hope, it spares you from further despair. This chapter, chapter 18, on of the Westminster Confession,

on the Assurance of Salvation, is a tremendously helpful and practical chapter. And it's all theology, it's doctrine. This is doctrine and yet it is tremendously practical. Lemme give one quick plug before I wrap this up. Starting next week, we are offering a Sunday school and during the second service, second service, it's gonna be four weeks study on these, uh, paragraphs of this particular chapter, chapter 18 of the Assurance of Grace

and Salvation, four weeks on these four paragraphs. So you should really think about coming out to that second service for the next four weeks. So if you still got your Bibles open, just return back to one Timothy four. We're gonna wrap this up here. Paul writes to Timothy, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Dear friends, do you desire to keep a close watch on your life and on your teaching, on your life and on the doctrine you profess and maintain? Do you desire to persist

both in believing the sound doctrine and living the sound doctrine? Do you desire to persist in it? If that's the case for you, then I would submit that you have a great tool in front of you, the Westminster standards, the larger shorter catechisms and the confession of faith, a tool, a practical, reliable tool to help you stay rooted and growing in sound doctrine and sound, Christian living, and to help you persist in keeping a close watch on both.

So I encourage you then, as we go from this place, as we go from this study, make use of this tool, let's pray. Father in heaven, we give you thanks for your word, and we give you thanks for the faithful summary of your scriptures that have been kept and preserved for us in creeds And confessions and catechisms. And we thank you in particular for the Westminster standards. We thank you for how useful they are and how practical they are to instruct us what we are

to believe concerning God and what duty you require of us. Would you help us to persist in keeping a close watch on our life and our doctrine? And we do ask that you by your spirit, would cause us to persevere in the faith until our faith is made sight for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.