The 1689 London Baptist Confession

The Fall of Man, Sin and Punishment

--> Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which secured life for him while he kept it, and although God warned him that he would die if he broke it, yet man did not live long in this honor.

• Satan, using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, seduced Adam by her, and he, without any compulsion, willfully transgressed the law of their creation and the command given to them by eating the forbidden fruit.
• And this act God, according to His wise and holy counsel, was pleased to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.

--> Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them. For from this, death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

--> They being the root, and by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and their corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. Their descendants are therefore conceived in sin, and are by nature the children of wrath, the servants of sin, and the subjects of death and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus sets them free.

--> All actual transgressions proceed from this original corruption, by which we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil.

--> During this life the corruption of nature remains in those who are regenerated, and although it is pardoned and mortified through Christ, yet this corrupt nature and all its motions are truly and properly sinful.

I think this is a very important doctrine to understand. This is the Doctrine of Total Depravity. We must understand that we are sinful. This is the starting point. Unless you understand your complete and total sinfulness, you’ll never really “get” your need for a Savior. This is also an important part of the Gospel presentation. When sharing the Gospel, we want people to understand that they are sinners and that apart from the forgiveness that Christ provides, we have no hope.

Psalm 51:5 says, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” We are sinful from the very moment of conception. It’s who we are.

Genesis 6:5 says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” This is a pretty broad sweeping statement. Not just every thought, but every intention of every thought. It’s all “only evil continually.” If that doesn’t give you a full picture of your own depravity, let’s look at one more: Romans 3:10-12, which says, “as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Eight times in these three short verses we see our universal condition. The final three words “not even one” are pretty final.

We are not greatly hindered in our ability to make a decision for Christ. We are not in need of some help to choose to follow Christ. Christ didn’t die merely to make it possible for us to choose to follow Christ.

God, in His divine sovereignty and grace, sent Christ to suffer for all of our sins and, as 1 Peter 3:18 puts it, “so that he might bring us to God…” We must understand our depravity. When we realize that we’re not even looking for God, it makes the Gospel even more beautiful, humbling, and amazing. I was drowning in my own depravity, totally doing my own thing, and in the midst of that, God sent Christ to show “his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romand 5:8)

Back to the 1689 Confession

Divine Providence

--> God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom, upholds, directs, disposes and governs all creatures and things, from the greatest to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, to the end for which they were created.

• God governs according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free and unchanging counsel of His own will;
• for the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, boundless goodness, and mercy.

--> Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, Who is the First Cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly; so that nothing happens to anyone by chance, or outside His providence, yet by His providence He orders events to occur according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.

--> God, in His ordinary providence makes use of means, yet He is free to work outside, above, and against them at His pleasure.

--> The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that His determinate counsel extends even to the first fall, and all other sinful actions of both angels and men.

• This is not merely by a bare permission, but by a form of permission in which He included the most wise and powerful limitations, and other means of restricting and controlling sin. These various limitations have been designed by God to bring about his most holy purposes.
• Yet, in all these affairs, the sinfulness of both angels and men comes only from them and not from God, Who is altogether holy and righteous, and can never be the author or approver of sin.

--> The most wise, righteous, and gracious God often leaves, for a time, His own children to various temptations, and to the corruptions of their own hearts, in order to chastise them for the sins which they have committed, or to show them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness still in their hearts, so that they may be humbled and aroused to a more close and constant dependence upon Himself for their support, and that they may be made more watchful against future occasions of sin. Other just and holy objectives are also served by such action by God. Therefore whatever happens to any of His select is by His appointment, for His glory, and for their good.

--> As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God as a righteous judge, blinds and hardens for former sin, from them He not only withholds His grace, by which they might have been enlightened in their understanding and affected in their hearts, but sometimes He also withdraws the gifts which they had and exposes them to certain objects which their corrupt state will make the occasion of sin.

• God gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan, so that eventually they harden themselves under the same influences which God uses for the softening of others.

--> As the providence of God in general reaches to all creatures, so, in a more special manner, it takes care of His church, and governs all things to the good of His church.

There is much theology in this section. Whole books could be written on this, and in fact many have. As I read through it, the first paragraph bullet point that says “for the praise of His glory...” reminds me of the beginning section of our Gospel presentation. Ephesians 1:3-14 (one long sentence in the Greek) says this three times. I love how the statement attaches the glory of God to wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy. It brings several of God’s attributes together with His glory.

The next two sections are an attempt to address the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. A.W. Pink says that there is a difficulty in determining exactly where one ends and the other begins. He also points out that the responsibility of man is born out of the sovereignty of God. There is most certainly a difficulty in reconciling the fact that God is sovereignly in charge of everything, yet man is also responsible for his actions. We are not robots or puppets. How this all works, I don’t know.

What I do know is this:

• God is sovereign. Nothing can stay His hand.

• I am responsible for my actions.

I am responsible to make every effort be obedient to Scripture.

The last six words are the most comforting of this entire section. Whatever we come to understand about the sovereignty and providence of God, we should always remember this - it is all “to the good of His church.” The church, God’s chosen people, are the ones that He has chosen to set His special love upon. He not only knew us before the foundation of the world and sent His son to die specifically for us, but all that He does is ultimately “to the good of His church.”

Final Closing Thoughts

So here I sit on the bus, about 3 1/2 hours from home. This year has certainly been a different adventure from the “typical” first weekend in December. For the past eight years, we’ve gone to Mexico this weekend. The Mexico trips have always been great. The first December I was here, we went to Mexico and took 600 shoeboxes down and worked with Iglesia Christiana El Buen Pastor. We did two different programs. One, involving mostly a craft, puppet show, and a couple of songs for the younger children. The older children would get a program including songs, games, and sharing the Gospel in Spanish. Following the program, every child received their gift.

Over the years I’ve been to Mexico, we expanded the program to include a street carnival with balloon animals, face painting, and games. The number of shoeboxes grew to over 1500, and the ministry expanded beyond just the children to include women in the hospital, a group of indians about two hours out of Ensenada, and even a Gospel saturation, distributing close to 2,000 copies of the Gospel of John in Spanish to four different communities in the Ensenada area.

The Ministry in Mexico has not only grown in what the HSM trip does, but also in the groups that participate. The Immanuel Young Adult Ministry has been to Mexico twice to give away food and tons of clothing. The Men’s Ministry has gone down a few times to help with construction. Last year, when the church was able to relocate to an old theater in the downtown area of Ensenada, the Immanuel Orchestra was able to participate in the first worship service in their new location. We’ve even had many people from Immanuel donate money to help this church and have given the church over $20,000 in funds, which translates to significantly more in Mexico. Our gift of $20,000 to them would be like someone giving us about a million dollars.

It was a hard decision to not go to Mexico this year. In July, the people of Immanuel donated 433 shoeboxes. We were off to a great start in collecting shoeboxes. The trip is one that flows pretty smoothly. We have a good system down for planning/preparation meetings, teams, and doing what we do down there. Each year there are many new participants, but there are also many return participants. It’s a great blend of new and old and the trip always flows pretty smoothly. Well.... after we get across the border, that is. The border crossing has always been the one element of the trip that always makes me nervous (there are quite a few “border crossing” stories I could tell you, but that’s a blog for another time).

With all that’s going on in Mexico right now, and after discussing it with quite a few people, we decided that this year wasn’t a good year to take 40 high school students into Mexico. The task became to come up with an alternative. We weren’t looking to just “fill the time slot” and do something, but we wanted to do legitimate ministry in a new area. Because of a trip to San Francisco with our choir about six years ago, I know a couple of missionaries there. After a couple of phone calls and a few emails, we had a plan coming together.

Preparations for this trip were very different from Mexico. The trip to Mexico kind of plans itself, so to speak. Because we’ve done it for so long, everyone kind of knows what to do and the team approach we’ve used works very well. San Francisco wasn’t quite the same. The scenario was pretty fluid right up until we got there. The one thing that I knew we were going to do in San Francisco was share the Gospel. My main goal for this trip was for everyone going (adults included) to learn to share the Gospel, which would include memorizing all the verses that go along with the Gospel presentation we use in the HSM. Along with that, the main purpose for this trip was to share the Gospel with people in San Francisco.

The weekend was very different, but very good. After getting stuff unloaded at Western Hills Baptist Church, where we were staying, we headed up to the city and Fisherman’s Wharf where we split up into our Gospel Teams (2-3 people on each team) to try and engage people with the goal of sharing the Gospel with them. After spending about an hour doing this, the teams came back with a variety of stories. Some were rejected, some go to talk a bit, but many had great conversations and were able to share the Gospel. It was a great experience for our students. As a youth pastor, I was so proud of my students, who had not only learned 14 passages of Scripture, but were going out in what would not be the most “gospel-friendly” of environments, and sharing the Gospel with people.

On Saturday, we helped out at the Page Street Baptist Center. Page Street is a community center in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco. It’s been a Community Center continually since 1968. It is run by Eric and Linda Bergquist, two missionaries who have been ministering in the city for about 20 years. We came in, Eric and Linda talked to us about ministry in San Francisco and serving others, then we jumped right in and went to work. We did a lot of work around the center, cleaning up and making breakfast, and serving several people that live in the community who just dropped by. We had some great conversations with people and were able again to share the Gospel a few times. Two teams went out into the neighborhood. One team wasn’t able to engage with anyone, but the other team was able to talk to a couple of people, one guy they shared the Gospel with, and were able to talk to him for over half an hour.

After lunch at Naan & Curry, a fabulous Indian restaurant that some enjoyed and some did not, we headed to Chinatown. Our task in Chinatown was quite different from anything we’ve ever done. We were attempting to gather demographic information for church planting efforts in Chinatown. It was not the easiest of tasks. There is definitely a cultural barrier there. We did some caroling, gave out quite a few Christmas Cards, each with a Gospel tract in it, then did a bit of shopping (you can’t go to Chinatown and not do some shopping).

Sunday morning was spent with the congregation at Western Hills Baptist. Our Worship Team led in worship and did an amazing job. The SWC (HS Choir) sang a couple of songs and definitely rocked the house with their closing song “Shackles.” The people of Western Hills were not only very hospitable in welcoming us into their facility to sleep, saving us quite a bit of money on lodging, but were so gracious and thankful of our ministry there with them. The morning worship service was definitely a SIX33 HSM event!!! Again, I was so proud of our students in how well they led and served in the morning worship service.

Overall, it was a great weekend. I honestly can’t think of any problems we had. The students were great, the adults were great (I don’t want to call them “chaperones” because they did so much more than just “chaperone” - all of the adults truly served and ministered just like the students did - I’m proud of them as well), the ministry times were great. Again - just a great weekend.

I don’t know what next year will hold, but we were invited to come back any time both by the people of Western Hills and by the Page Street Center. San Francisco just might become one of our new “spots.”

Thanks to everyone in the Immanuel family who so faithfully support the SIX33 HSM in so many ways. Thanks to all the parents who so graciously allow us to be a part of their children’s lives. We have such an amazing group of students and I am truly blessed to be a part of what God is doing both in and through their lives.

Seeking Him,

Rob

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P.S. - a special GIANT THANK YOU to Pete Younkman, our fearless bus driver. Pete is such a servant. I could write a whole blog just about the amazing example of servanthood he is. He’s driven for us on many trips and he’s so consistent. He just drives, and serves quietly and consistently. We can all learn to be better servants by simply observing and imitating him. Thanks Pete! We love you and appreciate you.

Heading Home

So this morning went really well. The worship team did an ecxcellent
job leading us in worship. The choir's songs were great. Everyone in
the church was very appreciative and we received a lot of positive
feedback.
Shep, the Youth Pastor, invited us to come back and stay any time
we're in the SF area. Western Hills really has shown us some great
hospitality.
We're pulling out right now, so... See ya soon!
Rob Signs
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Shackles

Worship team

Angels...

The choir performing in the worship service.