The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.  

Proverbs 30:7-14 Two things I asked of You, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God. Do not slander a slave to his master, Or he will curse you and you will be found guilty. There is a kind of man who curses his father And does not bless his mother. There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness. There is a kind—oh how lofty are his eyes! And his eyelids are raised in arrogance. There is a kind of man whose teeth are like swords And his jaw teeth like knives, To devour the afflicted from the earth And the needy from among men.


The Apostle Paul writing to Timothy says:
“But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

Why do we always believe that we are the exception to the rule when it  comes to the bible’s teachings on the accumulation of resources, goods, and wealth? Why do we believe that Jesus’ warnings about storing up treasures here on earth, rather than those in heaven, always apply to the Bill Gates or the Elon Musks of the world, you know, those really super rich guys?
Why is it, in times of want, we lose heart, believing that God has forsaken us?

“Scripture’s warnings against the love of money and camels squeezing through the eyes of needles pertains to those rich people, not me”, you may think, as you dwell in your spacious, well furnished, temperature controlled home. Families in America with 1.7 kids, have two and three cars sitting in the driveway. Americans have access to untold amounts of mindless entertainment, information, literature, and other resources which mere decades ago were considered luxury, yet now are considered basic necessities which everyone takes for granted. Yet, all the luxury in the world cannot satisfy our appetites.

We want more and more.  At the end of it all, after all the pursuing, all the accumulating, all the hoarding, we say “Look how resourceful I was. Look what I built. Look how great I am. Look how blessed I am, God gave me all this stuff”.

The poor man in the hills of  Appalachia has an equally damning problem: in his poverty, he covets, because the poor, in their poverty, are not content either. Living lives void of the complexities associated with “modern”, “upscale”, “metropolitan” living, they observe the so-called rich trapped in their rat race pursuing after the world's goods and foolishly declare “I want that too”. Wealth, and the accumulation of it is seen as the messiah for myriads of people. “If I can just make this amount, everything will be alright”. “If I only had___________, it would make my life so much better”. “Winning the lottery is my one chance to be somebody”.
 
The Proverb this Lord’s Day encourages us to live lives of moderation and contentment:
“Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion”. 
Why? Why does scripture warn us to be wary of the extremes?
Verse nine gives us the answer: “That I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God”
Sin. In both great wealth and abject poverty, sin is crouching at the door. During times of plenty, which even the lowliest among us have enjoyed as Americans for at least my entire lifetime, or periods of great loss and want, there are temptations for us to sin.
 
Pride: I built that.
Covetousness: I want yours.
Murder: I will take what he has by force.
Greed: Give me more, I deserve it.
 
Paul writing of contentment once again says this in Philippians:
“But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”

Can we say this? Do we really believe that the “Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”, that regardless of our season of life, the “Cup runneth over”? Brothers and sisters, let us repent of our lack of contentment, repent of our pursuit of wealth, repent of our covetousness and greed, and instead remember that Christ is our portion forever. Let us remember that we have a Savior named Jesus, that an imperishable crown awaits, and through Christ and His blood bought victory, we inherit all things.

If you are able at this time, please join me in kneeling as we confess our sins to God Almighty.
HEAVENLY FATHER,
If I should suffer need, and go unclothed,
    and be in poverty,
  make my heart prize thy love,
  know it, be constrained by it,
  though I be denied all blessings.
It is thy mercy to afflict and try me with wants,
  for by these trials I see my sins,
  and desire severance from them.
Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows,
    temptations,
  if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil,
  and be delivered from it with gratitude to thee,
  acknowledging this as the highest testimony
    of thy love.
When thy Son, Jesus, came into my soul
    instead of sin, he became more dear to me
    than sin had formerly been;
  his kindly rule replaced sin’s tyranny.
Teach me to believe that if ever I would have any sin
    subdued
  I must not only labour to overcome it,
  but must invite Christ to abide in the place of it,
  and he must become to me more than
    vile lust had been;
  that his sweetness, power, life may be there.
Thus I must seek a grace from him contrary to sin,
  but must not claim it apart from himself.
When I am afraid of evils to come,
  comfort me by showing me
    that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch,
      but in Christ I am reconciled and live;
  that in my self I find insufficiency and no rest,
    but in Christ there is satisfaction and peace;
  that in myself I am feeble and unable to do good,
    but in Christ I have ability to do all things.
Though now I have his graces in part,
  I shall shortly have them perfectly
  in that state where thou wilt show thyself
    fully reconciled,
  and alone sufficient, efficient,
    loving me completely,
  with sin abolished.
O Lord, hasten that day.
Prayer from The Valley of Vision titled "Contentment".
 
Please join me in standing, and listen to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to his church: 

Romans 8:37-39 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts!

From the 03/14/2021 liturgy of Sovereign King Church written by Aaron Sabie)

Part  9  Here

Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Hebrews 13:8 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

“Yes, I know Leviticus says that God hates that sin but that was the Old Testament, man!  The New Testament says God is love.”  You might have run into this kind of argument before or have been the one tempted to make it.  Since the early days of the church, Christians have run into people who have argued that God in the Old Testament was full of wrath and vengeance but changed in the New Testament.  In the time of the early church, there was even one man who wanted to reject all of the Old Testament and keep only a select few of the New Testament books.  He went as far as to say that God in the Old Testament wasn’t really the true God but that the New Testament revealed a different and true God. He was rightly rejected as a heretic and false teacher. But old heretical lies have a way of lingering around to be repeated in future generations. 

In our Catechism questions definition of God, we are disavowed of any notion of God being different or changed from the Old to the New Testament.  God is unchangeable.  He doesn’t change his mind and he doesn’t change in his character.  His justice and his goodness have always been the same and always will be the same.  The God who hated evil in the Old Testament is the same God who hates evil in the New.

It’s hard for us to get our heads around something that is completely unchangeable.  We are used to change happening constantly.  But one of the reasons why God is unchangeable is because He is perfect and complete in and of himself.  John Flavel puts it this way “The Immutability (unchangeableness) of God flows from the perfection of his Nature, to which nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be taken away. If anything could be added to make him better than he is; or if anything could be taken away, to make him less good that he is, then he were not the chiefest Good, and consequently not God.”   To be truly God, God must be complete in himself. For him to change would mean either that he lacks something which would mean he is not God or it would mean that he is having something taken away from him which would mean that He lost part of his completeness.

But God is complete, as the Bible teaches, and therefore there is nothing that can be added to him or taken away.  He has infinite and eternal knowledge.  There is nothing that can be added to his knowledge and he certainly isn’t forgetful.  When God decreed something, there is no new information that can be found later that will make him change his mind.  But wait a second, what about the verses that speak of God repenting? For example, what about  when God doesn’t judge Nineveh but spares them.  Thomas Watson is helpful.  He says “Repentance is attributed to God figuratively because the Bible says 'He is not a man that he should repent' (Nu. 23:19). There may be a change in God's work, but not in his will. He may will a change, but not change his will.”  The Bible at times speaks of God in terms that help us see his work in history.  It is men who change but God who orchestrates history so that men will respond to His threats of judgement so that He will show forth his mercy. 

So what do we learn from learn from God's unchangeableness? That he will accomplish his promises, Micah 7:20.  That we can rest in his love, Zeph. 3:17. We can trust him to finish the good work which he has begun in us, Phil. 1:6.   That God will judge the wicked and he will grant eternal life to the righteous. We can also have confidence in a culture changing its moral attitudes quicker than you can bat an eye that God’s moral standard has not changed. The culture may rave and rail against his commandments.  They may despise the fact that there are only two sexes.  They may try to redefine marriage and defend the murder of the preborn.  At the end of the day, they are coming up against an unchangeable and unmovable rock.  God’s law is fixed and the world will break before it does.  We can have confidence that all the efforts to thwart the will of God will never work.  We can also trust that if we live by faith and according to his commands, we will be living by the standard the world was designed to work with.  Things go well in the land when God’s unchangeable moral standard is followed.     

The Psalm writer wrote:  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. As we come before a Holy God and hear his word, may we have eyes open to the wonderful and fearful things from his law. May it move us to repent and seek forgiveness, fear disobedience, and live in light of the grace we have received.   This is the word of God.  It is eternally true and applicable for all of life.  

Proverbs 30:1-6 The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the oracle. The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal: Surely I am more stupid than any man, And I do not have the understanding of a man. Neither have I learned wisdom, Nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know! Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.

The author of this proverb, Agur son of Jakeh, likely a scribe in Matthew Henry's view, begins the thirtieth Proverb acknowledging his limitations in knowing anything of the spiritual realm, any true knowledge of God, apart from His grace.

He then makes a series of statements which describe acts of power, creation, and authority which can only be attributed to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In verses five and six he reminds us that it is God's written word to us in which we find all the answers to the questions which he previously posed. He acknowledges his creaturely limitations, points to God's power and authority over all creation, and encourages us to look to the supremacy of God's word as being the only source of truth to which we can look for answers to all of life's questions.

In the social media, twenty-four hour news cycle, age of information overload in which we live, it is easy to get caught up in all the frenzy of covid outbreaks, political scandal, governmental tyranny,  and the unlimited entertainment options which are available. But, as all of us know, none of those things can provide us with peace, satisfy our appetites, or give us knowledge of the Holy one. Only God's word, handed down from the prophets and apostles, in conjunction with the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart, can do that. Yet how many of us, when faced with the trials of life, run to distractions, entertainment, social media, food, sex, work, play, or other outlets, rather than to the Word of God which Agur says is a tested shield for those who take refuge in it?

Why is it when temptations and trials come, we run immediately into the arms of worldly, material comforts, rather than into the arms of Christ Who says to us "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls"? Brothers and sisters, you toil in vain when you trust worldly solutions. Your pursuit of peace apart from Christ is futile and will end in heartache and disappointment. Seeking to escape life's problems by filling your mind with garbage entertainment rather than God's Word is akin to eating dung to satisfy your hunger.

Let us repent of not delighting in God's Word, for an indifferent approach to it, and for forgetting that it is applicable for all of life, whether in  times of plenty and ease, or of want and tribulation.
If you are able, please join me in kneeling as we confess our sins, knowing that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Heavenly Father,
We thank You that You are intimately aware of our weak frames of dust, and are full of grace, because we seem to stumble every second of the day. Even this morning when our hearts and minds ought to be fully engaged in worshipping You, our weak flesh is distracted. Anxieties abound. Our minds wander from the worship of you to activities we have planned later today, tomorrow, or next week. Father, we are like sheep who see green pastures on the other side of the fence from where we are, and rather than being satisfied with the food and drink You give us, we wound ourselves jumping the fence, and wind up in a pit, or snare, cast down and covered in thorns and nettles.

Please forgive us sinners, and restore to us the joy of Your salvation.

In Jesus's Name we pray, amen.
 
Please join me in standing and listen to the comforting assurance of the grace of God, promised in the gospel to his church: 

Isaiah 40:10-11 Behold, the Lord God will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their salvation, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lift up your hearts!

(From the 03/07/2021 liturgy of Sovereign King Church written by Aaron Sabie.)

Part 8 is here.

Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Deuteronomy 33:27 “The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms; And He drove out the enemy from before you, And said, ‘Destroy!’

We have all had something that we have looked forward to for a long time.  Perhaps it is a vacation to the beach with family.  You put the date on the calendar months in advance.  You looked at pictures of the hotel, the beach in front of it, and the view from the hotel room. You scheduled each day, you daydreamed while at work, and you counted down the days anxiously. Finally the big day arrived and before you know it, this thing you have looked forward to is over before it even seemed to begin.  Maybe it was a week-long trip and so the first few days you didn’t notice it but as the week goes by your mind becomes aware that the end is coming.  You try to soak in all the joy on that last day but you are haunted by the thought that the moment is fleeting and temporary. 
In all good things on earth there is always a twinge of pain that is the temporary. As the cliché says “all good things must come to an end.”  This pain is because our hearts were made to long for the eternal.  We are made to find joy not in the fleeting but in the everlasting. 
Our catechism question reminds us that God is eternal. This is hard concept for us to grasp because we are used to dealing with things that have a beginning and an end.  Vacations have a beginning and an end.  Pets have a beginning and an end.  There is a sense in which we are eternal.  That is human beings and angels have a beginning, but we do not have an end.   Our souls are made to last forever.  Death is not the end.   But our eternal soul is not the same as God.  We have a beginning.  God is the only truly eternal.  He is without beginning and without end.  Revelation 1:8 says that He is the one which is, and which was, and which is to come'.  He is the alpha and the omega.  No matter how far in the past one goes God always was.  No matter how far into the future one goes God is there.   God is eternal in his being. 
God is eternal in his wisdom.  He has always known all things and always will.  Humans as they age lose cognitive functions.  God has had infinite wisdom from before time began and will always have it.   His power is eternal.  There are no moments of weakness and no growing in strength.  Deuteronomy says the eternal God is a dwelling place.  He is a secure fortress.  He always has been secure and always will be.  There is no hidden weakness.  No place where the enemy can break through his walls. 
God is eternal in holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.  His love is eternal, scripture says.  This might be the hardest to fathom but the love God the Father has for God the Son has always been and always will be.  The Holy Spirit’s love for Father and Son has always been and always will be.  The love that flows from God the Father to the Son through the Holy Spirit overflows into His creating all things and in particular into his saving work for His people.  The love of God for His people is eternal.  It had no beginning and has no end.  If you are a child of God in Christ Jesus it is because God loved you from all eternity and will love you for all eternity.  There is no time in which God’s love for you has diminished or will diminish.  There is no temporariness to it.  This is what your soul longs for.  It longs for the eternal God. 
Therefore, as God allows us to enjoy things in life and we feel that pain of the temporariness, let that move you to reflect on the source of every lasting joy, the one who is eternal.   One day those who love Him will have everlasting life and never know the pain of the temporary again.      

Part 7 is here.

Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

1 Kings 8:27 27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!

In the age of the internet, we are used to having seemingly boundless information at the tips of our fingers.  You can google just about anything.  With all this information so at hand, we ought to be aware of how little we actually know.  You might be able to do a web search for some piece of information but there are limits to what you can learn and hold on to.  Furthermore, the internet isn’t limitless.  It’s just a lot and not all of it is actual knowledge. Humans for all our technological advances are bound in our knowing.  Even if our brains were to work like a google search, we would be bound in our being able to sort it all and to apply it.  We are finite.  We have limits to our capacity to know things.  We are bound physically to the space that we currently take up.  We are frozen in time, that is we don’t know the future and we cannot go back to the past. Neither can we stop the progress of time.  What was just the present is the past and what was the future is now the present- oops is now the past.
God is infinite. He isn’t bound by the restraints of space and time.  He knows the beginning from the end perfectly. God is omniscient which means that He has unlimited knowledge. Not only does God know everything that has happened perfectly and everything that will happen, but He also knows all things that could have possibly happened. Nothing takes God by surprise. 
God is also omnipotent.  This means that He has infinite power.  There are no limits to his strength.  He can do all His holy will, nothing can stop His decreed will from happening, and nothing can thwart or stop His divine purposes from being fulfilled.
God is all-wise.  His wisdom is not bound.  He knows not only everything there is to know, He knows what to do with all of his knowledge.  He knows the perfect and best way to accomplish His holy will.
God is infinitely holy.  God is infinitely good. There are no limits to the good that God will do for his people. 
Now someone might ask, well if God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good, then how come evil exists.  If God is all-good and all-powerful, they say, then he would not have allowed evil to exist.  But since evil exists God is either not all-good or He is not all-powerful.  What is this answer to this supposed problem?  Might I humbly suggest there is no problem.  The problem is that we as humans are limited in our knowledge and wisdom, God is not.  God in his infinite wisdom, being all-good, all-holy, all-powerful, and all-just knows what will bring about the perfect good, holy, and just outcome. 
What right do those with finite knowledge, finite power, finite wisdom, and corrupt hearts have to say to God that He is not doing what is good or just?  It is only ignorant pride that would cause the creature to think he could question the creator. 
Finally, as we think about God, we must be careful to think that our minds can grasp all there is to know about God.  We do not even know all there is to know about ourselves.  Therefore, we ought to always be humbly submitting ourselves to His revelation of himself found in His word.  We will be studying God for eternity and because of his infinite nature we will never find ourselves at the end of that study.  Give yourself to that study.  And trust Him because He is Infinite and you are finite.

Part 6 here.

Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The difficulty of accurately defining God is because He is one of a kind.  There is no one else like God.  There is no one that we may accurately compare Him to.  This is due in part to the truth that He is spirit and we live in, as the 80’s pop song says, a material world. We are used to dealing with things we can see and touch.  In fact, you and I have grown up and been incubated into a materialist worldview.  That is, we are tempted to think that the material is all there is, that at the most fundamental level, everything that exists consists of nothing but matter and energy. Even thought we might not voice it this way, we are tempted to think every object is a purely physical object and every event has a purely physical cause. 
The Materialist worldview rejects the idea that there are immaterial or spiritual entities, such as souls, angels or God because it rejects out of hand there can be anything that does not have a purely physical cause.  In the materialist worldview, science can explain everything in terms of matter and physics. Yet, for all the ways that people throw around the term “science” to be an infallible interpreter of life, science cannot explain all that there is.  Scientists doing the scientific method cannot account for science’s own foundation.  That is, there are certain things needed to be presumed in order to do science i.e., the existence of a theory-independent, external word, the orderly nature of the external world, the knowability of the external world, the existence of truth, the laws of logic, and the reliability of our cognitive and sensory faculties.  You cannot get to those presumptions by only using science.   
But we still live in a world where materialism is a dominating worldview, and we are tempted by it.  And because of so much of what we deal with is physical, we have a hard time accurately thinking of God.  Jesus told us in John 4:24 that God is Spirit.  What does that mean?
Alexander Whyte in his commentary on the catechism helpfully describes this
“This word Spirit,—" the profoundest word in human language",— as employed in Scripture and theology bears a figurative or metaphorical sense. The growth of the word is something like this. It first means air, the air that is the atmosphere of the earth, and the breath of all its living creatures. From this it is a short and easy step to become expressive of the life of man, and the life of his soul, as in the cry: "Into Thine hand I commit my spirit." And from that highest earthly use the word has been taken up and consecrated to describe for us the manner of God's own life. "God is Spirit." And this single expression at once does this great service for us, that it removes God's nature far from all association with material and corporal organization. For, as our Lord said: "A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
Now this may make you think about God being like a ghost or a phantom.  We might be tempted to think of an ethereal transparent apparition, but this is not what we mean.   When the catechism, repeating after Jesus, says that God is spirit, it is teaching us that the Father is not limited by the physical, that he is life-giving and life-sustaining, that he can never be totally comprehended, and that he transcends creation.
He is not like anything else.  He is unique.  Men are defined by our localization, that is, we are at one particular place at one particular time.  Though we do have both a body and spirit, our spirits are tied to our bodies, in this life.  We are in one place at one time. God on the other hand is not limited to one place and time. He is not contained.  For something to be physical it has a limit or boundary to its being.  For example, our bodies extend out to a definite boundary.  God is spirit and has no extension or limit.  God is everywhere and yet He is at the same time not a part of everywhere.  God is not the creation and yet God is present working in His creation. 
Let us reject the materialistic worldview that cannot even account for something like the human mind or the laws of logic.  Let us also marvel at God who is Spirit and who is infinite (more on that part tomorrow).  Reflect on how amazing it is that the God who is so far above the creation is present everywhere.  He is on the highest mountain and at the lowest point of the sea. He is present in Washington DC and in Southern Indiana.  No matter where you are today, the good news is that He is near. 

Part 5 here
Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Psalm 113:5 Who is like the Lord our God, Who is enthroned on high?

The catechism question today is made up of only three words, the longest of which is four letters.  This very short question, so easy to ask, is the most vital of questions to answer.  If we are made to glorify and enjoy God forever, we must know who and what is God. It’s a quick question to ask but the answer is something we can probe for eternity and still not come to its complete depths.  If we were left to find out on our own, we would never be able to come up with a truthful answer.  It is our sinful nature to answer this question with figments of our imagination, idols of our own hands and minds.  But idols have no real power, and we cannot enjoy them forever.  We need the truth. 
Thankfully, we have not been left to answer this question on our own.  God has revealed himself.  He has done so in nature.  The stars proclaim his handiwork Psalm 19 says.  Romans 1:20 says “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
The creation reveals that He is.  He has also written on our hearts His law.  All people instinctively know that God is.   Many in their foolish sin try to suppress that knowledge. But just like trying to hold a beach ball under the water, the knowledge of God always comes to the surface, even for so called Atheists.   
While nature and our own internal conscience give us enough information about God to make us guilty for our rebellion to him, because of that rebellion we are, as said above, prone to idols.   God has in his mercy even while we were rebels, has revealed himself in His Holy Word.  Hebrews 1:1 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.”  He has breathed out His scripture so that we may know him. Finally, He has most fully revealed himself in His Son.  John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.  God has himself given us the answer to the question about himself because only He can do so.  Because God is so far above us, we can only know Him because He has humbled himself to share Himself with us.
So what has God revealed?  We will begin answering that question tomorrow as we take a deeper look into the answer given in the Westminster Shorter Catechism question #4. 

Part 4 here
What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

2 Peter 3:1-2 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

In the last few lessons on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, we have been looking at the foundation for everything else found in the catechism. That is, we have been looking at the fact that Holy Scripture is the source for what we are to believe and how we are to live.  Before we move on from this discussion, I wanted to back up to Catechism Question #2 and look specifically at the phrase that says, “contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.”   The Apostle Peter in the text above wants up to be reminded of the words spoke by the Holy Prophets (the Old Testament) and of the commands of Jesus which are spoken by the apostles (The New Testament).  A question you might have is how did we get the bible and how do we know what books belong in it?  
 The Apostle Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1 that “no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”  The Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3 tells us that “All scripture is breathed out by God.”  God guided the human authors of Scripture, working in and through their life experiences, personalities, and various writing styles, so that what they produced was exactly what He wanted them to produce. The text is truly the work of holy men of old—God did not typically dictate to them as to a stenographer—and yet God is its primary author.  They exercised their human will and yet God was sovereign over it.
God also oversaw the compiling of the Bible through his good providence.  Even though we think of the Bible as being one book, it is a collection of sixty-six books.  God wrote it and He over saw its compilation through historical processes by which its particular books were gathered together and placed in the one volume that we now know as the Bible.  Throughout the years as books of the Bible were written God’s people received those texts, acknowledged their authority, and submitted to them.   The Old Testament was gathered by his covenant people in the Old Testament.  This process was complete before Christ and did not include the books often called the Apocrypha.  Those books were not received as scripture because they were not written by prophets, did not claim to be the word of God, had errors, and did not have the self-authenticating nature that scripture has.
What about the New Testament? Some have argued that a council got together and put together the Bible deciding what books they would bestow authority upon.  This is not historically accurate.  The Church does not sit over the Bible bestowing authority onto its books.  But rather the Church from the earliest days received the word of God.  When the church was trying to decide what books were canonical, they used the Latin term recipemus, which means “we receive.”  RC Sproul put it this way “What the church said is that we receive these particular books as being canonical, as being apostolic in authority and in origin, and therefore we submit to their authority. It’s one thing to make something authoritative, and it’s another thing to recognize something that already is authoritative. Those human decisions did not make something that was not authoritative suddenly authoritative, but rather the church was bowing, acquiescing to that which they recognized to be sacred Scripture.”
One of the requirements for book to be received is that it had an apostolic origin. Just as Peter above spoke about the work of the Apostles, if a book had no tie to an Apostle then that book was acknowledged not to have the authenticity of Christ.  This also means that the canon of scripture (the lists of books in the Bible) was closed after the apostolic age and no new books can be added to it.
There is much more that can be said regarding how God worked historically to provide us his word.  But I want you to be confident that God has overseen its writing, its compilation, and its preservation.  We can trust it and therefore we should build our lives upon it.  When the storms of life come, if the word of God is your foundation, you will not be washed away. 

Part 1, 2, and 3.
Q: What do the scriptures principally teach?
A: The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Joshua 1:18 8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

I have always loved to read.  Growing up, I would read just about anything that had words.  If we set down for breakfast, I read the cereal box.  I loved reading mysteries, fantasy, and science fiction.  Today, I love reading about history, political theory, and biographies.  Reading for me can be a way to unwind, to be entertained, or to just past the time.  Some of you might be able to relate to that.  Others may think I am nuts.  Reading is always a chore to them.  They hated it in school and they don’t read unless they really have to now.   Whether you love to read or hate to read, some of it comes down to natural temperament and some of it comes down to training
Unlike other books which may serve to entertain, to inform and educate, to unwind, or to spark your interest, the Bible is different.  It is not that it can’t do all of the things mentioned, but rather it has a greater purpose.  Its purpose it to show us what we ought to believe.  It is designed by God to be our foundation.  It teaches you what to believe about God. Because it teaches us that He is creator, it also teaches us what to believe about creation and, therefore, what we ought to believe about ourselves.  The Bible has a purpose and our reading it should be with that purpose in mind.  We read it to learn what to believe and that means we must read it with faith looking for faith.  Though we do not deserve it, God has not left us to grope about in darkness trying to figure out what we ought to believe. He has given us His word.
Notice in the catechism that belief comes before duty.  This is because without belief, without faith, it is impossible to please God.  Our belief leads to what we do.  And we can only do our duty if we believe what God has told us.  Therefore, because the Bible is this foundational, then we ought to heed the words of Joshua.  We must not let this book depart from us.  It does not matter whether you are naturally disposed to reading or not, the Bible should never be far from you.  We ought to read it, dwell on it, and think about it both in the day and at night.  In doing so, we will know what to believe and how to live.  It comes with this promise: Read it, believe it, and do it, and then you will know true prosperity and have real success.

(Click here for part 1 and here for part 2.)

What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

Yesterday, I commended the Bible to you as the only source where we may know all that is needed to know true joy while glorifying God.  The Westminster Shorter Catechism question above says it is the only rule to direct us.  While thinking through this you might be thinking, how do I know the Bible is the Word of God?  How can I trust it?  Those are good questions.  A pastor who was alive during the writing of the Catechism, named James Fisher, wrote a commentary to help understand the catechism. His commentary was itself a Catechism, it’s like the movie inception, a catechism within a catechism.  His catechism though is helpful in answer that question.  Here is what he said:
Q. How do you know the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the word of God? A. By the print of God that is evidently to be seen upon them: for, as none works like God, Isa. 43:13; so none speaks like him, John 7:46.   
In other words, we know this is the word of God because when God speaks we know it.  It is self-evident.  That might sound a bit circular but there is no one else’s word we could appeal to other than God’s to show us what is God’s word.  The imprint of God’s word is discernable to all who know God. By imprint we mean the majesty, holiness, light, life, and efficacy, which shine in the Bible.  This doesn’t mean that we don’t have rational arguments that we can appeal to about the Bible.  There are rational arguments Fisher says “drawn from their antiquity; the heavenliness of the matter; the majesty of the style; the harmony of all the parts, though written in different ages; the exact accomplishment of prophecies; the sublimity of the mysteries and matters contained in the word; the efficacy and power of it, in the conviction and conversion of multitudes; the scope of the whole, to guide men to attain their chief end, the glory of God in their own salvation; and the many miracles wrought for the confirmation of the truth of the doctrines contained in them.”  These are good reasonable arguments but ultimately what convinces us of the truth of Scripture is the Spirit of God, who is the author of Scripture, testifies in our hearts that this is the Word of God.  Fisher says "The Spirit of God bearing witness by, and with the scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it, that they are the very word of God.”  
Therefore, we can have all the most rational arguments there are and yet if our eyes are blinded by our sin and the devil, we cannot come to faith.  We need to have God open our eyes and make us see.  The good news is that the reading, teaching, and preaching of His word is how He opens His people’s eyes. 
So what does this mean for us today?  What can we practically do?  What if you read the bible and have a hard time with it?  Well you can start by reading with humility and faith.  Fisher says “Whenever one looks into the word of God, he should look up to God, the author of it, saying, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law," Psalm 119:18. "O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me," Psalm 43:3.