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guys enlightened read the three paragraphs and then our focus will be primarily on paragraph one this morning if there's someone who has a need of a confession just raise your hand and uh it'll come your way chapter 2 of god and of the holy trinity the lord our god is but one only living and true god whose subsistence is in and of himself infinite in being in perfection whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself a most pure spirit invisible without body parts or passions who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto who is immutable immense eternal incomprehensible almighty every way infinite most holy most wise most free most absolute working all things according to the council of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory most loving gracious merciful long suffering abundant in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity transgression and sin the rewarder of them that diligently seek him and with almost just and terrible in his judgments hating all sin and who will by no means clear the guilty god having all life glory goodness and a blessedness in and of himself is alone in and unto himself all sufficient not standing in need of any creature which he hath made nor deriving any glory from them but only manifesting his own glory in by unto and upon them he is the alone fountain of all being of whom through whom and to whom are all things and he has most most sovereign dominion over all creatures to do by them for them and upon them whatsoever himself pleaseth in his sight all things are open and manifest his knowledge is infinite infallible and independent upon the creature so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain he is most holy in all his counsels in all his works and in all his commands to him is due from angels and men whatsoever worship service or obedience as creatures they owe unto the creator and whatever he is further pleased to require of them in this divine and infinite being there are three subsistences the father the word or son and the holy spirit of one substance power and eternity each having the whole divine essence yet the essence undivided the father is of none neither begotten nor proceeding the son is eternally begotten of the father the holy spirit proceeding from the father and the son all infinite without beginning therefore but one god who is not to be divided in nature and being but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations which doctrine of the trinity is the foundation of all our communion with god and comfortable dependence on him amen so obviously a very dense and compact statement concerning what we call theology proper the word theology means the study of god when we say the theology proper we mean specifically the doctrine of god and as i said a very compact and dense statement the westminster shorter catechism number four asks what is god god is a spirit infinite eternal and unchangeable in his being wisdom power holiness justice goodness and truth so that's probably an easier one for memory than is paragraph 1 in chapter 2 of god and of the holy trinity now it's absolutely crucial that we understand who god is jesus defines or describes the essence of eternal life in john 17 3 that they may know thee the only true god and jesus christ whom thou has sent now no doubt as we cover this material this morning there will possibly be terms that you have not heard before so i'll try and define them if you're interested later or you want more follow-up or or detail feel free to contact me feel free to uh email or phone or whatever so that we can work on the definition of terms but again these terms are important because they help us safeguard the teaching of the bible when it comes to the scripture good theologians throughout the history of the church have realized at times we need to use extra biblical words to protect the word of god from the encroachments of men that would distort and twist the doctrine of the word of the living and true god so as we look at this particular paragraph it breaks down into threes this chapter breaks down into three paragraphs first paragraph one deals with what we call the attributes of god or better the perfections of god paragraph two treats god's external relations or the ad extra relations of god the way that he is toward his creature and then the third paragraph explains god's internal relations or ad intra father son and holy spirit the three subsistences or persons in the one divine being so there is movement and trajectory in this particular chapter that does in fact cover the doctrine of god in a very succinct but in a very powerful and clearly articulated way so i want to look at the perfections of god in paragraph one we will not spend time on each of them i think that most of them are pretty understandable oftentimes theologians make a distinction between what's called the incommunicable and the communicable attributes by incommunicable they mean those things that are true of god alone the fact that god is independent that is true of god alone we are derivative we come from god only god possesses independence or what we would call a saity his existence is from himself he doesn't depend on others so that's an incommunicable attribute and then there are the communicable attributes things like wisdom god has wisdom and we have wisdom now it's obviously different in terms of extent and in terms of its uh comprehensiveness but that is a communicable attribute and so many of these things resonate with us when it describes god as loving we know what loving means when it sort of modifies it by saying god is most loving that underscores something unique to god man is not most loving as well it speaks of god as long-suffering we know what long-suffering is even if by way of not having it we need more patience god has long suffering he is patient so so we're not going to describe each and every one of the terms that are utilized here i'll probably focus on the three that we see about the third or fourth line down where it says god is without body parts or passions those particular perfections of god typically don't get a lot of play they don't get a lot of attention though thankfully that has been corrected over the last several years persons are giving more attention to those three things but in the first place notice that this particular chapter is a confession it says the lord our god is but one only living and true god and then it goes on to describe or detail or define or give us the scriptural sort of expression of who this god is but one of the things that is unique to this chapter we when we made the observation that the second london confession of 1677-89 follows the westminster confession and the savoy declaration pretty closely there are parts where they obviously disagree in terms of church polity in terms of baptism in terms of covenant there are some significant changes along the way but for the most part they read very similarly both savvy and westminster make this a declaration to be sure but notice the person the personableness of london confession or the second london confession which follows the first here it says the lord our god this isn't some dry orthodoxy excuse me this is an abstract theology but rather this is a confession of who god is to us and by that i don't mean whatever we make him whatever scripture says concerning god he is that to us for our well-being and for our benefit so it is a wonderful blessed statement concerning who our god is the lord our god by grace we have come into possession of him not that we own him we understand what i mean but we have relationship with him and therefore again this isn't just some empty confession concerning a god who is out there but this is a declaration and confession of the god who has become these things by grace to us not become in the sense of never having been before but now we understand it experientially so the lord our god is but one only the living living and true god when it comes to the unity of god or the singularity of god the bible teaches that deuteronomy 6 at verse 4. this was the central confession of israel's faith the lord our god is one as well first corinthians chapter 8 verses 4 and then 6 and the rest of the bible indicates that there is but one only the true the living and the true god now paragraph three will underscore the triune nature of this one living and true god but nevertheless this is a blessed confession we're not polytheists we're not by theists or tritheus there is but one only living and true god the dutch reformed theologian hermann boving says by the first we mean that there is but one divine being he's talking about the unity of singularity by the first we mean that there is but one divine being that in virtue of the nature of that being god cannot be more than one being and consequently that all other beings exist only from him through him and to him hence this attribute teaches god's absolute oneness and uniqueness his exclusive numerical oneness so in the first hand the lord our god is but one only living and true god and then notice the next statement whose subsistence is being his existence is in and of himself as i mentioned this is called a saity god's not dependent on something outside of him for his existence from everlasting to everlasting thou art god there's no sort of counsel that god has to appeal to there's nothing outside of god by which he he sustains his own life but rather his uh his subsistence or his existence or his being is in and of himself this word a sanity simply means the divine attribute of uncaused existence it is the essence of god to exist so that is fundamental and crucial to understand we're not independent in this way we are not a say we are not of ourselves existent but we are always dependent upon the living and the true god now as we move through this list of perfections or attributes notice what it goes on to say he's infinite in being and perfection whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself that's going to be repeated because it's absolutely crucial when the bible presents the incomprehensibility of god we need to understand that it doesn't mean in total in other words there are true things we can know about god we know that there is but one only the living and the true god we know that he's triune we know that he's loving excuse me we know that he's gracious we know that he's merciful when it speaks of this in the confession it means that only god alone is sufficient to comprehend god in other words we can't exhaust him we'll never be able to to plumb the fathoms of his greatness and his glory and his infinite perfections his essence is comprehended by none other than himself we can receive the propositions from scripture we can formulate good theological confession but in terms of absolutely positively knowing everything there is to know about god it's simply not going to happen and so this is underscored in many places not only in scripture but as well in the bible so it says whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself and then notice it speaks of uh of him being a most pure spirit a most pure spirit jesus taught that god is spirit in john chapter 4 at verse 24. now when the confession highlights that he is a most pure spirit it's probably reflecting the latin term actus purists and actis purists as you might guess means pure act god is pure act he doesn't have potency what we have is potency we have active potency that means we can pick up the hymnal we have passive potency that means somebody can throw the hymnal at us there's a an ability in us to change to become something other not so with god there's no potency in god but he's always pure act and again a definition of this pure act or perfect actual actualization free from all potency for change or potential for greater perfection it is of the essence of god to be pure act because he is infinite in perfection and self-existent whose inner life is eternally and fully realized now again as we consider these statements and as we sort of dive into this chapter and this paragraph into a bit more detail i hope that you'll understand that god isn't like us we often have this concept that god is just a better version of man man has wisdom god just has better wisdom man loves god's just better at love man has knowledge god's just a bit better at knowledge that's not it at all god occupies the category of creator god occupies the cr the category of divinity all else is not that he's not just the best expression of creaturely goodness he's in a different class altogether and we need to understand that about our god he is a most pure spirit now notice what the confession does it says he's invisible and then it says he's without body he's without parts he's without passions it then says he he only half immortality and then it speaks of him being immutable immense immense incomprehensible now if you understand that particular language those are negative statements in other words the confession is telling us something positively about god by giving us negation and this is called and i don't want to confuse anybody but again i think that it's good for us to stretch our minds occasionally and try to wrap them around what the church as a whole has been doing for about 20 centuries just because now we like to go to church and wave our hands and talk about what the bible means to me that doesn't mean that the church as a whole has always done that they've reflected on scripture they have made theological formulations they have announced or rather declared what the bible teaches in terms of doctrine and the people of god have received that it has promoted worship it has promoted praise it has promoted pr prayer and dependence upon god because when we know our god as the bible sets him forth hopefully it will shut us up in his presence and cause us to bow down in reverence and in awe so there are things that we can say positively about god by way of a negative statement and this is called epiphanic epiphanic means to predicate or to assert or to declare things about god in terms of denial or describing god by a way of negation based on the incomprehensibility of god for example scripture asserts that god is not a man numbers 23 19 and that he is invisible that means he's not visible and it describes him as being immutable that means he's not mutable so there are things that we confess about god positively by way of negation he is not visible he is not mortal he is not changeable those are negations but they teach us something accurate about god so the phrase is apathetic that is an actual word i'm not making it up you do an apathetic death on your computer and it'll pop up and it'll say pertaining to the knowledge of god by way of negation so that's not a gym ism or a cam ism it is what the church has done throughout her her history as church but then notice so when it goes we move on we see the infinity of god he's infinite in being in perfection the incomprehensibility of god the spirituality of god a most pure spirit and then invisibility of god the confession here rightly reflects first timothy 1 17 and 1st timothy 6 15 and 16. now john owen made this observation concerning his invisibility he said he has not seen not because he cannot be seen but because we cannot bear the sight of him see there's a difference there not because he can't be seen with the the glory of god shines forth but because we cannot bear the sight of him the light of god in whom is no darkness forbids all access to him by any creature whatever we who cannot behold the sun and its glory are too weak to bear the beams of infinite brightness again this hopefully underscores to us that the god that the church has brought down and put on the table in front of us is not the god of the holy bible the god of the holy bible is what the confession is confessing here it's what the divines have written down not because they wrote it down but because it accurately summarizes or encompasses what the bible presents look at solomon in 1st kings chapter 8 at the dedication of the temple solomon knew theology solomon wasn't just a good king but he was a good son to his good king father david david understood theology the man who authored the bulk of the psalms certainly was good in theology proper and david passed that knowledge down to solomon so that when solomon comes to dedicate the temple it's not you know god we're just here in your presence and wow and it's just so cool to be near you that's not what he does he extols the grandness the glory the majesty and the excellence and the otherness of god most high that's what the confession is doing now notice what the confession goes on to say after invisibility without body parts or passions this speaks of divine incorporeality divine simplicity and divine impassability again i think we're sufficiently schooled in all the other attributes if not to the degree that we ought to be at least we know what justice is at least we know what holiness is at least we know what what mercy is but typically we don't know what divine incorporeality divine simplicity and divine impassability means so we'll spend a little bit of time here in the first place divine incorporeality simply means that god has no body he is a most pure spirit now when god manifests himself or reveals himself rather to man he does do so through a burning bush he does do so through things that we can connect with but god in his essence does not have a body like men now when it comes to the bible you'll know that at times the bible speaks concerning the eyes of god the bible speaks concerning the arm of god the bible speaks concerning those sorts of things this is the the predication or the word predication means simply means to say something about something to predicate something about this table it's it's flat to predicate something about this book it's it's burgundy to predict something about this cup it it holds water predicates uh predicate simply means to say something about something else so the bible predicates of god human uh form again eyes uh heart uh arm you see that genesis 6 you see it in second chronicles you see it in isaiah 59. now this is what's called anthropomorphism anthropomorphism again stick with me here because what we need to understand is that the bible does this for a particular reason to teach us things about god anthropomorphism simply means figurative language which predicates human form to god so it's taking something that we are common commonly familiar with eyes hands feet and applying it to god to teach us something true about god that doesn't mean that god has eyes it doesn't mean that he has an arm and it doesn't mean that he has hands in fact john calvin spoke to this issue in his day there were a group of people that thought god had a body they were called as you might imagine the anthropomorphites so anthropomorphism is the convention applying bodily parts to god the anthropomorph fights read those statements literally and concluded that god had eyes concluded that god had an arm so listen to what calvin says concerning the anthropomorphites he says the anthropomorphite say that five times fast also who imagined a corporeal god that means a bodily god who imagined a corporeal god from the fact that scripture often ascribes to him a mouth ears eyes hands and feet are easily refuted for who even of slight intelligence does not understand that as nurses commonly do with infants god is want and a measure to lisp in speaking to us thus such forms of speaking do not so much express clearly what god is like as accommodate the knowledge of him to our slight capacity to do this he must descend far beneath his loftiness so as calvin says this language of anthropomorphism this figurative language that takes the bodily parts of man and applies that to god is not to teach us that god has hands that god has feet that god has arms it's not to do that at all rather it is to speak to us in a manner that we are able to receive it's accommodation so just as he uses the example of a nurse with an infant lisping i don't think he means you know not being able to pronounce his ethics i think he means speaking baby talk speaking gugu gaga in such a way that that little one can follow what you have to say when you have a two-year-old you well a one-year-old maybe i did it too march upstairs go into your room and i want it tidied in 10 minutes you don't typically do that you say here's socks pick up sakes and put them in the in the basket right this is what god does in scripture remember he's not just a better version of us he's creator he's infinite he's most glorious most wondrous he is incomprehensible to the creature for him to be able to speak to us he has to speak in what the older commentators and theologians referred to as in the manner of men when we see that if you read john gill for instance and he's talking about the hand of god or the arm of god or the eyes of god he will most likely say that the the biblical author is speaking in the manner of men and what he means by that is in this form of accommodation god the infinite is speaking to us the finite in the manner in which we're able to receive it right if god were to speak to us consistent with who god is we wouldn't be able to receive it so he needs to speak to us in a way by way of accommodation and so this is speaking in the manner of men it is accommodation to the creature now it's also referred to as an improper predication let's go back to that definition of predicate predicate is when we assert something about something else when we see this language of improper predication for whatever reason people hear that and they think falsehood they think lie they think deception no an improper predication simply means that we apply something to god that isn't proper to him like eyes like hands like feet in order to teach something that is true about god let me go to a textbook definition it's a form of analogical predication i'm just making more more work in terms of uh term terminology but an analogical predication is simple it is the affirmation of a similarity between two different things we do this all the time we just don't think about it we don't think about what the literary convention is but with reference to an improper predication wherein the thing predicated exists figuratively in one of the analog gates for example eyes may be predicated of god although not properly god doesn't have eyes that's what it says for the form or nature of an eye does not exist in god however there is something in god figuratively and improperly that corresponds to the likeness of a man's eye such as his omnipresence and his watch care over his people so in ii chronicles when it says the eyes of yahweh run to and fro throughout the earth it's never intended to teach that we're to look around and see all these eyes running from god now it teaches us his sovereignty it teaches us something of his omni omniscience it teaches us something of his omnipotence it teaches us something of who god is in a manner of men in the manner of men in a way of accommodation to us so that we can seize upon it and understand it so without body divine incorporeality but then notice the next one he's without parts and again this might be a bit odd in terms of our understanding the fact that god is without parts it is the doctrine of divine simplicity now most of the time when people hear of the doctrine of divine simplicity they think wow that's pretty complex in fact when you think about god doesn't he seem like a complex being well when we talk about the simplicity of god we simply mean that he is not composed he's not made up of parts he is not a compounded being having an uncompounded or non-composite nature which referring to god asserts that he is absolutely free of composition physically rationally or logically because of divine simplicity we assert that all that is in god is god see we are made up we're two parts some say we're three parts they happen to be wrong we're actually two parts we're a material and an immaterial we are body and soul sometimes the bible uses soul or spirit interchangeably again i don't think it's right to see those as distinct entities but man is composed of two parts we're made by god or put together by god the doctrine of divine simplicity teaches god's not put together by something outside of god he's not compounded he is not existent because of things that are ultimately more ultimate than god that have come together to formulate him or to put him together divine simplicity is a crucial aspect or perfection of god if god were composed of parts then he would be composed and we know that that's simply not the case but if he were composed by parts there would be something more ultimate to god so you'd have to imagine a time that before god there were god parts that assembled themselves in order for god to exist the doctrine of divine simplicity which underscore or is def defined very clearly here without parts argues against that there is no sense in which god is compounded there is no sense in which god has been put together and as well if god is simple then as that definition says all that is in god is god if you turn to first john chapter 4 for just a moment you can see a practical application of this first john chapter 4. so if we understand divine simplicity and we accept the proposition that all that is in god is god then god is his perfections god is his attributes this is why i actually prefer the term perfection i don't mind the term attributes but typically what happens is that people think of god and then these attributes attribute to him something and they typically end up like this you know he's about five percent of justice he's about five percent mercy he's about five percent righteous and probably 20 holiness because the bible speaks about that a lot so they have this composite god they have this god that's sort of made up of all these various attributes this god that's sort of made up of all these various perfections that's not it at all god according to john in first john chapter 4 at verses 8 and 16 is love see you can only say that because of the doctrine of divine simplicity the fact that all that is in god is god we can say of man that he loves we can say of man that he grows in his love that he isn't as loving as he ought to be but you cannot describe us as love you can with god you can say god is holy you can say that god is merciful because of the doctrine of divine simplicity so if god were composed of parts then he would be a compose and secondly there would be something ultimate more ultimate than god and if god is in fact simple as the confession declares without parts then in fact god is his perfections all that is in god is god now notice the third statement that the confession indicates he's without body parts or passions now there's a great deal of misunderstanding when it comes to this without passions they people often think that if god is without passions then that means he's static he's inert he's he's not loving he's he's not all that that the bible says he's just sort of this blob that exists out there that doesn't respond to to anything around him that's not what the teaching of of without passions means in the first place this is called divine impassability so m again negates passability he's without possibilities without passion as well when we compare this particular statement with the the one previous without body you'll know that the bible speaks of god again concerning hands concerning feet concerning a mouth concerning ears and those sorts of things well the bible predicates or asserts passions with reference to god the bible tells us in genesis chapter 6 that god relented god was upset if you will over the fact that he had made man and they had become such gross sinners so the first one is anthropomorphism the predicating or the stating about god things that are unique to human bodies this is called anthropopathism this is the description of or the predication of human passions to god the same thing holds it's an improper predication god does not change god does not move from one state to another god doesn't love us one day and then love us more or less the next day that is simply absolutely positively un impossible so when the bible does this in terms of improper predication of passions to god again it's not teaching us falsehood it's not lying to us it's teaching us something about god for instance when he relents concerning man i think it's an expression properly of his justice of his righteousness of his holiness but he speaks in the manner of men he speaks by way of accommodation he speaks in a in a way that we can receive and in a way that we can understand so this idea of impassability means that god doesn't change god doesn't go from one emotional state to the other and when persons hear this again at times they say oh wow that's just to reduce god do you really want your god to have emotional change do you really want your god to be like you do you really want your god on thursday to be at a fever pitch of his love for you and on friday afternoon be ready to get rid of you that's not what you want you want the lord god most high who is without body parts or passions now you can turn to acts chapter 14. just as we flesh out no pun intended this idea of well that would have been without body as we uh emotional out uh this without passions in acts chapter 14 we see a proof text in the westminster confession of faith as they treat this subject so in the westminster confession of faith here in the statement concerning he's without passions it indicates acts chapter 14 and verse 15. so i just want to read beginning in verse 14. it's paul and barnabas in lystra and we see that they heal a man and then when they heal a man well i'll just pick up reading in verse 8. and in lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting a from his mother's womb who had never walked this man heard paul speaking paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed said with a loud voice stand up straight on your feet and he leaped up leaped and walked now when the people saw what paul had done they raised their voices saying in the lyconian language the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men and barnabas they called zeus and paul hermes because he was the chief speaker then the the priest of zeus whose temple was in the front of this their city brought oxen and garlands to the gates intending to sacrifice with the multitudes but when the apostles barnabas and paul heard this they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude crying out and saying man why are you doing these things we are all uh we also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless useless things to the living god who made the heaven the earth the sea and all things that are in that now in the first place paul asserts that he and barnabas are not god very clear right don't worship us don't sacrifice to us we're not god how does he underscore that they're not god by the phrase in verse 15 same nature same nature literally like passions in other words paul and barnabas argument as to why they are not fit and worthy to receive divine worship is because we have like passions with you we're we're not god god is not having like passions in fact that's what he goes on to say we also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living god what's true of the living god he made the heaven the earth the sea and all things that are in that in other words he's not of like passions he is dissimilar from the create a creature as creator he is not one with the creature so there is this solidarity among creatures by which paul and barnabas reviews divine worship the same term is used in james 5 17 when it describes elijah he was a man with a nature like ours he was a man with like passions to us and the word simply means uh here in in acts 14 15 pertaining to experiencing similarity in feelings or circumstances with the same nature as someone one commentator says it's same experiences and the same feelings literally of like passions the king james has it such we also are men of like passions with you so in order to refuse divine worship the apostle paul says we're creature like you we have like passions similar to you rather worship the true and living god who made the creation he doesn't have like passions even though the bible may predicate in an improper way concerning his passions we need to understand that essentially god does not engage in emotional flux god is not a woman or a man that has some sort of a a hard day or a bad day and it either promotes in him a a a declension from one state or an increase in another state the fact that god is not like us is a most encouraging thing for us it's not to just dissuade us from worshiping and adoring and loving him and then if you drop down into the confession notice what it will say later on about the third line up in my my edition here it says that god is most loving see if someone hears that god is impassable and they conclude that that means he's inert he's static he has no regard for his creatures that's not it at all the doctrine of divine impassability ensures that god is most loving and i don't think the word most there just modifies loving i think we should read it this way most loving most gracious most merciful most long-suffering in other words he is that because of the doctrine of divine impassability he can neither increase but he also cannot decrease in terms of his love grace mercy and patience toward his people so if you understand this doctrine it doesn't mean that god is static or inert it means that all that god is he always is to his people he doesn't shrink back he doesn't go again wake up on thursday and say you know that guy didn't read his bible yesterday so i'm going to love him with 15 units less of love today that's thinking in terms of creaturely love that's the way we operate if somebody doesn't please us or or you know do for us you know they diminish a bet in our in our sort of con our mindset that's not the way god is god is creator he does not have like passions with us so the doctrine of divine impassability highlights the distinction between god as creator and man as creature very obvious there in acts 14 15. that's what paul says we refuse divine worship because we are men of like passions in other words divine worship goes to the divine divine worship goes to the one who does not have like passions who is not sort of this ball of emotional you know need that's not the god who we serve james dolezal says god is not to be counted as existing in an ontological series ontology refers to being it has the idea of being so he is not to be counted as existing in an ontological series with any creature i mentioned earlier we think that god is just a better form of man i typically use the worm first and then the cat and then the dog because dogs are better and then the man and then the angel and then god that puts us into the same category and that's simply inaccurate we have more affinity in some ways with the worm or the amoeba than we do with god because god is infinite we and the worm are finite god is creator we in the worm are created so there is this ontological series of being that does exist there is worm there is cat there is dog there is man there is angel but it's not capped off by god god's in a different series not not a series god alone occupies the the position of the infinite or the creator so back to dolezal he says as the absolute cause of all creaturely being god himself cannot be numbered as one of those things appearing within being in general so he's basically saying that god's not just a better version of man herman boving says god is the real the true being the fullness of being the sum total of all reality and perfection the totality of being from which all other being owes its existence he is an immeasurable and unbounded ocean of being the absolute being who alone has being in himself so this is why we spend a bit of time on without body parts or passions they're fundamental to who god is this is fundamental theological grammar you cannot give these things away or sacrifice these uh these things and still end up with god you're just gonna have a better version of man a more loving creature a more wise creature a more helpful creature but that's not it at all the without body parts or passions indicates that god is not in this same chain of being with the creature now the doctrine of divine impassability is necessarily related to the doctrine of divine immutability if you drop down in the confession you will see that statement most wise most free most absolute working all things according to the counsel of his own notice immutable and most righteous will for his own glory i think most christians or many christians are probably more skilled or understanding of that term immutability means that god does not change well if god does not change then impassability necessarily follows because passability speaks of change passability moves or speaks of moving from one state to another passions defined as any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling as love or hate it's the state of being acted upon or affected by something external especially something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior again god's most pure spirit he's pure act he's not got potency he doesn't move from one state to another you have to appreciate how all of these things sort of hold together if you take one out the whole thing falls down we see this in the history of the church not going back you know hundreds and hundreds of years ago we only need to go back about a generation or two to see how these things were sacrificed by a denial of the without body parts and especially the passions well i'd say parts and passions i don't think the body part has the anthropomorphites have never been a large contingency in the church but those compromising divine simplicity and divine impassability have been in the church so the fact that god is immutable it necessarily follows that he is impossible and scripture tells us in 20 numbers 23 19 god is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should repent now you've got to remember this if god relents according to scripture and then according to other scripture it says he doesn't how do we account for that it simply does not do to say as the the heathen would oh there's just contradictions in the bible you have to have a way of interpretation and i would suggest that 20 centuries of the church of jesus christ has offered that way of interpretation to be able to deal with a bible that says god relents and on the other hand god does not how do we make heads or tales of that we need to understand theology we need to understand grammar and we need to understand what i said earlier an improper predication speaking in the manner of men understand first and foremost who god is and then the scripture or then we're able to understand what god does we understand who god is he doesn't change he doesn't fluctuate he doesn't have emotional outrages he doesn't you know have the those fits of almost psychopathic rage when he's sitting at a red light that's just not god he doesn't have that so the bible says that he relents we need to understand that in light of who god is as the bible presents it first samuel 15 29 which is an intriguing passage because in first samuel chapter 15 at verse 29 the statement i'm about to read to you the first statement or the first one of the first few verses in chapter 15 and then one of the last verses in chapter 15 said that god regretted that saul had been made king but in first samuel 15 29 it says and also the strength of israel will not lie nor relent for he is not a man that he should relent so two times it says that he regrets that saul was king and yet smack dab in the middle we have this statement that he's not a son of man that he should repent again the way to make heads or tails out of that is improper predication those statements about god's regret are telling us something in the manner of men it's underscoring his justice his righteousness those things properly predicated of him but it's speaking in a manner of men so that we can see the gravity of the situation it's a device helpful for the creature to understand the creator malachi 3 6 for i am the lord i do not change therefore you are not consumed o sons of jacob and then of course james 1 17 every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning god doesn't change brethren and that applies to his emotional life that is again in the manner of men itself as if there's an emotional life in god where he sort of goes like this make sure i get my coffee first thing in the morning or you won't like how i respond that's not god remember he's not just a better version a more excellent version of the creature but rather he is god most high he is without body parts or passions and then of course the confession goes on to say who only has immortality we have immortality to a degree but it's derivative once we are born by god's uh power and mercy we will not die we will either end up in heaven or in hell but it's not said of us as it is said of god from everlasting to everlasting thou art god it says that god is immense and what i'm sorry immutable we already looked at and then immense what does it mean by immense it means the immeasurability of god indicating his freedom from all limit of space or measure from all created space this is distinguished from omnipresence by the fact that omnipresence refers to the filling presence of god in all created places the confession says that god is eternal this is an attribute or a perfection that's up for grabs today there are people suggesting that god is not eternal there are people that are suggesting writing theologians in the protestant tradition that have a problem with the eterna eternality of god again there's that reference to his incomprehensibility the almightiness of god every way infinite most holy most wise most free most absolute again secured by the reality that he is without parts and he's without passions it goes on to say working all things according to the council of his own immutable excuse me and most righteous will for his own glory and then most loving most gracious most merciful most long suffering abundant in uh in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity transgression and sin the rewarder of them that diligently seek him this is hebrews 11 6. we not only need to believe that god is right that's what hebrews 11 6 says but that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him in other words god is not just this sort of uh the perfections that we see here but he is that to his people he is that to those who seek him so these perfections are revealed manifested or displayed to his elect in the forgiving of iniquity transgression and sent the rewarder of them that diligently seek him but also with all most just and terrible in his judgments hating all sin and who will by no means clear the guilty brings it back into the realm that this is not just abstract theology god is this to his creatures for good in terms of the elect and for bad in terms of the non-elect and by bad i simply mean bad as they will understand it it is a manifestation of the justice and the righteousness of god when he ultimately consigns them to hell all right i'll close in prayer and then if there's any questions we've got about six minutes here father we thank you for what scripture says concerning you we thank you for this good succinct summary statement concerning the perfections of god and we pray lord that you would help us to be students of the word at this level that we would want to know you the only true god in jesus christ whom you have sent and we ask this in jesus name