Presbyterians in Quarantine Drinking Coffee

Q. 8. How doth God execute his decrees? A. God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence. Q. 9. What is the work of creation? A. The work of creation is God's making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 7: Q. 7. What are the decrees of God? A. The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 5 and 6: Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one? A. There is but one only, the living and true God. Q. 6. How many persons are there in the godhead? A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

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

Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 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. Q. 3. 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.

Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #1: Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Introduction to the Westminster Shorter Catechism

God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue. If you try to exalt yourself, you're not loving anybody. Why? Because you're distracting them from what will make them happy — God. You won't make them happy. You're quite unsatisfactory. God will make them happy. If you say, “Look at me, look at me, look at me,” you distract them from what will save them, give them life, and give them joy. But if God exalts himself, he's not distracting you, he's loving you. “Come to me, come to me, I'm everything you've ever wanted, come to me, be satisfied in me, enjoy me, treasure me.” If you say that, you're an egomaniac. If God says it, He is Love. -John Piper

Unless I am convinced by Scripture and by plain reason for I do not trust either in the Pope or councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, I am bound by the Scriptures and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither right nor safe to go against conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other, May God help me. - Martin Luther

[T]here is nothing in us or done by us at any stage of our earthly development because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ's sake or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only “when we believe,” it is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live… It is always, on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest. There is never anything that we are or have or do that can take His place or that take a place along with Him. We are always unworthy, and all that we have or do of good is always of pure grace. (B.B. Warfield)

God became man because the debt was so great that while man alone owed it, only God could pay it. Thus it was necessary for God to take on our humanity so that He could represent the one who owed the debt but could not pay it and the one who could pay the debt even though they did not owe it - at one and the same time. (Anselm)

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times. (Martin Luther)

At the time of the Reformation the gospel-light broke in upon the church. It drove away the clouds of anti-Christian darkness that covered the church. The power of divine grace followed by the preaching of the Word so that it had visible success in the conversion and edification of souls. The blessed fruits appeared in the hearts and lives of its professors. That was one of “the days of the Son of man.” Then the exalted Redeemer rode forth in His glory and majesty on the white horse of the pure Gospel, “conquering and to conquer.” The bow in His hand was like that of Jonathan; it returned not empty. (William Cowper)

The man who attempts Christianity without the church shoots himself in the foot, shoots his children in the leg, and shoots his grandchildren in the heart. -Kevin DeYoung

If the church is a building, then we must be bricks in it; if the church is a body, then we are its members; if the church is a household of faith, then we are part of that household. Sheep are in a flock, and branches on a vine. Biblically, if we are Christians we must be members of a church. This membership is not simply the record of a statement we once made or of affection toward a familiar place. It must be the reflection of a living commitment or it is worthless. -Mark Dever

All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that “God is love.” But they seem not to notice that the words “God is love” have no real meaning unless God contains at least two persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love. -C.S. Lewis

The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. -A.W. Pink

Is it a small thing in your eyes to be loved by God – to be the son, the spouse, the love, the delight of the King of glory? Christian, believe this, and think about it: you will be eternally embraced in the arms of the love which was from everlasting, and will extend to everlasting – of the love which brought the Son of God's love from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to glory – that love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spat upon, crucified, pierced – which fasted, prayed, taught, healed, wept, sweated, bled, died. That love will eternally embrace you. -Richard Baxter

A pastor who feels competent in himself to produce eternal fruit knows neither God nor himself. A pastor who does not know the rhythm of desperation and deliverance must have his sights only on what man can achieve. -John Piper

There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. -Charles Spurgeon

God knows everything about everything and everybody all the time. Also, he knows the future no less than the past and the present, and possible events that never happen no less than actual events that do. Nor does he have to "access" information about things, as a computer might retrieve a file; all his knowledge is always immediately and directly before his mind. -J.I. Packer

In this episode we talk about the attribute of God's Holiness

In this episode we discuss God's attribute of omnipresence

However unstable I may be, however fickle my friends may prove, God changes not. If He varied as we do, if He willed one thing today and another tomorrow, if He were controlled by caprice, who could confide in Him? But, all praise to His glorious name, He is ever the same. His purpose is fixed, His will is stable, His word is sure. A.W. Pink

The grand difference between a human being and a supreme being is precisely this: Apart from God, I cannot exist. Apart from me, God does exist. God does not need me in order for Him to be; I do need God in order for me to be. This is the difference between what we call self-existent being and dependent being. We are dependent. We are fragile. We cannot live without air, without water, without food. No human being has the power of being within himself. Life is lived between two hospitals. We need a support system from birth to death to sustain life. We are like flowers that bloom and then wither and then fade. This is how we differ from God. God does not wither, God does not fade, God is not fragile. R.C. Sproul

In the simplest Christian truth there resides a profundity that can occupy the minds of the most brilliant people for a lifetime. And even in learned theological sophistication, we never really rise above a child's level of understanding the mysterious depths and riches of the character of God. R.C. Sproul

Each book proceeded from the same divine mind, so the teaching of the Bibles sixty-six books will be complementary and self consistent. If we cannot yet see this, the fault is in us, not in Scripture. It is certain that scripture nowhere contradicts Scripture; rather, one passage explains another. J.I. Packer

“Along with the “right” to interpret Scripture comes the responsibility to interpret it properly. Believers are free to discover the truths of Scripture, but they are not free to fabricate their own truth. Believers are called to understand sound principles of interpretation and to avoid the danger of subjectivism.” R.C. Sproul

From a divine perspective, the church could not in any way be regarded as the cause of God's divinely-inspired speech. On the contrary, God's divinely-inspired speech always stands over the church and governs her. Michael Kruger

The church is called to preserve the Word of God, to explain it, to preach it, apply it, translate it, spread it abroad, recommend it, and defend it - in a word, to cause the thoughts of God laid down in Scripture to triumph everywhere and at all times over the thoughts of man…Thus the truth laid down in Scripture leads, on the part of all those who believe and embrace it, to a confession, a creed. Herman Bavinck

Conversion turns us to the Word of God as our rule to walk by (Galatians 6:16), as our water to wash us (Psalm 119:9), as our fire to warm us (Luke 24:32), as our food to nourish us (Matthew 4:4) , and as our sword to fight with (Ephesians 6:17). (Henry Philip)

Christianity is a religion that rests on revelation: nobody would know the truth about God, or be able to relate to him in a personal way, had not God first acted to make himself known. (J.I. Packer)

The first mark of good theology is that it seeks to echo the divine Word as faithfully as it can...theology is for doxology and devotion--that is, the praise of God and the practice of godliness. (J.I. Packer)