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In this broadcast, Dr. Craig Greatman discusses the importance of having a framework for understanding and applying the Word of God in various aspects of life. He emphasizes the need to rely on historical creeds, confessions, and catechisms to guide our beliefs and actions. The Apostles' Creed and the Heidelberg Catechism are mentioned as valuable resources for understanding fundamental truths about God and our relationship with Him. By knowing and trusting in these truths, we can find comfort and joy even in the midst of trials. The goal is to build a foundation rooted in biblical principles and historical Christian teachings. Good evening and welcome once again to Count It All Joy, a broadcast ministry of Lighthouse Covenant Church in Fremont, California. I am your host, Dr. Craig Greatman, Senior Pastor of Lighthouse Covenant Church, as well as Director of Elenka's Counseling and Consultation Services in the Bay Area. Feel free to make an appointment by calling 510-651-WORD. That's 510-651-9673. This evening, as opposed to getting back into the minutia of biblical patriarchy and male-female relationships, what I want to do is take a step back and we're going to find our way back again to the Heidelberg Catechism. My hope once again is to provide the listener with a framework for dealing with all sorts of issues in one's life, how to handle rightly the Word of God and divide it rightly for thinking about all sorts of things, how one goes to work, how one leads the family, how one chooses a church, how one chooses a spouse, not only how but why and who and what and where sometimes. These who, what, where, when, why answers that we have for all sorts of things in our lives come down to fundamental purposes and fundamental beliefs. And it is my contention that the framework from which we operate, if we are Christian especially, usually doesn't have the rails that are necessary to go to the Bible and find the right context and the right principles for the right questions and the right answers. And we sort of hodgepodge our way around the Bible looking for answers in sometimes the wrong places. And it's by God's grace and for our benefit as 21st century believers that we know how to look back through the lenses of history and understand what has been known throughout the church for 2,000 years and also understand the divisions that are made up and have happened throughout history because of the variations of beliefs and how and when Christianity was established. And Christianity has sometimes gone off the rails, those sorts of things. So I think it's best, and one of the things that we're doing at Lighthouse Covenant Church is we are building a foundation starting with creeds and catechisms. If you are not familiar with the historical Protestant Christian tradition, the faith of our forefathers and the faith of the church fathers that's been passed down through the generations, then this is going to provide you with a framework, as I said, that will be helpful in the future. And so what we're going to do this evening is I'm going to first read the Apostles' Creed. I'm going to recite the Apostles' Creed for you, and then we're going to get into the Heidelberg Catechism. And in doing so, we're going to just step-by-step, going through each of the questions of the Heidelberg Catechism every week, we are going to provide a foundation from which we can indeed count all things joy as the Apostle James recommends and exhorts us to do in our theme verse, which is from James 1, beginning of verse 2, counting it all joy in every aspect of our lives. So the Bible says this, once again, in James 1, beginning of verse 2, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. And so obviously no Christian pastor worth his salt wants any of the Christians that he serves or the Christians in the world, anyone for that matter, to be tossed to and fro throughout their lives like the wind. People that are stable, people that are sober-minded, people that are hopeful, people that understand their relationship with God both eternally as well as in this temporal world and how those things go together, have a way of dealing with life that gives them peace and hope. Now this joy that we have is not always a palpable joy. Sometimes it's a joy that we simply count because of our faith in Christ Jesus. But again, in order to even get there, I think we have to have a basic understanding of what our faith means to us and what unites us with the body of Christ. So let's first begin with the Apostles' Creed. So in discussing this, I think what's important once again is for us to have a framework to understand these fundamental statements of the faith that we find in the Apostles' Creed. In so doing, we're going to reference the Heidelberg Catechism. And the Heidelberg Catechism gives us an outline of questions and answers through a 52-week period that formulates the consistent responses and undergirds the questions and answers of the statements that we find in the Apostles' Creed. In other words, when we make even the most basic of statements of faith, such as, I believe in God the Father Almighty, we are making some truth claims about God as Father and His almighty, omnipotent, sovereign existence. And so, how do we know that that's true? Why do we believe that that's the case? So when we get to the Heidelberg Catechism and we ask, on Lord's Day 1, what is thy only comfort in life and death? We are going to get some answers that explain to us who God is, why He is, and why we believe what we believe and why that's good. So the answer to the question for the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 1, what is thy only comfort in life and death, is this, that I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who, with His precious blood, hath faithfully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my Heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him. So we look at these answers, or we look at this answer to the question, what is my only comfort in life and death, and you might pause for a moment and wonder, well, how does this help me to believe in Christ as my only Lord and Savior? How does this comfort me with regard to understanding my worldview and my position and all the things that I struggle with? How is it that knowing and understanding this question and this answer will help me to count it all joy, my brothers, when you are facing trials and tribulations of various types? If you think about this, what is your only comfort in life and death? And the answer is that I am not my own, but I belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. That is the first part of the answer of the Heidelberg Catechism's number one question, and that is completely supported by the Bible itself. If we go to 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20, we read this in the scriptures. So on its face, right away, we see that understanding who God is helps me to have a framework for every single aspect of my life that I want to put voluntarily under God's sovereign control. Now, of course, inasmuch as God is in control and He is sovereign, there are things that are going on where He is ruling, and I am not necessarily voluntarily submitting to Him at times. And I want to do that. I want to work in concert with the Spirit living in me. So my basic contention when dealing with the creeds and confessions, when supporting Christian teaching through creeds and confessions and catechisms like the Heidelberg Catechism, is that people who do not have a systematic way of looking at the Bible, looking at religious contentions and religious innovations, and don't understand history, they are missing out on the reality that history repeats itself, that as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. Human beings are always trying to subvert God. We are hesitant to submit to God in every single way that He demands. And because the Church has not done a great job of discipling people with the scriptures themselves, rather sometimes having story times or a lot of fellowship and interaction and doing good deeds in the city and all of those types of things, social justice movement stuff, none of which is necessarily bad or sinful. In fact, some of it can be relatively good. However, in the darkness of the heart of the Christian, when people are alone late at night pondering their lives, assessing their walk with God or even where God is, they need to have, all of us need to have a point of reference where we can get back to God and what is good and right and true about God and access these truths right away. And you might not be a student of the Bible necessarily right away, but these creeds and confessions and catechisms help us to be students of the Bible, and they help us to orient our hearts and minds towards God. I cannot count anything, Joy, if I do not know who God is and I do not trust who God is and I do not understand who I am in Christ. If I have been bought with a price and I am indwelled by the Holy Spirit and I know that I am God's via 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, and if I do understand what my only hope is in life and in death, that I am not my own and I belong to God. If I understand those fundamental truths, and this is the God that I believe in, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, that that is who He is, not just because I believe it, because that is what He says He is, that is who He says He is, in His word. And this is part of the Christian walk. This is what we're trying to get back to at Lighthouse Covenant Church. These true things that the church has believed for two millennia and that we often fail to teach, especially on the western side of the United States where we want to progress and modernize things rather than be historically faithful. We want to discover things that are new and trendy. We miss out on things that will really help us to instill a faith that will be strong in times of suffering, in times of struggle, and in times where we're being asked to count things joy that don't seem very joyous. This is the end of our program. This is about as much as I can get into this evening. We will return to it tomorrow evening at midnight. Looking forward to meeting you there. Once again, I am your host, Dr. Craig Greatman, Senior Pastor of Lighthouse Covenant Church in Fremont, California. This has been Count It All Joy. Remember, you are living Coram Deo, before the face of God.