content/02/04.md
---
pagetitle: How doth God execute his decrees?
date: February 19, 2020
prev_url: /westminster-daily/02/03/
prev_date: Feb 3
this_url: /westminster-daily/02/04/
short_date: "0204"
this_date: Feb 4
next_url: /westminster-daily/02/05/
next_date: Feb 5
---
#### Shorter Catechism
<span class="q">Q 8.</span> How doth God execute his decrees?
<span class="q">A.</span> God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.[^fnref:wsc1]
[^fnref:wsc1]: <div class="esv"><h5>Psalm 148:8</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19148008.01-1">fire and hail, snow and mist,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>stormy wind fulfilling his word!</p> </div> </div><h5>Isaiah 40:26</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p23040026.01-2">Lift up your eyes on high and see:<br /> <span class="indent"></span>who created these?<br /> He who brings out their host by number,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>calling them all by name,<br /> by the greatness of his might,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and because he is strong in power<br /> <span class="indent"></span>not one is missing.</p> </div> </div><h5>Daniel 4:35</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p27004035.01-3">all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and he does according to his will among the host of heaven<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and among the inhabitants of the earth;<br /> and none can stay his hand<br /> <span class="indent"></span>or say to him, “What have you done?”</p> </div> </div><h5>Acts 4:24-28</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p44004024.01-4">And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,</p> <div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p44004025.16-4">“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and the peoples plot in vain?<br /> The kings of the earth set themselves,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and the rulers were gathered together,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>against the Lord and against his Anointed’—</p> </div> <p class="same-paragraph" id="p44004027.01-4">for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.</p> </div><h5>Revelation 4:11</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p66004011.01-5">“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>to receive glory and honor and power,<br /> for you created all things,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and by your will they existed and were created.” (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div> </div>
#### Larger Catechism
<span class="q">Q 14.</span> How doth God execute his decrees?
<span class="q">A.</span> God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence,[^fnref:wlc1] according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will.[^fnref:wlc2]
[^fnref:wlc1]: <div class="esv"><h5>Revelation 4:11</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p66004011.01-1">“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>to receive glory and honor and power,<br /> for you created all things,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and by your will they existed and were created.”</p> </div> </div><h5>Isaiah 40:12-31</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p23040012.01-2">Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and marked off the heavens with a span,<br /> enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and weighed the mountains in scales<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and the hills in a balance?<br /> Who has measured the Spirit of the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>or what man shows him his counsel?<br /> Whom did he consult,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and who made him understand?<br /> Who taught him the path of justice,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and taught him knowledge,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and showed him the way of understanding?<br /> Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and are accounted as the dust on the scales;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.<br /> Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.<br /> All the nations are as nothing before him,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.</p> <p class="line-group" id="p23040018.01-2">To whom then will you liken God,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>or what likeness compare with him?<br /> An idol! A craftsman casts it,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and a goldsmith overlays it with gold<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and casts for it silver chains.<br /> He who is too impoverished for an offering<br /> <span class="indent"></span>chooses wood that will not rot;<br /> he seeks out a skillful craftsman<br /> <span class="indent"></span>to set up an idol that will not move.</p> <p class="line-group" id="p23040021.01-2">Do you not know? Do you not hear?<br /> <span class="indent"></span>Has it not been told you from the beginning?<br /> <span class="indent"></span>Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?<br /> It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;<br /> who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;<br /> who brings princes to nothing,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.</p> <p class="line-group" id="p23040024.01-2">Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,<br /> when he blows on them, and they wither,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and the tempest carries them off like stubble.</p> <p class="line-group" id="p23040025.01-2">To whom then will you compare me,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>that I should be like him? says the Holy One.<br /> Lift up your eyes on high and see:<br /> <span class="indent"></span>who created these?<br /> He who brings out their host by number,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>calling them all by name,<br /> by the greatness of his might,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and because he is strong in power<br /> <span class="indent"></span>not one is missing.</p> <p class="line-group" id="p23040027.01-2">Why do you say, O Jacob,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and speak, O Israel,<br /> “My way is hidden from the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and my right is disregarded by my God”?<br /> Have you not known? Have you not heard?<br /> The <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> is the everlasting God,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>the Creator of the ends of the earth.<br /> He does not faint or grow weary;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>his understanding is unsearchable.<br /> He gives power to the faint,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and to him who has no might he increases strength.<br /> Even youths shall faint and be weary,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and young men shall fall exhausted;<br /> but they who wait for the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> shall renew their strength;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>they shall mount up with wings like eagles;<br /> they shall run and not be weary;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>they shall walk and not faint. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc2]: <div class="esv"><h5>Ephesians 1:11</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p49001011.01-1">In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,</p> </div><h5>Psalm 148:8</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19148008.01-2">fire and hail, snow and mist,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>stormy wind fulfilling his word!</p> </div> </div><h5>Daniel 4:35</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p27004035.01-3">all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and he does according to his will among the host of heaven<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and among the inhabitants of the earth;<br /> and none can stay his hand<br /> <span class="indent"></span>or say to him, “What have you done?”</p> </div> </div><h5>Acts 4:24-28</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p44004024.01-4">And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,</p> <div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p44004025.16-4">“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and the peoples plot in vain?<br /> The kings of the earth set themselves,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and the rulers were gathered together,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>against the Lord and against his Anointed’—</p> </div> <p class="same-paragraph" id="p44004027.01-4">for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>