REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016 EVENING SERVICE.

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1 REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016 EVENING SERVICE. Sing beforehand: Psalm 49:2 Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God: Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beloved, grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. By the powerful operation of God the Holy Spirit. Song of praise: Psalm 99:1, 2 Prayer Doxology: Worship: Confession: Supplication (for pardon of sins): Thanksgiving: Intercession (for the need of the congregation, the church, authorities, sinful world and appeal to the promises of God) General supplication: Illumination of the Holy Spirit (necessary for the ministry of the Word): Psalm 130:1, 2 Scripture reading: Psalm 130:1-8; Heidelberg Catechism Sunday 5 Scripture text: Psalm 130:3-4 3 If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (Psalm 130:3-4) HEIDELBERG CATECHISM Sunday Q. Since, according to God's righteous judgement we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, how can we escape this punishment and be again received into favour? A. God demands that His justice be satisfied.[1] Therefore full payment must be made either by ourselves or by another.[2] [1] Ex. 20:5; 23:7; Rom. 2:1-11. [2] Is. 53:11; Rom. 8:3, Q. Can we ourselves make this payment? A. Certainly not. On the contrary, we daily increase our debt.[1] [1] Ps. 130:3; Matt. 6:12; Rom. 2:4, Q. Can any mere creature pay for us? A. No. In the first place, God will not punish another creature for the sin which man has committed.[1]furthermore, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God's eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it.[2] [1] Ezek. 18:4, 20; Heb. 2: [2] Ps. 130:3; Nah. 1: Q. What kind of mediator and deliverer must we seek? 1

2 A. One who is a true[1] and righteous[2] man, and yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is at the same time true God.[3] [1] I Cor. 15:21; Heb. 2:17. [2] Is. 53:9; II Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26. [3] Is. 7:14; 9:6; Jer. 23:6; John 1:1; Rom. 8:3, 4. Theme: Salvation is only possible according to the demand of God. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ to belong by body and soul in life and in death to Jesus Christ because He ransomed us by His precious blood from the rule of the devil is certainly a great consolation. It brings great relief to somebody who stood guilty to the eyes of God, because through the Holy Spirit he is assured that he never again would need to face God for his sins. Jesus Christ fully paid for his guilt of sin. Therefore he can now, under guidance of the Holy Spirit, live fully for the Lord. This testament of the believer caused somebody who not yet had this consolation to start questioning the believer. Because he is inquisitive about the grace the believer lives in and will die in, he wants to learn more about it. When he heard this testament of the believer his first question was: How many things must you know to be able to live and die blissfully? The believer answered him: Three things: Firstly how large my sin and misery is; secondly how I could be saved from all my sins and miseries and lastly: How I must be thankful towards God for such a salvation. In this discussion between the questioner and the believer we heard how the believer in the first part of our Catechism deals from the Word with the questioner. By his listening to the believer the questioner came to the realization that he also is a guilty sinner. In the first seven questions the questioner still put his questions in such a way as if he is not under the same circumstances than the believer is. His questions were directly towards the believer because by example he asks: Can you fully comply with the law of the Lord? But in the eighth question he talks about us and in the four questions of Sunday 5 he often includes himself. He realizes that he also needs salvation seeing that he himself discovered the enormity of his own sins and miseries. Brothers sisters and children the questioner realizes that he, together with the believer, they are sinful beings and therefore he also together with the believer, deserve to be temporary and eternally punished by God. The temporary punishment of God over the sin is already very severe. We indeed see the wrath of God as He reveals it from heaven. We ourselves already experience the wrath of God in our own land the scorching heat and drought, a president seemingly guilty of corruption, students and demonstrators destroying and putting fire as far as they go because they want to have matters their own way. If the temporary punishment of God looks like this, how bad will the eternal judgement of God be? It will mean that you would be estranged forever from God. There never in eternity will be again love and care from the Lord towards mankind. Just the just judgement and punishment for the sins committed against the highest majesty of God. Every single person faces this dark future even our questioner. Therefore he asks: Is there a way by which we could be freed from this temporary and eternal punishment and again be accepted into grace? The man who knows the enormity of his sin and misery finds himself in a depth he has to emerge from should the wants to continue living. It is an abyss like the believer of Psalm 130 is aware due to his own sins. This depth you could imagine as a very deep hole in the earth. The opening of the hole is far above your head. And the sides of this hole are perpendicular for many meters above your 2

3 head. And if that is not enough, the sides of these vertical surfaces of the hole are as smooth as soap and as hard as rock. Whoever has already been in great difficulty will hear worry in the voice of the believer s psalm. How can we escape from this misery? But the answer the questioner hears lets his throat close in fear. The believer answers him: God wants compliance to His justness. This answer and specifically the word justness rests upon what the believer has already pointed out from the Word to the questioner. God has never lowered His standard. The same demand He put to mankind at the beginning when man was perfect, is still valid: Perfect love to God in word and deed, as well as love for your neighbour as for yourself. God cannot be satisfied by anything less than perfect love. On this the questioner reacts and says: But I know that God still demands this perfect love from other people and me. And because I cannot comply with it God also does not want to leave the sin unpunished. You pointed out to me from the Word that God will only be satisfied after the just punishment has been applied, and that is the death. Should you now tell me that we would only be freed from the punishment and accepted back into the grace after it has been complied with God s justness it means that me or somebody else must first die in punishment of the sin. This is indeed what has to happen. We have to pay in full, whether we do so ourselves or whether somebody else does so in our place, payment has to be made in full. We cannot escape from this. The anxiety now entering the heart of the questioner is the anxiety that also was in the heart of the believer in Psalm 130. If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3) These words in verse 3 leave you with a question: Does God keep record of the sins man commits? The answer to this question is: Yes, God does keep book about the sin. God does not forget what has been sinned against Him. Jesus says: "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgement. (Matthew12: 36) But the believer in our Psalm means: Lord, should You remember all my sins and keep my liable as for it, then I finished. I don t even have a glimmer of hope, because I know that I face you fully guilty. And You are the just God. People who have never learned how holy and just God is in fact, suppose that on the Day of Judgement they would be well off. They hold themselves not to be such bad people. In telling the truth they are more or less good people. But the man, like the believer and questioner who know how holy and just God is, is aware that it does not work like that. Should our memory be good and we compile a list of all the sins we committed during the past week, we would pale with fright. And then we don t even mention all the sins we committed during our entire lives. Such a list will of course consist out of only the sins we knowingly committed. To that we still have to add all the other sins we unknowingly committed but not only what we committed we must also add to it the wrong words and thoughts. Keep in mind not to only add the sins when you transgressed a commandment of the Lord, but also add it when you simply ignored the commandment of the Lord. Let us put it simpler. Did we love God every moment of this past week with our entire mind and all our power? Did we love our neighbour every moment of the week like we loved ourselves? Did selfishness and ambition not once cause us to anger? Did we immediately discard every wrong desire and thought right at the start thereof, or did we allow it to proliferate a little bit? 3

4 We could carry on and continue, but we get the point. Should we have had to record the sins of the past week, none of us would have been able to face the Lord. And those are but the sins we can remember. There are a multitude of sins we do not remember because sometimes we do things that seem right to us but to the eyes of the Lord they are not right. And God knows about every transgression, every wrong thought and word. Therefore there is no way that man can pay his guilt through himself to God. He does not even succeed in perfect love to God and his neighbour. And the love he does give is not even without the taint of sin. In Isaiah it is written that even our best works are like dirty washing. (Isaiah 64:6) Instead of man paying his own guilt he is indeed busy multiplying his guilt, because nothing he does is perfect. Due to this answer the questioner pales even more of fright and anxiety. And then he remembers about the offers for sin he has read in the Bible. There are directions from the Lord in the Bible that, should he have sinned, he must offer an animal to the Lord. Yes, the believer would be able to answer. The Lord set all those orders in the Old Testament. But the believers in the Old Testament have discovered that those offers could not remove the guilt of sin. The believers of the Old Testament could indeed know that God forgives their sins when they truly confess. And then they were again atoned to God, but the blood of animals did not remove the guilt. Why not? Because God does not want to punish another creature for the guilt made by man and because no mere creature in the eternal creation can bear the eternal wrath of God against the sin and save man from it. By this answer the believer gives two reasons. On the one hand it would be unfair should God punish another creature for the guilt caused by man. At any rate God entered into a personal relationship with man only. Of all the creatures it is only man created to the image of God. Man only was created to willingly obey God. The Lord expects only from man to love Him. And it was only man that was disobedient towards the Lord. Therefore God would be unfair should He punish other creatures for the sins man committed. The Lord says that He will not punish the child for the sins of his father. (Ezekiel 16) Thus every person faces the Lord for his own guilt. On the other hand there also is no creature able to bear the eternal wrath of God for the sin and save man from it. The wrath of God is terribly severe, because the sins man commits are extremely bad. Therefore the one that bears the punishment for the sin in place of man must be stronger than any man or any creature. Therefore the Intercessor and Saviour of people must comply with three attributes. In the firs place such an Intercessor must be a man. In the second place such an Intercessor most be a perfect man. This means that he himself must have no sins. And should he then be stronger than any man or any other creature it means that he must also be true God. Now Sunday 5 ends on such a tense note. But our Psalm does not end like that. There is still the great but of verse 4: But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (Psalm 130:4) The forgiveness of sin is not all that man has to search from God. Seeing that He demands perfect homage to His justness and knows that man is incapable of giving it God, Himself grants the perfect payment for the sin of man. He gave His own Son as the Lamb a Lamb without any defects, because He is perfect. God s lamb is the Human Jesus received from the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary. This Jesus is God Himself. 4

5 With God there is forgiveness because He also granted the ransom for the people s lives Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. He does not forgive people simply they ask Him for forgiveness. He forgives people because His Son complied with his just demand. Christ perfectly complied with the demand of the law He perfectly obeyed the Will of His Father as set in the Ten Commandments. He also perfectly bore the punishment for the sins of man. And because He bore it perfectly, His Father resurrected Him from death and elevated Him to heaven, sitting at His right hand. Who received this forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ fears God. You who were ransomed by the precious blood of Christ, fear God because you know that He had all reason of abandoning you in your sin and eventually judging you forever, but He did not do so. You do not fear the punishment of God, but Himself because He hit His own Son to body and soul with the judgement that in fact belonged to you. This fear for the justness and grace of the Lord causes that man cannot and may not live under guidance of the Holy Spirit for anything else than for the Lord only. Amen! Closing prayer Closing psalm Psalm 130:3, 4 The Lord blesses you and keeps you; The Lord makes His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you, and gives you peace. Rev Coen Vrey Reformed Church Bellville Date: 13 November 2016 Scripture: New King James. Translator: Fred Scheepers (Word count 2683) 5