REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE SUNDAY 24 JULY 2016 EVENING SERVICE. (All quotations are from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION unless stated otherwise) Sing beforehand: Psalm 91:1+3. 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 89:1+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 105:5+6. Scripture reading: Luke 22:31-34 and 54-62; Canons of Dordt Ch 5, Article 6. Scripture text: Luke 22:61-62: And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times. So Peter went out and wept bitterly. Canons of Dordt, Ch 5; Article 6: God will not permit His elect to be lost. But God, who is rich in mercy, according to His unchangeable purpose of election, does not wholly withdraw the Holy Spirit from His own people even in their grievous falls; nor does He allow them to proceed so far as to lose the grace of adoption and forfeit the state of justification, or to commit the sin unto death or against the Holy Spirit, nor does He permit them to be totally deserted and plunge themselves into everlasting destruction. Explanation of this article: After the low point in article 5 in which we professed what the consequences are of the grievous sins committed by the elect, we again come to God's mercy. Now we do not only profess that the Lord is merciful. Here we profess the depth of God's grace to His fallen child. In truth, we are struck dumb at the greatness of God's love and mercy in article 6. In article 4 we started to profess about what happens when a converted person no longer watches and prays as he should. Such person falls into serious sins. David and Peter are mentioned by name as examples of believers who so fell into sin. 1
When this happens there are consequences. We profess of these consequences in article 5. A consequence is that God's Hand rests heavily on them, as David says in Psalm 32. These consequences are not pleasant. Your spiritual life is affected. You begin to wonder whether it is worthwhile to believe because you become unable to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus. Your conscience continuously accuses you. Eventually you tell yourself that you are not worthy of being the Lord's child. Prayer falls away because the times you do pray you feel as if your prayer goes no farther than the ceiling of your room. It feels as if the bond between God and the believer is stretched out like a rubber band about to break. There is no hope because around you only darkness prevails. Fortunately, our confession in article 5 does not end on that sad note. In the last part of that article we profess that these consequences continue until God again lets the light of His fatherly countenance shine upon the saints when by serious repentance they change their course back to the right path. The word until catches your breath. How far is until? How long will it take before this until occurs? The answer to these questions we do not find in article 6. We profess here what God does with His child in the period before the moment of until occurs. Hear what we profess that God does: He does not wholly withdraw His Holy Spirit from His property; He does not permit them to fall so deep that they fall out of His grace; He does not allow them to fall out of the state of justification; He does not allow them to sin against the Holy Spirit. That is what God does with His child in this lamentable fall into sin. Although God is holy, He does not shrink from holding onto His child who has so besmirched his life. Even when the saint in his lamentable fall thinks that the Lord has forsaken him, the Lord still holds on. Why? Because He is rich in mercy and His purpose of electing this person is unchangeable. Theme: The Lord holds on because He took an unchangeable decision. Beloved congregation of Jesus Christ, people's eyes tell you much. You can tell from a person's eyes what he feels like. Someone who is happy has shining eyes. When someone is depressed his eyes are dull. You do not need a course in human psychology to read a person's eyes. The Lord gave us the gift of understanding what someone wants to say from the way in which that person looks at us. Each of us could make a long list of all the things we can express with our eyes. When the rooster crowed, Jesus turned and looked at Peter. What was it that Peter read in the Lord's eyes? Earlier that night Peter, full of bravado, conceitedly assured the Lord that he was prepared to die with Him. But we read that Peter followed at a distance when the chief priest's guards took Jesus away. Peter did not completely forsake Jesus, but he also did not come too close to Jesus or stand up for Him. And with each answer in the courtyard of the high priest's house Peter takes a step farther away from Jesus. Until he almost swears an oath before his questioners: Man, I do not know what you are saying! (Luke 22:60) While Peter was still defending himself against the third allegation that he was one of Jesus' disciples, the rooster crowed. In Luke's narration it is as if Peter did not realise what had just happened. He does not realize that he has just fallen far and deep. He hears the rooster, but he also does not hear 2
it. How often do we, too, not find ourselves in a similar situation? You know that you have rebelled against the Lord by acting as if you were not God's child and do not know Him, but the realization has not struck you yet. While Peter still was speaking, the rooster crowed. Luke draws the contrast between Jesus and Peter sharply. Jesus stands before the Sanhedrin and does not flinch when He testifies that He is the Christ, the Son of God. Peter, on the other hand, refuses to admit to the servant girl that Jesus is the Christ and that He is his Lord. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord... Peter never forgot that look of Jesus. But what did Peter see that night in the Lord's holy eyes? The first thing that Peter saw in the Lord's eyes was deep sorrow and pain. Oh, Peter, what pain have you caused Me! The rope that chafed His wrists and the blow to His face hurt Jesus, but not as much as the pain when Judas betrayed Him with a kiss and Peter denied Him. He was despised and rejected by His own people, in this way the prophecy concerning the Servant of the Lord was fulfilled (Isaiah 53:3). Jesus had now become someone nobody wanted to be associated with, not even His own disciples. Probably only a parent can really grasp what this pain is. You have raised and nurtured your child, dried his tears when he was hurt. Shared his sorrows and shared his delights. And then some day he is ashamed of you and says: I do not know what you are saying, I do not know that person! Dare we take hold of Peter and ask him: What have you done now? No, we cannot do that. Of course, we are amazed when we hear that a faithful child of the Lord has fallen into such a serious sin. But we know that one is not an exemplary Christian on Monday and on Tuesday suddenly turns into the worst sinner imaginable. The fall into sin happens gradually. Peter's fall also was gradual. It generally starts when one refuses to listen to the straight and sharp Word of the Lord. Just after Peter had pronounced the well-known confession concerning Jesus, Jesus told His disciples that He must suffer and die. It was Peter who could not accept these hard words and took Jesus aside to admonish Him. Earlier that night Jesus had told Peter that he would deny Him, and again Peter contradicted Him, for it is too difficult to admit it. When we begin to skip certain passage in the Bible because the Lord admonishes us too sharply about the sins in our lives, we do exactly what Peter did. We refuse to subject ourselves to the Lord's piercing words. And that is where the gradual fall into sin begins. We must think very carefully before we say that we will never do what Peter did. Therefore let him who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). Pride is one of the greatest dangers to a Christian. Let us rather think of all the times that we, too, did deny the Lord. Instead of standing out as a saved child of God, we rather joined in with the world's activities, because we do not want people to stare at us. Remember the time you and I remained silent and did not open our mouth when we should have borne witness: Jesus Christ is the Lord, He is the only and complete Saviour! When we remember this, do we see the sorrow and pain in Jesus' eyes? Come and pray Him for forgiveness for the unspeakable pain you and I have caused Him. He suffered during His life on earth but especially on the cross, for your and my sins. Peter also sees the admonition in Jesus' eyes. Jesus warned him, not once but a few times that night. Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. (Luke 22:31) And later in the garden: Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation 3
(Luke 22:46). Now Peter sees this admonition in Jesus' eyes: Peter, if only you had listened to My warnings! Peter knows that he has not listened to the Lord, that is why he has now fallen so deeply. How often has the Lord not looked at us with admonition in His eyes? And in His eyes we then see the question: Did you watch and pray? Did you heed My warnings? Why did you go so far as to deny Me? Beloved, when you and I fell into sin, it was not because the Lord did not warn us. He did warn us, and He does so time and again. We fall because we do not watch and pray. We relax and then it becomes easy for the devil to entice us into temptation. We are more concerned about what people will think, than fearing the Lord. Come, see the Lord looking at us with admonishing eyes. Let us fall at His feet confessing our sins. Peter does not only see sorrow and admonition in Jesus' eyes. He also notices something that is incomprehensible to man. In Jesus' eyes he sees a forgiving love. It is the love of which the Lord spoke earlier that night when He said: But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail.. (Luke 22:32). This what Peter read in Jesus' eyes: Peter, you have fallen deeply, but I still love you. Brothers, sisters and children, it is with eyes that shine with forgiving love that Jesus looks at you and me. It is love despite our sins against Him. Look and see how His holy eyes tell us: My child you have fallen far and deep, you have caused Me unspeakable sorrow, but despite this, I still love you, return to Me, I am waiting for you. Do the Lord's loving eyes not call you and me back from where we have fallen? When Jesus looked at Peter, His eyes did not only say something to him. His gaze also did something to Peter. Jesus' eyes pierced Peter's soul and wounded his heart. In that single moment that Peter saw Jesus eyes all his pride and conceit was destroyed. No bravado was left. In Jesus' eyes Peter gets to know himself and he knows instantly that he is a weak sinner. So Peter went out and wept bitterly. The Lord's eyes drive Peter outside to solitude to lament his sin. As soon as there is true repentance, a longing for solitude comes. But as long as we can live with the noise of the crowd, remorse is not that great. Only when the hurt and the pain burns you, only then will you want to escape from people to be alone with the Lord. The Lord's gaze also effected remorse in Peter's heart. That is the difference between Peter and Judas. Judas was sorry because he had made a mistake, sorry because matters went farther than he had expected. But in Peter the Lord effected true remorse. Peter wept bitterly because he had hurt his Lord. Oh, may the Holy Spirit make us see Jesus' holy eyes this evening. May His eyes have in each of us the powerful effect as it had with Peter. May the Holy Spirit continuously remind us of the Lord's faithful love. The Lord's love and faithfulness is the only reason why the rubber band does not break when it is stretched to the limit. But, Beloved, where does the Lord's gaze take Peter? Peter went outside and bitterly wept, but he was not lost. For Jesus had prayed for him. That is why Jesus' gaze brought Peter to humble himself. Humility means to be ashamed. When the Holy Spirit effects remorse in our hearts so that we only want to be in solitude alone with the Lord, we become ashamed. A humble person does not feel able to look up to the Lord because 4
he is too ashamed of the hurt he has caused the Lord. And he is ashamed because the Lord still has so much love for him that he calls him back despite the transgression. But Jesus' eyes also bring Peter to the certainty that it is not only Jesus who loves him but that the Holy Spirit also generates in him love for the Lord. For it is because he still loves the Lord that he is so bitterly remorseful about his sin. Brothers, sisters and children, this evening Jesus' eyes are still looking at us. We might not see them as Peter did, but with these words in Luke the Holy Spirit shows us Jesus' eyes. Weep, if you have fallen, because the transgression is terribly serious. Weep, because you have caused the Lord great sorrow. Weep, because you did not take heed when the Lord warned you. Weep, but do not despair. Jesus Christ still loves you wholeheartedly. And as He prayed for Peter, He still prays for each of us for whom He died on the cross. Closing prayer. Formulary for the ordaining of elders and deacons.. Psalm 134: 4 Closing song: Psalm 103:6+7. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and ever more. Rev Coenraad Vrey Reformed Church Bellville Date: 24 July 2016. Translator: Willem de Haan. 5