REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE SUNDAY 8 JANUARY 2017 EVENING SERVICE. Sing beforehand: Scripture Versification 17-1:1, 6 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 33:1, 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 33:5, 6 Scripture reading: Ephesians 1:1-14; Luke 11:12-13; Heidelberg Catechism Sunday 9 Scripture text: Ephesians 1:5; Luke 11:13 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, Ephesians 1:5 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" (Luke 11:13) HEIDELBERG CATECHISM Sunday 9 26. Q. What do you believe when you say: I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth? A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and all that is in them,[1] and who still upholds and governs them by His eternal counsel and providence,[2] is, for the sake of Christ His Son, my God and my Father.[3] In Him I trust so completely as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul,[4] and will also turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this life of sorrow. [5] He is able to do so as almighty God,[6] and willing also as a faithful Father.[7] 1] Gen. 1 and 2; Ex. 20:11; Job 38 and 39; Ps. 33:6; Is. 44:24; Acts 4:24; 14:15. [2] Ps. 1 04:27-30; Matt. 6:30; 10:29; Eph. 1:11. [3] John 1:12, 13; Rom. 8:15, 16; Gal. 4:4-7; Eph. 1:5. [ 4] Ps. 55:22; Matt. 6:25, 26; Luke 12:22-31.[5] Rom. 8:28. [6] Gen. 18:14; Rom. 8:31-39. [7] Matt. 6:32, 33; 7:9-11. 1
Theme: For the sakes of Christ, God gives Himself to the believer as Father. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the hand of Sunday 8 the believer has now twice brought the questioner back to the Word of the Lord to firstly explain the pattern of the Twelve Articles to the questioner. These three parts of the Twelve Articles led to the questioner first wanting to know how the believer could refer to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit should there be only one God. It is extremely important to know and believe God as the Triune God, because a believers sanctification in dependant thereon. Listen again how we confess it in the first four articles of the Athanasian Creed: 1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith; which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. 2. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; 3. Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance 4. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son and another of the Holy Spirit. And in article 28 of this creed we confess: 28. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Although the matter of God s Triune is extremely important, the believer only taught the questioner to believe God should He reveal Himself as the Triune God. For man in his fallen condition as sinner it is totally impossible to clarify or explain this matter. Therefore the believer can just humbly say that he believes that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and that He is one God because God reveals Himself like this in the Bible. However the questioner has been so stimulated by the faithful explanation that God promises Himself to the believers that he no further inquires about the Triune God. Now he wants to find out how everything taught in the Twelve Articles is promised to the believers. He would like to hear what the believer believes when each of the articles is confessed. Therefore he starts off with the following question: What do you believe when you say: I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth? Brothers, sisters and children, before we further listen to this discussion between the believer and the questioner who is inquisitive about the faith supplying so much rest and peace to the believer, we must make the following comment: Should somebody expect a long extended argument by the believer about the creation by God within six days he would be disappointed because the believer makes no argument about the creation against the evolution. Hereby it is not said that it is unimportant to talk about creation and evolution and to teach believers about it. It is extremely important, because should you want to reject the creation by God or possibly want to understand and teach it differently to how the Lord reveals it to us you land in the one trap after the other. Therefore it is important to note that the believer s answer to question 26 does not reflect the creation by God as the main subject. The creation and maintenance and rule of God over His creation is mentioned in two short subordinate sentences. For the sakes of clarity in the answer two subordinate sentences follow in the answer. The first subordinate sentence: who out of nothing created heaven and earth and all that is in them and the second subordinate sentence: and who still upholds and governs them by His eternal counsel and providence. 2
Everybody who has received basic language training will know that a subordinate sentence tells more about something mentioned in the main sentence. These two subordinate sentences clarify who is the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Creator of heaven and earth and He upholds and governs His creation by Himself. To the true believer it is no problem accepting that God alone is the Creator of the entire creation. It also is not a problem that God created the entire creation out of nothing. The Holy Spirit does not say this one only but says it a few times throughout the entire Bible that God alone crated the entire creation out of nothing. Therefore the believer does not need so say much about the creation work of God in this answer- he simply believes what the Lord Himself says. The believer, at this stage of the discussion, wants to rather convey the crux of this article to the unbelieving questioner. And the crux is the following: I believe that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is for the sakes of His Son Christ, my God and Father. Let us now listen to the discussion of the believer with this unbelieving questioner. That God the Father is the Father of God the Son is not something that has only now been mentioned for the first time. In this discussion the believer has already said at the end of Sunday 6 that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Son of God. And when he confessed the Twelve Articles he again told the questioner that Jesus Christ is the only born Son of God. Seeing that the Triune God is eternal it means that God is since eternity the Father and the Son is since eternity the Son. Therefore it is normal to, from what the Lord reveals about Himself in the Bible, speak about God as the eternal Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the questioner frowned when he heard that the eternal Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is also the God and Father of the believer. He understands the believer believing in God and believes that God redeemed Him through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is logical that the believer can also call the eternal Father of Christ as His God. But that the eternal God is also the Father of the believer this is what causes a question mark to him. How can the eternal, holy God be the Father of the believer, because this believer, with whom he is in discussion, is not free of any sin. The believer has already twice said that he still is a sinful being. In Sunday 3 he said that he is so sinful that he cannot do anything good and that he is still inclined to all sin. And in Sunday 5 he also said that he is still daily enlarging his own guilt. The key to understanding how the eternal, holy God can also the Father of a believing man is in the following words: for the sakes of His Son Christ. See how it is written in Ephesians1: having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians1: 5) Paul wrote this letter to the believing Ephesians and in this part of verse 3 to 14 his aim is to get the believers to glorify and praise God by their lives. And the first reason that Paul states why they can and must glorify God is that God deemed it that He has adopted them as His own children through Jesus Christ. These words in Ephesians through Jesus Christ are translated in the Catechism as for the sakes of His Son Christ. There words for the sakes of His Son Christ clarify three matters to us. Firstly the words for the sakes of Christ say that He did something so that God can adopt people as His children. What Christ did is recorded in verse 7. The believers have the salvation through the blood of Christ. This means to say that the believer, through the true faith awoken by the Holy Spirit in him, trusts that the death of Jesus on the cross is also the payment for his sins. (Sunday 7:21) Through the faith in Jesus Christ and His perfect work the believer in now no longer a slave of the sin and the devil, but a child of God. 3
Secondly the words for the sakes of Christ say that God made the believer His child not about something man had or done. It is not because the believer is such a good being, not because the believer have such excellent attributes or because the believer works so hard for the kingdom of God that God adopted him as child. The believer, like all other people, has his right to be a child of God through the Fall of his first parents. Therewith and he told this to the questioner he is so sinful that he cannot do something good and is inclined to all evil because daily he just enlarges his guilt. However, God is Father since eternity. And He does not want to be Father of His eternal Son only. He wants to glorify Himself by also making sinful people into His children. Therefore He did not spare His Son, but handed Him over to the bitter and shameful death on the cross. Through the perfect payment for the sins of people only Christ opened the door so that people through Him on grounds of His perfect work could again obtain entrance to the house of the Father. Thirdly the words for the sakes of Christ also gives surety to the believer. Seeing that God the Father, through His Son Christ made the sinner his believing child this being a child of God is assured. Nothing will be able to nullify the perfect work of Christ, therefore the believer is also assured that nothing can ever separate him from God s Fatherly love. Christ and the Holy Spirit that was given onto the believer is the guarantee that he will be forever a child of God and the eternal Father of Christ is now also his eternal Father. For the sakes of His Son Christ, who gave Himself over to die on the cross, the believer became a child of God. Only through Christ alone man can become a child of God. Only through Christ alone can man become a child of God. Through this perfect work of Christ is being a child of the believer guaranteed. But believer, what result has the Fathership of God in your daily life? To this question the believer answers as follows: In Him do I trust so that I do not doubt that He would look after me with everything needed for body and soul. In His teachings to the disciples about the prayer Jesus clarified that the believer may ask for everything to body and soul in the prayer to God. Indeed, Jesus teaches the believer to address God in the prayer as Our Father which are in heaven. Seeing that the believer has God as the almighty and all knowing Father in the heaven he knows that he need not doubt that God will look after him. For the sakes of Christ He will not abandon His child. Therefore can and must the believer continually implore that God would, for the sakes of Christ, forgive his sins. Therefore he may pray to God for letting His holy Spirit powerfully work in him so that the longer the more an obedient child he can be of God. Indeed, God knows that the believer needs forgiveness of sins so that he may live in a close relationship with God and eventually also can enter the Father s holy house. Therefore it is imperative that the believer continually implores for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help him die of his sins. Thereby Jesus also grants the assurance that His father gives the Holy Spirit to everyone who asks Him. But to God it is not enough that His children receive the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of sins. He ants them to also live here on earth so that they can glorify Him and be witnesses to Jesus Christ. Therefore God the Father wants to grant His children everything they would need for their bodies to live and work in service to the Lord. In His teaching Jesus assures the disciples that His Father is even better than an earthly father is. Even an earthly father, who is evil by nature, will not purposefully give something inedible to his child should he be hungry. He will also not give his child anything dangerous. Should a sinner be able to do so for his own child, how much more would the Father in heaven not give all that His child needs to live. He will give all that is needed. 4
When the believer told this to the questioner, he realised how great the responsibility he has to place his trust in the Father so that he in now ways would doubt that God will grant him all he needs. Brothers, sisters and children, is it not just exactly here where we often struggle and falter? We can easily say that God is the all-knowing Father and that for the sakes of Christ he will grant everything His children would need. But how often is it not that believers become worried about goods like food and clothing. Or they make the most stupid decisions in getting hold of means so that they could afford food and clothing. May the Holy Spirit also teach every true child of God to truly trust without doubting about goods like food and clothing. Amen! Closing prayer Psalm 33:10, 11 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: 8 January 2017 Scripture: New King James. Translator: Fred Scheepers (Word count 2721) 5