Reformed Church, Bellville: Sunday 25
May 2003, Evening Service
Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Hymn: 9:1+4
Prayer
Psalm: 16:2
Scripture reading 1 John 1
Text:Heidelberg Catechism: Sunday 51
1 John 1:7: "... and the blood of Jesus, His Son,
purifies us from all sin."
Although Jesus Christ purifies us of all our sins, the Lord still wants
that to His greater glory we should continuously pray that our sins be
forgiven.
- Jesus Himself taught us to pray, amongst others, that our
heavenly Father should forgive us our sins in that we in turn may
forgive those who trespassed against us.
- The purpose of the Lord with this is that we may always remember
the magnitude of the sins we commit against Him and all kinds of
iniquities that cling to us.
- The knowledge of these iniquities should cause us, as true
believers, to seek our salvation from Him, the Almighty.
We examine this matter from three aspects:
1.Who may pray that their sins be
forgiven?
2.What is the meaning of this prayer
to God?
3.What is the effect of this prayer on
us?
1.Who may pray that their sins be
forgiven?
The answer is - believers.
- All who believe in the great grace of God in Jesus Christ.
- A believer is a particular kind of person.
- It is someone who sins all the time.
- But who desires to break away from the power of sin.
- And who seeks his salvation from God alone.
Believers are people who:
- understand the extent of their distress
- and fear the Lord's wrath for all the evil they do.
We may put it differently and say that:
- The people who may pray for forgiveness of sins are people who
are guilty before God.
- But people who are not only guilty of their trespasses but also
people who are in spiritual need.
- They cannot pay their debt owed to God for their debt increases
daily.
- The important point is that they do not want to remain caught up
in this debt.
These guilty believers have certain qualities:
- They persist in serving the Lord.
- They try with all their might to break away from sin and to live
up to the image of God in their daily life.
- They also have a particular expectation of the future
- they want to be with God in the hereafter
- therefore they plead that God will for the sake of Christ please
forgive them all their sins.
2.What is the meaning of this prayer
to God?
God is almighty.
- So omnipotent that before creation He already willed us to be
sanctified in Jesus Christ.
- This means that He will ensure that through Jesus Christ's
atonement on the Cross we shall in the hereafter stand before Him
without blame and without blemish.
This we must believe:
- The Lord can forgive sin.
- He wants to forgive our sin and He will do it - for the sake of
the blood of Jesus Christ.
The proof that God wants to forgive us is to be found in God's
predestination which He willed before creation - (Ephesians 1:4) because
He would not have decided even before our creation that we would be
holy and blameless unless He meant it to be so.
- Accordingly He loves us greatly
- Accordingly He remains true to His decision to free us from all
sin and sinfulness.
Our salvation did not stop with the Lord's plan before creation:
- thereafter God came to live on earth and to die on the cross.
- with it He made true the decision He had taken before creation.
- the result of this is that when we now die and we stand before
His throne of judgment He pronounces us blameless in the blood of Jesus
Christ who has atoned for all our sins.
3.What is the effect of this prayer on
us?
We must realize the extent of the wretchedness we find ourselves in and
what God does to forgive us our evil and our sins.
- Therefore we are obliged to express wholeheartedly in our lives
our gratitude to God and to our fellow-man.
- We must experience God's grace in our lives and show it to our
fellow-man.
- We must carry with us the face of God's love and willingness to
forgive.
- When others trespass against us we must know how to forgive them
- because God forgave us when we trespassed against Him.
- We extend grace to others as God did to us.
- And we must remember that, as we read in 2 Timothy 3, the fact
that you are unforgiving is proof that you are not reborn.
- We must reflect on all our sins.
- We must consider that God was willing to allow Jesus to undergo
unmentionable pain and suffering so that we might be reconciled with God.
- Jesus was innocent in all this suffering.
- He did not sin to deserve punishment
- Yet He suffered all the punishment so that we could receive the
grace to have our sins forgiven.
Let us then carry this grace further when we in our turn forgive others
their trespasses, especially now that the Lord last Sunday at Holy
Communion assured us that all our sins are forgiven.
Let us read Sunday 51 together.
Amen
Closing prayer
Closing Psalm: 146:2
The Lord will bless you and keep you. The Lord will make His face shine
on you and be merciful to you. The Lord will lift his countenance to you
and give you peace.
Amen
Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
25 May 2003