REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 24
FEBRUARY 2002: 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.
Psalm of praise: 34:2.
Prayer
Psalm 84:4.
Scripture reading: 1
Thessalonians 5.
Text: Catechism Sunday 46; 1
Thessalonians 5:24
Faithful
is He who calls you, and He will also bring it to pass.
This short verse is the bearer of great comfort. God has an enormous
abundance of grace. The apostle wishes to focus the attention of the
congregation on God's grace. In verse 17 the congregation is instructed
to pray without ceasing. The Lord will hear their prayer because He is
faithful.
In this sermon the following matters will be considered:
1. These words awaken faith in us.
2. What do these words reveal to us?
3. These words teach us to know God.
1. These words awaken faith in us.
Think carefully about the feeling that arises in you when you read
these words in faith. What responses do these words arouse in us?
- Childlike faith.
- God Almighty remains faithful.
- He also remains near me for ever.
With these words the Lord reveals that there is a bond between Him and
me which He will never allow to lapse.
- This is because God became truly our Father through Jesus Christ.
- Therefore we begin our prayer with the words: Our Father...
- When the Lord Jesus taught us to begin our prayer with the words "Our Father", He gave us to
understand that the Lord shows us the same kind of love that a father
has for his children.
The foundation on which our prayer rests is that God, the Almighty, has
us in His care, and that we affirm to Him, right at the beginning of
our prayer, that we place our trust in Him to hear our prayer.
That prayers will be heard, you need not doubt, because in Psalm 145:18
and 19 the Lord promises that He will hear the prayers of those who
fear Him and worship Him sincerely and in truth:
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him
To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He will also hear their cry and will save them.
2. What do these words reveal to us?
God will hear our prayer, and He will preserve us in faith, and against
all that is harmful. That is because God reigns over everything in
heaven and on the earth. Think about it:
- He reigns over the heavens (Ps. 33:6),
- the seasons,
- the coming and going of the winds,
- rain and drought; everything.
That is why He has the power to bring to pass the fulfilment of our
prayers.
These words furthermore reveal to us that we must not think of the Lord
in earthly terms.
- Nowadays this has become a problem, because there are many
religions which, in attempting to teach God's tenderness and love,
present an image of the Lord as a partner or close friend.
- The omnipotence of the Lord and the awe in which He should be
held then suffer.
- It is, therefore, not without reason that people who hold such a
belief again easily lose their faith.
Even though there is a distance between us and God, because we are
merely insignificant people, while He is the eternal and almighty God,
there is also the closeness between us and God in that He preserves us
and enfolds us within His eternal counsel.
- Through His caring provision we have food and clothing every day.
- He ensures that our faith is maintained and grows.
- He grants us the redemption accomplished in Jesus Christ.
3. These words teach us to know God.
What do we pray for? We pray for everything we need, physically and
spiritually. But every petitionary prayer is also coupled with the
promise that your prayer will be heard - otherwise there would be no
sense nor any use in praying!
- Go ahead, then, and pray with confidence.
- Go to God with every one of your prayers, because your heavenly
Father will bestow on you His blessing.
We should naturally beware of praying frivolously, because people often
pray for things which one should not pray for.
- When we think of the "Our
Father", we begin the prayer specifically with the words: Our
Father "who is in heaven".
- The words "who is in heaven"
arouses in us some sense of holiness and dedication.
- And that is as it should be: holiness and seriousness must flow
through every one of our prayers. Even when we praise and thank God
joyfully for His blessings, we do so still with holy seriousness.
Where do all these things we have spoken about fit in with our prayers?
- If God were changeable, your prayers would be fruitless.
- And if God did not keep His promises, if would avail nothing if
you were to pray.
- But now you can know:
- God remains faithful.
- All His promises stand fast: He does not break any of them
whatsoever.
- In the Bible He revealed that He is our Father in Jesus Christ.
- This He is still,
- and will be for ever more.
Pray of your heavenly Father what you need, and He will hear your
prayers, because He made you His child through His Son, and because He
calls you through
His Spirit to stand before His throne in prayer.
Let us read Catechism Sunday 46 together:
LORD'S DAY XLVI
120. QUESTION. Why has Christ
commanded us to address God thus, Our Father?
ANSWER. To awaken in us, at the
very beginning of our prayer, that childlike reverence and trust toward
God which should be the ground of our prayer; namely, that God has
become our Father through Christ, and will much less deny us what we
ask of Him in true faith than our parents will refuse us earthly things1.
1. Matt.7:9-11; Luke 11:11-13
121. QUESTION. Why is there
added, Who art in heaven?
ANSWER. That we may have no
earthly thought of the heavenly majesty of God1, and may
expect from His almighty power all things necessary for body and soul2.
1. Jer.23:23,24; Acts 17:24,25,27 2. Rom.10:12
AMEN.
Closing prayer.
Closing Psalm 90:2,8.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
AMEN.
Rev. Dr.M.J. du Plessis
Reformed Church, Bellville
24 February 2002
Scripture quoted from NASB.