REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 12 MAY 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: 33:11.
Prayer.
Psalm 4:3.
Scripture reading: 2 Corinthians 6
Text: Catechism Sunday 9
2 Corinthians 6:18.
"And I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,"
Says the Lord Almighty.
In the passage we have read together, Paul asks the Greeks how they manage to hold on to the Lord with one hand and with the other hand to hold on to their sinful ways. He points out to them that it is impossible to be a child of God and also a worldling.
Our faith is concerned with the understanding we have of certain truths. What do we do what we know and believe?
There is surely nobody who knows better than the devil and his angels that God created heaven and the earth - yet this was meaningless to them. It awakened in them no awe of the Lord. Just see what happened to them.
It is important, therefore, that we do not act in matters of faith as the devil did. We must know what we confess, and then we must realize that the God we acknowledge as the Creator of heaven and earth is in a very close relationship with each one of us.
- He did not accomplish the Creation and then go somewhere else. He is my God and Father.
- The Lord loves us in a very special way, and He repeatedly reminds us of this.
- He reveals that will be a Father to us and that we will be sons and daughters to Him.
- He wishes us to know that His love for us is very intimate and tender.
- As the God of Creation He reigns over the created world and all powers in such a manner as to liberate us from them and to let us live in His kingdom hereafter.
The love of the Lord is clear from the fact that He pre-ordained both election and redemption in His eternal plan and counsel.
- Even after the Fall, when we broke away from the Lord as a result of the sin we committed, He did not for one moment leave us to our own devices.
- He immediately sought us and announced our redemption.
- This promise was fulfilled by the coming of and the atonement by the Lord Jesus Christ.
- This fulfilment was manifested so physically that the Lord Jesus had to cast down the devil upon the earth. One evangelist wrote that Satan fell from heaven like a lightning flash (Luke 10:18). Another wrote that the devil prowls round like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).
- After this, Jesus entered the realm of death physically. He truly died, and was buried.
- He had to conquer death alone. He destroyed the power of Satan when He took up His life again (cf. John 10:17-18) and rose from the dead.
- This was more than just a victory over death. By this deed the Lord Jesus redeemed us by His blood and by His life from the power of Satan.
As a result of all these things that happened we were accepted as children of God. That is why we received from the Lord the right to speak of Him as "Our Father Who is in heaven". So the Lord reveals Himself also in this passage we have read.
- He also reveals Himself so in the sacraments in which we are assured of His covenant and death.
- He is our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ who enfolds us within His boundless love.
That is why we confess at the commencement of every meeting with the Lord (worship service):
"I believe in God the Father, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth."
- I believe that He created the heavens and the earth in His honour.
- I believe that He revealed His omnipotence in the Creation.
- I believe that He prepared heaven for the angels.
- In all these works He is revealed as infinitely omnipotent and greatly exalted above us.
That is why we confess Him as the Almighty.
We know the omnipotence of God also through His eternal plan and counsel, because in that we learn that God systematically ordained the course of history and creation - and that everything happens just as He preordained it. There is no power or combination of powers which can block or change what God has ordained.
Our position is in direct contrast to this. We are not only without omnipotence; we are quite impotent. We can create nothing. We cannot give life. We cannot even preserve the created world as God commanded us.
That is why God's omnipotence is a tremendous comfort to us.
- With His divine omnipotence He delivers us from sin.
- With this omnipotence He takes up our bodies from the graves at the Second Coming when He grants us life on the new earth.
- With this omnipotence He makes me a child of God - while I am not able by my own strength to become or be that.
If we mean what we confess, namely that God is our almighty Father, Creator of heaven and earth, we must see to it that we live as people who have God as their Father.
- We must always remember that this fine and true confession also bears dangers. Our lives all demonstrate that we sometimes live as if the omnipotence of God is not a reality.
- The omnipotence of God does not only signify grace. It also has another side: He is intolerant of continued sinning. Then His judgement is executed.
- Sometimes we are wilful, as if we are prepared to pit our strength against Him. We should just remember that the Lord cannot abide sin, and when He one day acts against sin we will be in dire trouble if we resist Him.
- We must understand that the almighty power of God acts against the devil, death and sin. It is His almighty power that has destined all these forces of darkness, which stand against Him, for hell, and which will seal them there for ever.
- The almighty power of God gives the assurance that there can be no redemption for those who are destined for hell.
For that reason our confession must be sincere. We must see to it that there is consistency between our confession and our daily lives:
- We either confess that we accept God's authority,
- or we resist it with all kinds of sinful deeds which fill our lives.
We must, therefore, become free from the things which the devil puts in our way. We must live in such a manner that we deny the world.
- We must serve God, the almighty Father, Creator of heaven and earth, to the best of our ability.
- The manner in which we live must accord with our confession.
- It is not possible for one to worship the Almighty in a hypocritical way. The nature of our life reflects our real faith.
- Nor can it be otherwise. God wants to be a Father to us, and then we will be as sons and daughter to Him.
- Note that He cares for us. Note also that He will, in the commemoration of the Last Supper next week, once again assure us in a very special way that He gives us eternal life.
We must not attempt to mislead ourselves into thinking that our lives may perhaps testify to worldliness and sin, but that our faith is indeed in God our Father.
- We belong to God.
- He is our Father and we are His sons and daughters.
- Come, let us be living members of His household.
What we confess together are written in Catechism Sunday 9:
LORD'S DAY IX
26. question. What do you believe when you say: I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?
answer. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of nothing made heaven and earth with all that is in them1, who likewise upholds and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence2, is for the sake of Christ His Son my God and my Father3; in whom I so trust as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul4; and further that whatever evil He sends upon me in this vale of tears, He will soon turn to my good5; for He is able to do it, being almighty God6, and willing also, being a faithful Father7.
1. Gen. 1 and 2; Ex.20:11; Job 33:4; Job 38 and 39; Acts 4:24;14:15; Ps.33:6; Isa.45:7
2. Heb.1:3; Ps.104:27-30; 115:3; Matt.10:29; Eph.1:11
3. John 1:12; Rom.8:15; Gal.4:5-7; Eph.1:5 4. Ps.55:22; Matt.6:25,26; Luke 12:22
5. Rom.8:28 6. Isa.46:4; Rom.10:12 7. Matt.6:32,33; 7:9-11
AMEN.
Closing prayer.
Closing hymn: 28b
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
Rev. Dr.M.J. du Plessis
Reformed Church, Bellville.
12 May 2002.
Scripture quoted from NASB.