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: 8:1, 2, 4
Prayer
Scripture hymn 1-1:6
(24:6)
Scripture
reading:
Ecclesiastes 7
Scripture
text:
Ecclesiastes 7:29; Catechism Lord’s Day 3
I discovered that God created
people to be upright, but they have each turned to follow their own
downward path. (Ecclesiastes 7:29 NLT)
The
Bible reveals the Being and the work of our Almighty God. Of course the
Bible does not reveal everything to us – it only reveals what
the Lord thinks is necessary for our salvation.
The
Lord also reveals things about us:
- Things
we conceive incorrectly,
- or do not remember
correctly,
- or maybe have forgotten about because
they happened a very long time ago.
In fact, we
know very well how many facts get lost over the years because they are
not passed on from one generation to the next! We especially keep quiet
about things that have left us ashamed before God.
The
beginning of man’s history is most important
- to
know the Lord
- and to know and understand ourselves,
- but
also to know the devil and how dangerous he is.
In
the Bible the Lord begins his revelations to us by pointing out the
work of four different beings. Two of those are God’s own
work, while the other two is that of the devil and man’s
conduct. In this sermon we focus on the following:
1.
God’s work in the creation
2.
The devil’s work in the temptation
3.
Man’s work in the Fall
4.
The Holy Spirit’s work in rebirth
1.
God’s work in the creation
The
Lord’s work is lasting.
- Heaven
and earth that He created still exist.
- At the
Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ He will destroy his creation
with fire, but He will renew heaven and earth.
On
the last day of the creation the Lord made two people. This was a
wonderful happening.
- He made these two
people better
than the rest of the creation.
- He made them more glorious
than anything He had created, because He made them in his image: first
the man and then the woman from the man’s body.
And
this is why we cannot blame the Lord for all the misery we experience
and are subjected to. He is not responsible for it.
- God
is not the creator of evil; He made us in his image – a
glorious image.
- He made these two people in such a
way that they were perfectly able to serve and worship God. Spiritually
they were so strong that they could do exactly what the Lord instructed
them to do.
- The Lord made them to be superior in
every way to the rest of the creation.
This was a
most important event!
- In the creation
there was suddenly a living being on earth (God is not part of the
creation – He has always been there!) who had wisdom and
talents.
- They were two holy people, because they
were perfect and devoted to.
- Also, they were
immortal! They could live forever in perfect bliss with God.
These
two people could glorify and praise God in exactly the same way the
angels do:
In a great chorus they sang,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty! The whole world is
filled with his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3 NLT)
Praise him, all his angels!
Praise him, all the armies of heaven! (Psalms
148:2 NLT)
In the New Testament we
learn that the Lord Jesus renews us to be like we were in the
beginning. Listen to what the apostle Paul says about it:
In its place you have clothed
yourself with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as
you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature
within you. (Colossians 3:10 NLT)
Since you have heard all about
him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, (Ephesians
4:21 NLT)
You must display a new nature
because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness
– righteous, holy, and true. (Ephesians 4:24 NLT)
The
Lord did not create evil and sinful people. They were good, beautiful
and decent:
Even in old age they will still
produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. They will declare,
“The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is nothing but
goodness in him!” (Psalms 92:14-15 NLT)
2.
The devil’s work in the temptation
He
is the great tempter. He has a very strange nature; although he is
powerless against God he keeps on rebelling against God.
- Because
he cannot do anything to God Himself, he takes revenge on everything
God created and on the people who bear the image of the Lord.
- He
hates everything that glorifies the Lord.
This is
why Satan tempted man. He wanted them to sin so that they would become
his slaves. The Fall of Man is so humiliating because it changed us
into slaves of the devil.
The modus operandi of
the devil is that he lies and murders. The Lord Jesus summarises it in
John 8:44 where he calls the devil a liar and murderer:
For you are the children of your
father the Devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a
murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no
truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he
is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 NLT)
This
is in fact what we learn about him in Genesis 3:4-5. He blatantly lied
to Eve while he very well knew that the Lord would stick to his word
and that the two people would be sentenced to death for disobedience.
“You won’t
die!” the serpent hissed. “God knows that your eyes
will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing
everything, both good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5
NLT)
Thus the devil is absolutely
unscrupulous. He is so shrewd and uses instruments the people were
familiar with and did not distrust: an animal – the serpent.
- All
of a sudden the serpent is devilish and becomes an instrument subjected
to Satan.
- This is not strange, because we read
about the devils that entered the herd of pigs in the land of the
Gadarenes and let them plunge down a steep hillside into a lake in
order to cause trouble for Jesus.
- Hence the devil
is able to use animals for his evil actions against God and against
people.
In the conversation between Eve and the
serpent in the Garden of Eden it is obvious that the devil knew certain
facts about God’s plan, but that he distorted them to use
them against God and against the people. The devil and his people still
act in exactly the same way.
The danger still
exists that the devil can distort our insight so that we are led away
from the truth and think and do what is wrong. Remember what the Holy
Spirit says in 2 Corinthians 11:
But I fear that somehow you will
be led away from your pure and simple devotion to Christ, just as Eve
was deceived by the serpent. (2 Corinthians 11:3 NLT)
3.
Man’s work in the Fall
It’s
always so easy to say, “Our ancestors fell into
sin.” As if it was something that happened to them from
outside.
- The real truth is that,
instigated by the devil, they despised the authority of the Lord God.
- They
literally believed what the devil told them and accepted it.
- Hence
it was a matter of wilful disobedience and recalcitrance against God.
Many
years later the prophet Hosea blame them for no longer knowing God and
loving him. Then the Lord let him say the following to them:
But like Adam, you broke my
covenant and rebelled against me. (Hosea 6:7 NLT)
The
Lord created two people who were in a position to achieve supreme bliss
through the work covenant.
- But they
rejected the covenant and wanted to take a short cut to achieve it.
This was nothing but rude ingratitude.
- Consider for
a moment how difficult it is for us to forgive someone who has acted
disgracefully against us. Hence God’s perfect holiness could
not allow these two perfect people to get away with this rash behaviour.
The
Lord says that people find it difficult not to want the things they
see. He also reveals that this characteristic contributed to the fall
of man:
The woman was convinced. The
fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her so wise! So
she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was
with her. Then he ate it, too. (Genesis 3:6 NLT)
For the world offers only the
lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride
in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this
evil world. (1 John 2:16 NLT)
The
reason for the fall of man lies with man himself. He cannot blame
anybody but himself for all the misery he brought upon himself and all
his descendants on that day!
And remember, no one who wants to
do wrong should ever say, “God is tempting me.” God
is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else either.
Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil
desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death.
(James 1:13-15 NLT)
4.
The Holy Spirit’s work in rebirth
The devil made a
major mistake that seriously counted against him.
- He
lost sight of the love of God.
- He thought the Lord,
in his righteousness, would punish mankind as the Lord punished him
with eternal death and being cast out of heaven.
It
is obvious that the devil would have been mistaken, because he has no
love in himself and he did not know the love of the Lord.
But,
although we are in all respects unable to do good and only able to do
evil (Matthew 12:36; Ephesians 5:4; Galatians 5:19-21; Hosea 6:7; James
4:17, etc), God himself intervened. He made it possible for us to be
reborn and to be redeemed through a process provided by him.
First
He let his Son die to make propitiation for our sins. Part of the
propitiation is that the Lord Jesus sent the Holy Spirit of God to us
to work with and within us while He prepares for his Second Coming.
But it is actually best for you
that I go away, because if I don’t, the Counselor
won’t come. If I do go away, he will come because I will send
him to you. (John 16:7 NLT)
And I will ask the Father, and he
will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you.
(John 14:16 NLT)
But when the Father sends the
Counselor as my representative – and by the Counselor I mean
the Holy Spirit – he will teach you everything and will
remind you of everything I myself have told you. (John
14:26 NLT)
But I will send you the Counselor
– the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father
and will tell you about me. (John 15:26 NLT)
The
Holy Spirit is God who spiritually works within us. He works with our
mind and our emotions.
- The Holy Spirit
in us to enable us to see and understand the work of God Almighty and
to believe in Him.
- He also enables us to recognise
the work of the devil and to avoid it.
- He effects
rebirth.
- This is a process is a process
that happens when we turn away from all the worldly ways of thinking
and acting (the way in which the devil thinks and acts).
- The
working of God the Holy Spirit lets us realise and understand how the
Lord thinks and what is important to Him.
- The Holy
Spirit encourages and convinces us to go and do exactly that.
It’s
important that we know and believe these things, otherwise we live in a
world of self-deceit and then we are doomed.
Anyone
who cares for the working of God the Holy Spirit gets to know the Lord.
He serves the Lord more and better as he proceeds in life. He eagerly
waits to receive eternal life with God.
Let’s
look at what the Heidelberg Catechism says about this in
Lord’s Day 3:
6. Q. Did God, then, create man
so wicked and perverse?
A. No, on the
contrary, God created man good[1] and in His image,[2] that is, in true
righteousness and holiness,[3] so that he might rightly know God His
Creator,[4] heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness
to praise and glorify Him.[5]
[1] Gen. 1:31. [2] Gen. 1:26,
27. [3] Eph. 4:24. [4] Col. 3:10. [5] Ps. 8.
7. Q. From where, then, did man's
depraved nature come?
A. From the fall and
disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,[1] for
there our nature became so corrupt[2] that we are all conceived and
born in sin.[3]
[1]
Gen. 3. [2] Rom. 5:12, 18, 19. [3] Ps. 51:5.
8. Q. But are we so corrupt that
we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
A. Yes,[1] unless
we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.[2]
[1] Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Job 14:4;
Is. 53:6. [2] John 3:3-5.
Amen.
Closing
prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 147:4
The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit be with you all.
Amen.
Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
Date: 22 January 2006 (evening)