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 66:6
Prayer
Psalm 116:1, 8
Scripture reading:
Genesis 19
Scripture text:
Genesis 19:23;
Catechism Lord’s Day 4
The
sun was rising as Lot reached the village. Then the LORD rained
down fire and burning sulfur from the heavens on Sodom and Gomorrah.
(Genesis 19:23-24 NLT – New Living
Translation)
This event has a symbolic meaning regarding the faithful:
- While man tries to escape from the choking darkness
and smoke of sin, the light of God’s grace breaks through.
- It also reflects a bit of the Second Coming. The
unbelievers will experience it as a tempestuous day of judgement
because the dark clouds of hell are going to close in on them. The
faithful will experience a bright day on which the glory of the Lord
shines down on them and they enter the perfect light of his grace.
Let us consider the nature of man and how he deals with the Lord from
the following viewpoints:
1. Dawn (v. 12)
2. For some people it is still dawn
(v. 13, 14)
3. Sunrise (v. 15)
1. Dawn (v. 12)
Man is after all nothing but a
creature living in darkness and causing
darkness as everybody’s life is rife with sin and wilfulness. By nature
all people are more inclined to please the devil than being able to
serve the Lord perfectly.
Just consider how hard we find it to believe in God’s majesty.
- Who among us tremble with fear before the Lord –
especially when we have sinned?
- Who among us are really afraid of the wrath of the
Lord? The way we sometimes live – not showing any repentance or
conversion – does not reflect fear for the wrath of the Lord that could
land us in hell.
- Are we subjected to the wrath of the Lord but can
also be accepted by grace?
We should be sincerely concerned about whether we can escape the Lord’s
punishment and be accepted by his grace.
- Knowing about our sins is not enough.
- My major concern should be how I can get rid of
these sins so that I need not die without hope.
This is when the light starts penetrating. When sins can be punished,
they are removed before the Lord.
- God is by his Nature absolutely righteous and
therefore sins have to be punished. According to this same justice that
sins that have been punished once will never be held against anyone
again.
- The problem gets worse again when we realise that
we cannot bear God’s punishment for our sins. After all, if we could in
any way, then we would not have had any problems with God’s judgement
and then the hell also would not have been an issue.
- Then we see the light when we realise that God can
accept us if somebody can bear the punishment on our behalf and by
doing so comply with God’s justice. If we could find somebody who can
bear God’s punishment for our sins, then the Lord will not execute the
worst sentence – hell – over us.
This is not at all a farfetched idea, because this is exactly what the
entire gospel is about:
But
God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us
while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT)
Isaiah also foretold it:
All of
us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to
follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.
(Isaiah 53:6 NLT)
Through Jesus Christ, the Lord God saved us from the death we deserved
for our sins and also taught us true justice. The result is that we can
now be justified. In this regard it is important to remember
Zechariah’s prophecy when John the Baptist was born:
“And
you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell his people
how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Because of
God’s tender mercy, the light from heaven is about to break upon us, to
give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and
to guide us to the path of peace.” (Luke 1:76-79 NLT)
And so we find salvation through forgiveness of our sins thanks to
God’s merciful compassion. He will rise like the sun and shine upon us
to bring light those living in darkness and in the shadow of death and
guide us to the path of peace.
2. For some people it is still dawn
(v. 13, 14).
Everybody experiences inner conflict. It’s no use philosophising in a
dogmatic way about issues as important as these and then pretend to be
so greatly influenced by the Holy Spirit that we have already become
holy. This is not true.
- Every one of us daily struggles against the devil
and ourselves, because there are so many opportunities tempting us to
do what is wrong.
- Nobody is so perfect not to get into conflict with
the commands of the gospel from time to time.
Fact is that people who have not come to the conclusion that they
cannot rely on themselves do not fear God.
- This is why some people think God owes them
something because they can earn credit by doing good works.
- As long as you think you can earn your salvation
you despoil the Lord of his glory and you will never experience eternal
bliss.
- We should be very careful on this point because
various religions say that the propitiation through Jesus Christ can be
applied according to their own thinking (Pelagianism).
He who seeks salvation through himself is totally lost. Listen to the
gospel according to John (3:18, 19):
There
is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not
trust him have already been judged for not believing in the Son of God.
Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into
the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their
actions were evil.
(John 3:18-19 NLT)
Matthew refers to Isaiah’s words:
This
fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah, which says: ‘You will hear
my words, but you will not understand; you will see what I do, but you
will not perceive its meaning. For the hearts of these people are
hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes –
so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts
cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’
(Matthew 13:14, 15 NLT)
And he
said, “Yes, go. But tell my people this: ‘You will hear my
words, but you will not understand. You will see what I do, but you
will not perceive its meaning.’ Harden the hearts of these people.
Close their ears, and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with
their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and
turn to me for healing.” (Isaiah 6:9-10 NLT)
The fact that Isaiah said these things to Judah is the Lord’s
revelation that there are people among the so-called faithful who do
not serve the Lord and who do not seek their salvation from Him –
although they pretend to do so. Such people have nothing to become
reconciled with God.
- This again emphasises the fact that no human being
can become reconciled through himself, because God’s punishment for his
sins will destroy him. Not even sacrificial animals can bear the wrath
of the Lord. We learn that from the Old Testament. That is why
offerings had to be done repeatedly.
- An angel too cannot reconcile God with man, because
who sinned against the Lord were cast out of heaven and those who have
not sinned approach his throne tremulously. In fact, they cover their
feet and their eyes when they appear before the Lord.
Fact is that people, who do not go to the Lord to seek a mediator,
cannot be saved in any other way, because there is nobody in the entire
creation that can act as redeemer for man and his sins.
3. Sunrise (v. 15)
If there is no mediator for man’s sins in the entire creation, does it
mean that there is no mediator at all?
- There is a Mediator, but he is from outside the
creation and was not created. From the Bible we learn that He has
always been and that He is the true Light. In the course of history He
was born as a human being because He accepted a human body.
- Since creation the Lord promised this Redeemer.
Over many centuries specific people were inspired by the Holy Spirit to
write about it and so established his Word for us – our Bible. The Lord
announced the Redeemer in detail: his coming, his birth, his
crucifixion and his resurrection – everything.
All these announcements had one thing in common – the reference to God
himself, because only the Lord had the power to bring about the
promised salvation.
- Only the Lord can bear the violence of his wrath.
- Only the Lord can enter death and return from it
without a single scar.
- Only the Lord could destroy the power of hell so
that the demons would tremble before him and plead not to be tortured
prematurely.
This is how the sun of God’s righteousness rose over us:
- Jesus was born and bore our punishment before God.
He completely reconciled God with us.
- This Mediator is perfectly adequate. Nothing has to
be added for our salvation.
- All He requires is our worship in total obedience
to Him. Of course it includes our confession that He – and only He – is
the eternal God.
And so it happened that we, who cast ourselves into total darkness,
could again warm ourselves in the light of his grace.
Let’s read together Catechism Lord’s Day 4:
12. Q. Since, according to
God’s righteous judgment we deserve temporal
and eternal punishment, how can we escape this punishment and be again
received into favour?
A. God demands that His
justice be satisfied.[1] Therefore full payment
must be made either by ourselves or by another.[2]
[1] Ex. 20:5; 23:7; Rom. 2:1-11. [2] Is. 53:11; Rom. 8:3, 4.
13. Q. Can we ourselves make
this payment?
A. Certainly not. On the
contrary, we daily increase our debt.[1]
[1] Ps. 130:3; Matt. 6:12; Rom. 2:4, 5.
14. Q. Can any mere creature
pay for us?
A. No. In the first place, God
will not punish another creature for the
sin which man has committed.[1] Furthermore, no mere creature can
sustain the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin and deliver
others from it.[2]
[1] Ezek. 18:4, 20; Heb. 2:14-18. [2] Ps. 130:3; Nah. 1:6.
15. Q. What kind of mediator
and deliverer must we seek?
A. One who is a true[1] and
righteous[2] man, and yet more powerful
than all creatures; that is, one who is at the same time true God.[3]
[1] I Cor. 15:21; Heb. 2:17. [2] Is. 53:9; II Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26. [3]
Is. 7:14; 9:6; Jer. 23:6; John 1:1; Rom. 8:3, 4.
Amen.
Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 145:2, 4, 12
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 August 2004 (evening)