REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 3
MARCH 2002: MORNING 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: 33:1,5.
Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of
the Father before all the worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God
of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the
Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was
incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and
was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was
buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;
and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who
proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one
baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of
the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN
The Law : Ex. 20:1-17
Psalm 27:6.
Prayer
Psalm 78:1.
Scripture reading: Jeremiah 33
Text: Jeremiah 33:3
Call
to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty
things, which you do not know.
The grace of the Lord is much greater than we can often realize or
imagine.
- At a time when the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, and there was
great hardship, the Lord sent Jeremiah to proclaim His grace to these
disconsolate people.
- To strengthen the faith of the people so that they could hold to
His promises with confidence, the Lord first made it clear Who He is:
- He is the Lord Who did it.
- He is the Lord Who created everything.
- He is also the Lord Who determines and manages all that happens.
Why this emphatic reminder of Who the Lord is?
Because the Lord wishes to reveal His grace to those who believe in Him
- grace which is far greater than their ability to comprehend it. It is
unfathomably profound.
The people found themselves in circumstances in which the Lord was
chastising their misdeeds.
- Some of their homes had been broken down to strengthen their
defenses against the siege ramps thrown up against the city walls by
the enemy.
- Verse 5 tells that those homes were filled with the bodies of the
dead.
- To impress the awareness of their misery more strongly on them,
the Lord stated that was indeed He who had overcome these people in His
wrath at all the sins committed by the inhabitants of the city.
- The Lord declared that all these things signified that He had
turned aside His face from the city.
Never in their wildest dreams did the people think that they would ever
be able to find a way out of this situation.
- The Lord knew that they could come through the situation if He
wished to deliver them from it.
- He had the all-powerful might and the love to accomplish this.
- That is why He presented this urgent announcement relating to Who
He is and what He would do.
Then the Lord addressed Himself directly to His people - to us!
Call to Me and I will answer you and reveal Myself to you.
How would the Lord answer, and what is it that He would reveal to them?
- Deliverance.
- There are many examples in the Bible of the expression "call to"
being used of people praying in a situation of critical need, and every
time their prayers are answered by the deliverance of the Lord (Ps.
4:4; 28:1; 30:9; 55:17; 57:3, and other texts).
- Now this holds true for us as well, just as it did for those to
whom Jeremiah preached.
The Lord will restore His grace to His people: not in words alone, but
by deeds.
- When the people once more worship the Lord, they will see the
wonderful fulfilment of this promise.
- Among them were many who had been wounded: the Lord would heal
them and restore their health.
- All around them were war and death: The Lord would give an
enduring peace. This peace would endure for all eternity.
The Lord thus restores bodily/physical health. Together with this
physical recovery the Lord will also accomplish spiritual restoration.
- The grace of the Lord is so great that He will purify the people
of all their sins.
- That happens when the sinful lives of the people are transformed
into righteousness.
- Actually the Lord uses two words which declare what He intends
doing to us in His grace: He will purify us, and forgive us.
This verse (v.8) makes one thing very clear:
- The physical and material restoration which the Lord promises us,
has a spiritual foundation.
- Only when there has been inward (spiritual) change, will the
outward (externally visible) change come about.
- That is why our text states that we must first call to the Lord
before He bestows on us His blessings in abundance.
- From verse 6 the Lord teaches that He will change our lot
physically as well as spiritually.
Where does this leave us today?
- We stand before the same injunction as the people of Judah who
were called upon to repent and worship.
- Yet with a slight difference: The Lord has already established on
us His blessings in the death and victory of His Son Jesus Christ.
- The Triunal God calls us today to sit at His table to be bodily
and spiritually reminded that we share both bodily and spiritually in
the redemption He accomplished on the cross.
Just as in the case of Judah the Lord affirms to us His promises for as
far into the future as the coming of the New Jerusalem.
? Through the cross of Christ we gain admission to a city in which
there will be eternal joy.
? Through the cross of Christ we gain admission to a city in which the
voice of the bride and Bridegroom will be heard. But then it will not
be two people who are going to get married - it will be the eternal
marriage feast of the Lamb and His bride: Jesus and His church.
- The restfulness of flocks of sheep and cattle grazing and being
counted in the evening conveys something of the passing of all hatred
and death. All chastisement has by then been accomplished and done with.
- Then we will live together with our Creator in His eternal glory.
Come, sit at the table of the Lord, and while we eat and drink, let us
think upon the grace of the eternal God who makes all this true for us.
AMEN.
Prayer.
Psalm 23.
FORM OF SERVICE FOR THE CELEBRATION OF
THE LORD'S SUPPER
Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, attend to the words of the
institution of the holy communion of our Lord Jesus Christ, as they are
delivered by the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 11:23-29):
For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that
the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and
when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is my body,
which is for you: do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He
took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant
in my blood: do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord's death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks
the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body
and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so
doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats
and drinks, eats and drinks judgement to himself if he does not judge
the body rightly.
That we may now celebrate the Lord's Supper to our comfort, it is
necessary, before all things, rightly to examine ourselves; and
further, to direct it to that end for which Christ has ordained and
instituted the same - namely, to His remembrance.
The true examination of ourselves consists of these three parts:
(1 Cor. 11:27-29 & Ps. 51) Let every one consider by himself his
sins and accursedness, that he may abhor himself and humble himself
before God with sincere remorse for these transgressions. We must
believe the firm promise of God that all our sins have been forgiven
solely on the grounds of our redemption in Christ and that His perfect
righteousness has been imputed to and freely given us. We must have the
earnest desire to show thankfulness to God in our entire life, to walk
sincerely before Him, and to live in true love and harmony with our
neighbour.
All those, then, who are so minded, God will certainly receive in grace
and count them worthy partakers of the table of His Son Jesus Christ.
On the other hand, those who transgress against God's law obstinately
and without remorse, eat and drink judgement upon themselves. Wherefore
we admonish all idolaters, all who resort to or confide in sorcery, all
blasphemers, all who seek to raise discord and mutiny in Church and
State, all perjurers and those disobedient to lawful authority, all
murderers and quarrelsome persons, adulterers, fornicators, drunkards,
thieves, robbers, gamblers and covetous persons, to abstain from the
table of the Lord. Because those who lead loveless and offensive lives
have no share in the Kingdom of Christ.
Yet we do not come to this supper to testify thereby that we are
without sin and perfect in ourselves; on the contrary, we come
precisely because we seek our life apart from ourselves in Christ.
Thereby we confess that we are in our own nature dead through sin. We
have indeed, still many shortcomings: lack of true faith, lack of zeal
in the service of God, lack of love towards God and our neighbour.
Nevertheless, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we repent heartily of
our sins and desire sincerely to live according to all the commandments
of God. Therefore we rest assured that God receives us through His
grace and makes us worthy partakers of this heavenly food and drink.
(1 Cor. 5:11; Eph. 5:5; Ex. 20:12-17;; Lev. 19:12; Zech. 8:17; Gal.
5:19,21; Eph. 2:1)
The Lord teaches us to what end He instituted the Supper when He says:
Do this in remembrance of Me. To do this we must sincerely believe that
He was sent by the Father to this world, that He became true man and as
sinless Lamb bore throughout His earthly life the wrath of God for our
sins. He fulfilled with perfect obedience God's Law for us. He bore the
reproaches due to us so that we should never again become an object of
divine reproach. Although innocent, He was sentenced to death so that
we might be acquitted before the judgement seat of God. He was nailed
to the cross so that the certificate of our debt, consisting of decrees
against us, could be so nailed to the cross as well. In this way He
took from us the curse and assumed it upon Himself that He might fill
us with His blessing. He suffered the pains of hell and anguish and the
terrible desolation of separation from God when He cried out with a
loud voice: My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? that we might be
accepted of God, and nevermore be forsaken of Him. He has finally
confirmed with His death and the shedding of His blood the eternal
covenant of grace with the words: It is finished.
(1 Cor. 11:26; Heb. 4:15; Matt. 27:46; John 19:30; Col. 2:14)
Whenever we so think of Him, the signs of bread and wine gives the
assurance that He delivered Himself in our stead and that He as
certainly nourishes us with His body and blood as we eat and drink of
the bread and wine. So the living Christ wishes to assure us through
His Spirit of His love and bring about in us the firm knowledge that we
also belong to this covenant of grace. And every time we partake of
communion, we proclaim His death until He comes. Therefore the
celebration of communion lets us look forward with great yearning to
the bridal feast of the Lamb.
(Matt.26:29; Rev. 19:9)
Communion so teaches us to embrace in faith the unique sacrifice on the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only foundation and ground of our
salvation. There His body was broken and His blood was shed to the
perfect remission of all our sins, and so He became for us the true
food and drink of life eternal. Through His death He also won for us
the lifegiving Spirit, which binds us to Christ in true communion with
Him and lets us partake of all His riches and benefits. The same Spirit
binds us also together in sincere love as members of one body. Because
we have all partaken of the same bread, we are all one body. Therefore
all of us who have been incorporated in Christ through faith, we must
manifest this unity in love by word and deed towards one another. May
God through His Spirit help us to do so.
(1 Cor. 10:17)
AMEN.
Let us now humble ourselves before God and pray to Him in sincere faith
for the blessing of His grace.
Merciful God and Father,
We thank You that we may celebrate the comforting occasion of the
bitter death of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray You, grant us a sincere
confidence in our hearts to surrender ourselves ever more completely to
Your Son, so that we may be refreshed by Him, the heavenly Bread, so as
not to live any longer in our sins but in Him. Grant us the assurance
that You are our merciful Father, and we Your children and heirs. Help
us to deny ourselves, to confess our Saviour, and with longing to await
His return, when He will take us to be with Him eternally.
Hymn 45:1,12.
To the table.
Lift up your hearts to Jesus Christ, our Advocate at the right hand of
the heavenly Father, and be assured that the Holy Spirit will
strengthen you just as certainly with the body and blood of Jesus as
you receive the signs of the bread and wine in remembrance of Him.
The bread we break is our communion with the body of Christ. Receive
it, eat, remember and believe that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ
was broken to the complete remission of all our sins.
The cup of thanksgiving which we bless in gratitude, is our communion
with the blood of Christ. Receive it, drink everyone of the cup;
remember and believe that the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
was shed to the complete remission of all our sins.
Beloved, because the Lord has refreshed us with the heavenly bread, let
us now together with one accord praise His Name with the words:
(Psalm 103:1-4; 8-13; Rom.8:32)
Merciful God and Father,
We thank You and praise You that You by this communion confirm to us
the glorious promises of the gospel. We thank You that You gave Your
only-begotten Son as Mediator and sacrificial offering for our sins. We
thank You for the true faith, whereby we are enabled to partake of the
sacrifice of Your Son. We pray You, let the proclamation of the death
of our Lord by the working of the Holy Spirit daily strengthen and
enable us to grow in the faith and in glorious communion with Christ,
for His Name's sake. AMEN.
At Table: During communion: Psalm 116 at each session.
After communion: Psalm 118.
Closing Psalm: 48:1
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
3 March 2002.
Scripture quoted from NASB.