Dr MJ du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville 31 August 2003 (morning).

Reformed Church, Bellville: Sunday 31 August 2003, Morning Service (Communion)

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: 47:1+3
Confession of faith
Ten Commandments
Psalm: 16:4
Prayer
Psalm: 32:1+6
Scripture reading: Job 1

Text: Job 1:21

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."

Satan tried to move Job to curse God. But he achieved exactly the opposite. Job praised the Lord.

Satan struck Job with various catestrophies in one day. The final one was the tornado that levelled his eldest son's house to the ground. All Job's children were in the house at the time feasting together and all of them died.

Job was shocked and grieved. He did two things:

He tore his clothes and shaved off his hair and beard.
These things were considered to be adornments and according to the custom of that time did not befit a person in grief and sorrow.
He fell to the earth and kneeled.
He fell in prayer before the God of Heaven and earth and paid Him homage and said that all the glory was His.
The Lord gives
And the Lord takes
Praised be the Name of the Lord!
Job also confesses that he has no right to anything.
He came into the world naked and naked he will return to the earth.
Everything he has was given to him by the Lord.

His entire existence depends on the Lord's providence.

God gives and takes.
Because God is completely sovereign.

Yet, after the Lord had taken everything from him, Job as he sat among the ashes, deeply felt that God had abandoned him.

In Job 10:16 it is written:
"If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion and again display your awesome power against me."
Accordingly he prays in chapter 17:3:
"Give me, O God, the pledge You demand. Who else will put up security for me?"

Every person needs a surety and mediator and only God can provide such a mediator.

Exactly this is happening with us today.

No true believer can say that he is never worried by sin and Satan's onslaughts.
Every honest believer will confess that there are times when we suffer especially from Satan's onslaught and we fall deeply into sin.

Then we realise in our struggle that in our own faith and strength we shall never be able to open the doors of heaven.

We increase our sins daily.
Then we feel the need for a surety and mediator just as Job did.

Job was in tears because of the death of his children.

God took them
But God also gave - His own Son
The Lord provided the surety and mediator and the life everlasting.
That is why you are gathered here today.

Jesus was born and with His death on the cross became our surety.

On the cross He bore the punishment for all that which alienates us from God.
Perfectly - so that God's wrath over our sins was wholly assuaged.
The evening prior to His crucifiction the Lord instituted the holy communion and ordered us to continue to celebrate it until He returns at the end.
He called us to come today to share this meal with Him so that this holy communion can assure us that we have Him as surety.

He stood trial for all our unrighteousness.

The effect of His suretyship is that you are assured of the life everlasting.
We can be assured of our life - now and forever.
We are also assured by the Lord Jesus' death on the cross that God gave us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He comforts us and strengthens our faith.

Congregation, let us also praise and glorify the Name of the Lord!

Come, sit at God's table and remember that He gave His Son for our salvation.
Receive the bread and the wine that He gives you as visible signs to assure us again of the suretyship of Jesus Christ and of our life everlasting.

Amen

Prayer
Hymn: 14:2
Communion
Before the table: Psalm 23:2+3
During communion: Psalm 116
Psalm of Praise: 145, 146, 147, 148, 149 + 150
Closing Psalm: 18:1

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
31 August 2003
Quotation from NIV