REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 24 APRIL 2005: MORNING SERVICE

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 24 APRIL 2005: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before service: Hymn 4-1:1; Psalm 130:4

Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God:

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: 146:1+3

Confession of faith: Nicene Creed

We 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 ages; 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, or 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 sits 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 we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.

And we believe one holy catholic* and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen

After the reading of the Law we pray for forgiveness and a new life before God with Psalm 103:2
Law
Psalm: 103:2

Prayer:

Doxology
Worship
Confession of sins
- Forgiveness
Gratitude
Prayer for the need of the congregation for the church, the authorities and the sinful world and appeal to God's promises.
General prayer
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit for the sake of the ministry of the Word.

Scripture: Matthew 5
Text: Matthew 5:4-5

"Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth."

Blessed are the rich, the merrymakers and the powerful on the earth for they have the power to acquire all on earth and control it! That is a cry that fits the spirit of our time. It also fits in with the standards set nowadays.

According to the current view the poor and the mourning and the meek are doomed to suffer.

Such people are socially unacceptable.
We push such people aside as being too much trouble to associate with.

But Jesus speaks to comfort these outcasts!

Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted!
People who are deeply unhappy because of something they have lost in their lives.
Exceedingly sorry for what they have lost and cannot retrieve here on earth!

What a contrast!

My strong personality with which I can tame the world is not valued by God!
The meek, whom I consider of little value, they shall receive the earth from God's Hand!

How illogical!

The merrymakers who know happiness and know how to enjoy life, they are not considered by the Lord.
But those serious people who with hearts filled with pain live among us they receive God's attention. The Lord Himself comes to comfort them.

It appears as if this is all a mistake. We do not understand what the Lord's intention is. Let us listen to what the Lord tells us here: Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

What do these people mourn for? And who are they? The kind of sorrow the Lord speaks of here relates to the poverty of which the Lord speaks in the earlier beatitude.

Just as that is spiritual poverty so the meaning is here spiritual sorrow.
People who miss something of the spirit.
Their mourning is spiritual sorrowing.
They are not necessarily people walking around with sour faces.

No, these are people wearing a smile but who sorrow because of sin.

These people do not weep and show a mournful face but in their heart they sorrow because they have lost the perfect fellowship with God.
These people mourn because they miss the perfect communion with God in their daily life!

We would probably think of people who sorrow because of physical pain and suffering.

People who sorrow because of a long illness or great stress.
Of course they too shall be comforted by God for in heaven there is no illness that destroys the body or stress that saps the soul.

With the mournful it shall be as with the poor in spirit.

Not all the sorrowing shall be comforted by God.
There are people who sorrow in rebellion.
We read, for example, of Esau who wept with anger before the Lord but still would not show repentance.

Who qualifies to be comforted by God?

The sorrowing who qualify to be comforted are those who sorrow because of the working of Satan in our life.
Those who sorrow because they personally feel the work of this enemy of God each day.
People who live in this world but who feel themselves strangers in this world because they miss the kingdom of God in its richness.

They are the people who long for the righteousness of the Lord.

Their comfort shall eventually lie therein that the Lord Himself shall dry their tears.
The things that worry them shall then be no more.
No longer will there be death.
No longer will there be sorrow and the things that cause pain and suffering.
For those people there shall be only eternal joy with the Lord.

The Lord then speaks to the meek. These are people who suffer pain and deprivation. But they bear their suffering in the right way.

The meek are people who do not live arrogantly.
They are the people who do not want to change the world with might and violence.
They are people who do not wish to avenge themselves on those who have wronged them.
The meek know that it is in the Lord's counsel that they will come across people who will wrong them.
But they also know that the Lord's righteousness will eventually catch up with such people.

The Lord's promise is that they shall inherit the earth.

A new heaven and a new earth is being prepared by the Lord.
The new earth is for the meek.

In these verses the point is made that the new earth and its blessings are effected by God and will not come about by human development or revolutions.

That is why the meek do not rise up against their oppressors in this world because they realize their impotence.
They await their salvation from the Lord alone.

The Greek word for "meek person" is somebody who at all times has his spirit under control.

It is a person who at all times has complete control of his emotions and conduct.
A meek person is always calm and self-controlled - even in the most trying circumstances.
A meek person judges all matters calmly and confidently and stays firm in his principles.
We read in Numbers 12:3 that Moses was more humble than anyone else on earth. Yet he was a man of great wisdom and spiritually gifted, an exceedingly good leader.

The same Greek word is used when speaking of a domesticated animal.

What is meant then is that the animal uses its power and strength in a disciplined manner at the right place and time.
A true believer must be like that if he wishes to receive from God the blessings of the new earth.

In 1 Peter 3:4 we read: "Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight".

A gentle and quiet spirit of great worth in God's sight! The Lord sees what we do righteously and it pleases Him.

And 1 Corinthians 4:21: "What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?"

Paul must visit a congregation in the Name of the Lord. Hence his question - how must I come to you? The implication of this question is: How must the Lord come to us?

Do we want Him to come with a whip?
Or in love and with a gentle spirit?

The gentle spirit is here a spirit of righteousness and confidence. A spirit in which the Lord reminds us of the labour of Jesus Christ for the elect and justifies them.

Let us judge ourselves:

Are we among those who mourn?
Are we like Jesus Christ was when He was on earth?
Each day in deep sorrow because we are in conflict with the evil of the world?

We should be deeply sorrowful because of the lack of repentance in our fellow believers who walk down the wrong road.

We should be deeply sorrowful because of people who refuse to be pointed in the right direction.

In our sinfulness we shall be inclined to hate our fellowman but that may not be.

We must examine ourselves, because we have the holiness of God and this must radiate from us.

We must repent and turn away from what we do wrong so that in all things we feel fully dependent on the Lord.
We should be saddened by our own insignificance and our inability to reflect the glory of God in our daily life.
We should be truly sorrowful for our own spiritual incapacity.

We sing it so aptly in Psalm 116:3: "The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me, I was overcome by trouble and sorrow". These are the words of a true believer who knows the reality of his condition.

Then we see Jesus, the Meek. Always calm.

Never in doubt as to what is righteous.
Confident and assured in His conduct, notwithstanding all the hatred and injury heaped on Him.
Never put off and moved to forsake the slightest principle!

This the Lord's demand. As with Jesus, the Lord, there must be a sadness in us about all the evil we do and about the violence of evil affecting each believer. There must be a longing to be with God. And also a calm decisiveness as to what is right and what is wrong. We should not be so easily influenced by evil.

What is expected of us?

To live joyfully in the midst of what we find to be difficult and bad, because we have reason to be joyful.
We have already received comfort from God the Father.
Jesus has made atonement for our sins.
That which caused our sorrow, namely the separation between God and us was removed!

The longing in our heart now has a future!

Our sadness and sorrow will be comforted by God.
Our meekness will be perfected because on the new earth we shall bear the perfect image of God.
We shall be kings again who will with perfect control and confidence and perfect knowledge practise the kingship of our God.

We cannot by our own works achieve salvation. We do not need to because we have it already. In Christ we have already been sanctified.

Therefore we must repent when we are rebellious.
Violence (although this may be part of our nature) may not be found in us.
Let us not become cowardly but acquire serenity of the soul in which we produce fruit to God with a righteous life.
Let us be slow to speak but quick to listen and be understanding.
Let us seek the holiness of God.
Then we shall receive through God's Spirit the wisdom to do every moment that which pleases God.

Amen

Closing prayer
Hymn 18-7:1+12

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

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
24 April 2005
Scripture NIV