Sing before the service: Psalm
27:2; Psalm 81:13
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 84:1
Prayer
Psalm 73:11
Scripture reading:
Psalm 139
Scripture
text:
Psalm 139: 23, 24; Catechism Lord’s Day 44
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalms 139:23-24 NIV)
The author of Psalm 139 discovered the omnipotence and omnipresence of God
the Lord.
- Wherever he goes, the Lord is present.
- In heaven – the Lord is there.
- In the realm of the dead – and the Lord is there.
- The Lord is also present every day of his life on earth!
And then the disturbing thought: The Lord sees through him!
- The Lord knows about every sin – even those he has only but thought
about!
- Before he even decides to sit down or get up, the Lord already knows
it.
Now he actually invites the Lord to search his mind. He trembles
before the Lord, but he wants to expose his mind to the Lord. He wishes to
be tested and purified by God, and then to receive forgiveness for his sin
from the Lord:
- See if there is any offensive way in me,
- and lead me in the way everlasting
The truly faithful can do this, because he knows that the Lord will
discover all his sinful desires – but this is exactly what he wants to get
rid of.
All my longings lie open before you, O
Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. (Psalms 38:9 NIV)
Normally man’s desires are not really commendable before the Lord. Just
consider what is said in Psalm 140:8:
do not grant the wicked their desires, O
Lord; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud.
Selah (Psalms 140:8 NIV)
The Holy Spirit indeed warns us that our desires form part of totally
unsavoury things. Listen to Colossians 3:5:
Put to death, therefore, whatever
belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil
desires and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5 NIV)
The Lord tells us that we, as the elect, should detach ourselves physically
and spiritually from all evil – among others we should break away from
lust:
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and
strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against
your soul. (1 Peter 2:11 NIV)
In the language of the Old Testament this poet is repenting of his sins
before the Lord.
- He realises that he can only be cleansed if he knows about his sins.
- We only know our sins when we test them against what the Lord thinks
of them – his commandments.
- The poet realises that if man knows his sins and repents, the Lord
will help us through his Spirit in our struggle to become pure.
This is exactly what every one of us should realise before we can
proceed in our faith (Catechism Lord’s Day 44).
- We must become more and more aware of our sinful nature.
- Only when we realise how seriously we trespass against God’s
commandments, we will feel a desire to no longer sin against the Lord.
- We should reach a point where we really start hating all evil and
love every form of righteousness.
Of course this is not so easy, because we know our sins and misery
from the law of God, and when we deal with the law we have great problems.
Just consider what Paul says about it in Romans 7:7:
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin?
Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through
the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law
had not said, “Do not covet.”
In essence all sins originate from not keeping the tenth commandment,
because we cannot sin unless we have the desire to sin. This underlines the
difficulty of the law.
- In your life your will should not count – the will of God should.
- Hence we are faced by the commandments of the Lord, while our ability
to keep the law of God is so very limited – also the commandment that
forbids us to covet or want to have what is wrong.
- We know that we must believe in Jesus Christ to be saved, because He
fulfilled the law for us and bore the punishment for our inability to
keep the law.
- So we believe that when we stand before the judgment seat of God we
will receive acquittal for all our sins through the redemption of Jesus
Christ.
Now we also believe – based on what the Bible teaches us – that we
cannot just ignore or reject the law:
- We must keep it in gratitude for what Jesus fulfilled for us.
- The Bible also teaches us that the elect will in this life be
recognised by the fruits of rebirth.
- The Holy Spirit enables the faithful to bear such fruits.
All of a sudden this is no longer such a simple matter, because look
at our lives!
- They do not resemble the lives of people enabled by the Holy Spirit.
- It’s clear that our lives do not always serve the Lord.
- We become even more concerned when we search our own hearts in all
honesty. We find terribly evil things – and then we are terrified when we
realise that God, who is omniscient, knows all about it!
Fact is that we have the desire to trespass almost all the
commandments. But it does not stop there – we often do what we desire. This
affects all the commandments of the Lord.
- The first four commandments deal with how we should live in relation
to God. Now consider what we do about it.
- We do not have a desire to serve the Lord, because our conduct is
proof of it.
- Just listen how many of us do not recognise the omnipotence of
God by talking about coincidence and that
something happened by chance!
When we are honest we are ashamed of ourselves, because it’s not true
that we have no desire to sin against the Lord.
- Also, our faith is not as strong as it should have been by now.
- This is quite schocking, because the Bible teaches us that our faith
should be like fitness – you have to exercise.
- Often we appear to be very unfit in respect of our faith, because
afflictions get us down while we should have dealt with them in the Name
of the Lord and with his majesty.
Our struggle against sin does not always appear very vigorous, because
we are plodding on like the Israelites in the desert – on the same
level.
- In many instances we seem to have deteriorated when the standard of
our faith is measured against that of the people in Biblical times.
- It’s not true that we are really enemies of sin. When sin and what we
like correspond, we sin against the glory of God. It shouldn’t be like
this. We do not serve the Lord wholeheartedly.
It’s true that we are often guilty before the Lord because we trespass
against his commandments.
- Too often we want to sin and too few are the times we want to resist
sin in order to glorify the Lord and honour Him.
- Now consider how the angels who resisted the Lord in heaven were cast
out. In which direction are we heading? Do we actually realise what we do
when we sin?
Let’s apply this entire matter to ourselves. When we look at ourselves
we realise how weak we are and unable to keep the law. But the Lord is
merciful. The Lord’s grace is more than enough, because it comprises the
gospel of Christ.
1 John 1:8-9 teaches us the following:
If we claim to be without sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and
will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.
When we realise what sin is and we listen to the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, then new desires start developing in our hearts.
- We no longer want to disobey the commandments of God; we want to keep
them instead.
- We only have a small beginning of holiness – that is to recognise sin
when we see it.
- We also have the Holy Spirit that was poured out on the church and
also guides us.
Now, do not lose faith.
- It happens that church members ask why the Lord gives them so little
strength that they cannot fight against sin well enough.
- Please remember, we do have enough strength to be obedient – if only
we want to be obedient. We should pay attention to the guidance and
comfort of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit ensures us that God has more than enough grace for
us.
- He ensures us that, despite all our unholiness, we were chosen by God
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Nothing can deprive you of your salvation.
This brings us to another problem: If the Lord’s grace is sufficient
then, why do we still preach the law and have to keep it?
- The answer is that even the holiest among us have only a small
beginning of this obedience as long as they are in this life.
- But they have serious intentions to live according to all God’s
commandments.
This is why the law must be preached.
- We won’t understand God’s requirements without his commandments.
- And, also, we won’t understand his grace if we do not hear his
commandments, because we won’t realise what He has saved us from if we do
not know the law.
The law teaches us what we receive through Christ.
- It teaches us to pray for grace and to say thanks for all the
blessings we have already received.
- The law replaces our ignorance with insight, and together with
insight comes the desire to refresh our faith.
Then, inevitably, we reach a situation where we:
- again have communion with God.
- In a situation where we enjoy our faith and find pleasure in a strict
and Christian life.
- Then we’ll experience how much strength the Lord really gives us.
Let’s press on toward the things we may desire – holiness and
worshipping God. Let us strive to live a good life up to the day we
exchange this life with the eternal life without sins with God.
Let’s read together Catechism Lord’s Day 44.
113. Q. What does the tenth commandment
require of us?
A. That not even the slightest
thought or desire contrary to any of God's commandments should ever arise
in our heart. Rather, we should always hate all sin with all our heart, and
delight in all righteousness.[1]
[1] Ps. 19:7-14; 139:23, 24; Rom. 7:7,
8.
114. Q. But can those converted to God
keep these commandments perfectly?
A. No. In this life even the
holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience.[1] Nevertheless,
with earnest purpose they do begin to live not only according to some but
to all the commandments of God.[2]
[1] Eccles. 7:20; Rom. 7:14, 15; I Cor.
13:9; I John 1:8. [2] Ps. 1:1, 2; Rom. 7:22-25; Phil.
3:12-16.
115. Q. If in this life no one can keep
the ten commandments perfectly, why does God have them preached so
strictly?
A. First, that throughout our life
we may more and more become aware of our sinful nature, and therefore seek
more eagerly the forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ.[1]
Second, that we may be zealous for good deeds and constantly pray to God
for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that He may more and more renew us after
God's image, until after this life we reach the goal of
perfection.[2]
[1] Ps. 32:5; Rom. 3:19-26; 7:7, 24, 25;
I John 1:9. [2] I Cor. 9:24; Phil. 3:12-14; I John 3:1-3.
Amen.
Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 25:2, 6
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: 5 November 2006 (evening)