Psalm 46; Romans 8
So this evening we’ll start our study for 52 weeks of the Heidelberg Catechism. I mentioned it’s broken up into 52 Lord’s Days, 52 Sundays. Some might ask and object, why are you preaching through a creed or confession instead of the Bible? Well, remember creeds and confessions are a summary of the scriptures. Think back to Luke. The physician wrote Luke and Acts, and he wrote them for the benefit of Theophilus, his benefactor. And he wanted to write an orderly account so that Theophilus may be sure of his salvation.
And so in a sense, uh, we, we may say that about the Heidelberg, uh, it is not inspired. It is not the word of God that will, uh, look at scriptures, uh, and we’ll see many wonderful truth just tugged from the whole of scripture and put in front of us. Uh, but we want to read from the old Testament Psalm 46. Uh, this is one of the Psalms of the sons of Korah. Um, It says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the most high.
God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire.
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. And now to Romans eight, which many will say is one of the greatest single chapters in the scripture.
And as we read a passage that’s probably very familiar to us, I know some of you have been through the Christian Ed class that explained Romans 8 for, I don’t know, a dozen or so weeks. You may think it’s old hat, but I’m gonna give you something to look out for. We want to think tonight, how does theology bring us comfort? How does good theology, who God is and what he’s done and what he’s promised, how does that help us? And so look for those kinds of things in Romans 8.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh in order. that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life, because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies and through his spirit who dwells in you. So then brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order, that we may also be glorified with him.
For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and to obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit, We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, for in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
Just a personal experience to mention as we begin You know, I grew up in a Christian home. I grew up going to church. I went to Christian school and I really didn’t know my Bible, didn’t see it systematically. I only understood it, maybe as many of us do at points in our lives, understood it in Bible verse snippets, right? We had to learn Bible verses and Christian school, we had to learn Bible verses in Sunday school. We had to learn scripture memory, you know, in summer Bible camp, all those sorts of things.
In college, I started reading my Bible a little more, but then I went off to divinity school and for three years, I read my Bible and sat in class, read my Bible, sat in class, read my Bible and sat in class. And that was like steroids, just without the effects. But it was a wonderful thing to begin to not just read the Bible, but to understand it. And then now, you know, 20 some years later, it’s very different.
I think when you experience life and you experience the truths of the Bible, sort of goes with what we were thinking about this morning. The knowledge that’s in the head has to seep into the heart. And I think understanding truth, but also living it experientially is something that God blesses.
And early on in my ministry, maybe others knew it because they heard somebody say it, but it dawned on me, the more we understand the particulars of salvation, we study from time to time the order of salvation. We just heard it in Romans 8. not all of it, but we think of predestination, effectual calling, regeneration, faith, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, and glorification. All of those, and some people use fewer, some people add more, but all of those, what we call the order of salvation or the order of salutas, all of those provide us truths from the scripture that show us God’s work, his past work, his present work, his ongoing work, and his future work in us. And those give us what we might call theological comfort. I can remember way back, well, we were in seminary and we had a little baby on the way, 12 weeks or so in, got news, baby not gonna make it.
I remember my wife saying, I don’t want to get patted on the head. I don’t want, oh, try it next time. She said, I want true truth. I want theological comfort. And so something like the Heidelberg Catechism, I think can help us realize that we are embraced by God’s almighty hand and his loving arms. and perhaps like Luke was attempting to do with Theophilus, we can read the Bible and we can know with certainty God’s salvation. And so we come to a catechism that speaks of our only comfort, our only comfort in life and in death, our only comfort in body and soul. You can’t get any more whole or high or clear than that. Think about our world. We like sure bets, and there are none. But we expect life to be full of sure bets.
There’s the old joke, you ever see the man who wears a belt and suspenders, belts and braces? I remember my dad making a joke pointing out a guy with belts and braces and said he’s extra cautious, right? We joke about belts and braces, but how many of us are insurance poor?
We have contracted with an insurance company, and we have allocated the risk from ourselves to another. And so we buy health insurance. We buy life insurance. We buy car insurance. We buy title insurance. We buy homeowner’s insurance. We buy umbrella insurance. We have insurance, and I don’t know if you know this interesting little factoid, but Burlington happens to be a hub of reinsurance. It’s the insurance companies that insure the insurance companies.
And, you know, we put two locks on the door. We stash some cash away in case the banks fail, right? Somebody in my family does that. We buy silver. We store up food. Maybe we have a shelter, a bomb shelter, a tornado shelter. We get a generator. We do all kinds of things, and yet still, there are no sure bets. Disruptions will come. And so we have to again think what is our only comfort? It’s not our bank account. It’s not our insurance policies. It’s not in our preparedness for living off the grid, you know, when whoever does what and the bad things happen. We have to have our only comfort in theological, biblical, ultimate truths. If we are worried about low level things that might kill us or eat us, we need to have the opposite to be our comfort.
And so what is more comforting in light of our sin and in light of our misery and in light of everlasting death, what is more comforting than forgiveness? What is more comforting than reconciliation to God? What is more comforting than deliverance? What is more comforting than assurance? More comforting than the knowledge that we will land safely home on heaven’s shore? What is more comforting than our preservation? And what is more comforting than the providence of God?
You see, those are ultimate We joke about chocolate and retail therapy. We joke about, you know, getting in our pajamas, lighting a fire, reading a book, you know, petting the dog, all those sorts of creature comforts, we call them. And yes, those may provide short-lived temporary comforts, but what will ultimately bring us comfort in light of things like sin and judgment and death? That is how we want to think in this catechism. helps us.
Psalm 46 poses a question or poses a threat. Be still and know that I am God. Well, what about when the world shakes and quakes? What about the mountains falling into the sea? What about when our heart is overwhelmed? What about when maybe we’re a minor and we’re stuck three miles down in a cave? Or what about those boys, do you remember back in 2018, the soccer team, they went in the caves in Thailand, the rains came and the exit flooded. And you remember they were stuck and it took some grand worldwide execution to get them out of those cave shafts.
Or what about when you’re laying on the cold, freezing heart cath lab table? and that thing is running through your body and looking for blockage, or anxious moments when you’re overwhelmed and your heart sinks within you. Or how about when you have a loved one you can’t help, maybe a child who’s away or far off, or 9-11, when that event took place, the phones quit working, they were jammed, and you can’t.
What’s your only comfort in life? and in death, not just for yourself, but for your loved ones in Christ. So that’s what we want to think about as miserable sinners now saved by grace in Christ. As miserable sinners, what is comfort? Think about your ultimate misery. That would be life apart from God. And now as a saved person, your only comfort both in life and in death is that your ultimate needs have been met.
We still, though saved by grace, we still live east of Eden and we need a lot of comfort. The headlines today can give us a good shake. We need ultimate answers to our big questions. And so what’s our security? What’s our comfort? What’s our trust? What’s our consolation? What will get us through life? What will help us stare down death and dying? What will help us when bad things are going on in our lives and those bad things won’t go away?
Well, the author of the Heidelberg, a man named Arsenius, he wrote the Catechism. Again, just like the Westminster Confession, it was by act of Parliament that the Westminster divines wrote the Confession and Catechism, it was by act of one of the German princes of the day, that the theology of the German Reformed Church be written. And so Arsenius, one of the theologians at Heidelberg, put these things down and he says, regarding this particular catechism, he says, we need truth presented to us and our minds need to reason through it and arrive at our greatest comfort.
And our greatest comfort can’t be the empty philosophies of the day. Our greatest comfort can’t be from, you know, self-help books or, you know, the retail therapy type things. He didn’t talk about that because they probably didn’t have malls back then. But he said we need to reason through truths and arrive on solid ground. And so solid ground for him as a theologian was our only comfort in life and in death is the fact that we are not our own, that we live and die for Jesus. We don’t live and die for me.
That’s what the world teaches, but the Bible teaches very differently. And so we are not our own, but we do belong to Jesus. We’ll sing in a little bit, I Belong to Jesus, a sweet song full of good truths. A couple weeks ago in 1 Corinthians 7, we arrived at the Apostle Paul.
People were living in their bodies in unrighteous ways. And he said to them, you are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God in your body. We belong to Jesus. And so we who were far off had been brought near. He has paid our debts. He has freed us from being enslaved and paid the redemption price. How did he do that? It’s with his precious blood. And what did he do with his blood? Did he just shed it?
No, it satisfied, fully satisfied God’s righteous demands. We read at the beginning of Romans 8, Jesus came in the flesh and lived in the flesh and obeyed in the flesh. And he suffered in the flesh, and he died in the flesh, and he rose in the flesh, and ascended in the flesh. And all that was to fulfill righteousness. God’s righteous demands, his law fulfilled, had to take place, but also an atonement, a sacrifice, had to be made. And who did that?
Jesus. We think about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. We think about redemption accomplished by Jesus. and then redemption applied by the spirit. And there’ll be a little Holy Spirit thing in just a moment. But our comfort is body, soul, our comfort, life, death, not our own, but belong to Jesus, our atoning sacrifice. And what else has Jesus done?
He has delivered us from the power of the devil. When we get through tonight and sing our final song, we will not sing, I belong to the devil. We were not saying, I belong to Satan. No, Jesus’ death destroyed his tyranny. Our chains were loosed. We were rescued from the dungeon of death and from darkness. And his tyranny ended.
I remember way back when we did our little incursion into Iraq. And I think we went in in March. And what was it? By April or May, they had toppled Saddam Hussein. And I remember watching on the news a bunch of men wrap a chain around a statue of Saddam Hussein and they pulled it over and they danced on his toppled statue. And that’s a picture that I think we ought to have in mind is when Jesus died on the cross, Satan was toppled. Yes, he is still alive and yes, he is still angry and wreaking havoc on Christians. But his power over us, his tyranny over us has ended. Why did those men jump up and down on Saddam Hussein’s statue? It’s because he had tyrannized them for so long.
Why did Israel sing a song when they got across the sea on dry land, but look back and the sea swallowed? Why did they sing? I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider have been thrown into the sea. My God, my strength, my song has won the victory. We love when the evil loses and the good wins. And so God has delivered us from all the power of the devil. And then it speaks of preservation. What is the little thing? Picking daisies?
You know, he loves me. He loves me not. And what happens if you land on the last daisy petal with he loves me not? Bad news. Sad, right? Well, do we pick daisies? God loves me. God loves me not. Or do we look at our circumstances and say, how could he possibly love me in the face of this trial? Why would a good God put me through a bad thing?
That’s Romans 8, isn’t it? That’s the ultimate question. What do we call it? Theodicy. How can a good God allow bad things happen to good people? That sort of thing. Well, we understand that the power and the providence of God preserves us. That without the will, without the will of the all-knowing, all-powerful, almighty God. Without it being His will, not a hair can fall from His head.
Now, I have a house with a poodle and several females. And so the vacuum from time to time needs to be untangled. You know, they say these poodles are hyperallergenic. Well, we must have gotten the dud. But there’s hairs just, you know, it wraps around the thing. And so you’ve got to take care of it.
And, you know, as you’re grousing and cleaning and you think, these didn’t fall without the will of the Heavenly Father. That’ll redeem your vacuuming, won’t it? Not a hair can fall from my head, yet. All things must work together for my salvation. We’ve got to remember this.
God permitted the fall. God sinlessly uses sin. Satan entering the garden and tempting Adam and Eve and their falling into sin was not an accident. He permitted it. It does not make him the author of sin. It doesn’t mean he condones sin, but he permitted the fall so that he could send his son to seek and save the loss.
Not only did God permit the fall, God in his wisdom leaves remnant sin in each of us. Even when we come to faith in our sins, past, present, future are pardoned. Our sin nature is subdued and there are remnants. We read Romans 8, lots of mention of the word flesh, flesh, Paul’s theological word for remaining sin, remaining corruption. Why does God leave remnant sin in us?
Why did God permit the fall? Why did he let Satan terrorize Job? Why did he say to Peter, I have prayed for you, Satan wished to have you, and he only sifted you like wheat. Why does God put us through the ringer of life in a cursed world, life with remaining sin?
God sinlessly uses sin for his glory. and our everlasting good. The Christian life is not pretty. You know, whoever said, come to Jesus and all your problems go away, that’s not in this life. Yes, there is glorification. There is a day where we are not only free from sins, free from sin completely. It’s our practice of it, but its effects around us will be in glory where those things cannot be. But why does God permit it. Think of Joseph, you know, went through the wicked brothers, hated him, sold him into slavery, went into Potiphar’s house, served Potiphar well.
Wife comes after him. He runs. She lies. He’s in jail. His fellow cellmates forget him. And finally, he interprets Pharaoh’s dream. Seven years of plenty, seven years of famine. His brothers, as God promised, come to Egypt to sojourn. And he preserves Israel, the promise covenant children in Egypt, while there’s a great famine. Otherwise they would have died and so would the promise.
And so we never know in our hardships what God is up to. And it’s counterintuitive to say, as a Christian, we suffer. The health and wealth preachers would say, you’re not doing it right. But the Bible says, nope, that’s the way of the master and that’s the way of the servant. And so all things must work together for salvation. I think this gets better as you work through it.
By his Holy Spirit, he assures me of eternal life. It’s one thing to know the promises of God, And it’s another thing to memorize them, but it’s another for the spirit to put a overwhelming sense in you. I am a child of God. God will never leave me or forsake me. I have seen your work in the past, God, on my behalf, and I trust that it will be the same in the future. You will never leave or forsake me.
I was thinking of the last words. of several people who have died, maybe heroes in our time. And I wonder what might be our last words as we lie in our deathbed. I’ve heard death is something not to be afraid of. It’s the dying part that’s kind of, you know, a little iffy.
Jay Gresham Machen, who many of y’all will know from the 1930s when the Northern Presbyterian Church was at its height of liberalism and out of what became liberal Princeton came Westminster Seminary and out of the Northern Presbyterian Church that had abandoned the faith came the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Of course, later in our southern context, you had the PCA and the reform seminaries pop up. But Machen died at what many would say would be a premature death. He went out to North Dakota, I believe it was, and preached. And he caught a cold and died rather quickly.
But in the 30s, you sent telegrams, not emails or text or well, you could have sent a letter, I suppose. But his last telegram to one of his friends in the faith was something like this. I’m so thankful, he said on his deathbed. I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. He knew that the only reason He would enter the presence of God upon his death as he stood by faith, believing in not his own obedience, for that would bring him nothing but death and hell. But he had faith in Jesus and his active obedience. And he said, I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope. without it. Those were his final words that we know.
Recently, John MacArthur, some of you will know him of great fame in our day, just a Bible preacher. And in his late 80s, maybe two months ago, he passed away. And his sons report that he said, oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?
And he said, I feel no sting and I feel no fear. That’s what he said before he died. Now, R.C. Sproul tells of his father dying when he was about 15 years old, his own father. R.C. was not a Christian. His father died and he looked at his son and said, I fought the fight. I finished the race. And his son, R.C., the famous theologian he would become, said, don’t say that. Didn’t understand it. Don’t say that.
But of course, R.C. came to faith in Jesus and had the comfort of eternal life. But what’s the last thing? It’s a sincere willingness and readiness to live for God. When we see what God has done for us and what he saved us from, we realize he has saved us not just from something, the wrath of God, but he saved us to something. And that’s the kingdom of God.
I think of the funny Andy Griffith show where Is it Gomer or Goober, whichever one runs the filling station? There’s a little fire and he thinks Andy saves him, so he’s gonna chop his wood the rest of his life. And it’s really driving Andy crazy, so Andy has to create a scenario where Goober saves his life. But you get the idea, right?
We feel a debt of gratitude when someone saves us. And so the question of Psalm 116, what fit return, Lord, shall I make? What shall I render to the Lord for all his goodness? Well, we begin to know his law. We begin to believe his commands. We embrace his promises. We tremble at his threatenings. And so we live a new life with a great purpose.
Isn’t this so much better than the You don’t want to go to hell, do you, speech? Right? There’s so many questions you could ask somebody. What’s your only comfort? What do you do with your sin? What do you do with your misery? What do you do when you’re not feeling sure? How do you know if you are feeling sure that you really are sure?
And you can ask all these questions and they will lead to very good conversations. So that’s a run through of the first question. Just very briefly, there’s the second question. How do you enjoy this comfort? Well, you’ve got to know three things and those three things are guilt, grace and gratitude. The whole rest of the Heidelberg Catechism will have a section on guilt. That’s what we’ll do next. A whole section on grace and then a whole section on gratitude. So you back it up.
Gratitude, how to live in light of salvation, grace, what God has done for us in Jesus, and then guilt or misery, sin. And some might say it’s a little too introspective to think on our guilt or our sin and our misery. But if you don’t think of your sin and misery, you won’t think much. of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Grace, I think we have simplified it too much. You read the New Testament, grace is a rich and wide and wonderful, wonderful thing to understand who God is and what he’s done for us in Jesus and all the present and ongoing and future blessings that we have.
And then gratitude. And we want to end tonight by thinking of the story of the lepers. What did Jesus do after he healed those 10 lepers? He’s standing around waiting for a thank you. And they all went away except one. One came back and gave gratitude to Christ for healing him. Remember the condition of the leper, a disease. Remember the social condition of the leper. They were outcast. Remember the, future of a leper. They would die in great pain and in misery, but Jesus touched them. Jesus spoke to them and Jesus healed them. And he’s done that for us.
And so every Sunday we get the chance to be leper number 10 and come into God’s house and give him praise. But every day we also get the chance to be leper number 10 and we get to live out of God’s grace, telling people of the great cure. And so think on these things and live out of these things. Let’s give thanks to God. Lord, we ask that you would impress all of these truths, not just into our mind, but may they seep down deep into our hearts so that we have joy and so that we have comfort and we have confidence. And we have reason or motivation for living and obeying even when life gives us hard things. Help us, we pray in Jesus’ great name, amen.