************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 3-5 ************
Doctrine: How you come to know your misery
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on February 13, 2000
Q&A 3-5
Romans 7:7-25
"What the Law of God Tells Me"
I God's Law Tells Me My Misery
A When I have problems with my car, I take it to Zylstra's. I describe my problem to John, it is taken on a test drive, it is plugged into a computer, and then John tells me what is wrong and what should be done about it. I go through the same routine at the doctor's office. I describe my symptoms, the doctor pokes and probes and checks my tongue, throat, and ears, and then he gives me his diagnosis and what should be done about it.
Notice the assumption here: my doctor or Zylstra's can correct the problem only when it is first accurately diagnosed. If my doctor diagnoses heartburn when I have a burst appendix, my problem has not been solved. If Zylstra's say the problem is with the spark plugs when the real problem is with the electronic ignition, my car will still not run right.
Everyone agrees that the human race is in trouble. Open your eyes to what goes on day after day, year after year, all across the continent, across the whole world. Murder, war, drugs, theft, rape, prostitution, child abuse, greed, lust, covetousness, cursing, disobedience – these all are part of everyday life on our planet. Nobody can miss this evil. Even more distressing, our Bible reading reminds us that all of us experience evil daily in our own lives. Even Paul, the greatest of saints, had to struggle against evil.
As with my car or my health, to correct the problem the right diagnosis has to be made. But who is qualified to make that diagnosis? How do we come to know what is wrong? "How do you come to know your misery?"
B So-called experts guess at the cause of man's problems. They try to make a diagnosis. Some say our animal past is still haunting us. Others say the problem lies in the social environment: poverty, broken homes, injustice, prejudice and racism. Still others say the problem is genetic – bad genes have gotten into the human blood- line.
Q & A 3 tells us that man's problems are too deep and too big for man himself to diagnose. We can try to describe our problems – like I do with the doctor or with Zylstra's. But we don't know enough and don't understand enough to try and diagnose the problems ourselves.
Q & A 3 tells us that man's problems are so deep and so big only God is able to diagnose the problem. God, and only God, is able to tell us what is wrong. And God, and only God, is able to tell us the cure.
"How do you come to know your misery?"
Listen to the answer: "The law of God tells me."
II Love and Misery
A In Matthew 22 – quoted by Q & A 4 – Jesus gets to the heart of the law. "What does God's law require of us?" What is the law in a nut shell? A simple one word answer will do. The law requires us to love. We are to love God and neighbor. We are to love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves.
The two loves go hand-in-hand. If we love God, really love Him, we will also love our neighbor made in God's image. It isn't enough to love our neighbor in a general, humanitarian sense; our love for others must flow out of our love for God. And, our love for others is an expression of our love for God.
The Catechism says that Jesus teaches us this double rule of love as a summary of God's law. By this is meant that the law of love is the sum total of God's requirements; love is what the requirements of the law and the prophets come down to.
Love is also the centerpiece of Christ's teaching. Christ's life and ministry on this earth was designed to teach us that love is God's law as well as God's gift. Christ's miracles, His teachings, His crucifixion and death all show us love.
The summary of God's law, then, is love: love for God and love for neighbor; loving God above all and your neighbor as yourself.
B Q & A 5 asks, "Can you live up to all this perfectly?"
"No."
According to the heading above Q & A 3, we are in the section of the Catechism known as "Man's Misery."
Q & A 3 - 5 tell me my misery has to do with the law and love. This is my misery: I cannot do what God's law requires of me. God's law calls me to love. I simply cannot do that.
In the original edition of the Catechism the word we translate as "misery" is the German word "elend." A literal translation of this word is "exile, alien."
You all know what an alien or exile is. It is someone who is out of place, someone who is far away from home or country, someone who has been separated from where they really belong. Think of Elian Gonzalez, the six-year-old Cuban boy who is in the custody of relatives in Miami. His father in Cuba argues that Elian belongs with him. The Cuban government and people take the view that Elian is away from home and country. In a certain sense Elian is an exile or an alien. Think also of Israel in Babylonish captivity. In Babylon, Israel was in exile; the people were aliens in a foreign land. How the people longed to return to the Promised Land, to Jerusalem and the Temple.
All of humanity are aliens or exiles. We are all in a state of misery. We've been exiles since the day we sinned. We have alienated ourselves from God. The day we sinned we lost the ability to do what God's law calls us to do; the day we sinned we lost the ability to love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves. So God threw us out of His presence in the Garden of Eden. We emerged from under the flaming sword of the angel into an alien land of tears and pain and hurt and death.
Our proper home, our normal dwelling place, our homeland, is with God. That is where we belong. We were created to live with God and before God; to enjoy Him and His presence forever. But when we fell into sin we became alienated from God and were exiled from our created place in the presence of God. Like Israel in Babylon, like Elian Gonzalez in Miami, we are away from home.
My misery is that because of my inability to love I am as alienated from my true environment as "Goldy" out of water (HOLD UP JAR WITH GOLD FISH). As I explained to the children, God created Goldy to live in water. That's the environment it was made for. That's where it finds life and freedom. But when Goldy is taken out of that environment and put unto dry ground, it is absolutely miserable and soon will die. In the same way, God created us to live in love. That's the environment we were made for. And when we don't live in love, we are absolutely miserable and are going to die.
III Hatred and Misery
A To repeat what I said before, my misery is that I cannot do what God's law requires of me. God's law calls me to love. I simply cannot do that. Q & A 5 asks, "Can you live up to all this perfectly?" Its answer: "No." And then it continues with, "I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor."
Many of us, perhaps most of us, are hesitant to apply such a strong word as "hatred" to ourselves. We know that we do bad things and think bad thoughts. But to say that our natural tendency is to hate God and neighbor seems a little harsh.
It also appears contrary to much of our human experience. When we look at ourselves and our neighbors, we see people who by and large show love and concern for each other. What we have to realize, though, is that our civilized circumstances within the context of a democratic society is somewhat idealistic. We ought to thank God for His common grace that allows these circumstances; and, we ought to pray that the Lord will preserve this state of affairs for us.
B What we need to realize is that man is in a state of denial. We tend to minimize our sin and guilt and misery. In fact, we love to minimize our sin and guilt and misery.
Topic: Sin
Subtopic:
Index: 3338-3359
Date: 2/2000.101
Title: Natural Tendency
Years ago Art Linkletter used to entertain adults by interviewing children on the radio. One time he asked the little children what person they loved most. "My teacher," one of them said. "My mom," said another. Then he asked a little boy, "Whom do you love most?" and the little boy said, "The Lord Jesus." Immediately Art zeroed in, "Why do you love Him so much?" "Because He died for my sins." "Is that so? ... Do you have many sins?" "Yep." "What are they?" "I don't know." "Come on, just mention one." "Well, sometimes I steal from the cookie jar."
That doesn't sound so hateful, does it?! In fact, it sounds rather harmless and innocent. And, that's how most people today understand sin. Sin is like stealing from the cookie jar. The cookie jar is different for a 6 year old than it is for a 16 year old, and when people are 46 years old they may get their fingers in yet another cookie jar.
The Christian understanding of sin goes deeper, much deeper than this. You see, to sin is to fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Sin is our inability to love God and neighbor. Sin is not merely that we do bad things and think dirty thoughts and make mistakes and are not perfect. Sin, when it comes right down to it, is a lack of love. The misery of mankind is not that we have hunger, injustice, warfare, acts of terrorism, the threat of nuclear accidents, pollution, and crime – though all of these are certainly part of our misery – our misery is that we don't love God above all and our neighbor as our self; our misery is that our natural tendency is to hate God and our neighbor. That has always been our misery, that is still our misery, and that will be the final misery of hell where there is no love to be found at all.
C "I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor."
Go to the inner city. That hatred is easy to see. Go to the Russian Gulag, where more than 20 million lost their lives. Go to Nazi extermination camps. Go to the hungry parts of Africa or Asia. Go to a hospital emergency room. Go to a police station. Go to a court house. Go to a shelter for the homeless. Go to a home for battered or abused women and children. Go to the Middle East or Bosnia or Ireland. In all these places – and more – it is obvious that man's natural tendency is to hate God and neighbor.
Topic: Hatred
Subtopic: Examples of
Index: 2211
Date: 2/2000.101
Title: Chechnyan Mine Field
A clear instance of hatred was recently seen in Chechnya's war with Russia. Russian troops had the Chechnyan capital of Grozny surrounded. It looked like the Chechnyan forces would be wiped out. Then news came that the Russians had accepted a bribe of $100,000 in exchange for safe passage out of Grozny (Russian officers have often done this kind of thing in the past).
Instead of giving safe passage, however, the Russians laid a minefield in and had artillery aimed at the escape route.
After the first mines exploded Russian artillery shells and rockets screamed into the rebel column, killing scores of fighters. The rebels continued moving despite the explosions, leaving their dead and wounded behind.
What followed was a horror. Chechnyan soldiers were forced to walk on dead and wounded comrades to avoid stepping on unexploded mines. Some fighters sacrificed themselves to clear a path, running ahead to set off mines for the about 2000 fleeing fighters. Boys marched on mines and shouted, "Meet you in paradise."
The wounded who made it out arrived at a village with a makeshift hospital with no water, no heat, and very little medicine and medical instruments. Most of them are doomed to die of gangrene.
Incidents like this show us that man's natural tendency is to hate God and neighbor.
This is also the clear teaching of the Bible. Scripture can say we are dead in our "transgressions and sins"; we gratify the "cravings of our sinful nature ... following its desires and thoughts" (Eph 2:1-3). In fact, the "sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God" (Rom 7:7-8). Such a person hates God. As such, they are "objects of (God's) wrath" (Eph 2:3).
"Can you live up to all this perfectly?" Can you keep God's law of love?
"No," says the Bible. "I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor."
Conclusion
It is important as we talk about this that we keep in mind the Catechism's context of grace. It is important as we talk about sin, misery, exile, alienation, and hate, that we remember God's love for us in Christ.
Don't forget Q & A 2. There we were told that to live and die in the joy of the Christian's comfort we must know our sin and misery. When we know this, when we know we hate instead of love, when we know we are aliens and exiles, then we have met the first requirement of living and dying in the joy of the Christian's comfort. For, when we know our misery, then we – by grace – turn to Jesus for comfort.
You see, if we – by grace – believe in Jesus, then we are able to make a beginning in loving God and our neighbor. Of course, we don't always succeed. But this we know: without Jesus we remain exiles and aliens forever, without Jesus we remain forever lost in our sin and misery, without Jesus our natural tendency forever is to hate; but with Jesus we can make a beginning in loving God and our neighbor, with Jesus we are pilgrims on the way back to the presence of God, with Jesus we can make a beginning in putting a life of hate behind us.
Let us also not forget the Bible's promise for the future. Now, because of Jesus, we might have only a beginning of life with God. But in the future, says the Apostle John, all barriers between us and God will be broken down. Listen to his description of what life is like when we no longer are aliens and exiles:
(Rev 21:3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.