************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 22-23 ************
Doctrine: The Content of your Faith
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on May 21, 2000
Q & A 22,23
Romans 1:8-17
"Believe the Gospel"
Introduction
Who are saved? Only those with true faith are saved.
What is true faith? You should know that "true faith" is not the same as "sincere faith." It is important that we be sincere in our faith. It is even more important – vitally important – that our faith be true. For many Muslims are also sincere, and many Jehovah's Witnesses impress us with their sincere devotion to an untrue faith.
As we learned last time, true faith is a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true and a deep-rooted assurance that I am saved. There are two elements to a true faith: belief and trust, knowledge and assurance.
Topic: Faith
Subtopic: Obstacles that Test
Index: 1213
Date: 5/1986.17
Title: Put in Your Hand
Years ago a party of visitors at the national mint were told by a workman in the smelting works that if you first dipped your hand in water, a ladle of molten metal might be poured over the palm of the hand without burning it.
A husband and wife were part of this party of visitors. "Perhaps you would like to try it," the workman said to the husband. The husband drew back sharply, "No thanks," he said, "I'll take your word for it." The workman turned to the wife, "Perhaps you would like to try it." She replied, "Certainly." She pulled up the sleeve of her blouse and thrust her hand into a bucket of water. Calmly she held her hand out while the metal was poured over it.
Which of the two really believed the workman? The husband believed at one level -- he had belief and knowledge -- but he wasn't willing to put his belief to the acid test. The wife, on the other hand, was willing to take it a step further -- not just belief and knowledge but also trust and assurance.
Of the two elements of true faith the Catechism, in the following questions and answers, pursues belief rather than trust, knowledge rather than assurance. You see, the Catechism concerns itself not only with the question "do you believe?" but also with the question "what do you believe?"
I Believe the Gospel
A "What then must a Christian believe?" "Everything God promises us in the gospel."
I am sure that you realize people are willing to believe almost anything today. Take a look at the grocery store tabloids sometime and you will be amazed at the incredibly dumb things people will believe:
* Dinosaurs Honked Like Buicks
* Cow Mattresses Help Cows Produce More Milk
* Pregnant Mom On Diet Of Only Chicken, Lays Huge Egg
* WWII Bomber Found On The Moon
* Woman Gives Birth To 2 Year Old Baby: Child Walks & Talks In 3 Days
* Adam & Eve's Bones Found In Asia: Eve Was A Space Alien
Or consider those people who are willing to throw all common sense away to follow a sect or cult like the one in Uganda or all of the looney ones we see here in the United States and especially in California.
We, on the other hand, are told to believe "everything God promises us in the gospel." We notice here that the Catechism refers to the Bible as the "gospel."
There are people today who want to drive a wedge between the Bible and the gospel. They erroneously think that the Bible contains the gospel but is not itself the gospel. These people foolishly and sinfully try to lift the gospel out of the Bible as if it were the nut to be eaten and the rest a shell to be thrown away.
What does the word "gospel" mean? The Greek word that we translate as "gospel" literally means "good news." The "good news" here concerns Jesus Christ and all that God did in Him and through Him for us and our salvation: His wondrous incarnation and His miraculous conception, His lowly manger birth, His perfectly obedient life, His sacrificial death, His victorious resurrection, His glorious ascension, His triumphant coronation.
We must hold to the truth that all of the Bible is essentially gospel, "good news," because it presents Jesus Christ. When you pick up the Bible, you must be ready to meet the Savior. And unless you meet the Savior, your reading and studying of the Bible is worthless. I think here of what Jesus said one day to the Jews who were persecuting Him:
(Jn 5:39-40) You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, but you refuse to come to me to have life.
Every Bible is a "good news" Bible because the Bible is the holy gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ. Therefore an uneducated person who reads the Bible as God's gospel, as God's good news, has a better understanding of the Bible than a scholar who searches the Greek and Hebrew texts but fails to meet Jesus Christ. What we must pray for is gospel-believing scholars, for they can be a real blessing to the church when they exhibit the full treasures of God's Word from Genesis to Revelation as gospel, as good news.
B In Q & A 19 the Catechism reminded us that God "began to reveal" the gospel already in Paradise, He "proclaimed" it by the holy patriarchs and prophets, He "portrayed" it by sacrifices and ceremonies, and He "fulfilled" it through His Son. The subject of all these verbs is God Himself. God began to reveal, God proclaimed, God portrayed, and God fulfilled.
The Bible is therefore first and foremost a history of God's redemption in and through Jesus. That's how God explains His own words and deeds. And, after His resurrection, Jesus interpreted the Bible to His disciples in this way. Remember Jesus walking with two of His followers to a village called Emmaus. "He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45).
(Lk 24:27) And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
C We in the New Testament can see the gospel in Genesis more clearly than Old Testament believers ever could because Jesus has already come. We can see the beginning of the gospel because the end has already come. Since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of His Spirit, God's children have learned to read the Bible with new insight. Suddenly, throughout the books of the Old Testament we find concealed references to God's salvation in Christ. For instance, we see that already in Paradise God began to speak about Satan's crushing defeat brought about by the cross and grave, the crucifixion and resurrection (Gen 3:15). And, we know that God was speaking of Christ when He proclaimed to Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him (Gen 12:3; Gal 3:8). And, we realize that God portrayed the atoning work of Christ when He had Aaron sprinkle blood on the mercy seat (Lev 16:15; Heb 9:12).
The Bible is a history of God's redemption in and through Christ. But not every part has the same clarity. At first God's purposes and God Himself were veiled and hardly known. Later they became unveiled, revealed, and more fully known by those who believed.
We are now living in the last days. This is the time between the ascension of the Lord and His return. In these last days, because of the outpouring of the Spirit, more of God's mysteries have been revealed to us than to the Old Testament saints. In these last days we know God better and more intimately than believers could have in the Old Testament period. We of the new covenant community are richer in spiritual possessions than the people of the old covenant. We are even richer than the prophets, priests, kings, and other members of the old covenant who received special gifts. According to the Apostle Peter, for instance, God's prophets of the old covenant could never fully comprehend what they themselves were saying because they were actually serving us when they were speaking God's Word about Christ and the last days (1 Pt 1:10-12). Or, consider what Jesus could say about John the Baptist, that he was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets (Mt 11:11-15). Greatness is measured by our closeness to Christ. And because John the Baptist was last in the long row of Old Testament prophets – the only one who could say, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" – he is the greatest of all those who pointed forward to Christ. Notice, though, what Jesus has to immediately add: that the least in the kingdom is greater than John. This means that those who know the mystery of the Messiah and His atoning death know more than John the Baptist.
Topic: Faith
Subtopic:
Index: 1201-1218
Date: 5/1998.38
Title: We Already Know the Outcome
I remember coming home from church the Sunday that the Green Bay Packers was playing in the Super Bowl. My stomach was in a knot, my hands were sweaty, my knuckles were probably white, and I was anxious about the outcome of the game. I didn't have to be because Green Bay wiped out their opponents.
Now, Green Bay's win was a big thing in Wisconsin. So big that the next night it was played again. Only this time I didn't have a knot in my stomach. I leaned back on the couch and put my feet up.
"What made the difference? I could relax because I knew the outcome."
As New Testament Christians we know the outcome – something that Old Testament believers did not know and could not see.
"What then must a Christian believe?" "Everything God says in His Word." Or, to say it the way the Catechism does, "Everything God promises us in the Gospel."
II The Gospel Summary
A "That Gospel," says the Catechism, "is summarized for us in the articles of our Christian faith – a creed beyond doubt, and confessed throughout the world." The Creed the Catechism is referring to is the Apostles' Creed.
The "Back to God Hour" preacher Rev. Peter Eldersveld used to tell this story:
Topic: Faith
Subtopic:
Index: 1201-1218
Date: 5/2000.101
Title: Fundamental Principles of our Faith
A medical doctor had died, willing $75,000 of his estate "to persons who believe in the fundamental principles of the Christian religion ... and who are endeavoring to promulgate the same." Ten of his nephews and nieces went to court to break the will.
Witnesses testified on both sides of the case. Many of them were Protestant and Roman Catholic clergymen. One of the late doctor's friends testified that the definition of the faith as given in the Apostles' Creed was the intention of the will. But that did not dissipate the confusion. Many ministers and a Roman Catholic chaplain testified that theologians are in complete disagreement over Christianity's fundamental principles.
And the poor judge was in the middle of all this. He gave himself several weeks to make up his mind, but finally he was compelled to say that on the basis of the evidence there is no clear-cut answer to the question, "What are the fundamental principles of the Christian religion?" So the will was broken and Christianity lost $75,000, which was quite a sum in 1939.
B If a person wants to find God today, he or she is confronted by a bewildering choice of sects, cults, groups, movements, and churches that all contradict each other; yet, they all claim to teach the fundamental principles of the Christian faith.
What are the fundamental principles of the Christian faith? Some people would have us believe that the essence of our faith is the love commandment, or that respect for all that lives is at the basis of all that we believe, or perhaps some other moral precept or religious feeling is central.
The Apostles' Creed tells us that three things are fundamental to our belief: God the Father and our creation, God the Son and our deliverance, God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification. These are the fundamentals of the Christian faith and religion. Everything else is extra.
C When the Catechism tells us that the Apostles' Creed summarizes the gospel or Bible for us, it is telling us something about our Bible interpretation. We are not to interpret the Word according to our private prejudices, our personal hobby horses, our individualistic perspectives. The rightful Interpreter of the Bible is the Holy Spirit. Hence, Bible interpretation is a corporate responsibility because the Spirit and the Bible belong to the church. We may have our individual insights, but our Bible interpretation may not be individualistic. Those who speak and write and broadcast the message of the Bible must do so as members of the body of Christ – which means paying the closest attention to the church's confession and history.
Conclusion
"What then must a Christian believe?"
In order to be saved I must believe the Bible, the good news, the gospel.