Word of Salvation – Vol.38 No.02 – January 1993

 

The Holy Gospel

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on Lord’s Days 5&6

 

Dear Congregation,

There are basically two things which we are asked to think about this morning.

And as we do so we shall hear the Word of God urging us to look to Jesus.  That’s really the heart of my message – my message from God to you – Look to Jesus and you will be saved.

Look to Jesus and you will live.

That’s the heart of the Catechism’s teaching on the subject of salvation.  In Lord’s Day 5 the Catechism, starts on that subject which it calls ‘MAN’S DELIVERANCE’.

You may remember that the Catechism teaches that that is the second of the three things which we have to know in order to get real benefit from believing in Jesus.

Those three things are:
– How great my sin and misery are,
– How I am delivered from my sin,
– How I can live a life of thankfulness to God for my salvation.
So with Lord’s Day 5 we come to the second subject/section of the Catechism.

HOW I AM DELIVERED FROM ALL MY SIN AND MISERY.

Now, the two things we are asked to think about are these:
First of all, we are asked to think about the seriousness of sin.
Secondly, we are asked to think about the marvellous way
that God saves people from the punishment
which they deserve for their sins.

These two subjects are introduced with two questions:
Question 12:
Since we deserve punishment, can we escape the death we deserve?
Question15:
What kind of deliverer or rescuer should we look for?

Now there is an incident in the history of old Israel which illustrates the drift of our subject and message very clearly.

The story is found in the book of Numbers, chapter 21.

The Israelites were in the desert on their way from Egypt to Canaan the land flowing with milk and honey.

In their journey through the barren desert they sometimes became impatient and edgy.

Let’s read the story as recorded in Numbers 21:4-9 (Quote)

This story illustrates the holiness of God and the mercy of God.

First there is a clear teaching about the seriousness of sin.  God has to deal with sin.  And He deals with it in the way of justice.  God deals with it as He has always said He will.  God has said, The soul that sins shall die.

That’s how serious sin is and how serious the punishment of sin is.

Ultimately there is only one consequence of sin — death.
And the punishment of sin comes by the will and direction of God.
God brings that judgement upon people.

In the case of the Israelites we read, ‘The Lord sent fiery serpents/snakes among the people and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.’

That was God’s intention.  That’s why He sent those snakes – to bite and kill the complaining and rebellious Israelites.  That was God’s doing, his intention.

God was clearly carrying out his threat – the person who sins shall die.  God does not always do that so quickly and so dramatically.  Which is just as well, isn’t it?

But in the desert God gave his people some very hard and clear lessons, teaching them, and us, that we should always take God seriously.

If God does not immediately do as He threatens, don’t think that He will never do so.  He will.  But God is giving us time to repent.

Never misunderstand or abuse the patience of God.  Take God seriously.  God means what He says.

That is the lesson the people of Israel learned.

Listen to their response to what the Lord was doing to them by the venomous adders.
‘So the people came to Moses and said,
We have sinned against the Lord.’

They admitted that they deserved this punishment.  They had sinned against God by the things they did and said.  They knew this was the just result of their sinful behaviour.  And they asked Moses to pray for them, that God might forgive them and remove the snakes.

Then follows another lesson for us.
When the people had confessed their fault, when they admitted that their behaviour deserved God’s righteous punishment, and when they threw themselves on God’s mercy by asking Moses to pray for them, then God heard their prayer and provided a remedy for those who were dying.

God told Moses to make a snake of bronze, and put it on a long pole so that everyone in the camp of Israel could see it.  And God told the people (through Moses) to look to that bronze snake for healing.

And, we read, it came about that if a serpent bit any man, but he looked to the bronze serpent he lived.

Amazing, isn’t it!

God gave a remedy for their sin and punishment.  God himself provided a way of escape from his wrath displayed in those vicious snakes.  God himself provided a way of escaping the judgement He had sent upon them.

All that the bitten people had to do was look, look at the bronze snake which God had told Moses to make and put on that pole.

All they had to do was take God at His word and to look to the help He was prepared to give.
All the dying Israelites had to do was believe in the remedy God provided.
God would do the healing.

By looking to the bronze serpent the dying Israelites expressed their faith in God.  They followed God’s advice, they submitted to God’s way of saving them from certain death, which they deserved.

That is essentially what dying sinners are still called to do.  They must look to the remedy which God provides.  And that remedy for sin and death is Jesus Christ.

The Catechism goes to quite some lengths to show us what an amazing Saviour Jesus is.
For though there are similarities between the bronze snake in the desert and Jesus Christ on the Cross, there are also remarkable differences.
The snake was a dead symbol, Jesus is the living Saviour.
The snake was a replica of their troubles,
the symbol of the tempter and of the means of punishment.
Jesus was the representative of those who sinned,
the perfect, sinless man,
who took upon himself the curse of sin,
and died as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The Catechism points out some of the things Jesus had to be and had to do in order to be able to save us.

We will deal with the issues of Jesus’ humanity, divinity and sinlessness later.

Let me draw your attention now to Question and Answer 18.

This answer teaches us that JESUS saves.
Jesus does the saving.  He does what we cannot do.
He frees us from the effects of the poison that is doing its work in all who have been bitten.

We’ve all been bitten by the devil who urges us to be dissatisfied with what God has given us, and to complain against God.  To ignore God’s will and to find our own way.  We’ve all sinned against the Lord.  We all deserve to die.

And until we see that, we won’t look to Jesus.  I tell you, unless you see the predicament you are in because of your sin, you won’t believe, you will not trust in Jesus alone.

Unless you see that you are doomed to die you will not look to Jesus for salvation.

And there are many persons who have gone to church for years and years, who do not know that they are dying because of the poison in them.

They think that they are rescuing themselves.  They are healing themselves, thinking that with a positive attitude they can overcome this poison.

But you can’t, you know.
You can’t save yourself from the poison that has been injected into you by sin.
Only God provides the remedy.
And that remedy is Jesus Christ.
And until you look to him you will continue to die till you are completely perished.

That’s the predicament.  You cannot save yourself, just like the Israelites could not save themselves from the poison of the adders in the desert.  God had to provide a remedy.

Jesus is the one who is freeing men and women from the effects of the poison of sin.  Jesus is freeing sinners who have fallen for the lies of the devil and have rebelled against God and his wise commands.

Jesus saves sinners who now see their sins, who know they are dying and who confess that they deserve this judgement of God.

Look to Jesus, says God.
Look to him if you can feel the misery of sin and death.

I like the old translation of the Catechism here, because it refers to and quotes 1Cor.1:30 which shows that salvation is God’s gift in Jesus.  A gift which we can’t, and don’t have to, do anything about.
Just look, and let God do the rest.

Let me read that verse to you again,

‘But by his doing you are in Christ Jesus who became for us (or who was made for us) wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that just as it is written, Let him who boasts boast in God.’

But just think of this idea, this truth, that Jesus has been made our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

What does that mean?
It means that JESUS IS OUR WISDOM,
JESUS IS OUR HOLINESS
JESUS IS OUR FREEDOM FROM SIN
JESUS IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,
OUR OBEDIENCE AND PEACE.

It means that God has given him, and says,
‘Here He is; here you have everything I ask from you.
Here is everything you need to be saved from death.
All you have to do is to LOOK at Him.
All you have to do is accept the remedy God gives you in Jesus Christ.
There is nothing more you have to do than that.
There is nothing more you CAN do than that.
To look at Jesus, to live.
And living to say, Thank you God for saving me from the death I deserve.

That’s the holy Gospel, the Good news of God saving sinners from the death they have brought upon themselves and that God will inflict upon them.

God says, Look to Jesus and live.

Please take God at His Word.
Look to Jesus for salvation, and you will live.

AMEN