Word of Salvation – Vol.50 No.32 – August 2005

 

Whose Fault Is It?

 

A Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 3

Scripture Reading:  Genesis 1:26-31; 3:1-19

 

Boys and girls…

What do you feel when you’ve done something wrong? You know it’s going to be found out. And anyway, even it’s not found out for a while, you know you’ve done something bad. In that moment, what thoughts are in your mind? Perhaps you’re wondering what punishment you’ll get. But probably not, eh!? You know what’s going to happen. Actually, don’t you wish then it had never happened? If only you’d never got yourself into trouble in the first place!

Congregation, in the teaching of Scripture through the Catechism so far, we know something has gone terribly wrong. Things are not right in the world. The hatred, the abuse, the violence, the killings, the pollution – whether physical, mental, or economic – it all points to a world in distress.

And while we might often try to avoid it, the fact is that each one of us is a part of that huge global disaster. It’s not out there in some obscure part of Africa. It’s not even out there down the road from your home. It’s in here – inside us! We’re the ones in trouble,and what a mess it is!

1. If we could only turn back the clock

So how often don’t we think… IF WE COULD ONLY TURN BACK THE CLOCK! And that’s just what the Catechism does. It takes us back. Our first point is this… IF WE COULD ONLY TURN BACK THE CLOCK!

And this is where the Catechism tells us how it used to be. Nothing in this world comes out of a vacuum, and especially not the reason why this world is as it is. There’s quite a story behind it all. It’s this story which Answer 6 tells very briefly. Here is what we would go back to if we could turn back the clock. And what a different scene it was!

Hearing the words of this Answer sounds like something so unreal. Listen to it: “God created man good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might know God his creator, love him with all his heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory.”

That’s what we read in Genesis 1. A glorious picture! On the last day of His creating work, despite the goodness of creation so far, God didn’t stop. In fact, after ending the first five days and the first part of the sixth day with the comment, “And God saw that it was good,” we read in verse 31 that what He created last on this sixth day was “very good”!

And what was His work that was best of all? Which thing showed how much He reached deep within Himself? It was us! When God created mankind, He reached the pinnacle of His creative process. In the words of verse 26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’.”

Imagine – in God’s image, in God’s likeness! We reflected God Himself. God, in all the glory of His Triune Majesty, made us to bring and keep that splendour on the earth. Friend, can you believe that? You, the broken, torn, sick, insecure person that you are! Like Him?

It does have a certain appeal though, doesn’t it? We can see how we’re meant to be in charge. We certainly don’t like having anyone tell us what to do! Whether that’s the teacher at school, the boss at work, a nagging spouse at home, or Mums and Dads who just don’t understand!

This wouldn’t be so bad, would it? You would be your own boss. You can do what you’ve always wanted to try. The whole world’s your oyster! Vast orchards to pick from. Animals that obey your every command. Now that’s more like it! IF WE COULD ONLY TURN BACK THE CLOCK!

Well, if you’ve thought like this, you’re not alone. Many times people have even tried to go back to what they thought things were like before. The feminists dream of a matriarchal age. The socialists dream of a communal utopia. And there are many more! But all these dreams are only nightmares! Because all these ideas only show how much we misunderstand. For did God create man in His own image just for man’s benefit?

Let me put this another way: Why do you look into the glass of a mirror? Could it be because of the glass? Are you interested in how thick or wide or high it is? Of course not! You look into the mirror to see your reflection. We want to see ourselves.

And that’s exactly why God created man. He wanted to see Himself reflected back in His creation. Or, to put it another way: Think of a Master Painter who’s just put the finishing touches to a most beautiful painting. It’s the finest work he’s ever done. It stands out above everything else. The colours, the details, right down to the finest line, it’s all been stroked with the most consummate and inspired skill. But that painting disappears. Like so many other great works it becomes lost in an old attic. Years later it is found.

Tragically, however, it’s found by someone who has absolutely no intention of showing its incredible skill and beauty. Oh, he knows its worth alright! But he sees it as a way he can become famous! He, the minor artist, who all his life has failed to receive the recognition he feels he deserves. And now he’s going to get it! Taking that masterpiece, he begins to paint over it. And he’s clever enough not to block it all out. He’s going to use it to base his own glory on. Still, he does change a fair bit of that painting. Enough for it so that he thinks he can pass it off as his own work. This time he’ll be famous!

What do you think? When that painting appears in an exhibition, do you think the art critics will see it as something quite unique? Will they believe this minor artist has now made his breakthrough into fame?

How about it students? When you did that assignment for school, do you go a little overboard with copying from someone else? Have you gone as far as those students who simply download essays off the net, and present them as their own? Does your teacher notice? Of course they do! They pick it up straightaway it seems. Just as those art experts will spot the phoney painting. When you present a work that’s someone else’s, it’s not only that it is someone else’s, it’s also that it’s definitely not yours!

That’s exactly what we’ve done with creation! What was such a beautiful place of perfect harmony with God has been terribly stained by the blemishes of sin. And it’s us who are distorting God’s great masterpiece. All of us! Each one of us is the minor artist trying to pretend we’ve done it. From Adam and Eve down.

2. But we threw away the key to that clock

Once this rot sets in, it doesn’t stop! That’s why while we may wonder IF WE COULD ONLY TURN BACK THE CLOCK… the second part to Lord’s Day 3 says… BUT WE THREW AWAY THE KEY TO THAT CLOCK.

Congregation, all we can do in our own strength is make things worse. The mirror that God created man to be was shattered. The only reflection it gives is distorted.

Yes, there’s still a reflection. God’s work cannot deny the greatness of the Creator. And, yet, since we are so infected by our sin, all our actions only shatter that mirror even more. Friend, you don’t see just how bad you really are! We don’t come clean. Indeed, what’s the first thing we often do after we’ve sinned? Think about it, brothers and sister, boys and girls. You have just sinned. You’ve done wrong. And you know you might be found out. Or even if you don’t think you could be found out!

What do you do? Quick! Cover up! And so we make it a lot worse. I remember meeting one of the Watergate conspirators. The Watergate incident occurred when close aides of the then American President, Richard Nixon, were caught involved in breaking into the opposition party’s headquarters. That man said that at first it only involved minor members of their political party. The problem was the cover-up. They tried to avoid linking what they had done to their party, and in the process the covering up went all the way to the President himself!

Congregation, our sin started with Adam and Eve in Paradise. But the cover-up has kept going ever since. You see, it’s not in our nature to come clean. It affects every part of us and whoever and whatever we’re involved with. As David said in Psalm 51 verse 5, “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

The beautiful image and likeness of God that we should have been was shattered in Eden. You have to believe it! Together with Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 7:29, we have to confess, “This only have I found: God made man upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”

Adam and Eve were real living, thinking, human beings. To deny this would question the whole purpose of Jesus Christ’s doing and dying. Yet some do. They say, “Ah, the story of Adam is simply the story of every man. As you read Adam you simply say to yourself, ‘Yes, that describes my experience as a person.’ The only real ‘Adam’ is just what is common to the experience of all men.”

And you know, in one way they’re right! We are like Adam – each one of us. But why are we like Adam? Can a myth help answer that question? Of course not! It’s like that phoney artist saying, as he’s painting over that masterpiece, “Look! This is all my own work! Nothing was on this canvas before!” And it’s patently obvious he’s painting over the masterpiece!

Mind you, it hasn’t just been the phoney artist. Or the one who denies that Adam and Eve ever actually existed. We do the same. Everyday! What was given for us to glorify God, we use so selfishly for ourselves.

Take the money that you earn. Reflect on the time we have. What about our talents and gifts? And our sexuality? Are we actively seeking to bring God the glory in what He’s first given us? It’s oh so easy to displace Him!

Let’s go back to that painting. Imagine now that the Master Painter was there looking over the shoulder of the phoney artist. How do you think he’s feeling? What kind of emotions are aroused in him as he sees those finely detailed strokes he spent hours on become brutally covered and even mutilated beyond recognition! It’s like having your arm ripped off. This is your life’s work. It hurts!

So what do we think about our spiritual butchery? Wouldn’t God be crying over that stupid and vain worship of ourselves?

“But Lord, we’re using your brushes! We’ve got all your beautiful colours!” What can He reply but the truth? My son, my daughter, please look at how you’re using those brushes. Consider the way that you can only mix the colours into a devastatingly dark paint. Child, you have so polluted the environment you live in, you don’t even know the tiniest bit of the way it should be!”s

The apostle Paul showed this very clearly in his letter to the Romans, Chapter 5. In verse 12 he says, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” And verse 18, “the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men.” And then in verse 19, “through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners.”

It is that bad! Right throughout Scripture you can’t get away from it. As Isaiah puts it in chapter 53:6, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” Do you see you’re stuck? Have you been caught like that phoney artist on the masterpiece? What, you couldn’t be that rotten? But who’s only concerned with themselves? Who can say that anything they do isn’t tainted with sin?

Friend, can you see God crying over you? Have you read or heard, in John chapter 11, about when Jesus cried outside the tomb of Lazarus. Did you think that was just because he felt sorry for him? Have you seen it as a friend’s grief?

Now, it was an emotional scene. But there was something more – much more. Something that constantly disturbed the Spirit of our Lord came out. You see, He could easily bring Lazarus back to life. Indeed, He was just about to do it! But what was so terrible was the stench of sin. Jesus wept because death is the inevitable end of our existence. It’s really all we deserve!

Go on! Have a good hard look at yourself! What’s really driving you? Even the reason why you came to church today.

3. Only God’s Spirit can make it go tick-tock

Does Answer 8 truly reflect what lives in you? In the words of the third part to our text, do you see… ONLY GOD’S SPIRIT CAN MAKE IT GO TICK-TOCK.

The phoney artist has noticed the Master Painter. He’s so embarrassed, because he knows he can’t paint anything like the original. He knows he’s only mucked it up. What could he possibly say with that greatness there? And when the Master Painter himself offers to restore the painting, what does one say? “No! No! Don’t do that! I’m more than happy with what I have painted over!”

Sounds silly, doesn’t it? We have to accept his offer. The best thing for that painting is to be what it once gloriously was.

Friend, is that how you are spiritually? Are you open for all those qualities of righteousness and holiness to come shining through? Do you know for yourself that Jesus brings us back to the original?

Unless you see how sinful you really are, your believing isn’t anything like it should be. Are you having trouble praying, reading Scripture, being an active part of Christ’s body? Is your life far from what you know it should be?

Well, you have a good hard look at yourself. Could it be this sin within? Have you confessed exactly how evil you are? It’s only if we die to sin that we can live with Him! And how can that even begin if we aren’t already now putting off our old natures so riddled with sin?

This is what it’s all about. If we cannot see how totally depraved we really are, then our reflection of God in Jesus Christ isn’t anything like it should be!

Let’s again go back to the very beginning. Let’s go to Genesis 1 verse 2. There we read that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. God’s creation work was about to begin. That’s why His Spirit is there.

In the same way today, friend, there has to be God’s Spirit over your life. He alone can work God’s re-creation in you. Otherwise it’s just like Genesis 1 verse 2 describes what it was like before the creation begins.

You see, there’s nothing there.

Amen.