Tonight, in connection with Lord's Day 1, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, as we read beginning at verse 11 through chapter 6, verse 2, and our specific focus being verse 21. First part of chapter 5, Paul talks about the comfort of our heavenly dwelling, the confidence that God's people have of knowing that being away from the body is to be at home with the Lord. And then it's as if he goes on in the next section to tell us how that can be, why we are able to have that comfort as he deals with the ministry of reconciliation. Beginning at verse 11, Hear now God's holy, inspired, inerrant word. Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord. We try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For He says, In the time of my favor I heard you and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. May God add His blessing to the reading and the consideration of His Word tonight. What is your only comfort in life and in death? Beloved in Christ the Lord, if you think about it, the idea of comfort is bittersweet, isn't it? Comfort itself is sweet. We all know that. But it is needed because of something bitter. It presupposes something bad or sad or painful being present so that comfort is needed. For example, the comfort of a worn blanket for one who is cold. The comfort of a parent for a child who has fallen and gotten hurt. the comfort of a friend for one who is experiencing the sting of a loved one's death. We can no doubt think of many ways in which those in Japan would be brought comfort by many things, many details, food, clothing, shelter. The Heidelberg Catechism begins with that well-known question, what is your only comfort in life and in death? and right away we see that it sets itself apart from just the temporary comforts of this life. What is your only comfort in life and in death? This question rightly assumes that comfort is needed. It rightly assumes that the problems and the difficulties of life call for a solution and that the dark valley of death calls for rescue. It calls for a way out. And this is true for all people, rich or poor, strong or weak. Whatever station or state or condition in life one finds themselves in, it's true for all people. Indeed, we know that some suffer less stress and hardship and discomfort in this life than others do. We also know that there are many temporary sources of comfort for certain circumstances in life. Again, a blanket for one who is cold, or Tylenol for one who has a headache, or tax relief is a comfort to some people, or a meal for someone who is hungry. Many temporary sources of comfort. Yet all people have a need for the only comfort, the eternal comfort that exists in life and in death. This comfort that all people need because of sin. There is no true benefit of a comfort that lifts one up in this life temporarily, but leaves one alone and desolate at death's door. There is no true benefit or of a comfort that waits for me like a life insurance benefit at the end of life but fails to bring hope and comfort and change to this life of trials and tears and toil. Sin has disrupted this life and it endangers one in death. There is only one comfort that helps me to cope with this life and to dare to face death, and that is that I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. I belong to Him. I am His. I am His. That beautiful statement that we know by heart is a statement of salvation. It's a statement of justification. It's a statement of adoption. Accomplished only because of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. We spoke a bit about reconciliation this morning. We talked about the Lord gathering His people around that 12 stone altar. And tonight in God's providence, I didn't plan it this way, but in God's providence we consider a bit more this reconciliation, more in depth. our only comfort in life and in death through Jesus Christ is that we are reconciled with God. Apart from being reconciled with Him, we have no comfort. We're in trouble. And just as the need for comfort presupposes something uncomfortable, in the same way reconciliation presupposes the need to be reconciled because of alienation, because of separation from something, because of a lack of harmony when it comes to man with God, it's because of the presence of God's anger against sin and because of the presence of our enmity and our hatred against and for God. Now boys and girls, even you know that when two people are in disagreement, when they are at odds with one another, when they are against each other, as maybe you have been with a friend at some point in time, you know that those two need to be brought back together. They need to be brought back into unity, into harmony, into agreement. Paul teaches here of the Christian's comfort of reconciliation with God. The text, verse 21, is a summary of the good news that Paul speaks about in the previous verses of that reconciliation, of being brought back into favor with God. And verse 21 is a summary of that good news explaining how and why God is willing to turn aside His anger from us and why He is willing to receive us into His fellowship. The two things that we find with regard to alienation. Outside of God's fellowship. And His anger turned toward us. And this short little verse is a beautiful summary verse that explains how and why God is willing to turn His anger aside and willing to receive us into His fellowship. And this reconciliation, beloved, is first of all authored by God the Father. It is also accomplished by God the Son. It is applied by God the Holy Spirit. First of all, it is authored by God the Father as Paul points out in verse 18. All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ. It is authored by God the Father because of its need. Verse 21 begins, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us. For us. Those two little words point to our sin. For us. Instead of us. In place of us. We know that Paul is correct when he says in Romans 3 that none is righteous, no, not one. When he says that all have turned away, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In answer, one of the catechism rightly speaks of all of my sins and of the tyranny of the devil, the power of the devil that is upon one apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And our sin, beloved, results in alienation from God. Being separated from Him. Because in our sin, we have rebelled against Him. And therefore, we are guilty before Him. and god is too holy to look upon sin sometimes i think we might not consider this as seriously as we ought to god does not wink at sin he does not simply sweep it under the rug and forget about it and the same is true with your sin and my sin god is too holy to look upon sin He can and will have nothing to do with it. He turns away from it. He is angered by it. And He is angry toward the sinner who is under God's condemnation. Now truthfully, maybe we don't always take this as seriously as we ought, or some don't, because we don't feel or we have never felt condemned to hell. Indeed, I submit to you that that's part of sin's deception. But we were. And many still are. But they would never believe it. You see, we are very good, beloved, at getting angry at those who wrong us, but at the same time, we are very good at overlooking God's hatred for and His anger against sin. We treat it lightly. However, no one can withstand His wrath because as the Bible says, He is a consuming fire. Yet it was not the offenders. It was not sinners who took the initiative to be reconciled with God. But it was the offended one himself who took the initiative by His grace. Which is the only way possible. Because man could not, man would not, Because man is at enmity with God in sin. Man hates God. It seems strange that question 2 which says, What must we know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? What must we know? What must we understand and believe to live and die in the joy of this comfort? The answer begins with knowing the truth of ourselves. First, how great my sin and misery are. If you think about it, that's less than comforting, isn't it? in fact, it's very, very uncomfortable. Yet, beloved, it is necessary to know that. To believe it. To understand it. Because otherwise, one will see no need for a change. But knowing it by faith illumines such a great deliverance. And you see, the more we come to know that as we grow in faith, the more we come to understand just how despicable we were in the sight of God. The more that great deliverance is illumined. The more we are brought to praise God for such a great deliverance. And this reconciliation, beloved, was God's plan. It was His purpose. Paul points to that in Ephesians 1. Allow me to read verses 3-11. A large portion. Ephesians 1, beginning at verse 3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given us in the one He loves. And that's amazing because of what he goes on to say. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. It was God's purpose, it was God's plan, God's design to bring us back into fellowship with Himself to save us. Just as not a hair can fall from our head apart from His will, a hair might fall, we might face difficult times, but not apart from the will of God. And just as that won't happen apart from God's will, it is His will to reconcile His chosen to Himself. A reconciliation which is in the second place accomplished by God the Son. Looking again at verses 18 and 19, all this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. How is that possible that God would not count men's sins against them? Of course, we know, don't we? We are well educated when it comes to these things. But it's good for us to be reminded of it. To think deeply about it. How is it possible? Because of Jesus taking what is rightfully ours. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us. Jesus, taking what is rightfully ours, though He was perfectly sinless, He knew no sin, the Bible says. He had no knowledge of sin gained by personal experience. Sin had absolutely no part with Christ, nor He was sin. There was no taint of sin in Him. No suggestion of sin in Him. No inner leaning toward sin in Him. No personal guilt for Him because of sin. As Hebrews 4 says, He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin. Absolutely free from, entirely exempt from. We can't even begin to fathom this because we know ourselves all too well. No matter how much we might deny it, we know ourselves all too well. We cannot even begin to imagine the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, He was made to be sin for us. Again, as our substitute, in our place. Not that He was made into a sinner Himself. He was not made to be a sinful man. He never experienced the guilt feelings that you and I might feel at times because of sin. But all of our responsibility for sin, all of God's wrath and punishment due for our sin, all of our guilt of sin, He took upon Himself. And the Bible speaks of this throughout. Different writers in different ways. Isaiah 53, verse 6, The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Galatians 3, verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. 1 Peter 2.24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree. Jesus Christ was dealt with and treated as a sinner. Not for Himself, but for us. God charged against Him all that is sin in us. And the purpose? To make us what we were not. So that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. We were not that. We were not righteous before God. But He was made to be sin for us so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God because sin's guilt is removed because as the catechism says, He has fully paid, not partially, but He has fully paid for all. Not just some. But for all my sins were this precious blood. And that means, beloved, that that which terrorizes in life and that which torments in death has been removed. Sin is removed. God's justice, that which has offended him, has been satisfied and therefore he does not count the believer's sin against him because God's wrath has been removed. His unbearable anger and eternal wrath that was against us because of our sin, that which no one could stand up under. And again, that's hard for us to comprehend because we have never literally, as it were, felt God breathing down our neck with His holy anger. But His unbearable anger, His eternal wrath was against you. It was against me because of our sin. It's been completely turned away. It is completely gone from us. And instead, His love and His good pleasure are now our unlosable possession because of Christ's righteousness that has been given to us. We are justified in Christ Jesus with the righteousness that is approved of and is required by God. It's been given to us as our very own. Not because we satisfied God by anything we have done. But because God judges us based on Christ's perfect righteousness which is credited to our account as our very own so that God looks at you and me and Christ and sees us as if we never had any sin nor had we ever committed any sin. Boys and girls, a little bit as if someone would have put a whole bunch of money into your savings account that wasn't yours before, but now it's yours. Christ's righteousness, that perfect righteousness which was not ours before, has been given to us as our very own and God's verdict of those who are in Christ Jesus is that He declares with His own mouth. He says to you, He says to me, not guilty. As Isaiah 53.5 says, by His wounds we are healed. And we are adopted children of God. Brought into the family of God because of that awesome deliverance through Jesus Christ. Given the right to call Him Abba, Father. And all of these blessings, beloved, are ours because of Jesus Christ and because they are applied by God the Holy Spirit in the third place. In Ephesians 1, Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as a seal who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory. All of the benefits of Jesus Christ, all that which He has earned for us is ours by faith. We receive it by faith. And the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, that which is given to us, credited to our account, it comes with the guaranteed work of the Holy Spirit. The guarantee that the Holy Spirit works in your life and my life, even in the midst of sin, of our struggle with sin, because we're not yet internally morally righteous. We're not perfect in our inner being. Indeed, as the Catechism rightly says, the power of the devil has been broken, yet we know that sin is still present, as Paul says in Romans chapter 7. we still face the effects of sin. We still struggle with the adversities of life. However, in Christ Jesus, we do so with confidence. As the catechism says, He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. Beloved, my sin makes the thought of belonging to myself an absolutely terrifying thought. A terrifying thought. But by faith in Christ alone, you and I are given the confidence that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. We are His possession, whom He cares for deeply, for whom He cares perfectly. And therefore, by the work of the Holy Spirit, we are given comfort in life and in death. Comfort in the face of sin. Comfort that we are given the confidence that all of our sins are forgiven and that God will never ever be eternally angry with us again. God's anger has been poured out upon Jesus Christ. We are given comfort in the face of life's sin-affected and sin-caused circumstances. That we have confidence that we are protected by God's will. The same will of God that chose us. The same will of God that chose to reconcile us to Himself. We have the confidence that we are protected by God's will, which is always completely good and right. He makes no mistake. And therefore, we are given courage to live and the ability to cope with and to enjoy life because nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. And we know that He uses all of it, all of life, every single experience, He uses it all to prepare us for glory. and he also gives us comfort in the face of death even now you and I have the comfort that we have eternal life it's our present possession but especially in the face of death God's people have the confidence that we will be with the Lord because we are not his enemies but in Christ Jesus we are his children the people of God being reconciled to God belonging to Jesus Christ is true comfort and it is life-transforming comfort with a life that is wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. Notice how the Catechism phrases that. Willing and ready. It doesn't say that we do it perfectly because we don't. But indeed, the child of God has been transformed wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. It's a fact, not just a possibility. In fact, if that does not characterize one, that is evidence that one does not have the comfort of belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. And how dangerous that is because that one faces the terrible discomfort of God's eternal wrath for all eternity. But for those who humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, for you and I who by the grace of God turned to Him in faith. Ours is the comfort of belonging to Him and of being wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. And therefore, the child of God is motivated to grow in grace, in faith, hope, and love. The child of God desires to make the Gospel attractive to others because that Gospel of Jesus Christ is so very attractive, it is so very beautiful to the child of God. And even though we still struggle with sin, Sin that offends God. The child of God does not delight in sin. But the child of God hates sin. And therefore, by the grace of God, through the Spirit, does not live in the fear of sin, does not live in the fear of being condemned once again, but the child of God lives in the joy and gratitude that all of our sins are forgiven and that our lives belong to Him which He keeps secure. And we can face all kinds of difficulties in life that make us uncomfortable and cause distress and anxiety. For example, like financial trouble or debilitating sickness or disease or difficulty finding or keeping a job or global instability or persecution for the faith. All kinds of difficulties in life we can face. Yet, if we are reconciled to God the Father through Jesus Christ, we have joy and peace and contentment even in the midst of those things. Because as Paul says in Romans 8.18, for I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Beloved, the comfort of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ will be known by assurance received by faith. And it will be shown in a life of gratitude. This only comfort is not bittersweet. It is only sweet. Because all that is bitter is forever removed and in Jesus Christ, ours is the sweetness of His presence forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray together. Once again, O Lord, we bow before Your throne of grace. We do so at the end of this day, at the end of this service together to give You thanksgiving and praise. To glory in Your greatness, Your majesty, Your mercy and love. And to praise You for all that You have done for us in Christ Jesus. Father, we thank You for the peace that passes understanding with which You guard our hearts and lives. we thank You, O Lord, for keeping us in Your way. And in those times when we do become anxious and unsettled and we can't seem to see the way straight ahead, very quickly, Lord, lift our eyes, the eyes of faith, once again, to You, to the Lord Jesus Christ. And comfort us with the comfort that only You can give. And lead us, O Lord, in the way everlasting. Hear our prayer, Father, for Jesus' sake. And in His name we pray. Amen.