Please turn with me tonight to Psalm 135, Psalm 135. Our church order says that ordinarily at one of the services, the Word of God will be preached as summarized in the three forms of unity, the emphasis being given to the Heidelberg Catechism. And that is done faithfully here. We have considered the Catechism a few times through together. We've considered the Belgic Confession article by article. And it is my desire and goal to consider with you for a time, a little bit more extensively, the canons of Dort. And so tonight, Psalm 135, though we're not going to be opening up, looking in the back of the Psalter at the canon specifically tonight, is Psalm 135 serves as an introduction to a consideration of the canons. And I hope it becomes clear throughout the sermon tonight of why it's important, why it's a desire as well to consider this one of our three forms of unity. Psalm 135, as we hear now the Word of God. Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him, you servants of the Lord, you who minister in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. We sing praise to His name, for that is pleasant. For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be His own, Israel to be His treasured possession. I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses. He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, the firstborn of men and animals. He sent His signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all His servants. He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan. And He gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to His people Israel. Your name, O Lord, endures forever. Your renown, O Lord, through all generations. For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants. The idols of the nations are silver and gold made by the hands of men. They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but they cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. O house of Israel, praise the Lord. O house of Aaron, praise the Lord. O house of Levi, praise the Lord. You who fear Him, praise the Lord. Praise be to the Lord from Zion, to Him who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. There ends the reading of God's holy Word. Well, beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, Psalm 135 follows 15 psalms that are called Songs of Ascent. Songs sung by Jewish pilgrims going up, ascending, if you will, to Jerusalem for worship at the three annual feasts. And Psalm 135 then begins the final portion of the Psalms emphasizing specifically, for the most part, the worship and the praise of God. Psalm 135 is a call to worship God. Now, the worship of God is to acknowledge that God is worthy to be worshipped. And it is to declare, to tell of His worth because of who He is and because of what He has done. It is to honor Him only and supremely. And our God is worthy to be worshipped because He is sovereign. His is power over absolutely all things. He is independent of all things. He needs no one or nothing to be who He is. And He determines all things. His will is sovereign. All things have and do and will take place as He has planned it. And His sovereign power makes sure of that. And because God is sovereign, beloved, we have, we can have, and we ought to have complete comfort and confidence in Him. We're able to have complete assurance and security in Him. In a nutshell, that is what the Canons of Dort is all about. We might say that the Canons of Dort deals with two great themes of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The first theme being the singular honor and glory of God in the salvation of His people. The sovereign, saving grace of God that it is all of Him. And the second theme then that would naturally flow from that is the believer's assurance and security in the invincible grace of God. Well, again, we know the canons is one of the three forms of unity alongside of the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism. And it's not just a historical document. It is a confession of our faith. we confess that which is recorded there because it is a faithful summary of what the Bible teaches specifically concerning predestination and election and as we know, put forth under five main headings which we know as TULIP, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. Now, in the history of the church, the canons has been necessary and still is because of what we call Arminianism. A name which comes from its namesake, Jacob Arminius. Now, we need to cover a little bit of history here. Arminius lived from 1560 to 1609, just 49 years. He died when he was 49 years old. And for those of you who remember when the Synod of Dor convened, which was 1618, 1619, it's very clear right away that Arminius himself had died nine years before the Synod convened. It is said of him that he was a brilliant student of Theodor Beza. Beza was Calvin's successor in Geneva, Switzerland. He was in the Reformed churches. In fact, he was a preacher of a Reformed church in Amsterdam. And then in 1602, he became a professor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Now, Arminius' ideas were not new. He didn't come up with them. They were shaped by false teachings of others. For example, Pelagius. Pelagius was born some 1,200 years roughly before Arminius was born. And Pelagius, if you remember, taught that man is basically good. That children are born innocent, sinless, and that children learn to sin by imitation. By watching others. By watching their parents. He taught that man has the power to save himself if he tries hard enough and all he needs to do is imitate Christ's example. And then there's the Roman Catholic Church, which we might describe as semi-Pelagian. Didn't say that humanity is sinless or innocent. Indeed, humanity is not healthy, the Roman Catholic Church says, but is sick. And Christ is the medicine. We need Christ, but man can do much through his own good works to contribute to his salvation. And then one more individual to speak of, Erasmus taught the freedom of the will, that we have a free will to choose for good or evil. Now, again, throughout history, God's faithful servants, including Augustine and Luther and Calvin, defended the doctrine of predestination and election and reprobation against these false teachers and false teachings. But again, Arminius was influential, as we see by the fact that his teachings did not die with him. But he departed from the truth of Scripture on several points of doctrine as summarized in the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, especially Belgic Articles 16 and 17, which teach of predestination and election. Arminius taught that faith and works must have a place in man's salvation. And therefore, Arminianism attacks those two great themes that we talked about. And that's what the Synod of Dorit was responding to. It attacks the two great themes of God's sovereign grace in salvation and of the believer's assurance and security. Arminius' followers, we know, brought forth their five points in what is called the five remonstrants or statement of grievances to which the synod came up with the canons of the door to respond to those five points. But the five remonstrants are conditional election, that man is elect based on a foreseen faith. Universal atonement, that everyone can be saved. Partial depravity, not totally sinful, but partially. Resistible grace, you can resist God's sovereign working in grace. And of course, no perseverance of the saints that you can lose your salvation. Arminianism takes away indeed from God's sovereignty and then obviously takes away from the believer's security. And the basic point, if we could sum it up really in one question, is who decides our salvation? And then a second question, how secure is it? Arminianism teaches it's a combined effort, God and us. Now in the University of Leiden, there was a fellow professor named Francis Gomeras alongside of Arminius who was a staunch opponent of Arminius. And Gomeras is reported to have said, I would not dare to appear before God's throne if I believed what Arminius does. What a powerful statement. I would not dare to appear before God's throne if I believe what Arminius does. And we can understand that because to believe that is indeed to strip God of His sovereignty and to strip us, the believer, of His security and assurance. Beloved, the canons is still important for us today because much of evangelicalism, even many of those whom we have contact with day by day, Much of evangelicalism is Arminian. Much of evangelicalism opposes the truth that is confessed in the canons because that truth of Scripture cuts deep into sinful human pride which wants to say, well, I must be able to do something. Yet the truth confessed in the canons is true comfort that not one can have but for the grace of God. And that is why He is worthy to be worshipped. Arminianism attacks the worthiness of God and therefore it cannot help but to attack His worship. Well, again, Psalm 135 is an introduction, I pray, to our consideration of the truth and the beauty and the comfort taught and confessed in the canons. It is said of this psalm that in this psalm, every verse either echoes, quotes, or is quoted by some other part of Scripture. what this psalm teaches is found throughout the Old Testament. And I believe that this psalm deals with the overarching purpose of the canons to defend the sovereignty of God in the salvation of His people and our assurance and security in Him alone. It is a call to all who fear, as verse 26 says. A call to all who fear to worship God, first of all, who is sovereign over all. And this psalm points to God's sovereignty, first of all, over creation. Notice beginning at verse 5, I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses. Now those verses 5, 6, and 7 echoes almost word for word, respectively, Exodus 18, verse 11, Psalm 15, verse 3, and Jeremiah 10, verse 3. The sovereignty of God expressed throughout the Old Testament that He is sovereign over creation. That the government, the psalmist makes us know, the government of the entire created order, of all that there is, the heavens and the earth and the seas, all of it is under His power and control. Not the false gods to whom the pagans credited with power. Power and control over the elements of nature. Gods of the rain. Gods of the mountains. Gods of the stars. Gods of the valleys. The psalmist says that our God does what He pleases. It's not chance or fate or chaos. And He needs no counsel. He does not need anyone or anything to help him make decisions or to consider what to do or to bring his will to pass. He determines when and where to form the clouds. Oh, we have learned how it happens. But He determines when and where to form them. He determines when and where to send the rain with the lightning. Again, kind of amazing if you think about it, these elements that are opposite in nature. Fire and water. He sends them together. The invisible wind is governed by His hand alone. The psalmist would have Israel know as she worships God that the God who covenanted with the patriarchs, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He is the Creator and the Governor of all things. He is sovereign over creation. And He is also sovereign, the psalmist teaches us, over the nations, over mankind, over all people. Picking up at verse 8, He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, the firstborn of men and animals. He sent His signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants. He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan. And he gave their land as an inheritance, and inheritance to his people Israel. And Isaiah says, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. And the Lord directs it wherever He pleases. God is sovereign over all of mankind. And notice on the one hand, a reminder here of Israel's powerlessness to save herself. But on the other hand, also a reminder of the inability of man and nations to stand against and to overcome the power of God. Israel's history of redemption is brought to mind with just a few words, including the powerful plagues of God against Egypt and His destruction of Og and Sihon, two powerful kings who we might say guarded the door leading into the Promised Land. They would not have let Israel in. But they were no match for the true sovereign God because their gods are powerless. Their gods are nothing, as verses 15-18 remind us, echoing again Psalm 115 and giving the solemn warning that those who make them and those who worship these gods that are nothing are like them. Indeed, hope is to be found in Israel's God alone because He is also sovereign, not over creation, not just over the creation and the nations, but He is also sovereign over salvation. We see that in Israel's physical redemption from Egypt. God is sovereign in choosing. Verse 4 says, For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be His own Israel, to be His treasured possession. Now, that is an echo, again, of Deuteronomy 7, verse 6. And then in Deuteronomy 7, verses 7 and 8, Moses goes on to explain that that election is unconditional. He says, "...the Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your forefathers that He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt." It had nothing to do with Israel. in a sense, and everything to do with God Himself. With His Word. With His promise. Israel was adopted from the mass of humanity and the other nations were passed over. That's reprobation. And Israel was chosen not because she was so righteous or worthy. In fact, verse 14 seems to point to the fact that she would fall away. For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on his servants. And we know that they did need God's compassion. And by the psalm's reference to Jacob alongside of his other name Israel in verse 4, that is proof of God's unconditional election explained for us by Paul in Romans 9. Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by Him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger. Jacob and Esau had the same parents. They had the same ancestry. Jacob was not chosen because he was from a higher class family than Esau. The very same family. He was chosen against the custom of the day, the custom, the right of the firstborn to receive a double portion, to receive the birthright, showing that God determined apart from any other sort of influences. Jacob was chosen not on the basis of having done anything good or bad, not by works at all. Totally because of God's good pleasure. Israel was as totally depraved, as completely sinful as the nations, which she proved again and again with her grumbling and complaining with a golden calf and on a variety, numerous occasions. But she was chosen because of God's determination. Because He determined to set His love on her. He is sovereign in salvation. Sovereign in choosing. And sovereign in the accomplishment of that salvation. Again, that sovereignty seen for Israel in the power of the plagues. in the parting of the Red Sea, in the provision and in the protection that God gave, Egypt and the other nations could not prevent it. And I think we can safely say Israel could not resist it. And God was also sovereign over Israel's perseverance. You see, when Israel was delivered from Egypt, she was not prepared for war. She was a bunch of slaves. And so God fought for her and destroyed, for example, Og and Sihon and the kings of Canaan. He did not save Israel in order to turn around and lose her. But He saved her in order to settle her in the promised land which He gave to her by His power either as they stood by and watched as they did when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down or as He empowered and equipped them with a power not their own, but a power to defeat the enemy. God is sovereign in salvation, in choosing, in accomplishing it, in perseverance. And of course, that points to the believer's eternal salvation, doesn't it? To your salvation and mine. God Himself has determined to save some out of the human race that is entirely lost. He has chosen whom to save and how to save them. Not because anyone deserved it. Not because anyone was worthy. Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. As Paul says, all deserve eternal death. And He is sovereign in the accomplishment of that salvation through Jesus Christ, His one and only Son, who said, it is finished. Satan could not stop the seed of the woman from coming. He could not stop Jesus Christ from laying down His life and from taking it up again. He could not stop the Lord Jesus Christ from crushing Satan's head. It's sovereignly accomplished and applied by the Holy Spirit who gives new life to the dead heart irresistibly. A dead heart cannot give itself new life. And a dead heart cannot resist that powerful work of the Holy Spirit that gives it new life. And our God is sovereign over our perseverance. Jesus Christ did not shed His blood, nor did He endure the wrath of God in order to lose any of those for whom He came. He said, no one will snatch My sheep from Me. He said, of all that the Father has given Me, I lose none of them. Beloved, these are the facts of the sovereignty of God and of His grace alone to save. And that is why God is to be worshipped. And that is why He is worthy to be worshipped. Because it is also He in the second place in whom is our only comfort. Our comfort is in God alone by faith. Our comfort is in Him because He is God. He is the only real and living divine being who is everywhere present, who is all-knowing, all-powerful, who is independent of all that is not Him. He is without change. He will not change His mind about you and me. He is infinite and He is eternal and He has revealed Himself. He has revealed His wisdom and power in creation. He has revealed Himself through His Word of truth which we understand by faith. That faith by which we see that He has proven Himself. You see, beloved, Israel's history recorded for us in the pages of Scripture. Israel's history is also our history. And He has ultimately proven Himself again through His Son whose death and resurrection and ascension leaves no doubt to you and me that He will return again even as He has said, all for our comfort. Because He is God, but also because He is good. Verse 3 says, Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praise to His name, for that is pleasant. Something that is good is something that answers to its purpose. Our God answers perfectly to all that God is. He is good in His being. His very essence is goodness, which is seen in His righteousness and purity and perfection and holiness. He is good in all that He does. There is nothing defective or lacking in Him or about Him or in anything that He does, but everything about Him and all that He does is perfect and complete. His goodness is seen in His mercy and grace and love, in His salvation of you and me, in all of His dealing with His people. Again, verse 14 says, For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants. The word vindicate can also mean to judge. One commentator says the whole world is a theater for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power of God. The whole world is a display of those blessings and attributes of God. But the quote goes on, the church is the orchestra as it were. The most conspicuous part, the most clear part, the most clear display of the divine goodness and wisdom and justice and power of God in His choosing of a sinful people for Himself, in His accomplishment of our salvation, in His preservation of us. He will vindicate. He will judge His people not based on themselves or what they have done, but on the basis of Jesus Christ. You see, it's not me and Jesus when I stand before God one day, nor is it Jesus and me. But it's Christ alone. For whose sake God will always watch over and preserve His people. That is our comfort because He is God, because He is good, and indeed, as we have been saying all along, because He is sovereign. Because our very creation and recreation in Christ Jesus depends completely on Him. And because He has chosen and saved His people and it is accomplished, therefore, dear people of God, our assurance and our security is that no one, nothing can undo what He has done. No one can lessen what God has done. No one can cancel it out. No one can take it from you and me. No one can take you and me from God and what He has done. He has made us to be His treasured possession forever. And we live in confidence because our God is the one and only true God and He is sovereign. He rules over all. Nothing can dethrone Him. And all that He does is good and right and it is dependable, especially when it comes to our salvation. In Christ Jesus, He has accomplished that salvation and it is good, it is perfect, it is complete, it is unfailing, and therefore we are to live comforted and secure that we are His forever. And therefore we do not need to be anxious about today or tomorrow or about falling away from that salvation which He keeps us in. But instead, we are to be confident, we can be confident, that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it. No wonder, Gomerus said, I would not dare stand before God's throne if I believed what Arminius believes. Because to believe that is to strip God of His sovereignty, of His power. At the very same time, to strip you and me of our assurance. But praise be to God, in Christ Jesus, beloved, we can stand one day before our God's throne with confidence. Humility to be sure, but confidence in Christ Jesus. You see, this truth is our treasure. And this treasure of Scripture, the truth of the Gospel, is confessed and defended in the canons. And therefore, the Lord willing, as we study the canons, may God unfold more and more before our eyes the glorious truth of His sovereign grace in our salvation. And may He ground us ever more firmly in the assurance and the security that we belong to Him forever because of Jesus Christ alone. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, how could we respond to Your Word but to say how great Thou art. For indeed, You are awesome and You are wonderful. And so often, Lord, we demonstrate that we are not worthy to be called Your children. Yet You are so patient with us, so loving and caring. And You have given us the truth of Your Word that nothing shall separate us from You. Not even the sin that we continue to struggle with, but instead, You are compassionate and gracious and You are forgiving, God, that we are safe in You through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, we pray that as we live every day of life on this earth, we would desire to continue to grow in that most holy faith. That we would continue to desire to be fed and nourished by Your Word through the power of Your Spirit. That we would never be content with the knowledge that You have given to us up until this point, but would desire to grow in faith, and hope and love in our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that that would be true for us, that you would see to that for us here in this place and for all of your people. So, Father, hear our prayer. We ask this humbly, yet confidently in Jesus' name. Amen.