For our Scripture reading, turn with me to Romans 6. Romans 6, we read together verses 15 through 23. We consider this in connection with the second question and answer of Lord's Day 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Romans 6, beginning at verse 15. You will recall that this is in the context of Paul talking about the fact that no, we are not to go on sinning just because grace, we are saved by grace alone and our good works mean nothing. That we are not to sin that grace may increase or abound. Beginning in verse 15, then the Apostle Paul says, under the inspiration of the Spirit, what then, shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves you are slaves to the one whom you obey whether you are slaves to sin which leads to death or to obedience which leads to righteousness but thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And if you would turn with me in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page 8, page 8, Lord's Day 1, we find question and answer 2 at the bottom of that page. Having considered last week, what is your only comfort in life and in death? We recite together the answer. Question 2 asks us, what must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? Three things. First, how great my sin and misery are. Second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery. Third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, indeed, as the first question asks us, what is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. That I belong to Christ, not to myself. but to Him. Beloved, that comfort is real comfort. That comfort is enduring comfort. It is not temporary. It will not fade away. But it is eternal comfort. And boys and girls, as we said last week, that comfort is not simply a warm, fuzzy feeling or things that make us comfortable in this physical life. Yet this comfort has substance. In fact, we could say that this comfort is tangible because it all centers on and centers around Jesus Christ. He is the Christian's comfort and what He gives is truly comforting. However, it's one thing to say, to confess that Jesus is my only comfort, but it's quite another thing to actually consciously have that comfort, to be the owner of that comfort, to have the piece of that comfort that passes understanding. And I suspect that indeed there are so many that say they have it. They confess it. Yet this only comfort is not a deep, motivating principle in their whole life. The truth is many in the church do not give any evidence of living in the joy of salvation. But beloved, salvation must be joyful. Shouldn't it be? To know that one is saved by grace through faith earned by the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, how can that not be joyful? Boys and girls, if you're in a dangerous situation, a situation that might even be deadly, then to be rescued from that situation, how can you not be happy? How can you not be joyful? If one truly has the joy of salvation, how can that not be evident in his words and through his actions and to be seen on his face? And beloved, that's the point, isn't it? It's not possible. It's not possible to have this only true comfort, but then not to live consciously in the joy of having it. It's not possible. Question one asks again, what is your only comfort in life and in death? And then question two pushes the point a little bit further. What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? In other words, how does it become real to me? How does it become my possession? Jesus Christ is indeed the only comfort, but He becomes the possession of the believer by the operation of the Holy Spirit. People of God, the Word of God teaches us this morning that true comfort is given through true faith. True faith of guilt. True faith of grace. True faith of gratitude. Now this is not new to most of us who were born and raised in the Reformed faith. We grew up in the church and we had guilt, grace, and gratitude or sin, salvation, and service in that order repeated to us time and time again. But the older that I get, the more beautiful and the more precious this necessary order becomes. Because the disease must be known before the remedy or the medication is prescribed. And the remedy must be effective before gratitude can come. But before we go on to consider these three points together, we need to say a little bit about the theme. True comfort is given through true faith. Now, why true faith? Why does it take true faith in order to enjoy this comfort? Well, what is true faith? Answer 21 of the Catechism gives us a beautiful biblical definition of true faith. And I recite it for you from the little bit older version of the Catechism. It says, True faith is not only a sure knowledge whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word, but also firm confidence, or as the newer version says, a deep-rooted assurance which the Holy Spirit works in my heart by the Gospel that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation are freely given by God, Merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merit. True faith is knowledge, to be sure. Not only knowledge, as the answer says, but it is indeed knowledge. In fact, we could say that it's a book knowledge because it is knowledge of what God has said in His Word of Scripture. But it's not just a head knowledge. Not just an intellectual knowledge. It is also a firm confidence or a conviction, a deep-rooted assurance that I believe what it says. That by God's grace, I believe that God's promises and Christ's work are mine. They belong to me, even as I belong to Him. True faith, then, is a confident heart knowledge. And that's the kind of knowledge the Catechism is talking about when it asks, what must you know? What must you be convicted of in your heart? What must you have a deep assurance of? Now again, answer 1 closes with these words, By His Holy Spirit He makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. In other words, to live and die happily in the joy of this comfort. And isn't it wonderful, beloved, that this joy isn't just limited to life, to living. But the Christian can be happy in death. Now, I know that sounds weird. It doesn't make sense to the boys and girls. How can Christians be happy in death? It seems backwards. But you see, when the world fights death, when the world tries to escape death and works to face death on their own terms, the believer, by the grace of God, has joy and peace in death. Now, that doesn't mean that it's pain-free. That doesn't mean that it is short of any distresses or difficulties, but it is free of the fear of the unknown. For those of us who have faced the death of a believing loved one, although there are tears of sorrow and loss, yet there are also confessions of joy. Because our loved ones had the only comfort of Jesus Christ in life and in death. Not only is there comfort in the hour of death for the believer who dies, But there's also comfort for the believer's family. Beloved, true comfort to live and die happily is given through true faith, first of all, of guilt. Again, this seems strange. How can there be comfort in guilt? But the first thing I must know to live and die happily in this comfort is how great my sins and misery are. Now notice, it's not first of all a question of if we have sin and misery. That's assumed. In fact, we know that the existence of sin and misery is so real that it doesn't have to be proven. Whether we want to or not, whether we try to or not, we prove it all the time. Yet how do we know within ourselves? How do I truly know that I have sin and misery? After all, let's be honest, the world so often doesn't see sin as sin. Instead, the difficulties or the problems or the mistakes of people are due to their environment or to some defective gene of some sort. It's not my fault, you see. Even the devil made me do it. You see, apart from the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, though sin is evident all around, yet we don't know that we are sinners. And that's why knowing our guilt is a matter of true faith. Remember, true faith is both a sure knowledge and conviction whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word and His Word reveals our sin and misery. In Romans 1, Paul says, shall we go on sinning? In verse 6, he says, for we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin. In verse 17, he includes this phrase, though you used to be slaves to sin. And Paul's point is clear that man's life is characterized by sin. Sin is master that reigns over the unregenerate person. And Jesus says in Matthew 9, verse 12, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. He is the balm of Gilead to heal the people of God. In Romans 3, Paul quotes from the psalmist when he says, there is none righteous, no, not one. And we know that David says in Psalm 51 that we are conceived in sin. Beloved, our sin and misery is a demonstrated and proven fact. Yet this goes further. Not only are we to know that we have sin and misery, but we are to know how great our sin and misery are. How great? How great is it? Paul says, for the wages of sin is death. And the Bible in another place says the soul that sins, it shall die. And this death is eternal death, total separation from the Lord of life. One sin is enough to condemn a person to eternal damnation. In fact, Adam's sin did, but not only for himself, for all of the human race. And we know that out of the heart flows the issues of life. But then what does Jeremiah say in chapter 17? He says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And therefore, in the unregenerate man, the issues of life that flow forth from the heart are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And that means that as we say in Reformed theological language and as we study together in the Canons of Dort, that man is totally depraved. Every thought, every word, action, desire, motive, decision, everything about man is corrupt and stained with sin, saturated with sin. Even our best works are as filthy rags. Again, boys and girls, you remember that one drop of poison in that glass of water. And as someone here reminded me that you can't see that poison, can you? And so often we don't even recognize the sin in our own lives. Beloved, this is how it is for us in and of ourselves. And by God's grace, we are convicted of our sin and misery in our heart by the Holy Spirit. We come to know it. But again, knowing this isn't very comforting. We're talking about how to live and die happily in this comfort. But knowing our sin and misery, what's going on? That's certainly not very comforting. Yet, this knowledge, this heartfelt conviction, knowledge and conviction of sin is necessary for true comfort. This is the proper starting point. Because only when we know the true state of affairs, only when we understand by God's grace our true condition that we are helpless and that we are hopeless, only then will we be driven to seek help from outside of ourselves. As the communion preparatory form says, we seek the salvation not in ourselves, but outside of ourselves. True knowledge of our sin and misery, of our condition, is to drive us to desire to be delivered. True knowledge of our sin and misery is the beginning of sanctification. You see, when you know that you have a sickness or a disease, then you desire to have the medicine to take it away. If you don't know that, then you don't want the medicine. And as I said in the first service, I apologize for always using my own situation as an example, but it's the closest thing to my heart. For example, if a salesman comes to your door and says, I've got a cure for cancer. 100% guarantee. Or you plug in whatever disease. If you don't have cancer or you don't have that disease, what are you going to say? Well, that's nice. See ya. I don't need it. But if you have the disease, then what are you going to say? Oh, what do I need to get it? How can I get my hands on it? I need that. I want that. You see, beloved, with no knowledge of sin, there will be no seeking for deliverance. And the Bible is clear as we consider it in our assurance of pardon that God gives deliverance to those who by His grace and Spirit desire it. Again, for thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with Him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. And we remember what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Congregation, true comfort comes from outside of ourselves. And therefore, the terror of sin, believe it or not, is to our advantage. It is meant to humble us because true knowledge of our sin and misery gives us a true picture of who and what we are and only when we understand that as converted people, Only when we know the greatness of evil will the Gospel profit us and will we be thankful for the extent and the greatness of God's deliverance. Only when we understand from what deep depths, low depths, God has rescued us and raised us up to such great height. Only then, as we understand such a great salvation, will we again be thankful to God for this deliverance. Boys and girls, if someone rescues you from a burning house, most likely you're going to be more thankful to that person than if they help you change a flat tire. We'd be thankful for the help for changing a flat tire, to be sure. But when our life is in danger, we're rescued, we can't say thank you enough. Beloved, we have been rescued by God's grace from the most severe flame. The eternal flame. So then, what is your attitude toward sin? What is your attitude toward your sin? Are you humbled by it? Or is sin just the problem of the next guy and you don't have a problem? You see, whoever doesn't comprehend something of the depths of his sin and misery is like the rich young ruler who, having rehearsed all of the good that he did, could only say, what do I yet lack? Knowledge that even one sin eternally separates you from God must be humbling. The moment Adam and Eve ate of that fruit, the need for salvation was necessary. A congregation of those who rush over the need for knowledge of guilt will not even come to know the second part of this necessary knowledge. They'll never see it. They'll never recognize it. But as well, we need to confess as believers that we will never truly know just how great our sin and misery are because Jesus Christ took our sin and misery from us upon Himself. And therefore, true faith also gives true comfort of grace. And here we talk about the grace of salvation. We can talk about grace in a broader sense. Even knowing our sin and misery is a gift of God's grace. We talk about the grace of deliverance. I must know how I am set free or delivered from all my sins and misery. You see, knowledge of sin without knowledge of deliverance from it would only lead one to despair. And as one commentator has said, knowledge of sin and misery is like a pit without an opening or like night without a morning. The congregation, that pit is opened up. And that morning light dawns when the light of Jesus Christ and His deliverance shines forth. What is the only deliverance from the bondage of sin and misery? It is the substitutionary, atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Sacrifice He gave Himself. Substitutionary, He took our place. Atoning, He paid the price. He conquered over sin, the devil, and hell. This is the only possible way of being delivered from our great sin and misery. And those who look somewhere else, those who look anywhere else, are wasting precious time. We can look to the first answer again, question and answer one of Lord's Day one, to find a nice definition of the substitutionary atoning sacrifice of Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood. He has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. 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. And as the communion form says, as we hope and plan to read tonight, for by His death He has taken away the cause of our eternal death and misery, namely sin, and obtained for us the life-giving Spirit that we by that Spirit who dwells in Christ as in the head and in us as His members should have true communion with Him and be made partakers of all His riches, of life eternal, righteousness and glory. That's the gracious deliverance that we must truly know. And only when we know that deliverance and our need for it, only then will we truly desire it. Otherwise, saying Christ is my Savior, I belong to Him, is nothing more than empty words. Meaningless. And if we don't know about this deliverance, if we don't know our need for it, then we won't want it. Even again, if someone were to come to our door and offer it, without knowing it, without knowing that we need it, we will reject it. We will reject it. True faith is to know of that deliverance from all of my sins and misery for the sake of Christ's merits. You see, the way of redemption is the heart of the Gospel. To know that there is salvation from such great evil brings true comfort to the child of God. And again, this must be complete from all my sins and misery. A remodeling job is not enough. There must be a total life renewal. The entire house of the old man is to be destroyed completely. And the house of the new man built strong and sure. Christ's deliverance is the only complete deliverance. Again, it's sufficient for all. Effective only for the elect. Nothing else needs to be added. Nothing else can be added to it. And people of God, this deliverance of grace is indeed beyond compare. Again, we cannot totally comprehend it. And praise God that we will never really know by experience what we have been delivered from. Have you ever thought about it in that way? That we will never have to know what that's all about. Because Christ took that from us. Again, I can sympathize with someone who is going through chemotherapy. I know what that feels like. But praise God, you and I will not have to know what Christ endured for us. And that's a knowledge that we should never want to have. I don't want to know what hell and eternal separation from God is like. And I don't have to. Because my Savior knows. Yet I know that He has fully paid for all my sins and all my misery. and I know that He has redeemed me from the power of sin. By true faith, I have the comfort, beloved, that it is finished. And the free gift of God to me is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So then, finally, what is the result to be in this life of the knowledge of my sin and misery and a knowledge of my deliverance from it? The result is to be but a small demonstration, a small reflection of what God's people will do for eternity. And I say it that way, a small demonstration, a small reflection, because one day it will be perfect. Today it's not yet perfect, but one day it will be. But true faith necessarily demonstrates gratitude. I must know how I am to thank God for such deliverance. Now boys and girls, when someone does something nice for you or gives you something, then what do you do? Well, normally it's customary to say thank you, isn't it? Well, how much more should we do this to God for the greatest gift one could ever receive? Demonstrating our gratitude to God for His deliverance through Jesus Christ, just like knowing how great our sin and misery are and knowing how we are delivered from them, this third thing, demonstrating our gratitude, like the other two things, is not an option. In fact, it is the automatic response of true faith. Gratitude or thankfulness is the principal end or design of this deliverance from sin and misery. Paul says in Ephesians 1, He chose us in Him. Then he goes on, Having predestined us to adoption. And then our result, Paul says, To the praise of the glory of His grace. And how do I know how I am to be thankful? Once again, God's Word teaches us the proper way of expressing thanks to God. summarized in the Westminster Larger Catechism, which says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We demonstrate thankfulness to God for His work of salvation by doing exactly that, glorifying Him and enjoying Him. I trust you recall that in the third section of the High Liberate Catechism, it includes two major elements. The first one of them is prayer. And the catechism says about prayer that it is the chief part of thankfulness we owe to God. And I trust that makes sense. Because once again, the best way to show thanks to someone is to tell them. And one who is truly thankful for his salvation will not neglect this holy conversation with God. The second, the other major element in that third section is God's law. Thankfulness is demonstrated in prayer and in keeping God's law. That's how we glorify God and enjoy Him through prayer and striving to be obedient. The psalmist says in Psalm 50, Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify Me. True thankfulness, beloved, is demonstrated by seeking to be and to live righteously. Paul says in verses 17 and 18 of Romans 6, But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. So then what is the proper thank offering of the redeemed, which the redeemed can bring to God? Paul says in Romans 12, Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. Beloved, true thankfulness is the fruit of true faith. It is evidence of true conversion. It is an indication of genuine Christianity. You see, an unthankful Christian is an unconverted Christian, which means he is no Christian at all. One who truly has the joy of salvation can't hide it. They can't keep silent about it. I grew up, and some of you did too, in a church culture where people hardly smiled in church. As well, they didn't ever talk about what Jesus had done for them. They didn't talk about their faith. Never said a word about it. There didn't seem to be much joy. But ought it not be seen on our face? Shouldn't it be demonstrated in our life? Isn't it something so great that it's worth boasting about and sharing with others? Beloved, true comfort is given through true faith. Knowing how great my sin and misery are. Knowing how I am delivered from all my sin and misery. And knowing how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance. This triple knowledge is necessary each and every day. As believers, we all remain children, as it were, being schooled in each of these areas. You can't separate them. You can't separate them. As I often say to the pre-profession class when I lead it, you can't have one without the other. It's not as though you enter the first stage and once you've graduated from knowing all about your sin and misery, you leave that stage and you enter stage two, never again to think about stage one. No, they can't be separated. They go together. Each and every morning when we open our eyes to this life, we are to think about how great our sin and misery are, but then how great our deliverance is. And then plan for the rest of the day how we are to be thankful for such deliverance. The three must go together. Knowledge of these three is necessary for true comfort and makes the comfort of Jesus real in our lives. Beloved, do you know these things? Do you know them? Do you have that deep-rooted assurance of these three things in your heart? If you don't, you don't have true comfort. You may have false comfort. Comfort that deceives for a time, but not true comfort. And only when you embrace the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith will you have true comfort for life, but also in death. And of course, the opposite of true comfort is true misery. Beloved, what is true comfort? That I belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. That I belong to Him. Boys and girls, young people, adults, when you wake up in the morning, when you leave the house, whatever you do, Always remember to whom you belong. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, what a precious, precious gift you allow us to boast of. That by your grace we belong body and soul and life and in death to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. May we never more, never ever again desire to belong to ourselves, to be independent. But may we be content, fully content and comforted in being the possession of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, if there is one or if there are those here this morning who do not have this comfort, we pray that You would work in their heart powerfully, convicting them of their sin and misery. For that is the first thing on the path of true comfort. and then raising their eyes to the only source of salvation, the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. And together as your people, may we strive each and every day at home, at work, and play in every situation of life in school to be conscious of how we can show thanksgiving to God in our school work, in our office work, in pounding nails, in washing dishes, in whatever it may be. Father, we pray that You would strengthen us in this comfort. And we thank You for it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.