We're going to be looking at a number of passages this afternoon, but I thought it would be good to read one sort of overarching passage, with which I'm sure you're very familiar. It's the fourth servant song in Isaiah. Isaiah 52, starting with verse 13 through the end of 53. Some people have called the gospel of Isaiah. I don't know if it's a true story, but I remember hearing that someone at a Passover read this portion and someone at the table said, we don't read the New Testament in our house. which I don't know if it's true. If it's not true, I wish it were true because it illustrates, if it happened, it illustrates how clear this passage is that even those who were probably not intimately familiar with the New Testament, how clearly it testified to the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. God's word says, Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. So he shall sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told to them, they see. That which they have not heard, they understand. Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no former majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And like a sheep that before its shearers is silent. so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering. For sin he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. That's for the reading of God's word. We're considering today Lord's Day 16, which will be a little bit of a challenge, but I think we can do it because two of the questions are very similar, so maybe we can kill two questions with one stone. As it were, I don't usually remember to look at my watch, so it'll be good for you that I did that. Should have a pity for us bald guys. When that wind kicks up, we really feel it. So it's a dry wind. It's a little chilly. the lord's day 16 heidelberg 40 again this if you're new if you're visiting this afternoon it's been long been the custom for since the reformation for reformed churches to hold a an afternoon service where we look at the scriptures as organized by the catechism so in the morning we sort of do an analytical sermon where you take a single passage and you look at the parts of it and sort of take it apart and then put it back together in the afternoon we do what's basically we could call it a synthetic message where we try to draw the pieces of scripture together and try to help the big help you see the big picture and make sense of the faith as a whole as opposed to looking at just a single passage so we're at we're on lord's day 16 which i didn't look to see oh there it is it good it's in your handout i'll just if it's all right I'll just read the question and answer because we're going to do them one at a time. Lord's Day 16, question 40. Why did Christ have to suffer death? Because God's justice and truth require it because nothing else could pay for our sins except the death of the Son of God. So the theme that we're using today to make sense of all this is Christ's death and ours. death and ours so the first question is why was it necessary for christ to die if you you know if you ask a lot of people you know who and what jesus is they will tell you and and i know because i used to think this myself i was taught this as a boy that jesus is just a teacher now to be sure he is our chief prophet so he is a teacher but we say with all christians in all times and in all places that he's more than just a teacher. But lots and lots of people say he's just a teacher. In fact, one of the things that we're going to look at today, just briefly, this might be new, I don't know if this has happened in your hearing before, but I'm actually going to read for you just one verse from the Quran, the holy book of Islam. And because the holy book of Islam, says that very thing, that Jesus is just a teacher. He's a prophet. But it's very, very clear in the Quran that Muhammad and his followers did not and do not regard Jesus as God the Son incarnate, nor do they think that he died. But when people tell you all the world religions are the same, it doesn't really matter what you believe. You should believe in something. You should believe in God. It's good to believe in God, but it doesn't really matter how you believe in God because there are lots of different ways of believing in God, and ultimately, they're all the same thing. That's just not true. There isn't a word of truth in that. It's just not true. And one of the reasons why it's not true is because Jesus hanged on a tree on Golgotha. That's one of the reasons why it's not true. It's one of the facts that makes it not true. And he didn't just hang on a tree, he died there on that tree. And that distinguishes Christianity and the religion of Jesus from Islam, from Hinduism, from Buddhism, and any other world religion that you might think of. it's fundamentally different. We believe, children, we believe that Jesus of Nazareth was really put to death. And the wonderful good news is he didn't stay dead. Lots of famous prophets and teachers have died and they've all stayed dead. But the scripture says that Jesus didn't remain dead, that he was raised on the third day. and and more than that even more than that after a certain number of days he was taken up to be with his heavenly father and there he is now alive he right hearing our prayers making our prayers known to the father standing before the father as it were as our high priest right with His hands upraised on our behalf. It's a figure of speech. It's a way of talking, children. We shouldn't think of Jesus sitting, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing. This is a way of talking, a way of thinking. How amazing is that? That's completely different from all the other world religions. No, Jesus is not just a teacher, and one of the reasons why He's not just a teacher is because He died. So why did He have to die? Well, the Catechism gives us a two-word answer. Justice and truth. You've heard an awful lot about justice in the last year. Some people say, and there's some truth in this, by the way. There's some not quite the way they mean it, as I think of it. But you've heard people say, no justice, no truth. I saw, or no peace. I saw, no justice, no peace. I saw that on the back of a basketball jersey the other day. That's a remarkable thing. When I was a kid and we played basketball, they used to just put a number on the back of our jersey. Now there's an implied threat. Do what we want or else. I think you would have gotten thrown out of the game for that when I was a kid. But it's kind of true, no justice, no peace. That's true. Not the way they mean it. But if you do not have the justice of God, I guarantee you there will be no peace. If you do not have the justice of God, there will be no peace. And I'm not talking about peace in this life and peace in the streets and peace with your neighbor. I'm talking about peace with God. We were talking about this on the way to church this afternoon and how some people say that in hell, God turns his face away from you. No, that's not true. In hell, if you are in hell, God turns his face toward you, but not his face of favor, his face of wrath. Endless, unmediated, unmitigated wrath. So there's two reasons why Jesus had to die. And the first is justice. People talk also, and you've heard me say this before, I've said it behind this very lectern. People say that, well, all these rules that we talk about, they're all just made up. Everything is just made up. There's nothing real. Everything is a con game. Everything is a convention is what the scholars say. It's just made, and that's a fancy way of saying that everybody's just making things up and that nothing's true and nothing's real, which I think is interesting because the same people who say no justice, no peace also say there's nothing real or nothing true. Well, make up your mind. You can't have it both ways. You can't say no justice, no peace, but everything is a convention. If everything is just made up and there's nothing real in this life and nothing true in this life, then what do you mean when you say no justice? What is justice? You can't have it both ways. And of course, people are, right? They're just talking out of both sides of their face. Of course there's justice. Of course there's justice. It's grounded in the nature of God. God is a certain thing. One of the things that he is, we have to say things. It's not really true of God. He isn't things, but we have to say things or we'll just end up stop talking. You might think that's a good idea, but by my clock, I've got 32 minutes. I forgot where I was. Anyway. God is a certain thing. And one of those things that he is, is just. People in this life are sometimes just and sometimes unjust. Often they are unjust. So when I make fun of the slogan, no justice, no peace, I'm not saying there's no injustice in this life. There's lots of injustice in this life. And some of it done by people in authority. That's absolutely true. but the justice about which we have to be most concerned is God's justice, and His justice is perfect. It never changes, and it has to be satisfied, and the truth of God has to be met, and you say, well, why is that so important? Well, because in Genesis 2.17, we read that God said to Adam, the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. If you don't remember anything else tonight, That'd be a good thing to remember. The day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. That's what God said. Adam had a responsibility to obey the law of God. God said to Adam, love me, in effect, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. And the day you refuse to do that, you shall surely die. That's what he said. That's a paraphrase. That's an accurate paraphrase of what the Lord said to Adam. And Adam chose not to do that. Well, sometimes, children, it's probably happened, or if it hasn't happened, it will happen. Your parents will say, if you do this, I'll do that. I get the sense that the rules have changed. I don't know, but I can tell you how it was when I was a kid. My dad said, if you do that, I'll kill you. That was only a little hyperbole. My dad was 6'1", 200 and some pounds, wrestler, football player, and I, for the longest time, I was just a little guy. It took me a long time for it, but it wasn't until college that I finally kind of grew up a little. And he took his belt off one time, and he snapped it together. And he said, you do this, and this is what you get. And I thought, all right, I'm fully convinced. But sometimes your parents say that they're going to do a thing, and then they don't do it, right? And you say, well, okay, they're just kidding. But God isn't kidding. When God said to Adam, the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. He did it. Adam died spiritually, and he got kicked out of the garden and fellowship with God was broken, and death entered the world, and wrath entered the world. And it was a terrible thing. And if you just read from Genesis 4 following, it's a terrible story of corruption and death and murder and mayhem. Just horrible. People even invented musical instruments. Everything just went right south. There were no musical instruments in the worship of God in the garden, you see. God keeps his promises. He's just, and he tells the truth. So the justice and truth require that Jesus had to die, right? Why? Well, because you and I did it. You could put a whole pile of us on a sacrifice and it wouldn't pay for what we did. We did it, but we couldn't pay for it. That's the short story. There's a fellow named Anselm of Canterbury who wrote a book on this in the Middle Ages, and I'm giving you the short version of it. We did it, but we couldn't pay for it. That's the first thing he said. And the second thing he said is that God the Son had to become incarnate because only he could pay for it. He had to become the God-man. He had to be in the womb of the Virgin. We just finished celebrating Christmas. Well, this is why God the Son became incarnate. This fellow, Anselm, wrote a book. Why the God-man? Why did God the Son become incarnate? He became incarnate so that he could obey in our place. Now, he didn't quite put it that way. He should have, but he didn't. But he did say so that he could die for us. That's why God the Son took on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin and was born and the shepherds came and all that. It all happened because of this, because of God's justice and God's truth. We did it, but we couldn't satisfy it. Only God could do it. And as Paul says in Romans 8, God has done it by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. The writer to the Hebrews says that God the Son partook of flesh and blood in order to destroy death. What an amazing thing. partook of flesh and blood in order to destroy death. All right, that's the first thing. We have, what, four or five of these we've got to go. Why was he buried? Wasn't it bad enough that he was taken up, that he had to haul the cross up the hill as far as he could? And then he was mocked and, right, save yourself if you're the son of God. And then he died? That he also had to be buried? Why is that so important? Well, this is why it's important. The catechism says, why was he buried? His burial testifies that he really died or that he was really dead. Again, what was the punishment that God said in Genesis 2.17? The day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Not a flesh wound, not a cold, not even COVID, but death. You shall surely die. So we have to know that he's really dead. Because the requirement for life is obedience. Leviticus 18.5 says, You shall therefore keep my statutes and rules. If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am Yahweh. That's an oath. Whenever you see scripture saying that, I am the Lord, that's an oath. This is the rule. This is fixed. We didn't do it, and therefore we had to die. That is how God is. That is what He is. Now, I mentioned earlier the Quran. In 4, verse 157, Surah 4, chapter 4, verse 157, it says in the Quran, They did not kill him. It's a parenthetical remark, but it says, They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him. The Muslims believe that it was Simon of Cyrene who was crucified. They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him. Now watch this. Though it was made to appear like that to them, that is to the Christians. Why is this important? Because there's 1.9 billion Muslims in the world. Do you know how many Muslims there are in the United States? Last I was able to figure out something, and the estimate is 4.4 million. And from 2015 to 2017, the number of Muslims in this country went from 3.3 to 4.4. It's one of the fastest growing religions in the United States. If you don't know a Muslim now, you will soon. If you don't know a Muslim now, you will soon, especially if you don't, your children will and your grandchildren will. And none of them believe that Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried, and that he was raised on the third day because the Quran says it didn't happen and they don't read the New Testament. They refer to him as Esau. And the Esau they follow is not the Esau, not the Jesus of the New Testament. It's another Jesus. So that's a little bit of apologetics. You need to be aware of that. And you need to know that not only they, but many, many Americans who aren't even influenced by Islam don't know that Jesus was buried, don't know that he was raised, don't know that he ascended, and don't know that he's coming back. It's quite likely that your neighbors don't know that. About 70% of Americans identify as Christians, And I'd say about 90% of them don't have a clue. Just a guess. Well, why would you say that? Because the average church attendance is about 10% go once a week. And about half of those go twice a week. Which means the overwhelming percentage of folks who identify as Christians don't go to church once a week. They probably don't go once a month, according to most surveys. Where are they learning the faith? Well, they're not. But this is one of the reasons why we need to be grounded in these things and in these truths. It also means, one last thing, it also means that Jesus has sanctified the grave. The grave is not a place of which you and I are afraid. Now, the process of getting from here to there, I don't know about you, but it frightens me. but the grave doesn't frighten me. Death doesn't hold any fear for us anymore. The sting of death is gone. Now dying, that's ugly and nasty and miserable. That's of course, you just get hit by a truck and it's over with quickly but otherwise it's pretty awful. Can be. But when you die, you go to be with the Lord and when they put your body in the grave, That's okay because Jesus had made that a clean place. It's not a dirty place anymore. And it's a place where they put our bodies in anticipation of the resurrection. So children, here's good news. When you go to a memorial or a funeral and then you go to the graveside service and you see a loved one, right? You see them laid in the ground, right? We're just planting a seed. And one day all those graves are gonna open up and all those people are gonna come out. and that's a good thing. Makes me tear up a little bit because you all, we have friends that we're waiting to see. Just was thinking about Steve Jaspers. All those people over at Oak Hill that we're going to see someday. So when we put them in the grave, kids, they don't stay there. They're going to come out, And they're going to be wonderful. They're going to be the way they're supposed to be. And if we're here when Jesus comes, then we get to go and be with him too, all at the same time. They, then we. It'll be great. It'll be really, really great. That's an understatement. All right. So, since Christ died, why didn't he just put an end to death? since Christ died, why didn't he put an end to death? That's my paraphrase of 42. Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die? Our death is not a payment for our sins. Let me explain that a little bit. Sometimes people talk as if they have to die because they have to pay for their sins. No, Jesus, if you're a Christian, you know that Jesus died to pay for your sins. Your death doesn't pay for any sins. Don't think that. Don't ever say that. It's not true. I've had people say that. So when we die, our death is not a payment for sins, but it's only a dying to sin and an entering into eternal life. So I've already really started on this. Our death is a putting an end to sin, right? Even today, you and I have been struggling with sin. We've been fighting temptation and losing. But when we die, that's done. All that fighting and losing is done. So when we die, we put an end to that. And we enter into eternal life. That's a wonderful thing. That's why we have to die. The day you eat thereof, Genesis 2.17, you shall surely die. Death entered the world and it comes for all of us. But when we die, we're not paying for sins. We're just putting an end to our sin. And that's a good thing. That's not a bad thing. It's a hard thing. It's a sad thing. We hate to see people go. We hate the sense of loss and separation. All of those things. And that's all part of the fall and that's all part of sin. That's all part of death. But we're not paying for our sins. God's not angry with us anymore in Christ. When you get sick, it's, as Brad said this morning, that was such a helpful note. When you get sick, you shouldn't think. And when people get, you know, COVID, you shouldn't think, well, I wonder what they did. People think that way. People talk that way. It's all part of the fall. Jesus said the Tower of Siloam didn't fall on people, on those people, because they're any worse than you are. It's just part of the providence of God. The man born blind in John 9, who sinned, this man or his parents? And Jesus said, that's a completely wrong way to think about this. Completely wrong way to think. All right, 43. This is really part B. This is 42A and then 43 is really 42B. What further benefit do we receive from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross? By his power, our old man is crucified. So here we talked about earlier, we talked about dying, our death being a dying to sin. But the process actually begins in this life. Our old man is crucified, put to death, and buried with him. Buried. Do you say buried or buried? Don't answer. I used to say buried, but then Mrs. Clark convinced me it was buried. But I have a feeling we might be the only ones who say that. Romans, this is Paul's teaching in Romans 6. You know what? The catechism is marvelous on this. 88, 89, and 90 tell us that the whole story of the Christian life, I can boil it down for, I don't want to ruin Pastor's sermon when he gets there, but the whole Christian life is only two things. Putting to death of the old man and the making alive of the new. That's it. You'll never sell any books like that, but that's the whole thing. I've seen books, you know, 10 Steps to a Successful Christian Life, The Mystery of the... Two things. The old guys used to say, mortification and vivification. Mortification is putting to death the old man, and vivification is making alive of the new. And the death of Jesus means that our old man is being put to death, has been put to death, and is being put to death. We are mortifying the old self. We're being made alive in the new self. says in Romans 7 there's there's like two of us there's the new us that's the real us and there's the old me that I'm trying to get rid of I think pastor has said sometimes he's like an old like a guy hanging on your back get off me ever had somebody jump on your back don't do that now I'll be done when I was younger you know come kid would run up and jump on my back there was a guy when I was in seminary just out of the Korean army used to do that to me I got to where I would stand in the student lounge with my back against the wall so that I could see him coming. I had 180 degrees. He couldn't speak English very well, but this is his way of saying hello. He would hit me and jump on me, and he meant well. Our old man is like this guy jumping on your back. Get off me. And it's a lifelong struggle. Get away. And we're dying to that old man all the time and being made alive in the new man. That's one of the benefits that comes from the death of Jesus. And that's what we say. Our old man is crucified, put to death and buried with him. It is crucified. It is put to death. It is buried. And Paul says that in Romans 6, that the reigning power of sin has been broken and that we have been identified with, we are, when you believe, you're united to Christ and his death and in our baptism, we are identified with his death. Baptism doesn't do it. but baptism is a witness to what has been done. Baptism doesn't do it, but baptism is a witness to what has been done, what is true of you when you believe in Jesus. The old man has been put to death. The new man has been made alive. And as a consequence, here's the second part of 43, but that instead we may offer ourselves as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to him. That's right out of Romans 12.1. That's Romans 12.1. Paul says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship. At least that's the old translation, which I like yet. Spiritual, it says in, I think, the ESV. And Dr. Baugh says, my colleague says, it means spiritual. I'm not convinced yet, but be that as it may. All right, 44. Last question then. why then does the creed add, since he was crucified for us, since he was buried for us, why does it add descended into hell? Great question, and it's a difficult question. And there are a lot of things that we could get into here, but the answer to the catechism is very true and very edifying. to assure me during attacks of deepest dread and temptation that Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul on the cross, but also earlier, has delivered me from hellish anguish and torment. That is true. That is true. The clause descended into hell did not appear in the creed until about 390 AD. So it's actually rather late. Early on, actually, buried and descended were alternating, and they just meant buried. But eventually, by the end of the 6th century and into the 7th and 8th century, the buried and descended were together the way we have it now. And then they re-explained it because people began to say, well, Jesus went, after he died, when he was in the tomb, his soul went to the place of the dead or he went to the place of the dead and did things. And they said that on the basis of 1 Peter 3 which is completely wrong. That's completely wrong. 1 Peter 3 says nothing of the sort. If you look at 1 Peter 3.18 I can show you what it means. It's not that complicated. It's a little complicated but it's not that complicated. For Christ also suffered ones for sins the righteous on behalf of the unrighteous in order that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but being made alive in the and it should be capital S being made alive by the Holy Spirit that should be a capital S in which or in whom is a better translation the Greek text says in whom he went and proclaimed How did he go and proclaim? In the Holy Spirit. When did he go and proclaim? Because they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited when in the days of Noah. What does this mean? It means, this is Peter's way of saying, look, we're in the same situation as Noah. The whole theme that unifies, I don't know what Dr. Rodney's telling you, I don't think he disagrees with this, but I think 1 Peter and 2 Peter are unified by one theme, as it was in the days of Noah. And I think what Peter is saying here is, we're in the same situation as Noah. Noah preached and nobody listened, pretty much. And then the flood came. And Peter's saying, I'm preaching. And pretty much nobody's listening. But guess what? The flood is coming. While the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water. It was a terrible church growth program, but it was God's. And Peter's whole point here has nothing to do with Jesus going anywhere after he died and doing anything. He's saying the same Holy Spirit that preached through Noah, Christ's spirit, to whom nobody listened, is preaching now. That's all that means. The same Holy Spirit who preached through Noah is preaching now. That's all this passage means. It has nothing to do with Jesus going anywhere after he died. Is that clear as mud? I don't think I could simplify it anymore. So people, anyway, came to think that this passage meant that Jesus went somewhere after he died and did things with dead people. And they said that for a variety of reasons, none of which were true. And by the time we got to the Reformation, we'd been saying the Creed a certain way for a thousand years. And the Reformers couldn't just say, well, you know, we can't, we got to fix this. So we interpreted it in terms of the death of Jesus. And that's certainly true. But originally, there was really none of that in the Creed. All the Creed said was buried. You could say descended into the grave or just buried. It just meant, that's all it meant. So, what we take from all of this, and particularly 43 to 44, is that everything that we're afraid of, everything that we ought to be afraid of, no justice, no peace, Jesus has already undergone on our behalf. Everything that we ought to be afraid of and everything that we are afraid of, Jesus has undergone on our behalf. And that word, that phrase, on our behalf, that's really hugely important because it means he did it for you if you're a believer. He did it for you. He did it in your place. And that means you don't have to fear that anymore. That's what it means. Right? By suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul on the cross, but also earlier, we say he suffered in 37 all his life, and especially at the end, has delivered me from hellish anguish and torment. This is why we say God doesn't turn his face away from people in hell. He turns his face of wrath toward them. And he did that to Jesus on the cross. He turned his face of wrath toward Jesus, and Jesus underwent that. He endured that. He suffered that for you. and for me. So what have we got to fear, really, to piggyback on what Dr. Bittner was saying this morning? Well, the process, yes, but not the outcome, and not God. Maybe that's the most important thing I can say tonight. Not the outcome, and not God. If you're in Christ, God is not angry with you. If you're in Christ, God is not angry with you. See, I'm putting the watch on. I'm almost done. He is favorable to you. He loves you. And nothing can change that. Jesus has secured that with his death and with his burial and with his resurrection. Those are facts. Justice and truth. Jesus satisfied justice, and that's the truth. Father, we give you thanks this afternoon for the good news and for all that Christ accomplished for us. We pray that just as in Noah's day the gospel went forward, so today even more wonderfully it will go forward, and that many, many, many people will continue to be called to faith and will climb onto the ark in anticipation of the coming flood of judgment. Not water, but fire. And the wrath of God. We're so thankful for Jesus, our ark. Hear our prayer. Accept our praise. We come in Jesus' name. Amen.