Introduction
We’re still working our way through our church’s Shorter Catechism. The first main part of the Catechism concerns what we’re to believe about God. And so it teaches us that there’s only one God. But that one God is a Trinity of Three Persons: There’s the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. One God in Three Persons. And the Catechism went on to teach us about the work of God the Father who made the world and everything in it, and who sustains and controls all that he has made, and who has planned and promised our salvation by his Son. And then the Catechism went on to explain the work of God the Son who came into the world as a man and who, by filling the offices of a Prophet, Priest and King, did all things necessary to redeem us from our sin and misery.
But how do we receive all the benefits of his redemption? That’s the work of the Holy Spirit who comes to us and enables us to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as he is presented to us in the gospel so that we’re united to him by faith and receive from him all the benefits of his life and death and resurrection. Some of those benefits we receive in this life — so there’s justification, adoption, sanctification, assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, growth in grace and perseverance. Other benefits we receive at death — so our souls are made perfect in holiness and immediately pass into glory while our bodies rest in the grave. And still others we receive at the resurrection when Christ returns to earth — so Christ will raise up in glory all believers and declare us not guilty in the day of judgment and allowing us to enter into the fullness of joy in the presence of God.
God the Father planned all this for us. God the Son accomplished all this for us. And God the Holy Spirit enables us to receive all of this from Christ our Great Redeemer. That was the first main part of the Catechism.
The second main part is about what God wants us to do. And we learned that what he wants us to do is to keep his moral law. And his moral law is summarised briefly in the Ten Commandments. And the Commandments show us how we’re to love God and how we’re to love our neighbour.
But then there’s the bad news. And it’s very bad. Not one of us has been able to keep the Commandments perfectly. Not one of us has been able to do what God has commanded and everyday we sin against him in thought and word and deed.
There is no one righteous, not even one.
We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
If we say we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves.
That’s the testimony of the Scriptures — and it’s what we know from our own personal experience, because everyday we’re aware of all the ways we fall short of keeping God’s commandments and doing his will. We know that we’re sinners. And the Bible tells us that we’re sinners. So the Catechism asks:
What does God require of us that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin?
And the answer it gives is that God requires us of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance leading to life, and the diligent use of the outward and ordinary means of grace by which Christ gives to us all the benefits of his redemption. And so the Catechism explains what faith is. And what repentance is. And it explains that the outward means of grace are:
- the reading and preaching of his word;
- the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; and
- prayer.
The Lord Jesus Christ uses these things in order to give to his people, by his Spirit, all the benefits of his redemption. And so, the last time we spent our time thinking about the reading and preaching of his word. Today we come to the sacraments. And so, listen to questions 91 to 93 of the Catechism:
Q. 91. How do the sacraments become effective means of salvation? The sacraments become effective means of salvation not because of any power in them or in him who administers them, but only by the blessing of Christ and the working of his Spirit in those who receive them in faith.
Q. 92. What is a sacrament? A sacrament is a holy ordinance appointed by Christ, by which, by visible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed and applied to believers.
Q. 93. Which are the sacraments of the New Testament? The sacraments of the New Testament are two only. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Two sacraments only
Let me take these in reverse order. How many sacraments are there? Well, if you were to ask someone from the Roman Catholic Church, they would say there are seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, penance. matrimony, the mass, ordination, and extreme unction. However, our Catechism says there are only two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And the reason we say there are only two is because of what we believe a sacrament to be. So, what do we believe a sacrament to be? Well, that what the answer to question 92 is about:
A sacrament is a holy ordinance appointed by Christ, by which, by visible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed and applied to believers.
This gives us a definition of what a sacrament is.
Appointed by Christ
First of all, a sacrament is a holy ordinance appointed by Christ. In other words, a sacrament is something which the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to do in the church as part of our worship. And we have clear biblical evidence of the Lord commanding baptism:
Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Here the Lord Jesus instructs his disciples to go and make other disciples. And how are they to do that? Well, they are to teach the people — which reminds us of the place of the reading and preaching of God’s word as one of the means by which Christ gives us the benefits of redemption. But the Lord also commanded his disciples to baptise. So, the Lord has appointed baptism.
And he has also commanded the Lord’s Supper. At the last supper, before he was arrested and crucified for the salvation of his people, the Lord took some bread. And he gave thanks for it. And then he broke it and gave it to his disciples. And he said: ‘Take, eat. This is my body.’ There it is. A direct commandment. Do this. And then he took the cup of wine and gave thanks gave it to them. And he said: ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’ Drink it. And in Luke he tells his disciples to do these things in remembrance of him.
So, the Lord has commanded us to do these things. Eat this bread and drink this wine. Baptise these people. A sacrament is a holy ordinance appointed by Christ.
And we should also add that to be a sacrament there must be clear biblical evidence that we must continue to observe these things until the Lord comes again. And so, immediately after the Lord commanded his disciples to make disciples by teaching and baptising them, he promised that he would be with his church until the end of the age. So, he’s referring to what the church must do until the end of the age when Christ returns. And then, the Apostle Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians that as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. In other words, we’re to continue to observe this sacrament until he comes again. So, a sacrament is something that Lord has appointed; and we’re to observe this holy ordinance continually until Christ the King comes back.
A sign
But then a sacrament is also a sensible sign. And it’s a sensible sign, not so much because it makes sense and isn’t nonsense (which of course is true), but because it can be perceived with the senses. There’s something to see with our eyes and to touch with our hands. So, in baptism there’s water. In the Lord’s Supper, there’s bread and wine. We can see these things. And we can touch them. And, in the case of the bread and wine, we can taste it.
But the sign also includes what we do with these things. The Lord Jesus didn’t just give us the signs without any instructions. He has told us what to do with them. So, with baptism, water must be applied to the person. And that person must be baptised in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the Lord’s Supper, we must follow the Lord’s example of taking the bread and wine and giving thanks for them. We must then break the bread as he did. And we must then distribute the bread and wine with the words of institution. So, the Lord has shown us that we need to take certain elements and perform certain actions and speak certain words.
And we need to follow his instructions concerning the sacraments because these sensible signs have been given by him to signify something or to point to something vitally important for us. That why the Catechism says the Catechism says they are sensible signs which represent to us the Lord Jesus Christ and the benefits of the new covenant. They represent the Lord Jesus Christ and how he redeems us from our sin and misery and gives us salvation. In other words, like any other sign, they tell us something about the Lord Jesus and our salvation.
Think of any other kind of sign. A sign by the side of the road tells us that there’s a dangerous bend coming up. A sign on the side of the bathroom light tells you that you can plug an electric razor in. A sign on a door tells you that the person inside doesn’t want to be disturbed. A sign tells us something. And the Lord’s Supper is a sign which tells us about the Lord Jesus and his death on the cross. The broken bread speaks to us of the broken body of the Lord Jesus. It speaks to us of how the Lord Jesus died for you and for me and for all his people. The wine too speaks to us of his blood poured out for us on the cross. And so, Paul says in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 11 that whenever we do this, when we receive the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim the Lord’s death. It’s a sign which points us to and which speaks to us of the Lord’s death on the cross for sinners.
Baptism is also a sign which tells us about Jesus Christ and his salvation. And one of the things it tells us is how God promises to wash away our guilt for the sake of Jesus who died for us.
So the sacraments are sensible signs. And they tell us about the Lord Jesus and his death on the cross and the salvation he won for us. They’re a kind of visual aid which represent to our eyes what we hear when the gospel is preached to our ears.
Seal
But the Catechism also tells us that a sacrament is a seal. Now we’re to think here of a seal that is applied to a document to certify it. One of my jobs when I was the Clerk of Presbytery down south was to sign deeds and leases when we were buying or selling or renting out property owned by a church. And I had a big stamp at home which I used to seal these deeds. You pressed it down on the deed and it left an imprint on the page to certify that we really had agreed to the sale or to the purchase. Or, think of something which many of us have done. From time to time we’re asked to sign our names to a contract or an agreement. So, several years ago we joined a gym. And we had to sign a kind of contract to say we agreed to pay the gym so much money as our subscription fee. And we agreed to abide by their rules and regulations. And to show that we agreed to all this, we signed our names. And our signature is a kind of seal on the agreement. Now, if we ever broke the rules of the gym, or if we didn’t pay the subscription fee, the owners of the gym could point at our signatures and say: ‘Look, you agreed to this. You said you’d abide by these rules. Your signature proves it.’
And that’s the purpose of the sacraments for us. We hear the preacher tell us that God promises to forgive our sins. He promises not to hold them against us, but to remove them from us completely and for ever. He promises to give us eternal life. And it seems too good to be true. Can this holy God really forgive me? Can he really pardon me? Is it really true? Surely not? And then we see someone being baptised, or we remember that we ourselves have been baptised. And there it is: God’s seal. God’s signature:
I promise to wash your sins away.
Or, we come to church, and we know how sinful we are. We remember all we have done wrong. All the ways we have fallen short. Surely I don’t deserve to be in glory with God? Surely he’ll send me to hell because that’s what I deserve? And we look up and see the Lord’s Table and the bread and the wine and there you have God’s seal God’s signature:
I promise to give you eternal life.
Is it true? Will God really forgive me? And we see the water, we taste the bread, we drink the wine and we say to ourselves:
Oh yes. Of course he’ll forgive me. How could I forget? Jesus died for me. His body was broken for me. His blood was shed for me.
And so our faith which had weakened under the pressure of our sins, is strengthened once again by means of these sacraments which seal and confirm and certify and guarantee God’s gracious promises towards us.
Applied
The sacraments are sensible signs which speak to us of the Lord Jesus Christ and how he redeems us from our sin and misery. And they’re also a seal to confirm his promises to us and to re-assure us. But the Catechism also says that by these signs Christ and his benefits are applied to believers. What does that mean? Well, it means that Jesus Christ gives us some of the benefits of his redemption whenever we receive the sacraments. And that’s important. Think back to what we said about preaching. We said that God works through the reading and preaching of his word so that, as the gospel is proclaimed, God the Holy Spirit is working in us to enable us to believe what we hear. That’s what the Catechism teaches us to believe about preaching. And God the Holy Spirit also works through the sacraments.
So, think again of the benefits of Christ’s redemption which we receive in this life. I mentioned them earlier: Justification, adoption, sanctification, assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, growth in grace and perseverance.
Take sanctification. The Lord Jesus wants to sanctify us so that we become more and more willing and able to keep his commandments. How does he do that? One way is that he speaks to us through the Lord’s Supper of all that Christ suffered and gave up for us. And out of gratitude to him, we resolve to obey him more and more. So, God uses the sacrament to lead us on to greater obedience out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us.
Take assurance of God’s love. The Lord Jesus wants to give us this assurance. How does he do it? Well, he uses the Supper to show us the greatness of God’s love in that he was prepared to give up his one and only Son for us. We see the bread, broken for us and it speaks to us the depths of God’s love that he was prepared to give up his Son to death for us. And we realise how great the Father’s love for us really is.
Take peace of conscience. The Lord Jesus wants us to enjoy peace of conscience and to be assured that we have been pardoned forever. And so, when we see someone being baptised, it speaks to us God’s promise to wash away my sins. And, when we receive the Lord’s Supper, it speaks to us of how Christ has paid for my sins in full so there is nothing more for me to pay. And so our guilty conscience is made silent and we rest in the knowledge that God has pardoned us.
Take joy in the Holy Spirit. Again, the Lord Jesus uses both sacraments to fill us with joy because both sacraments speak to us of God’s love. And they assure us that our sins have been paid for. And then, they assure us that instead of being condemned to eternal punishment, which is what we deserve, we are have not received the hope of eternal life. And that’s wonderful. And it causes our hearts to fill up with joy.
Take growth in grace and perseverance. By means of the sacraments, God strengthens our faith in the Saviour and he ensures that instead of giving up the faith, we will continue to press on as believers right to the very end of our lives. And, as we press on, we’ll grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The sacraments point us to Christ and from Jesus Christ we receive one good thing after another, one spiritual blessing after another throughout the rest of our life.
How?
How is this possible? That takes us back to question and answer 91:
Q. 91. How do the sacraments become effective means of salvation? The sacraments become effective means of salvation not because of any power in them or in him who administers them, but only by the blessing of Christ and the working of his Spirit in those who receive them in faith.
The sacraments are effective not because the water we use in baptism is special water, or because the bread and wine we use in the Lord’s Supper is special bread and wine. There are no supernatural powers in the water and in the bread and the wine. And the sacraments are effective not because of anything in me, the minister who administers them. I don’t have magic fingers which make these sacraments powerful and effective. So what makes the sacraments effective? It’s only by the blessing of Christ who has commanded us to do these things, and by the working of the Holy Spirit. Not only does he work through the reading and preaching of the gospel, but he works through the sacraments to build us up in our faith and to re-assure us.
But then, of course, they’re only effective for believers. Someone who doesn’t truly believe takes the bread and the wine. And such a person receives nothing except a little bread and wine. But a believer takes the bread and the wine. And such a person receives much, much more than a little bread and wine, because the Holy Spirit works in the believer to give him sanctification and assurance of God’s love, and peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Spirit, and growth in grace and perseverance. The sacraments point us to Christ and from Christ we receive all of these good things.
Conclusion
When we lived in the Republic, people would heard that I worked for the church often ask me if I was a priest. Normally I said, ‘sort of’ because I reckoned they just meant, ‘Am I a member of the clergy?’ But one time I said ‘no’ and I explained why I’m a minister and not a priest. What does a priest do? We know from the Old Testament that a priest offered sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. In other words, the direction or the movement of his ministry was upwards — from the people to God. He offered something to God. And so, today in the Catholic Church, the priest is said to offer up to God Christ’s body and blood as a sacrifice or as a re-presentation of Christ’s original sacrifice on the cross. He offers something up to God on behalf of the people.
But a minister is different. A minister takes from God and offers it to the people. The Lord Jesus, the head and king of his church, has all these marvellous spiritual benefits to give to his believing people. He wants to sanctify us. He wants us to be assured of God’s love. He wants us to have peace of conscience and joy. He wants us to persevere in the faith and to grow as believers. He’s prepared all these things for us by his life and death and resurrection. And now he wants to give them to us. And, of course, before that, he wants to give us justification and adoption so that all our sins are pardoned and we’re accepted by God and adopted into his family. He wants to give us these things.
And the way he gives them to us is, first of all, by sending us a preacher to preach the good news of the gospel. And he works by means of the reading and preaching of his word to produce faith in our hearts, and repentance, so that we turn with faith to Christ. And immediately we receive justification and adoption. And then, afterwards, he works through the reading and preaching of his word, and through the sacraments, to give us the rest of his benefits.
So, when the gospel is preached and when the sacraments are administered, our weak faith is strengthened and our weary souls are refreshed and our hope is renewed and our commitment to Christ is deepened. As the gospel is proclaimed through word and sacrament, Christ is at work by his Spirit to gather and to perfect his people for eternity. And so the movement or the direction of the work of a minister is not upwards from us to God. What does God need from us? No, the movement or direction of the work of a minister is from the Lord Jesus Christ out to us, his people, to take what Christ has done for us, and to make it known to his people. And through the preaching of his word to his people and through the administration of the sacraments to his people, the Lord Jesus Christ works in us to prepare us for eternity.
Sermons and Stuff 