COMFORT IN CHRIST

Sermon by Rev. Steven R. Key

L.D. 1

Scripture: Isaiah 40

Last Lord's Day afternoon we heard from Scripture the urgency of maintaining the foundations of truth in the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" The Heidelberg Catechism, as I pointed out, has been found a fitting means in Reformed churches for more than 400 years to hold the foundations of Bible doctrine before the people of God. It leads us systematically through the Bible, showing us a rich development in truth from the viewpoint of our own experience as the children of God. And therefore the Catechism is very personal in its approach. It is personal throughout. We don't merely throw out doctrine, as intellectual stimulation. We take the truth of Scripture and apply it personally, so that each person who comes under the preaching is compelled to respond, and to do so not merely intellectually, but personally and spiritually. At the same time, even though it is understood that are those who come under the preaching of the gospel who know nothing about the true comfort of the gospel, the preaching does not focus upon them. There are times when their sins and hypocrisy will be exposed, as will all forms of error and unrighteousness, including those sins of our own flesh. But the focus, beloved, is on you who are the Church of Jesus Christ, "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," as Peter addresses us in his first epistle.

The Catechism also proceeds from the perspective that you and I are members of the body of Christ by faith. And so it begins by placing us before the question: "What is your only comfort in life and death?" You who stand in the midst of many problems and troubles and trials, you who have to walk down a very narrow and treacherous pathway during your earthly sojourn, What is your only comfort? You parents, who daily face the trials of rearing sinful children, children who reflect your own sinful natures, What is your comfort? Boys and girls—for we teach you these things too—What is your only comfort? Young people, who not only face many temptations, but who sometimes fall, you who often are so unsure of yourselves and what to do with your life, who struggle with relationships and with the weighty decisions that you must face: What is your only comfort as you stand before all those things? You who near the end of your earthly sojourn, knowing that by reason of your age, there are not many years left for you: What is your only comfort in life and death?

To all of us, the Catechism comes immediately with this question: What is your only comfort in life and death? That is inescapably personal. And don't overlook the fact that the question is very pointed. It is exclusive. What is your only comfort? With the Church of Jesus Christ I give answer: "That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ." That is the heart of this first Lord's Day, and the keynote of the Catechism. The reason is because it is also the keynote of the gospel, glad tidings of great joy, good news of salvation. And as the Catechism leads us through the teachings of the Bible, even through the dark valleys concerning our sin and misery, its purpose is always to lead us back to this confession.

So it is with the gospel. When you study the whole of the Bible, it is striking that the vast majority of the Scriptures points us to the sorrow and sin and misery of God's people. Repeatedly the people of God are admonished, rebuked and called to holiness. If you are to weigh the whole of the Bible in the balances, e.g., comparing the texts that are, we might say, pure comfort, peaceful and heart-warming, with those that point to sin and troubles and sorrows and call to repentance and holiness, then by far the vast majority of the Bible falls into the latter category, even as is the case when you evaluate the entire Book of Isaiah, chapter 40 of which we just read. Any preacher who will bring the whole counsel of God to the people of God has to face that fact. And when we preach series of sermons, that is going to be very evident too. But don't forget, all of that sorrow and misery and sin, all those rebukes and exhortations that we must hear repeatedly, serve God's purpose in leading us to this one confession: "My only comfort in life and death is that I am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, Who owns me and unto Whom I live." If we don't recognize that, and if we will not receive that, then there is no comfort for us either. For the fellowship of God in which alone we have this comfort is the fellowship of holiness and uprightness. That is the perspective also of Isaiah 40, in which light we consider this first Lord's Day. Let us fix our attention, then, this morning on:

COMFORT IN CHRIST

I. ITS IDEA

II. ITS POSSIBILITY

III. ITS ENJOYMENT

I. THE WORD COMFORT IMMEDIATELY POINTS US TO OUR MISERY, BELOVED OUR WORD "COMFORT," AFTER ALL, REALLY MEANS "TO BE STRENGTHENED WITH" OR "TO BE STRONG WITH," IMPLYING THAT OF OURSELVES WE ARE WITHOUT STRENGTH.

That is the idea of the word comfort also in the Bible. In the Old Testament a very picturesque term is used, fitting with the nature of the Hebrew language. The word draws a picture of someone being out of breath, succumbing in anguish to a lack of breath. You children, have you ever had the wind knocked out of you? Have you ever taken a hard fall, or had somebody hit you—probably by accident—and suddenly you couldn't breath? That's a terrible feeling isn't it. You're sucking for air, and you just can't breath. When that happened, you started to get real scared, didn't you. Well, that's the idea of the word comfort—to be sucking for air. And then someone comes and helps you, perhaps gives you oxygen even, to help you breathe.

Lamech—not wicked Lamech, but Lamech the father of Noah—named his son Noah. Do you know what that name means? Comfort, because, he said, "This one will comfort us." He will help us catch our breath from the curse which the Lord has placed upon the ground. When he said that, he was prophesying. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You remember how that Noah and his family, all that was left of the believing Church, were delivered through the waters of the Flood. And as Noah went forth from the ark, and offered to Jehovah the sacrifice which by faith laid hold of the promised Savior, God received that sacrifice, and "said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." That's the last part of Genesis 8. God received that sacrifice, you see, and looked upon His renewed creation in Christ. And God established with Noah His covenant, revealing that covenant as a creation-embracing covenant. That is what Lamech had prophesied in the naming of his son. What tremendous comfort! When we are in a miserable situation, unable to catch our breath, along comes God to care for us and restore us in a way that is unspeakably beautiful.

The same idea holds true for the Greek word in the New Testament. "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4). The contrast to comfort, obviously, is being in a state of sorrow. The word comfort has as its basic meaning, to call to one's side for help. It is noteworthy, by the way, that the words exhortation and admonition, come from the very same word. To admonish is to call one back to God's side, to call to the only way of comfort as it were. That is noteworthy. There is no comfort in the way of sin. To be comforted we must be admonished, called to God's way. But this is certainly the emphasis—Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, is the Comforter. That is the perspective here in Lord's Day one. It is true that we are also comforted by others. That belongs to the communion of saints. The Spirit works through those who are His. But the comfort that is ours as Christians is only one, and it is found in Jesus Christ our Lord Who works in our hearts by His Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is named the Comforter. He is our Advocate, Who helps us in our distress, Who brings us into the fellowship of our Redeemer. And so you also find in the New Testament such expressions as "the God of all comfort, the comfort of love, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and of consolation in Christ."

As I indicated, the very idea of comfort presupposes a serious problem. It presupposes misery. That is inherent in the idea of comfort. There is no need for comfort where there is no problem. The question before which we stand today is this: What is your only comfort? That means, that if you are even to answer this question, you recognize that you have a problem, a serious problem. You recognize, in fact, that you are miserable. You are as that child that has the wind knocked out of him! What is that problem? The answer is found in Isaiah 40 and its context, and is, I trust your own experience as it is mine. The problem is sin. Which is to say, the problem is the consequences of sin as well. And as the Scriptures put it, "The wages of sin is death." That's our problem. A very serious problem.

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins." Jerusalem, the Church, you and I, have sins. Very specific sins. Sins that call for God's everlasting judgment. Sins which bring an unpayable debt, a debt which must be satisfied if ever we are to be saved. Isaiah writes to those whom he describes in chapter 1 this way: "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward" (Isa. 1:4). He continues by describing them as a body: "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Even so Jehovah gives a promise: "Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed" (Isa. 1:27,28). So for 39 chapters Isaiah is given to see into the future, to the captivity that Israel would experience in Babylon as a token of God's fierce wrath. What a terrible wrath!

Think about it. Canaan was then the heaven of the church, the picture of their everlasting inheritance. There God lived in His holy temple. There the saints gathered before His face, and found acceptance only by way of the sacrifices which pointed to their salvation by the coming Messiah. But now? The Lord had given the church over into death, and destroyed the place of His assembly. For the rejection of His truth by His people, He had given them over to their sins, and led them into captivity. That is what Isaiah is given to see. But in the midst of those who are given over to their sins there is a remnant, a special people. They are not special in the sense of being better than any other. They are special because of God's wonder work of sovereign particular grace. He has marked them out as His own. And though they must also be given over to captivity, and experience God's fierce wrath against their sin, Jehovah in His faithfulness will lead them out. And therefore He calls His servants, beginning here with Isaiah, to comfort His people. "The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass." None can survive the heat of God's anger! That is our misery, even as it was the children of Israel's in Isaiah's time.

BUT IN THIS HOPELESS SITUATION THE GOSPEL COMES WITH A WONDERFUL MESSAGE.

That message is seen in Isaiah 40 not just in the first two verses. The heart of that gospel is found in the last words of verse 9: "Behold your God!" "Behold, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young" (Isa. 40:10,11). Behold your God! Look at Him Who alone can save you! That is the gospel, beloved. And that is the keynote address that Isaiah is instructed to bring: "Speak ye comfortably"—that is, speak to the heart of Jerusalem. This gospel, though proclaimed without regard to the audience, though proclaimed promiscuously, is a particular gospel. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem. Tell my people, who gladly receive My word; even cry unto her, "that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins."

The Word of God that His servants must preach is that in the face of her warfare she has the victory. The heart of Jerusalem, the elect remnant, whose tears have been many in the captivity of Babylon, whose sorrow for her own sins has been true, whose confession has been that God is righteous is smiting her, seeing that she rebelled against His commandments, whose prayers have been for the peace of Jerusalem and for holiness before the Lord—her warfare is accomplished. The moment of her deliverance is at hand.

But how can this be? Only for one reason: Her guilt, her iniquity, has been paid, atoned, pardoned. "Behold your God!" He has come before you in Jesus Christ! This great misery that is mine because of my fall in Adam and because of the many sins that I add to my debt, the death that I face as a consequence of my sin, has been removed by Jesus, Who has satisfied for all my sins by the shedding of His own precious blood.

II. THE POSSIBILITY, THEN,OF THIS COMFORT IS FOUND IN CHRIST.THAT IS ALSO MY THEME TODAY.

The cry that is to come from the mouth of Isaiah, and all preachers who follow him, is to point God's people to Christ the Savior. For as Peter preached in Acts 4:12, salvation is not found in any other: "for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." So that my comfort is found in this, "that I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ." I am not my own. That is an amazing confession. Are you able to make it? By nature we say the very opposite. We like to be our own. By nature we are a proud people. We like to imagine that we can well handle things ourselves, that we can do things our own way, that we even have the right to do and say the things that we desire. But the language that lays hold of Christ makes a very humble confession. "I am not my own." All that I have and all that I am belongs to Christ.

I belong to my faithful Savior. Oh, the truth is that we are never our own. No man is his own. Even the unbelieving man, who walks in his pride, doing "his own thing," is entirely subject to the God Who one day will execute His unchangeable judgment. So it isn't enough just to say, I am not my own. There must also be this confession: I belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Do you confess that? Still more, are you sure of that confession? On what basis do you say that? Is that seen in your life, by your subjection to His Word and a striving to walk in the way of His commandments? For if you belong to Him, His life will surely be seen in you. That work that is His is a work that brings forth precious fruits. And it must be, indeed, His work.

HOW IS IT THAT WE BELONG TO JESUS CHRIST?

In answer to that question there are two elements, two precious truths, that Scripture sets before us. In the first place, we belong to Christ by sovereign election. That truth is a cornerstone in the foundation of this confession. That I am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior, is because God has given me to Christ. That itself causes my heart to well up with praise. So Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:3-6: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Our place with Christ has nothing to do with us. It is ours by the unfathomable grace of God. And that Christ has revealed to us. John 17:6: "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word."

But that sovereign election was unto salvation. I belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ—notice—"Who, with His precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil." The surety of my redemption and of this my comfort is the surety of Christ's atonement. Christ purchased me for Himself. That is what the cross is all about. He laid down His life in perfect obedience to His Father, that I might be a partaker of His resurrection life of perfect fellowship with God. And as He comes to me in the preaching from Lord's Day to Lord's Day, He shows me the receipt of His purchase. He leads me again and again to the cross.

When we know these things, beloved, this comfort fills not only our hearts, but our lives. It is an all-comprehensive comfort. For that work of Christ in us doesn't end with His purchase of us. He continues to deliver us from the power of the devil. That's a wonderful thing too. Some He gives over to the power of the devil. But for us who are in Him, He delivers us from the power of the devil, and so preserves us that without the will of our heavenly Father not a hair can fall from our heads. And, in fact, all things must be subservient to our salvation. That is my comfort, an all-comprehensive comfort. It is good for us in health, but also in sickness. This lies at the foundation of all our joy. But also in the trials that we face from day to day, this is our comfort. We take this comfort with us to the funeral home. And in sorrow, this is what gives us hope. A wonderful comfort! Our only comfort! A comfort that is ours only in Christ. Do you know this comfort, beloved? Do you enjoy this comfort? Do you know yourself as one with Christ?

III. ITS ENJOYMENT IS DEPENDENT UPON KNOWLEDGE.

THE CATECHISM RECOGNIZES THAT WHEN IT ASKS THE QUESTION: "HOW MANY THINGS ARE NECESSARY FOR THEE TO KNOW, THAT THOU, ENJOYING THIS COMFORT, MAYEST LIVE AND DIE HAPPILY?"

The enjoyment of this only comfort is dependent upon more than feelings. We dare not have a religion that is based upon feelings. Feeling deceive. We dare not stand before this question—What is your only comfort—and say, "I think so; I hope so." This comfort is based upon knowledge, and more specifically the knowledge of faith. It is the knowledge that says with the Apostle in II Timothy 1:12, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." It is a very urgent and serious call that Peter places before us in II Peter 1:10: "give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall." And so he continues, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth." As we stand before the whole truth of Scripture, as Christ comes to us in His Word from week to week, we are compelled constantly to answer the question: Where do I stand before the living God?

In addition, that knowledge is true knowledge. There is a knowledge that deceives. Don't be deceived. There is a knowledge that says, "Lord, Lord, I have done many wonderful works in thy name. I'm a Christian;" to which Christ will respond, "I never knew you." This knowledge is a knowledge that is confirmed by living with Christ, by recognizing Him as Lord in our life. This is a knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit, Who makes me sincerely willing and ready to live unto my Redeemer. That is why it is so serious when those who call themselves Christian, and who claim the righteousness of Christ, walk in ways that are abominable to Him. Those who walk in impenitence, those who reject His Word and who walk in enmity toward His people show by their life that they are deceived. That is the clear teaching of Scripture in a multitude of passages. John finds great reason to emphasize that throughout his first epistle, primarily because he recalled the clear teaching of his Lord, as he writes in John 14. Jesus said, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." Again in John 15:10, He said, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." So the Apostle returns to this theme in his first epistle, as he does in the Book of Revelation, and writes in I John 2:3,4: "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." The knowledge whereby we enjoy our only comfort is a knowledge that is fruitful, that cannot deceive. To claim the righteousness of Jesus Christ is to recognize also His Lordship in our lives, and to receive His Word not merely as faithful hearers, but as doers also. That is our delight. That is the work of the Spirit of Christ in us, making us sincerely willing and ready to live unto Him.

BUT AS THE CATECHISM POINTS OUT, THAT KNOWLEDGE THAT WORKS IN US THE ENJOYMENT OF COMFORT IN CHRIST IS A KNOWLEDGE THAT HAS THREE ELEMENTS, NO MORE, NO LESS.

And the first is the personal knowledge of the sinfulness of our own sin, the depths of our own misery. We must be confronted with the stark reality and horror of our sins. Many people in our day—I mean church people—seem to think that the gospel has to be watered down in order to make it attractive to people. They seem to think that the sharp edges of biblical truth have to be sanded off, in order that the gospel can comfort. But the Bible makes very clear, if sin is too tough a reality for us to face, then perhaps we ought to admit that we don't really desire true Christianity. Isaiah, as the background of the comfort that he proclaimed, set forth the holiness of God. That is a holiness that burns against all iniquity, it doesn't matter how small. When the angel appeared to Joseph (Matthew 1:21), he said, "Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." If anything is central to the gospel and to our comfort, it is that we know our misery—and not superficially either; but very pointedly and clearly. It's not a subject that attracts crowds, we are told. So we see vast movements in the church world today devoted entertainment, to cheery chatter, to frivolous fellowship, all which goes on while the preaching of the gospel is lost. And ultimately all true comfort is destroyed. If you wonder why sin must be addressed, and sometimes pointedly, it is exactly for this reason: The way to enjoying our only comfort in life and death, is the way of knowing our misery and our deliverance from it. And don't misunderstand, forgiveness does involve deliverance. Jesus Himself set the pattern for addressing sin directly, when He spoke to the woman caught in the act of adultery. You find that in the first part of John 8. "Go," He said, indicating that she would not perish for her sin. But this was no easy-believism. There were four other words in His charge, that we dare not overlook...."and sin no more."

The second element of that knowledge that is necessary for us to live and die happily is this, that I know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. This is to know how I am redeemed. My redemption is not in anything I am or do. If there are any works that God calls good in me, it can only be the fruit of Christ's work and evidence of the presence of His Spirit in me. There is nothing that I can do or bring to God in order to merit salvation. My deliverance in all its fulness, my salvation in all its richness, is not in me, but in Jesus Christ, Who is my all in all, to Whom I belong. And I can leave this element of knowledge right there, because the truth of Christ and His satisfaction I have already woven through the first and second point of this sermon.

And then finally, the third inseparable element of the knowledge that causes me joy in Christ is this, that I know how I may express my thankfulness to God for what He has given me in Christ Jesus. This is an element of knowledge that must increase all my life long. I see it in my brothers and sisters in Christ who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven and whose lives are an encouragement because of the work of the Spirit in them. The child of God, when spiritually healthy, grows in grace and sanctification throughout his or her life. Oh, I know, we may sometimes say, "But I can't see that growth." I know. That growth is so slow; almost immeasurable from day to day. But look back over your life, and you will see this growth. If you have laid hold of the gospel; if you have grown in the realization of how serious is your sin, and how deadly your sinful nature; if you have laid hold of Christ and realized more and more how wonderful is the work of God's grace that gave us to Christ and Him to us, then we are compelled by the Spirit to thank God. How can we who are partakers of so great salvation, not live in thankfulness to Him? But we need to grow. This is the way to the enjoyment of our comfort in Christ. So as we spend time again with these three divisions of the Heidelberg Catechism—our misery, our deliverance, and the life of thankfulness that God gives us to live—may we give wholehearted attention to the Word. And may it be our prayer that the Lord teach us His truth.

Amen.

Preached: Randolph PRC 6/9/96 (am)

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