Sermon on Lord’s Day 21⤒🔗

54. Q. What do you believe concerning the holy catholic Christian church?
A. I believe that the Son of God,[1] out of the whole human race,[2] from the beginning of the world to its end,[3] gathers, defends, and preserves for Himself, [4] by His Spirit and Word,[5] in the unity of the true faith,[6] a church chosen to everlasting life.[7] And I believe that I am[8] and forever shall remain a living member of it.[9]
[1] John 10:11; Acts 20:28; Eph. 4:11-13; Col. 1:18. [2] Gen. 26:4; Rev. 5:9. [3] Is. 59:21; I Cor. 11:26. [4] Ps. 129:1-5; Matt. 16:18; John 10:28-30. [5] Rom. 1:16; 10:14-17; Eph. 5:26. [6] Acts 2:42-47; Eph. 4:1-6. [7] Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:3-14. [8] I John 3:14, 19-21. [9] Ps. 23:6; John 10:27, 28; I Cor. 1:4-9; I Pet. 1:3-5.

55. Q. What do you understand by the communion of saints?
A. First, that believers, all and everyone, as members of Christ have communion with Him and share in all His treasures and gifts.[1] Second, that everyone is duty-bound to use his gifts readily and cheerfully for the benefit and well-being of the other members.[2]
[1] Rom. 8:32; I Cor. 6:17; 12:4-7, 12, 13; I John 1:3. [2] Rom. 12:4-8; I Cor. 12:20-27; 13:1-7; Phil. 2:4-8.

56. Q. What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?
A. I believe that God, because of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins,[1] nor my sinful nature, against which I have to struggle all my life,[2] but He will graciously grant me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never come into condemnation.[3]
[1] Ps. 103:3, 4, 10, 12; Mic. 7:18, 19; II Cor. 5:18-21; I John 1:7; 2:2. [2] Rom. 7:21-25. [3] John 3:17, 18; 5:24; Rom. 8:1, 2.

Scripture Reading: Romans 12

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 16:1
Psalm 103:4
Psalm 65:2,3
Psalm 122:1,2,3
Hymn 36:1,2,3

Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Our society knows countless clubs and organisations, be it a Labour Union, a political party, a Parents-Teachers Association, a Chamber of Commerce, a soccer club, etc, etc. All these organisations are established by people and are run by people. So, if you are unhappy with some decision or action of your club, you complain to the right people and, if you don’t get the justice you seek, you take action. You boycott the meeting, or you undermine the credibility of the leaders, or you cease your membership altogether. Human organisations allow for that kind of behaviour.

The world around us sees the church as just another social institution, just another human organisation. So: as long as members can get on with each other, and as long as members like the direction set by the leaders, all will be happy with the church, happy with each other, happy retain their membership. The flip side is: when office-bearers handle matters differently than the members would like, if the deacons don’t give enough money or the elders place a family member under discipline … - yes, then what, congregation? This: since the church is a human organisation, the members are allowed to get upset with the deacons or with the elders. And then? I won’t accept the deacons at my place any more. Or I fix in my mind, and tell others also, that the elders are all simple school boys who don’t know what they’re doing. In a society where the church is seen as just another human organisation, this sort of behaviour is acceptable, predictable….

Now: we’d like to think that we know better. Surely, we tell ourselves, we wouldn’t act like that in the church of Jesus Christ…. But, my brothers and sisters, let us not kid ourselves, or each other. The deacons of this church have experienced it: because they didn’t give enough money, they were no longer warmly welcomed at the address of need. The elders of this church have experienced it too: because they did not act as the members of a given address thought was appropriate, those elders have been termed proud, or incompetent. In this church we’ve seen it over the years: people are not in church, members have withdrawn because they feel offended by the actions of the office-bearers.

These things happen, in our midst. For that reason, beloved of the Lord, it is imperative that we come to grips with what, according to God’s Word, the church really is. According to the Bible, the church is not a friendship club (though it’s members are to be friendly), nor is the church a human organisation (though it is made up of many people). Instead, the church is the product of the work of Christ’s Holy Spirit. When one speaks of the ‘church’, one speaks by definition of the Holy Spirit, and the work that He is doing. That is why standards of behaviour acceptable in human associations have no place in the Church. I need to work this out today.

I summarise the sermon with this theme:

God the Holy Spirit gathers Christ’s redeemed into one body

1. the holy, catholic Church
2. the communion of saints
3. the forgiveness of sins

The holy, catholic church←⤒🔗

We read together Romans 12. The third word of the chapter is the little word ‘you’. Who does Paul describe with that little word? We say: that’s the Romans. And so it is. Yet, congregation, Paul does not speak in this verse to every Roman in the city of Rome. He speaks to some Romans only. Specifically, he addresses the saints of Rome, the believers (1:7). The fact that he can address these Roman saints together shows that these believers were together, were the church of Rome.

How come there was a church in Rome? For that matter, what actually is a church? From before the foundation of the world, God the Father chose out of the whole human race which had fallen into sin, a certain number of persons to salvation in Jesus Christ (cf Eph 1:4f). These specific persons from every tribe and tongue and nation God the Father sovereignly gave to His Son (Jn 6:37; 17:6). For the benefit of these persons God the Son in turn laid down His life on the cross of Calvary. As a result, the elect are redeemed from Satan’s power and their sins are washed away; they are justified before God.

What, now, becomes of the elect for whom Christ died? Christ Jesus Himself has left the earth to go to heaven. Does He in heaven still concern Himself with those on earth that He redeemed? Most definitely He does. On Pentecost Day He poured out His Holy Spirit for the benefit of those for whom He died. This Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ received the mandate to apply to the elect the salvation Christ obtained on the cross.

How does the Holy Spirit apply that work to the elect? The tool He uses to apply that saving work is the Word. Through that Word the Spirit works faith in the hearts of God’s chosen ones (Rom 10:14,17). With respect to the elect of Rome this means this: the Holy Spirit caused the good news of Jesus Christ to come to the ears of those people of Rome whom the Father had chosen to life. More, the Holy Spirit opened the hearts of those elect Romans to receive this gospel. This is material that will receive, the Lord willing, more attention with LD 25, and so we need spend no more time on it today.

The city of Rome in Paul’s day numbered hundreds of thousands of people. God chose to salvation in Jesus Christ one from this street, three from that address, four from the next suburb, a handful from across the river. For these Christ died, in these elect Romans the Holy Spirit has worked faith. Well now: what becomes of them? Does the Holy Spirit leave them as so many unconnected individuals scattered throughout the city of Rome, all alive to God but uninterested in each other, separate from each other? Not at all. For the work of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is not only to work faith in the chosen, but also to gather together those in Rome chosen to life and redeemed by the Son. And see: that is what the Holy Spirit does. Sovereignly He takes one person from this address, three from that address, four from the next street, a handful from the other side of town, and He brings these together in the name of Jesus Christ. Those believers of Rome whom the Spirit gathers together form the Church of Jesus Christ in Rome.

See there, congregation, what the Church is. The Church of Rome is not all the believers of Rome as such, scattered individually around town, possibly ignorant of each other. The church of Rome is the gathering of that one believer from this street, those three from that address, the four from the next suburb, the handful from across the river. Those chosen of town, gathered together by the sovereign work of the true God the Holy Spirit: that is the church. For the notion of gathering: that is essential to what the Church is. I say that because that is what the Greek word for ‘church’ –it’s the word ‘ecclesia’- literally means. The Greeks had regular ‘ecclesias’ to discuss relevant matters of town (cf Acts 19:32,41), and that’s to say that people of town gathered together to talk matters through. It is because the church is the gathering of the people of God that we confess in our LD that the Son of God gathers His Church by His Spirit and Word. And that’s equally why in the Belgic Confession we confess that the Church is "a holy congregation and assembly of the true Christian believers" (Article 27).

What we confess here, brothers and sisters, is most marvellous. We confess here that the work of the Holy Spirit is not restricted to the inner recesses of the heart, to working faith in this person, in that one, and in that one. Certainly He works faith. But where? How? Sunday by Sunday the careful observer in Rome could see the Holy Spirit at work. One person from this street, three from that address, four from the next suburb, a handful from the other side of town, were drawn together to one address in the city. Amongst those drawn together were (let’s say) some Romans, a German who settled in Rome, an Egyptian businessman stationed in Rome, some Jews who’d lived in Rome for numerous generations. Persons from any tribe and tongue and race, persons from every level of Roman society, persons who never knew each other before – look, Sunday by Sunday they come together in that one place. How come? Because they were sick of watching the games in the arena, and had nothing better to do? Because they were all so enthusiastic Sunday after Sunday to sit in a stuffy building? Because they all felt so comfortable with each other, had the same interests, hobbies, political leanings? Not at all. They came together because the Holy Spirit drew them together, and did so not once but Sunday by Sunday. The Holy Spirit drew them irresistibly together because He wanted to work faith in their hearts, wanted to strengthen the faith He’d worked. The careful observer in the city could see it; here was the Holy Spirit at work!

And what, now, if a believer or two in Rome chose not heed the Spirit’s working to meet together? What if a believer preferred to stay on his own? What if he didn’t like some of the others of those whom God chose to salvation and for whom the Son laid down His life, and so stayed away? What if he used to come, but over time got to see that some in the congregation had been guilty of pretty awful sin or had some unpleasant knobs on their characters – and so distanced himself from the assembly of the redeemed? What do you think, brothers and sisters: would declining the call of the Holy Spirit be pleasing to God? We understand it: at bottom, declining to assemble with the redeemed boils down to resisting the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit would gather together all those chosen by God the Father, all those ransomed by God the Son. The Spirit would bring them together so that one can say of this group: this is the new people of God. And since the Holy Spirit does not treat us as stocks and blocks, but instead appeals to the sense of responsibility God has worked in us, it is the duty of the redeemed of Rome to make it their business to heed the Spirit’s call and come together Sunday by Sunday. In the words of Hebrews 10: do not neglect to meet together (vs 25).

This material, brothers and sisters, cannot but speak to us. Do you wish concrete evidence of Spirit’s work today? The very fact, congregation, that the saints of Kelmscott are here together is the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us be honest: how is it that you came to be in church this morning? How many of you actually came because you were bubbling over with eagerness to hear God’s Word, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian offerings for the poor? How many of you had to make an effort to get out of your chair and ready yourself to go to Church? More: how many of you would be happier to come to church if certain others of us were not here? Truth be said, we’ve got some hurdles to cross in order to come!

But see: we are here! How come? That, brothers and sisters, is because the Holy Spirit was at work in Kelmscott this morning, taking one out of this house, three out of that house, seven out of another, some from this side of town and some from that, of various social levels and ethic groups and friendship circles, and He brought each of us together this morning. That we are here is not our own doing, but the work of God the Holy Spirit! He drew us together this morning because He wanted to speak to us, wanted to work and strengthen faith in us. From a community that does not want to serve God He drew us together so that it might be said of this group: this is the new people of God in Kelmscott, this is the people God the Father chose to life eternal, the people for whom the Son of God died on Calvary’s cross.

But if the Holy Spirit brings us together, how, congregation, how dare we absent ourselves from the assembly of the redeemed? Yet that is what happens. Look around you. Is everybody joined by the Spirit to Christ’s church in Kelmscott in fact here this morning? I grant: to some God has given a sickness to bear, and so they cannot attend. But that’s not true of all who are absent. And what about this afternoon? Will we all be here? I reveal no secret when I note that the churches throughout the metro area are emptier in the afternoon than in the morning, and the reasons are not noble. Let it be fixed in our minds, congregation: in our absenting ourselves from the assembly of the redeemed, we are not working together with the Holy Spirit; on the contrary, we resist the Holy Spirit. Here is need for repentance.

The communion of saints←⤒🔗

We move on to our second point. The Holy Spirit, we said, gathered together those sinners of Rome whom the Father had chosen from eternity and for whom the Son had died. These believers gathered by the Spirit: are we to imagine that they were gathered into a pile, a cluster as so many disconnected peas in a bag? The Bible says No. Rather, the Spirit Who gathers makes these redeemed into a body. Rom 12:5: Paul speaks of the gathered saints of Rome as "one body in Christ".

We all have bodies. What’s immediately obvious to us about a body is the interaction between members of the body. Each member is dependent on the other. The nose needs the hand to scratch its itch, the stomach needs the feet to fetch the needed drink, etc. The body is one unit, a living organism with each part assisting in supplying the needs of other parts of that one body.

The Holy Spirit gathers a Church, the redeemed of the Lord. But once the redeemed of the Lord are gathered together, the Spirit’s work is not finished. No, the Spirit transforms those gathered individuals into a body. Sovereignly, wisely, the Holy Spirit makes one member comparable to a hand, another to a knee, a third to an ear, etc, etc, so that the gathered saints of Rome become a functioning body in which each Roman believer plays a role in supplying the needs of other parts of that body. The believers the Spirit has gathered are not disconnected from each other as peas in a bag; no, the saints the Spirit has gathered together are a communion. By His sovereign working, these gathered saints form a unit, where one is dependent on the other.

It is because the Holy Spirit worked as He did amongst the saints of Rome that Paul in vs 6 can instruct the Roman Christians to be members of one body, each interested in the other, helping the other. We have, says Paul, "gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us." Since that’s the case, he adds, "let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." It would simply not do for the members of Christ’s Church in Rome to act as if they were not one body together, to act as if they were so many individuals who had no responsibility for each other.

Paul continues: by the working of the Holy Spirit, we are one body together, and therefore need to foster attitudes towards each other that reflect that reality. In a body it is just not possible for a elbow to despise the hand. The hand and the elbow are dependent on each other, and so must co-exist in a relation of peace and cooperation. So it is too in the communion of saints. Add on top of that the fact that God from eternity set His holy love on those specific individuals whom the Spirit later on gathered into one body. If God loved these persons, was any saint in Rome allowed to pull up his nose at someone God loved? If Jesus Christ laid down His life for a particular sinner, so that the Holy Spirit worked faith in his heart and gathered him into the church of God, was any other saint allowed to despise such a one?

See, brothers and sisters, that is why Paul in Rom 12 underlines the need to love one another, and to love without hypocrisy. Vs 10: "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another." And that attitude wasn’t to be shown just once in a while; Paul tells the saints of Rome not to be "lagging in diligence"; instead, they’re to be "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord" (vs 11). And when a brother does something to you that hurts you much? What attitude is to dominate? Vs 14: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse." What, you say, can’t I get even with the brother who hurts me? Say evil things of him, think evil things of him? The Holy Spirit is insistent, brothers and sisters, and moves Paul to write that in the one body formed by the work of the Holy Spirit, there is no room for putting the self first, for defending the self. Vs 19: "do not avenge yourselves, but rather leave room for the wrath of God" (NASB). In the church gathered by the Holy Spirit, there is room only for self-denying love. Think good of the other, and not evil.

Here again, my brothers and sisters, is much for us to learn. The Holy Spirit has gathered you and me together into one Church, more, He’s sovereignly made us into one body, a communion of saints. Because of His work in our midst, it is for us in Kelmscott to be one body together. It will not do to absent ourselves from the gathering of the saints, for that’s resisting the work of the Holy Spirit. Equally, it will not do for any of us to harbour hard feelings toward others of us, nor is it for any of us to stand up, in the face of perceived wrong, for what we consider to be our own rights. It is for us instead to show love, only love as members of one body, and so do good to the other with a spirit of humility and concern. Attitudes and conduct of hatred against another, being unable to visit together or to sit together around one table, amount to resisting the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst, and that will not do. The church is the work of the Holy Spirit, the communion of saints included, and so we need to cultivate attitudes and actions that are spiritual, that are Spirit-pleasing.

3. Forgiveness of Sins←⤒🔗

But see: in the church of Jesus Christ in Kelmscott – that product of the Spirit’s labour in town- there is so much that is not spiritual, not Spirit-pleasing. There is sin in resisting the Spirit’s work of drawing us together, there is sin in resisting the Spirit’s work of making us into a communion of saints where each loves the other without hypocrisy, where each denies himself for the benefit of the other; we see so much sin in the other! And those sins we see in others –be it sins of action or sins of non-action, be it sins of character or of attitude- make it so very difficult for us to appreciate that the Holy Spirit has made us one body together, make it so difficult too to accept one another, to show to each other the love God in Christ has shown to us…. Those sins: don’t they blow the communion of saints apart? Doesn’t sin destroy the church gathering work of the Holy Spirit?

Let it be fixed in our minds, beloved: the Holy Spirit –true God that He is- gathers together into one body the people for whom Christ died. Christ died in order to wash sins away, to remove those sins from His own as far as east from west extends. What characterised the church of Jesus Christ in Rome, then, was the reality of the forgiveness of sins. In fact, forgiveness of sins characterises the Church, just as much as the communion of saints characterises the Church.

Those saints of Rome: what sort of track record did they have? Let’s make no mistake: Rome as a city was not far behind Corinth in its perversity. Those Romans God had elected from eternity and for whom Christ laid down His life on the cross: they had grown up, and so no doubt partaken in, a culture of immorality. They knew from close by what the homosexuality and lesbianism described in Rom 1 were all about. But they were washed in Jesus’ blood, their sins forgiven. Their misdeeds of the past then? None in the congregation was to hold against any other in the congregation any of those sins of years ago; those sins were washed away, gone. None of those sins of long ago, even if knowledge of those sins still turned one’s stomach, was to hinder any one from showing love to the offender of long ago. The love described in Rom 12 was made possible by the reality of Christ’s work on the cross; He washed sins away, and so those whom the Spirit joined to the Church of Christ in Rome were to consider sins of youth as gone – their own as well as the transgressor from the next suburb whom God the Spirit joined to Christ’s church. For the Church of Jesus Christ is characterised by the forgiveness of sins!

But suppose there was in the congregation a brother with a history as Noah had, a man who drank himself drunk and then exposed himself? Suppose there was in the congregation a man with a history as Abram had, who lied that his wife was his sister? Ora brother with a history as Judah had or Simeon or Issachar – they sold their little brother? Or a Moses who killed the Egyptian? Or an Aaron who made a golden calf? Or a David who took his neighbour’s wife to bed and then killed the neighbour? Let’s make no mistake: Noah and Abram and Moses and David and the rest sinned terribly, as badly as you do and I do. But Noah and Abram and Moses and David were persons chosen by God from eternity to life in Jesus Christ. The Father gave them to the Son so that the Son might lay down His life to wash their sins away. The Holy Spirit gathered them into the church of their day. Yet they fell so tragically. Does that make them worthy of being cut off from the Church into which the Spirit has gathered them? Absolutely not. Certainly, they had to repent, just as we need to repent of any sin we commit. But the Church of Jesus Christ is made up of sinners, not righteous folk; Christ died to take away the sins of sinners. None in Rome, then, should be surprised to learn of a Noah in their midst, or an Abram or a Moses or a David. And none in Kelmscott should be surprised either. More importantly: none in the church of Rome, and none in the church of Kelmscott either, should hold these sins against the other, simply because the church is characterised by the forgiveness of sins.

And what if we do remember the sins of brothers and sisters gathered with us into one body? What if we hold their sins against them? Then, brothers and sisters, we resist the work of the Holy Spirit! The Church He gathers is characterised by the forgiveness of sins; very well, it is for each of us to look at the other as forgiven, both by God and by ourselves – until, of course, the evidence is there that there isn’t the desired repentance from sin. Then there’s the route of Mt 18 to follow. But meanwhile: the church gathered by the Spirit of Jesus Christ is characterised by the forgiveness purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. So I look at myself and I look at my brother as forgiven.

It’s acceptable behaviour in any human organisation that a person unhappy with the treatment he receives may boycott the meeting, or undermine the credibility of the leaders, or cease your membership altogether. We see the same sort of thing happening in church also. I trust, brothers and sisters, that you understand how very wrong such action is. Instead of resisting the Holy Spirit, let each cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Only then can we expect His blessing – in this life and the life to come. Amen.