REFORMATION 500 WEEK 48 JOHN CALVIN’S LEGACY

Reformation 500 WEEK 48    jOHN Calvin’s Legacy

“Calvin’s greatest achievement in the final years of his life was the establishment of the Geneva Academy, the first Protestant university anywhere. Calvin realized the need for an educated ministry. From his study of the Scriptures he also realized that God’s glory involves more than merely saving souls. This world is God’s world. The way men deal with each other is of concern to God. Therefore, government workers, doctors, lawyers, and all others needed a training that recognized and honored God” (Kuiper, Church in History, 199).

“Calvin’s view that God reigns everywhere and over all things led him to develop the biblical idea that man can serve God in every area of life – church, civil government, education, art, music, business, law, journalism. There was no need to be a priest, a monk, or a nun to get closer to God. God is glorified in everyday work and family life” (DeMar, Reformation, 207).

                From “its beginning in 1559 the Geneva Academy enjoyed the highest reputation. Soon nine hundred boys were enrolled, coming from all over Europe. It wasn’t long before the king of France sent an official warning to Geneva complaining of all the preachers coming from this headquarters of Protestantism…. Calvin gained followers everywhere. His influence extended even into Italy, Hungary, Poland and western Germany…. Through him the light of the Gospel radiated from the little city of Geneva into every corner of Europe. Calvin was the only international Reformer.

                “That Calvin could do so enormous a work is all the more amazing because he was frail of body, and much of the time suffered exceedingly from a complication of painful diseases. But his will triumphed over all difficulties and obstacles, God working with him. Worn out with his difficult and extensive labors, Calvin died May 27, 1564. His coat of arms was a hand holding a flaming heart. His motto was: … ‘My heart for Your cause I offer to You, Lord, promptly and sincerely’.” (Kuiper, 199-200).

“The earliest and most influential settlers of the United States – the Puritans of England, the Presbyterians of Scotland and Ireland, the Huguenots of France, the Reformed from Holland and the Palatinate [in Germany] – were Calvinists, and brought with them the Bible and the Reformed Confessions of Faith. Calvinism was the ruling theology of New England during the whole Colonial Period” (Schaff, 8:vi).

“The resistance of the Second Continental Congress to British tyranny in 1776 and the establishment of republican principles in the Constitution of the United States of America in 1787 owe much to the political thought of John Calvin” (Mark Larson, Calvin’s Doctrine of the State, 99).

“It is undeniable that he had a large influence on the American founding fathers, who had absorbed much more Calvinism, particularly in their views of the nature of man and the need for limited government, than some realize” (David Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin, 40). George Bancroft, the American historian, who himself was not a Calvinist, “credited the ‘free institutions of America’ as being derived ‘chiefly from Calvinism through the medium of Puritanism, … concluding: ‘He that will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty” (Ibid. 12).  .

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 John Calvin's Legacy

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 48

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 48: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM QA 123

Reformation 500 WEEK 48: Heidelberg Catechism QA 123

Question 123: What is the second petition? “Your kingdom come;” that is, so govern us by Your Word and Spirit, that we submit ourselves to You always more and more; preserve and increase Your Church; destroy the works of the devil, every power that exalts itself against You, and all wicked devices formed against Your holy Word, until the fullness of Your kingdom come, wherein You shall be all in all.

We learned from Questions 50-51 that the Lord Jesus Christ has a universal kingdom over all things (Eph. 1:20-23). He is “the ruler over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5). “He is the head of the whole world by way of dominion, but a head to the church by way of union and special influence (John 17:2).… The Church is His special care and charge. He rules the world for its good” (Flavel, The Mystery of Providence, 27). We learned that Christ rules us through the ministry of His Word and Spirit (Eph. 4:7-13), that He preserves His ministry, gives His Church resting places, makes His Word effectual to the conversion of the elect (Rom. 10:17). He will defend us against all enemies (the devil, the evil world, and our inborn sin), and He will at length bring us to heavenly glory. “For He must reign, until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25-26).

Jesus said this spiritual kingdom will increase and spread to all nations (Matt. 13:31-32). It comes to us, first, “by conversion, when some are converted to God, who grants to them faith and repentance [Col. 1:13].” Secondly, “when the godly make progress in holiness [Rom. 14:17; Rev. 22:11];” and ultimately, “by the perfection and glorification of the church at the second coming of Christ [Eph. 5:27]” (Ursinus, 636).

Therefore, when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we desire that “this kingdom may come, increase and be defended …. we desire both that it may be established among and in us in this life, and that it may be brought to its highest and ultimate development in the life to come [1 Cor. 15:28]” (Ursinus, 633).

We desire and pray, first, that God may “so govern us by Your Word and Spirit, that we submit ourselves to You always more and more.” “Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your commandments” (Ps. 119:5; see also verse 35). Second, “preserve and increase Your Church.” “Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem” (Ps. 51:18; cf. Heb. 12:22-24). Third, “destroy the works of the devil, every power that exalts itself against You, and all wicked devices formed against Your holy Word.” “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let those who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God” (Ps. 68:1-2). “May sinners be consumed from the earth, and the wicked be no more” (Ps. 104:35). Fourth, cause “the fullness of Your kingdom to come, wherein You shall be all in all [1 Cor. 15:28].” “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).

“We ought to pray that the kingdom of God may come both as to its commencement and ultimate development,” first, “for the sanctification and hallowing of His name; for that we may sanctify the name of God, it is necessary that He should rule us by His Word and Spirit.” Second, for “our comfort and salvation. God gives this kingdom to none except those who desire and pray for it, just as He gives His Holy Spirit to none but such as desire Him [Luke 11:13]” (Ursinus, 636).

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 Heidelberg Catechism 123

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 48

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 47 THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM

Reformation 500 WEEK 47 Heidelberg Catechism

In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg granted equal legal status in Germany to Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism. Each local ruler determined the religion of his territory; and minorities were free to relocate. But Zwinglians, Calvinists, and Anabaptists were not granted legal recognition (Bainton, Reformation, 155).

In 1559, Frederick III became ruler of a territory called the Palatinate. In its capital city of Heidelberg, there was great controversy over the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper; one party was inclined to the Lutheran view, the other, to the Reformed view. After studying both sides, Frederick de­clared himself in 1560 in favor of the Reformed doc­trine; he “was the first German prince who professed the Reformed Creed, as distinct from the Lutheran” (Scaff, Creeds, 1:532). After introducing Reformed worship throughout his country, he turned his attention to the need for a catechism to help the churches in his land to be Reformed.

Caspar Olevianus was born in 1536 in the ancient German City of Trier. As “a young law student he joined the underground Protestant movement in France” (Lyle Bierma, A Firm Foundation). In 1556, be became friends with Prince Herman, the son of Frederick III. One day when they were walking along a river they met some fellow students who were drunk, “and asked the prince and Caspar to cross the river with them in a boat.” Olevianus failed to convince the prince to remain on shore. While Caspar looked on, the boat flipped upside down, and the students began to drown. “Seeing the prince in danger, Olevianus leapt into the river, in an attempt to save him.” But “he failed and only endangered himself and later confessed that, out of terror, he vowed that if God should save him, he would serve the Lord as a preacher to Germans. One of the prince’s servants saved him, mistaking him for the prince” (R. Scott Clark, Caspar Olevianus and the Substance of the Covenant, 12). After studying theology with Calvin in Geneva, he returned to his hometown of Trier in 1559. But Roman Catholic opposition frustrated his reform efforts; and he and his cohorts were thrown into prison. Through the intervention of Frederick III, whose son Olevianus had tried to save from drowning, he was released and brought to Heidelberg in 1560 where he became a theological professor and pastor of the Holy Ghost Church.

Zacharias Ursinus was born at Breslau (modern-day Poland). He had studied at Wittenberg with Melanchthon and completed his studies under Calvin in Geneva. “Calvin was deeply impressed with him and presented him a set of his books” (Masselink, The Heidelberg Story, 70). In 1560, Frederick called him to Heidelberg as professor of theol­ogy. In 1562, Frederick commissioned his Heidelberg theologians to prepare a catechism. Some scholars still hold the opinion “that Ursinus contributed the content and Olevianus the form” (Essays on the Heidelberg Catechism, 79). The Heidelberg Catechism was published in January, 1563. Frederick himself later inserted Question and Answer 80 to further condemn the Roman Catholic Mass.

Frederick faced charges of violating the Peace of Augsburg, but after a valiant defense of the biblical basis of the Catechism, he was permitted to rule his country as a Calvinist till he passed away in 1576. However, not until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 were Calvinists added to the list of tolerated religions.

 The remainder of the Catechism will explain the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer.

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 Heidelberg Catechism 122

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 47

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 47: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM QA 122

Reformation 500 WEEK 47: Heidelberg Catechism QA 122

Question 122: What is the first petition? “Hallowed be Your name;” that is, grant us, first, rightly to know You, and to sanctify, magnify, and praise You in all Your works, in which Your power, goodness, justice, mercy, and truth shine forth; and further, that we so order our whole life, our thoughts, words, and deeds, that Your name may not be blasphemed, but honored and praised on our account.

“Hallowed by thy name, is placed first in order, because it comprehends the end and design of all the rest, inasmuch as the glory of God should be the end of all our affairs, actions, and prayers [1 Cor. 10:31]” (Ursinus, 629).

God’s primary name is Jehovah or Yahweh – the equivalent of I AM – translated LORD in our English Bibles. “I am the LORD, that is My name” (Isaiah 42:8). “The LORD is His name” (Ex. 15:3). God’s name is a revelation of who He is: “You shall worship no other god, for the LORD whose name is Jealous, is a Jealous God” (Ex. 34:14). “In Scripture, God calls Himself by various descriptive names and titles such as ‘Lord,’ ‘God,’ ‘Almighty,’ ‘Father,’ ‘Son,’ ‘Jesus,’ ‘Christ,’ ‘Holy Spirit,’ and many more…. Thus, God’s name stands for Himself and all that He does as He reveals Himself in His Word and in His works [Psalm 19]” (Jones, Study Helps, 311). To hallow God’s name is the opposite of taking His name in vain.

The word hallow is the same word as sanctify. To sanctify means either to make someone holy that is not holy, or to treat someone holy who is already holy. God “is holiness itself” (Ursinus, 630). Therefore, to sanctify God is to know and praise Him as He truly is: “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). “We must know and think concerning His essence, will, works, omnipotence, goodness, wisdom, and all His other attributes, what He commands us in His Word to know and think respecting them [John 17:3]” (Ursinus, 630). Therefore, we must diligently study God’s Word, and pray for the Spirit’s enlightenment, so that we might praise and magnify all God’s attributes, as the biblical writers teach us in many places. “Great and marvelous are Your works, LORD God Almighty” (Rev. 15:3). “Praise the LORD, O give thanks to the LORD; for He is good” (Ps. 106:1) “His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice” (Deut. 32:4). “You, LORD, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You” (Ps. 86:5); “bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations” (Ps. 100:4-5).

Our whole life, thoughts, words, and deeds, must praise and honor God. As God’s adopted children, His image is being restored in us. “Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children” (Eph. 5:1). “Be holy for I AM holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). “Just as it is shame and disgrace to an earthly father to have a bad, unruly child, so God is dishonored if we who are called by His name and enjoy His manifold blessings fail to speak and live as godly children” (Martin Luther). God told adulterous King David: “by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme [ridicule]” His name (2 Sam. 12:14; cf. Rom. 2:24; 1 Tim. 5:14; Titus 3:5).

“But we cannot by ourselves sanctify the name of God. Therefore, we must pray to God to grant to us the strength by which we may hallow the name of God; yea, that He Himself would hallow His holy name in us [1 Pet. 3:15]” (Ursinus, 632).

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 Heidelberg Catechism 116-119

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 45

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 46 DE BRES AND THE BELGIC CONFESSION

Reformation 500 WEEK 46  De Bres and the Belgic Confession

     In 1521, Emperor Charles V, who regretted that he had not burned Luther at Worms, issued from Worms an edict to suppress heresy in the Lowlands, now known as Belgium. In 1522, Guido de Bres (pronounced GEE-doe de Bray) was born in a Belgium city called Mons. That year in Antwerp a “monastery was burned to the ground because some of its monks had listened to the Protestant heresy” (Van Halsema, Glorious Heretic, 102). “To Belgium belongs the honor of having furnished the first martyrs of evangelical Protestantism in Henry Voes and John Esch, two Augustinian monks, who were burned at the stake in Brussels, July 1, 1523, … and who were celebrated by Luther in a stirring hymn” (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 1:503).

     Guido “was fourteen when the great Bible translator, William Tyndale of England, was strangled and burned to death near Antwerp.” Guido “was converted sometime before he became twenty-five,” and in 1548 he fled “to England where the boy king Edward VI had come to the throne” (Van Halsema, 104). There he benefited greatly from his contacts with other Protestant refugees (like Martin Bucer). But as soon as bloody Mary came to the throne, Guido decided to return to Belgium.

     In October, 1555, Charles V (emperor of Germany, Spain, and the Lowlands, master of all the then known parts of Asia, Africa, and the New World) decided to become a monk. He was succeeded by his son Philip of Spain (whose third wife was bloody Mary). “It was his consuming passion to kill every person not faithful to the Church of Rome” (Van Halsema, 95). Guido fled to Geneva, Switzerland, where for the next several years “he learned from the preaching of John Calvin and the teaching of Theodore Beza…Guido became an expert in Hebrew and Greek,” and “learned to show mercy to people who were hurting” (William Boekestein, Faithfulness under Fire).

     After three years of study, Guido boarded a river boat on the Rhine and arrived in a Belgian town called Doornik, where he became the pastor of the secret Protestant Church called The Church of the Palm. “He was thirty-seven years old, and in many ways his life of hiding and fleeing had been a lonely one.” He spoke of his love to a young woman named “Catherine Ramon and told her he could offer her only a life of uncertainty. It was enough, she answered, to love each other and to know their lives were in God’s good hands.” Sometime in 1559 they were married; the next year they had a son and “named him Israel” (Van Halsema, 107-108).

     While Guido was hiding, he wrote his Confession of Faith (patterned after the French Gallican Confession of 1559 written by Calvin). In the copies of the Confession printed in 1561 the first pages contained an open letter to King Philip, asking him to stop fighting against the church (Guido secretly tossed his Confession with its introductory letter over the walls of the king’s castle). Guido said that he and his friends “were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, although they would ‘offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their whole bodies to the fire, rather than deny the truth of God’s Word.’ … Though the confession failed to stem the tide of persecution, it was instrumental in helping thousands understand the Reformed faith. Guido de Bres was eventually captured and he sealed his confession with martyr’s blood in 1567” (RCUS Three Forms of Unity, 52).

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 DeBres and the Belgic Confession

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 45

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 46: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM QA 120-121

Reformation 500 WEEK 46: Heidelberg Catechism QA 120-121

Question 120: Why did Christ command us to address God THUS: “Our Father”? To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer that childlike reverence for and trust in God, which are to be the ground of our prayer, namely, that God has become our Father through Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in faith than our parents refuse us earthly things.

Christ commands us who believe in Him to call God Father, that at the very beginning of our prayer we may remember the ground or foundation of our prayer: “that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…is for the sake of Christ, His Son, my God and my Father [John 20:17]” (Q&A 26); and, therefore, that we may pray the way God’s adopted children should pray: with childlike reverence for and trust in God. “A son honors his father…If then I am the Father, where is My honor?” (Mal. 1:6). “Or what man is there among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? …If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Matt. 7:9, 11).

Christ directs us to say our Father, and not my Father, first, “that He may excite in us a confidence of being heard: for since, we do not pray alone, but seeing that the whole church unites its voice with ours, God will not reject the prayers of the whole church, but hears them, according as it is said: ‘Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them’ [Matt. 18:20] …. Second, that He might admonish us to mutual love. Christians possessing mutual love should pray for one another [1 John 5:1-2]” (Ursinus, 628).

God has always been the Father of His chosen people. “I am a Father to Israel” (Jer. 31:9). OT believers were also called the children of God (Ex. 4:22); and they called God “Father.” “You, O LORD, are our Father” (Isaiah 63:16). “Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever” (1 Chron. 29:10).

Question 121: Why is it added: “in heaven”? That we might have no earthly thought of the heavenly majesty of God, and from His almighty power expect all things necessary for body and soul.

The fact that God is said to be “in heaven” does not mean He is confined there. God is everywhere. Solomon prayed, “Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You” (1 Kings 8:27). God is said to dwell in heaven because heaven is like a royal palace where God manifests His glory and majesty in a more glorious way than He does on earth. Therefore, when we pray to our Father in heaven, we must remember that He is not an earthly father. He is not the man upstairs. We are not even to think of our Lord Jesus Christ in earthly terms (2 Cor. 5:16). God is eternal and all-powerful, infinitely higher and greater than the greatest earthly father. Our earthy parents make lots of mistakes, and they cannot love us perfectly. But our heavenly Father never makes a mistake. His love is unfailing and everlasting (Jer. 31:3)! “Being in heaven and being God, our Father can give us all things necessary for body and soul through Jesus Christ; and we can confidently expect Him to do so. Nothing is too hard for Him” [Gen. 18:14; Ps. 103:19; 115:3; Luke 2:37]” (Jones, Study Helps, 309).

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 Heidelberg Catechism 120-121

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 46

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 45: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM QA 116-119

Reformation 500 WEEK 45: Heidelberg Catechism QA 116-119

Question 116: Why is prayer necessary for Christians? Because it is the chief part of thankfulness which God requires of us, and because God will give His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who earnestly and without ceasing ask them of Him, and render thanks unto Him for them.

     The Christian life is a life of thankfulness. Prayer is the chief or main part of showing ourselves thankful for our salvation. God saved us first of all that we might thank and praise Him for His glorious grace. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ …having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:3, 5-6). You are “His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. Psalm 103:1-2; 116:12-17). “No one has faith who is not thankful for it; for all those who possess true faith taste the grace of God, and those who have tasted the grace of God show themselves thankful to God for it, and desire it more and more” (Ursinus, 620).

     The second reason why prayer is necessary is because it is God’s appointed way for us to receive all those things that are necessary both for soul and body. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15). “For everyone who asks receives” (Luke 11:10). Our Father in heaven already knows what we need (Matt. 6:8) but still He requires us to ask Him, because He wants us to realize what our real needs are; and that He is the only who can meet our needs. “We do not obtain the blessings which are necessary for us, except we ask them at the hands of God; for He has promised them to none but such as ask. Prayer is, therefore, just as necessary for us as it is necessary for a beggar to ask alms” (Ursinus, 620). 

     But don’t the wicked receive many gifts from God, who nevertheless do not ask or desire them? “The wicked do indeed received many gifts [Matt. 5:45]; but not such as are principle nor peculiar to the elect, as faith, repentance, conversion, remission of sins and regeneration. And still further, the gifts they do receive do not contribute to their salvation, but to their destruction” (Ursinus, 620).

        Our greatest need as Christians is for a continual supply of God’s grace and Holy Spirit, so that we might live an obedient and thankful life. Jesus says to all believers: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Since we believers already have the Holy Spirit, to ask our Father to give us the Holy Spirit is to ask for an increase of the Spirit’s grace and gifts, primarily the gift of sanctification, which is precisely what produces in us the faith and desire to call upon Jesus as LORD (1 Cor. 12:3). “God effects in us a desire for the Holy Spirit and gives Him to us in the very same moment…. We might also make a distinction between the beginning and increase of the Spirit within us, inasmuch as we do not desire the latter before we have the former. No one desires the Holy Spirit, except he in whom the Spirit dwells” (Ursinus, 621). For the Christian, prayer is a way of life: giving thanks, praying for help, and giving thanks for the help received: “pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God” (1 Thess. 5:18; cf. Eph. 5:20; Phil. 4:6-7).

Question 117: What belongs to such prayer which is acceptable to God and which He will hear? First, that with our whole heart we call only upon the one true God, who has revealed Himself to us in His Word, for all that He has commanded us to ask of Him; second, that we thoroughly know our need and misery, so as to humble ourselves in the presence of His divine majesty; third, that we be firmly assured that notwithstanding our unworthiness He will, for the sake of Christ our Lord, certainly hear our prayer, as He has promised us in His Word.

     Three things are necessary for our prayers to be acceptable to God. First, we must sincerely ask the true God what He commands us to ask. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit [sincerely] and truth [according to Scripture]” (John 4:24). “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). “God does not desire us to direct vague and wandering petitions to Him, being uncertain what we should pray for. A king would consider himself derided and mocked if anyone were to kneel before him, without knowing what to ask as his hands” (Ursinus, 620). Second, we must ask with humility, which is to realize how unworthy we are to receive the help we so desperately need. “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown me” (Gen. 32:10); “we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You” (2 Chron. 20:12). Third, we must ask with assurance that God will hear our prayer for Jesus’ sake. Jesus said, “whatever you ask [according to His will] in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14; cf. Mark 11:24; Heb. 11:6).

Question 118: What has God commanded us to ask of Him? All things necessary for soul and body, which Christ our Lord comprised in the prayer which He Himself taught us.

     When the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1), Jesus taught them what we call the Lord’s Prayer (recorded in Luke 11:2-4 and Matthew 6:9-13). Jesus did not say, “Pray these exact words and no other.” He said, “In this manner, pray” (Matt. 6:9); that is, pray like this. The Lord’s Prayer “contains, in the most condense form, all things which are to be sought as necessary for soul and body. It is in like manner a rule or pattern with which all our prayers ought to conform and agree…. Hence Augustine declares that all the prayers of the saints which we have in the Scriptures are contained in the Lord’s Prayer. Augustine also adds, that we are at liberty to express the same things in other words when we pray” (Ursinus, 625-626).

Question 119: What is the Lord’s Prayer? Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

     The remainder of the Catechism will explain the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer.

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 Heidelberg Catechism 116-119

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 45

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 44: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM QA 113-115

Reformation 500 WEEK 44: Heidelberg Catechism QA 113-115

Question 113: What does the tenth Commandment require? That not even the least inclination or thought against any commandment of God ever enter our heart, but that with our whole heart we continually hate all sin and take pleasure in all righteousness.

     The Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house [or wife, or anything that is your neighbor’s],” is the one commandment that speaks directly to the heart. The word covet means “strong desire.” By itself it is not a bad word. It depends on what we strongly desire. We can earnestly desire good things, as Paul commanded us in 1 Corinthians 12:31: “covet [earnestly desire] the best gifts.” The Tenth Commandment forbids “coveting those things which God has forbidden” (Ursinus, 606). Even if we don’t take what belongs to our neighbor, it is a sin to want it. Even if we don’t sleep with our neighbor’s spouse it is a sin to wish we could. Even if we don’t rob a bank, it is a sin to wish we could and to rejoice in others who do. Love “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6). The Tenth Commandment is last to teach us that obeying all of God’s commands is a matter of the heart. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart” (Deut. 6:5). “You shall not hate your brother in your heart…. but you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:17-18). “The Lord Jesus Christ re-emphasized this truth in His sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:20-48), that the commandments require heart-purity and heartfelt love to God and our neighbor. The natural, unregenerate man – such as the Pharisees in Jesus’ day were proud of their outward obedience and resented Jesus’ teaching about the heart [Matt. 23:28; John 7:7]” (Jones, Study Helps, 283).

     When God redeems us by faith in Jesus Christ, He not only forgives the eternal penalty of our wicked heart, He also purifies our hearts in sanctification, so that with our whole heart we continually hate all sin (even the least inclination or thought against any commandment of God) and take pleasure in all righteousness. “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness” (Psalm 119:35-36).

     The cure for covetousness is contentment. “Let your conduct be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). “And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation…For the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:8-10). Therefore, to sum up how to be content: “1. We must be satisfied with what God gives us because He is free and sovereign, and He gives us what He wishes us to have for our best. He alone is Master of our lives. 2. God is all-wise and infinitely good in giving His gifts. His love toward us in Christ is perfect. He never withholds from us that which is for our spiritual good and for His glory. To think that God would be unfair to us is folly and unbelief. We deserve nothing, and all we have, we have received by God’s rich mercy. 3. Contentment with God’s providence enables us to live in peace and joy, in gratitude and praise. The unsatisfied person is never happy, and is likely to break the commandments of God in order to get what he desires. Having the Lord and His salvation, we need nothing more, and our joy is full” (Jones, 284).

Question 114: Can those who are converted to God keep these Commandments perfectly? No, but even the holiest of men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of such obedience, yet so that with earnest purpose they begin to live not only according to some, but according to all the Commandments of God.

     “The natural man, who is un-regenerated, is not able to obey God’s holy will in any degree [Rom. 8:7] …. But the question asks if the converted or regenerated person can keep God’s holy commands perfectly.” Since the regenerated person “still has his ‘old man,’ the old nature of sin, he is unable to give God perfect obedience…. The most sanctified Christians, such as the Apostles, are still sinful and not perfect. The Scriptures tell us of Noah’s drunkenness [Gen. 9:21]. Job cursing the day of his birth (Job 3:1-2), David’s acts of adultery and murder (2 Sam. 11), Peter’s shameful denial of his Lord (Luke 22:54-62), and Paul’s confession of indwelling sin (Rom. 7:21). … Christ taught us to pray for daily forgiveness, even as we pray for our daily bread (Matt. 6:11-12; cf. 1 John 1:8-10)” (Jones, 287-288). Since the Lord commands us to “be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48), we only have a small beginning of the obedience which God requires. But at least by God’s grace we have a beginning, and an earnest purpose to obey all of God’s commands, just as Paul did: “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man” (Rom. 7:22). “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3).

Question 115: Why then does God so strictly enjoin the Ten Commandments upon us, since in this life no one can keep them? First, that as long as we live we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and so the more earnestly seek forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ; second, that without ceasing we diligently ask God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we be renewed more and more after the image of God, until we attain the goal of perfection after this life.

     There are two reasons why God requires us to obey His commands perfectly even though we never will in this life. First, the more we learn what God requires in His commands, the more we discover how far short we fall (Rom. 3:20-23; 7:7); and the more earnestly we seek forgiveness and righteousness in Christ. “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25). Second, God’s law is not only designed to drive us to Christ for forgiveness but also for renewal (sanctification), so that God’s holy image is more and more restored in us (Eph. 5:1). We not only need daily forgiveness for covetousness, we also need daily renewal so that we “put to death…evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5) and learn to be more content with the Lord’s loving presence in our hearts (Rom. 5:5). “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me...forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead…. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:12-13, 20). So, “God commands us to seek and to desire the perfect fulfillment of the law in this life…because He purposes at length to accomplish it in those who desire it, and to grant it to us after this life, if we here truly and heartily desire it” (Ursinus, 616).

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation HC Lord's Day 44 QA 113-115

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 44

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 43 KNOX REFORMS SCOTLAND

Reformation 500 WEEK 43    KNOX REFORMS SCOTLAND

After bloody Mary came to the English throne, John Knox fled for his life; and “ended up as co-pastor of the English refugee congregation in Calvin’s Geneva,” which he said was “the happiest period of his life” (Needham, 2000 years, 3:407). In 1558 he wrote his first revolutionary book, in which he argued that “female rule…contradicted both the law of nature and God’s revealed law in Scripture, and female rulers must be deposed. The treatise was aimed chiefly against Mary Tudor [bloody Mary];” but “soon after the book’s publication, Mary Tudor died and was succeeded by a female Protestant sovereign, Elizabeth [who helped to make England a Protestant country again]. Knox’s book alienated Elizabeth badly,” and “also outraged most Protestants,” including Calvin who “had its sale in Geneva banned” (Ibid. 408). On the whole, Calvin and Knox were on the same page. Knox judged Geneva to be “the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles.”

In 1559, Knox returned to Scotland, “determined to do for his country what Calvin had done for the city of Geneva” (Nichols, Reformation, 97). “In May, after he preached a fiery sermon that making images of Jesus, God, and saints and praying to them is against the Bible, his listeners became so energized that they started to destroy all the pictures and statues in the church. The same thing happened in other cities. Soon there was an actual war, and Mary Guise [who was ruling Scotland for her sixteen-year-old daughter Mary Stuart who was also Queen of France] had to ask France to send more troops to help her. Seeing they could easily be outnumbered, the Protestant lords asked England to come to their rescue…. Finally, in March 1560, the English army came to the rescue and defeated the French in battle” (Simonetta Carr, John Knox, 37, 40). In June Mary of Guise died. On August 17, “the Scottish Parliament decreed a change of religion. Protestantism instead of Catholicism was made the religion of the country. A Calvinistic confession of faith, largely the work of John Knox, was adopted. The pope’s authority and all jurisdiction was abolished and the celebration of the mass was forbidden” (Kuiper, Church in History, 217). In January 1561, Parliament approved Knox’s Book of Discipline, which introduced Presbyterian church government modeled after Calvin’s system in Geneva, where each congregation is governed by elders (presbyters), elected from its own membership. “For the conduct of public worship Knox prepared a Book of Common Order. To a great extent this order of worship was based on the form for public worship used by the church of English refugees in Geneva. That in turn was based on the form designed by Calvin. This form of worship consisted in prayer, reading of Scripture, the sermon, congregational singing, and the taking up of an offering” (Kuiper, 218-219).

Mary Stuart, Scotland’s lawful queen, arrived in August 1561. Her attempt to obtain freedom to practice her catholic faith was vigorously opposed at every step by Knox, who “affirmed in a sermon that one mass was more dreadful than an invasion of Scotland” (Needham, 3:420). Knox was summoned into Mary’s presence four times, and each time “got the better of the queen,” even once “reducing her to hysterical tears by his forthright no-nonsense commitment to a Protestant Scotland in which the idolatry of the mass could have no place” (Ibid. 421). 

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 Knox Reforms Scotland

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 43

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

REFORMATION 500 WEEK 43: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM QA 112

Reformation 500 WEEK 43: Heidelberg Catechism QA 112

Question 112: What does the ninth Commandment require? That I bear false witness against no one, twist no one’s words, be no backbiter or slanderer, join in condemning no one unheard or rashly; but that on pain of God’s heavy wrath, I avoid all lying and deceit as the very works of the devil; and that in matters of judgment and justice and in all other affairs, I love, speak honestly, and confess the truth; also, insofar as I can, defend and promote my neighbor’s good name.

     The Ninth Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” is designed for “the establishment and preservation of truth amongst men… for the glory of God and the safety of our neighbor” (Ursinus, 600-601). Behind this command is the fact that God Himself is “a God of truth and without iniquity” (Deut. 32:4); “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18). God created mankind in His image to imitate Him by thinking, speaking, and practicing the truth. Mankind fell by believing Satan’s lie, “You shall not surely die.” Mankind is saved by believing the truth: “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Jesus said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6). When God redeems us from sin through faith in Jesus Christ, He gives us a love for truth and a hatred of lies: “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight” (Prov. 12:22). Therefore, by the work of the Holy Spirit, “a righteous man hates lying” (Prov. 13:5). But the habit of lying, like every sinful habit, is hard to break. Therefore, Paul tells Christians, “putting away lying, let each of you speak truth with his neighbor” (Eph. 4:25). When we lie, we imitate the devil, who is “the father of lies” (John 8:44). All liars will suffer God’s eternal wrath in hell (Rev. 21:8). Believers will suffer God’s loving discipline. God disciplined Jacob by allowing him to be deceived – first by his uncle Laban; and then by his own sons who led him to believe that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.

     “The reputation and honor of our neighbor is his sacred right [Prov. 22:1]; and it is a grave sin to tear down his reputation and good name by speaking lies [25:18], or even by speaking unkindly about him” (Jones, Study Helps, 280). To twist someone’s words means “so changing the words of another person that a wrong message is given [Psalm 56:5] ….  Backbiting is speaking behind a person’s back in an evil and hurtful manner (even though truthful facts are reported), so that injury is done. Slander is telling things about another person which we know to be untrue.” Joining in condemning another person unheard or rashly refers to “believing a lie on insufficient evidence [Prov. 18:13] …. We must warn others who tell us questionable things that they must beware of gossip [Prov. 18:8]. Even if we know something evil about another person, we are not to speak of it to others before first approaching the person privately and seeking his repentance – in which case, we should forget the matter and not repeat it to others [Matt. 18:15]” (Jones, 280-81); “nor are those lies which are uttered for politeness sake, excused, because we may not do evil, that good may come…. God did not bless [the Hebrew midwives] because they lied, but because they feared Him and would not slay the children of the Israelites [Ex. 1:15-21]” (Ursinus, 601-602).

     God told Joshua to use military deception in defeating Ai (Joshua 8:1-26). May we say that Rahab’s lie was a form of military deception, since she chose Israel’s side in the war on Jericho? What about those who hid Jews in Nazi Germany?

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation 500 Heidelberg Catechism QA 112

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 43

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts.