The Heidelberg Catechism
Pastor's
introduction
Shortcuts
The First
Part: Our Sin and Misery
Lord's Day
01,
02,
03,
04
The Second
Part: Our Deliverance (Lord's
Day 5-31)
The Third
Part: Our Thankfulness (Lord's
Day 32-52)
The Heidelberg
Catechism and bible references are reproduced here with grateful thanks to the Theological
College of Canadian Reformed Churches www.canrc.org.
Sermon notes and other information are by the
Revd Peter G Michell
M Theol., pastor of Iden Green
Congregational Church.
LORD'S DAY 1
Sermon
notes Next
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1
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What is your only comfort in life and death?
That I am not my own,1 but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death,2 to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.3 He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood,4 and has set me free from all the power of the devil.5 He also preserves me in such a way6 that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head;7 indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.8 Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life9 and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.10
1 1 Corinthians
6:19-20.
2 Romans 14:7-9.
3 1 Corinthians 3:23; Titus 2:14.
4 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1
John 1:7; 2:2.
5 John 8:34-36; Hebrews
2:14-15; 1 John 3:8.
6 John 6:39-40; 10:27-30; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 1
Peter 1:5.
7 Matthew 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18.
8 Romans 8:28.
9 Romans 8:15-16; 2 Corinthians
1:21-22; 5:5; Ephesians
1:13-14.
10 Romans 8:14.
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2
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What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
First, how great my sins and misery are;1 second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery;2 third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.3
1 Romans 3:9,10; 1
John 1:10.
2 John 17:3; Acts 4:12; 10:43.
3 Matthew 5:16; Romans 6:13; Ephesians 5:8-10; 1 Peter 2:9,10.
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The First Part
OUR SIN AND MISERY
LORD'S DAY 2
Sermon
notes
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3
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From where do you know your sins and misery?
From the law of God.1
1 Romans 3:20;
Romans 7:7-25
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4
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What does God's law require of us?
Christ teaches us this in a summary in Matthew 22: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.1 This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.2
1 Deuteronomy 6:5.
2 Leviticus 19:18.
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5
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Can you keep all this perfectly?
No,1 I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbour.2
1 Romans 3:10,23; 1
John 1:8, 10.
2 Genesis 6:5; 8:21; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 7:23; 8:7; Ephesians 2:3; Titus 3:3.
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LORD'S DAY 3
Sermon
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6
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Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
No, on the contrary, God created man good1 and in His image,2 that is, in true righteousness and holiness,3 so that he might rightly know God his Creator,4 heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.5
1 Genesis
1:31.
2 Genesis 1:26-27.
3 Ephesians 4:24.
4 Colossians 3:10.
5 Psalm 8.
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7
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From where, then, did man's depraved nature come?
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,1 for there our nature became so corrupt2 that we are all conceived and born in sin.3
1 Genesis 3.
2 Romans 5:12,18-19.
3 Psalm 51:5.
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8
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But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
Yes,1 unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.2
1 Genesis 6:5; 8:21; Job 14:4; Isaiah 53:6.
2 John 3:3-5.
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LORD'S DAY 4
Sermon notes |
9
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But does not God do man an injustice by requiring in His law what man cannot do?
No, for God so created man that he was able to do it.1 But man, at the instigation of the devil,2 in deliberate disobedience3 robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.4
1 Genesis 1:31.
2 Genesis 3:13; John 8:44; 1 Timothy 2:13, 14.
3 Genesis 3:6.
4 Romans 5:12,18 19.
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10
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Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?
Certainly not. He is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as our actual sins. Therefore He will punish them by a just judgment both now and eternally,1 as He has declared:2 Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them (Galatians 3:10).
1Genesis 2:17; Exodus 34:7; Psalm 5:4-6;
Psalm 7:11; Nahum 1:2; Romans 1:18;
Romans 5:12;
2Deuteronomy 27:26.
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11
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But is God not also merciful?
God is indeed merciful,1 but He is also just.2 His justice requires that sin committed against the most high majesty of God also be punished with the most severe, that is, with everlasting, punishment of body and soul.3
1 Exodus 20:6; Exodus
34:6-7; Psalm 103:8-9.
2 Exodus 20:5; Exodus
34:7; Deuteronomy 7:9-11; Psalm 5:4-6; Hebrews
10:30-31.
3 Matthew 25:45-46.
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The Second Part:
Our Deliverance >>> |
