and answer us that we would have your spirit and that we would understand your words before us, that the words from my mouth would be your words, that the meditations of our heart would honor you, would lift your name upon high for who you are, for what you have done. Lord, may your name be lifted up and glorified through our worship. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Turn your Bibles to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five, and we'll read the first 21 verses of Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five, verse one. Romans chapter 5 verse 1, this is the word of the Lord. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have been now justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation but the free gift following many trespass brought justification for if because of one man's trespass death reigned through that one man much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore. As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Lord's Day 16 is really about suffering. And we are surrounded by suffering. You don't have to go far to experience it. There are people that are not with us right now because of the effects of suffering. And there are people that are not with us right now because of the ultimate effects of suffering, that they have died. And some have been taken in old age where you expect them to die and you rejoice more when they die because they've lived a full life. Others have been taken prematurely from us and we still mourn their loss even now. But suffering is all around us. And the other week, we looked at Lord's Day 15. We looked at the suffering of Jesus. It's important to know that Jesus has suffered. When we think of our suffering, it's important to know that the hurt and the pain that we experience in this world, we're not alone in experiencing that because Jesus has suffered with us. He has suffered ahead of us, suffered more than us. So you are not alone in the suffering that you experience in this world. The Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, suffered. And he suffered everything this world could throw at him and more. He suffered God's wrath for our sin. It means he suffered death. Lord's Day 16 addresses specifically death. And I'd like to go through this catechism basically question by question this evening. We're going to ask three questions for each question of the catechism. So what is the catechism saying? We'll address that question, then we'll ask, is this biblical? And then we'll ask, why does this matter? And we're gonna look at each question then. So the first question in the catechism is, why did Christ have to suffer death? And the answer, because God's justice and truth require it. Nothing else could pay for our sins except the death of the Son of God. So first question then, what is the catechism saying? What is the catechism saying in this question and answer? If you've grown up in the church, you have always heard of Jesus' death. It's central to our faith. You know it, so maybe it's fair to think of a little voice in your head, maybe that has the question, did Jesus have to die? Or maybe you didn't grow up in the church, and you're not a member of the church, the church is new to you, that voice is maybe louder, and it's not so timid. Did Jesus have to die? Did he die? Well, the catechism asks the same question for us. So you don't have to worry about being timid or bold. So what is the catechism saying? Well, it's assuming a couple of things. It's assuming that sin is present in the world. That's just with the order of the catechism, the way they have the catechism. This first section is sin and misery. This section we're on now is salvation. The catechism is assuming sin is in the world. And it's assuming that sin is a big problem. Also assuming that Jesus died, that Jesus did die. And it is saying Jesus did have to die because of this big problem in the world of sin. The Son of God had to die. And this is really kind of looking at Lord's Day 4 and Lord's Day 5 again. Where Lord's Day 4 says, will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished? Lord's Day 5, who can make this payment for us? Saying God will not permit this disobedience to go unpunished. Lord's Day 5, who can make this payment for us? Only someone who is true God, powerful enough to defeat sin, but also a true man. Someone to take our sin for us. A man to take our sin for us. So what is the catechism saying? Well it's laying out two arguments really. First it's saying sin needs to be dealt with by death. Sin has to be dealt with by death. And the second thing it's saying is sin can only be dealt with through the death of Jesus, Son of God. So sin has to be dealt with and it's got to be dealt with by death. And the only one that can die is Jesus, the Son of God. So is this biblical? The second question we ask. Yes, absolutely. This is the essence of the gospel. The Bible is very clear on both of these accounts. Does sin need to be punished by death? In Genesis 2, verse 17, God speaks to Adam in the great test in the garden. God says to Adam of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. In Romans 5, Paul interprets that exact story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he interprets this first fruit-picking event. Maybe it wasn't the first fruit-picking event, but... that fruit picking event in the garden as being the event, the event for the reason everyone dies. Romans 5 verse 12 that we read already, therefore just as sin came into the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. And then verse 18, therefore as one trespass led to the condemnation for all men. One trespass meaning the sin of Adam led to the condemnation of all men. And Romans 5 is very clear that all people die, everybody dies, because of sin. Unfortunately, even babies die because of sin. In Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. Psalm 145, verse 20, the Lord preserves all who love him, but the wicked he will destroy. Ezekiel 18, verse 20, the soul who sins shall die. James 1, verse 15, sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. The problem with the world's sin brings death. Sin is a big problem. The second argument then, sin can only be dealt with through Jesus' death, is very clear, laid out through the Bible again. Romans 5 verse 18, therefore, as one trespass led to the condemnation for all men, so it's saying that Adam's sin led to death for all men, but then it continues, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. Sin came into the world by Adam. He was our representative head. That means when he sinned, he represented what you and I would do, what mankind would do. And that means what he did, we also did with him in the garden. That means we are guilty, just as he is guilty. We are guilty with him, as though that we were with him and took of the fruit. It means you are born guilty because of Adam's sin. He represented what we would have done. And that seem unfair? That because of his mistake we are guilty? Well, if we reject it and say it is unfair, then we cannot take Christ's righteousness for ourselves either. Because he's our representative head on the other half. He's been perfectly righteous. And he gives us his righteousness. He is our representative head in righteousness leading to life. Verse 19, for as by one man, this is Romans 5, verse 19, for as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. Verse 21, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, Christ's righteousness for us, leading to eternal life through him, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus is our righteousness. Just as Adam sinned in the garden, and that was our sin, Jesus is our righteousness. He's our representation. He represents us to the Father. And he performed perfect obedience. Only he could do this. Only he could do this because only he is perfectly righteous without sin. No one else ever could fulfill that. Hebrews 10 speaks about Jesus being the fulfillment of this perfect righteousness. And because he's the fulfillment of this perfect righteousness, it means he can be the sacrifice, because he's a perfect sacrifice without sin. Hebrews 10 verse 5 says, When Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Jesus came to do the Father's will, which was a life without sin. and yet to die so that he could be our sacrifice. And we can look at every page of scripture and see how Jesus is the answer to this problem, that he is the one that has to pay this price for us, how Jesus is perfect, sinless, how Jesus is powerful, powerful to rise from the dead, that only he could be in this position to die for our sins as a perfect sacrifice and yet be strong enough to defeat sin. So is the catechism biblical? Absolutely it is biblical, yes. The catechism says sin requires death and no one can take this judgment but Jesus. Now why does this matter? The third question. Does the world say that sin needs to be punished with death? As the catechism is implying here. As the catechism is saying here. Does the world say that sin needs to be punished with death? I think that it actually does. How does the world react to injustice, whether that's economic injustice or racial or gender or environmental injustice? The world is ruthless. The world does care about rules. They do care about justice. You say the wrong thing and while you're canceled and there's no chance to redeem yourself, you're classified in this category and you're written off. You do the wrong thing, you say the wrong thing, and the world does not forget. There is judgment there from the world till death. Sin, redemption from sin, matters immensely because every single person needs forgiveness. The world recognizes that there is a problem in the world. The world recognizes there's a problem in the world. The world really cares about justice. They do not offer a solution. The Bible does. The problem is that the world has thwarted the meaning of sin. Instead of offending God and missing the mark that God has set for obedience to Him, the world has set their own standard. Their standard is whatever they choose. So they really care about justice, but they've set their standard of justice. And the problem with setting your own standard is actually really the same problem as the Bible says that we have with sin. No one can live up to it. Even when you set your own standard, nobody can live up to it. And there's no solution in ourselves. The world recognizes that there's a problem in the world. But the world has no solution to it. The world cannot live up to their own standards. So what does it matter that sin requires death? Well, it matters because nobody has an answer except the Bible. Jesus is the only answer to the problem in the world. It matters because human nature sets up their standards that are impossible to keep. The world says that we should have justice economically, we should have justice racially and genderly. I don't know if that's a word but you get the idea. Environmental justice, we should have all this justice and yet it can't live up to its own standard. We all recognize there's a problem in the world. We define it as sin, as offense against God. And we offer a solution through Jesus Christ. To accept God and his word is to accept our helplessness as sinners and point us to the only help that we have in Jesus Christ, by whose grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2 verse 5. Or 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3, our memory work. For today, it says Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Christ had to die for our sins, because there was no other way. Well, you might be thinking, well, we spend that much time on question one, and we have four more to go. It's a five-point sermon. We're gonna be here for a long time. Well, that is an important question. It hits at the gospel heavily. So we can spend more time on it. The other questions, some of them won't take very long, especially this next one. We look at now, why was he buried? Answer, his burial testifies that he really died. The question is more straightforward. What's the catechism saying? What's saying Jesus in real life, no question of a doubt, died. Is this biblical? Well, 1 Corinthians 15 says yes. Along with every other gospel in the New Testament says yes. Every other writer in the New Testament says yes, Jesus did die. Paul says if Jesus didn't rise from the dead we are above all fools to be pitied. Our religion means nothing. So what does this matter? Well this matters greatly for the exact reason Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 14. If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain. What does that mean in vain? It means for nothing. It means we might as well just go home. If Christ didn't die from the dead, rise from the dead, we might as well just go home. Our faith is based on a historical event, a historical miracle. Jesus rose from the dead and everything depends on Him rising from the dead. If He didn't, He's not powerful over death. He's not the Son of God. He's not to be worshipped. Well, question three. Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die? Answer, our death is not a payment for our sins, but only a dying to sins and an entering into eternal life. So what is the catechism saying? Well, it's saying you and I die, but not because we are paying for our sins. It's saying our death does not pay for the wrong that we have done. Catechism is addressing a concept like purgatory, as if to say our suffering contributes to our sanctification. The catechism is rather saying our death is the order God brings us into the new creation. It's the way God puts off these bodies of flesh riddled with sin so we can enter into new life for eternity, free of sin, free of sinful bodies. Now is this biblical? Yes, again, this is biblical. First, our death pays no debt that we have to God. It gives us only what we deserve. If you get a penalty in football, you give up some downs, and that's the consequences because of the penalty that you served. And similar to us, sin deserves death, as we saw from scripture. So when we die, we have received what is due. It's not as though when we die, we're put above and say, well, then you deserve life because you've died. They think of it in hockey. Use a hockey example, because I'm Canadian, right? In hockey, you have a penalty. The goalie slashes the guy in front of him. I think I've used this analogy before, but it's a good one. The goalie slashes one of the other players in front of him, and the ref blows the whistle and calls a penalty on the goalie. And the goalie can't serve penalties, though. So somebody else on the team puts up their hand. That doesn't happen in the NHL, but you could put up their hand just to make it more dramatic. They put up their hands and say, I'll serve the penalty for the goalie. So, so-and-so goes into the penalty box for the goalie. That's, that's a penalty being served. And he's doing that on behalf of the goalie. Now, that penalty being served doesn't earn the goalie extra, extra points as though, He did something good. He served what he deserved, but he served it through somebody else. That penalty has been paid. So sin deserves death. Right? As we saw from Scripture. So when we die, we deserve it. But the thing with judgment is, Bible talks about a judgment for sin. It's not just you die and game over. It's eternal death. A sin committed against an eternal God requires eternal punishment. Our sin doesn't just mean our bodies die. It means eternal punishment of hell. Our death on earth here is the result of Adam and Eve in the garden, but it's a beginning of, you could say, eternity for believers. the beginning of eternal life, but to the wicked, the beginning of eternal death. Matthew 25 paints this picture of the future for us. We have the nations gathered before God and separated, goats and sheep. The sheep, God's beloved. To his right, God says, come you who are blessed by the Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The goats on the left hand, those who rejected Jesus, He will say, depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, eternal. Death is the entrance to eternity. For believers, those who have loved Jesus, who trust in him as their savior, eternal life. And for believers, earthly death, your body dies, is the severing of a sinful body. Sinful flesh. Paul talks of this in Philippians 1 verse 21. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He goes on to say that if he remains he is able to share the gospel and he's able to encourage the church yet he longs to be with Christ. Why does he long to be with Christ? Because to be free of this body that is sinful. Romans 7 verse 24 and 25 Paul says, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Death is a freeing from this body that is tied to sin. Now you might think, hold on a sec. We're not Platonists. We're not dualists. Are you saying our bodies are bad and our spirits are good or something like that? Am I promoting a sort of dualism saying Our bodies are evil and our minds, our spirits are good. No, I'm not promoting that. I'm saying this created order has been stained, it's been marred by sin. But God loves our physical bodies. We confess in Lord's Day One that we belong in body and in soul. God loves our bodies. So he's going to renew them, and he's gonna renew them without sin. And this is the new creation. So I'm not pitting body versus spirit. We long for the day when we have been reunited with a perfect body. not struggling with sin. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20 talks about this, talks about creation itself groaning under sin, but longing for the renewal by God. Paul says there, creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Likewise, you and I, believers, verse 23, not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. God cares about our bodies. Now what does this matter? This third question in this answer. How is this biblical truth that the catechism explains practical for you and I? And I would say one thing, but one thing that really encompasses a whole, everything really, perspective. This biblical truth that we, We die not to pay for our sins, but as a gateway into new life gives us an amazing perspective on really everything in life. It gives us eyes to see this world, to see this world as broken, but we are loved by God. It gives us eyes to see sin out of place in this world. This is not the way the world ought to be. This gives us perspective to look to the future. Our hope is not here and now. But it is in this world. It is in God renewing this world, renewing our bodies. Heaven is where we have renewed bodies. We are human, means we are spirit and body. To be truly human in heaven is to have a spirit and a body. This view gives us amazing perspective because we are going to face difficulties and we do not have to be surprised because we live in a broken world. We struggle with sin. But most of all, this gives us perspective on the day of our death or the day of someone that we love. For believers, death is freedom from sin. It's union with God. It's entering into a new creation. We turn to our fourth question here. What further benefit do we receive from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross? The answer, by his power our old man is crucified, is put to death and buried with him so that evil desires of the flesh may no longer rule over us. But instead we may offer ourselves as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to him. So what's the catechism saying there? It's saying the cross benefits us with knowledge we can know. We can know that when Christ died on the cross on the cross with Him was our sinful nature. It was our sin. It's saying we are assured that our sin was nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ. That it was buried in the ground with Him. So that when temptation arises, we can be assured that we can win. Because God judged sin in Jesus Christ. And killed Him for our sin. And yet Jesus Christ rose from the dead, conquering sin. So because we have the same victorious God that has defeated sin, we have Him dwelling in us so we can defeat sin through Him, through the Spirit. Well, is this biblical? Yes, again, this is biblical. Romans 6 verse 5 and the following says exactly this. You can turn there now. It's as if the catechism writers maybe copied him. I mean, the catechism is heavily based off Romans, so it's very likely they had Romans 6 opened up, and they were looking at it as they were writing this. So Romans 6 verse 5 says, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We are united with Christ on the cross, and we are united with Christ in his resurrection. And therefore, Romans 6 verse 5 keeps going, we know that our old self was crucified with him. Our sin was judged with him, so we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Verse 7 there, for one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him, nor does it have dominion over us. Verse 10, for the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive in God in Christ Jesus. So what does this matter for us? Well, the Catechism makes it plain why this matters to us. It says we may offer ourselves as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to him. We do not earn our salvation. You and I are not out in the world seeking to put our sin to death so that so that we can purge those lingering sins in our lives and get to heaven. We are not out in the world fighting sin so that we can appear righteous before God. Brothers and sisters, that has all been done already. All our efforts are worthless if you are not looking to the cross where sin has already been defeated. Why do we do good works? of thankfulness. The catechism here in this Lord's Day 16 is pointing to the third section of the catechism beginning in Lord's Day 32. Why do we do good works? For thankfulness. We don't earn our way to heaven. Not even by our death. Our death accomplishes no sort of favor or reward from God because we deserve eternal death. All our standing before God is based on the cross. Christ paid for our sins. We do not. You do not pay for your sins. So, we are thankful that we don't have to pay for our sins. This is what we do before God, live thankfully. Practically speaking, this makes us humble as well. Doesn't it? Who are we? Who is God? Who are you? Who is God? We are nothing and yet God is everything. Well, the last question there, what does the creed add, sorry, why does the creed add, he descended into hell? And the catechism understands this line needs to be explained. Why? Well, because Jesus did not descend into hell. That would be impossible. Jesus is God, so Jesus God himself cannot be in hell. Because hell is the absence of God, really. So Jesus cannot be in hell, literally speaking. Now this line, this creed that we have, the Heidelberg Catechism, is man-made, so we could exclude it. The Apostles' Creed, I mean, we're looking at the Apostles' Creed through the catechism. So the Apostles' Creed is man-made. So we could exclude it, we could take it out, we could change it. There'd be nothing wrong with doing that. Nothing wrong with doing that. Yet this creed has been confessed for literally thousands of years by Christians. So in respect to church fathers, in respect to wisdom, that this line does mean something, it has meant something to the church for a couple thousand years. We choose to confess it and we choose to understand what it means, understand exactly what we are confessing. So the answer says, to assure me. It says, why do we say he descended into hell? And the answer says, to assure me during attacks of deepest dread and temptation that Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, terror of soul on the cross, but also earlier, has delivered me from hellish anguish and torment. The catechism is saying that Jesus went to the lowest of low places, all so that we can know that we do not have to go to the lowest of low places. And what place is that? We do not have to go to hell. Why? Because Jesus, while he didn't physically go to hell, but he went to the pits of anguish, to the terror of soul, to the extent that you and I cannot imagine. Just as we said this morning, he loves us to the heavens, to the depths of the ocean, his wisdom is. We cannot understand the anguish of soul that he went through, the terror that he went through. That's why we confess he descended into hell because we confess he went to a place that we don't have to go. He suffered so that we do not have to suffer. Now is this biblical? Well yes, the gospel accounts throughout the story of Jesus make it very clear that Jesus did not have an easy life, that he suffered from birth in a barn, childhood moving around, escaping, being killed by kings, his ministry. Again, running around, escaping being killed by different people, but also the rejection, the mockery, for no reason, when he was doing good things, to his actual death, suffering, tortured, abused, where he was abandoned. The cry from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Show us his abandonment. It shows us that he was rejected by God the Father. Not because of his sin but because of my sin, because of your sin. It is biblical to understand that Jesus suffered immensely and he did that for you and I so that we do not have to suffer immensely in hell. He cried out that cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that we do not have to cry that cry because God will not forsake us to hell. To say he suffered hell is an exaggeration. To make a point, Jesus suffered a whole lot. I was going to use a word in there, but I figured I shouldn't use that word to make a point. Jesus suffered immensely that you can't imagine. You cannot comprehend how much he suffered. In Deuteronomy 31 verse 8, Moses tells Joshua, that he can be confident in the Lord because God will never leave him. Because we can confess that because Jesus was abandoned by God, the Father on the cross, so that we will never be abandoned and we have that confidence. Same as Moses tells Joshua in Deuteronomy 31 verse 8, it is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. And this promise is repeated in Hebrews as well. In Hebrews 13 verse five, I will never leave you nor forsake you. The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 118 verse six. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? And he says we can hold these promises now. The author of Hebrews says we can hold these promises. You and I, the New Testament church, can hold these promises. Why? because Jesus took your punishment for your sin on himself. You do not have to bear that judgment. Now, why does this matter? Well, for the church, for you and I, it matters everything. It is what helps us sleep at night and not worry about tomorrow. It's what helps us sleep even though we are worried about tomorrow. It's also what gives us comfort when we do lie sleepless at night, awake, unsure, when we are overwhelmed by tragedies of loss or of hurt, we look to heaven, we look to Christ leading us, going before us. We've looked at these five questions dealing with Christ's death, dealing with our death as well. How could we summarize it? We could probably summarize it like this. Because Jesus died for you, you do not have to die eternally. So that is why we love him so much. If you get nothing from the sermon except for that, then well, you probably actually got the whole sermon. Very simple message. The Bible paints pictures for us to see things, as I said this morning. You know when you see a picture and its beauty is beyond words, maybe it's a sunset, maybe it's a face with just deep emotion that we can connect to and understand. but we cannot fit into words because of the complexities of life and of complexities of what we go through. The Bible paints pictures of Christ's suffering and the catechism is seeking to draw us into this picture to give us comfort. And my prayer for you this week is that you would experience this comfort that you have in Christ. That you don't have to suffer hell because Jesus suffered hell for you, suffered extreme torment and anguish for you. And maybe if you don't know Christ that you would long for this comfort and turned it to Christ in repentance and in faith. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the hope of the gospel that we have throughout your word.