Dear congregation, I encourage you to turn with me in God's Word to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. As many of you know, we've been going through the series on the Heidelberg Catechism, and what we use the Catechism for is a topical sermon series, not always consecutive expository preaching from a passage, but looking at different themes that the Catechism helpfully draws from the Scriptures. And we are nearing the end of this section on deliverance, or the section on how we are saved. You may remember that's back in Lord's Day 7. It deals with the topic of faith, and we had definition of faith there. Lord's Days 8 through 22, and we've been going through that for quite a few months, going through the Apostles' Creed and those things that we must know and believe in order to be saved. And now we're coming towards the tail end of that. Last week, we saw the results of faith. being justified before God, or three weeks ago now, I think, justified before God, reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, how that when we believe in the Lord Jesus, not only are our sins taken from us, but the righteousness of Christ is applied to us, both the passive and active obedience of Christ that is so important for our salvation. And now on Lord's Day 25, there's a bit of a transition here. You may have noticed from the questions and answers, we're looking at a bit of the origin of faith, where does faith come from, and then the means that God uses to work faith in us and to strengthen our faith, that being especially preaching and the sacraments. And in the coming Lord's Days, we have Lord's Days 26 to 31, we have focus on baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the section ends with the keys of the kingdom, again, being preaching and church discipline. So, Our theme this afternoon as we look at Oral Day 25 and Light of God's Word is God working through His means of grace. God working through His means of grace. We're going to see that in four points. First of all, God the Holy Spirit's at work. Second, through the preaching of the gospel, Third, confirmed through the sacraments. And fourth, focusing our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So, God working through His means of grace, God the Holy Spirit at work, through the preaching of the gospel, confirmed through the sacraments, focusing our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So, we begin then with the Holy Spirit being at work. And the question I begin with here is, is faith? Is that something we receive or something that we do? So, faith. Is it something that we receive or something we do? And the answer to that is, it's both. It's not either or. We can't just have one or just have the other. Now, certainly looking at God's Word, it's very clear that faith is given to people. For example, Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works as anyone should boast. So faith is the gift of God. Romans 12 verse 3 is slightly different language but the same idea where Apostle Paul writes, for I say, through the faith given to me. to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." So Paul both speaks of himself and that God gave him faith, and then describes the church at Rome, the Christians there, that God dealt to them a measure of faith. and many other examples in God's Word that we can look at. But these verses by themselves might lead to passivity, where we sit back and do nothing. If faith is a gift from God and you can't give faith to yourself, then the wrong conclusion you might come to is that, well, I should just sit back and wait for God to give me faith. And once I know I have received faith, then I'll put faith into action and start believing. And yet, while you might come to that conclusion from these passages, God's Word is also very clear in describing and calling unbelievers to come to Him. God gives the gospel commands and gospel promises not to those who have received the gift of faith, but they go out to all people. And one of my favourite passages, I think, that demolishes this excuse is Luke 11. I know I've mentioned this one several times in the past, so we can be brief here, but this passage, Luke 11, begins with disciples coming to Jesus and saying to Him, Master, teach us how to pray. Even they're showing that they need to be taught, even just the basic activity of prayer. In verses 2-4, Jesus gives them a shortened version of the Lord's Prayer. Verses 5-8, then, Jesus goes on to give the parable of the persistent friends. Remember, he received a visitor late at night. He goes to his friend's house. He has no bread. He goes to the door and begins to pound on that door and say, friends, open up. Give me some bread. I have nothing to give to my friend who has arrived as a guest to my home. And the point of that parable is that this man does not give up. He keeps on knocking and asking and pleading until the man inside gets up and gives him his bread. Again, that's in the context of praying. Then we go from there to a very clear command and promise, Luke 11 verses 9 and 10. where Jesus tells us, "'So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Again, there's no mention there of you to sit back and wait until you have some divine sign or you know that you have faith. No, the command and the invitation is, ask, seek, and knock. And this section ends with the parable of the good father. Verses 11 through 13. I read verse 13 where Jesus ends by saying, I hope you see with me how Even just Luke 11 verses 1 through 13 demolishes the excuse that anyone should just sit back and do nothing, wait for faith to be given. No, we're called, ask, seek, knock, be persistent, even the words of a prayer that we can take to God. So faith is certainly given. And faith is also something that we need to do. Again, there's many passages that teach this. I'll just mention one of them. We have Paul and Silas. They're in prison in Philippi. There's a great earthquake and the prison doors swing open. Their hands and their feet are removed or loosened from the stocks. Well, their feet were in the stocks. Their feet are loosened. And we have the jailer there. And this jailer is ready to kill himself. And Paul and Silas, they go out of their cells and they see him. He has a sword. He's ready to kill himself. And they say, stop. Don't hurt yourself. Everyone is still here. No one has escaped. And in the course of this conversation, the jailer asked Paul and Silas, he says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Again, the answer is don't wait for regeneration. Don't wait for the gift of faith. Paul and Silas say, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. And believe here, even if you look at the Greek verbal tense, it's an active form. It doesn't say, you know, Paul says, I'm telling him, you know, wait to begin believing, but they say believe, be active, put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we, because our faith is given and faith is something that we are to do. But now more specifically, God gives faith, but see, especially from the catechism, it's saying that faith comes from the Holy Spirit. It's showing that he especially is the author of faith and the one who works faith in us. I read question and answer 65 again. Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all His benefits by faith only, from where does this faith proceed? And the answer is from the Holy Spirit who works faith in our hearts. We looked at this a few months ago in a series on the Holy Spirit, and we looked at Ezekiel 37. And there the prophet Ezekiel had a vision. God takes him and he, as we're in his vision, brings him to a valley. And it's a great valley, and in this valley are very many bones. And we're told they're very dry bones. These bones that have been scattered. Bones from those who've been very clearly dead for a very long time. And Ezekiel is commanded by God to prophesy to them. As he begins to do so, there's this great noise. There's this rattling sound as the bones begin to be drawn together. You have now the skeletons, all the bones hooked up. I don't like Halloween decorations, but you see the skeletons, as you'd see there. The bones laying with the feet connected to the legs, to the pelvis, and so on. And then there's more. Because they continue to change. And then there's the muscles, and the heart, and the kidneys, all the organs are there, and then skin covers them. So here we have, it went from these scattered dry bones to these bodies, fully formed. And yet, there's no life in them. They're still dead. It's not until the breath of God, being the spirit of God, enters into them that they become alive and they stand on their feet as a great army before God. In Ezekiel 37, verse 14, the same chapter, God says, I will put my spirit in you, talking about the rebellious, spiritually dead nation of Israel, and you shall live. It's the work of the Holy Spirit to come and change us, to change our hearts, so that our hearts are no longer hard and disinterested, unwilling to bow before God, but the Spirit changes our hearts. He gives us a new heart. so that we begin to need and to love and to look to Christ for salvation. Now you see this hinted at that the Spirit's role in salvation in our 1 Peter 1 passage, verse 22 is not talking about justification or initial faith, it's describing the life of faith. And it involves purifying your souls and obeying the truth and sincere love of the brethren. But even how do we do that? It's through the Spirit, because the Spirit not only is active in the beginning of the Christian life and the coming to faith, but throughout the Christian life, He's at work. In verse 23, the Spirit's not mentioned specifically, but again, certainly this theme of being dead and being made alive. In verse 23, we read, having been born again, and that implies a new birth. I notice here that it's in the passive sense, not you somehow being born of your own initiative or your own work, but having been born again, something that happens to you. Just like physically, when a child is born, it's not the child that makes the decision to come out of the womb, but it's the mother who gives birth to the child. In the same way, it's the Holy Spirit who gives this new birth. changing us, converting us, transforming us. So if you think about faith, yes, something that we need to do, but before we can truly believe, we need the making alive, the transforming work of the Spirit who changes our hearts so that we begin and continue to believe and trust in Jesus. Well, how does the Holy Spirit do that? Are there any means, any things that the Spirit normally uses to accomplish that end? And again, the answer to that is yes, and see that in our second point. And the two primary means the Spirit uses, first of all, through the preaching of the gospel. In verse 23, we read, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. So this new birth and the Word of God is again at the heart of this. And there's a contrast here between corruptible seeds and incorruptible. Now what the difference really is there is something that's corruptible means it can break down, it can die. And incorruptible means it cannot break, it cannot die, you can't wreck it. Now, we think of regular seeds. You plant, you have these clear plastic cups, you put some dirt in there, you put a seed in there. If it's close to the side, you can see the seed beginning to sprout in the dirt. First of all, the little sprouts going down for the roots, and then little green shoots going up, and that becomes the plant that's going to push through the top of the dirt, and the stem, and you have the leaves, and then all the rest there. But as the plant is growing and maturing, what's left of the seed? Again, if you can see the seed against the cup, you see it's an empty shell. And if you wait long enough, that shell is going to break down, it decomposes, and soon that seed, it disappears. And all that's left is this big and strong plants. So normally, you plant a seed, the seed dies, yet life comes from the plant. Even Jesus uses that example himself. He says that in John chapter 12, He says, most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. And he's there speaking of his own death. He's saying, I am like a seed. I have to die. And it's through my death that there's gonna be life that comes from it. But here in the Bible, we're told it's like a seed, but it's not of corruptible seeds, but incorruptible. Because unlike regular seeds that die and give life, the Bible does not die. The Bible, we're told, it lives and abides forever. Verses 24 and 25, we have Peter drawing from Isaiah 40, where here it says, all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass, the grass withers and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. That's the difference we have here. We have this word that the Holy Spirit is pleased to use, and yet it's this word that does not die. It remains alive. It's going to endure forever and ever. It's this ongoing seed that is used by the Spirit to give spiritual life to many. So you have this incorruptible seed. The next question we can ask ourselves, though, is how does the Holy Spirit use the Word of God to give us life? Why do we need the Bible? Why can't the Holy Spirit just simply, you know, come and work in us and change us and we begin to trust in God? Again, I think the answer to that is pretty obvious, isn't it? How do we know who God is? How do we know who we are as people? How do we know of the way of salvation? Isn't all of this what God has revealed in His living Word? If we don't have the Word of God, we're not gonna realize that there is a God, a triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that He is the one who has made everything in existence. He even has given us life. We're not gonna know that He is God alone, the only God in existence. We're not going to know that He as God has the right to command His creatures to live in obedience. According to His commands, He again reveals to us through His Word. And who are we as people? Without the Word of God, we'd be tempted to think we're just more highly developed mammals in this animal kingdom. Yet the Bible tells us, no, you are different. You are made in the image of God. And God made you upright with holiness and righteousness and a right knowledge of who He is. And yet, we did not stay in that state, did we? We as humanity believe the lies of Satan. We as people who have just been made as God, made by God, rebelled against Him. We committed treason. We believe the lies of Satan. We took the forbidden fruit and death, entered into this world. We need to know who God is, who we are, and the way of salvation. When we rebelled, if it was not for God's covenant of grace that He made in eternity past, you might be tempted to say, God had no obligation to save us. And because of God's promises, He did have an obligation. Yet, we need to know that way, don't we? We need to know the means through which we can be made alive. And again, the Bible shows us already back in Genesis 3, God promises the seed of the woman who would come and crush the head of the serpents. And really all of the Bible is an unfolding of God's plans from Genesis to Revelation, showing us this is who you are. This is who I am as God. This is what you have done. And this is what I am doing so that you can be saved. the seed of the woman, a descendant from Abraham, the seed of the son of David, the Emmanuel, God with us, the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate Passover lamb who would die in the place of his people. And all of this freely offered to sinners in the gospel to be received by faith, It's through the Word of God, the living Word, that the Spirit works. He works to convict us of our sins, to show us how bad we are, how broken we are, how unable we are, not only just to begin to obey God's commandments, but certainly not to do anything to earn our salvation. God, through His Word, and His Spirit, and His work, He convicts us and gives us a desire and need for a savior. Here's the word in the Bible. He gives us so many pictures of Jesus, right? The city of refuge, a city that you can run to as someone who has shed innocent blood or the animal sacrifices that's sprinkled and is cleansing and forgiveness. The snake on the pole, the bronze serpents for people who are guilty of complaining. of rebelling against God and you just look, look to the snake and you have life. All these pictures the Spirit uses to give us a desire and to point us to Christ. And as you read of Christ himself and how wonderful he is and his love and his mercy and the depths of his suffering, the Spirit gives us a love for him, a longing for him, a crying out to him. Like that blind Bartimaeus, when Jesus is passing by on the road. There's no one else who can help him. No one else who can give him his sight. And because he knows this is Jesus, the Son of David, he begins to cry out, Son of David, have mercy on me. Lord, heal me. That's what the Spirit does. He gives us God's Word, through it revealing who God is, who we are, and the way of salvation, so that we look by faith, so that we flee to Jesus, so we trust in His work, we begin to love and treasure Him. And certainly we have God's Word, but also what we see in the Bible is an emphasis on preaching. Now it's tempting to think back to the Old Testament, even the early Christian church, and to think, well, they had to be preaching because they didn't have Bibles like we have today. That's true in a way. The average Israelite, the average Christian in the early church did not have their own Bible. And yet they did have the synagogues where the Jews would meet, where the scrolls were stored, they could study even during the week. And same with the early Christians, the house churches, the rich people who would host a church, they would have copies of the Bible where they could go to read it and to study it. And yet so often we see the Bible, the New Testament, emphasizing preaching. Let's mention two passages. We have two of them even right here in our text, 1 Peter 1, verse 12, where we read, who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things angels desire to look into. And even in the last part of verse 25, now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. But even clearer passage is Romans 10 verses 14 and 15. There the apostle Paul is writing and he says, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?" And the point that we see, especially in Romans 10, there needs to be a hearing of Him. That's Jesus. Through a preacher, that's one who has been sent by God, an ambassador of God, a messenger who speaks on God's behalf. And notice, they're not sent to read, they're sent to preach. And there's a difference between the two. To read the Bible is simply to open God's Word and to read it line by line. But in preaching, there's the reading and then the application of God's Word and the explanation of it so that, again, you understand it and your urge to believe it. Even Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. That's why preaching is so important. God pleading with you through the preacher. Have you thought about that? Again, one of the things I can certainly improve in my preaching is my pleading with you. But when I plead with you, even in my insufficient ways, it's not even ultimately me pleading with you. It's God himself pleading with you through me as your pastor. You think about that when you hear preaching. God is speaking, God is calling, God is urging, even pleading with you to be reconciled to Him. That's why Sunday worship services are so important. This is the normal, ordinary way through which God is pleased to save and through which God is pleased to build up His people There's implications for that, isn't there? Certainly for myself as pastor, the responsibility I have to diligently and faithfully preach God's Word. I'm thankful for many of you for your encouragement. I know many of you pray for me regularly. I want to encourage you to continue to do that, even for the consistory, for their oversight. You may have noticed in the last Consistory Report that there was a note in there of our quarterly past sermon review. And we spent about 30 minutes as a consistory reviewing past sermons and thinking about, you know, what are things that are okay and what are areas in which to grow? Because preaching is so important. That's why even thinking back to this morning, I regret, it grieves me how it was distracting to get these names mixed up. It gets in the way of this important gospel proclaiming of God speaking to you as a congregation. So certainly I have a responsibility, but so do you as hearers. Because I can be very faithful by God's grace in preaching and preparing, but if you don't come prepared to hear and you're not listening during a sermon, then again, it's going to have no impact on you. Listening to a sermon is different than watching a movie or listening to maybe a fun audio book. These are things you can do very passively, right? You sit down, you turn it on, and you just relax. And whether it's music or audio books, whatever, just things that kind of flow over you and you just absorb it. But listening to sermons is much harder. It requires you to be active. And it begins even before the service. If you don't get a good night's sleep and you come to church tired because you're up till two or three in the morning doing whatever, you're going to struggle to benefit from God's Word. And it's really helpful if you can come to church having already read the passage, maybe looking at a Bible commentary or a study Bible and just get an idea of what the passage is about. Certainly, again, before to pray for the pastor, to pray for yourself. And then during the service, during the sermon, to fight against distracting thoughts. I know you, like even myself, sometimes when I'm preaching, thoughts come to your mind, or when I'm reading the Bible, and it's easy for our minds to wander. It's easy to be distracted. Don't you think that Satan wants to distract you? That he wants you to focus on work or entertainment or sports, whatever it is, so that you're not listening to the word of God? If you can get your mind away even for a few minutes and you don't, you miss something important, he's won a small battle. Also, during the service, for some, taking notes help. I know for others, it's more of a distraction, so it's certainly not something that's required. And lastly, during the service, during the sermon, be asking yourself, how does this apply to me? Again, part of my role as a pastor is to look for applications of the message for you. But also, you also have a responsibility, right? If the doctrine is, God says, be holy as I am holy, to ask yourself, In what area am I being unholy? In what area is God calling me? In what area is the Spirit convicting me of my lack of holiness? And lastly, also after the sermon. Sundays can be tiring days. And if you work hard during much of the week, it's easy to go home and to relax. Maybe to focus on something else for the evening. Even for myself, it can be a real temptation. And yet, after you've heard the Word of God, do you go home and pray about it? Reflect on the sermon? Spend time, even for a few minutes after service, talking to others in the congregation? What did you learn? What was helpful? Sharing with each other your struggles and maybe victories you're seeing over sin. So certainly through the preaching of the gospel that the Spirit works. Let's see now in our third point, confirming through the sacraments, and I seem to keep moving here time-wise. As you look at the sacraments, it's helpful to remember that the Catechism was written in the 16th century, and there fairly early in the Reformation. And many people during that time held wrong views of the sacraments. Certainly in the Roman Catholic Church, they had seven sacraments, not just baptism and Lord's Supper. They had marriage and ordination and confirmation and anointing of the sick and penance. It's not just they had these extra sacraments, but they said that these sacraments by themselves, you partake of a sacrament like an infusion of grace. Just like maybe you go to the doctor for some medicine and you get the needle in your arm or an IV and it's medicine infused into you and it should be immediate benefits. And they said the same thing about sacraments. Even if you don't really understand what you're doing, you just go through the steps and there's this grace that's flowing through them to you. And the conclusion of many people was that if I partake of these sacraments, each time I get a little bit more grace, and this together with faith and doing good works, should improve my standing before God. It's like a point system, where you check off the boxes and you get your regular infusions and you jump through the hoops and you try to get enough points, and hopefully your time in purgatory will be short, and eventually you get to go to heaven. But that's not a biblical view of the sacraments. The first important thing to remember is that the sacraments are secondary to God's Word. It's true that the sacraments are the visible gospel. We use that expression sometimes. It's only the visible gospel to someone who already understands the basics of the gospel. If we were having Lord's Supper or baptism, someone walked in through the door in the middle of the service, they didn't hear the form, and all they see is us sitting at the front with some bread and wine, or see the baptism and the water being poured. If they only had that brief moment, they're not going to make that connection to Jesus Christ and all that he has done on the cross and his sacrifice. They're not going to make the connection to the bread as it points to his body and the blood represents his blood. And these are believers together, feeding by faith and their faith being strengthened as they look to Christ. They may come in and wonder, you know, I wonder what this means and what this represents. The sacraments, without the Word of God explaining them, giving them its meaning, it will mean nothing to them. That's even why during the sacraments there's the words that come with it. Think of the Lord's Supper. The bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ. Take, eat, remember, and believe that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was broken for the complete atonement of all our sins. That you hear those words with the sacraments, and now you're getting somewhere. Now you see what the heart of the gospel is. the forgiveness of our sins through what Christ has done, you begin to understand. So the sacraments can never be removed, separated from the Word of God. So they're secondary and they need to be tied to the Word. Sacraments also are signs and seals. And I think children, these are helpful words, aren't they? When you came to church, you saw signs outside, signs even on our streets and when you drive down the road. And signs give you directions, right? Signs point you to something. They tell you where you are going. Maybe they tell you where you are right now and show you the way that you should go. There are many signs in the Bible that God gives the Israelites, especially in the Ark of the Covenant, a sign of God's presence. The rainbow in the sky, a sign of God's promise that He would never again destroy the world through a flood. But a sign shows something. It points to something. But I think you also know, children, that the sign is not the object itself that it's being pointed to, right? If you come to Calgary and see a sign that says, welcome to Calgary, the sign itself is not Calgary. It's just something that tells you you've arrived. The sign is pointing to something greater than itself. So that's a sign, and seal is a little different. A seal does not point to something, but it confirms something. Children, a seal lets you know something is real. So when you go to the doctor's office or the dentist, and you see on the wall the picture frame there, and it's a bunch of words in there saying, so-and-so graduated from this place. And in the corner, often, there's a gold-colored seal or a print in the papers. And it's there to tell you this is real. The doctor's not making it up, he didn't get it printed off himself. The seal confirms something. If you go to a mechanic shop to get your car fixed, there's going to be certificates with seals on the walls, and they let you know. This is someone that you can trust. They at least have the basic requirements to do their work. So, sacraments are to be a sign and a seal. Now, where in the Bible do you find this described in these words? And one very clear passage is Romans 4, verse 11. And we read there, this is describing Abraham, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised. This is a very important verse. We have both these words here, and it's telling us what circumcision means and also what it doesn't mean. He was not saved or made righteous through circumcision. He already was righteous, and circumcision was a sign that was to point towards that. Circumcision also was a seal. It was a constant reminder given by God, reassuring Him that this sign from God guaranteed the fulfillment of God's promises. Remember circumcision was a sign of God's covenant of grace, God's covenant made to Abraham, and this sign reminded him he could trust God, he could believe God. We'll come back to this in coming weeks when we look more at baptism and Lord's Supper specifically. The work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel confirmed through the sacraments. Now, lastly, focusing our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And this is the aim of both scripture and the sacraments. Again, the Bible is the word of God. It is self-revelation to us. And baptism and the Lord's Supper, both of these point us to what Jesus has done, to his death, to the life He received through His blood that was shed. Both of these pictures are sins being washed away or are receiving and being fed through His broken body and His shed blood. It's also why we say there's two sacraments and not seven. Because marriage and ordination and confirmation, you might say confession of faith or the anointing of the sick, yes, these are things you may see in the Bible, and even marriage being a picture of Christ in the church. Marriage by himself is not a picture of Jesus suffering and dying. That's not the main point of marriage. Same with these other sacraments. The main point of these things of marriage, ordination, confirmation, the main focus is not what Christ has done being applied to us through faith. All these things need to direct us to Christ crucified. Because that's the heart of the gospel. That's the way of salvation. And think of Christ being crucified. His sacrifice. It's a sacrifice He made in our place. It's so important that we realize that. Our sins deserve death. By our sins, we earn death. We go through life, you might think of life as, you know, you go to work for your boss, and at the end of your life, you get a paycheck. And when you work here, you get a bunch of money. But our paycheck on Judgment Day, without Christ, it will say, death. This is what you have worked for. This is what you have accomplished. This is your reward. You deserve to die. Yeah, that's what Jesus did in the place of sinners. He died in our place. He died so we can have life. Think of Isaiah 53, where we read in verse 5, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement, or you may think of the whipping, for our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes, we are healed. He suffered so we can be saved. It's this in-the-place sacrifice of Christ. And also the sacrifice is so important because the sacrifice is a great sacrifice. It's a sufficient sacrifice. In 1 Peter 1, and we read this earlier in our service, verses 18 and 19, there Peter writes, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, precious things we have, material things, from your aimless conduct received by the tradition of your fathers, but Implied there, you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spots. It was the sinless Son of God who perfectly, even joyfully, kept all of God's commandments. Who, as the Catechism says earlier, by the power of His Godhead, sustained in His human nature the burden of God's wrath. might obtain for and restore to us righteousness in life. It's the precious blood of Jesus, the blood he shed on the cross. It's this blood that washes us, purifies us, makes us acceptable to our holy and just God. Just like sinning against an infinite God deserves an infinite punishment, So, the salvation accomplished by the Son of God is an infinite salvation. In a Canterdor, Ted 2, Article 3. It says, the death of the Son of God is the only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin and is of infinite worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate or to remove the sins of the whole world. If we're a sinner, burdened with sin, we should never think our sins are too great. There's not enough salvation available with Christ. There's an infinite salvation to be found by fleeing to Jesus Christ. The congregation, every time we have Christ set before us in the preaching of His Word, every time we witness the sacraments of baptism in the Lord's Supper, we have Christ set before us. We need to make a decision. Every time you hear the gospel, God calls you to make a decision, and you do make a decision. Maybe you don't actively say out loud, I'm deciding this or I'm deciding that, but the way that you respond, the way that you live your life shows what your decision is. And either we are trusting in the Lord Jesus, and we go through life looking to Jesus for salvation and for strength, or we put off seeking Christ, surrendering to Him, truly bowing before Him and pursuing Him until He opens the door to a more convenient time. We believe or we choose not to believe or not to believe now. And we might not think that we are rejecting the gospel if we say maybe tomorrow or next week, But yet, isn't that what we're doing? When you decide, I'm too busy right now, I'm too tired right now, I have other things, I'm unwilling to give up right now, I'm not going to seek Christ with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, then what you really are doing is saying, no. At least right now, the answer is no, I'm not interested, I have no motivation, no desire to do this. And that's very serious. Jesus warns His hearers that on the Day of Judgment, it's more tolerable for people living in Sodom and Gomorrah, on the Day of Judgment, than for those who heard Him preach but did not believe. Can you think about that? We think of the Sodomites, or even use that word, Sodomites, as the worst people in society, horrible sinners. But it's better for them than for you, if you heard. but did not believe. Your suffering in hell will be more severe than these people who lived a horrible, wicked, outward life. So we add to our guilt if we reject the promise of the gospel that's preached to us. Let's think again of the sacraments. Many of you were baptized at a young age. And in baptism, God has set you apart. God put His claim on you. God says, you are mine, and here are all the gospel promises. And as you grow up, you need to believe, you need to receive this by faith. God has given us this sign and this seal, and God comes so close to us. He shows the certainty and truth of His promise in such a visible way. And then we still go on in unbelief. We still ignore God? How rebellious, how wicked that is. Maybe you're here today and you struggle with doubts and questions. Maybe there are times when you wish that God would just give you a sign. We saw this morning, didn't we, in the passage from Isaiah. Ahaz rejected the sign that God offered. We want some evidence that He is real, some evidence that His Word is true, His promises are sure. His promise this morning, we had the sign of the virgin who gave birth, and His name will be called Emmanuel. And yet, we can't physically touch or see Christ. But God has given us other signs, hasn't He? He's given us three signs. Signs that we can see, signs that we can touch, signs that we can feel, even signs that we in the Lord's Supper can eat and drink. We have the water of baptism, the bread and wine at the Lord's Supper. And since God has given us these signs, signs that point us to what he has done, signs that tell us this is real, this is true, this is what you receive by faith, We shouldn't go looking for other signs. We shouldn't be asking for other signs. We should be bowing before God with thanksgiving, saying, thank you, Lord, for showing me these signs, the washing with water, this eating and drinking and being filled and having the body and blood of Christ, His work on the cross applied to us. If we are believers, we should use these means, means given to strengthen weak faith. That's why God has ordained these, instituted these, given these. I hope you agree with me that our God is such a kind God, such a faithful God. God who not only gave us His Word, showing us and teaching us all that we need to know for life and death, but who confirms it in these ordinary physical signs so that we would believe and that our faith would be strengthened. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, you are so good to us. You could have simply commanded us to believe and left it at that. Lord, you give us so many encouragements, so many promises, so many warm invitations, even giving us these signs and seals and baptism in the Lord's Supper. or we confess we are unworthy of these blessings, and we confess even though at times we neglect these blessings, or we misuse them. Lord, we pray that You would be working in us right now, that as we are pointed to Jesus, His suffering and death, and His salvation He has accomplished for us, that we would be growing in our love, our thankfulness, that our hearts that with heart and voice and life we would praise you and strive to live in obedience or help us to be holy even as you are holy. We pray that you would forgive us all of our sins. We pray that you would work in us if we are not believing or you command us to believe and give us no rest. We would continually seek and knock and plead until You, our ever-gracious Heavenly Father, hears our prayers and gives the Holy Spirit a changed heart and the ability to believe or help us to look to Christ with a true and living faith. I pray also for Your blessing on the rest of this day and this week that lies ahead. Lord, please keep us from temptation Help us to take the way of escape that you tell us is there with every temptation, that we would flee from sin and that we would grow in godliness. Lord, bless and help us in our work and the callings you've given to us, whether it's as seniors and the ways we can serve, whether it's as those in the workforce or in the home or at school or even as little children at home. Lord, you call us. even as little children, to honor our father and our mother and to show love to others around us. Lord, help us to be faithful in these callings and to live for you. Lord, we ask all these things, not because we deserve it, but for Christ's sake alone. Amen.