And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Amen. Let's ask the Lord for his blessing upon our time. Father, we come to you and ask that you would be merciful to us, your servants, and illumine our minds and hearts to see, Father, what is our only comfort in life and in death? and that it is not belonging to ourselves, but belonging to Christ, losing our lives for the sake of Christ. And Father, help us to walk in a life of gratitude and love to you, the God of our salvation. We pray and ask these things. Amen. Many years ago, I shared the gospel with an unbelieving man in the Port Authority area of Manhattan. And after many minutes of talking with this man, who is kind of middle-aged, kind of my age, it struck me, of course, that this man had the greatest spiritual need known to man. He was an unbeliever in desperate need of a Savior. And not only was he in great spiritual need, he was also homeless. He was a man that had a whole host of physical ailments and issues. And at the end of our conversation, I offered to bring him to a homeless shelter that I knew was nearby. And what he said next to me opened my eyes to see the true condition of man. He confessed that although he was homeless and sleeping on the streets of New York City, his homelessness was by choice. In fact, he had, he told me, family and a home outside of the state. He had a wife. He had children. But in his self-deception, He chose to squander all of those blessings to now live in the miserable squalor that is homelessness in New York City, exposed to innumerable dangers, living and sleeping on the streets of Midtown Manhattan. Voluntary homelessness. That was this man's condition, but you see, is it not true? Is it not the case that this is spiritually true of all mankind? Every person who has ever lived is homeless by choice. And you see, this is why comfort is absolutely necessary because in God, we have been given all that we could ever need. We've been given, Infinite blessings. He is the source of our goodness. But because of Adam, our forefather, we disobeyed God and we squandered all of those blessings. And now our sinfulness has alienated from God. We're born exiled from God. We're born corrupted in our desires. We're exposed to God's condemnation. We're subjects to the tyranny of Satan. We're born without a home and we're born living, wanting no home, no true home in God, living in the miserable squalor of our sinful selves, exposed to innumerable dangers, living in the streets of Satan's kingdom. This is why we need comfort because in ourselves, we have no comfort. In ourselves, we have no salvation, no protection, no refuge. The theme of the Heidelberg Catechism is comfort. And we're going to see that explained and unfolded in coming weeks. And the Heidelberg Catechism, as you can probably tell from the name, was originally written in the town of Heidelberg in Germany. And it was originally written in German. It was divided up after its writing into 129 questions and answers and divided up into 52 Lord's Days. That way the church could teach and explain and expound upon the catechism every Sunday, every Lord's Day. In the original, the first head, it's divided, of course, into three parts, guilt, grace, and gratitude, or sin, salvation, and service. But in the original German, the first section is called misery, with the word, the German word, Elend. Elend. And you could probably tell from the word, it has something to do with land. And literally what it means is out of the lands, homeless, exiled in a foreign land. And that is, you see, what misery is. It's born alienated and exiled from God with a voluntary homelessness. So in this state, what can be our only comfort in this world of sin and misery? Well, we answer the question first by how Jesus answers the question here in Mark 8. Comfort is not belonging to yourself. There is no comfort in belonging to yourself. Belonging to yourself actually, according to scripture, which is echoed by the catechism, is no different than belonging to Satan. We live in a world where there are people This world is full of people, beloved, and you know them, and I know them, and we're related to them, and there are our neighbors, our coworkers, our acquaintances, who believe they are in control of their lives, who believe that they are the ones who have willed themselves to exist. They believe that they guide and live and direct their being according to what they want. They have no obligations. They have no commitments. They have no God to serve. And the Bible says that that which to man seems like true freedom, right? We belong to ourselves. We're independent. It's actually the state of slavery. You are subject to Satan. Without Jesus as your fortress, Man is lost, dead in the misery of his sin, willingly enslaved to Satan to do his satanic will. That's the message of Mark 8, verse 34-36. There is a grave danger in belonging to yourself. The one who seeks his life, Jesus tells us, the one who seeks his life for himself will lose his life. Life belonging on your own terms to yourself in pursuit of yourself, in other words, is nothing short than slavery to Satan, is nothing short of hell on earth. So comfort is not belonging to yourself. Comfort rather is that I belong to Jesus Christ. What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own. That I don't belong to myself. I don't want to belong to myself. That I belong in body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. I have given up my life. I have lost my life for the sake of gaining Christ. I don't live outside of Christ. I live united to Christ. And this, you see, is the glory of belonging to Christ the King and living in His strong castle. This is the purpose for which you were created. This is true salvation. This is true security. This is true goodness. And you see it is here in the very opening of the catechism that we find the definition of comfort. Many people for last 500 years, the catechism was written in 1563. This word comfort has kind of tripped them up, right? Because we think of comfort in the way our world thinks of comfort, right? We think of comfort food, that which I eat to make me feel good. We think of comfort as comfortable or easy or indulgence. We think of comfort as that which is palliative, that which numbs pain, a sedative. But none of those definitions of comfort is the definition of comfort here. You see, comfort belongs not to the world of angels in heaven above. Comfort belongs to us, God's people here on earth, who must struggle through trials and temptations. The catechism, comfort, belongs to us who are daily assaulted by our sin, by the world, by Satan, in constant need of strength, So what alone is your comfort? In other words, what alone is your strength? What alone is your strong castle, your refuge? Comforte, comfort comes from the Latin comforte, which means with strength, with certainty. If you know Spanish, con fuerza, right? Very similar etymology. What alone is our fortress in this world of death and sin? What alone, what strength will we have to guide us through this life of struggle, of pilgrimage? What alone will be your comfort, your strength, as you close your eyes in death for the last time? That you belong to Jesus Christ. That you belong not to yourself, but to Jesus Christ. And how does this comfort then come about? How do we then become those who belong to Jesus Christ? Because although we are born exiles from God, you see, our faithful Savior has fully paid for all of our sins with his own precious blood. In his death, Jesus has freed us from the tyranny of Satan. Jesus, in his death, has forgiven our sins. And in his death, God adopts us as his sons. And now we live united to Christ, living in the strong castle of the King. This is our comfort. This is our refuge. And notice two things. Many things can be pointed out, but notice two things here. It is an exclusive comfort. It is not what is your greatest comfort. It is not what is one of your best comforts. What is your only comfort? What is your only comfort? There is an exclusivity about Jesus Christ. He is not the greatest among many. He is the only comfort we have. There can be no other refuge for the soul except belonging to Christ. In our world, isn't it the case that because of the syncretism of this world, right? The world says you can have Jesus as long as you have other things. You can serve Jesus as long as you serve other things, right? If that's what tickles your fancy, then go for it. Be a Christian and be religious. But we say, no, it's not that it's a hobby, it's a preference. It's not that it's one of many. It's not that that Christian faith is what works for us, right? We're not pragmatic. It is that Jesus Christ is the only comfort for man, the only comfort for us, the only comfort for every man, woman, and child that has ever lived. The comfort, the strength, the refuge of Christ is exclusive, but it is also personal. And here you see, this is a marked characteristic of this catechism, which differentiates it from the other very good reformed catechisms that were written in the 16th and 17th century. Perhaps, you know, the other well-known one, the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The Westminster Shorter Catechism is a wonderful catechism. Its teaching is profound, it's pastoral, it's biblical, and yet it lacks a certain personal dimension. It's not what is the comfort for man, right? In the first question and answer of the Westminster, what is the chief end of man to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever? Biblical truth without question, and yet here, It's personal. It's not what is the only comfort, but what is your only comfort? Jesus, you see, must not ever remain distant from you, nor you from him. And what we're told here as we proceed in the catechism is not that we're gonna get doctrine in the abstraction, right? Abstract doctrine. What is true theoretically? No, what is your biblical confession? What do you believe? What we're saying is, this is what I believe. This is my Christian confession. This is my Christian faith. Our comfort is brought about by the work of Jesus. It is an exclusive and personal comfort. And we need comfort because of our sin and exile and alienation from God because of our sins. But secondly, what is the fruit of this comfort? What is the fruit of this comfort? We note here that this catechism, like all reformed creeds and confessions, is Trinitarian. It's not just that we are concerned with Jesus, the Son, but we see the Father come into view, and then we see the Spirit come into view as well. The fruit of this comfort is twofold, simply that the Father cares for you, and then you are assured by the Spirit of eternal life and strengthened by the Spirit to do God's will. Note first that the Father cares for you. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. God the Father watches over you so that not a hair falls from your head without His will. Everything that happens in this world happens because of God's will. There is no fatalism. There is no random evolutionary forces at work that are in control and sovereign over this world. God is in control of this world. Your father, is in control of this world. And your Father, who is sovereign over all things, cares for you. God has started a good work in your life. God will preserve that work of grace in your life. And Philippians 1, 6 tells us that God the Father will complete that work of grace He has started in you. What an assurance that we have in the gospel, that nothing can ever destroy God's work in us, that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, which is ours in Christ Jesus. Because God preserves us. But more than simply preserving us. Notice what it says. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation here. Reference, of course, to Romans 8.28. All things must work together for our salvation. More than simply preserving us, God, you see, is working all things for our salvation, for our sanctification. Every moment of suffering, every adversity, every trial, everything you can ever suffer, including death, is a servant of God. That God is using to bring you closer to Him, to contribute to your salvation. to your conformity to Christ. But not only is the Son and the Father at work in our lives, notice what it says about the Spirit. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, also assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. I am assured of eternal life. This was in the Reformation era. in the 1500s and 1600s, and beloved, even now, today, this was such a contested doctrine by Rome. Rome taught and still teaches, the Roman Church, the Roman Catholic Church, so-called, Rome taught and teaches that you could never know if you were saved, you could never know if you were assured, right? You could never have certainty of your salvation, you could never have assurance. Right? You had to just keep working with good works and hopefully you've worked enough good works in your life so that at the end of your life, God will look at your life and your good works will outweigh your bad works. What a miserable scheme. What a miserable imagined doctrine of man. No, God tells us that we have assurance of forgiveness. We have assurance of our eternal life. John, 1st John. John, in his gospel account, says these things I have written to you so that you may believe and have eternal life. And then he says in 1st John, chapter 5, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. You have believed already. You have believed already, but I want you to be assured of your salvation. I want you to know that God is not a condemning judge anymore, if you are in Jesus Christ. But God is your Father, who loves you, and cares for you, and sanctifies you, and conforms us through trial, adversity, and all of our lives to the image of Christ. The Spirit constantly is described in 2 Corinthians 1 and 5 and Ephesians 1, which are all referenced here in the footnotes of these Bible passages. At the end of question one, He is described and called the guarantee. The guarantee. The Spirit is the guarantee of our future inheritance. He was sent by the Son. He was sent by the Father to guarantee, to testify to us that we are children of God. This is the Spirit's work to assure us of eternal life. But notice there is more. Not only are we assured of eternal life, but we are made wholeheartedly, willing and ready from now on to live for Him. In Christ, we sing of our status. And what a glorious truth this is. Our status as forgiven. Jesus Christ has taken our sins. But we don't stand before God as forgiven, but unchanged. And so often we struggle with that and evangelicalism struggles with that as well, right? That we have remained the same. We are forgiven, but we are the same. No, you are forgiven and you are renewed to live a new life. Christ has one for you, your forgiveness, but he has one for you, your desire and your ability to serve God. And so what is a Christian? A Christian is simply, in the words of the catechism here, one who has been made wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for God. And this is the work of the Spirit in our lives. But then the second question and answer. What must you know? What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? What must you know? The Christian faith is not an emptying of our minds and understanding. The Christian faith is not knowing less. In many ways, the Christian faith is knowing more. We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. And so there are basic things for us to know. We obviously won't know everything there is to know. We won't ever have comprehensive exhaustive knowledge of biblical truth, but we are called to know three things. First, how great my sin and misery are. Second, and this just gives us the outline of the catechism, our sin and misery. Second, how we are delivered from all my sins and misery. And third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance. First, how great my sin and misery are. What are we saved from? What are we saved from? That's so key to know. So often we can so focus on the grace of God, that He's gracious, that He's loving, that we forget why it was necessary for Jesus to come to die for us. We can so fudge the realities of Scripture, right? Scripture is clear. Jesus has come for sinners. He has come for sick sinners. And when we can instead insert human and inadequate evaluations of ourself, right? And perhaps we've heard many of these, right? We're broken people. We're broken people. No, yes, we are. We make mistakes. Yes, a number of mistakes. Yes, yes, it's all true. But what is man's true condition? We are sinners and we are miserable in our sins. And we are, if we do not have a Savior, we will go to hell, to eternal perdition. We must dig deep into our true misery. Otherwise, we can never have true comfort. Imagine someone who is sick, but doesn't know they're sick. Imagine someone who is infirmed, who is diseased, and doesn't know it. How can they look for a medicine or a treatment? No, you must know your disease. And furthermore, you must know what you're infected with, your sin, in order to appreciate and be thankful for how you are healed from what afflicted you. We must know how great our sin and misery are. But secondly, we must know how we are delivered from all our sins and misery. So we can focus on the grace of God to the neglect of our sin, but the other opposite error is also true. We can so focus on our sins that we neglect the grace of God. And we can despair of all hope How exactly are you saved by God? You are saved. You are saved because He has sent His Son, Jesus Christ. Salvation is a work of God, not of man. No other salvation is needed because no other Savior, no other salvation can truly fundamentally deal with man's problem, which is his sin. We must know how we are delivered from all our sin and misery. And then thirdly, We must know how we are to thank God for such deliverance. Beloved, how we live shows whether or not we have been saved by God. How we live shows whether or not we have known God, whether or not we have and are loving God. And here in this third part of the catechism, we'll look at how we are now called to live. God has prepared, Ephesians 2.10 tells us, our good works beforehand. Not only has He forgiven us, not only has He given us, Christ has won for us a new heart, but He has won for us good works. Good works that we do not in order to be saved. Good works are not the cause of salvation, but they are a consequence of God's saving work. What were you saved for? What were you delivered for? You were delivered from your sins, but what were you saved for? You were saved to love God and that God-centered life He created for you, but that sin robs you of. And that in your fallen state, you could not enjoy. You were created for God and you were saved for God. And so what are you called to do? As a Christian, you were called to live in the strong castle of the king, living for the king. And I conclude with these words from Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. He says, because we are not our own, Therefore, neither is our own reason or will to rule our acts and counsels. We are not our own. Therefore, let us not make it our end to seek what may be agreeable to our carnal nature. We are not our own. Therefore, as far as possible, let us forget ourselves and the things that are ours. On the other hand, we are gods. Let us, therefore, live and die to him We are gods, that is, we belong to God. Therefore, let His wisdom and will preside over all our actions. We are gods. To Him, then, as the only legitimate end, let every part of our life be directed. Oh, how great the proficiency of Him who taught that He is not His own has withdrawn the dominion and government of Himself from His own reason, that He may give them to God. For as the surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves, so the only haven of safety is to have no other will, no other wisdom than to follow the Lord wherever He leads. Let this then be the first step to abandon ourselves and devote the whole energy of our minds to the service of God. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, We thank You for the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, saving us and forgiving us from our sins and the wrath that was our due. Father, we thank You that He has brought us into His kingdom of life and of light, of joy and of goodness. Father, now we live united to Christ, not belonging to ourselves, but belonging to Him, and we live in His kingdom. Now, Father, prepared, made, willing and ready to live for Him, for You, Father, and for Your Spirit. So help us, Lord, as we begin consideration of this catechism. To Father, follow how it traces the contours of Your Word. To Father, that these doctrines would not be theoretical and abstract in our lives, but be near and personal. and experienced by us day by day. Help us, Father, and hear us for these things, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.