What does God require of us that we may escape His wrath and curse due to us for sin? To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption. Question 85 of the Shorter Catechism. If you have listened to the previous class, which addresses what every sin deserves, the immediate obvious question that comes next is, how do we escape this? So if we've understood the weight and reality of what sin deserves, then everyone should be asking themselves the questions, well then how in the world do we escape this wrath and curse? How is it that we can come out from underneath it? And that's where the Catechism takes us. It answers the obvious question that comes up. And, you know, children, this is, in many ways, the greatest, your greatest business on earth. There are a lot of questions you have about life, questions about, you know, what you're gonna do for a living, questions about where you're gonna go, lots of questions about a lot of things in life. But there's one thing needful to use the language of Scripture. There's one pressing concern that is bigger and better and more important than all questions, all other questions. This is one of the greatest matters of business that you have in your life on this earth. How do we escape the wrath and curse of God? This is what should occupy much of our thought and concentration. And the answer the catechism gives us is that God requires, and here they're abbreviating, but God requires of us three things. And what's gonna happen is this question is kind of an overview and they're going to supply us with three things and then they'll come back and in the next three questions, they'll actually expound each of those three things. So what does God require of us? And there are three things that they list here. faith, secondly, repentance, and thirdly, the use of means, using the means of God's grace. So what's happening here? God is revealing to us mercifully what every sin deserves. God is the one who now is devising a way of escape. God himself is providing a way of escape from his wrath and curse. So he's revealing to us the exit strategy, the way in which we can be delivered from his wrath and curse. Now, if we're understanding this correctly, God requires these things of us. What does that mean? It means that without these three things, there is no escape. We get what we deserve. We get God's wrath and curse in this life and the life to come. That's what happens without these things. Now, with them, with faith, repentance, and the use of means, the Lord has provided a way for us to escape. Now, for some people, this whole, this word here that the catechism uses, requires, right, is going to raise some eyebrows. It's going to raise some, perhaps, questions, requires of us. Is this somehow against the freeness of God's grace? We're being required to do something. Does this kind of smack of some sort of legalism? some sort of, some legality where we are having to fulfill something in order for our salvation, right? Is this legalism? Well, certainly there's a group of people historically called antinomians. And that is exactly what they would say. They would look at the reform doctrine as it's defined in the Westminster Confession and Catechism, and they would say, ah, well, this is legalism. See, there's some sort of legalistic element that they've introduced into our idea here. They would abhor it, especially, perhaps, the use of means. They would especially abhor this idea. And I think it's helpful for us then to make some important distinctions here, biblically and in terms of classical reformed orthodoxy. Catechism is talking about these as means, not merit. All right, so this is our first distinction. These are the appointed ways that God has provided for us to receive what God has graciously given. So salvation, salvation is entirely found in God himself. And God bestows that salvation upon men in grace. He's giving to us what we don't deserve. And He's provided the whole of our salvation. So there's nothing that we contribute, nothing that we earn, nothing that we pay for or merit in God's salvation. No, that's certainly the case. But there, you know, how is it that this salvation which God has provided is received by us or is appropriated by us? And there are ways that God has graciously provided for us to receive that salvation. And that's what's being described in these three things here. It is just the way or the means by which God gives them to us. It is not merit. It is not us having to do something or meet a requirement in our own strength that then earns for us God's salvation. In other words, it's talking about duties that we have, not what we deserve. deserve. So it's not like, well, if I muster faith, repentance, and the use of means, then I somehow deserve the salvation God's given. No. It's merely a duty. So God is describing what is required of us. You know, we're not passive. We're not just to be indifferent. We're not to sit like a bump on a log. Here it is, you're under God's wrath and curse, here's the salvation God's provided, and you can just go to sleep as it were. No, the Lord calls us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He calls us to repent of our sins. He calls us to use the means that he's appointed to receive that salvation. And so making clear that this is not legalism, it is not merit, it is not something that we deserve, we can then go on and say, these are things that must be done. So they are requirements. We must repent, and we must believe on Christ, and we must draw near to God through the means he's given. We can say, maybe it would be helpful to say, you must do these things, and yet at the same time, God must give these things. Okay? So this shows the graciousness of it. The Lord is commanding something of us, you must do it, but God is the one who actually gives us the gift of faith. God is the one who actually gives us the gift of repentance. God is the one whose Holy Spirit has to bless the use of means in order for them to be efficacious. And so what God is requiring of us, God graciously gives to His elect people. He gives the faith to believe Christ and to repent of sin and the blessing of His Holy Spirit on the means that He has appointed. So you can see here that the grace is not somehow taken away. God is the one who must give these things to us in His kindness. We avoid the antinomians who want to say nothing's required. And we avoid the legalists who say these things are things that we must merit and we deserve ourselves. This is the biblical balance. Now, when we talk about, we're gonna have a whole question given to the use of means, but just in case this concept is eluding a few people, let me make it clear. What does means mean? I've had, I remember a family that had joined our congregation and they had been here a while, and he came to me and said, Pastor, you will refer to the means of grace. I have no idea what you're talking about. What does that language mean? What are the means of grace? What do those words entail? I don't have any concept. Well, the means of grace refer to the word, sacraments and prayer, but they are, let's say they are channels. They are a channel or a vehicle or an instrument that God uses. So these are the appointed ways that God uses to bring His grace. So the means of grace refer to the channels, the vehicles, the instruments that God uses to convey His grace to us. Faith comes by hearing, right? We're talking about faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Word of God is a means, a channel, a vehicle, an instrument that God uses to convey His grace to us. The same thing can be said with regards to the sacraments. Lord's Supper and baptism. The same thing can be said with regards to prayer. Prayer is a means that God has appointed. So, if God is requiring the use of those, then what it means is, if we bypass the means, if we say, we don't need the Bible, we don't need preaching, we don't need to be reading the Bible, we don't need the Christian, you know, baptism in the Lord's Supper, we don't need prayer, and so on, If you bypass those, to bypass the means would be to bypass salvation. Right? If we say all of the people in the jungles of Indonesia, we're not going to take the gospel to them. Well, is there any way for them to be saved? No. They have to have, you know, how can they believe unless they have a preacher? Romans 10 says, and how can they have a preacher unless the preacher is sent by the Lord? And so these are the appointed means that God has given to us. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of the Lord. You think in terms of the Christian's growth in grace, their growth in Christian maturity, Jesus says, sanctify them by thy word, by thy truth, thy word is truth. So the Bible is a means that God uses to cause us to grow in our sanctification. So if you're confused about the language of the means of grace, hopefully that will clarify it. And as I said, we'll actually come back to a whole question that will address the use of these means. So we're answering the question, how do we escape? How do we escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin in this life and in the life to come? And the answer is that God requires of us faith, repentance, and the use of the means that he's appointed. So, to bring things full circle, you know, children, you're thinking to yourself, this is super important, this is part of the main business of my life. I want to escape God's wrath and curse. And the Lord is now revealing and saying, here are the ways in which we receive the salvation that God has accomplished. So God has sent Christ to be a substitute, to die in the place of his people, and to provide with us a record of perfect righteousness in order that we might be acceptable to God. All of that God has accomplished for us. Alright, how do we take what God's accomplished and how is it applied to us as individual people? How do we appropriate it? And the answer is through faith, repentance, and the use of means. So here, question 85.