What are Sacraments?

1. 0:00- Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 25.
2. 0:14It is by faith alone that we share in Christ and all his benefits.
3. 0:17Where then does that faith come from?
4. 0:20The Holy Spirit works it in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel and confirms it by the use of the Holy Sacraments.
5. 0:26What are sacraments?
6. 0:28Sacraments are visible holy signs and seals.
7. 0:30They were instituted by God so that by our use of them, He might make us understand more clearly the promise of the Gospel and seal that promise.
8. 0:38And this is God's Gospel promise.
9. 0:40us forgiveness of sins and eternal life by grace because of Christ's one sacrifice accomplished on the cross.
10. 0:46Are both the word and the sacraments then intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?
11. 0:54Yes indeed, the Holy Spirit teaches us in the gospel and confirms by the holy sacraments that our entire salvation rests on Christ's one sacrifice for us on the cross. How many
12. 1:05sacraments did Christ institute in the New Testament? Two, holy baptism and the Holy Supper. So here in Lord’s Day 25, the Heidelberg Catechism is building on
13. 1:15what it said back in Lord’s Day 23 in question and answer 16.
14. 1:20in 61. Question answer 60, we learn that we are righteous before God only by faith alone. And as answer 61 makes clear, we can lay hold of Christ Jesus and we can
15. 1:30receive his satisfaction, his righteousness, and his holiness only by true faith. So the follow-up question is, if faith is the instrument by which we come into union
16. 1:39Christ, if it's the thing that makes us share in Christ and all his benefits, then where does that faith come from?
17. 1:45We have to remember that the catechism is sort of a conversation between a teacher and a student.
18. 1:49And so I always tell my students it's important to pay attention to the way in which the question is asked, so that we know in which direction the answer is going. In this particular question,
19. 1:59answer. The catechism really offers a two-part answer. First, it says that the Holy Spirit works it, that is the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by the
20. 2:08preaching of the Word. In other words, the preaching of the Word is the means that the Lord has appointed to create faith in the hearts of His chosen people. The Apostle Paul speaks to the importance of preaching
21. 2:21in Romans 10:14 when he says, "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
22. 2:27And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
23. 2:30And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"
24. 2:33And so through the preaching of the word, God's people are brought to faith.
25. 2:38The Westminster Shorter catechism makes this clear when it says, "The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of
26. 2:45the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation." And so, the Lord uses the preaching of the word to
27. 2:56create faith and to encourage faith in the heart of the Lord.
28. 2:59hearts of his people. We actually see both of these things in Scripture. First of all, in terms of the preaching of the word creating faith in the hearts of God's people, we have the vision of Ezekiel 37,
29. 3:10where Ezekiel sees a valley of very dry bones. And the Lord asks him, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
30. 3:16And then the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy to those bones to preach to them.
31. 3:21And as he preached the word of God, the breath came in to those once dry bones and they stood on their feet and became an exceedingly great army.
32. 3:29That's a vision, an image of what the preaching of the word does in the hearts and souls of once dead sinners.
33. 3:35It makes them alive.
34. 3:37But secondly, in terms of the preaching of the word, encouraging faith in the hearts of God's people, we have Ezra 4 and Ezra 5.
35. 3:45In Ezra chapter 4, the people of Judah have returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon to rebuild the temple, to rebuild the holy city.
36. 3:53But because of some external opposition, the rebuilding project actually came to a standstill, which is quite regrettable.
37. 3:59But then we read in Ezra chapter 5, verse 1 and 2: "Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddu prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.
38. 4:11Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Josedach arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem.
39. 4:19And so notice what we have there.
40. 4:21Through the preaching of the word, through the faithful ministries of God's appointed instruments, the people of Israel were reminded of what God had done for them, bringing them back to the promised land,
41. 4:31and also of what God had called them to do, which was to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, to build the church, and to work with them.
42. 4:39work for the advancement of the kingdom of God. The church has been entrusted with the gospel. The church has been entrusted to preach the word in season and out of
43. 4:48season. In fact, Jesus commissioned the apostles and by extension the church to go and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything that the Lord had commanded them. That's the first thing that's spills out of this.
44. 5:00But secondly, the first part of this answer also highlights the importance of humbly and faithfully sitting under the reading and the preaching of God's word.
45. 5:09If faith is encouraged and if it's deepened by hearing about all that God and Christ has done for us, then we have the responsibility to sit humbly under the preaching of God's word as often as we can.
46. 5:21The focus of preaching is not on the instrument who's bringing the message, but the God who is playing that instrument.
47. 5:27I'm not a musician at all, and so if you put a clarinet in my hands, I would not be able to make beautiful music.
48. 5:33It would squeak and it would sound terrible.
49. 5:35You would cover your ears.
50. 5:37So the focus of the preaching is not on the instrument, but on the one who plays the instrument.
51. 5:41And so the focus for us needs to be on recognizing that the content of the preaching of the word is Jesus Christ and him crucified.
52. 5:48And the more we receive that word, the more we hear about all that God has done for us, the more we're encouraged in our discipleship, the more we're encouraged to serve and honor the God who saved us
53. 5:59through the shed blood of his only begotten Son.
54. 6:02But then in the second part of answer 65, we read that the Holy Spirit confirms faith by the use of the holy sacraments.
55. 6:10And this is where question answers 66, 67, and 68 expand, and the next five Lord's Days of the catechism are going to explain the sacraments for us.
56. 6:19Notice what we have here.
57. 6:21Sacraments are means of grace.
58. 6:23They're signs and seals for us to use.
59. 6:26And by our use of them, our faith is confirmed because we're reminded of all that Christ has done for us.
60. 6:32Which means that the sacraments are not designed to replace the preaching of the word.
61. 6:37Instead, they're actually conveying the exact same message of the preaching of the word, they're just presenting that message in a different way. Through things that we can see and touch, smell, even taste, we're
62. 6:49reminded of all that God has done for us. We see the water of baptism and we're reminded of Christ's once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. We feel and we taste the bread and we smell and we drink the wine
63. 6:59And we're reminded of Christ's once for all sacrifice for us on the cross.
64. 7:03And so we have to see the immense blessing that this is.
65. 7:05The Lord knows that we're forgetful.
66. 7:07The Lord knows that we're going to be prone to wander.
67. 7:10That we're going to lose sight of all that he has done for us.
68. 7:13But the Lord has given us the spoken message of salvation and tangible reminders, things that we can see, taste, and touch that point us to our Savior and all that He has done for us.

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