Heidelberg Catechism Sermons: Lord's Day 33 Q&A - 91
Presented Sept 27 /09
by Rev. D. WYNIA
Vineyard Canadian Reformed Church
of Lincoln, Ontario. Map
Sermon: Lord's Day 33
Q&A 91
Heidelberg Catechism
Theme: Christ is Renewing Us to be Like Himself
Points:
1.The source of our new life is faith
2.The mark of our new life is righteousness
3.The goal of our new life is God's glory
Scripture Reading: Galations 5 Philippians 2:12-17
LORD'S DAY 33
88. Q. What is the true repentance or conversion of man?
A. It is the dying of the old nature and the coming to life of the new.1
1 Rom 6:1-11; 1 Cor 5:7; 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:5-10.
89. Q. What is the dying of the old nature?
A. It is to grieve with heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin, and more and more to hate it and flee from it.1
1 Ps 51:3, 4, 17; Joel 2:12, 13; Rom 8:12, 13; 2 Cor 7:10.
90. Q. What is the coming to life of the new nature?
A. It is a heartfelt joy in God through Christ,1 and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.2
1 Ps 51:8, 12; Is 57:15; Rom 5:1; 14:17. 2 Rom 6:10, 11; Gal 2:20.
91. Q. But what are good works?
A. Only those which are done out of true faith,1 in accordance with the law of God,2 and to His glory,3 and not those based on our own opinion or on precepts of men.4
1 Jn 15:5; Rom 14:23; Heb 11:6. 2 Lev 18:4; 1 Sam 15:22; Eph 2:10. 3 1 Cor 10:31. 4 Deut 12:32; Is 29:13; Ezek 20:18, 19; Mt 15:7-9.
The Heidelberg Catechism was written in Heidelberg at the request of Elector Frederick III, ruler of the most influential German province, the Palatinate, from 1559 to 1576. This pious Christian prince commissioned Zacharius Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick's court preacher, to prepare a catechism for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers.
Frederick obtained the advice and cooperation of the entire theological faculty in the preparation of the Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism was adopted by a Synod in Heidelberg and published in German with a preface by Frederick III, dated January 19, 1563. A second and third German edition, each with some small additions, as well as a Latin translation were published in Heidelberg in the same year. The Catechism was soon divided into fifty-two sections, so that a section of the Catechism could be explained to the churches each Sunday of the year.
In the Netherlands this Heidelberg Catechism became generally and favourably known almost as soon as it came from the press, mainly through the efforts of Petrus Dathenus, who translated it into the Dutch language and added this translation to his Dutch rendering of the Genevan Psalter, which was published in 1566. In the same year Peter Gabriel set the example of explaining this catechism to his congregation at Amsterdam in his Sunday afternoon sermons.
The National Synods of the sixteenth century adopted it as one of the Three Forms of Unity, requiring office-bearers to subscribe to it and ministers to explain it to the churches. These requirements were strongly emphasized by the great Synod of Dort in 1618-19. The Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and is the most influential and the most generally accepted of the several catechisms of Reformation times.
