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Sermons on the Heidelberg
Catechism The Ten
Commandments
By Rev. G. Van
Reenen
"THE TENTH
COMMANDMENT"
Psalter No.305 st. 1,2.
Read Psalm 119:1-24.
Psalter No.71 st. 2,3.
Psalter No.64 st. 2,3.
Psalter No.435 st. 9
XLIV. LORD'S DAY
"One thing have I desired
of the Lord," thus, my dear hearers, the man after God's own
heart testifies in the precious psalm we have sung.
And that one desire of David
was a worthy desire. What did he desire? "That I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple."
That is a blessed desire
— always to dwell with the Lord! It is already so
wonderful when the child of God may be with God for a moment
to pour out his heart before Him, to unburden his anxious
mind, to show His his love and affection, to thank Him for
the benefits enjoyed, or even to find rest for a moment from
the war he must wage or from the way he must go. Such a
moment with God is truly wonderful. But to dwell with Him,
to be with Him for ever, of that, indeed, we may say,
"Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be
still praising Thee." Even the desire itself to dwell with
the Lord is so very pleasant when it is lively, when that
sincere warm longing is there to be absent from the body and
to be present with the Lord to behold His beauty in His
temple.
This desire is also an unusual
desire. If we notice what men live for and strive after, how
few we see who have the desire of the poet. No one by nature
wants to dwell with God. By nature we are enemies of God. We
rather wished there were no God.
We find David's one wish only
in God's children as a fruit of regeneration, as a mark of
grace.
If now we could but say in
truth that this one desire is the only desire that lives in
our heart, we would be happy. But together with that one
desire David had a thousand other desires, and so have we.
And these desires are in direct contrast to that one desire.
They are sinful desires that embitter our lives, and that
would cause our downfall, if the Lord did not prevent it. I
need but mention the name Bathsheba to you, and you will
know what unclean desires lived in David's heart beside that
one.
Alas, our heart is as a well
in which one unclean desire rises after another.
And in regard to all those
unclean and sinful thoughts God is implacable, He wants to
destroy them. He casts a bulwark against them in the
commandment that now asks our attention.
You will find our text in
Exodus 20:17. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his
manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass,
nor anything that is thy neighbor's."
Upon these words our
Catechetical instruction is based as you will find recorded
in the Heidelberg Catechism:
XLIV. LORD'S DAY
Q. 113. What doth the tenth
commandment require of us?
A. That even the smallest
inclination or thought, contrary to any of God's
commandments, never rise In our hearts; but that at all
times we hate all sin with our whole heart, and delight in
all righteousness.
Q. 114. But can those who are
converted to God perfectly keep these
commandments?
A. No: but even the holiest men,
while in this life, have only a small beginning of this
obedience; yet so, that with a sincere resolution they begin
to live, not only according to some, but all the
commandments of God.
Q. 115. Why will God then have
the ten commandments so strictly preached, since no man In
this life can keep them?
A. First, that all our lifetime
we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and
thus become the more earnest In seeking the remission of
sin, and righteousness in Christ; likewise, that we
constantly endeavor and pray to God for the grace of the
Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to
the Image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed
to us, In a life to come.
Dear hearers!
The Apostle Paul says that the
law is "spiritual." If we could up to this time doubt the
spirituality of the law, the last commandment, which we must
now consider, would cure you of this doubt. For this tenth
commandment, which says, "Thou shalt not covet," plainly
shows that the jurisdiction of the law extends not only over
our external words and deeds, but also over the innermost
thoughts and tendencies of our soul.
This is an evidence of the
divinity of the law. Human laws can govern our words and our
deeds, but our thoughts and desires are free. An earthly
judge can not know and therefore can not judge them. But the
Lord searches every heart and understands all the
imaginations of men.
After the highest Lawgiver had
proclaimed to us in the previous commandments: "Thou shalt
not kill, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor bear false
witness," He adds in the final commandment, "Thou shalt not
covet."
This tenth commandment is
sometimes considered the key with which all the other
commandments are opened. It is also called the
touchstone which reveals all that does not truly
satisfy the Lord's demand. By this tenth commandment the
hypocrite's mask is removed, and the whited sepulcher is
opened so that the dead men's bones are seen. It is compared
to the arrow that fatally smote Ahab between the
joints of the harness. Against the sharpness of this command
neither the off-white garment of the papist, nor the
phylacteries of the Pharisees, nor the cunning of one who
would enter heaven by his good works is of any avail. "Thou
shalt not covet" is a blow with which Moses breaks
the entire structure of our self-righteousness. It tears the
spider's web of our hope to be justified by our works, and
places us all uncovered before Him Who demands that we shall
serve Him in spirit and in truth. Yea, this tenth
commandment is a scourge which drives us out of
ourselves to Calvary, to the feet of Him Who is the end of
the law to everyone that believes.
But, come, beloved, permit me
to give a short explanation of the last commandment of the
law of God, in accordance with the 113th Question and
Answer.
We have told you before that
we do not agree with the doctrine of the Papacy who divide
this tenth commandment into two commandments. They do this
to palliate the union of the first two commandments, and
thus to extenuate their image-worship. When we spoke about
the divisions of the law (Lord's Day 34) we gave our reasons
why we hold that this last commandment is one single
commandment, namely because it speaks only of coveting,
while the first and second commandments speak of two
distinct sins, namely, idolatry and image-worship.
"Thou shalt not covet." What
is it to covet? Coveting is a passion, an active power of
the soul to have something the possession of which it deems
desirable. Coveting is desiring.
God Himself has created
desires in men. Hence all desiring is not forbidden.
Dear hearers, I wish that all
of you were filled with heartfelt and fervent desires to
God, Who alone is good, to Christ, Who alone can save, to
all that is necessary in order that you may know, love, and
glorify the Triune God. If you do not learn to desire this,
you will be eternally lost.
We may also desire "natural
things," such as food and drink, clothing and shelter,
without which we, consisting of body and soul, cannot live.
Such a desire was also present in the father of us all, in
Adam before he fell, and even in Christ, when He was hungry
and thirsty.
There is also a sinful
desire. Through our fall in Adam we are entirely depraved,
we are become slaves of sin. Our desires naturally reach out
to evil.
This general depravity James
calls "lust." To distinguish it from the good desires, evil
desires are called lusts, as, for instance, the lusts of the
heart, the lusts of the body, or of the flesh, evil lusts,
worldly lusts or the world and its lust. See 1 John 2:16, 17
where John says, "For all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof."
Out of this evil principle
come the sins against the tenth commandment, and that in
various steps and degrees.
Out of our evil mind come evil
lusts and sinful desires, sometimes without the consent of
our will, yea, against our will and desire. Then God's child
cries out against it and prays with David, Wash me, make me
pure within." Would to God that it were always so, that we
would always pray and strive against it.
But alas, so often our will
consents to it, though with hesitation, and often we suffer
those vile lusts and evil desires in our heart with some
pleasure, if not with our full approval. That is, so to
speak, the first step to the sinful act.
If, having taken this
first step, we would draw our affections away from sin
immediately, — but, alas, we often begin to agree with
that sinful desire, we cherish it, we take pleasure in
thinking about it.
And then one step more leads
us to death. That is what the Apostle James means when he
writes (James 1:14, 15): "But every man is tempted, when he
is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust
hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is
finished bringeth forth death. "Thus it was with Achan, the
thief. He first looked at that beautiful garment and those
pieces of silver — ah, it was money he could very well
use, he could earn more money with it, he could give some to
the poor. His desire became strong, and, he took it.
"Except the law said, "Thou
shalt not covet," I had not known lust (to be sin)" says
Paul. From this word of the Apostle it is evident that even
the first beginning of coveting, yea, covetousness itself is
sin. That sinful lusts and desires are sin, Paul knew from
the other commandments; but if the tenth commandment had not
been there, covetousness, the root of sin, had not been
touched.
And what may we not covet?
We may not covet what is of
another, whether it be alive or lifeless, rational or
irrational, when it is of another, when it belongs to
someone else. The desire to possess it, even in a just way,
may not enter our thoughts. That, my hearers, exceeds all
the ethics of the Pharisees and the heathens.
Hear what the Instructor
teaches concerning this in the 113th Answer, "That even the
smallest inclination or thought, contrary to any of God's
commandments, never rise in our hearts." Do you see that
even covetousness in its first tendencies, even in
regenerate persons truly is sin and violates the law of
God?
The law demands obedience with
all the powers of soul and body. God demands moral
perfection and cannot approve anything contrary to it. And
because His law is spiritual, it forbids all contamination
of the spirit by fleshly lusts. And because covetousness is
the cause of sin, it must itself be sin.
This doctrine finds no
opposition with the child of God, but rather whole-hearted
concurrence. And since they see their deadly impotence in
regard to the perfectly just demands of the law, they
testify with Paul: "For we know that the law is spiritual:
but I am carnal, sold under sin." (Rom. 7:14).
"But that at all times we hate
sin with our whole heart, and delight in all righteousness,"
our Instructor concludes his answer.
God wills that man, and
especially His people, shall be content. Child of God, the
Lord wants us to be content and satisfied with that which
the Lord gave and added unto us, without murmuring or
complaining about our state, without looking at and coveting
that which is not ours. He wants us to love our neighbor
with all the faculties of soul and body, so that we do not
at all begrudge him what God has given him, nor envy him or
covet what is his.
But, I hear you say, then we
would have to be perfect. Precisely, that we should be.
God demands moral perfection,
and nothing less. God is a perfect Being, and therefore He
demands perfection. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5:48) "Be ye
holy, for I am holy," says the Lord, and thus each of His
commandments declares.
The Lord suffers nothing
impure in us. God can not overlook a single inclination
against one of His commandments. When only in thought you
work on the Lord's Day, although your hands do nothing, when
one angry thought arises within you, or one covetous thought
toward your neighbor's wife or property arises in you,
although you do not touch it with your hand or see it with
your eye, you have transgressed the law of your God.
Nor will the Lord condone any
defects. Do all that God commands you, but if there is any
defect in it, God will disallow all your work. Although an
Israelite brought the best of his cattle or sheep for
sacrifice, if there was even a small blemish on it, it was
not acceptable. "Offer it now to thy governor if it please
him," says the Lord.
Neither does the Lord want
forced obedience. Keep all God's commandments, but do it
because you must, do it because you dare not neglect it, and
— gone is your obedience. God wants no servile, but
childlike obedience. We must not be coerced into obedience,
but we should obey willingly out of filial love, otherwise
it is not pleasing to God.
He wills that we shall be
perfect from the crown of our head to the sole of the feet,
from our cradle to the grave, without and within in body and
soul, in your acts, but also in your words and thoughts.
That is the fatherly love of God.
Is that the fatherly love of
God to demand the utmost of us? Certainly, it is that, dear
child of God, for the purpose of this demand is the perfect
happiness of God's children. Nor would the child of God be
able or willing to be content with anything less than
perfect obedience to all God's commandments. The demand of
the Father is the child's ideal. And if that moral
perfection is not your desire and your striving, you are
not a child.
"But," asks our Instructor
in Question 114, "can those who are converted to God
perfectly keep these commandments?"
Notice, my hearers, he does
not ask whether natural man, or the unregenerate or
unconverted man can fulfill the demand of the law. In the
second Lord's Day the Instructor had finished with the
unconverted in this matter. There he was said to be "prone
by nature to hate God and his neighbor, and to transgress
God's commandments with thoughts, words and deeds."
Here the question is asked
whether those who are converted to God can satisfy the law's
demand. Those converted to God are those who have
experienced the miracle the Catechism speaks of in the
thirty-third Lord's Day, namely, the mortification of the
old, and the quickening of the new man, hence of that
sincere sorrow of heart, that we have provoked God by our
sins; and more and more to hate and flee from them, and that
sincere joy of heart in God through Christ, and with love
and delight to live according to the will of God in all good
works.
Notice well that the question
is not whether those converted keep these commandments
perfectly. But the question is whether they can, whether the
possibility exists.
Hear now his humble confession
in Answer 114.
"Not I, I do not keep the
commandments of my God. But even the holiest men, while in
this life, have only a small beginning of this
obedience."
"The holiest men," who are
they? I would include Moses, Job, David, Isaiah, Paul,
James, etc. And did these not have their faults? Is it still
necessary to list those faults for you?
Does not God's Word say,
"There is no man which sinneth not?" Does not James say, "In
many things we offend all"? And does not John say that he
who says he has no sin is a liar? Who can say, "I have made
my heart clean, I am pure from my sin"? And shall not the
petitions: "Forgive us our trespasses" and "lead us not into
temptation" endure to the end of the world?
How very different this
confession sounds from that of the papist and that of the
rich young ruler and that of the Pharisees.
And is this confession not in
complete accord with your experience, people of God? You
find yourself thus: every evening you must plead for the
forgiveness of your sins of the day, and in the morning for
the sins of the night. If one hour you do something good,
the next hour you corrupt it again. You are like Gideon:
when they wanted to make him king, he refused, but in the
next moment he committed a much greater sin, he made himself
priest, which was entirely wrong. You are like Hezekiah, now
humbly beseeching, and then again proudly displaying the
gifts of God. You fear for a little sin and fall into a
great sin, sometimes within one hour.
No, truly, converted people do
not keep the law.
"What then is the difference
between the converted and the unconverted if neither of them
keep the law?" someone may ask.
Our answer is that the
converted person has three things. which the unconverted one
lacks.
(a) He has a small beginning
of this obedience. In the heart of every gracious person you
will find something of the love to God and to the neighbor.
That beginning reveals itself in the fruit. That fruit is
obedience. One of God's children may be farther advanced
than another, there are steps in the dispensation of grace.
There are children, young men, men, and fathers. But each of
them has this small beginning, although even in the most
advanced it is but small in comparison to their ideal and in
comparison to the perfection they shall attain in heaven. Of
that small beginning the unconverted person has nothing. At
his best he has a dead piety which God abhors.
(b) The converted person has a
sincere endeavor to live not only according to some, but to
all the commandments of God. Although they must complain
that they are the chief of sinners,. nevertheless they are
as runners in the race of virtue. And now they sincerely
confess that they are not perfect. They are no
perfectionists who boast that they are above. the complaint
of Paul in Romans 7. No, indeed, they do not belong to the
so-called perfectionists. Still they strive for perfection.
Every time they stumble, they rise again and press on. After
every wound they receive they take the sword again. After
every surprise attack they become more watchful, and as
burnt children they learn to fear the fire. This is not so
with the world. A few sins which harm or dishonor him he
hates. He has delight in this or that virtue, that gives him
profit or honor, but to live according to all the
commandments of God and to strive after such a life, that
does not please him.
(c) God's child also has a
prayer. Whereas again and again they become aware that they
are carnal, sold under sin, they often plead for the help of
God's Spirit. (Later we will say more about this.)
But "why will God then have
the ten commandments so strictly preached, since no man in
this life can keep them?" the Catechism asks in Question
115.
This is the voice of that
happy Christendom who rather hear the preaching of the glad
gospel than of the rigid, gloomy law. Also the Antinomian
agrees with the question, "Why preach the Law, since no one
on earth can keep it? Moreover, are not God's people, the
converted ones, made free from the law? Is it not all grace?
Is Christ not the end of the law to everyone that believes?
Is He not our sanctification before God? Why then preach the
ten commandments so strictly?" they ask.
The answer the Instructor
gives is very much to the point. In it he shows the
usefulness of the constant preaching of the law. With the
blessing of the Lord, it can yield a five-fold blessing to
the child of God. Permit me to elucidate this in a few
words.
(A) It is useful to further
discovery of self. "That all our life-time we may learn more
and more to know our sinful nature," says the
Instructor.
Dear hearers, when we are
first brought upon the way of life, it is our sinful words
and deeds that fill us with fear and sorrow before the Lord.
But we are still blind to our total depravity. Besides the
feeling of guilt a self-righteous Pharisee lives in our
heart. What a high opinion we still cherish of ourselves.
What an unmerciful judgment do we pass upon others! What
little need we have for complete redemption! Therefore we
need further discovery. That will cause the Pharisee to die,
then we become the chief of sinners, then we lose our high
opinion of ourselves, then our judgment upon others becomes
more charitable, and we feel the need for more discovering
light.
And whence shall we receive
that further discovery? How shall we learn that we are black
as an Ethiopian? To that end the constant, strict preaching
of the ten commandments is a means in God's hand.
Continually that mirror must be held before us, for that law
discovers, casts down, and breaks down. Yea, the law causes
us to be disappointed with ourselves, it causes us to sigh,
"I did not know that my soul so cleaved to the dust." And
that is not pleasant, but it is very beneficial.
(B) This preaching of the law
is useful in driving us out to Christ. "And thus become the
more earnest in seeking the remission of sin and
righteousness in Christ," continues the Catechism.
Remission of sins and the robe
of righteousness, what blessed privileges they are,
especially for one who knows what misery lacking those
blessings can cause.
Remission of sins and
righteousness, those two things he seeks to acquire. But,
how does he seek them? He seeks to acquire them by
practicing virtue and duty. If he does not acquire it in
that way, he tries to arouse God's compassion by his tears
and prayers.
But the strict preaching of
the law teaches him that he can make debts, but cannot pay
them; that he can arouse God's anger, but not His
compassion, that his robe of virtues is as filthy rags
before God.
When he has learned these
things he goes to another for forgiveness and covering, and
that is to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the preaching of
the law is so necessary. That law drives our patient out of
himself to Golgotha. That law is the avenger of blood that
hunts him and causes him to flee to the city of refuge.
God's concerned people have learned something of this, but
still the law must be preached to them continually so that
they may be the "more earnest" to seek remission and
righteousness in Christ.
(C) The preaching of the law
is useful in causing us to follow after sanctification. When
we have found remission of sins in Jesus' blood, and
covering by the righteousness of Christ, and rest at the
foot of Jesus' cross, a great danger looms, and that is that
we lose our zeal and watchfulness, that we rest as if our
warfare were accomplished. In Gen. 49:15 we read of Issachar
that when he saw the rest that it was good he bowed his
shoulder to bear, like a strong ass, and became a servant
unto tribute. Many a little one in grace has fallen into
that snare in a spiritual manner. That is why the Roman
Catholics and others who seek to be saved by their works are
much more zealous than those who were saved by grace.
That is not right, my brothers
and sisters! "Let us go on to perfection" is the watchword
of faith. To hasten on in the way of sanctification is the
choice of the new life. Your perfection is the purpose of
redemption.
There is much misunderstanding
in this matter. Sanctification has a twofold meaning. Christ
is our sanctification outside of us, before God. Therefore
He beheld not iniquity in His Jacob, neither has He seen
perverseness in His Israel. But there is also a renewal
after the image of God, a being conformed to the law of
God.
Therefore the preaching of the
law is necessary to cause you to see your shortcomings and
to hasten on from the rest at the foot of the cross to the
crown of perfection.
(D) The constant preaching of the ten commandments is
necessary in order that we might lead a prayerful life. In
our answer we first spoke of giving diligence in the way of
sanctification. However, we soon find that we lack all
necessary power to continue in the way of sanctification.
Yea, instead of proceeding we recede.
But now the demand of the law
drives God's children to prayer. Therefore they sigh: Lord,
Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts diligently. O
that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes. "Yea, they
pray," O let Thy Spirit be my constant aid, that all my ways
may ever be directed to keep Thy statutes. Make me to go in
the path of Thy commandments." And another sighs,
"Lord, to me Thy ways make
known,
Guide In truth and teach Thou me."
Come, beloved, let us sing it
together prayerfully: Psalter No. 64 st.
2,3.
Dear hearers!
Thus we have again preached
those ten commandments to you. What a great privilege it was
for me that I might do it, and for you that you might hear
it.
It leaves you without excuse.
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good."
And now put your hand into
your own bosom, and prove yourself in regard to that which
was preached to you about those ten commandments.
How is it with your Christian
contentment, whereby you do not covet that which is your
neighbors?
Thou shalt not bear false
witness, nor falsify any man's words, nor be a slanderer,
but always defend and promote as much as you are able, the
honor and good character of your neighbor." How do you stand
in regard to this commandment?
Thou shalt not steal, nor
commit adultery, nor kill, but show due respect for your
neighbors' possessions, purity and life. How do you stand in
regard to these commandments?
Do you so honor your father
and mother and all in authority over you both in church and
state as we have outlined for you?
And how is it with your
Sabbath observance, and with the hallowing of God's great
Name? Did you ever commit image-worship and did you ever
serve another God but the Lord Jehovah?
Dare you swear: All these have
I kept from my youth up?
What a mountain of sin and
guilt there is to your account, sins which God knows, and
guilt which is recorded in God's book.
And how shall you answer Him?
For a day, an hour, a moment shall come when you shall be
summoned to appear before that great Law-giver. Then He
shall bring to your mind that constant preaching of His ten
commandments. Then He shall try your thoughts words and
deeds according to what you have heard of them. Oh, sinner,
how dreadful that will be! You will stand there with fear
and trembling if you have no Redeemer for your guilt and no
God for your heart.
Therefore, O sinner, learn
even yet to bow your knees at the mount of reconciliation,
in humility before God before that day shall come upon you
as a thief in the night, and you should sink away to the
habitation of him to whose voice you have listened. To that
end the Lord grant you His Spirit and grace.
Well, people of God, both
small and great, beginners and more advanced. We too were
privileged again to tarry in the spirit at Mount Sinai for a
few weeks, and again to meditate on the ten words of the
law. What a privilege was ours that we might stand there as
children of a better covenant.
What the law demanded was
nothing strange to us. The law gave utterance to that which
is engraved in our hearts.
But the preaching of the law
demands that we should live in accordance with it, and that
we should be conformed to it. And if it is with you as it is
with me, then we both must complain that we do not conform
to its demand.
We may not deny that we have a
small beginning of it, and that we also have the desire to
live according to all His commandments. Our choice is
perfect. Still our earnest endeavor should be more manifest
in the fruit of our life.
Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth.
Let sin not have dominion over
you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Be narrow of conscience, but
wide of heart.
Seek on Calvary what Sinai
demands of you.
And remember that the mount of
perfection is attainable.
(E) For the constant preaching
of the law arouses a longing for that perfection. Ah, child
of grace, when these ten commandments are strictly preached
to us, and we constantly see our nonconformity, and whereas
it is the desire of everyone who is born of God to be
perfect as God is perfect, not in degree but in essence, and
whereas we see, by the light of the law, that that
perfection is not obtainable in this life, but that,
according to our Instructor, we shall arrive at the
perfection proposed to us, in a life to come, and that we
shall then be satisfied again with God's likeness, then we
can scarcely refrain from sighing, "To depart and be with
Christ is far better. Oh, come eternity, would God I were
with thee." Is it not so with you?
Then, dear child, the
preaching of the law will come to an end, then the warfare
will be accomplished, then we shall be again as we were in
the state of rectitude, yea, much more glorious!
Then we shall have that law in
our hearts again, then we shall never again need to bow our
guilty heads for that law! Then we shall be like the angels,
yea, we shall be like our Christ.
And if then we are asked how
we attained that height, we shall also name, besides the
precious Gospel, the law, as a means in God's hand.
And then it will be Moses, the
schoolmaster, the angel of peace, who will give us the
palmbranch of victory.
And then with all the blessed,
we shall sing to all eternity the song of Moses the servant
of God and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and
marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true
are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." (Rev. 15:3).
Amen
Author
"Many
ministers have written sermons on the fifty-two Lord's Days
as we find them in our Heidelberg Catechism. One of these
ministers and servants of the Most High, is the late Rev. G.
Van Reenen, of the Netherlands. Wen he was not able to
preach any more because of a throat ailment, God inclined
his heart to write sermons, and work while it was day. This
work he continued until the day of his death in the year
1946.
Rev. Van Reenen has written
these sermons for the common people. In all these sermons he
breathes the spirit of humility and self-denial. Throughout
all these sermons he indicates the necessity of knowing by
experience these three important parts, misery, redemption,
and gratitude, as he himself was not a stranger
thereof.
Rev.
Van Reenen does not know that his Catechism sermons and
others have been translated into the English language. He
confessed in his life not to be worthy of any honor or
praise; that we may then by grace give all honor and praise
to Israel's God and King, saying with the Psalmist, "Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory,
for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake." Psalm
115:1. (Pastor J. Van Zweden)
Reprinted and Translated from the
Holland by the Netherlands Reformed congregations in America
(1955). This series on the Ten Commandments was taken from
the W. B. Eerdmans' December, 1979 edition of the book,
The Heidelberg Catechism, by Rev. G. Van
Reenen.
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