(Message preached in Cairncastle Presbyterian Church July 2025)
Shorter Catechism God and Us
( 2 Timothy 3)
Sometimes in this 21st century it could feel like we’re back in the 1st century when the New Testament was being written. We see idolatry and cruelty very similar to what was common in the Roman Empire. People are absorbed with themselves, wealth and pleasure and often neglectful if not downright abusive of others.
Paul’s words to his younger ‘Assistant Minister’ Timothy could have been written this week! In a sad and dangerous world, compromised in every area by evil and sin, it’s not easy to live a God-pleasing life. We can expect opposition from the outside and corruption within as deceptive false ideas infiltrate the Church.
This is tragically all too easy as we like being told what we want to hear. We water down the Gospel of Jesus to fit our desires, the kind of life we want to live. We like being told that we’re loved and valued and that much is true but if we use God’s love to justify sinful behaviour we’re denying the truth, the true Gospel that Jesus, Son of God was crucified for our sins that we might be forgiven and helped to change and live a holy life.
So Paul emphasizes to Timothy the need for consistent teaching of God’s Word. Scripture, he says is ‘God-breathed’, inspired by God the Spirit Himself. This is our ultimate authority and guide. How do we know what God is like, what is true and false, right and wrong? By studying the Bible.
This vital principle was revived by Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin in the 1500s. Christians over the centuries have sometimes been called ‘believers’ but what do we believe? Does it matter? It obviously did to the Apostle Paul but by the late Middle Ages basic Christian beliefs had become clouded by other things. How might people know the essential truth that the Apostles taught that could ‘make them wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ’? By rediscovering the central themes and message of the Bible.
The Reformers re-established Bible teaching and to assist in that began writing ‘confessions’ and ‘catechisms’ to summarise what the Bible teaches on key things.
A little bit of history for us:
In 1643 the English Parliament invited an assembly of learned ministers who were trained in theology to meet at Westminster to produce advice on worship, doctrine, government and discipline in the Church of England. Over 5 years they produced the Westminster Confession of Faith and two catechisms. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland holds the Bible to be the ultimate source of authority and truth but adopted the Westminster Confession and Catechisms as what we call ‘subordinate standards’. These are not inspired like the Bible but a useful summary of the Bible’s core message. Every Presbyterian Minister and Elder subscribes to them at our Ordination.
Now the Shorter Catechism is still used in many Sunday Schools to this day and I thought it might be interesting for us as adults to have a bit of a ‘refresher course’ this summer in Cairncastle! Here's a summary of it.
Q1-12 God as Creator and Ruler of Everything
Q13-20 Human Sin and its Results
Q21-38 Christ the Redeemer and Salvation
Q39-84 The Ten Commandments
Q85-97 Baptism and Communion
Q98-107 The Lord’s Prayer
Ok, so let’s think about what the Bible teaches about God as Creator and Ruler of Everything, as summed up in q 1-12 of the Shorter Catechism.
Now the Romans believed the Emperor was divine, the Greeks believed in Zeus, Hades, Poseidon and that Perseus was a demi-god, to this day our Hindu neighbours believe in many gods, atheists believe in no god. What about us? What do we believe?
Q5: Is there more than one God? – A: There is only one, the living and true God.
Ok, so Q4: What is God? – A: God is a spirit, Whose being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth are infinite, eternal and unchangeable.
Wow! Let’s note that word ‘infinite’. We are by nature limited by time and space and many other things but God is infinite, unbound, existing before and outside of all He has made.
Q9: What is creation? A: Creation is God’s making everything out of nothing by His powerful word in six days and all very good. The universe in its size and order and complexity gives us some indication of His wisdom, knowledge and power.
The Bible doesn’t just define God, it defines us: Q10 : God created man, male and female in His own image and in knowledge, righteousness and holiness to rule over the other creatures. There is the Creator’s blueprint for gender and equality and our distinctive role in relation to animals. Human beings are special, created to ‘glorify God and enjoy Him forever’!
But it’s more than just creative ability long ago. God rules over everything in ways beyond our ability to understand. Listen to q7: The decrees of God are His eternal plan based on the purpose of His will by which for his own glory He has foreordained everything that happens. Q11: God is holy and wise, in His providence He preserves and governs every creature and action.
We may struggle to get our heads round this concept completely but one thing is clear – we can forget the idols and superheroes we imagine for ourselves. God, ‘living and true’, is the only one worthy of the title.
There is more than enough in these first two pages to cause us to admire and hold God in the deepest reverence. We should worship and obey Him at the very least. But there’s more.
Q6: Three persons are in the one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
From eternity the Father loved us, the Son became one of us to save us, the Spirit lives in and among us to bring us to eternal life. Here is cause not just to worship but to love almighty God, to serve and live to please Him, in anticipation of one day bowing before Him in glory.
To Him be thanks and praise!
Amen
Shorter Catechism God and Us
( 2 Timothy 3)
Sometimes in this 21st century it could feel like we’re back in the 1st century when the New Testament was being written. We see idolatry and cruelty very similar to what was common in the Roman Empire. People are absorbed with themselves, wealth and pleasure and often neglectful if not downright abusive of others.
Paul’s words to his younger ‘Assistant Minister’ Timothy could have been written this week! In a sad and dangerous world, compromised in every area by evil and sin, it’s not easy to live a God-pleasing life. We can expect opposition from the outside and corruption within as deceptive false ideas infiltrate the Church.
This is tragically all too easy as we like being told what we want to hear. We water down the Gospel of Jesus to fit our desires, the kind of life we want to live. We like being told that we’re loved and valued and that much is true but if we use God’s love to justify sinful behaviour we’re denying the truth, the true Gospel that Jesus, Son of God was crucified for our sins that we might be forgiven and helped to change and live a holy life.
So Paul emphasizes to Timothy the need for consistent teaching of God’s Word. Scripture, he says is ‘God-breathed’, inspired by God the Spirit Himself. This is our ultimate authority and guide. How do we know what God is like, what is true and false, right and wrong? By studying the Bible.
This vital principle was revived by Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin in the 1500s. Christians over the centuries have sometimes been called ‘believers’ but what do we believe? Does it matter? It obviously did to the Apostle Paul but by the late Middle Ages basic Christian beliefs had become clouded by other things. How might people know the essential truth that the Apostles taught that could ‘make them wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ’? By rediscovering the central themes and message of the Bible.
The Reformers re-established Bible teaching and to assist in that began writing ‘confessions’ and ‘catechisms’ to summarise what the Bible teaches on key things.
A little bit of history for us:
In 1643 the English Parliament invited an assembly of learned ministers who were trained in theology to meet at Westminster to produce advice on worship, doctrine, government and discipline in the Church of England. Over 5 years they produced the Westminster Confession of Faith and two catechisms. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland holds the Bible to be the ultimate source of authority and truth but adopted the Westminster Confession and Catechisms as what we call ‘subordinate standards’. These are not inspired like the Bible but a useful summary of the Bible’s core message. Every Presbyterian Minister and Elder subscribes to them at our Ordination.
Now the Shorter Catechism is still used in many Sunday Schools to this day and I thought it might be interesting for us as adults to have a bit of a ‘refresher course’ this summer in Cairncastle! Here's a summary of it.
Q1-12 God as Creator and Ruler of Everything
Q13-20 Human Sin and its Results
Q21-38 Christ the Redeemer and Salvation
Q39-84 The Ten Commandments
Q85-97 Baptism and Communion
Q98-107 The Lord’s Prayer
Ok, so let’s think about what the Bible teaches about God as Creator and Ruler of Everything, as summed up in q 1-12 of the Shorter Catechism.
Now the Romans believed the Emperor was divine, the Greeks believed in Zeus, Hades, Poseidon and that Perseus was a demi-god, to this day our Hindu neighbours believe in many gods, atheists believe in no god. What about us? What do we believe?
Q5: Is there more than one God? – A: There is only one, the living and true God.
Ok, so Q4: What is God? – A: God is a spirit, Whose being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth are infinite, eternal and unchangeable.
Wow! Let’s note that word ‘infinite’. We are by nature limited by time and space and many other things but God is infinite, unbound, existing before and outside of all He has made.
Q9: What is creation? A: Creation is God’s making everything out of nothing by His powerful word in six days and all very good. The universe in its size and order and complexity gives us some indication of His wisdom, knowledge and power.
The Bible doesn’t just define God, it defines us: Q10 : God created man, male and female in His own image and in knowledge, righteousness and holiness to rule over the other creatures. There is the Creator’s blueprint for gender and equality and our distinctive role in relation to animals. Human beings are special, created to ‘glorify God and enjoy Him forever’!
But it’s more than just creative ability long ago. God rules over everything in ways beyond our ability to understand. Listen to q7: The decrees of God are His eternal plan based on the purpose of His will by which for his own glory He has foreordained everything that happens. Q11: God is holy and wise, in His providence He preserves and governs every creature and action.
We may struggle to get our heads round this concept completely but one thing is clear – we can forget the idols and superheroes we imagine for ourselves. God, ‘living and true’, is the only one worthy of the title.
There is more than enough in these first two pages to cause us to admire and hold God in the deepest reverence. We should worship and obey Him at the very least. But there’s more.
Q6: Three persons are in the one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
From eternity the Father loved us, the Son became one of us to save us, the Spirit lives in and among us to bring us to eternal life. Here is cause not just to worship but to love almighty God, to serve and live to please Him, in anticipation of one day bowing before Him in glory.
To Him be thanks and praise!
Amen
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