Dr MJ du Plessis Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville Date: 17 August 2003 (evening).

Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit. Amen

Psalm of praise: 150:1

Prayer

Psalm
Hymn:

Scripture reading: 2 Corinthians 13
Scripture text: Catechism Sunday 8; 2 Corinthians 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (ESV)

These are the words of the blessing from the Lord after every church service when He sends us to face life again.

With that He reveals to us his Holy Trinity. He is always the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
If any one of these three personae is skipped over or understated in our worship, our worship is false.
We may also not regard the one persona as more important than the other, because then we also sin.

We pay attention to two issues:

1. God reveals Himself as Triune
2. Us opposite God the Father

1. God reveals Himself as Triune
In our times of religious confusion we should again reflect on the Trinity, because there are people who think that we believe things similar to the Roman Catholic Church, because we follow a tradition that we cannot prove.

Fact is that there is not a single text in the Bible that says that God is a Triune God. However, the Bible reveals it in various passages. The apostle says in 1 Peter 1:2:

. who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: (NIV)

Here, in the same verse, all three – God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and God the Son – are mentioned together in one verse as equal. It is clear that all three personae of God are linked to the predestination of the congregation.

Here the apostle Peter also mentions the function of each persona of God:

The Father has the foreknowledge by which He determines who He wants to have in his eternal kingdom. This is the predestination.
The Holy Spirit sanctifies the elect. In order to do so He persuades them to be obedient to Jesus and to accept his death on the cross in faith – the basis for their salvation.

It is significant that the order in which Peter mentions the three personae of God is different to that which we use when we confess our faith. It also differs from our Scripture text.

Peter’s order: Father, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ.
The order of the confession of our faith: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our Scripture text: Jesus Christ, the Father, the Holy Spirit.

It shows that all three personae of God are equal and that we should not and cannot regard the One as higher than the Other.

Most of the time, the aspect of God’s work/revelation that is referred to determines the order in which the Names of God are mentioned in the Bible.

For example, listen to the Epistle of Jude, verses 20 and 21:

20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (ESV)

Here it is all about edification.

That is: about daily repentance.
About instruction to live a better life.

Therefore it clearly is about the work of the Holy Spirit.

Edification of our lives in practice is then to treasure the love of God the Father – to obey his commandments.
The prospect we have is that we already have eternal life in Jesus Christ, and therefore we do it in anticipation.
That is why the order in these two verses is: Holy Spirit, Father, Christ.

When we profess our faith, we follow the order of the revelation of the Lord as He reveals himself in the Bible:

Therefore our creed starts with the creation and ends with the eternal life described in the book of the Revelations.
Our knowledge of God begins at the creation.

We know that God created heaven and earth.

We also remember the Fall and the subsequent death penalty – but then, above all, that God did not stay angry; He brought about salvation through his Son. Therefore the next part of our confession is about the Lord Jesus: who He is and everything he has done for us.
The Lord Jesus promised another Comforter – and he came.

The Holy Spirit was poured out.
Therefore we also confess everything the Holy Spirit does: He lives and works in us, so that we, by faith in the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, be taught about the grace of God.

That is why we confess the three personae of God in this order at the beginning of our church service.

When we worship in our church service, it is different. God is love.

There He puts his love in the Lord Jesus Christ first when He blesses us and sends us out into daily life.
His blessing in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ then comes first.
After that he again confirms his Fatherly love and then assures us of his omnipresence through the work of the Holy Spirit.

God the Holy Spirit does many things:

He effects faith in us so that we can learn about the work of the Father through our faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is the Holy Spirit who assists us in distinguishing between right and wrong.
It is the Holy Spirit whom we sadden when we know what is right but then do wrong.
The Holy Spirit convinces us that we are really redeemed.

It is logical that the Holy Spirit convinces us of the love of the Father and salvation through his Son, because He is part of both.

The Holy Spirit also effects fellowship among believers.

We could not possibly live together in peace if He had not forged links between us.

Consider how different in nature we all are and how much our backgrounds differ.
We could only get along with each other if there was a greater Power to effect it.

It is the Holy Spirit who does it and enables us to pursue fellowship to the glory of God.
The Holy Spirit also gives us the strength to endure sickness and pain.

Because we have not reached perfection yet and continue to sin, the Lord pronounces this benediction.

These are words of power whereby He confirms that He remains with us in all his power and presence.
The blessing of the Lord remains with us throughout the week to be remembered so that we would not do wrong or speak wrongly too quickly.
I received the blessing of the Lord and therefore I should live his love.
The blessing of the Lord forbids me to fall into self-pity.
The blessing of the Lord motivates me to stay positive in all circumstances.

The blessing of the Lord therefore motivates me to fully take advantage of life to the glory of God.

Similar to all other churches our congregation also needs the benediction to be pronounced over us – because without it we cannot move forward. This blessing of the Lord makes us hear and know Him in his love so that we can live a fruitful life and be a blessing to others.

2. Us opposite God the Father

Before the almighty God we stand:

Not only are we not almighty
We stand before him totally powerless. We cannot create anything out of nothing. We cannot create life.

We cannot even conserve the creation as God commanded us to do.

That is why it is so comforting to confess that the omnipotent God is our Father.

In his Godly power He snatches me from sin.
He will command my body, which will be buried when I die, to come to life at the time of the Second Coming.

I know that the Almighty carries me through all tribulations during my life on earth.
And I know that God’s omnipotence will clothe me in glory in the everlasting life.
The Almighty made me his child – I, who is only able to sin.

This brings us to the practical issue. We do not always live our lives as we should.

We often put God and Satan into the same camp in our lives.
We say we believe, but we do things that do not suit children of the Almighty.
We act as if God cannot or will not punish our wilfulness.
We must realise that because of the fact that Jesus Christ made us children of God, God will punish us to bring us to repentance.

He does not want disobedient children in his household.

In the passage we read, Paul asks the Greeks of Corinth how on earth they manage to cling to God with one hand and cling to sin with the other hand.

He says it is, after all, impossible that God would enter into an alliance with Satan.
This simply means that it is impossible for a believer to live like people of this world.

If we then confess that we believe in God the Almighty Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, we should look at ourselves and see whether we look and act like people who belong to the God of our confession.

The omnipotence of God does not mean that He will forever be tolerant to sin.

We must remember that the judgement on sins and the powers of hell also reside in the omnipotence of God.

It is the omnipotence of God that will cast the devil, death and the realm of the dead, as well as all those who sinned against God, who did not believe in the atoning death of Christ and did not repent, into hell.
It is the omnipotence of God that will put a seal on all these powers in hell for eternity.
It is with omnipotence that God will punish those who do not repent of their sins.

Brothers and sisters, we should again look at our confession.

Children, do you confess that you submit yourselves to the authority of God, but you are rebellious against your parents?

Those who submit to the structures of authority that God instituted will not do that.

Or we live without love.

We cannot say that we bear the image of this almighty God, but at the same time we cannot tolerate other people.
We must also exhibit, through the way we live, God’s grace and the forgiveness of trespasses.

Let’s break with sins. Let’s serve God the almighty Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, to the best of our ability so that our lives agree with our confession. Then God will be a father to us, and we will be God’s sons and daughters.

The Creator looks at you. The Father cares for you. The Almighty gives you eternal life.

Let’s read together Catechism Sunday 8:

24. Q. How are these articles divided?
A. Into three parts: the first is about God the Father and our creation; the second about God the Son and our redemption; the third about God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.

25. Q. Since there is only one God,[1] why do you speak of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
A. Because God has so revealed Himself in His Word[2] that these three distinct persons are the one, true, eternal God.
[1] Deut. 6:4; Is. 44:6; 45:5; I Cor. 8:4, 6. [2] Gen. 1:2, 3; Is. 61:1; 63:8-10; Matt. 3:16, 17; 28:18, 19; Luke 4:18; John 14:26; 15:26; II Cor. 13:14; Gal. 4:6; Tit. 3:5, 6.

Amen

Closing prayer

Closing hymn: Psalm 103:1

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen

Dr MJ du Plessis
Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville
Date: 17 August 2003 (evening)