Dr MJ Du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville 4 March 2007 (morning) Scripture NIV

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 4 MARCH 2007: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before: Psalm 89:11

Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God:
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: Psalm 25:7
Confession of faith: Nicene

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, or us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was Incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And we believe one holy catholic* and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

After the reading of the Law we confess our guilt and pray for forgiveness and a new life before God with Psalm 71:9.
Law
Psalm: 71:9

Prayer:

Doxology
Worship
Confession of sins
- Forgiveness
Gratitude
Prayer for the need of the congregation for the church, the authorities and the sinful world and appeal to God's promises.
General prayer
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit for the sake of the ministry of the Word.

Amen

Psalm: 71:9

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3
Text: 2 Corinthians 3:5-6

"Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

To have a covenant with the Lord is to have a very intimate relationship with the Lord.

This relationship and living with the Lord is pure joy. For those who understand it properly and do it correctly it is the greatest joy.
We must enjoy a relationship with the Lord as we enjoy wine when we drink it (the institution of Holy Communion).

In this morning's sermon we consider the following:

1.         Where does the covenant come from?
2.         My life in the covenant must be shown.

1.         Where does the covenant come from?

In the Bible we often read of a covenant.

We read of the covenant between the Lord and Noah. It is a personal covenant between the Lord and Noah personally and his sons and their wives. "But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you." (Genesis 6:18)
After the flood the Lord again went to Noah and established a covenant with him.
This covenant contains a repetition of some of the matters the Lord said to Adam.
Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
Rule over the animals.
Live in an intimate relationship with the Lord.
As proof of His fidelity and His closeness to mankind the Lord gives Noah and all generations to come the rainbow as a sign. (Genesis 9:9-17)

We read of the covenant with Abraham.

It is striking that the Lord repeats what He said to both Adam and to Noah.
The people must increase – God shall make Abraham's offspring as many as the stars in heaven and the sand on the seashore.
Again a sign is mentioned – this time not a rainbow outside man but a sign he must carry on his body as proof of his covenant with the Lord – the circumcision.

Important is that the Lord tells him that He will be his God and the God of his descendents. Also that the covenant shall last only for as long as his descendents keep it.

This means that there must be a close communication between them and the Lord.

To remind them thereof that they live for and by the Lord they were to be circumcised so that this sign would be there to remind them.
This communication with the Lord embraces everything in life.
It determines your home.
The Lord promised Abraham that He would give his descendents the land of Canaan – which He did. (Genesis 15:18; 17:2-21; 31:44)

In later years Abraham's descendents were severely oppressed in Egypt. In their distress they called to the Lord and prayed that He should help them. The Lord answered their prayers. He employed Moses to save them.

Important is the reason the Lord gives for saving them: He answered their prayers because He had a covenant with them. (Exodus 2:24 and 6:3-5)

The Lord is a blessing and saving God for those who associate with Him – people who communicate with Him. They are people who:

Believe that the covenant is a power of God.
And who know what the covenant with God means to them.
And who take their community with the Lord seriously.

The Lord repeated the same principle when He gave His commandments on Mount Sinai. He gave the same instructions and the same promise: "If you obey me fully and keep my covenant you will be for me a holy nation". (Exodus 19:5-6)

To keep the covenant does not mean that we remain on our knees in prayer all day long.

The covenant encompasses our entire life.
In Exodus 23:32 we read that it determines even the people with whom we may associate.

It is not that the Lord wishes to bully us with the covenant.

The truth is that man bullied himself into sin and in the new covenant in Christ the Lord saved us out of it.
Therefore He may set the rules for our salvation and we must obey them or remain lost.
The Lord tells us why we should not associate with the wrong people.
He tells us that they will influence us to stray from the righteous path. (Exodus 34:15, 37 & 38)
An example is the history of Balaam who advised Balak to let the women of his people befriend the Israelites to entice them to sin against the Lord. (Revelation 2:14)

2. My life in the covenant must show

That is why Paul writes to the Corinthians that they are a testimonial from Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)

The life of the congregation must testify of the church's calling in the covenant.

This issue affects our congregation too.

We too must be such a testimonial.
This testimonial is not written in ink – it is a spiritual testimonial written by the Holy Spirit.

The Corinthians understood that the Holy Spirit which was at work in them was not a means but the working cause of their faith.

That which is written in a person's heart by the Holy Spirit is permanent and alive for He is God.
The Holy Spirit writes the covenant and all that goes with it into our hearts and mind.

Therefore His writing must bring out a certain glory in our lives.

The competence that every church and every church member should have is caused directly by the Lord.
He writes that our confidence is through Christ and our competence through God.

Every believer's competence must show in the way in which he/she deals with the new covenant in his/her life.

Paul refers to three passages in the Old Testament where the Lord promises that will give His people a New Testament/ covenant.
All three times the Lord said that He would remove the heart of stone and give the believer a heart of flesh.

The heart of stone refers to our sinful hardness but the words chosen by the Lord also show that he refers to the Ten Commandments – the two stone tablets (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26). The Covenant and the Commandments cannot be untied from each other.

The Lord contrasts the Old and the New Covenant.

He emphasizes especially the glory of the New Testamentary dispensation.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Highest source of competence.
This we must know in matters such as our spiritual life and the preaching in the church of the Lord.

We must know that the Holy Spirit of the Living God maintains the spiritual life of every believer.

That means the Lord's law should live in or heart.
We must not deal with the Lord's covenant as if it were like the two stone tablets that Moses brought to the people and leave it there.

That is the difference between the first covenant and the new covenant.

We must experience fully the community with the Lord Jesus.
We must experience His nearness and His blessings.

We know the new covenant from the time that it was predicted by Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 31:31)

Jeremiah tells us that the new covenant does not consist of all sorts of external ceremonies because Jesus Christ goes into the inside of the believer's life.

In 1 Corinthians 11:25 the Lord Jesus also refers to the "new covenant". When instituting Holy Communion Jesus said: "In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying: 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me'."

Holy Communion, the Lord's supper, thus shows that the New Covenant started with Christ.

The old dispensation reached its top in the covenant the Lord made with Abraham and all the faithful generations.
It was embodied in the Ten Commandments written by the Lord with His own finger.

We no longer live subject to this covenant. We live subject to the new covenant that the Lord established with us in Christ.

The new covenant reaches its peak in our communication with God the Holy Spirit – through Jesus Christ.
We are reminded of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the church.

We have so much more glory than the people of the first covenant for we are clothed with the glory of the Holy Spirit.

How much more should we then not listen to the Holy Spirit and live in community with Him for He makes us understand how the community in the covenant of the Lord is realised in our life.
To be with Him continuously in a praying and obedient communion is truly community with the covenant.
We gain community in the blood of Christ if through the guidance of the Holy Spirit we live as victors over sin.

The Holy Spirit tells us we gain access to heaven through Jesus Christ.

He lets us know the glory of God's presence and glory.
That is why Paul calls it a new testament in the passage we have read.
It is a new dispensation in which the emphasis is on sanctification of the believers through the propitiating death of Jesus.

As a New Testament church we must now establish clearly where we stand on this issue.

Because the Lord's covenant must live in our life we must teach our children how to communicate with the Lord.
That is what we promised at the baptism of our children. We must teach them how to know the nearness of the Lord and how to listen to God the Holy Spirit.

According to this passage the unbeliever will see the Lord's covenant as oppressive. To him it will be a lot of empty letters that weigh him down. He will want to escape from it.

Such people will not be able to go past the outside of the Lord's covenant and will miss the ministry of the Holy Spirit in them.
They cannot truly worship the Lord.
They lack the true Christian spirit.

Amen

Closing prayer
Closing Psalm: Hymn 2-4:2

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
Reformed Church Bellville
4 March 2007 (morning)
Scripture NIV