REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2005: MORNING SERVICE

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2005: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before: Psalm 104:18+19; Psalm 143:8

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 33:1+3
Confession of faith: Apostle's Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into Hell, the third day He rose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, a holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.

After the reading of the Law we confess our guilt and pray for forgiveness and a new life before God with Psalm 40:4
Law
Psalm 40:4
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: 51:5
Scripture: John 15 and Heidelberg Catechism Sunday 20 and Belgic Confession art 8 + 11
Text: John 15:26

"When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me." (In the St James translation "parakletos" is given as "Comforter")

In the beginning, before the creation of heaven and earth God the Father determined His counsel.

In this counsel He planned the entire creation.
In it He also provided that the sin that would take place on earth would be used to His greater glory.

In this counsel God also included a plan for Himself.

The Father planned creation and examined it and found it to be good.
The counsel of God also determined that the Son of God would come to die for His chosen. (The chosen who after Adam's transgression all fell into sin. (And that included everybody without exception.)
The counsel of God determined that after Jesus' ascension the Holy Spirit would continue His work as Comforter.

That is why it is written in John 15:26 that Jesus would send another Counsellor (Comforter) in His stead to strengthen the redeemed and guide them in truth.

Who is God the Holy Spirit?

This is a question that troubles many people, especially in the present day.
There are religious persuasions who claim to performing miracles and seeing signs and present these as works of the Holy Spirit.
These same people demand these as an additional requirement for faith.
Different churches also teach the doctrine of the Holy Spirit differently.

No doubt the Holy Spirit is the Person of the Holy Trinity who is the least known by us. Let us then turn to the Bible and learn from the Word of God who is the Holy Spirit.

The first thing we learn is that the Holy Spirit is one of the Persons of God.
The Bible teaches us that He has as much power as have the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit is also equal in majesty and glory to the Father and the Son.
Because the Holy Spirit Himself is God it is evident that the Holy Spirit is neither made or begotten and exists from eternity and that like the Father He is immeasurable in His Godly greatness.
When it is written in the Bible that the heaven of heavens cannot contain God that also applies to the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is together with the other two Persons one only God.

We often fail to realize that the Holy Spirit also is God which leads to mistaken beliefs.

We should confess the Holy Spirit as much as we confess the Father and the Son.
We say that the Father protects us and that the Lord Jesus saved us but we never pray to the Holy Spirit.
We often forget Him.
The Holy Spirit is worthy of as much worship as the other two Persons of the Godhead.
But we often sin in failing to express our appreciation for the ministry and the guidance of the Holy Spirit for us.

Who is God the Holy Spirit?

He is the one who bears witness in the church.
It is He who guides us in our public worship.
It is He who inspires us to sing our Psalms joyfully to the glory of God.

The Holy Spirit dwells not only in the church, He dwells in every true believer. He is God who dwells in us. For our body is His temple in which He is glorified.

When we sin we sadden the Holy Spirit.

We then reject that which He tells us from within.
We know each time we do wrong and we know this because it is the Holy Spirit who reminds us.
We oppose the Holy Spirit when we become slack in our worship.

The Holy Spirit takes us to great spiritual heights. Of this there are many examples in the Bible.

He gave the dreams Joseph had.
He gave Samson his strength.
He inspired David to the lovely poetry of his psalms.
You and I are born again in His power.
It is He who plants our faith in us and makes it grow.

See how the Tri-une God functions:

The Father is the Planner of our salvation.
Jesus is the one who redeemed us through His merit on the cross.
The Holy Spirit now creates a spiritual life in us so that we can know and trust that God is also my Father and my Redeemer – which is faith.

Do we know that the Holy Spirit dwells in us?

We must know that the Holy Spirit was poured out onto the church and dwells in us.
He sees us when we sin and is saddened by it as He tells us what is right and yet we allow ourselves to be inspired by evil to do what is wrong.

We must know, brothers and sisters, that the Holy Spirit was given to each one of us and he does not minister aimlessly. The Holy Spirit does not pick a person here or there and then drops him again.

The Holy Spirit ministers painstakingly systematic.

He ministers according to the covenant – from generation to generation.
Our parents were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
We were baptized in the Name of the Holy Spirit and our children were also baptized in the Name of the Holy Spirit.
That is the assurance that God gave us in the midst of the whole congregation that God the Holy Spirit dwells also in us and that we are God's property, His own.

But beware! One cannot say that now because we are baptized everything is done and in order!

Baptism does not save us!
The baptism is only a sign of the covenant and we now stand in the full responsibility of accepting and appreciating the promises of the covenant.

Faith is not an easy matter! We often doubt our salvation because we know how much we sin!

But it is then that the Holy Spirit assures us – you belong to the Lord for I was sent to work in your sinful heart.
He assures us – I dwell in you and you have Me therefore you need never doubt your salvation only work at living a more holy life! We are in daily communion with the Holy Spirit.

We tend to think only of our salvation and the other benefits we received through Christ's merit on the cross. But that is wrong.

We must also love the Person who gave us these things.
We cannot gain benefits from Jesus and not love Him.
The Lord first – thereafter His benefits.
What does the Holy Spirit do to a sinful being as I am?
In our confession it is written that He makes me a "partaker of Christ".
This is what the Holy Spirit does – He teaches us to love our Tri-une God.
We can love God only through a true faith (which is worked in us by the Holy Spirit).
We can know the Tri-une God only through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot know Christ and His benefits and God the Father and His Kingdom through education or study or any other way.

It is true that the Holy Spirit can use study and education or anything else to turn you to the faith and to move you to daily repentance and insight.
But without the ministry of the Holy Spirit – we cannot know God's counsel of salvation and cannot be saved.
None of us can confess Jesus Christ as his Redeemer unless he was moved to it by the Holy Spirit.

It is the Holy Spirit that makes us want to know God.

It is He who makes us want to meet the Lord in worship on a Sunday.
It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit that lets us enjoy the holiness and nearness of God.

It is the Holy Spirit that draws our attention to the love of God the Father that protects us in ways we cannot see.

It is He who lets me believe that the Lord will not cast a sinner like me into hell but that for me there is mercy.
It is the Holy Spirit that lets us know that God's last judgment too expresses His love because He must exalt us and destroy evil to show the righteousness of His holiness.

But it is also the Holy Spirit that teaches us to fear God, because when we know the terror of God's judgment, we know the terrible punishment on those who harden their hearts against God and who injure His Name!

The Holy Spirit is in particular our Comforter.

He comes in the stead of Jesus Christ to round off His ministry of salvation.
He stays with the people who belong to Jesus – dwells in them.

He comforts us when we suffer.

He opens our eyes when we stand at the graveside so that we may see the glory of God beyond the grave.
He strengthens us when we are anxious and fearful.
He clarifies our mind when we are confused and in doubt. Then He assures us that our life is in the Father's hand who has planned everything for us for our good even before time.
He lets us believe in a hereafter in the kingdom of God where there shall be only joy and happiness.

God the Holy Spirit is with us eternally.

The Lord does not forsake us in our loneliness and He does not make us orphans.
In the Holy Spirit the richness of God's nearness and indwelling is always with us and in us.

Beloved, we live in a time when so little is seen of people being guided by the Holy Spirit and that people are ashamed of showing that they carry the holiness of God within themselves.

In these days the Holy Spirit is preparing us to celebrate Holy Communion.
Holy Communion does not save us, it is only a sacrament that confirms in a tangible way that what we have spoken of in this sermon and it strengthens your faith.

One cannot come to the table at Holy Communion without first having examined with the Holy Spirit the quality of one's life and faith.

We cannot come to Holy Communion if we cannot show God some improvement in our life.
The Holy Spirit of our baptism has our whole life taught us and compelled us to be obedient to God.
Now He calls us to Holy Communion to assure us of the promises we have received.

But then we must know that the promises that are confirmed by Holy Communion are none other than the promises that the Holy Spirit assured us of at every public worship and if our attitude and faith is wrong we shall be confronted with the same judgment that He preaches in sermon after sermon.

Let us then approach the Lord’s Supper with the attitude reflected in een van ons psalmsPsalm 43:3&4 (NLT):

Send out your light and your truth;
let them guide me.
Let them lead me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you live.
There I will go to the altar of God,
To God – the source of all my joy.
I will praise you with my harp,
O God, my God!

We find a brief summary of this sermon in our confession, the Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 20:

53. Q. What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit
A. First, He is, together with the Father and the Son, true and eternal God.[1] Second, He is also given to me,[2] to make me by true faith share in Christ and all His benefits,[3] to comfort me,[4] and to remain with me forever.[5
[1] Gen. 1:1, 2; Matt. 28:19; Acts 5:3, 4; I Cor. 3:16. [2] I Cor. 6:19; II Cor. 1:21, 22; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 1:13. [3] Gal. 3:14; I Pet. 1:2. [4] John 15:26; Acts 9:31. [5] John 14:16, 17; I Pet. 4:14.

And also in the Belgic Confession:

Article 11: The Deity of the Holy Spirit

We believe and confess also that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son – neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but only proceeding from the two of them. In regard to order, he is the third person of the Trinity – of one and the same essence, and majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son.
He is true and eternal God, as the Holy Scriptures teach us.
Amen.

Closing prayer.
Scripture Hymn 12-3:1, 2 .

The Lord will bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift His countenance to you and give you peace.
Amen.

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
Date: 16 October 2005 (morning)

Belgic Confession

Article 8: The Trinity

In keeping with this truth and Word of God we believe in one God, who is one single essence, in whom there are three persons, really, truly, and eternally distinct according to their incommunicable properties – namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is the cause, origin, and source of all things, visible as well as invisible.
The Son is the Word, the Wisdom, and the image of the Father.
The Holy Spirit is the eternal power and might, proceeding from the Father and the Son.
Nevertheless, this distinction does not divide God into three, since Scripture teaches us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each has his own subsistence distinguished by characteristics – yet in such a way that these three persons are only one God.
It is evident then that the Father is not the Son and that the Son is not the Father, and that likewise the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son.
Nevertheless, these persons, thus distinct, are neither divided nor fused or mixed together.
For the Father did not take on flesh, nor did the Spirit, but only the Son.
The Father was never without his Son, nor without his Holy Spirit, since all these are equal from eternity, in one and the same essence.
There is neither a first nor a last, for all three are one in truth and power, in goodness and mercy.