Dr MJ Du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville 11 March 2007 (morning) Scripture NIV

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 11 MARCH 2007: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before: Psalm 146:1, 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 145:1+10

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 119:10.
Law
Psalm: 119:10

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: 98:4

Scripture: Psalm 67 and Revelation 1
Text: Revelation 1:7 and Psalm 67:1+7

Revelation 1:7: "Look, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen"

Psalm 67:1: "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us – Selah."

Psalm 67:7: "God will bless us and all the ends of the earth will fear Him."

We are believers who may not loose sight of the Second Coming of the Lord.

The Second Coming of the Lord must have a special place in our spiritual life.
We must live having a special expectation about it.

The fact is simple:

The Lord Jesus Christ is coming!
It is another truth that our spiritual life must always be up to the mark so that we may be ready when the Lord comes – the Lord Jesus who is God and who is gracious to His church.

This passage in the Bible contains an important description of the Lord: He who is and who was and who is to come. This description can be separated into two parts:

He who is and who was.
Who is to come.

One hears clearly that the Lord identifies Himself in the same words that He identified Himself to Moses.

Go tell Pharoah I AM sent you. I Am Who I Am.

That is the meaning of the Name of God JHWH – it describes God in His eternal being.
That is the name God uses whenever He established a covenant.
In this identification by the Lord that He is and was we see that He is the God of the covenant.

With the words "who is to come" the Lord tells His church that He did not establish a covenant with His church and thereafter forgot about it.

The promises in His covenant of grace are being fulfilled.
He comes to finalise them in perfection.
With these words He shows the progress of His work – He is coming irresistible in His might!

The words "who is and who was and who is to come" therefore show the being of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They describe God the Almighty in His power and in the fulfillment of His promises of salvation to His elect.
The words also show that God is immutable.
He is still what He always was.
The God of the New Testament is the same God of the Old Testament.

These words also reveal the finality of God's grace and of His judgment:

He is coming in His glory! He is going to make His grace a perfect reality for the believers.
At the same time He is going to execute His judgment accurately and definitely over all those who hated and rejected Him.

Who is there that can do without comfort? There is one comfort that is so great that it alleviates all miseries.

At your baptism God gave you this comfort – you belong to the Tri-une recreating God. He is the only God who can sanctify you.

Summarized:

The Lord of the future is also the Lord of the past.
He is the Head of His church who shall bless His church and who will shortly reveal all his blessings for His church.
In the past he already revealed His almight and will do so again in future.

The Lord never lost his grip on the progress of history. The Lord is the Source of our existence in time and eternity.

The seven spirits of which Revelation 1:4 speaks is God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not idle in the church of the last days.

The Holy Spirit is revealed here as working in the church of God.
He works the grace and peace that the Father disposed and which was made real in the church by the Son.

The Name of God the Son is added. Verse 5 contains an extensive description of who the Son is but the purpose of this description is to show how the Son works his salvation in the church. "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood." (Rev 1:5)

Jesus is the faithful Witness!

He faithfully taught His church God's plan and Word.
He confirmed it with His death.
Furthermore He is the Firstborn from the dead.
He did not remain in death.
He was the first One to arise from death.
He now rules over death hence the Son is called the ruler of the kings.
Even the most high in heaven and on earth must bow before Jesus.

Thereafter the relationship between us and the Holy Trinity is described.

He made us kings and priests of God.

Psalm 102:13: "You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favour to her; the appointed time has come."

Psalm 102:14: "For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity."

Timothy 1:16 "But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example of those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life."

He shall appear suddenly in full majesty: in the splendor of light and glory and majesty as no person has ever seen or imagined. Every eye will see Him.

The majesty of the Lord's coming sent its beams far ahead.

John saw it and tells us of it.
The Lord Jesus Christ is approaching in shining majesty.

Hence we must take this matter seriously! Are we prepared for the coming of the Lord?

We are the Lord's children – because He made us his children – who must await His coming.

What does it mean that we are the Lord's children?

The Lord Jesus Christ redeemed our bodies and souls from death and from the power of Satan and brought us salvation.
At the same time through His death on the cross He reconciled us with God the Father.
It is written that God gave His own Son in death so that through His death we could receive God's mercy.

Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

In this way we became God's children.

Now that God's wrath over our sins is appeased the relationship between Him and us is different.

After the Fall we were simply sinners who sinned and thereby damaged the image of God in us.
Now, because of the reconciliation in the blood of Jesus Christ a relationship of such tenderness was established between God and us that he calls us His children.

The Lord Jesus did more for us than making us children of God.

Jesus saved us from Satan and also saved us from ourselves.
He saved us from our reluctance to fight sin and our feeling of guilt when we do sin. He also saved us from the violence of sin (for all sin contains the violence of hell) and the rule of the devil. We have also been exonerated from the guilt in which we stand before God because of our sin. This salvation by the Lord Jesus is not incomplete so that we must contribute something to it. It is also not conditional. He did this freely and in the full power of His almight.

Psalm 116:3: "The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me, I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the Name of the Lord: O Lord, save me!"

The Lord comes in His almight – in His Trinity.

He shall wipe out all resistance and time.
His coming is one deed of judgment and grace.
That is why the Lord warns: we shall all see Him.
We and those who are dead.
Including those who crucified Him!
You will not be in doubt – it will undoubtedly be the Lord!

See the grace: the epistle commences with the Lord proclaiming His grace and peace over us.

You must persevere in your faith because the grace and peace from the Lord is approaching.
When the Lord comes it shall suddenly be a perfect reality.

That moment you will not be in doubt.

Gratitude and joy will fill you for every eye shall see Him when the Lord comes – those who crucified Him and also we who longingly awaited His coming.

Psalm 67: 6-7: "Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us and all the ends of the earth will fear Him."

Numbers 6:25: "The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you."

What happens to a person who lives every day with the fixed knowledge of this comfort that the Tri-une God protects and keeps him?

Such a person becomes tranquil.
His life produces fruits of faith for he lives with his heart and mind enlightened by the Lord Himself

Let us put it differently. The Holy Spirit establishes the Counsel of the Father and the reconciliation through Jesus Christ in the people for whom it is meant. Listen to the Lord's own words:

John 14:16: "I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of the truth."

John 14:26: "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."

Through His witness, His power and His dwelling in us the Holy Spirit makes us willing and able to fight against sin relentlessly.
Where we have fallen into sin He lets us arise from evil.
He makes us willing to struggle against our inabilities and to live for the Lord.
It is written in Romans 8:15+16 that the Holy Spirit guides us to pray and to know that we are God's children. (See also 1 Corinthians 2:12)

Romans 8:15-16: "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father".

The Holy Spirit guides us so that through all trials, poverty, illness, abuse and unfairness and whatever may befall us we remain steadfast and keep on loving God and serving Him gladly.
The Holy Spirit guides us to serve the Tri-une God and to be comforted.

Amen

Closing prayer

Closing Psalm: 103:10

The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn His towards you and give you peace.

Amen

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