" THE WORSHIP SERVICE IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENT OCCURRING ON EARTH TODAY."

65. Q. Since then faith alone makes us share in Christ and all His benefits, where does this faith come from?
A. From the Holy Spirit,[1] who works it in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel,[2] and strengthens it by the use of the sacraments.[3]
[1] John 3:5; I Cor. 2:10-14; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29. [2] Rom. 10:17; I Pet. 1:23-25. [3] Matt. 28:19, 20; I Cor. 10:16.

66. Q. What are the sacraments?
A. The sacraments are holy, visible signs and seals. They were instituted by God so that by their use He might the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel.[1] And this is the promise: that God graciously grants us forgiveness of sins and everlasting life because of the one sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross.[2]
[1] Gen. 17:11; Deut. 30:6; Rom. 4:11 [2] Matt. 26:27, 28; Acts 2:38; Heb. 10:10.

67. Q. Are both the Word and the sacraments then intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?
A. Yes, indeed. The Holy Spirit teaches us in the gospel and assures us by the sacraments that our entire salvation rests on Christ's one sacrifice for us on the cross.[1]
[1] Rom. 6:3; I Cor. 11:26; Gal. 3:27.

68. Q. How many sacraments has Christ instituted in the new covenant?
A. Two: holy baptism and the holy supper.[1]
[1] Matt. 28:19, 20; I Cor. 11:23-26.

Scripture Reading:
I Corinthians 2
Genesis 1:1-5

Also Canons of Dort, chapter III/IV, 17.

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 33:1,2
Hymn 29:1
Psalm 19:3,4
Psalm 119:39,41,42
Psalm 85:3 & Hymn 37:1,2

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Church services are not the most popular attractions of our culture. And certainly not those services where the service appears to be a one-man show. The danger is that we get swept along in this belittling of church services and preaching.

As it is, the Lord God teaches us that there is no event more powerful, or more significant in the history of mankind, than the church service and the preaching of the gospel that occurs there. With Lord’s Day 25 we repeat after God why the church service is so vitally important. We confess that it’s in church that the Holy Spirit is pleased to do His work of regenerating sinners, applying to them the redemption Christ has obtained on the cross. This work of God on earth today confronts us with the responsibility God has given to us.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

1. Why the worship service is so significant.
2. What responsibility follows for us.

Question 65 reminds us that "faith alone makes us share in Christ and all His benefits." That’s an echo of material we’d confessed in more detail in Lord’s Day 23, where we acknowledged that we are righteous "by faith only." In order to appreciate the material of our Lord’s Day this afternoon, brothers and sisters, I need to remind you briefly of what we’d said about faith a couple of week’s ago.

The faith mentioned in Lord’s Day 23, I said then, was not a thing, a substance that you have and so can set on a shelf. Faith, I said, is, like walking, an action, and you can’t set an action –like walking- on a shelf. I reminded you of the box of chocolates, of how I can present a box to you with your name on it, you don’t have to earn it at all, but you certainly have to do something before you can enjoy its flavour. You need to get your hands out of your pockets, you need to reach out to receive, to accept, to embrace the box I’m giving to you. God, we confessed in Lord's Day 23, has prepared a most marvellous gift for us in Jesus Christ; by His work on the cross He’s obtained for us righteousness and life – riches God promised to us in the covenant He made with us in our infancy. At baptism He’s assured us these riches were really ours; our name was even mentioned in connection with those riches. What we need now to do is respond to our baptism, and that’s to say that we receive, accept, embrace the wealth God has prepared for us. But, we said with Lord's Day 23, we can’t use the hand of the body to reach out and receive God’s saving work in Christ; we need instead to reach out with the hand of the soul. That, we said, is what faith is; faith is that action of stretching out the soul to receive, to accept, to embrace the wealth God gives in Jesus Christ. That was Lord's Day 23.

The problem is, though (as we confessed last week with Lord's Day 24), that we don’t have it in ourselves to reach out the hand of the soul. I referred last week to Eph 2, where the apostle says emphatically that we are "dead in sin." Our fall into sin cannot be compared to falling off the top of the church so that we are injured, in need of help, but able to call for help and even help the ambulance attendants; rather, our fall into sin is to be compared to jumping off the Bank West tower, so that we’re well and truly dead on the sidewalk below. God in Christ has obtained forgiveness of sins for us, and righteousness and life, and –Lord's Day 23- "I can receive this righteousness and make it my own by faith only" – that is, by stretching out the hand of the soul to receive it. But the dead can’t stretch out the hand; the dead can’t do anything! So the work of Christ on the cross doesn’t help me a dot as long as I’m left to myself to reach out for it, to accept it. If I need to come up on my own strength with that activity called faith –what Lord's Day 23 calls "accepting this gift"- Christ’s death will help me nothing. For I am dead, and therefore I can’t accept God’s gift of righteousness in Christ. Here I’m confronted again with my bankruptcy before God. It’s not just that Christ has to obtain salvation for me 100% (for even my best works are so vile before God as to be offensive to Him); Christ also has to apply this salvation to me 100%. That second, that Christ has to apply this salvation to me 100%, is the material of Lord's Day 25.

How, now, does Christ apply to me the work He accomplished on the cross? He does that, brothers and sisters, through His Holy Spirit. Christ has ascended into heaven. But that does not mean that He is absent from us. Rather, on Pentecost He has poured out His Holy Spirit. Through this Spirit He is not only present with His own, but also active amongst His own. Specifically, through His Holy Spirit Jesus Christ in heaven is applying to His own the wonderful gifts He obtained for us on the cross.

Consider the passage we read from I Cor 2. The apostle is speaking in the passage about the wonderful redemption that Christ has obtained on the cross, a redemption so marvellous that no eye has seen it nor ear heard it nor has it even entered the heart of man. Yet, says the apostle in vs 10, "God has revealed" this redemption "to us" so that we know about it. How has God revealed it? Vs 10: "through His Spirit." But how can the Spirit reveal anything to dead people? How can dead people come to know God’s redeeming work in Christ? That’s possible, congregation, because the Holy Spirit raises dead people to new life; these people by nature dead in sin are raised from their spiritual graves and made alive again.

How, now, does the Holy Spirit make alive persons dead in sin? To accomplish His work, brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God. The word is His tool by which He accomplishes the work He sets out to do. To appreciate this work of the Holy Spirit, I draw your attention to the very first time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Bible: Genesis 1.

God, Gen 1 records, created the heavens and the earth (vs 1). The earth, though, was without form and was void; God had not yet organized His world, placed everything in good order. Meanwhile, vs 2, "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Why the Spirit was hovering over the chaos is told to us in the following verses. For –vs 3- "then" –that is, when "the Spirit was hovering over the face of the waters"- "then God said, ‘Let there be light.’" And see: "there was light." How come? God spoke, and the Holy Spirit of God translated the Word into action. The Word of God, God’s speech, is powerful, gets things done, is effective –how come?- because the Holy Spirit –true God!- turns the Word into action (cf Ps 33:6).

This connection between the Word and the Spirit comes back time and again in the Bible. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke the Word of God to God’s people, be it words of admonition and judgment, or words of comfort and encouragement. But, says Peter, the words the prophets spoke "never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21). And see: every elect person amongst the prophets’ audiences repented of sin and came to faith – for the Holy Spirit turned that Word of God into action; that Word was a hammer that broke the hardest hearts (Jer 23:29).

So too on the day of Pentecost. Peter, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, began to preach. What Peter spoke was not the word of men, but the Word of God. And see: the Holy Spirit took the Word of God as it came through the mouth of Peter and translated that Word into action; through the power of the Word persons dead in sin were raised to new life. Acts 2:37: "when they heard [Peter’s sermon], they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’" And a few verses later we read that "that day about 3000 souls were added to" the crowd of disciples (vs 41). It is as Peter later said in his first letter:

"… you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit …, having been born again … through the word of God which lives and abides forever."

And Peter adds:

"Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you" (I Peter 1:22ff).

Notice what he says: by the work of the Holy Spirit you have "been born again." And the Spirit did not willy-nilly cause this "born again"; He did it instead "through the word of God", and that life-giving word is "the gospel" which "was preached to you." There is a particular means the Spirit uses to make dead people alive, and the means God has ordained is the Word. The Word of God, the gospel of Jesus’ payment for sin on the cross of Calvary, came to the ears of the people Peter addresses, and the result was that these people dead in sin were raised to new life in Christ. As persons now alive they were now able to "accept" the gospel (to use a word borrowed from Lord’s Day 23), they can "accept" the gospel God has prepared in Jesus Christ, they can stretch out the hand of the soul; the Holy Spirit has made these sinners alive again. That is why Paul can say to the Romans that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom 10:17). It is equally why the apostle Paul could remind the Thessalonians that "when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe" (I Thes 2:13). Heathen persons of Thessalonica heard Paul preach the gospel, and they recognized that the word they heard was not a message dreamed up in the human mind, but was instead a message from God Himself – a Word that worked "effectively", powerfully, in these dead hearts so that they came to faith.

This, now, is the material of our Lord’s Day. Faith, that accepting of God’s gifts of salvation in Jesus Christ, does not come from ourselves, for we are dead. Such is God’s grace that He not only obtained righteousness for us through the blood of Jesus Christ; He also applies that righteousness to us through the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit does that through the Word; through the preaching of the Word of God the Spirit makes alive again people by nature dead in sin. Lord’s Day 25: the faith we need so desperately in order to share in Christ and all His benefits comes to us "from the Holy Spirit who works it in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel."

Let it be firmly fixed in our minds, brothers and sisters. The Christ who labored on the cross of Calvary has indeed ascended into heaven, and there He labors for our benefit in the presence of the Father. But that does not mean that He is today not laboring for our benefit on this earth! He most certainly is, through His Holy Spirit. Through His Holy Spirit the ascended Christ is raising from their spiritual graves all those for whom He died, all those whom the Father has given Him. And the means the Holy Spirit uses to do His life-giving work is none else than the preaching of the gospel, the Word of God as it comes through men called to preach that life-giving Word – as Paul declares in Romans 10.

That brings us in turn to the question of where the Holy Spirit does His work. If the means He uses to work faith is the preaching of the gospel, where does that administration of the Word occur? That, beloved, is in the worship service. Under the leadership and oversight of office-bearers appointed by God to shepherd the flock (Eph 4), the Word of God is spoken, is proclaimed. That is the Word the Spirit uses to raise to new life hearts dead in sin. That is why I said, congregation, that there is no place in the world today, no event anywhere in the world today, of greater significance than what happens in church. There is no band in church, there is no orator in church, there is but little audience participation in church, and our culture writes off that sort of activity as dull, boring. And no doubt, to our human sensitivities (dead in sin as we by nature are), this activity surely comes across as uninspiring, boring. But that does not take a thing away from the fact that this is how God Most High is pleased to work. Through the preaching He raises sinners to new life so that they can embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. The worship service, irrespective of venue, is the workshop of the Holy Spirit; there He is busy raising dead people to new life. And please don’t minimize that work; well do we say in the Canons of Dort that "regeneration is not inferior in power to creation or the resurrection of the dead" (C of D, III/IV, 12). As awesome as the work of God through the Spirit was in Gen 1, so awesome is the work of God through the Spirit today in church! There is no event in the entire world today as profound, as majestic, as awesome as the Spirit’s activity in the worship service of raising the spiritually dead from their unbelief!

I know well, beloved, that this sounds silly to human ears. What we see in church is much weakness, brokenness, sinfulness – just as the Corinthians saw when Paul came to Corinth with the gospel. I Cor 2: Paul says that "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom" (vss 3f). It’s all so foolish to the human mind; anything is more exciting than church. But Paul adds, "my speech and my preaching were … in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (vs 3f). No, the natural man does not see the wisdom and power of the things of the Spirit, "for they are foolishness to him" (vs 14) – for they’re dead in sin. But those whom God has chosen to life will come to the point –thanks to the life-giving labor of the Holy Spirit through the Word in church- to recognize that Yes, indeed, the worship service is the workshop of the Holy Spirit – that one place on earth of greatest significance and most momentous change.

That brings us to our second point:

It’s a principle of Scripture, beloved, that wherever the Holy Spirit works amongst men, we have a responsibility. For the Holy Spirit takes seriously the responsibility God created us within us in the beginning.

Well now, the worship service is the workshop of the Holy Spirit; through the Word proclaimed under the supervision of the office-bearers, the Spirit works faith. What, now, is our responsibility? It’s first of all this: I need to make it my business to be there! The Lord God, congregation, has established with you and me His covenant of grace, and that’s to say that the Lord has promised to us all the riches of Christ’s work on the cross. But we have a responsibility, and that is to respond to these promises, and we cannot respond on own strength for the simple reason that we are dead in sin. Since God the Holy Spirit would awaken us to new life, and He would do that in the worship service, it is for me to be there! That is the force of the apostle’s instruction in Hebr 10, when he commands that we’re not to forsake "the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some" (vs 25). Be there, as often as God gives the possibility, present yourself in the workshop of the Holy Spirit so that He can work on you.

You will say to me: but I get nothing out of it, church leaves me cold, the preaching does nothing to me. I will not dispute, my brother, my sister, that that is how you feel. But let me ask you a question. Did you pray before you came here that God will touch your heart, break your heart in church today? I ask the question because I have a deeper question, and that’s this: do you really want the preaching to break your sinful heart, to convict you of sin, raise you to new life? You see, you don’t have only a responsibility to front up in church; you also have a responsibility to come to church with a humble attitude. If you come to church because it’s the expected thing to do, if you come to church simply to sooth your conscience, do not, please, do not expect that the Holy Spirit will automatically raise you to new life, work faith in your heart. For you have your responsibility, and the Holy Spirit takes that God-given responsibility of yours seriously. You need to enter the workshop of the Holy Spirit with an attitude of humility, an attitude of wanting Him to work upon you and change you, you need to enter with a prayer to God that He will work a living faith in your heart. That may well require repentance, an acknowledgment that you’ve come to church with the wrong attitude, an attitude of ‘I’m OK’, or an attitude critical of way the Holy Spirit is pleased to work, critical of the means the Holy Spirit is pleased to use. Remember it: repentance is our responsibility, and the Holy Spirit takes that God-given responsibility of ours seriously. If church leaves you cold, you first of all need to do something about it.

Perchance you have another objection. You say: but I already have faith, so I don’t need to go to church to get faith anymore; the most I need is some strengthening – and I don’t really need that every week. I’m grateful to hear, my brother, my sister, that you have faith. But let me set straight a misconception here. Faith is not a thing that you have or don’t have, something you can touch or put on a shelf or stick in your pocket. Faith is an action, just is a much as walking is an action. Day by day the Lord confronts us with altered circumstances. There a tiff with your mother, or there’s the need to buy new trousers, or there’s a meeting with the boss, or there’s a death to digest. In each and any circumstances, as they change by the day, I need to work again with the promises of God extended to me at my baptism. He tells me in all my circumstances that He is my Father who controls every hair of my head and works all things for my good. As my circumstances change I need, again and again, to stretch out that hand of the soul to accept the promises God has given to me – whether they be promises from the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit. Never can I say that I’ve ‘arrived’, that I’ve accepted the promises of God in Christ once and for all. Faith is daily activity, is time and again receiving, accepting, embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ in my varying circumstances. To encourage me to keep stretching out that hand of the soul to receive God’s promises in my changing situations –similar as today may be to yesterday- the Lord God gives me a Sunday every week again, and tells me, every week again, to present myself in the workshop of the Holy Spirit so that He might equip me again to receive by faith what God has promised in Christ. Here, again, is need for humility on our part. As we said with Lord’s Day 23: though righteous in Jesus Christ, we remain "inclined to all evil," and that means too that we remain inclined in our changing circumstances to follow our own heads, to think that we know ourselves how best we can go forward – instead of asking the Lord for His will for us and giving us the strength of faith to accept His perfect will for us.

Sunday by Sunday the Lord God calls us to the workshop of the Holy Spirit. Shall I absent myself from church then? Shall I tell God that I’d rather watch the footy game? Or that the child’s cold is a sufficient excuse for me to stay home because I don’t really feel like going anyway? Or that I need a holiday, and so I’m going bush for a while? God, congregation, has given the specific command of Eph 4:30: "do not grieve the Holy Spirit." And Yes, we grieve the Holy Spirit when we think we don’t need to present ourselves in His workshop. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we tell the Lord that we’re going on holidays for a while, and won’t bother to come together where the Lord calls us. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we consider a footy game more important than the worship service.

Is that, then, the limit of our responsibility, as long as we front up in the worship service Sunday by Sunday? We understand: it’s for us also to be of such a frame of mind that we are able to take in what the Lord says to us through the preaching (cf Mt 13). That is why there is no place for coming to church tired. That means in turn: it will not do to be out late Saturday night. Let parents and children impose a curfew on themselves that you are in bed on time Saturday night – simply because you take seriously that tomorrow you want to present yourself in that one address on all the earth that is more important than any other place, and you want to benefit from the work the Holy Spirit is doing there through the preaching. Equally, being in a frame of mind to take in what the Lord says through the preaching –and so being open to the work of the Holy Spirit in church- requires that one cannot come to church critical of the man God has put on the pulpit. That may require some hard self-denial on everybody’s part, may require much prayer and hard work, but it must be done; a critical attitude hinders the working of the Holy Spirit. Here too we need to take our responsibilities seriously.

By the grace of God you’ve come to church today. What have you seen, what have you heard? The main feature of the entire service was the sermon. It was a sermon prepared in weakness, delivered in weakness; I well know that my work needs the redeeming blood of the Savior so very much. Human wisdom dictates that the worship service is hardly an inspiring place to be, and definitely so in our culture of entertainment. Both arguments –the brokenness of the preaching and the lack of entertainment value- strongly tempt us to belittle the worship service, to stay away from time to time, to dream in church.

But over against these human arguments, the Holy Spirit has placed His gospel: He tells us in Scripture that Christ has not only obtained salvation for us through His blood on Calvary long ago, but He also applies this salvation to us through His Spirit in church today. Since that is how God the Holy Spirit is pleased to work, I make it my business to keep in step with the Spirit – and be in church faithfully, prayerfully, humbly. Lest I fail, in the changing circumstances of life, to accept, to receive, to embrace day by day the rich promises God gave me in the covenant.  Amen.