I invite you to turn with me tonight to John chapter 16. John 16, as we read together verses 5 through 15. And also, if you would turn to page 74 in the back of the Psalter hymnal, as we consider tonight, article 11 of our confession, the Belgic Confession, regarding the deity of the Holy Spirit. Actually, once you have found John chapter 16, I'll take you back to John chapter 14. There are five particular, what we might call paraclete sayings in chapters 14, 15, and 16. Many of them, just a couple of verses each. In chapter 14, we read these words in verses 15 through 17. the first of our Lord's promises of the Holy Spirit. Verse 15, If you love Me, you will obey what I command, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. And dropping down a few verses to verses 25 and 26 of the same chapter, All this I have spoken while still with you, 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. Then the end of chapter 15, verses 26 and 27. When the Counselor 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, and you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. And then the final two of the five in the portion that we read for tonight, verses 5 through 15 of chapter 16. Now I am going to Him who sent me. Yet none of you asks me, where are you going? Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. In regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me. In regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father where you can see Me no longer. And in regard to judgment, because the Prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own. He will speak only what He hears. And He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. Everything is meaningless. Beloved, that's what the teacher of Ecclesiastes says. All of life is vanity or meaningless unless it is given meaning by the Holy Spirit. This table prepared before us tonight and the message its visible sermon preaches is meaningless to you and me apart from the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Everything is meaningless apart from the truth that the Holy Spirit is God. We know, of course, as we have studied that our confession, the Belgian Confession, has been dealing with the truth of God. That God is a triune God. And after discussing the Trinity in general, Article 10 considered the truth, as we considered a couple of weeks ago, that Jesus is God. A truth that is spoken by the Father, claimed by the Son, and certified by the Holy Spirit. And now article 11 deals with the deity of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is true and eternal God. We believe and confess also that the Holy Spirit from eternity proceeds from the Father and the Son, and therefore neither is made, created, nor begotten, but only proceeds from both. who in order is the third person of the Holy Trinity, of one and the same essence, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, and therefore is the true and eternal God as the Holy Scriptures teach us. Beloved, this truth that the Holy Spirit is God is the testimony of Scripture, and it is the testimony of faith. Those are the two points that you find on your outline tonight. And the bulk of the sermon will deal with the first point, as the second is largely applicatory of the first point. But now we need to confess that the person of the Holy Spirit is somewhat mysterious to us. Maybe that's because of the very title, Holy Spirit, or as He used to be called more often, Holy Ghost. Jesus in John 3, verse 8 compared the will of the wind to the work of the Holy Spirit. You cannot see the wind, but you know it by its work, as we have been reminded in recent weeks by the aftermath of the hurricanes in the east and in the south. We have a hard time believing that which we cannot see, and although we cannot see the Holy Spirit, His work testifies to the fact, just like the wind's work testifies to the fact that it is real, the Holy Spirit's work testifies to the fact that He is real. And also, we don't think of Him as a person, at least not in the people sense of the word. And indeed, He's not like you and me. But then, neither is God the Father, the first person of the Blessed Trinity. But our confession, both in the three forms of unity and in song, our confession is that Scripture teaches of God in three persons, Blessed Trinity. In many respects, the Holy Spirit is the forgotten person of the Trinity. Reformed believers have been accused of under-emphasizing the Holy Spirit and His work and His influence in our lives, while many Pentecostals, we might say, have over-emphasized the influence of the Spirit by hanging on to and insisting upon certain gifts of the Spirit, like speaking in tongues, that we believe the Bible clearly teaches ended with the age of the apostles. Yet the testimony of Scripture to the truth of the person and work of the Holy Spirit, including what He means for you and me as believers, that testimony, beloved, is plentiful and it is awesome. As you can imagine, in one sermon we cannot begin to do justice to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. We can only give a brief summary. But may God be pleased to bless us tonight with the truth of His Word, applied to our hearts by none other than His Holy Spirit. Scripture testifies over and over again about the person of the Holy Spirit, who He is. You recall, I trust, that when we consider the truth that Jesus is God, we notice that the Bible ascribes to Him divine names, divine attributes, divine works, and divine honor or worship, and gives many proof texts for each one of those four. And the same is true with the Holy Spirit. Scripture ascribes each of those four things, divine things, to the Holy Spirit as well. The Holy Spirit has given divine names. For example, in Acts 5, Peter tells Ananias and Sapphira that they lied to the Holy Spirit. And then a few verses later, you lied to God. Clearly pointing out that the Holy Spirit is God. In Hebrews 10, verse 16, the Holy Spirit is called the Lord. Divine attributes are ascribed to Him. In Psalm 139, it speaks of His omnipresence. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? And the answer the psalmist comes up with is nowhere. Acts 28, verse 25, there He is called the Holy Spirit. Divine attribute in many other places as well. The Holy Spirit. Hebrews 9, verse 14, He is called the Eternal Spirit. Scripture also testifies to His omnipotence and His omniscience. Divine works are ascribed to Him. Psalm 33 and Psalm 104 speak of His work of creation. We know from our study of 1 Peter 1, it speaks of His work of revelation and of sanctification. 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, His work of inspiration. And also Scripture testifies to His anointing work, His empowering work, and as well His convicting work. Even the passage we read, convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Divine honor and worship is also ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Negatively speaking, we are not to grieve or quench or insult or blaspheme the Holy Spirit as various verses tell us. Incidentally, have you noticed the unforgivable sin is committed against whom? The Holy Spirit. Positively, divine honor and worship are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. For example, in baptism in the name of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Or in the Trinitarian benediction in 2 Corinthians 13, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. As well, Jesus identified with the Holy Spirit and taught of the intimate relationship of the Holy Spirit with Himself, with Christ, and with His Father. As we read in John 16, Jesus makes it clear that the Spirit, the Counselor as He is called, will take from what is Christ. He would not come with His own agenda. He would not come to exalt Himself. He would take from what is Christ's and make it known to His disciples. And just before that, Jesus said in the first part of verse 15, All that belongs to the Father is Mine. All that belongs to the Father is Christ. The Holy Spirit will take of what is Christ, which belongs to the Father. All that belongs to the Father belongs to Christ, to the Son, and belongs to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 14, I am the way and the truth and the life. And then here again in John 16, He identifies the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth. And we of course know that He leads us upon our way. And He is the one alone who gives life. Now, Article 11 confesses that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, which caused the split in the Eastern and Western church many, many years ago. And again, our confession of the Holy Spirit arises from heresy, doesn't it? Arminianism, again, taught that the Holy Spirit was created. The Son was the most glorious creature of the Father, but then the Spirit is a creation of the Father and the Son. But He proceeds, the article says, from both the Father and the Son. And we find that truth in John 15, verse 26. Jesus says, When the Counselor 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. You see, the idea there is of an ongoing procession. An ongoing going forth from. We might say that the Holy Spirit is our constant connection with the Father and the Son because He is our constant connection with God Himself because He is God Himself. And God the Holy Spirit is a personal being. He has personality. He's not an impersonal force or power as some teach. He is not a thing or an it. He is always referred to in Scripture even by our Lord as He. And the Bible speaks of many personal traits or characteristics associated with the Holy Spirit. He speaks. He teaches. He witnesses. He searches. He wills. He intercedes. He strives. He convicts. He can be grieved again, insulted, or blasphemed. None of these are characteristics of an impersonal force, but of a personal being. But Scripture not only testifies to the person of the Holy Spirit, who He is, but also to His works. As we mentioned a moment ago, these are none other than divine works. The Bible, we know, speaks of believers as being temples in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. He takes up residence in us. But even before His work within the believer, we must be reminded of His work outside of the believer, apart from which there would be no work in the believer. Again, He is the Creator. God, through His Holy Spirit, creates all life and He takes care. He sustains all of life. In Genesis 1, we read that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. As one commentator says, Just as an eagle broods over its nest to bring forth life, so the Spirit of God served as the life-infusing agent at creation. Psalm 33, verse 6 says, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made their starry host. by the breath of His mouth, pointing to the Spirit. In Psalm 104, the psalmist speaks of the earth full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both large and small. And then he goes on to say in verse 30, When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. Beloved, anything that is living is connected to the power of God, The Holy Spirit. Your physical life. My physical life. And that means that when man destroys human life in abortion, he is destroying the work of God, the Holy Spirit. But his work outside of the believer also includes the incarnation of the Son of God for our redemption. The Bible says the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary. The power of the Most High overshadowed her. And therefore, that means that apart from the Holy Spirit, there would have been no incarnate Savior. And therefore, no redemption accomplished. But His work also includes then His work within the believer. The application of that redemption and salvation which has been accomplished. And that's what Jesus said really, I think, so simply to His disciples. The first part of verse 13 and the second half of verse 15. 13 says, But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. In the end of 15, That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. Again, we said a few weeks ago that the work of the Holy Spirit certifies the truth that Jesus is God. That's the work of God the Holy Spirit. Again, not to exalt Himself, not to push His own agenda for the disciples at the time of John chapter 16 when Jesus was preparing them for His crucifixion and death the Holy Spirit is the one who would make clear to them what was yet to come it didn't make sense to them yet but it would later on and for you and me today as believers by the power of the Holy Spirit He takes the truth the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of Jesus Christ and makes it plain and real for you and me. Of course, again, there is so much detail that the Bible teaches us about the Spirit's work of applying salvation to us. We cannot even begin to make a dent in it. Yet we can begin by saying that without the Spirit's powerful presence and work in us, our hearts are dead. Our minds are darkened. There is no hope for us. Our need, you see, is to have our minds illumined, our wills changed, and our hearts warmed by the Word of the living God. And the goal, as Heidelberg Catechism answered too, reminds us, is that we know how great our sin and misery is, and that we know how we are delivered from our sin and misery, and that we know how we are to be grateful for such deliverance. And we can speak then of a number of the works of the Holy Spirit in accomplishing that goal in us. First, He regenerates us. He regenerates. It begins there to those who are elect in Christ Jesus. We need to be born again. And we can't do that, can we? We cannot cause ourselves to be born again spiritually just as we didn't make ourselves to be born physically in the first place. That's the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says in John 3. And that new birth then results in a renewed will and heart and mind that desires God and loves Him and no longer hates Him and despises Him. And then regeneration or new birth naturally results in conversion, which includes repentance and faith, turning away from our sin, turning toward Jesus Christ. And along with that then, we might say is the Holy Spirit's work of assurance. Of assurance. He gives to our hearts assurance that our sins are forgiven. Assurance of that justification which is ours in Christ Jesus. Even forgiveness of the sins that we continue to commit every day. That's why the assurance of pardon that we hear every Lord's Day morning is to be so comforting to you and me. That promise of God that is real, it is true if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you repent of your sins, your sins are forgiven each and every one. the Holy Spirit reminds us when we question well how can God really love me how can I be a child of God he reminds as Paul says in Romans 8 by witnessing with our spirit that we are children of God and that God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness when we confess our sins beloved it is only by the constant working nothing else will do it is only by the constant working of the holy spirit that sinners saved by grace can be certain without a doubt of their salvation and at the same time then he seals us that's another word he seals us like a like the king's royal seal which was not to be broken think of the seal over the stone that was over christ's tomb or over the entrance to the lion's den when Daniel was in there seals that were not to be broken the Holy Spirit seals unto the believer that all of the blessings of redemption are our precious possession they're sealed unto us by the Holy Spirit never to be taken away from us Paul says in Ephesians 1 having believed you were marked in him with a seal the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. The Heidelberg Catechism's treatment of the Holy Spirit in Lord's Day 20 sums this up beautifully when it says, He has been given to me personally so that by true faith He makes me share in Christ and all His blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever. And that's a simple description then of the Spirit's work of sanctification. The Holy Spirit never begins something without bringing it to completion. And that's what He does in sanctification. It's that continuous process by which He delivers the redeemed sinner from the pollution of sin, cleansing you and me more and more. And He renews us so that we hate sin more and more and love God more and more and desire to please Him. And He makes us able to perform good works. And again, this is ongoing. It's continuous. Sometimes it might seem that His work in our lives is a little slower than at other times, but it's not because of Him, that's because of us. Tending to drag our feet. Paul says in Ephesians 5.18, Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Again, I appreciate what one commentator writes. He says, so what happens when a person gets drunk? And he's talking about with alcohol. Well, he says, the alcohol of the spirits gets into his bloodstream and permeates every part of his person. He walks differently and talks differently and he sees, hears, and acts differently. See, beloved, the believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit is completely changed. There's a similarity there. He walks differently and talks differently, thinks, sees, hears differently. Yet there's a major difference between one who is drunk on the Holy Spirit and one who is drunk on wine or alcohol. The one who is filled with the Holy Spirit sees the truth clearly, while the one who is drunk on alcohol sees nothing clearly at all. But the believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit, his desire is for God and his worship. He loves his neighbor and he is not afraid to speak of Jesus to him. He doesn't return evil for evil, but good for evil. A transformed life, as we have said many a time. The Holy Spirit, you see, makes our lives serviceable to God through His work, then, of bringing forth fruit. Paul talks about that fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And that fruit of the Spirit, then, comes to practice. It becomes visible in our daily lives, doesn't it? As His work in us then also includes distributing gifts among God's people throughout the church. You see, just as the body, the physical body, as Paul says, has many different parts with many different necessary functions that make up the whole, the Bible teaches that some have been given the gift of preaching, others teaching, others the gift of encouragement or administration or prayer or visitation or making a meal or driving someone to the doctor. Look around this room and notice as you look around at each other all the different gifts that are visible among God's people in this place. It's wonderful. One more work of the Holy Spirit in us that we can mention is that He empowers His people to witness for Jesus Christ. Before He ascended, Jesus told His followers, When the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Beloved, Jesus promised His disciples the Comforter, the Counselor, His Holy Spirit, who would work on behalf of the Son of God. Again, not on His own behalf, but on behalf of the Son of God, who would take the Son's place here on earth in each and every life of His believers. And all of His work in us and for us would be to glorify the Savior, Jesus Christ. To make Him real to you and me. And Jesus Christ is glorified as each and every elect child of God is brought to faith in Him. He is glorified as the Gospel is established in your heart and my heart. And our faith then in Jesus Christ also testifies to the truth that the Holy Spirit is God. That's our second point. Only God could create life out of nothing and only God can give life to that which is dead. I believe it says somewhere in our canons of Dort that new birth, being born again by the power of the Spirit is no less a miracle, an awesome miracle than God's original work of creating out of nothing in the beginning. It is the Holy Spirit who has worked in us and brought us to salvation and brought us to confess our faith. Only He gives spiritual life to anyone who will be found in glory one day. And as a pastor and as a minister of the Word of God, who strives to be faithful along with every other faithful minister of the Word of God, this is comforting to me. Because I cannot reach into your heart and turn you onto the Gospel any more than I can turn my own heart onto the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can take us out of our natural condition with a dead, closed heart and a will that is inclined toward the devil. Only He can make us able to do and actually do what the Gospel calls us to do, namely repent and believe. And along with any faithful preacher, I am called to be accountable, to be faithful to the Word of God and see to it under the authority of the elders that the Word which goes forth from this pulpit is the very Word of God. God will honor His promise. And as parents, the same is true. We are called to provide that Christian environment for our children in the home, In our Christian school, in church, God will honor His promise. His Word will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it. It will not return to Him empty. So, beloved, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, if you desire to glorify Him with your life, that's the work of the Holy Spirit in you. If you understand and believe what the Bible says about your sin and the only salvation in Christ, that's the work of the Holy Spirit in you. If you desire to do what is right and to fight against what is wrong, if you feel the weight of guilt when you sin and enjoy the assurance of forgiveness when you repent, if you are able to discern that which is pleasing to God versus that which offends Him, all of that is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. If you love gathering together with God's people for worship, and if you crave to feast on the Word of God, if you strive for honesty and truth because you know that that's what God requires and expects of you, that's the work of the Holy Spirit in you. Boys and girls, if you can say, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so, and you can say, I believe that Jesus died for my sins, that's the work of the Holy Spirit in you. And if you can consider all those works of the Holy Spirit which we spoke of earlier, just a sampling again, regeneration, assurance, sealing, sanctification, the fruit, and so forth, if you can consider those and say, that's for me too. That's the work of the Holy Spirit in you. That's the evidence of true faith. As the Catechism Answer 21 says, true faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true. Not only that, it is also a deep-rooted assurance created in me by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel that out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, me too, I have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation. Is that your confession and assurance tonight? If it's not, then listen to what God's Word says in Luke chapter 11. Jesus says, verses 11 to 13, Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? And God is true to His promise. It is the Holy Spirit who alone gives direction and guidance and comfort to you and me in every single circumstance of life, whether good or bad, whether happy or sad. As believers, we know this. Many of us can give testimony to this with regard to different situations of life. We know this especially when we mourn the death of a believer. It is the Holy Spirit who comes to us with His Word. You see, He always does His work by the book, by the Bible. He comforts us with Revelation 14, verse 13, which says, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Just a sampling of His comfort. The Holy Spirit lives in every single Christian. We are His workmanship. He brought us to faith. He brought us to be Christians. He promises never to leave us and instead to strengthen us and to prepare us for glory. And He does that through His means of grace. Through the preaching of the Word of God and through participating in the sacraments, which more fully, in a visible way, declares to us the promises of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is the one who teaches us and helps us to understand the truth of the Lord's table, of Christ's saving sacrifice and what that means for you and me. The truth, as the form says, as we'll read in a moment, that we shall be nourished and refreshed with Christ's body and blood through the working of the Holy Spirit as surely as we receive the bread and cup in remembrance of Him. Beloved, did you know that you and I are so dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit? Rhonda Howersow shared with me a list of things she heard in a sermon back in April in Phoenix when they were visiting their son where the one who preached gave a list of things. Where would we be without the Holy Spirit? Scripture texts that go with each one of these. No creation, no scripture, no church, no incarnation, no testimony of Jesus, no conviction of sin, no new birth, no revelation, no understanding, no comfort, no assurance, no sanctification, no fruit of the Spirit, no life. Life has no meaning apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, apart from Him, we cannot know God the Father, we cannot know God the Son, we cannot know salvation. He is one with the Father and the Son, and therefore may our prayer be that He would indeed bring glory to Jesus through His work in our lives. Now then, let's come to the Lord's table with eager expectation and anticipation of the nourishing power and work of the Holy Spirit. Thank you.