For our scripture reading, turn once again to Romans chapter 8. This morning we read together the last part of the chapter. And tonight we read together the first 17 verses of Romans chapter 8. As we read this in connection with our confession as recorded in Lord's Day 20 of the Heidelberg Catechism regarding the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 1, as we give our attention to the Word of God. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation. But it is not to the sinful nature to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 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 Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in His sufferings in order, that we may also share in His glory. And please turn with me also in the back of this altar hymnal To page 27, Lord's Day 20, question and answer 53. Lord's Day 20, page 27, into the back of the Psalter hymnal. We have considered God the Father and our creation, God the Son and our deliverance or redemption. And now we begin the work of God the Holy Spirit. We confess what we believe with this answer. The question asks, what do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit? First, He as well as the Father and the Son is eternal God. Second, 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. beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we profess our faith in the triune God. God in three persons. Blessed Trinity. And as the Catechism points out in Lord's Day 8, as it discusses the Trinity, we believe in God, the Father and our creation, the Son and our deliverance or redemption, and the Holy Spirit and our sanctification. And now again, after spending a fair amount of time in the Catechism dealing with the Apostles' Creed and spending a fair amount of time considering the Father, and especially the Son with His paths of humiliation and exaltation, now we spend one Lord's Day with only one question and answer on the Holy Spirit. This hardly seems fair, does it? In many respects, the Holy Spirit is the forgotten person of the Blessed Trinity because we can see the Father's work in creation all around us and in the mirror when we look there. And the Son, Jesus Christ, became man and dwelt among us. But the Holy Spirit of God works behind the scenes, we might say. Of course, the Pentecostal, the charismatic movement will tell you otherwise. But the Spirit of God does His work secretly and without any fanfare. He works by His Word secretly in the inner recesses of the heart. Yet He works powerfully and effectively. The congregation, the work of the Holy Spirit, is hardly invisible. He may work secretly. But the result or the effect of His work is very visible, even as we consider this morning with giving our bodies, offering our bodies as living sacrifices. His work is very visible. And that's because He gives life. He gives life to the creation of the Father. He gives breath of life to man. And He gives new life to those redeemed by Jesus Christ. And that life is visible. It must be. Yes, the catechism may treat the Holy Spirit in one short question and answer. The Spirit directly, that is, because the ones following deal with the Spirit's work as well. But this one question and answer says so much. Telling the truth of the Word of God, this Lord's Day now brings the work of our Savior home to each and every one of us as believers as it teaches of the Holy Spirit and His application of salvation. Boys and girls, what we mean by that, by the application of salvation, is that the Holy Spirit takes of Christ, takes Christ's work, and makes it real to you and me. He makes it a part of us. He makes us a part of it. Notice, first of all, the identity of the Holy Spirit. Second, the gift of the Holy Spirit. And finally, the benefit of the Holy Spirit. And since salvation is completely the work of God, planned by Him from the foundation of the world and accomplished by Him in time through the God-man, Jesus Christ, therefore it ought to be absolutely no surprise to you and me that the application of salvation must also be done by God. And therefore the Catechism rightly sets forth in the first place the identity of the Holy Spirit when it says in response to the question what do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit? First, He as well as the Father and the Son is eternal God. And again, I think the older version of the Catechism says it so beautifully that He is true and co-eternal. Even as we confess in the Athanasian Creed, He is true and co-eternal God with the Father and the Son. Now, we might be tempted to say, we know all this already, so what's the big deal? And it's true, of course, we know it up here in our head. But the question we must consider is, do we really know it and believe it in here, in the heart? We have discussed the Trinity some time ago in Lord's Day 8, that God is one God in three persons. But the catechism stresses, the catechism here stresses that just because the Holy Spirit is considered the third person, He is not third in importance. He, as well as the Father and the Son, is eternal God. He is true and co-eternal with the Father and the Son. And this is also reflected in the Belgic Confession. The end of Article 8 says, They are all three co-eternal and co-essential. there is neither first nor last, for they are all three one in truth, in power, in goodness, and in mercy. God wouldn't be God without the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is every bit as necessary and essential to the Godhead as the Father and the Son. The creation of the Father and the redemption of the Son would be absolutely meaningless without the application and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Now, of course, this is not something we can prove. The triune God, including the Holy Spirit, is not something that depends on human reason or on human acceptance or on scientific verification. God is not God because we accept that. His very Word tells us that He is the triune God. For us, it is a matter of faith and confession to confess. means to say the same thing. And when we confess our faith in the Triune God, we say the same thing about God as He has said about Himself in His Word. And the very Word of God tells us about Himself and it speaks clearly about the divinity of the Holy Spirit. For one thing, He is referred to as the Holy Spirit in Scripture. And that means that He shares in the holiness or set-apartness of God Himself. He is included in the Trinitarian name, especially for baptism. And the Holy Spirit is included with the Father and the Son in the work of redemption, as Paul says in Ephesians 1, verse 13, in Him that is in Christ you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. To lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God Himself. In Acts 5, we find that familiar episode of Ananias and Sapphira. And in verse 3, Peter says that they lied against the Holy Spirit. And then in verse 5, he says they lied against God. Was Peter contradicting himself? Not at all. He was there as well making the point that the Spirit is God. Other divine names or designations in Scripture for the third person of the Trinity include Spirit of God, Spirit of Truth, Helper, and Comforter. And Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16, that to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit is to be indwelt by God. When he says, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? And the Bible also tells us that the Holy Spirit possesses godly attributes such as eternality. He is eternal. Such as holiness, wisdom, and omnipresence, and other attributes. And along with His divinity, the Bible gives evidence of the personhood of the Holy Spirit. Now, many think of the Holy Spirit as just an impersonal force with whom we cannot have any fellowship. But Scripture describes the personal characteristics of the Holy Spirit in many passages as it tells us He hears, He speaks, He testifies, He commands, reveals, strives, creates, makes intercession, convinces, glorifies, and leads. He has intelligence. He has a will and even emotions. Paul says do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And congregation, all of these are not speaking of an impersonal force, but of a personal God who communicates with His people. And this is so important. Because the whole of the Christian faith is founded upon the truth of the triune God, even as we expressed in the Athanasian Creed, He who must be saved must believe these things we said. God is not complete without the Holy Spirit. He is the completer, the fulfiller of the Godhead. The Catechism says it this way, that He as well as the Father and the Son is eternal God. He is with the Father and the Son. He completes, fulfills, finishes, beautifies and prepares. John 1 tells us that the Father created through the Word, His Son. But the Holy Spirit gives creation its life. God created man and gave him the breath of life through the operation of the Holy Spirit. And in Scripture, when we read of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the emphasis is on to fill. The sound of the Pentecost wind filled the whole house with a content, remember? The disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul talks in Romans 8 about those in whom the Holy Spirit of God dwells and fills with life. But do we really understand what this means? Do we understand how awesome this is? Those who have the Holy Spirit living in them have God Himself living in them. Heibert said that singing with 5,000 people the praise of God was awesome. And it must be. But I think this is more awesome. to have God Himself living in you and me. God Himself completes, fulfills, finishes, beautifies, and prepares His people for Himself. And this only happens to you and me because He is given to us. Notice in the second place, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, we're not talking here about the gifts of the Spirit that Scripture speaks of, that the Spirit imparts upon you and me, but we're talking about the Holy Spirit Himself as the gift. What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit? The catechism question asks, again, first, He as well as the Father and the Son is eternal God. Second, He has been given to me personally. Now, I do not take the Holy Spirit unto myself. I do not make that choice to have Him come into my heart. And I do not deserve to have Him dwell in me. But He is given to me. By the grace of God, irresistibly, yet He is not given to me alone. The Holy Spirit of God is given to each and every believer, but He is given by God to a believer because that believer is a part of the whole, and that whole is the church. The Holy Spirit of God was given to the church of Jesus Christ, to the elect people of God. And when the Spirit came on Pentecost, He came to live in the church. And as members of the church, those who were gathered there that day received the gift of the Holy Spirit in their individual hearts and lives. In John 14 and 16, Jesus talks about the Helper coming to you. And He uses the word you in its plural form. He's not talking to an individual there, but to a group, His disciples, as representatives of His body, the church. My confession must be that the Holy Spirit is given to me because He is given to the church. He is not given to the church because He is first given to you or me, but He is given to you and me because He is first given to the church. This was reflected in the opening hymn that we sang tonight. God Himself is with us. Let us now adore Him. As a living member of the church of Jesus Christ, I then, as the catechism says, personally receive the Holy Spirit because He is the possession of the church. And this also then tells us why it is impossible for a true believer to be disassociated from the true church. It's impossible. In the Belgic Confession, Article 28 is subtitled, everyone is bound to join himself to the true church. And then the article begins with these words, We believe, since this holy congregation is an assembly of those who are saved, and outside of it there is no salvation, that no person of whatsoever state or condition he may be ought to withdraw from it, content to be by himself. The Holy Spirit applies the salvation of Jesus Christ to His church, and therefore to each individual elect child of God. That is to be our comfort, beloved, that because He has chosen the church to be His dwelling place, that He would not skip me as a member of that church by the grace of God. Not one is skipped. In the Old Testament, the Spirit's residence was heaven, And from there, He descended like dew to make the ground and to make His people fruitful. Then He worked from above. But now He works from within as leaven in the dough which spreads throughout the dough and causes the bread to rise. And when He came on Pentecost, He came with great force and tremendous signs and He has taken up His residence in the church and He remains there. And He works gradually and inconspicuously, yet powerfully and effectively, which is evidence from year to year when covenant youth and others confess Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. It's evident when God's people live in obedience to the Word of God, which is only possible through the illumination and leading of the Holy Spirit. And to have Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is to have life, as Romans 8, verse 11 says, And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who lives in you. Beloved, that's the benefit of the Holy Spirit. The benefit, or as the Catechism says, blessings of the Holy Spirit. Again, our theme lays before us the great work of the Holy Spirit, the application of salvation. And He is able to do this because of His identity, true and co-eternal God. He does this effectually and unfailingly because He is given to us. And the Catechism speaks of the benefit or the work or the task of the Holy Spirit this way. Again, 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. Now that is a beautiful statement. By true faith, He makes me share in Christ and all His blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever. The application. This is a picture of life, of new life, of eternal life. And first of all, beloved, that new life is Christ Himself. To behold Him, to know Him and His love, to see Him as He truly is. See, the Holy Spirit's main concern is, first of all, Jesus Christ and His glory. There remains an intimate connection between the third person of the Trinity, therefore, of the Godhead, therefore, no Holy Spirit, no Christ. No faith in Christ, no Holy Spirit. You cannot have one without the other. They cannot be separated. Romans 8, beginning of verse 9 again, says, You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, If the Spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin. Yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who lives in you. The connection between the Spirit and Christ. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3, Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Only when one knows Jesus Christ, that He is God, that He is the only Savior, that He is the Lord, only then can that one also partake of Christ's benefits or blessings. It's impossible to have the benefits of salvation apart from knowing the one who secured those benefits. And this is the believer's. It belongs to the believer by true faith. Faith is that instrument, gift also, given by the Holy Spirit, by which we lay hold of Christ and claim all of His benefits. It's only through true faith by the grace of God that Christ's work of salvation is applied to the heart and life of the child of God. The benefit of the Holy Spirit in His application of salvation is to work in us that we might make Christ's work our very own possession. You see, boys and girls, precious water is no good to me if I can't get at it to quench my thirst, to take a drink. If you're locked outside your house and you look inside the window, You're thirsty. You can see a glass of water sitting on the table, but it won't do you any good if you can't get to that glass of water in order to take a drink. And the best, the most tasty bread is worthless to me if I don't have an appetite for it. But the Holy Spirit, God Himself, with me and in me, brings about that necessary contact with Christ. He arouses my hunger for the bread of life. He brings water. He brings the living water to my parched lips. Jesus said of the Spirit in John 16, verse 15, He will take of mine and declare it to you. He won't come with something else. He won't come with something new and different. He won't come with His own thing. But He will take of mine and declare it to you. The Holy Spirit draws rich treasure from the well of salvation and gives it to me. He opens my eyes. To see the beauty of Christ. He opens my ears to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. And He opens my heart to make me partake of all of Christ's benefits. And what are Christ's benefits? Very simply, we can say the whole of salvation. It begins with our election from before the foundation of the world. And then that new spiritual life, regeneration, being born again, giving life to that which was dead, as Romans 8, verses 10 and 11 tells us as well. Ephesians 2, verse 1, which says, And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. He alone is the spirit of adoption, engrafting us in that beautiful, intimate way into the family of God as sons and daughters of the Most High God. In Romans 8, beginning at verse 14, Paul says again, Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 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 Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory. The Holy Spirit of God also gives us that knowledge and assurance of our justification by grace through faith that we stand before God, not guilty. We stand before Him with all of our sins forgiven, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit is also our sanctifier so that we no longer live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. He is the Holy Spirit, the one who makes us holy, even as God is holy. Peter calls God's people elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And Paul again in Romans 8 verse 13 speaks of in the Spirit putting to death the deeds of the body. And the Holy Spirit is also a sure pledge of our full inheritance in Christ. Question and answer 49 of the catechism taught us that Christ sent His Spirit as a further guarantee. Remember that down payment? He is that down payment from the Lord that as His people we shall receive that inheritance of full salvation for eternity. But His benefits and work include the rest of the Apostles' Creed. Remember, we're considering what we profess in the Apostles' Creed here. And his work, his benefits include the rest of the Creed, which we look forward to considering in the weeks to come. The whole of salvation has been accomplished for the Holy Catholic Church. He makes you and me as believers enjoy the communion of the saints. As well, he applies the forgiveness of sins and one day the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. The Holy Spirit of God was active in creation, giving life to creation, and He continues to lead the life of creation. And in His application of salvation, He is active in recreation, giving life to fallen creatures who are by nature dead in trespasses and sins. And He effectively and irresistibly He applies all of the benefits of salvation to the elect benefits which belong to them in Christ. And then He also comforts us, as the Catechism says. He comforts us with the truth that indeed these benefits are ours in Christ Jesus. Another word for comforter, which you know, is helper or advocate. An advocate, one who speaks on behalf of one to another. And just as Christ is our advocate before the throne of God, claiming us as His own, the Holy Spirit then testifies to our hearts that we indeed are children of God. Christ says to the Father, they are mine. The Spirit says to us, you are His. And He comforts us with the truth that although we are lost sinners, yet we are sinners saved by grace. He comforts us with the assurance that we are in the family of God never to be removed, never to be abandoned, never to be excommunicated. And His comfort, beloved, extends to times of trial and difficulty and temptation. And even when we fail, His comfort is that all of our sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ. And His comfort is the comfort of Romans 8, verse 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He also comforts His own by making us know that our God abides with us forever. In congregation, He Himself, the Holy Spirit of God, is proof of that. He doesn't give us new life and then leave us alone. The greatest benefit of the Holy Spirit is that He is proof that God is on our side. Yea, that God has brought us to His side so that as we live our confidence is that if God is for us who can be against us? And of course the answer is no one. Oh, we have enemies in this life but eternally no one can be against us. In His application of salvation the Holy Spirit works in the life of the church and in the lives of believers to take away the ugliness of sin and impart the beauty and the luster of grace. God's people are polished daily. If you're familiar with rock polishing, you know that the first step is knocking off the rough edges using the coarse grit, taking those rough sharp edges off. That's how it begins. And God's people are polished daily by the Holy Spirit until one day every spot and every impurity is removed and Christ's bride is prepared, fully prepared, ready for that eternal wedding feast. And the Holy Spirit works through His gracious gift of the Bible, which is proof of His love. He works through His Word to teach and lead His people unto eternal life. Beloved, the Holy Spirit and His application of salvation is a matter of life or death. Spiritual life, eternal life or eternal death. Only with Him, and with Him in you, is there eternal life. But apart from Him is only eternal death. And therefore I ask you tonight, are the marks of the Spirit in you? Is He at work in you? You see, this isn't just a question for family visitation by the elders. It ought to be done there as well. But this is something that we must consider daily. The marks of the Holy Spirit are union with Jesus Christ and participation in His benefits, including new birth, which produces the fruits of conversion, faith, and repentance. It includes sanctification and renewal after Christ's image. It includes the assurance of our adoption in the household of God. It includes the present enjoyment of an inheritance in Christ, which will someday be fully ours. And evidence, the evidence or the demonstration of all of this is what we confess in Lord's Day 1. By His Holy Spirit, He makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him. Evidence that is visible. Beloved, what is your relationship to the Word of the Spirit? To the Word of the Spirit. Do you listen to it? Do you willingly act according to it? Do you bow before His Word? I don't have to tell you, this is His Word of life. And those who have the Spirit cannot live one day apart from His Word. The salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ is full and free, given to those who have been given the Holy Spirit of life. Oh, beloved, do not despise the Holy Spirit when he molds and pounds and chisels and fashions you because sometimes it hurts. But love him, the God who loves you with an everlasting love. Through his Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ fulfills his precious word. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, there are times indeed when we forget all about the Spirit of God. The One who is near us. The One who is in us. The One who lives inside of Your people. The One who has given us new life. The One who has removed our heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh. the one who is always with us and yet we forget about the Spirit of God. We pray, Father, that you would make us more conscious that we live and move and breathe and have our being in your very presence led by the Holy Spirit. We pray, Spirit of God, that you would lead us and guide us and direct us. Keep us, especially in times of temptation, keep us from following the wrong way and keep our feet firmly planted on the narrow way that leads to eternal life. Strengthen our faith. Give us increased hope. Give us greater love for God above all and His people as ourselves. Lord God, hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name alone. Amen.