The Work And Ministry of the Holy Spirit — Gerhard Du Toit

But it's wonderful to be here this morning. I really wanted to be there because I love to be close to people, you know? And when I saw the chair, I was reminded of the old pastor who could never get the people to sit in front of the church, and one Sunday morning he was so desperate that he took the pulpit to the back of the church and asked them all to turn around.

So of course now we wouldn't do that, but I just want to say, you know, I need this because I wrecked my back in Africa, Janice and myself were doing conferences amongst the African people, and there's a group of people in the land of Namibia, they are called the African Bushmen people, they're nomads, which means they travel a lot.

And there was a film made in the 70s with a title, The Gods Must Be Crazy. Anyone of you ever seen that? Okay, those guys, we were amongst them, and I had to be on my feet for about 18 hours after I had a vertebrae that slipped for about, just about a centimeter or more, and now we're dealing with all kinds of complications.

But it's wonderful for Janice and myself to be allowed to come back here. I really wanted to come the weekend when we are, I nearly said burning the church down, when we are burning the building down, because I've got a picture of that building that I've taken, and I had a plan with that building, I thought maybe being a Canadian and African we could jack it up, put it on the truck and bring it to Canada, and put it in a small little lake, and I'm going to live there for the rest of my life.

But this pastor wouldn't let me do this, you know. And so I told him, when he told me, and I said, so what are you doing with the little building? And he said, hey Gerard, the fire department's going to come and burn it down, and I couldn't resist to tell him of the old pastor in the little village somewhere in America, that one evening the little church, it's a little independent Baptist church, they were so independent that they were independent of God, but this little independent Baptist church caught fire and it was burning down in this little town.

And so suddenly the town saw there was a fire, and the whole town came to this church that was burning down. And so the pastor stood there, and the man came who had never been to the church, and he stood next to the pastor, and the pastor said to him, I've never seen you at the church before.

And the old man said to him, well, the church has never been on fire. So we don't want to be like that. But thank you for allowing us to just to come back here. God has given us a great burden for this fellowship, and I'm not one of these people, brother and sister, that blow into a place and blow up and blow out, you know.

And you know, if we are in touch of God, people often say, you know, if you want to pray with me, you need to be in touch with me a lot. And I said, oh, no, it doesn't work like that. And they said, but how do you know how you're going to pray for me?

And I said, listen, the only thing I need to do is I need to be in touch with God. And if I'm in touch with God, God will direct me how to pray. And so it's a great privilege for us to pray for one another.

And people sometimes ask me, so you have a prayer list? And I said, yeah, but not really. And they say, so what do you mean? I said, well, there's a list of people that you are committed to to pray for.

And, you know, sometimes I stand at the door and people come to me and they grab my hand and they say, will you please pray for me? And I grabbed their hand and I said to them, I'm going to pray for you right now.

And sometimes they are embarrassed and they would say, so why do you want to pray for me right now? I said, I'm going to pray for you right now, because that's how God's going to remind me to pray for you in the future.

And I don't need a list to pray for people. The list look for me. And when God comes to meet with us, and I trust that as a Christian and as a father of your children, because we said this many times, that God didn't give us children to populate hell.

The Church’s Burden in a Time of Darkness

That as a father of our children, as a mother, as a family, that we know this thing. To what it means to be able to meet with God on a consistent basis. How dare we go into this wicked society and we are Canadians, you know, we are aliens when it comes to the U .S.

The problem with the Canadians is that 80 percent of Canada lives within 100 miles of the U .S. border and the Canadians know more of what's happening here with you than many of you know what's happening with the Canadians.

And I've never in my life been so burdened to pray for the United States. In fact, I can go and climb under a blanket in a cabin and spend 40 days lingering underneath the burden of God and ask God to dissect it, to pray for this country.

I've never in my life, and we know people are into all kinds of stuff. John Wesley said, I read the newspaper because I want to see what God is doing in the world. But I've never in my life gone through a time as it relates to this, our country, where we've seen such an absolute clear distinction between darkness and light.

And I've worked my heart out about this thing. If you ask me why, I have this one question to God in my heart, and I said, where are the Christians? And where are the people of God? And the psalmist said to the foundations be turned over, what shall the righteous do?

We are living in desperate times. I don't like you. I don't want you to misunderstand me. God is not going to keep His hand upon this country. We can end up in a civil war. And you say, man, are you way off track?

No, I've seen it. And so you say, what needs to happen? You and I as a Christian are going to need to draw a circle afresh around our lives. We're going to need to go to God and say, God, we want you to...

I'm okay, Dan. I've got one, two, three, four, five. One for my nose, one for my forehead, one for my tears, and one for you. So let's pray. Father, we have come this morning because our hearts are deeply burdened because the Lord Jesus Christ was the one that said to us, as my father has sent me, so do I want to send you.

And we are so conscious this morning, our God, that there is no one else that we can trust. And we are so conscious that You said to us in Your Word that if my people which has been called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, You said, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

We are conscious of God that You have said to us that I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. We are so aware, dear Father, that Christ came and said, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me.

He that believeth into me, as the scripture says, rubbish of living water shall flow from the innermost of his being. And Your Word said that He said of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Christ was not yet glorified.

Revival, Conversion, and the Power of the Holy Spirit

Lord, I was thinking earlier this morning in my choir time that when we were in the midst of revival in the island of Lewis and You poured out Your Spirit and hundreds of people in those years were converted and found Christ.

And now Duncan Campbell, when he was asked about the Lewis revival, and now they follow up all the people that came to Christ and how 75 of the people that were converted in the Lewis revival up in the highlands of Scotland, that they were not converted because of an invitation that was made or some measure of pressure that could have been put upon men and women.

But that 75 of those people were gloriously converted, not inside the gatherings when Duncan Campbell preached the gospel, but that they were converted during the hours of the night and the early hours of the morning.

God, I couldn't help but think that after 40 years or 30 years after the revival, when I sat down with those people that were converted to the island of Lewis and asked them to share their testimonies, and now the Spirit of God came and the depth of the conviction of sin, and now God became so real in every aspect that after all those years, I could not find one single backslider.

And dear God, how when Duncan Campbell was asked how they did follow up work and how did they disciple people in the midst of the revival and how they helped them and did this, that and the other, which is nothing wrong with, and yet he turned to them and said, when we were in the midst of revival, there was no necessity to do follow up work because they just followed us.

And Father, I was reminded of Peter and John in the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles who went up to the temple at the hour of prayer, and this man that sat there asking for alms or something to live from, and now Peter and John looked at him and said to him, silver and gold have we none, but such as we have, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.

God, you need to forgive us this morning because we are in a position where we sometimes can say silver and gold we have, but we do not have the power and the unction to say in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.

Father, I love this group of people. There are men and women here who are serious with God. The men's retreat that we had earlier on this year in March, in my own life, was just the turning point when we as men that Saturday morning went alone and allowed the Spirit of God to search us and to break us and to crush us to the degree that what many say that whatever we give to God, He breaks like the five loaves and the two fishes.

Thank you for the privilege of being allowed to come here. Thank you for this fellowship for there is an interest in what God, but not in what we, Janice and myself, are trying to do for God, but they have an interest in what God is doing in us because our effectiveness for God is determined by what you do for us so that we can live Christian lives that demand supernatural explanations and that we can be intoxicated and saturated with the greatness of the presence of God and that the little woman, when Elisha passed her house, turned to her husband and she said to her husband, I behold that this man, which is passing our house, is a holy man of God because there was an atmosphere about him and there was an activity about him and there were attributes in his life that arise amazing explanations being saturated with the indwelling greatness of the life of God.

The Authority and Sufficiency of God’s Word

Lord, as we take these few minutes this morning and we ponder upon the beauty of your word because we love your word and we want your word to dwell in our hearts and in our lives and we are serving a Christ that said that heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall abide forever and we are opening the scriptures that he is saying to us my word is sharper than any two-edged sword cutting through the dividing asunder of soul and spirit in bone and marrows and a God that he is saying to us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's a proof of doctrine and correction and instruction in righteousness and so when we open the word, give us a hunger and a thirst God, I was reminded again of Duncan Campbell who used to say to us this man that was used of God in the revival if you are filled with the spirit of God, you cannot be filled with anything else.

Father, I don't know my brothers and sisters here this morning and you are the only one that have a knowledge into the depths of our hearts and our beings and our relationships with you and you are the only one that know of the mountains and the valleys that we are facing and you are the only one that knows of the depth of the iniquity of our sin.

And I pray this morning that the spirit of God will just in one way or another touch in these areas of our life. My life as the father of my children as the husband of my wife as the priest of the house and my life as the mother of my children and the wife of my husband that our wives will never lose the spirit of motherhood.

Bless your word in these few moments in Jesus name. Amen. And I just want to take a few minutes to try and talk to you about what I would consider as the work in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And you know there are different ways for us to consider the scriptures the Calvary chapels that I have the privilege of finding myself in we have this pattern and I would love to do this.

In fact I did this when I was pastoring my own church many many years ago even before Janice and myself were married just to go kind of verse by verse through the word of God and it was just, I just so loved it.

In fact if you really want to know I spent six months in that church in Canada. I was just an interim pastor. I felt you know being what we are doing itinerant work. I felt you know you can't really do that right unless you've been in a church and be the pastor because you see it from the pastor's perspective.

And so when I had the privilege of being with that group of people and I mean I just loved it because six months oh Dan I could have done it for six years but I spent six months in Romans chapter 8 with those people.

One of them came to me one day and said are you aware of the fact that there are other chapters also in the Bible. I just look at it and said it was none of your business. No I didn't do that but this is what happens in the Calvary chapels here in North America and there's this one way of looking at that.

My problem with this is I don't know how they can ever get through the word of God in 950 years but anyway they try you know and I mean who knows and I'm sure they skip some verses now and again. So here we are.

The other way for us to approach this is to take a subject in scripture and don't try to interpret that subject but allow that subject in scripture to just wash through every aspect of our lives. You know I've got a great library in my and Janice and myself these days that I've been crippled.

We spend time in my library because I said I need to get rid of some books. I mean 20 of them have been stolen by pastors already but I still need to get rid of some books. I asked John, Dan last night I said do you want some books.

And he said no I don't want some books. And I thought oh maybe I can visit his library and see what I can get out of that you know but as we went through it one of the things that I look at is all my books and the work in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Oh my there could probably be about 40 of them there and so there are ways for us to look at it and what I want to do this morning. I want us to look at the Holy Spirit and we can look at one passage if we want to but I want us to look at the New Testament and see what the New Testament is saying to us about the Holy Spirit and then allow what the New Testament is saying to us about the Holy Spirit bring us back to those individual verses and then we can explore it.

So for your information we are here the next three months and I'm Dan's associate and I want to see how we burn this building down because maybe I'm going to put up a tent there. No we're not going to do that.

Surveying the New Testament’s Teaching on the Holy Spirit

So when we speak about the Holy Spirit and oh my brother and my sister you know the Holy Spirit is that sensitive tender spirit of God and when you and I begin to study Him and take the New Testament apart or allow the New Testament to take us apart you will discover that there are 260 verses in the New Testament that can take you and me to the work in the ministry of God the Holy Spirit it's absolutely incredible.

And so what we need to do ourselves because we don't have the time to explore that we need to ask ourselves what would be the key concept of these passages that we can find now we can go to the four Gospels which is incredible and discover what they are saying to us about the Holy Spirit.

And then we can come to the Acts of the Apostles where we have 59 of those passages speaking about the Holy Spirit of God. And then of course we can go to those epistles of the Apostle Paul and we can see what Paul says about the Holy Spirit.

And then we can go to the general epistles of the New Testament like Hebrews and James and 1 and 2 Peter and even little Jude there only 24 verses in that one little chapter jumped out and encouraged us to pray in the Holy Spirit.

And then of course the book of Revelation if we want to understand what we would look at as the key concepts or books of the New Testament we need to stop at the Gospel of Luke which we have more time for the Apostle of John and of course the Acts of the Apostles and then there are other books like the Epistle to the Hebrews that gives us great insight in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ Teaching About the Holy Spirit in John 14–16

What I want to do. I want us to just focus on what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit from John chapter 14 to 16. Now I'm going to just read I'm going to quote to you that passages just because of the sake of our time.

Now let me explain to you what I'm trying to say in the Gospel of John. And you know the Gospel of John was the Gospel that was written way at the end of the first century kind of later on than all the other Gospels.

And it's quite possible that when the Spirit of God moved upon the Apostle John to give us the Gospel of John because how did we get the Scriptures the Bible says holy men prophesy as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

But it is quite possible then when the Spirit of God moved upon the Apostle John to give us the Gospel of John that he probably maybe had something in front of him that was written in the Gospel of Matthew possibly Luke and maybe and probably the Gospel of Mark.

And the fascinating thing about the Gospel of John is that most of the material in John's Gospel we don't necessarily find them in all these other Gospels. That is why when you and I studied John's Gospel if I may say this I love the Gospel of John.

In fact you know my native tongue we spoke a different language which is a combination between Dutch and German very close to Hebrew so you better watch it but it's not. And I did this as a student when I was in theological school God so gripped my heart in the Gospel of John those 879 verses that I said to God and I used to memorize 400 verses a year and write them out in index cards and carry them in my pocket and just day by day repetition allow these verses to become if you've ever memorized Scripture you do it on the basis that when that passage becomes part of your life boy it just begins to live in your heart in your life.

And I asked God and said Lord can you help me? Because I knew I didn't have enough brains to give me a headache you know and I said God you're going to need to help me. And I want to memorize the Gospel of John and brother and sister it took me five years to let this Gospel become part of my life.

In fact I didn't memorize the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John memorized me it was powerful. And then when I got married to Janice who's a Canadian and speak this foreign English language that I had to learn she still said I can't speak English probably which is fine you know.

But when I came to this country and went to Scotland to study in fact I couldn't speak English if you really want to know because we were brought up in a little village close to Mozambique and we spoke this dialect between Dutch and German.

And in my country of South Africa my Opa and Oma grandparents and my father would tell us on the farm you know the Dutch came in 1652 to South Africa and then the French Egonauts my background is French and German.

French and German you really need God. I mean you're worse than Donald Trump. You know I mean and my background is French and German. And my grandparents so the Dutch came in 1652 the French came in 1763 Egonauts they fled out of France because of Catholicism.

And then the German settlers came and they said you know everything is fine. And then they said the British settlers came in 1820 and they said that's when the trouble started. That's how they were. So I couldn't speak English you know.

And when I found Christ and went to theological school and an old pastor gave me an old translation of the Bible. I didn't know that there were many different translations. I didn't think they were there those days you know.

And he gave me an old translation of the Bible. And he said to me he said to me take this and memorize this. And I said what is it? He said well it's the King James Version of the Bible. I said oh ok.

I said what does that mean? He said well if it was good enough for Paul it should be good enough for you. I didn't understand what he was trying to say you know. But ah brother and sister I took the Gospel of John and the Gospel of John began to memorize me.

Oh and then when I got married to Janice I said I want to memorize the Gospel of John in English. You know this foreign language you know. And I began to do it. And it was easy because it's there already you just have to change the language which was a highly insulted thing to my soul.

And I did it in English. And then this thing became so real that I said to myself I want to find out what Christ said in John's Gospel. And I found that out of the seven hundred the eight hundred and seventy nine verses of the Gospel of John four hundred and nineteen of those verses consist just of the words of Christ every time when he spoke.

And so I began to memorize that in fact we went to speak at the meeting and Janice said to me it was a bunch of elderly people so you had to repeat things five times which is great you know. And Janice said to me what are you going to do?

Because I had an hour and hour and a half to speak. I said I'm just going to quote everything that Jesus said about the Gospel of John. Well I tell you we had a great time. I don't think they did but I had to though now listen to this in this Gospel.

Christ’s Public and Private Ministries in John’s Gospel

Oh there are these chapters. And if you ever memorize let me just say this to you if you want to understand what John said it happens between John chapter 5 and John chapter 8 and John chapter 13 and John chapter 17.

Those are what we call the long discourses or the long statements of Christ. And you say if I want to understand John why do you say that? Because from John chapter 5 to John chapter 8 he tells us who he was and why he was the son of God.

And brother and sister from John chapter 13 to John chapter 17 he tells us what he was going to accomplish when the Holy Spirit was going to come. Now let me drop these things with you. Because when I prayed to Dan at the back he said now Gerard you can't preach all morning because we are having a great lunch waiting for us.

We need to pray and ask God. Let me try and give you these few things. Men I love him. We call it the private ministry of Christ. Because brother and sister in the opening statement of John's Gospel he gave us what we refer to in theological terms as the predestinate ministry of Christ.

So what did he say? He said in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was God and all things were made by Him. And without Him nothing was made. That was made in Him was life. And the life was the light to the world and the light shineth in darkness.

And the darkness comprehended much. And then he stopped and he said now there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came to testify of the light. He was not the light but he came to testify of the light which lighteth every man in the world.

We discover his predestinate. You say now what do you mean by that? Well let me explain to you that's everything that Christ was about before the New Testament. Oh brother and sister may I say something to you this morning?

There is a lot more about Christ in the Old Testament than you and I would ever think that maybe even within the realms of the New Testament. And if we don't understand Him in the Old Testament we'd never be able to understand the fullness of His life as it relates to the New Testament.

And then you jump to chapter 12 because from chapter 1 to chapter 12 is His public ministry. You say what happened in His public ministry? He did 8 miracles. Miraculous signs. You know what's the word in the Greek language?

Signposts towards spirituality. Every one of those miracles that He did. You say why did He do them? He did them so that He could reveal to them an aspect of the name of His Father. And in John chapter 17 He prayed and He bring it to a fulfillment.

And you say what did He say in John chapter 17? He said Father I have manifested Your name. He said Brother Gerard how did He do it? Just go back into those first 12 chapters and look at those 8 statements that He made to people in private.

And those 8 miracles that He did. And here He came in chapter 13 and 14 and 15 and 16. And you say what did He do? He introduced to those early disciples the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And you say what did He do?

He brought 3 things to them. He introduced to them the Holy Spirit as a person. He introduced to them the Holy Spirit in its purity. And He introduced to them the Holy Spirit and the depth of His power.

The Holy Spirit as Person, Purity, and Power

I wonder if I can ask you a question this morning. I don't know if this happens to you. And you know when I look at my library the other day and I say to Janice I have a book here in my library and I can't find it and someone must have borrowed it.

And why is it that I can't find it? Because you say why? It was a book that was written. If you have that book I would just love just to be allowed to read it and the only way that you will get it back is when I'm allowed to come and preach in the church again.

So, have you got that book brother? I'll talk to you later about it. It's a marvelous book. The work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit who He is and what He does. And R .A. Tari wrote this book. Have you got that book?

Oh, I've got a book to borrow. That's wonderful, thank you so much. And Dr. Tari came and what he did. He came to us and He introduced to us the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now listen to what Jesus said.

When He began to speak to His disciples in this private ministry, brother and sister from John 13 or John 14 to 16 in the Greek text. Every time when He spoke about the Holy Spirit He did not refer to the Holy Spirit as some influence in the lives of those early disciples.

He did not refer to the Holy Spirit as some atmosphere. In fact, I hate to say this to you He almost did not refer to the Holy Spirit as some experience or some manifestation. He took those early disciples and He had great difficulty doing it.

I mean, you remember, was it Philip or Thomas who came to Him when Christ spoke to them about the fatherhood of God and He turned to Jesus and He said to Him Show us the Father and it is enough for us and Jesus turned to that disciple and He looked at him and He said to him Philip, don't you understand I've been so long with you.

Have you not recognized that I am the Father? And my brother and sister if you systematically go through these Gospels and you see the relationship that Jesus had with His disciples and you recognize what was going on and you see the understanding that they did not know the Holy Spirit in its deepest sense until the day of Pentecost that they experienced aspects of the Holy Spirit.

Of course they did. I mean, I'm just in Matthew 10 in my choir times and He sent those disciples out and He gave them power to cast out evil spirits and power to heal and all those kind of things. He sent them out and as He sent them out they came back and they testified about the things that would happen and then they got stuck when they couldn't cast out those evil spirits and the disciples came to Jesus and said Why couldn't we do this?

You told us to go and do this. Ah, do you remember what He said to them? He said to them You don't understand. He said This kind can only go out by prayer and fasting. There's a power the evil one that can only be destroyed by prayer and fasting.

And here Jesus came and He said to them It's to your advantage that I go away from you and if you would allow me to say this this morning and I know I'm taking a huge risk but I'm convinced in my heart that when He said to them It is to your advantage that I go from you because if I cannot go from you the comfort that cannot come and I wonder in my heart if there were times that He turned to those disciples and said to them or tried to get an impression upon them to say to them that when I go away from you and this Holy Spirit this person of the Holy Spirit is going to come that He will be so real in your lives that the only difference is going to be you're not going to see me.

Experiencing the Manifested Presence of God

I want to ask you a question this morning. You see, we don't know one another. My sister and my brother. How real is God the Holy Spirit to us? Can I ask you a question this morning? When last did God meet with us?

I'm in a time in my life and we can't have these times all the time because you see when we speak about the presence of God and my time is gone when we speak about the presence of God the presence of God is omnipresent.

Believe it or not God is everywhere. The psalmist in the Old Testament said whether shall I fly away or try to get away from thy presence. He said if I go into the depths I will find thee there if I rise into the heights of the skies.

I've had the joy through the years of leading people to Christ on planes 35 ,000 feet in the air. And I always said to them when I saw them really getting through to God and they were gloriously saved.

And they would say to me what happens if I die at this moment? I said I don't think we're going to go down. I think we're probably just going to go higher up but there's the manifested presence of God.

And you said Gerard what do you mean by the manifested presence of God? These are special times when God comes to visit us. Now I don't know what's happening in your relationship with God. If you sit here this morning and you say you know I'm not even conscious of God speaking to me these days I need to tell you that there's something desperately wrong in your life.

It could be an unconfessed sin. It could be a relationship that has never been restored. It could be some aspect of restitution whatever it is and it's become a blockage in my relationship with God. And here Jesus came and he looked at those early disciples and he said to them when my spirit comes he said my spirit is going to be with you and my spirit is going to be in you.

Do you know the majority of us are so satisfied by just the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And I don't know if I can say this this morning let me give you a piece of my mind that I can't afford to lose.

You can be born of the Spirit of God and not necessarily being full to the Spirit of God. He's a person I don't know if I can say this but you know because it's kind of personal but you know those of us who are married here we fell in love with our wives and then we thought are we worth it.

Oh man Janice when we first began to correspond wrote to me a list of 30 things that she wants in a man and I look at it and I thought oh don't even try the toy. And I just wrote back and I said Janice I want you to know that I really love you.

I don't qualify for many of those things. I mean not even the Apostle Paul would have made it you know you know and I said the other day she picked up the diary were those things. I didn't do anything wrong when she did that but we were trying to figure out exactly when I was born so and so and it was this list and I just said I wrote back and I said Janice I really love you and I just want to tell you that I believe God wants me to marry you.