The Promise of the Holy Spirit | Sermon 12/03/23

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John, chapter 14, we're still in 14, we're going to be in verses 16 through 24, title of the sermon today,

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Churches, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the

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Holy Spirit. So starting in verse 16 of the gospel, according to John, chapter 14, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. I will ask the father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever.

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That is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him.

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But you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans.

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I will come to you after a little while. The world will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live.

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You will live also. In that day, you will know that I am in my father. And you and me and I and you, he who has my commandments and keeps them is one who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and will disclose myself to him.

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Judas, not a scary, it said to him, Lord, when then what then has happened that you are going to disclose yourself to us and not to the world?

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Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him.

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He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine.

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But the father's who sent me thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word.

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Let's pray as a church. God, with such an important subject today regarding the

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Holy Spirit, largely the first time that he is mentioned in this gospel,

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Lord, we seek to know the third person of the Trinity ever more deeply.

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We seek to know him not just with information, but with experience. For he is the one who dwells in us.

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And so, Lord, we pray now that any sort of confusions that have been had over the years, any presuppositions that we bring into this regarding who the

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Holy Spirit is, God, that we would leave them and adopt only that which is biblical regarding the

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Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, we need you now. We need you at this moment.

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I need you to help me deliver this word. And your people need you now to be able to receive this word.

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So please be with us. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, church, thus far in chapter 14, we have seen

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Jesus tell the 11 remaining disciples that he's about to depart from them.

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He's about to leave. He's about to go away. And he said that he goes to prepare a place for them, that they and by extension, we will be with him always.

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Always. However, we saw that they had great works to do right now.

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And he's going to work those works through them. They will do these works specifically because he goes to the

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Father. But what has not been said yet is how they will do these works.

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How will they do these things? Who will instruct the apostles when he is gone?

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And if they're troubled now already while he's still with them, can you imagine how they might be troubled once he leaves?

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Who's going to comfort them? Who's going to teach them? Who's going to lead them?

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If Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, who will guide them on the way? Who will show them the truth?

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Who will give them life? Those are the questions that need to be answered.

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And I believe they're answered here in our verses. Look at verses 16 and 17 to start.

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I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever.

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That is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him.

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But you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. Church, this is none other than the

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Spirit of truth. This is the third person of the Holy Blessed Trinity.

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This is the Spirit of the Trinity, the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the

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Comforter, the Counselor, God the Spirit, the Spirit who descended as a dove, the

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Spirit at Pentecost, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of grace, the

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Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit, the Teacher, the Holy Spirit. Notice that he is not a force as some have erroneously posited.

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He's not some sort of force like you would see in Star Wars or something like that. He is not an apparition of the

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Father or some sort of phantom of the Father. But it's completely distinct from the

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Father. He gets sent from the Father while the Father and the Son remain in heaven. And he is not a spirit like in an attitude or a feeling like, oh, there's a spirit of something in the air.

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That's not what the Spirit is. The original language here uses words of personhood.

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You see autos in the Greek. Autos is used in the masculine form when referring to the

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Spirit. He's given male pronouns. The Spirit does things here that involve a personal nature.

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He does helping, comforting, being with and in God's people. In Acts chapter 5, you see with Ananias and Sapphira when they had lied and withheld some of the proceeds when they sold their home, their land.

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They kept some of it back and lied about and said they gave everything. And Peter specifically said to them, you have lied against the

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Holy Spirit. And then he says one to two verses later, you have lied against God.

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That is coordinating those two together. Peter sees the Holy Spirit as God. We see that the

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Holy Spirit is indeed a divine person because he possesses a mind, he possesses emotions, and he possesses a will.

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Let me show you how the Holy Spirit thinks and knows. First Corinthians 2 .10. You should have a list in your bulletin there if you can want to refer to them later.

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He thinks and knows the Holy Spirit can be grieved according to Ephesians 4 .30. The Spirit intercedes for us,

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Romans 8 .26 -27. He makes decisions according to his will, 1

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Corinthians 12 .7 -11. And according to our passage in John 15 and John 16, the

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Holy Spirit comes from the Father and Christ in such a way that is not like a messenger.

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The Holy Spirit is not like an angel. He proceeds forth from God as God.

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He is spoken about in such a way where he has co -equality with God. And yet, as I said, he is distinct.

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There's a difference between the persons. Which is the exact same thing for the

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Son. The Son isn't the Father and the Father isn't the Son. And yet there is one God. There is no other letter or gospel in the entire

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New Testament that goes into as much detail regarding the third person of the Trinity as the gospel according to John does.

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We'll see that over the next few weeks. John 14, 15 and 16 talk about the

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Holy Spirit so much. All from the living words of Jesus himself. He says,

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I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. Now, you may have heard this if you've learned anything about theology or you've heard someone preach on this or teach on this.

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This word helper is what's called the paraclete. The Holy Spirit is sometimes called the paraclete.

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And that name comes right from this passage parakletos in the Greek. Para means alongside or besides something.

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Kletos comes from the word kaleo. Kaleo means to summon or call someone.

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It literally means, parakletos means one called alongside to help.

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One called alongside to help. It can mean comforter, advocate, intercessor.

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But this isn't church like a doctor calling in a nurse for help. That's not what this is.

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Okay, this is completely different. Let me illustrate it further. If a parent was leaving their child for a short time, let's just say a mother.

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A mother specifically was leaving her children for a short time and she got a babysitter.

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That babysitter would not feel the same to the child, would it? Have you ever had your children cry when they're under the care of a babysitter and you wave goodbye and you're just like, hopefully we can go enjoy the restaurant, right?

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And they're crying as you leave, you know, it's different. It's different for children often, right?

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Now, Jesus is also called the paraklete in 1 John 2 .1.

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What does that mean? The Holy Spirit and Jesus are both called the paraklete. They're both called the helper in the

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Bible. And he says it this way, let me get another helper, another helper.

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So let me correct the illustration. If a mother was leaving her children for a time, what if instead of getting a babysitter whom the children don't know and aren't comfortable with, suppose she say, husband,

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I'm going to a women's Bible study. Husband, would you watch the children and the children having a good relationship with their father who they see every day?

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They don't feel the same trepidation. They don't feel the same discomfort. They go, oh, another helper.

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Do you see what I'm trying to say? This is someone of the same type is being given.

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One of the same type, not a lesser one. This is someone who is called with that of equal ability of the one who sent for him.

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For the Holy Spirit to be effective, he must be of the same abilities and divinity of the

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Christ who is leaving. Do you get that? Christ is leaving and for the Holy Spirit to be as good and effective as Jesus, he must also be divine.

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He must also be God. He must be of the same type. That means when you think that God is absent from you, when you wish that you could have seen

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Jesus in the flesh, they are with you. They are. We'll get into that more too.

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Now, what are some of the ways that the Holy Spirit is our helper, as Jesus says? First, it's just what

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I was saying. He abides with you and the text says he will be in you. To never be truly alone is such a help, right?

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You ever had extended periods of time of being alone? That can be difficult. But with the

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Holy Spirit, you are never truly alone. We were never meant to do it on our own. And so the Holy Spirit is with us.

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Adam and Eve were cast out from the presence of God. But God is with us once again, even now.

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And he's also called the comforter. In today's language, comforter reminds us more of a quilt, right?

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A comforter. But years ago, that would have been used.

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That title would have been used much more. It would have meant someone who is a comforter would be someone who strengthens another person, encourages another person, and brings aid to that person.

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John 14 verse 26 says the Holy Spirit will teach us all things. Teach us all things.

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He will bring to our memories all that Christ has taught. He will bring scripture to your mind.

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Remember, Jesus said that you will be taught of God. Part of the new covenant promise in Jeremiah 31 is that everyone who receives the

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Holy Spirit will learn directly from God. No one will have to say no

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God to their neighbor. The Holy Spirit does all that. John 15 verse 26 says the

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Spirit will testify about Christ. He will bear witness to Christ.

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You see, it's okay that you and I weren't there in the first century. It's okay that you never got to meet

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Jesus in person. The Spirit gives witness of Jesus to you even now.

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You know Jesus by the Holy Spirit. John 16 verse 13 says the

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Spirit will guide you into all truth. He will give you what you need to know. You will not be lost if you belong to God.

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According to the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to accomplish the works that God has willed for us to walk in.

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Romans 5 verse 5 says we receive the love of God through the Holy Spirit. You receive

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God's love through the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 verse 14 says we are being led by the

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Spirit of God. We have a guide. Thomas asked, how do we get there? How do we get to where you are?

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And Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. And therefore, the Spirit is the one who leads us on the way.

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We have a guide. Romans 8 verse 16 says the

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Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are indeed children of God.

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Do you sometimes sit to God in prayer and you don't know what to say? Do you sometimes come to the prayer closet and you just don't even know, or you're so troubled you don't know what to say to God?

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Is it difficult sometimes to form the words? Do you not recognize all that you need from the

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Almighty? Romans 8 verse 26 says in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness.

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For we do not always know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

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When you don't know how to pray, when you are so lost in the depths of grief or whatever it may be, and you just come before God, you can even say this.

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Just simply say, Holy Spirit, speak to the Father on my behalf. And he will speak with groanings too deep for even words.

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It's amazing. According to Galatians 5, because the Spirit is in us, we can walk in the

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Spirit, in the fruits of the Spirit. We can do righteous things now as believers.

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We can avoid sinful things by his power. Ephesians 6 .17 says the

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Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, indicating it is through him that we can rightly understand the

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Word and use it. 1 Thessalonians 1 .5 says the gospel doesn't just come in words, but in power by the

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Holy Spirit, meaning that without the Holy Spirit, no one could receive the good news properly with gladness and become born again.

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We need the Spirit to illuminate the gospel. In fact, Titus 3 .5

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says the washing of regeneration and renewal of your life came by the

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Holy Spirit. You see, church, there are typically two ditches in Christianity in regards to the

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Holy Spirit, two ditches, two gutters. One ditch is that he is completely, the

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Holy Spirit is completely disregarded. He's not considered, he's not important. He's often an afterthought.

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And really, if you think about that, that's a tragedy because he is the one, as you heard, who is crucial to every aspect of salvation.

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And he is the one who is here with you. He's with us. He's still here upon the earth.

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He's dwelling inside of God's people, every man, woman, and child in Christ. People have asked me before, can

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I speak to him? Can I speak to the Holy Spirit? Absolutely, absolutely speak to the

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Holy Spirit. Tell him, thank you for leading you and comforting you. Tell him, thank you for bringing those scriptures back to your mind.

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He is God. He should absolutely receive worship just like the

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Father and the Son. Obviously, it is different in some ways.

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But the other ditch in Christianity is that the Holy Spirit is elevated and taken precedence over the

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Father and the Son. Maybe he's even mystified in some ways.

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The Holy Spirit can be mystified by certain churches. You can go to churches where they say,

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Holy Spirit, we invite you here. And it's like, he's omnipresent. He's everywhere.

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He's in believers. We don't need to invite him here. He is here. He's in the hearts of everyone.

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He needs no invitation. If the Holy Spirit wasn't here in this place, it would be dead and lifeless.

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And most of all, get this, when the Holy Spirit is absent from a church, this is the barometer, when the

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Holy Spirit is actually absent from a church, it's when they don't speak the truth. He's the spirit of truth.

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It's not when mysticism is gone, it must be a lifeless dead without the Holy Spirit church. It's when the truth is gone that the

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Holy Spirit isn't there. You see, a church without the

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Holy Spirit will not give truth from Scripture. A church that speaks the truth and has love in it, it's still, and it has the

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Holy Spirit, even though one may not like their music choices. Just because there isn't a rock and roll band doesn't mean the

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Holy Spirit isn't there, right? The Holy Spirit is much bigger than emotional music and dim lights.

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That's crazy, right? That's a revelation. The Holy Spirit acts in bright light too. It's amazing. He acts in bright light.

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Thinking we need a certain spiritual or mystical atmosphere or one that inflames my emotions to see the

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Holy Spirit act among His people offends God Almighty. It offends

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Him. If we think we need to set certain conditions in this room to get the

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Spirit of God to work, we are offending Him. He's bigger than that, right?

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Much bigger than that. On a glorious bright morning, in a house church without electricity in the first century, with the apostles, in the first church, the

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Holy Spirit was working. In a dark room with one light bulb in the center, with Chinese Christians hearing the

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Word of God from one person, all silent. You could hear a pin drop. They're all listening to the

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Word of God. In the 21st century, the Holy Spirit is there. The Holy Spirit is working.

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Occultic practice must create right environments to bring forth a demonic spirit.

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You hear that? That's the opposite of what I'm talking about. Occultic practices have to set things up perfectly with these images and these symbols and these candles and say the right things and do the right stuff and do these demonic things.

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They have to set all the conditions right and then this demon will come forth, right? But we take that and we use it for the

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Holy Spirit. Create the right conditions for Him to work. That's not who our

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God is. That's not who the Holy Spirit is. He is no genie that we need to conjure.

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He isn't our deposit of holy power from which we draw from to do miracles at our disposal.

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Remember our sermon last week? We saw that the apostles and us will be able to do things in Jesus' name.

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But here's something important. The Holy Spirit will not cause someone to do something or give a teaching contrary to that of the scriptures that He inspired.

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So if you see something and someone says, wow, that's the Holy Spirit working, but it's going against what scripture has said, which is what the

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Holy Spirit gave forth, that is not from the Holy Spirit. That is not. In both of these ditches, the

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Holy Spirit is diminished. He is diminished in who He is and what

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He came to do. And it's a tragedy. It's a big issue in the

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American church. It really started out of tent revivals in the 1800s and from which many of the cults of this world came from after the

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Enlightenment period. But He is God. The Holy Spirit is

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God and He deserves our respect and reverence and love and obedience.

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But He is our helper, it says. Here in verse 16, Jesus says, He will be with the disciples and by extension us.

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And He says the words, do you see it? Forever, forever. You know, some have said that the

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Holy Spirit left the earth when the apostles died. When the apostles died, the

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Holy Spirit left this earth. That's not true. That's a ludicrous statement. For the gospel to spread like it has, the

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Holy Spirit must be present in believers today. What about all the functions of the

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Spirit that I just listed off? All those things that I just said the Holy Spirit does in the heart of a believer would be gone and done away with.

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No, that's not the case. The Father is on His throne in full glory, church.

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And the Son is at His right hand, ruling and reigning both in heaven and on earth.

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And the Holy Spirit in His omnipresence is before the Father and the Son. But He's also the one who is here on earth with all believers.

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He's with us forever. This word in the Greek is often used for the word eternity.

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There is no ending reference for this. The Holy Spirit is with us. Now, the

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Spirit of truth is not given indiscriminately to mankind. Jesus says, what?

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The world cannot receive Him. He's not given to everyone. This world in the

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Bible is often used in different ways. Cosmos, but in this case, in this context, world is as in the world that is in rebellion to God.

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The evil system against the Lord. They cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Why? When you think about it, people of the world are often materialistic.

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They're wary of things they cannot see. Demonstrate it for me.

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Show me. Must be observable, they say. But if the world could see and receive the

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Spirit, it would no longer be the world, right? They can't. Jesus says it's because the world does not see

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Him, the Holy Spirit, or know Him. They don't see Him or know

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Him. Do you remember the past two sermons? These are the exact words that Jesus used in our section before.

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The word see and know. We went over the fact that the apostles have seen and know the

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Father through the Son. And Jesus says specifically, because of the oneness of the

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Father and Son. It's because of the oneness together that they know the

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Father. And now, think about it this way. So hang with me here.

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Know and see. Know and see. The world doesn't know and see the Spirit. Jesus has told the apostles already, you know and see the

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Father. Because remember, Philip said, just show us the Father and it's sufficient. He said, you've known and you see the

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Father through the Son. But now these words are used for the Holy Spirit. That is to say, they have seen

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Him now. They see Him now. With seeing the

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Son and knowing the Son, come seeing and knowing the Holy Spirit. Do you realize how this is in harmony with the

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Trinity? All three persons of the Holy Trinity are in the same category here of see and know.

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But the world gets a different spirit. The world gets one of demonic origin.

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Jesus said, people of the world are of their father, the devil. However, the disciples and us know the

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Spirit. Because He abides with us. He is in us. And for the disciples in this moment, the abiding was in the present tense, which is interesting.

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The Spirit is already abiding with them now, He says. But then in the future tense,

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He says, and He will be with you, He tells the disciples. It's like Jesus is saying the

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Holy Spirit has been with them all this time because He's been with them. Because Jesus has been with them.

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It's as if the Holy Spirit was present with them. But then they will know the Spirit even better.

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Post -resurrection, 40 days later, they will receive the Holy Spirit at the day of Pentecost.

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And they will know Him even more on a more intimate level. Now, despite Jesus's words here, the disciples likely feel abandoned still.

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They still feel abandoned. Think about it. They've come to love

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Jesus. They've walked with Him for years. They spent nearly every day with Him for years.

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They've learned from Him. They've loved Him. They've received His love. They've received

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His counsel. Jesus has poured into them. And these men likely feel a sense of abandonment.

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And so Jesus understands. He knows their hearts. He knows their thoughts. Verse 18, look at this.

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Verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. You see, in Bible times, an orphan, to be an orphan was basically a death sentence.

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It was a death sentence. Children were made orphans by the death of their parents or by willful abandonment.

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Willful abandonment. But neither of these things are characteristic of Jesus. On the contrary,

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Jesus isn't dead. He's alive. But also He is gone.

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He is going to prepare a place for them. And for us, along with the disciples, we are left in capable hands.

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The Holy Spirit will take precious care and nurture of the children of God. And Jesus makes an indicative statement, a promise of fact.

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He says, I will come to you. I will come. Leaving the third person of the

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Trinity with us is a guarantee of that return. Do you get what I'm saying? The fact that the

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Holy Spirit is still here means that Jesus will return. He's going to come back.

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But He's also likely speaking of coming to them contextually here in this moment, immediately after the resurrection.

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There's a dual aspect to this. Go to verse 19. Jesus says, after a little while, the world will no longer see me.

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But you will see me because I live. You will live also. So His hour has come.

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He's going to go to the cross. The world will never see Him again at His first coming after He's gone to the grave.

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Not a single person. The disciples, though, however, they need to remember this moment.

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They will see Him. After the resurrection, Jesus walked the earth for 40 days, appearing to many.

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Paul records it in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, for I delivered to you, as of first importance, what

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I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas and to the twelve.

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After that, He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are alive today, but some have fallen asleep.

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Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles remaining, and last of all, as to one untimely born,

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He appeared to me. So Jesus appeared to many who were called by Him.

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He appeared to believers, or those whom He appeared to instantly became believers.

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It's like, if Jesus appears to you and says, I'm the Christ, and you weren't a believer before, you're going to be a believer in that moment if He comes to you.

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So He did not come to the world. That's what He's saying here.

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After He was crucified and buried in a tomb, no one in the world who was not a believer saw

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Him again. And that was an indictment and a judgment upon Israel. Only believers and people who instantly became believers saw

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Him after His resurrection the 40 days before His ascension back into heaven.

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That's His point here. But the point is also that you and I, to this day, we have seen the

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Christ through the Holy Spirit. That's what the context is. We see this is all true and real by faith.

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The Spirit shows us He lives because we now live. We were spiritually dead and now we're alive.

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And that living is regeneration. He says, because I live, you will live also. This is also an effect of the

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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates and opens the eyes of the blind and takes a dead person and a stack of bones and makes it alive again.

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And although the apostles have struggled to understand why Jesus must die and go to the

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Father and why He doesn't reign as King now. And we saw they wanted to see the

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Father, not realizing they see Father through Jesus. And that they don't understand the

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Trinity and the oneness of God, they will. Although they don't understand why

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He must die and all this has to happen, they don't understand the Trinity, they will. Look at verse 20.

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In that day, you will know that I am in my Father. Remember earlier, he said,

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I am in the Father and the Father is in me. And look, and then he says, and you in me and I in you.

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Ontologically different. Different. This speaks to the fact that being able to believe

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God is triune is a work of the Holy Spirit. People challenge

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Protestants and say, can you explain the Trinity to these unbelieving people?

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Can you articulate this to unbelieving people? And you know, we can try. But how do you explain what is unexplainable?

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How do you express what is inexpressible to some degree? You know, it's kind of like trying to describe the

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Trinity to an unbelieving person is like waking a man that was born blind up in the morning and it's 4 a .m.

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and you guys stay up together and you're like, you've got to see the sunset. And he's like,

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I've never seen the sunset. I've been, I was born blind. And then you try to describe the sunset that you're seeing in front of him.

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And he's like, I have no concept of what you're saying. I was born blind. I don't know what a sunset looks like.

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He has no vantage point, no reference point to know what a sunset looks like. And even so in a much more difficult way is trying to explain the

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Trinity to an unbelieving person. They don't know what they don't know.

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Jesus says here, you will only know these things when the spirit is given to you.

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This is something that you will grasp on faith by the spirit of God.

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You must know the father, the son and the Holy Spirit by the power of the spirit to believe in this oneness of the

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Godhead. Now, as you pick up what Jesus just said, at receiving the

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Holy Spirit, believers are united with him once again. You will know the

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Trinity, but you also be inseparably connected to our savior.

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You will see me. And because I live, you will live also is what he said. In that day, you will know you are in me and I in you.

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And this goes very much in line with Ephesians chapter one. It says in him, you also after listening to the message of truth, which is the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed with him with the

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Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view of to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

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You and I were sealed by in Christ by the Holy Spirit of promise. And that's why we're able to say that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

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Nothing. We are connected to him. He is our savior and we are his people.

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You know, the Bible says we have been adopted, right? We have been adopted by God.

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And that in that adoption, we are connected to him. What happens so often with adoption?

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What happens with people who have been abandoned before? People who were treated poorly before.

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People who have been abused before. They project those worries of those old parents, people who abandoned them onto their new adoptive parents.

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Their new parents love them and are committed to them, but it can take time before they see it.

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Now, here's the translation. We have been adopted into God's family through Christ.

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He has given you and I the right to become a child of God. But some of us have been so affected by sin and so impacted by the abandonment and abuse that we've received in this life that maybe even now while you're listening to this sermon, it doesn't hit you like it should.

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Jesus says he will never leave you nor forsake you. He said he's coming back for you.

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And through the Holy Spirit within you, you are in Christ and he is in you. That is a connection.

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You can be healed now. You can let go. You've got a present and a future that is only one that is of redemption.

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Payment was made for you, church. You are God's own possession. We were once not a people, but now we are the people of God.

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Live in that truth, church. All who are his will persevere to the end.

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He will preserve you. He is a good father. He is a good Savior. He is a good spirit who comforts us and causes us to endure.

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We will be with him. Because was Jesus lying?

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Was Jesus lying when he said this? Will he not come back for those who love him?

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He will come back. He wasn't lying. Now look at verse 21. Jesus essentially reiterates verse 15 from last week.

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He says, remember, he said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. But now verse 21 says, he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me.

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And he who loves me will be loved by my father. And I will love him and will disclose myself to him.

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The first section there is saying exactly the same things as verse 15, just backwards, right?

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The one who loves Jesus is the one who has his commandments and keeps them. And according to one commentator regarding this verse, he says, the idea is not that the believer initiates this relation of love by demonstrating his obedience and that Jesus and the father respond to the obedience with love.

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After all, the fourth gospel repeatedly makes it clear that the initiative of the relationship between God and man must begin with God.

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And the idea rather is that the ongoing relationship with Jesus and his disciples is characterized by obedience on their part.

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And this logically is conditioned by meaning they love and obey

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Jesus and he loves them. And that is not in any way different when

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Jesus obeys his father and the father loves him, right? You already love your children.

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But when they obey you, you give them love, right? You give them more love. That's what it's saying here.

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This isn't a love that was initiated by obedience. You loved your child before they first obeyed you, right?

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So that's the difference here. Now, there have been many ways that we've seen

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Jesus fulfilling scripture in the gospel. According to John, we've seen in the book of Genesis, Jesus has fulfilled scripture.

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Exodus, Isaiah, Ezekiel. But I believe right here, this is a fulfillment of Deuteronomy.

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Deuteronomy 6. It says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our

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God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

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These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

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You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

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So what do we see here in Deuteronomy that I just read? First, you see the oneness of God in the

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Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is one.

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Which is what Jesus has been explaining this whole time. There is one God, and yet He is

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's what we've been seeing Jesus say. The oneness that He has with the

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Father, and now the Spirit included. And then Deuteronomy has a commandment to love the

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Lord our God with all our heart, souls, and might. Hearts make choices to love.

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Souls feel emotion in that love, and might is

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Hebrew to express action. So real love chooses to love.

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It feels emotion towards God, which is a gift, and it acts. Real love acts.

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It obeys. And so what does Jesus say? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. He who has my commandments and keeps them is one who loves me.

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You see what I'm saying here? Jesus fulfilling Deuteronomy 6, He talks about the oneness of God, loving

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God with all our heart, soul, minds, and strength. That is to say again to what Jesus is saying here, that those who love

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Him keep His commandments. But now what is Deuteronomy finished with? These commandments will be on your heart.

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You will do them at all times. You shall bind them to yourself. So you have oneness of God, loving

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God, obeying God, and then bringing all these things to your memory constantly. That's what's being said here at the end is, put them on your frontals, put them on your hand, put them on your doorposts.

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You see church, before the Holy Spirit, it didn't matter if you put all these commandments on a wall.

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It doesn't matter if you put these commandments on your forehead. It doesn't matter if all these commandments are on your hand.

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The point is, no one could keep them or remember them apart from Jesus and the

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Holy Spirit coming now. And so that's how Jesus and the Holy Spirit in this moment are a direct fulfillment of this

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Deuteronomy passage. We could never remember it. We could never obey it.

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We could never love Him rightly. He has to change us first.

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And in this whole process, it says He will disclose Himself to us. This word literally means cause to appear.

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First, this word causes us to think of His initial appearances after His resurrection.

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That definitely fits the context here. After Jesus rose from the grave over a period of 40 days, believers saw

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Him walking upon the earth. So that's one way that He has disclosed Himself to them.

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In the Greek Septuagint, this word is used for theophanies, which is appearances of God.

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And you can even think of Paul, or who was called Saul, on the road to Damascus.

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There was an appearance of Christ. So He appeared to them. This word can also be used for His second coming in which the final resurrection of all men and women will occur.

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But I also think it can be used to describe the spiritual self -disclosure of Jesus to people when they become saved.

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He will disclose Himself to you. That's an encounter with Jesus Christ.

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Many people have described their experiences of regeneration that way. I did.

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I physically didn't see Jesus, but His love and His own person has been revealed to us through salvation.

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It will be fully manifest, of course, when we go to be with Him. But I've heard a lot of your stories. A lot of you have expressed that you had an encounter with Jesus Christ, and you wouldn't be wrong.

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You may not have had one physically or in a theophany, which is a, you know, this wonderful appearance of Christ.

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But you have had Jesus disclose Himself to you through salvation.

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He becomes more real to you than what's before your very eyes. Is He not?

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Jesus is more real to you than anything this world has to offer. Well, we've seen

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Peter speak up. We've seen Thomas speak up. We've seen Philip speak up. Many ignorant questions and statements were given over this chapter.

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We would do nothing different. We would be just as lost as they are. But look at this.

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Verse 22, Judas. And I love how John says, not Iscariot.

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It's like we would all be wondering. He just dismissed Judas to leave in the previous chapter.

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And it'd be like Judas asked a question. It's like, what? Judas, not Iscariot, the text says.

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And so, by the way, just so you know, this is Judas who is named under as the son of James.

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Not James, the son of Zebedee. Not James, the brother of our

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Lord. This is some James that we don't know. Okay. One that is mentioned in Luke chapter 6 in Acts 1.

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This is Judas, the son of James. Some also believed at this point, he changed his name to Thaddeus.

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Good move, Judas. Good move. So Judas said to Jesus, Lord, what then has happened that you are going to disclose yourself to us and not to the world?

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It's like he's saying, Jesus, you're the Messiah. You're coming to the world. Should be altering everything.

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You're the king. The kingdom is to come with splendor and abundance. Your coming is to be of apocalyptic proportions.

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Why would you only reveal yourself to us and not to the whole world?

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What is the point of all this then? I thought Christ was supposed to come with trumpets and with angels and an army.

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Why would you disclose yourself only to us and not the entire world? And this is what he says.

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This is how Jesus responds. Go to our final verses of the evening. Verses 23 and 24.

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Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word.

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My father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him.

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He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me.

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He said, Jesus, why don't you respond in a different way? Why don't you just tell him? Because right now they have yet to receive the

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Holy Spirit. He said one day they'll get all of it. They don't get it now. They don't realize that the mission of the

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Christ is to die for sinners. They don't get it, but they will.

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And so he reiterates basically what he said. He who keeps my word and loves me,

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I love him and my father loves him and we will come to that person. We will make our abode with him.

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Revealing himself to people is exclusively reserved for the ones who love him and the ones who love him keep his words.

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Not all people will have God make his dwelling with them. Not all will have their abode with the

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Lord Jesus. And with the context being about the giving of the Holy Spirit, one cannot help but consider that this promise also has a dual function.

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After Christ has saved someone, after they have had an encounter with Jesus and they love

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God and seek to obey him and the Holy Spirit who is given at this encounter with Jesus will also have the

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Father and Son with him. And that would make sense since God is triune that when you church have the

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Holy Spirit indwelling you, you also have the possession of the Father and Son.

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God is yours. Now, and you are his. We have access to the

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Father and the Son because the Holy Spirit indwells you, okay? We have full access to the

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Trinity. But the other aspect of this promise is that he has assured to be physically with us as well.

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And this is an old promise and a new promise. Ezekiel 37 says, I will make a covenant of peace with them.

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It will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them.

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And here it is. And I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them and I will be their

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God and they will be my people. Also in Revelation 21, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them and they shall be his people and God himself will be among them and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

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There will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

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A promise from the Old Testament in Ezekiel, a promise from the New Testament in the Revelation. God will dwell with men.

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God will dwell with us. And these promises are not reserved only for these 11 men.

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But all, do you see that? It's all who love Christ. He said, all who love me, get this.

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That's critical. This isn't just for the apostles. All who love Christ are given the helper.

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They will have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The world does not love Jesus, nor does the world keep his words.

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Therefore, the world will not dwell with God. The world does not have a place being prepared for them.

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In which God will make his abode. The place prepared for people who don't love

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Jesus is away from his presence, according to scripture. And so we see with our text today that one of the chief aspects of eternal life is to be dwelling with God.

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In purity, in love, in worship, in joy, in abundance, in truth, all of it.

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And the Holy Spirit will help us get there. He will. Well, let's wrap this up, church.

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Let's consider real quickly some final things regarding the Holy Spirit. I want you to think about all that he does in this moment.

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Because all that the Holy Spirit does is inestimable. It can't be counted.

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The Holy Spirit was there when he was hovering over the surface of the deep.

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In Genesis chapter one, as the father spoke and the power of the eternal son caused all things to come into existence.

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And just as the father created all things along with the son and spirit, they would create a new people.

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People who were dead and caused them to come to life, to remove the curse from them, and the

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Holy Spirit would be there at that recreation, so to speak. Every providential moment from the moment you were born to the moment that eventually led you to Christ, the

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Spirit of God was at work. Every single moment. At the right time, God gave you and me eyes to see and ears to hear, and the

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Holy Spirit enlightened us. The gospel message was active. It became living.

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It penetrated our very souls by the Spirit. Every sanctifying act that has occurred with you, the

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Spirit has completed it. When you and I obey God and help others share the gospel, whatever we do that are good works in his name, all the obedience that you do is because he is there.

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The Holy Spirit is there in you. You can't give credit to yourself. You gotta give all credit to God.

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When you open the Word of God, you're reading and receiving it by the Holy Ghost. When you and I pray, the

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Holy Spirit carries our supplications and praises to the very throne room of God.

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When you needed someone to minister to you and suddenly someone came to you or called you, the

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Holy Spirit knew exactly what you needed. And when you needed it. Holy Spirit's always thinking of you.

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He knows what you and I need. He gives us the power to abstain from sin. He makes us to know the truth of Scripture.

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He is the one whom Scripture says we can grieve. You can grieve the Holy Spirit.

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It says in another text that you can quench the power of the Holy Spirit with the sin that we commit.

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Our bodies are called temples of the Holy Spirit. Because He indwells us. And therefore sinning against your body with food, sex, drugs, alcohol, whatever evil is done in the body, puts some sort of spiritual graffiti or vandalism upon the temple in which the

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Spirit dwells. He is the one who brought to you the Scripture that you needed exactly when you needed it.

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He's the one who gave you the words to say. And you know that one time that you have this boldness to speak, which is normally foreign from you and you don't know how you got the words to speak so boldly?

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That was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit keeps the church together and spreads a spirit of unity between us.

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He brings conviction of sin when you need it. He humbles you and causes you to let go of things.

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The Holy Spirit helps you to forgive the unforgivable. He fills your cup when it is empty.

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He ushers in contentment when grumbling and complaining has been happening.

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The Holy Spirit is the one who has caused many, many martyrs over the years.

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Whether they're being filleted alive or burned at the stake or crucified upside down, the

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Holy Spirit is the one who has given a sense of peace to martyrs who have died for Christ.

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We know the Father and the Son by the spirit within us. That's a fact.

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John Owen said long ago, our hearts are very ready to sink and fail under our trials.

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Indeed, a little thing will cause us to do so. Flesh and heart and all that is within us are soon ready to fail.

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But the Spirit helpeth. The Spirit bears up that infirmity which is ready to make you defeat.

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Brothers and sisters, you can't be defeated by death or any infirmity or any evil because the

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Holy Spirit indwells you. You have the helper. And so let us consider today, church, that we not fall into one category, one ditch, one gutter or the other.

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Let us be on the one track, the one way that God has given us in His Word. Let's not take the

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Holy Spirit for granted. Let's praise Him. Let's thank Him because He's always been there for you.

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And it says He will be forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank

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You for Your Word. God, I pray that this message would be an encouragement to Your people, that even at times when we feel alone, that You feel distance from us,

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God, that You are always with us by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, we thank

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You for saving us. We thank You for giving us these words. And we want to thank

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You, Holy Spirit. Thank You for dwelling in us. Thank You for causing all these things to be a reality in us.

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Thank You for testifying within us that we are children of God. Thank You for being the guarantee that Jesus will return,

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Holy Spirit. We thank You for all that You are and all that You've done for us.

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God, we ask for Your forgiveness for treating the Holy Spirit differently than Scripture says.

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Holy Spirit, we are sorry for grieving You and quenching Your power and for attributing many wacky and mystical things towards Your work.

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We know, God, the truth now. We thank You for revealing it to us.

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We love You. We need You. Continue to guide us, continue to teach us, continue to lead us, and take us home.

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Bring us back to the Lord Jesus Christ. We love You, God. We thank

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You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We pray these things in Jesus' name.