 The title of our sermon this morning is The Blessed Departure, The Blessed Departure, and we are in John chapter 14 verses 25 through 31. As we've been working our way through the Gospel of John, and here specifically in chapter 14, we've been looking at some parting instruction of the Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples. The Lord is about to leave, depart from them by means of the cross. As the Lord departs, he has as his foremost concern now, his disciples, what is going to happen to them, their perseverance through the trial and adversity that they're about to face. And so he's giving them parting instruction. And we need to take that parting instruction as it applies to their circumstance, certainly at their time and in their circumstance, the things that they will face. But we also need to take that instruction and apply it to our circumstance, the adversities and the difficulties, the trials that we face. And we need to apply it to ourselves and our circumstances as well. Now I want to begin, if you'll bear with me for a little bit this morning, I want to begin with a summary, if you will, of our responsibility to God in this Christian life. It's a summary, if you will, of our responsibility in the Christian life to live for the Lord Jesus Christ, having been saved by him, having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. How are we then to live our Christian lives? And to do that, I want to begin in Matthew chapter 22. So turn with me to Matthew chapter 22 and look down beginning with me at verse 34. Now there are many places in the Bible where we could go to, to help us with this, to understand these things, all right? If we're going to talk about a summary of the Christian life, our responsibilities before God, how we're to live for him, we could go to several places in the Bible that speak to this very issue. And I just thought here specifically of one place, Matthew chapter 22, for us to do that together this morning. And again, what we're talking about is a summary of the Christian life. Those disciples in the first century had their context, they had their circumstances, they had their Christian life to live out, all right? And the Lord Jesus Christ in John 14 is addressing that and the life they would face, the adversity that they would face, those things that are coming. You and I as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have our own context, we have our own circumstances, we have our own trials, our own difficulties, we have our own fight to fight, right? Our own war to wage. And so we need to take that which the Lord is teaching in John 14 and apply it in our circumstances. But now what is that fight? What is that battle? What is the Christian life for you and I? What's, what the Christian life has always been. It's what the Christian life has always been. Jesus Christ taught that the entirety of God's law could be summarized by essentially two commandments, two responsibilities, two divine requirements for all of mankind, two primary essential requirements for the people of God. And the Lord said beginning in Matthew chapter 22, beginning in verse 34, that when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then in verse 35, one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. I want you to consider with me for a moment these two primary pursuits of the Christian life. One love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. Mark 12 verse 30 all your strength, and we can add all the time, right? The second commandment is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Now let's make some observations on these two primary pursuits of the Christian. One, notice first that the duty required here is love. The duty required is love, not empty emotionalism, right? Not sappy sentimentalism, not worldly conceptions of love, but a self denying sacrificial serving laying down your life kind of love. And we've talked about that as we've worked through the gospel of John chapter 14. It's the kind of love that you and I have been shown in Christ. That love might well include very strong emotions. But it's distinguishing characteristic is that it is a love that is committed, that is a committed act of one's will. Regardless of feelings, regardless of emotions, it's distinguished by action, distinguished if you will by work. Now this is the love with which someone recognizes what is righteous and then chooses to act in righteousness. That first duty that is required in those commandments is love. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Secondly, notice that those commandments have an object. That love required has an object. First, the object of your love in the first greatest commandment is the Lord your God. The object of that kind of love in the second commandment is your neighbor. Now with respect to toward God, that love is defined by far more than mere intellectual belief. James tells us that even the demons believe that God exists, but rather than loving God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind, with all their strength, they shudder, right? Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is not saving faith without an all consuming love for the Lord Jesus Christ. A loveless faith is nothing more than that which demons can claim. And remember the kind of love that we're talking about here. So we saw in John chapter 14 verse 15, this kind of love, this love for God, this love for our neighbor is a characteristic mark of a true genuine believer, a true genuine disciple of Christ, right? That's toward God. Toward your neighbor, this love, the love toward your neighbor is cut from the same cloth as the love for it that you have for God. In fact, those two loves are inseparable. They're inseparable, woven together. Love for neighbor naturally flows from a love for God. In first John chapter four, verse 20, John says, he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? These two loves woven inseparably together. This love for neighbor is also a committed act of one's will. It is intentional. It is deliberate. It is purposeful to committed act of one's will. A thirdly, notice third that this love for God and love for neighbor is to be unreservedly expressed, fully expressed. Love for God is to be with all your heart. Love for God is to be with all your soul, all your mind, all your strength and all that that implies all the time. Is there any question about what is called for in the Christian life with respect to love toward God, right? The encompass is the entire being, everything you've got. Your whole being, with your whole being, you're to love the Lord your God. He gave everything for you, not sparing his own son. You're to give everything for him, not sparing even your own life. Do you see? Now, love for your neighbor is to be unreservedly expressed. Also, it is to be just as you love yourself. Your love for your neighbor is to be measured by your love for yourself. And Paul said, no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it. Now, if you think about those two commands, there are many ways in which we could summarize our responsibility to God. Many ways in which we could summarize the Christian life, but I think those two commands do a good job of doing just that. The Lord Jesus Christ here is summarizing our responsibility toward God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. He says in verse 40, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now, if we consider that, those two responsibilities, okay, loving, decisive, selfless, zealous, wholehearted, household action toward God. The second like it, loving, decisive, selfless, zealous, sacrificial, unreserved action toward your neighbor. I want to emphasize there in both those statements, loving action toward God, loving action toward your neighbor. And both of these enabled, empowered and affected by the spirit of God in the life of a believer. That loving action in both directions is clearly defined in God's word. Loving, decisive, selfless, zealous, wholehearted, household action toward God is defined in God's word as meditating and delighting on his word, seeking fellowship with God in prayer, worshiping him in spirit and in truth, pursuing your sanctification. For this is the will of God for you, your sanctification, right? Loving what God loves, hating what God hates. It means daily turning from sin. It means daily pursuing holiness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. It means rejecting the world. It means trusting and hoping in Christ alone. It means putting off the old man, putting on the new man. John summarizes all of this, this love for God as obedience to his commands. John says for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. That loving action toward your neighbor also defined very, very clearly in God's word. It doesn't simply look at a neighbor. It doesn't look at another person in his need and say, go in peace, be warm to be filled. Loving action meets the need, and by the way, what is his greatest need? Christ, salvation, the gospel, amen. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love doesn't cause his neighbor to stumble. Love seeks his edification. Love seeks to resolve conflict. Love is discipling or being discipled. Love reproves, corrects, rebukes, exhorts, instructs with all patience and long suffering with joy. To those inside the church, it means obeying the one and others. To those outside the church, it means primarily giving them the gospel. I think loving action toward your neighbor is very nicely summed up by the Great Commission. Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 begins, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. What is more loving than going to the nations of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and making disciples? You're then to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them those disciples, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, amen. Now, why would we begin this text in John 14 by talking about these things, by emphasizing this summary, if you will, of our responsibility to God, our responsibility to our neighbor, summarizing, if you will, the Christian life? Well, here it is. If you claim to be a Christian, then this is the life that you and I have been called to. This is our Christian context. This is our responsibility. These are our duties before God, before our neighbor. This is the summary of our Christian life. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. The call to salvation is a call to loving, decisive, selfless, zealous, wholehearted, whole-soul action toward God and loving, decisive, selfless, zealous, sacrificial, unreserved action toward your neighbor. The Christian life, the Christian life is a proactive life. The Christian life is a loving life, an acting life, a selfless life, a decisive life. It's an intentional delight. It's a deliberate life, a purposeful life. You and I have been left with a mission. The Lord Jesus Christ has departed by means of the cross, gloriously raised from the dead and now sits in the heavenlies at the right hand of the majesty on high and He has left us with a mission. Now, what is it for the Christian life? Brother and sister, listen, it is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and we love our neighbor as ourselves. It's not just coming to church. I don't know, you know, I know, right, if you're out witnessing, you run into this all the time and when you're talking to people, the sum total of their Christian life could be summarized by, I go to church. It's not just coming to church. It's not just avoiding sin. I don't smoke anymore, so I'm a Christian. It is loving the Lord Jesus Christ. It is loving God. It is loving your neighbor as yourself. It is denying yourself to do it. It's not simply taking a pie to a lady in your small group who's suffering with arthritis. Now, are all those things good? Amen, those are all good, but that is not the sum total of the Christian life. The Christian life is inaction, taking action to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. This error is predominantly what we see when we look at most professing churches today. When we look at most professing Christians today, I believe these things. I have an intellectual understanding of these facts, right? And that's an I'm a Christian or I go to church on Sunday. And you know what? I've been going to church on Sunday for as long as I can remember or, you know, I meet with the ladies rotary every Wednesday afternoon and we'd have a little five minute Bible study. All those things end of themselves are not bad things, but that does not summarize and encompass the Christian life. I'm concerned. I'm concerned that I'm certainly concerned. I don't want that to be the case with me. I don't want to live my Christian life that way. Listen, I did these things. I said that, you know what? I preach the sermon on Sundays. I stand before the Lord on judgment day and I say, Lord, Lord, did I not preach behind a pulpit on Sundays in your church? And he says to me, depart from me. I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness. What about what about you? Is that describing your Christian life? Hey, I go to church on Sunday. I do some nice things. Is that what your Christian life is all about? Does that summarize your Christian life? Listen, that cannot summarize your Christian life. We have two fundamental responsibilities with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength. We are to love the Lord our God and it doesn't stop there. The second is like unto it. We are to love our neighbor as ourself, obeying his commands, pursuing him in his word, putting off sin, putting on righteousness, obeying the one and others, evangelizing the lost. Not only are these commanded by God for every single Christian, they're also marks of having the Holy Spirit. And if you don't have these marks, you don't have the Spirit of God. You know, people go through all kinds of mental gymnastics to convince themselves that this isn't the case, right? Because I go to church, because I do these things, I'm a Christian and I'm going to convince myself that I'm a Christian. I'm going to justify myself that I'm a Christian because I just go to church and I listen to some guy, you know, airbag for an hour. And they justify themselves in their disobedience. Listen, this is the Christian life. Now, based on what we've talked about so far and considering these things briefly, how are you doing in each of those areas? When you examine yourself before God, right? With the life that you have that is laid out before you, right? God, teach us to number our days. This life is a vapor. It's here one moment, gone the next. It's only what's done for Christ that will last. As you consider the life that is stretched out before you, the life that you've been given, how are you doing with respect to loving, decisive, selfless, zealous, wholehearted, whole-souled action toward God? Or are you just showing up? Now, show it up a good thing? Absolutely, it is. But is that all that constitutes your Christian life? What are you doing to love God? What does it mean for you to love Him, heart, soul, mind, and strength? The second, liken to it. What does it look like in your life with respect to loving, decisive, selfless, zealous, sacrificial, unreserved action toward your neighbor? Are you sharing the gospel with them? Are you edifying your brothers and sisters? Listen, are you making a concerted effort in the Lord to obey the one and others? Are you looking out for your brother, looking out for your sister? This is the Christian life. We've been called to these things. Now, let's make the connection, all right? Let's make the connection together. In John chapter 14, in John chapter 14, the Lord is very soon departing from the disciples. Lord is soon departing, all right? He references that by mentioning those things which He has taught them while being present with them in verse 25. That statement while being present with them gives the indication that He doesn't have much time left. His time is short, right? That's also those things that He has taught specifically referencing those things that we ourselves have learned from Him as He has taught the disciples now in the upper room through John chapter 13 and John chapter 14. They're going to face tremendous adversity, tremendous difficulty. His concern is their perseverance in the faith. They stay the course. Satan will sift them, but He has prayed their faith will remain. But, think about it, having loved His own who are in the world, He loves them to the very end. He ensures for them by His departure that they have every spiritual blessing necessary in order for them to make it. Now, here's the glory of John chapter 14 and the truth of what the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching here. Their way is hard. Are you and I going to have to face some of the things that they faced? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, we haven't faced anything like that in our Christian lives. Their way is hard, but they have every spiritual blessing necessary for them to make it. The Lord Jesus Christ has loved His own and He has loved them to the end. He's given them these glorious blessings. Look at verse 16. In His absence, He sends them another helper to abide with them, the spirit of truth. Verse 18, He doesn't leave them orphans, He Himself comes to them. Look at verse 19. They will be witnesses of His resurrection, and they're going to testify of that. They look at verse 23. The triune God will make His home with them. And in our text this morning, in verses 25 through 31, the Lord is preparing to depart this world by means of the cross. And we have more. In addition to those already described that we've already talked about, we have more glorious blessings to talk about this morning. For you and I in our Christian life, if it were left to us, we would be utter and complete and total failures. We have no power whatsoever to do these things to live this way. But the Lord Jesus Christ in God's grace and in His mercy to us, afforded to us by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have every spiritual blessing necessary to lay hold of what has been commanded, to lay hold of our responsibilities in the Christian life, and to live for Christ, every blessing we need. If we will do it, lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of us. Just as they did for those disciples who lived and served the Lord in the first century, these glorious blessings are available to you and I. They're available to you and I in Christ to help us live for Christ today. Now, we're not faced with the same circumstances, but the threats that you and I face are very real and very deadly and very dangerous. They faced severe persecution. That may be coming for us too, by the looks of things. But we face a world that is pressing in on every side with a promise of pleasure. That's our fight. Do you see? They faced danger crowding in on every side. We face competing priorities crowding in on every side. They faced hunger, virtual homelessness, nothing but the clothes on their back. We have plenty more by far than we need. We have leisure. We have pleasure. You know, if you look at the Old Testament examples of these things, I got the picture, remember Uriah, Uriah off at war fighting his enemies. You can picture Uriah sword drawn shield out fighting against the enemies of Israel and where it was David. David lounging back at home, not out fighting, not with the army. David lounging back at home enjoying the fruits of Uriah's battle and David falls into grievous sin. The kingdom of God is pressing forward. Where are you? Are you pressing forward with it? Turn with me. I want you to look with me at Deuteronomy chapter six. Again, we're identifying the fight that we have and applying John chapter 14 to the fight that we face. It is no less deadly, maybe more so. It is insidiously deadly and we need to be about the fight. You and I, brother, sister, we need to be about the fight. Look at Deuteronomy chapter six and look beginning at verse four. These are the enemies that we face. Verse four, hero, Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. You shall, and here it is, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Why? Why were they instructed to do these things? Because they were prone to forget. They were prone to forget. Are you and I prone to forget? Yeah, we're prone to forget. We forget our name. We weren't reminded. We're prone to forget. Here, they're prone to forget. Why were they to do all these things? Because they must remember to love the Lord their God. Look at verse 10. So it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give you a large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things which you did not fill, shew out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant when you have eaten and are full, then beware. Beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. That's our danger, isn't it? We live in these circumstances and we have a tendency to forget. You're not first an engineer. You're first a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not first a teacher. You're first a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, you're not first a husband. You are first a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not first a mother or a father. You are first a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not forget the Lord your God. We are going to be faced in, Hemmed in on every side by dangers and toils and snares which this world and Satan has erected against us. And those come in the form of leisure and pleasure and forgetfulness and neglect and indifference. We forget the Lord our God. He says, verse 13, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him and you shall take oaths in his name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people who are all around you. For the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Massa. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers to cast out all your enemies from before you as the Lord has spoken. And when your son asks you in time to come saying, what is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you and you shall say to your son, we were slaves of Pharaoh and Egypt. Listen son, I was a slave to my sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ saved my wretched soul. That's what the Lord did for me. Son, daughter, you wanna know why I'm sold out for the Lord Jesus Christ? Because he saved me, he forgave me, he put his spirit within me. We have glorious blessings, right? And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, verse 22. And the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe against Egypt. Pharaoh and all of his household shown us severe and great judgments on this world already and the judgment is coming. Verse 23, then he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in to give us the land in which he swore to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, so that he might preserve us alive as it is this day, that it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as he has commanded us. Our fight is forgetfulness, indifference, apathy. These are the enemies that we face. But listen, that doesn't relegate us to merely rolling over in the Christian life and just hanging on until the end, right? You can have that attitude of circling the wagons and saying, I'm gonna just, I gotta hang on to the end, right? We're not to live like sluggardly comfortable cowards. We're to press forward in the Christian life. We're not to be silent. This world is not to push you or I into the privacy of our own homes. We are to be heralds to this generation. Those men in the first century or with the Lord in John 14 served the resurrected Lord until their deaths. And they were men with a nature like ours. We are to serve him until our deaths as well. All our heart, soul, mind, and strength in our neighbors ourselves. The Lord does not leave us. The Lord does not leave us impotent. Praise God. The Lord does not leave us beleaguered. The Lord leaves us with every spiritual blessing we need to be victorious in Christ. The one who forgives also empowers. The one who justifies also equips, he enables. We have these blessings from God. If you wanna stop living what maybe you this morning might characterize as a defeated Christian life, if that's you this morning and you wanna stop living that way, then lay hold of these blessings. We have tremendous blessings. If you examine yourself this morning and you see yourself as defeated, as struggling, as powerless, you are powerless. Lay hold of these blessings and live for the Lord. These are provided by the risen Lord. Listen to Paul's example of this. Paul's example of this from Philippians chapter three. Just listen. He begins in verse seven. What things were gained to me? These I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And I count them as rubbish, Paul says, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. So that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I've already attained or I'm already perfected, but I press on. Listen to Paul's language here, right? I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, therefore let us brothers and sisters, right? As many as are mature have this same mind. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. And why does Paul emphasize that? Let us be of the same mind. Let us walk by the same rule. You know, you might be tempted to think in Paul's zeal and his fervor and his love for God and his love for the Lord Jesus Christ, you might say to yourself, well, you know, that's Paul. I'm not an apostle, right? That's Paul. Well, listen, the distance between being a disciple of Christ and that disciple becoming a laborer on the level of Paul is very short. And consider that with me for a moment. The distance from being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, which every Christian is, every Christian is a disciple, the distance from being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and that disciple becoming a full-time pastor is very short. There's a short, it's just a small step to full-time ministry for the genuine Christian. It's just a short step to full-time missionary work. I tend to it preaching like Paul. It's just a small incremental step for the genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you settle your priorities, when you settle your priorities, when you settle the preeminence issue, what is going to have preeminence in your life? When you settle that issue, when you truly love the Lord your God, heart, soul, mind and strength, when you settle the suffering and the death issue, when you settle the money and possessions issue, just as the Lord Jesus Christ has required of every single disciple, then really how difficult is it to be doing anything or going anywhere for Christ? It's just one more small little step. You see, I'm making that point clear. We are to press on, we're to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of us. By virtue of the Lord's blessed departure and he's communicating this to his disciples in John 14 as a blessed departure. They should not be troubled. They should not be fearful. They should not be cowardly. This is a blessed departure. By virtue of the Lord's blessed departure, we have blessings from the Lord to serve him in his absence. First, I want you to see point one on your notes. Because of his departure, we have blessings of all blessings. We have the blessing of the Holy Spirit in verse 26. The blessing of the Holy Spirit of God. Look at verse 26. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and he will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. And we talked in detail about the helper, the Paracletos in verse 16. But here in verse 26, that detail that the Lord has already given is expanded. In verse 17, he was the spirit of truth. Here he's referred to as the Holy Spirit. Now the truth always accords with holiness, right? The truth always accords with holiness. He is the spirit of truth and he is the Holy Spirit. The Lord isn't here emphasizing his power, not emphasizing here his work, but he's emphasizing his character. He is holy. And you have the Holy Spirit in dwelling you if you're in Christ. You have his power at work in you. You have his work on your behalf and he is holy. He's not the laughing spirit, right? He's not the rolling around on the floor spirit. He is the Holy Spirit. He's not the spirit that requires about 15 pounds of pressure applied to the forehead to make you fall back kind of spirit. But he is the spirit that with a word can make you fall on your face in godly sorrow over sin. He's not an impersonal force. Notice the masculine pronoun in verse 26. He will teach you all things. He is a person. He is the Holy Spirit. Now think about it by implication, being the Holy Spirit. It's only because Jesus Christ died for us, put away the guilt and stain and penalty of our sin for us, that the Holy Spirit can now come and work in us to produce his holiness. That also means that he's not working through some money-grubbing liar. Lastly, says there in verse 26, of the Holy Spirit that he sent in my name, sent in the Lord's name. What does that mean? Sent in the Lord's name. Sent in the Lord's representative. His mission is derived from the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit continues the redemptive work of Christ. Now how does he continue that work? I want you to notice first in verse 26, notice his particular function. In verse 26, he will teach you all things. So now he teaches, didoc say, he gives understanding. He applies that which we know, come to know, and he applies all things, meaning he applies and teaches everything we need to know. He teaches you all things. That's his particular function emphasized in verse 26. Notice secondly, his particular subject in verse 26. He will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. In other words, his particular subject, the subject of his teaching is the word of God. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the word of God. Not new revelation that comes apart from the teachings of Christ. It is all that Christ taught. All that Christ has said, it is the word of God. Not some completely new teaching but a remembrance. He will bring to your remembrance, verse 26, all things that I, the Lord Jesus Christ said to you. In light of new experience now, the Spirit of Truth will teach them and apply to their understanding all that Christ has said to them. There were several occasions where the disciples didn't fully understand all that Jesus Christ was saying. If you look at just a couple of examples of that, look at John chapter 12, just flip back a page to the left. John chapter 12, and look down at verse 16. In verse 16, one example of this. It says there in John chapter 12 verse 16, his disciples did not understand these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done these things to him. They remembered after the fact, right? Flip back to John chapter two. John chapter two, there's several examples of this throughout the Gospel of John. Here, just a couple. And this is a function for them specifically at that time. Those disciples, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Chapter two, drop down to verse 22. It says, therefore, and speaking of the temple, Jesus answered them in verse 19 and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said it's taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, verse 22, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples then remembered that he had said this to them and they believed the scripture in the word which Jesus had said. So again, specifically speaking of their context in the first century, those disciples, this was a remembrance. Also, he has the same function, the same particular subject with respect to us today. These were men, in John chapter 14, these disciples. These were men that would write scripture. They would write scripture. And the Lord here was explaining inspiration to them in a sense. And I want us to remember that scripture isn't merely and only the product of men. It is ultimately a product of the Holy Spirit. Not simply a product just of the human author but a production of the Holy Spirit. David in 2 Samuel 23 says this very clearly. David says, the spirit of God spoke by me and his word is on my tongue. Here in the New Testament, we see that same doctrine taught where holy men were moved along as they wrote by the Holy Spirit. They were writing the very words of God and scripture is a product of the Holy Spirit. For us though, this also has application. The Holy Spirit in ministering blessings to the people of God works exclusively through the revealed word of God. The Holy Spirit teaches us the word of God and calls to our remembrance all things that Christ has said. He ministers blessings through the revealed word of God. Now, with that statement, with that statement, we refute and reject every false teaching that Satan has brought into the church under the pretense of the spirit of God. Think with me about that statement for just a moment. We have to understand that in the same way in which Satan has attacked the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has and will attack the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the same way. How are we to know what is false and what is true? Every doctrine or practice attributed to the Holy Spirit that does not accord with the revealed word of God is not a teaching or practice of the Holy Spirit, but is rather a doctrine of demons. It cannot be any clearer in the word of God. Every doctrine or practice attributed to the Holy Spirit that does not accord with the revealed word of God is not a teaching or a practice of the Holy Spirit. It is rather a doctrine of demons. And that, in large degree, wipes out a vast majority of what is seen today as the charismatic movement. There are charismatic churches who are doctrineally or teaching sound doctrine. They are few and far between. Let me give you another application for the people of God. In the light of the spirit's teaching, right? In the light of the spirit's applying and remembering ministry to the people of God, we have to recognize that the receiving and understanding of the word of God is not a mere intellectual pursuit. The word of God, we receive the word of God, the word of God is applied to our hearts. We understand the word of God through a ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is therefore not an intellectual pursuit only, but it's also a spiritual pursuit. It's a spiritual pursuit, which means that we need to pray. We need to depend upon God. We need to ask for wisdom. We need to worship God through the scriptures. We need to devote ourselves to the word of God and devote ourselves to prayer. The temptation in all this, again, is to forget. Turn with me to look at Psalm 103 with me quickly. Psalm 103, the Holy Spirit, such a tremendous, infinite, immeasurable, unspeakable gift to the people of God. And our tendency is to forget these glorious blessings. Look at Psalm 103, look at verse one. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He who forgives all your iniquities, who heals your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Look at all the Lord does, right? The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. But he will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He's not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for a man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children, to such as keep his covenant and to those who what? Remember, those who remember his commandments to do them. Can't forget, we're here to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We're to love our neighbor as ourself and we have these blessings. I know often when I am talking or the brothers would concur with us also, talking to someone who is struggling in sin, oftentimes it's because they've forgotten the Lord their God in the means that he's appointed for their good, for their blessing. When someone gets ready to leave off out of here with no evident love in their hearts for the brothers, that is often a product of forgetfulness, forgetting the Lord their God. There are so many ways in which that is just so destructive to your life. If we take implications from our text, the spirit of God and the spirit's function and teaching, the spirit's particular subject being the words of Christ, the word of God, we can look at marks, can't we? Draw implications from this text with respect to the marks of a spirit-filled person or the marks of a spirit-filled church. Remember having a conversation one time broke my heart to have that conversation with I believe as a dear sister in the Lord and at a church where a beloved pastor had left and obviously things change and just all those kinds of things that get right, we know what that's like, all those kinds of things that happen and this sister with tears in her eyes was concerned that maybe the spirit of God is just not with us any longer. The spirit of God is not in this church any longer. Question with the spirit was still at work in the church. If we take just this text, just verse 26, and we draw implications from this text to what a spirit-filled Christian life looks like or what a spirit-filled church would look like, let's look at some of those marks. First, there's gonna be a love for God's word. The particular subject of the spirit of God is the word of God. That which the spirit teaches are all those things that Christ has said. There's gonna be a love for God's word. In the people of God and in that church, there's gonna be a hunger for the word. There's gonna be a love evident for reading the word. There's gonna be a desire to talk about it. When you meet together, that's what you're talking about. There's gonna be a reverence for the word of God in your life. The church is going to be governed by the word of God. The word of God takes preeminence in its practice, in its governance. The church will give evidence of a priority of the word of God over being entertained by the world or entertaining people come through the doors. It's not our aim here. If you wanna be entertained, you're gonna have to find another church. There's gonna be priority to the word of God, and we don't apologize for that. If you don't like it, maybe you need to examine your own heart. We don't apologize for that here. There's a priority given to the word of God. Secondly, there's gonna be a love for biblical preaching. If that which is taught by the Holy Spirit is God's word, if that which the Holy Spirit teaches is the word of Christ, there's gonna be a love in a spirit-filled church for biblical preaching. There's gonna be a love for scripture to be opened, for scripture to be explained, illustrated, and applied. It was said of the spirit-filled early church in Acts chapter two, verse 41, that those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them, and what did they do? Verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine, and fellowship. They love biblical preaching. They love the word of God. Thirdly, there's gonna be a clear biblical focus on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I heard one commentator describe the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer this way, or the life of a church. He said that if you see those lights that illumine a house at night, right, the light up a house, you're not to see the lights. The lights aren't there to be seen, but the light shed light on that which is to be seen. The Holy Spirit functions that way with the Lord Jesus Christ, where the Spirit of God is at work in a church, the Lord Jesus Christ will be magnified. He will testify, the Spirit says, He will testify of me. Flip the page to John chapter 15, and look at chapter 15, verse 26. The Lord says in verse 26, but when the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. Is the Lord Jesus Christ preached here? Amen. That's the Spirit of God. It's a church that preaches the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the Spirit of God. You also will bear witness of me because you've been with me from the beginning. Look at John chapter 16, and drop down to verse 12. John chapter 16, verse 12. The Lord says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said to you that he will take of mine and declare it to you. The Spirit's intent in the church is to make Christ visible. Do you see? Fourth, there will be both conviction over and repentance of sin. He is the Holy Spirit. Wherever there is the Holy Spirit, he mortifies the flesh of his people. This Holy Spirit puts sin to death in everyone that he indwells. So where the Spirit resides, there will be conviction and repentance, and that conviction and repentance will give evidence that the war is on. Where the Spirit resides in the flesh, there is a war that is battling, a war that is raging. Fifth Mark, Spirit-filled church will be a place where it is normal and accepted and encouraged to lovingly confront and deal with sin in the body. Again, he is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God will employ those means of putting sin to death that are described and taught in God's word, and one of those means is a loving brother, a loving sister coming alongside to lovingly confront you in sin. Sixth, it will be a place where it will be uncomfortable for people living according to their flesh. If you can come to this church as a lost person and feel comfortable, we're doing something woefully wrong around here. The genuine Christian, the genuine Christian knows they need conviction. We know we need to repent. On this side of eternity, we're still dealing with the vestiges of our flesh. There's gonna be a point one day when repentance will be a thing of the past. Amen. That's not today. And when I think about Second Timothy chapter three and the purpose of scripture, right? All scripture given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. We have doctrine in scripture, right? We need to teach good doctrine for reproof, which is rebuke. For correction, it means you're just doing something wrong, you need to be corrected, and instruction in the right way to do things, instruction in righteousness, right? Two of those things in the middle, reproof and correction, that's what we need. We, we need all of it, but that happens in a biblical church. In most unbiblical churches, it simply doesn't happen. There is no reproof, there's no rebuke, there's no correction, there's no conviction. And we grow in conformity to Christ as we put off all that stuff that doesn't look like him. How do we put off like, we gotta have it brought to our attention, we've gotta repent of it, we've gotta turn from it and put on righteousness. That is often a painful pursuit, often a painful thing to go through. It's what we need. It's what preaching needs to do. It needs to convict, it needs to convict. Also needs to encourage. We have glorious blessings from God and Christ, Holy Spirit being one of those. All right, second, our next, seventh. It's gonna be a group of genuinely saved people. The Holy Spirit comes continuing the mission and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will see spiritual life in the people of a spirit-filled church. Not perfection, but you're gonna see the life. Church will be filled with regenerate people. Not a group of people who made a decision and now live indifferently towards the things of God. Not that. You'll see people who have been born again. Spiritual life in the people of God. Godly people producing fruit, bearing his mark of holiness. You'll see a humble people responding and repenting to the word of God. An obedient people, people actually striving and pressing to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. Live according to his word. You'll see a serving people and involved people. A people that prioritize and labor to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Over time, you're gonna see a church full of biblically knowledgeable and biblically astute people because the spirit of God teaches us the word of God applies the word of God to our hearts. Eighth, you're gonna see people that exhibit the peace of God. Spirit-informed comfort, consolation, spirit-empowered courage and boldness. And we'll talk about that point you on your notes next week. We have a lot to be grateful for, amen. Christian life is not easy. And if you have believed that, if someone has sold that bill of goods to you, you need to wake up to the reality, wake up to the truth. If you're not engaged in the battle, if you're not engaged in the fight, then you're not engaged with God's army. You're probably sitting back in a tent. But in all of that, the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing our frame, knowing that we are dust, knowing that we are weak, gives us every spiritual blessing that we need to make it. And they are glorious blessings. It is incumbent upon us, isn't it? To lay hold of those blessings that He's provided for us in Christ and to live for Him. Live for Christ in accordance with those blessings. Depend upon God. Here specifically, point one on your notes. We need to rely upon the Holy Spirit. What a glorious blessing to the people of God. Amen, amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord thank you that you command what you will, but as Guston prayed, Lord, that you enable what you command. You effect in the life of a believer what you command by your spirit. We praise you, Lord, for that glorious blessing. Help us, Lord. We are often always weak. We are often forgetful, negligent. We are prone to wander, prone to forget, prone to slide into patterns of indifference and apathy. And we need you. Please, Lord, by your word, by your spirit, call us to remembrance. Teach us, Lord, all things that Christ has said. Apply these truths to our heart, Lord, and help us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength in our neighbors, ourselves. We love you, Lord. We pray all these things for your glory. We desire from the heart to be pleasing in your sight. It's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. Amen.