We turn again to God's Holy Word, turning first to Ezekiel chapter 36, and then to John's Gospel chapter 14. Will you stand with me for the reading of God's Word? First to Ezekiel's prophecy, chapter 36, verses 25 through 27, and this promise of the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel 36, 25. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. And now to John chapter 14, we'll begin reading at verse one down through verse 24. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there, you may be also. And you and where I go, you know, and the way, you know, Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. And from now on, you know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father. And it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and yet yet you have not known me, Philip. He who has seen me has seen the father. So how can you say show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. Believe in me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments and I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you a little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live. You will live also. At that day, you will know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not a scary yet, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? 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 home with him. 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. This is the word of the living God. And let us pray for the grace of God's spirit and both the preaching and the hearing of the word. Our gracious God and heavenly father, how thankful we are to you for the gift of your word. and for the gift of your Holy Spirit. We praise you that you have not left us as orphans, but that you are present with us even by your word and spirit now. And we pray that you would open our eyes, that you would show us more of the glory of your grace, Lord Jesus, that you would be exalted among us, that your Holy Spirit would take away the veil that so often the clouds our understanding and our affections. guide our wills in your truth, incline our hearts to your ways, and exalt Christ among us. Help us and comfort us. Grant encouragement to those who are downcast. Convict those who are wandering. And we ask that you would convert those who are yet outside of Christ. In his holy name we pray. Amen. We meditate together in the preaching of the word tonight on John's Gospel chapter 14, particularly verses 15 down through 24, and the promise of our Savior Jesus Christ, of the coming Spirit, the Spirit who would be poured out on the day of Pentecost. This passage is a deeply comforting one here in the farewell discourse, the upper room discourse of our Savior. To disciples whose hearts are full of trouble and full of perplexity and anxiety, our Savior is ministering grace and comforts. And certainly we need this grace and comfort and help today, don't we? The disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ were not the only ones facing hard things, perplexity and deep anxiety and trouble. Our trouble seems to confront us almost at every turn, doesn't it? The reality of death confronts us. And even this past week as a congregation, as the dear Vega family suffered the the Lord taking away little Zoe, bringing her to himself. There's sadness among us. We think of even more of sickness and trouble in our relationships and even natural disasters and calamity around us, wars and rumors of war. The reality that we live in a world that's increasingly fractured, a world that's full of unrest. And this can certainly bring perplexity and anxiety to your heart, trouble even to your consciousness and your heart. Our Savior, though, here in John chapter 14, gives us solid ground for comforts. Ministers comfort in the midst of our tears. He ministers stability in the midst of an unstable world, in the midst of our unrest. And He helps us. He helps His troubled disciples. And tonight, by His Word and Spirit, He comes to help us and minister gospel comfort to us. You see there, really, as you think about this chapter, John chapter 14, There are two great comforts that our Savior presses before us and gives us. There's the comfort first that he goes to prepare a place for us. He comforted his disciples with the reality of a home that he prepares for them, a room, as it were, that he goes to prepare for them, verse 2, as he speaks to his troubled and anxious disciples again on the evening before his own crucifixion and death, as he faces his own passion and deals with disciples who are troubled. He comforts them that in my Father's house are many mansions, or literally many rooms. If it were not so, I would not have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. The first comfort is this, that our Savior goes away, but he goes away to prepare a home and heaven for us, a place in the Father's house, a place of abiding, an eternal dwelling place with God in Christ by the Spirit. But then there's a second comfort that he gives us, that between now and then, in the in-between time, and he speaks of going away, and certainly he has in view his own arrest, a betrayal, a betrayal arrest, and suffering and crucifixion, and then his ascension to the Father, and the age of the church, the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. But the second comfort is not only that he goes away to prepare an eternal home for his troubled disciples, but the second comfort is that between now and then, you have, as it were, a home with the Father and the Son by the Spirit in your heart, that there's the gift of the Holy Spirit. that the Lord Jesus doesn't leave his disciples, his troubled and anxious disciples, comfortless. He doesn't abandon them. He's not absentee. He's not an absentee Savior by any stretch. He's not leaving them to their perplexity and their turmoil and their trouble, but he's giving them the precious gift of his Holy Spirit, the gift that he would purchase through his own atoning work on the cross of Calvary. And then on that day of Pentecost, he would pour out that Spirit upon his church. It's really that we've considered that first comfort in months gone by, the great statement of our Savior that in verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life, the one who brings us to that eternal home. for which he is that he is preparing for us in glory. But tonight we're going to focus on that second comfort, the second large and glorious hope that the Savior sets before us, the promise of his Holy Spirit, a promise that he will enlarge upon and both here in chapter 14 and then in chapters 15 and 16 as well, that he's going away. Oh, but he's not leaving us as orphans. He's not leaving us to our own devices, but he's pouring out his spirit, his helper, his comforter upon his church. As we seek to understand this promise of the Spirit, I want to give you several lines of particular comfort in which Christ by His Spirit ministers to us as we meditate on this text. First line of comfort, the first promise, as it were, is that Christ by His Spirit gives you His abiding presence. He gives His troubled disciples His abiding presence. The second comfort or promise is that He by His Spirit gives you everlasting life. Not only abiding presence, but also everlasting life. And then thirdly, that He by His Spirit grants you communion. with the triune God, with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is really the pinnacle of His promises in the text. And then there's lastly a guardrail to our enjoyment of these comforts. There's a call to obedience and a call to keep the commands of God. So let's study these verses together, particularly beginning at verse 15 and then working our way down through verse 24. These initial promises of the work of the Holy Spirit The first comfort for our troubled hearts is that Christ by spirit assures us of his abiding presence, simply of his continued presence with us. Look at verse 16. Christ says again to his disciples, I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you. forever, the promise of the Holy Spirit, this other helper, this one who is equal with the Father and the Son, this one who is a person, a person of the eternal Trinity, the third person who proceeds from the Father and the Son as we confess together, one who is not less than Father and Son in any way, one who is a person with whom we enjoy communion one who comes to grant us assurance and even the assurance of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's going away indeed, but he assures his disciples that it's actually it's actually better. It's actually to their advantage that he goes away. That's as he enlarges upon this theme of the gift of the spirit. That's what we learn over in chapter 16, verse seven. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you." The gift, the Helper, sent by our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, it's to the disciples' advantage that he sends them this Comforter, this Helper. And this is the gift of both Father and Son. You see in our text, in chapter 14, verse 16, this is particularly the promise of the Father. that the Father will give you another helper. In chapter 16, the emphasis is on the work of Christ in sending us the Spirit. There's no contradiction here. The Spirit is the gift of Father and Son, and particularly here in chapter 14 in view is the work of Christ as our mediator, the one who purchases this gift for the church and dispenses this blessed gift upon her, who prays to the Father as our mediator, as our go-between, and as our advocate. and prays for the gift of this other helper, this one who is the paraclete. And there's been an abundance of ink spilled on what exactly this means. Perhaps some of your translations use the word comforter or advocate. It's hard to encapsulate all that the Spirit would do as our helper, as our comforter, as the one who comes alongside. He indeed is the, as we read in verse 17, He's the spirit of truth. Later we'll read that he is the one who will teach you all things, that he will be the teacher of the church, the one who instructs the church according to the word. It is his mission to help and comfort and support the church in every age. The one who brings the presence of the ascended Christ up close and personal to the church, who abides with her forever. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. the gift of the Father and the Son, and the one who abides with us forever. The one who, even as we gather, think of this, as we gather here in Taylor, South Carolina tonight, the Spirit is with us just as much as he has been with the church in every age. In fact, this is really the parallel to what our Savior would promise in the Great Commission. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. He's with us by His Word and Spirit. He's not abandoned us. Verse 18, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. I'm not going away and stripping away your comfort, stripping away my presence from you. I'm not leaving you defenseless and without provision. I'm not leaving you as orphans, those who are defenseless and vulnerable. But I'm with you by My Spirit. And in Him, Christ by His Spirit supplies all that we need. Indeed, He's with us to the end of the age. And this is that first blessed comfort that our Savior gives us. We have His presence with us. It's a simple truth. likely a truth that you've heard proclaimed time and time again, but one that ought to minister such deep and profound comfort to you. Christ is with us. Christ is with his church and is with each of us individually. All those who trust in him and who know his his power and his regenerating grace by the spirit. You have his presence with you. He's with you to the end, even in the valley of death's shadow. Psalm 23, even when we go through the valley of the shadow of death, yet the Lord is with us and he's not left us. Hebrews 13, 5, the Lord will neither leave us nor forsake us. He's our helper and with us by his spirit to the end. The one who indwells us, comforts us, the spirit has this multifaceted work of comforts, of teaching us, of filling us, of indwelling us. He's the spirit of adoption, as Paul calls him in Romans chapter 8. The one who witnesses with our spirits that we indeed belong to God, that we are the sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father. the one who assures us, the one who instructs us. Christ is with us by his word and spirit. The world cannot know him. And this indeed is the great dividing line between the church and the world. The church has this abiding presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The world does not. The world doesn't understand this hope. The world doesn't understand this promise of the Holy Spirit. But all those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and rest in him, are given this precious gift of the Holy Spirit, His abiding presence. The Lord is with us, never to leave us or forsake us. And this is profound comfort for the church in every age. Profound comfort for the disciples on the evening of their Lord's crucifixion, but yet profound comfort for us gathered here tonight. Despite the adversity of the world, the remaining corruption of our own hearts, and the attacks of the wicked one, Christ has not abandoned us, but He's given us His Spirit. The Spirit and the gifts are ours, as Martin Luther wrote in his famous hymn. And this is our confidence, that Christ is with His church to the end of the age. But there's more comfort that our Savior ministers to us, not only His abiding presence, but also the gift of everlasting life. Again, continuing on verse 19, a little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live. You will live also as our Savior speaks about the disciples, not the world, not seeing him anymore, but you will see me there. It's hard to know precisely what our Savior is is speaking in reference to as he's speaking in reference to his post resurrection appearances to the disciples. It's quite likely that that's in view. But even more than that, and I think in context, we ought to understand this reality of the disciples continuing to see Him, to enjoy His presence in the light of all that He's already said. In the gift and the presence of the Holy Spirit. That you will see me spiritually. A promise not only for those appearances of our Lord after His suffering and after His crucifixion and after His resurrection, but also a promise to you and me, those who have not seen him physically yet are given spiritual sight. Remember what our Savior said back in chapter three, that unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. There's a spiritual sight that we need. And this is, again, in line with the work of the Holy Spirit. He's the one who opens our blind eyes. He's the one who takes away our spiritual blindness and gives us sight of Christ, opening our eyes to his light and glory. And it is through the spirit that Christ assures his disciples of everlasting life, because I live, you will live also. Spiritual life begun here and now, but also that life everlasting. The promise of life that never ends. The life everlasting that we confess even tonight, that we believe in the life of the world to come. This is particularly the ministry of the Holy Spirit as He unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ, brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life, and unites us to the Savior. Think of those words of Paul over in Romans 6. Romans 6, as Paul emphasizes the truth of union with our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6, 4, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the lightness of his death, certainly we shall be in the lightness of his resurrection. It is the Holy Spirit who unites us to Christ, uniting us to Christ in his death, buried with him, but then also raised with Him, raised to new life, that just as much as our Lord Jesus Christ raised, the Father raised Him from the dead on the third day in time and in history, so the Spirit has worked in our hearts, worked in our lives, raising us in union with Christ, granting us spiritual life, so that because our Savior lives, We will live also. And this is a promise not only of spiritual life, but also of the of the resurrection of our bodies. Think of the words of Paul, just a couple of chapters over Romans 8 verse 11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. There's a promise. of the Spirit to raise even our mortal bodies one day. Some of you were around a graveside just this past week and knew the experience, the profound experience of grief and sadness with our friends Paul and Hannah and Vega. Yet we grieve in the midst of death and in the midst of the facing of that reality. We grieve not as those who have no hope, but of those who have the gift of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ with us, and the assurance of the life everlasting. That there is a coming day when Christ, by His Holy Spirit, will raise us, body and soul, in union with Himself, to perfect and unending everlasting life. This is our hope and our confidence. Because our Savior lives, we will live also. not only His abiding presence with us, but also the life everlasting. And that life everlasting has begun now. There's a foretaste of that life everlasting, even by the Spirit. I think this is what our Savior is getting at. I'm going away. The world's not going to be able to see me. The world's not going to experience my presence and even my promises. But I'm with you. and you will see me. There's a Christian experience here that's shaped by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Eternal life is not something that's altogether future, even though we look for the life of the world to come. We look for the resurrection of our bodies one day and the everlasting comfort of life with God. But that life has begun now. Even now, spiritually, we've been seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, united to Him now. You, Christian, can experience the joy of everlasting life, even now. And what hope and confidence this brings you, even in the face of trial and suffering and loss. Our grief is not the grief of those who have no hope. Our adversity and suffering is not pointless. But yet, even in the midst of these things, Christ assures us, drives his promises home by his spirit, assures us of his presence and the hope of life everlasting. A life that the world cannot see or know, but that we know by the spirit nonetheless. Everlasting life already begun. So that it's true even when we face death and our souls pass immediately into glory. through our union with Christ, because of the everlasting life that the Spirit brings to us, that our bodies rest in the grave, still united to Christ until the resurrection. Everlasting life, spiritual life begun now, and the sure hope of life everlasting. This is the promise of our Savior. He promises us His presence in the midst of our trouble. He promises us everlasting life But then even more, I think this gets to really the heart of his comfort and his teaching. He promises us communion with God triune. He promises us that we will enjoy the presence of the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 20. At that day, and I believe in view here is the gift and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, at that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me. and I in you." And there's been a surprising shift here in our Savior's language from what he said earlier in verse 10. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? And we might expect our Savior to say something similar in verse 20. Do you not know that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? But he expands this promise of communion and abiding fellowship. He says now. you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." A mutual indwelling, the presence of God triune, the assurance that through the Spirit, even as Christ dies and is buried and rises again and ascends to the right hand of the Father, that He is yet with us, ministering to us and granting us communion with Himself. I in you, You and me, and I in you. Verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. For all those united to Jesus Christ, we not only have the promise of Christ's abiding presence by his spirit and everlasting life, but also communion with God triune. a manifestation, a revealing of God's presence and communion with us, loved by the Father, enjoying the grace of the Son and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit. And this is what Christ promises us. And yet there's confusion on the part of the disciples in the midst of their trouble, not quite understanding what our Savior is getting at. not quite getting to the bottom of this promise of communion and His joyous presence with them. Verse 22, the question that comes to our Savior. Judas Notus Carius said to Him, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us and not to the world? It seems that in the back of the disciples' minds, even here on the eve of their Savior's crucifixion, that there's deep confusion here. They expect... Our Lord Jesus, to bring a physical, temporal kingdom, to conquer the Romans, to set up a physical throne and kingdom even there, to be manifested in glory to the world, in the eyes of the world, to set up a physical, temporal kingdom. And there's confusion here. How is it, Lord, that You will show Yourself and manifest and commune with us in this way and not to the world? The disciples, again, as we track their questions and their pushback even to our Savior's comforts through this chapter, they're not understanding. They're perplexed, confused, and full of trouble. But notice how our Savior deals with the trouble, deals with the perplexity on the part of the disciples. Verse 23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. And this is the this is the heart of what our Savior is getting at in this chapter. That for those who belong to Christ, God triune comes in by the Spirit and makes, the triune God makes our hearts a home for Him. There's no, at this point, no temporal kingdom that our Savior is getting at, no outward great victory over the Romans, or setting up of that kingdom. What He's getting at is even in His time of going to the Father, yet there's a promise of communion, of making our hearts a home for the Father and the Son. The Father and Son together coming to us and making our home with Him, with the disciples, and even with us, all those who belong to Christ. It's interesting, you perhaps miss it in reading the English text. But the only two occurrences of the Greek word that's translated home here appear back in verse 2, as I pointed out a few moments ago. In my Father's house are many mansions, are many rooms. And then here, in verse 23, that the Father and Son, through the gift of the Spirit, will come to the disciples and make their home with Him. You see what our Savior is getting at as He ministers to these troubled and anxious souls? He's saying, I go to prepare a place for you. I go to prepare that eternal home for you in glory. But between now and then, through the ministry of my blessed spirit, I will make your heart my home, the home of God triune, the home of the father, the son, and the spirit. Close and intimate fellowship, our own very hearts made a home for God triune. communion in which He gives us Himself, holding really nothing back, not holding us at arm's length, not granting us any type of second-class citizenship in His kingdom, but giving us Himself, coming into our hearts by His Spirit, breaking down our sin and our rebellion and unbelief, and granting us Himself, giving us what's far better than the idea of setting up a temporal kingdom then, and conquering the Romans or anything of that nature, but making our hearts a home by his word and spirit. This is really the climax of our Savior's promises. Communion with God triune, our hearts made a home for the Father and the Son, enjoying the love of God poured out in our hearts, that even Christ by his spirit would dwell in our hearts through faith, as Paul tells the Ephesian believers. that even in our experience, we would get hold of this access to the Father through Christ by the Spirit. This is the blessed promise of our Savior accomplished by the Spirit. Yes, the abiding presence of the Savior and the hope of everlasting life, but more here, a home for the Father and the Son. Between now and then, before we experience the joy of life everlasting and that eternal home reserved for us in the heaven, we enjoy the presence of God with us in the midst of our persecutions, in the midst of our griefs, in the midst of our difficulties and tears. This is the promise of our Savior, that your heart, Christian, becomes a home for God. a place of his dwelling, intimate communion with God. Try you. You notice if you've been paying attention to the way we've been working our way through the text that I've skipped very key phrases through our study together. I've emphasized these blessed promises. The abiding presence of our Savior. A promise of everlasting life and communion with God the Father, Son, and Spirit in our hearts. There's a key guardrail here, not a condition for these blessings and these promises, but a guardrail, a context, and even a call to obedience. Did you notice it? Back in verse 15, our Savior says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And then in verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And then verse 23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And then he states it negatively in verse 24. He who does not love me does not keep my words. There's a key guardrail, as I said a few moments ago. Again, not a condition for earning God's favor, for earning these promises and their enjoyment in your experience, but a key context. of something that will be true of all disciples who lay hold of the comforts and lay hold of the promises. They will also be those who pursue spirit-enabled obedience. And I believe it's important for us to understand that it is in the context of the gift of the Holy Spirit that our Savior tells us and calls us to keep His words and keep His commandments. The same Spirit who would bring Christ's abiding presence home to our hearts. of the one who assures us of the hope of everlasting life and communion with God triune. It is he who enables us to obey and calls us to obedience. It would be unthinkable, wouldn't it? It would be unthinkable to enjoy these privileges, to even think that you might enjoy these privileges of of such close communion and fellowship with God. and yet bring a life of sin and rebellion into that communion. It's unthinkable. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are. The old has passed away and all things have become new. The spirit is is at work to renovate our hearts, even as he as he makes our hearts a home for the father and the son. So you see the importance of obedience, of spirit enabled obedience, of keeping the word, keeping the commandments of God. We don't divorce laying hold of the promises and enjoying the comforts from obeying the commands. Faith, true faith, both obeys the commands and takes hold of the comforts. There's no separation here. Some of you perhaps enjoy home renovation projects. And you give meticulous care to painting projects and replacing things around the house, improving your home. And it would be unthinkable, wouldn't it, for you just to take a gallon of paint and splatter it up against a wall that you just painted, or to take a saw and just start cutting anywhere, to take a hammer and start hitting your cabinet senselessly. It would be unthinkable in the midst of a home renovation. You go about it intentionally. with a goal in mind. That which is fitting belongs there. That which is disorderly or out of fashion doesn't belong there. You carefully make your home a place that's suitable for your family. And this is the way we ought to think of the Spirit's work in our hearts. That sin and rebellion and unbelief and that which displeases our Savior has no place, has no place in our hearts. If we are to be those who enjoy close communion with God triune and our hearts made a home for Father and Son by the Spirit, Then how unthinkable is it for us to seek to keep our lusts and our anger, our selfishness and our pride? Let us be those who, by the Spirit, root those things out, praying for grace to keep the words of God and to keep His holy commandments. the teaching of John over in his first epistle, as he calls us to this life of spirit enabled obedience. If we say that we have fellowship with him, we have communion with him. If we say that and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Verse eight of that same chapter, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And then over in chapter five, by this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. For the child of God, you can enjoy these blessed promises and privileges of communion with God, of the abiding presence of your savior in the midst of trouble. and take hold of the life everlasting, that because our Savior lives, you will live also, a promise applied to your heart by the Holy Spirit. For you also, at the same time, you guard against self-deception. You do not seek to lay hold of these privileges and enjoy them by faith, and at the same time live a dissolute life of rebellion, even a secret life of rebellion against the Lord. Examine your heart and pray for the grace of the Spirit to keep the words of our Savior. to abide in His love, to keep His commandments, and to walk in all of His ways. And it would also press upon your conscience that which Paul said of the Spirit's work in the sixth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Our Lord Jesus Christ came and paid the price of His own blood for our redemption. He gives us the best of heaven, the promise of His Holy Spirit. He offers and holds out to us the promise of His abiding presence with us to the end of the age. Life everlasting in communion with God triune. He's made our hearts a home for the Father and the Son. Even here in 1 Corinthians 6, our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit. Therefore, rather than yielding ourselves to sin and to that which displeases the Lord, may we glorify Him in our body and in our spirits, which belong to God. And may we enjoy and experience the blessing of communion with God, and at the same time walk in His commandments by the grace of the Spirit. Let us pray. Our Lord, our God, how thankful we are to you for your comforts in the midst of our trouble. We praise you, Lord Jesus, that you are with us to the end of the age, that you have not left us as orphans. You've not abandoned us. You've not left us to our own devices, but you have granted us your Holy Spirit. You are with us. You give us everlasting life. You call us by your word and spirit to take away our hearts of stone and grant us hearts of flesh in their place. Life everlasting already begun in our hearts. and you have granted us communion with the Father by your Holy Spirit, and we are thankful to you. We ask for the grace and power of your Spirit to walk in holiness before you, that indeed we would keep your words, that we would not be disobedient, that our lives, that our allegiance would not be split, but that as we lay hold of your precious promises, that we would also examine our hearts, that we would bring glory to you, that we would put sin to death, and walk in your holy ways. Do this by the grace of your spirit for your own glory. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. And I'll go with the blessing of our triune God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.