And now let's consider John chapter 14. I'll start reading in verse 15. This is God's wholly inspired and inerrant word. Let's give our full attention to its reading now. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is 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 Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered him, 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 whoever does not love me does not love my words does not keep my words and the word that you hear is not mine but the father's who sent me these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you but the helper I The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, I am going away and I will come to you. If you love me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise. Let us go from here. Thus far, the reading of God's word, the grass withers, the flower does fade, but the word of the Lord, only the word of the Lord remains forever. Trust in that God will bless it to our hearts this morning. Well, beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, just hours before his death, his death was impending and he knew it. Our Lord Jesus provides these deep words of comfort, these deep words of assurance by giving us a promise. by giving his disciples specifically a promise that he would never leave them. And so let's think a little bit about the context in which we are dropping into. We are peeking into the window of John's gospel, so it'd be right and fitting for us to consider where it is that we're picking up. Well, this is what's known as the upper room discourse, where John or Jesus is with his disciples in the upper room. This is where he institutes the last supper. He washes his disciples' feet, and this setting runs from John 13 all the way through John 18. So we come at it right there in John 14. He's with his disciples and he's speaking to them about the events that are coming, namely the coming event of his death. But not only the coming event of his death, but also the coming event of his return. and also a gift that he promises to give. And so knowing that hour has come, Jesus has fixed his eyes upon Jerusalem. He has fixed his eyes upon the cross where he knows that he will hang. He is there. He washes his disciples' feet. He eats with them and says, do this in remembrance of me, for as often as you drink of this cup and eat this bread, you know that the Lord's death is proclaimed. He says this to them. He is telling them. that this is what must happen for him to accomplish the Father's will. You remember, this is what Jesus came to do. He was going to do his Father's will. He would be betrayed, he would be denied, and he would be forsaken. He tells the disciples just before our passage in chapter 13 and then beginning in 14, he says that he is going to be betrayed by one who reclines at table with him, one who takes the very bread that he offers, he sends out to be the betrayer, one of his own. He says that he is going to be denied by the Apostle Peter. The Apostle Peter says, where is it that you're going, Lord? I will go with you. I will lay my life down, Peter says. And Jesus says, you can't lay your life down, Peter. You will not be able to bear what it is that I'm about to go and do, and therefore you will deny me three times before the rooster crows. He would be denied and also forsaken. His disciples would eventually scatter. He would be forsaken there on the cross as he would hang unto death. But he speaks of this impending betrayal and this impending denial and this impending forsaken meant with words that we would do well to meditate on, to think about, and certainly would be careful not to overlook. Look at John 14, verse one. In the midst of this upper room discourse, he says in verse one of 14, let not your hearts be troubled. Let not your hearts be troubled. And look at our passage in verse 27. 27, somewhere around B or C, he says again, let not your hearts be troubled. neither let them be afraid." See, what Jesus is doing here is he is providing comfort and assurance in the midst of him saying, I am going, yet I can give you this gift of one who is to come, who is going to comfort you, who is going to assure you, who is gonna guard and keep and protect you as I have done, as I have been with you. Effectually, what Jesus is saying is that I am going to be betrayed, that you might never be forsaken by my Father. I am gonna go and be denied that you might be accepted. I am gonna go and be forsaken that you might have life and have life in my name. This is what he is telling the disciples. You can't go where I am going, yet you will follow after me. You will follow after me because where I am going, I have prepared a place for you and I'm coming back and I will take you there. For in my father's house, there are many rooms and he has prepared them for his disciples. And so we're gonna pick up our passage this morning with that undergirding structure, that theme of comfort and assurance for those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, who are united to him. We pick up this theme and we're going to see that Jesus's departure, effects the coming of this comforter, another comforter who is going to make us share in Christ and all of his benefits, who is going to comfort us, and who is going to remain with us for all eternity, who will never leave us nor forsake us. Namely, that is the Holy Spirit. And so our two points this morning, we're really working off the structure of the catechism as it's so helpful looking at the person. Who is the Spirit? and the work. What is he doing in this world? What has he done in the past? What is he doing now? And what is he preparing us for in the future? So first, who is the Holy Spirit? This is a very fitting question for us in our day and age, because we live in a time, a context where The spiritual is largely accepted. It's not very common today, or I should say it is common today for people to affirm, yes, there is a spiritual realm. This is where we get the setting or the saying spiritual, but not religious. Obviously there's a spiritual realm, but I don't need to tie myself to a particular religion because I just want to let the universe guide me. I'm sure you've heard this as speaking to those who are maybe in our friend groups, our family members, or people at work. It's also fitting to take this up because the context that we live is a Star Wars context. I'm sure you're familiar with the films Star Wars, and in those films, you see that there is this force that presses everything forward. And so often, in the same context of people who say, spiritual but not religious, we let the universe guide us and guard us, really what they're invoking is this force language. They think of the spiritual as an impersonal force that affects all things. And if this is the air that we breathe, if this is the context in which we are in, we ought to do well to think about what we say about the Holy Spirit, who He is. Has Scripture been clear? Is He an impersonal force? Well, already you've heard me refer to Him. to he, not it or the force, right? He is a personal being. And so the truth of scripture is far from our cultural narrative. So let's suspend those two things. We've talked about the cultural narrative here, and now we're going to look at what the scripture says that's over against what our culture is telling us. Certainly, all things come to pass with a purpose. Nothing happens by accident, but I can assure you that it's not just the powers and the forces of the universe. Rather, the scriptures ascribe it to the ever-present power of God by which He upholds all things with His mighty right hand that leaf or blade, rain or drought, prosperity and poverty. Nothing comes to pass apart from the will of our Father who is in heaven. Yet how does He bring about His will? It's through the Spirit. Because every work of God is from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. Every work of God is, in fact, triune. And I want to come back to that point over and over in this sermon, because we don't want to separate the persons of the Trinity as we think about the works in which they engage in, because every work is Triune. Remember that the most basic definition of who our God is is that He has revealed Himself, one in essence, one in substance. There is one God whom we confess, and He's revealed Himself in three persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do not serve three gods, but one God. That's what the scriptures say. And of the Holy Spirit in particular, we confess that he is the Lord and giver of life, and he proceeds from the Father and the Son. He together with the Father and the Son is to be worshiped. Hear me. He with the Father and the Son is to be worshiped. Who can be worshiped but God alone? This is another important point that none in this Trinity is before or after, none is greater or smaller. In their eternity, the three persons are co-eternal and they are co-equal. And so you're asking, well, I thought we were talking about the Holy Spirit. Why are we referring so much to the Trinity? Well, we can't not. Because when we think about the one who is the Spirit, we're driven to the three, who is God who reveals himself. And as we think about the three, we're driven to the persons. So we're going to flip back and forth throughout our time together this morning and the purpose. that we might grow in our understanding of who God is, that we might grow in our love for who God is, because you can't grow in our understanding without then naturally growing in our love because he has called us and revealed himself to us. And so we meditate on what he says about himself. And that means that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity. That is the Christian faith, brothers and sisters. So we've said that the Spirit is not to be compared to an impersonal force. Rather, He is the personal God, third person of the Trinity, who is bringing about all things, the will of the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Second, He is the Spirit of truth. Did you notice what Jesus said about this one who He is sending? He says, I'm gonna send you another helper to be with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth is what He says in verse 16, even the spirit of truth, sorry, verse 17. Which again, if he's the spirit of truth, this highlights his divinity. He is very God of very God. Because remember what Jesus said back in the beginning of John 14. Jesus himself says that, I am the way and the truth and the life for no one comes to the Father except through me. But then Jesus flips and he says, this spirit who is coming, he's the spirit of truth. What should that tell us? It should tell us that if Jesus himself is truth and he's sending one who is the spirit of truth, they're the same in essence. They're the same in substance. The spirit is going to testify to everything that Christ had did, everything that he had said. Jesus alone is the truth, and what we see about the Spirit is that he is really the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the living Christ, the Spirit of the truth being Jesus himself. And so understanding the Spirit in this way helps to exalt him as the divine one who is one in essence with the Father and the Son. It's through the Spirit that we come to know all things, because it's the Spirit alone who searches all things, even the depths of God, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, he searches the depths of God and he testifies to our spirit that God alone is the true God, that God alone has offered this true salvation. And so when the spirit comes, Jesus, it's interesting because this is really the largest portion of scripture that's given over to the person in the work of the Holy Spirit, which is why I selected this. But if you were to go through, especially the Gospel of John, you can see many points of the Gospel where Jesus is speaking about the Spirit to come. In chapter 16, verse 13, he says that when the Spirit comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And in fact, he says the same thing in our passage that he is going to guide you into all truth. What's the significance? This means that The Spirit is truth in a person, and He guides His people into the realm of truth which is found in Christ and His resurrection. That's the testimony of the Spirit to your hearts this morning. Son of God came and He died and He rose and He ascended, and the Spirit confirms that in your hearts. That is the gospel. And by this we know the Spirit of God, 1 John 4. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh from God, if they confess Jesus to be from God. So that's second, He's the Spirit of truth. Third, He is another helper. That's in fact how John started the passage. He says that if you love me, you'll keep my commandments and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper. The key here is to focus in for a moment, just to key in on this word, another. You hear often, this is a Greek phrase that gets thrown out, parakletos. You've maybe heard of the spirit as the paraclete. Well, it's not often that we hear of him as the another paraclete, right? But that's what John is telling us here very specifically. He is another helper, which what does that imply? is that there is one who came prior. There is one who is helping the people of God now, and the one to come is another comforter. Who is this one who is with them? It's Jesus Christ himself. And he's now telling the people, I'm sending one who is another, meaning who is like me, who is one in substance with me. Therefore, I am going to be with you because my spirit will come and dwell with you eternally. It's very significant that Jesus is saying, I am in fact leaving, but I will be with you in and through the spirit, which again points to his divinity being eternal God. The word helper here, maybe it's not the most precise translation. It's probably better to think of this word as counselor or advocate. It's better that way because it brings out the connotations of a legal setting. In other words, we stand in the courtroom of God. All of God's creatures are called to the stand, and either you are in Christ and found to be not guilty, or you are outside of Christ and to be found guilty. And so if you have an advocate, a counselor who stands before God and says, they are not guilty because of so-and-so or such-and-such, That's what the Spirit does for you, testifies that you are a child of God, that you belong to Him, that you are no longer guilty. That's what John tells us of Jesus Himself. In 1 John 2, if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Hear that, if anyone sins, we have an advocate. It's the same word, perikletos. We have an advocate with the Father. And now Jesus is saying, you've got another advocate coming. So we can think of it this way, is that Jesus testifies to the Father that we are not guilty, and the Spirit testifies to us that we belong to the Father because of what Jesus testified, we are therefore not guilty if we're found in Christ. And this is why Jesus can say, let not your hearts be troubled. Let not your hearts be troubled, dear beloved, because in Christ you've received another advocate. You, sitting here this morning, have received the helper who is from above, the eternal comforter, the advocate, the counselor who testifies to you, yourself, and also to God that you belong and that you will never be separated. What we're seeing here, really, when Jesus is speaking, is we're seeing the work of our triune God, that he is working all things to come to pass, namely, our salvation. And so Jesus is communing with his disciples in these last hours. Jesus is, in fact, communing with us in this moment, in this hour, by his Spirit, and he is testifying to us that though he left his disciples, he would return Though he ascended, he sent one who is like him." You can imagine, I'm sure, the fear that the disciples might have been facing. This one whom we just left everything behind and we are following you now and you're telling us you're going to go to the cross and be killed? You're going to go to death? I thought you were going to establish the kingdom of God now. What they missed is that Jesus was going to crush the enemy in and through his death. So we can imagine though, because we face these times of uncertainty, right? We face these times of doubt. We face these times of aloneness, where we might cry out to God and think, how long, oh Lord, where are you in this? I don't feel your presence. Are you still with me? Have you forsaken me? And dear beloved, hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let not your hearts be troubled. because the Lord will never leave you, and he will never forsake you, because he's given you one who unites you to the risen and ascended Lord, and that is his work. Jesus issues this blessed word of comfort, let your hearts not be troubled, let them not be afraid, for I will not leave you as orphans, is what he says. An orphan in this time would have been one who had no right to anything. They would have been lost and had no hope in this world. And Jesus is telling them, it's not going to be as if you are orphans when I leave you, but rather I'm going back to my father who is also your father in me. And I am in you and your spirit or my spirit is coming to bring this communion and fellowship between you and God that you are so longing for. And so what Jesus is saying, in fact, is that he is not Rather, in His leaving, He is going to be with them in a different, even more powerful way by and through His Spirit. And so let's consider the work of the Spirit. We've thought about who He is. He's the third person of the eternal God, very God of very God, co-eternal, co-existent with the Father and the Son. And so let's think about His work. What does He do? Well, if we fast forward a bit, Think about Acts 1, fast forward a bit, and not from here, future, but rather from our passage to the future in Acts 1. After Jesus had left, he had been crucified, dead, and buried. He rose from the dead, and he's speaking to his disciples, Acts 1, and they're asking, are you going to set up the kingdom now? And Jesus refers them to the promise. He said, remember what I told you back in that upper room, that when I leave, I am going to send one to you. And he's saying, wait here for just a moment because the spirit of power is coming. They're told to wait for this promise. In a few short days, the spirit of truth, the other helper would be poured out on the church. This is a historical event that would mark the coming of the new creation. When Jesus ascends and the Spirit breaks into this world, that's the coming of the new creation. This is the foretaste that we have now. If we've received the Spirit of Christ, we are foretasting even now as we've gathered with the celestial spirits who are praising God and worship, we are participating in heavenly Zion worship because we're tasting the new creation as the Spirit lifts us heavenward to enjoy that. That's what the Spirit brings. That's what he does. So we've dealt with one misconception regarding the Spirit. We've dealt with how the world maybe looks at the Spirit in this impersonal force type of way, but we ought to deal with a misconception that's in the church. If we have any sort of awareness, if we have any sort of idea of what's happening outside of the Church, we can say that there is an overemphasis of what the Spirit does and how He's doing it in the Christian Church. And so let's deal with that for just a moment. There's an overemphasis on the perceived works of the Spirit. What I mean by that is that The Spirit has been so attached to miracles, and only miracles, that if we don't see miracles among us, then the Spirit must not be at work. So the Spirit is often associated with miracles, and the Father and the Son kind of get thrown out the window in this equation, and the Spirit gets separated out, and we say that we are spiritual because we're seeing God manifest Himself in these miraculous type of ways. I wanna be clear that where scripture is clear is that the spirit is not in the business of making a name for himself. And oftentimes in these movements, what we see is that there's a construction of the spirit who's made his name for himself in this particular way of understanding the scriptures as they come to be. Well, the spirit, we're told, he's concerned with testifying to who? to the Lord Jesus. He is concerned with pointing away from himself and pointing to the one who came and died and rose again, pointing to the one to whom the Son glorified, which is the Father. And so if we ever find ourselves overemphasizing the work of the Spirit that's detached from what the Father does through the Son, we're outside the bounds of our understanding of God working in and through history. I'm not saying that God cannot work miraculously. What I'm saying is that God is at work in all things. God is at work in the ordinary, in the mundane things. God's providence is just as beautiful as the miraculous. And if I point to Providence, what did I say about the Spirit earlier regarding Providence? It's the Spirit that brings about all things. Let's think about creation for a moment. It's the Spirit who is hovering over the waters of the deep. It's the Spirit through whom God brings all things to be, and it's through the Spirit that God upholds all things by the Word of His power. And so we don't have to attach the Spirit to just the miraculous, but rather we attach the Spirit to every work of God. And that gives us a thick Trinitarianism, where everything comes to be in and through the Father and the Son and the Spirit. The hallmark of the Spirit's work, or a hallmark of the Spirit's work, is to exalt the risen and ascended Christ. The Spirit points to the Lord Jesus, who did what? Pointed to His Father. The Father glorifies the Son as the Son glorifies the Father, and He gives the Spirit that the Spirit might glorify the Son and the Father. This is how we think. This is how we talk. This is how we worship, this is how we pray, this is how we sing. You notice the two songs that were selected today prior to the service, that was a Trinitarian song, Come Thou Almighty King, we sang of the Father and the Incarnate Word and the Holy Comforter who is coming. The song of application is going to be, Holy God, we praise your name, singing of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. Those who reject the Trinity should be very uncomfortable in our worship services, because it's who we are, because we are in Christ, who his Father speaks through the Son by the Spirit. I hope we never get tired of hearing that, reflecting upon that, meditating on the deepness that is there. From creation, the Spirit is at work. From creation up until Jesus's ministry, the Spirit is at work. We often think of, in this time, we look at the book of Acts, if we were only to look there and think, who is the Spirit? We'd be getting the somewhat of the end notes. We can go back to the creation and see the spirit is there. The spirit is there in and through the Old Testament where he's moving the prophets to speak. He's empowering leaders to rule. He's even gifting craftsmen to build. He is at work. But the scriptures also testify to a future pouring out to which the people of God are waiting, they are looking forward to, and Jesus says, because of what I'm doing, those prophecies are coming to be. In my ascension, the spirit is going to be unleashed. upon all the nations poured out that the gospel might spread and that dead hearts might become to life and life in the name of Christ. It's the spirit that anoints Jesus as prophet, priest, and king. It's the spirit who raises Jesus from the dead, and it's the Spirit who is given to the church to supply her every need according to the riches of God's grace in Christ Jesus. And so there's three things I want to reflect on. We only plumb the depths of the Spirit when we think about His work. I hope to again, like I said, come back to the Ascension next week and to think more about His works. So I don't want you to get the impression when I give you these three things that the Spirit does, that that's all He does. Rather, just in light of our passage and also the catechism, I want to reflect on three things for a moment. The Spirit applies, the Spirit comforts, and the Spirit remains forever. He applies, He comforts, and He remains forever. It's the Spirit of God who applies to the believer the work of Christ. The Catechism helps us by saying He makes us share in Christ and all of His benefits. That means it's the Spirit who is the bond between us and the Father through the Son. He dwells with us, and in fact, He dwells in us. Verse 20 of our passage. Jesus says, in that day you will know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you. Think about this indwelling language that because we're united to the Son, we have this participation in the Trinity in some way, not in the essence. We can't say that we come into the essence of the Father and the Son and the Spirit because that is unchanging. It can never be moved. Our relationship, our union with Christ grows. in terms of our sanctification. So we don't participate in the same way, but we clearly see here that there is some sort of indwelling, some sort of participation. Think about that for a moment and let your mind be blown that we have a participation in God in some way. Don't ask me how it works. But it's true as the scriptures say, I am in the Father and you are in me and I am in you, Jesus says. It's because of the Spirit's work of application. It's by the Spirit that we are in fellowship with God. He is our connection to God, the one through whom we have communion with our God. I want to be straight here. It's Christ who gains life for us. It's Christ who dies on the cross. It's Christ who is risen from the dead and it's Christ who ascends to the Father. That's what Jesus says again in our passage in verse 19. He says, because I live, you will live. Jesus is referencing his resurrection here. I'm going to rise from the dead. I am going to conquer death and live. And because of that, you will also live. Well, people of God, it's the spirit of Christ who causes you to be born again. It's the spirit of Christ who works faith into your hearts. It's the spirit of Christ who causes us to die to our sin and to live to righteousness. He is the sanctifier. He is the one who comes and causes us to hate our sin as we look to the holiness of God and we recognize that we often break God's law. Well, that's the Spirit's conviction upon our hearts that we might change in holiness. And let me give you some good news as well this morning. It's the Spirit who changes you. It's the Spirit who works upon you. It's the Spirit who causes you to be holy. As you're connected to the Father and through the Son, the Spirit is working upon you. It's also the Spirit who frees us from our doubts and our anxieties and our temptations. You would know what I'm talking about if I told you about the sweet conviction that often comes as we fall into sin. Well, that sweet conviction is the Spirit of God pressing into our hearts and pricking our conscience. saying that's not who you are. You belong to the Lord of glory. I have been given for your comfort. I have been given for sometimes your uncomfort because I am changing you and that at times does hurt, but it's the Spirit who does these things. The Spirit's work of application is a sealing application. It's a sealing application, meaning in Him you are sealed in Christ. He is the seal of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. And as the work of Christ is applied to us and we have this seal, we are being guarded by the Spirit through faith. And second, He's the comforter. He comforts us, gives us this greater confidence in our hearts. I hope this morning as he applies his word to you, we find a greater confidence in what the Lord has done for us, that he guards and he keeps us. He further convinces us that we are adopted, that you belong to the Lord of glory, that you belong. You're a child of God, a son or a daughter. You're no longer an orphan, but you've been adopted. and in through the work of Christ, that's the Spirit who comforts us. And the way that He does it, why do we gather to hear the preached word? It's because the Spirit has attached Himself to means. Not saying that He can't work outside of those means, but He has chosen in His good and perfect providence and wisdom, hear me again, the Spirit attaches Himself to means. I said earlier that the Spirit works through the ordinary. What can be more ordinary than a preacher preaching the gospel? The Spirit uses those ordinary means to change you. to convict your heart and to confirm to your heart who you are in Christ. And so if we want to come into further comfort, if we want to come into further assurance, we ought to be where those means are applied. We ought to be where the word is proclaimed. We ought to be where the word is preached. That's why, again, we have a high view of coming to hear the word proclaimed and to hear the word or to see the word in the sacraments. which are coming. And there we see the body broken and the blood shed for us. And finally, the spirit of God never leaves you. It's the spirit who applies this work and he shares, or we share in this communion, a communion bond that can never be broken. It's through the Spirit. Remember back to Ephesians, I know it was months ago, but in Ephesians, Paul is always talking, he's using this phrase that you are in Christ, you are in the Spirit, you are in and in. And what we said there is that, what that means is there's been a domain transfer, right? We've been transferred from the domain of darkness to the domain of light. And that domain transfer is being in the domain now of the Spirit, which changes our identity. And this explains, this is super important as we come to this text. I left it there for a moment, but you can be sure that I wouldn't leave it for you until the end, or I am leaving it to the end, but I wouldn't skip over it. Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. But everything I've said up to this point is what the Spirit does for you. And what I just said was that you've been transferred into the domain of the Spirit. And so what Jesus is saying is for those who have been transferred into the domain, the implications, the natural impact of that is that you will bear fruit. In other words, Jesus isn't issuing a command. There is no command in the text. He does not say, if you love me, go and keep my commandments. Rather, he is saying, if you love me, this will be true of you. In other words, you've been transferred into the domain and it's in that domain that the Spirit works faith in your heart and he confirms that faith to you and he bears fruit in you. Why is that important? It's because in the context of the passage, Jesus is telling them what he is going to go do. And he's saying, because what I'm going to do, there's also going to be work at work that happens in you. If he were to come and say, now you ought to go do all these things, that wouldn't be very comforting. assuring. Rather, we're told because of what He has done, this is going to be done in us. And what are the fruits of the Spirit? Well, we know these well. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, steadfastness, faithfulness. These are the things that the Spirit of God works in you. And for those that belong to Him, those who are in this realm, those are the ones that are going to be doing these things because it's who you are. That doesn't mean we do them in perfection, that doesn't mean we don't wrestle, we don't sin, we don't fail in these ways, but we can trust that God is working these things in us, causing us to love one another well, causing us to be patient with one another, causing us to love one another, causing us to confess our sins to one another as we have sinned against each other. This is the Spirit's work. Because He never leaves us, He will never stop changing us and working on us. But because He never leaves us, we have a guarantor, a guarantee of our salvation until we acquire possession of it. And so, beloved, let not your hearts be troubled. We eagerly wait the Lord's return, and the Spirit empowers us in that waiting. He comes as a second helper. He ministers the word to us. He comforts and assures us. He guards and protects us. He convicts us. He teaches us, and he changes us into the image of Christ, and he will never leave you nor forsake you. If He's God, that also means that God will never leave you nor forsake you. So if I can conclude quickly. The theme was comfort and assurance that the Lord Jesus would never leave because he's sending himself in and through the Spirit. We have Christ testifying before the Father that we belong to him, and we have the Spirit testifying to our spirits that we belong to him. We receive another helper, the Spirit of Truth, the third person of the Trinity who raised Christ from the dead, and it's the ministry of the Spirit that causes us to share in Christ and all of his benefits. That's what we've said. We've said that He comforts you and He will remain with you forever. And with that in your mind, you come to a text like Romans 8, which says this, which is where we'll end. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height or depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And we can add in and through and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.