Let's take the Word of God and turn to John's Gospel chapter 14. John's Gospel chapter 14, and we'll come into the chapter at the 15th verse. So John chapter 14, verse 15, these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're going to read in some verses here from verse number 15, John chapter number 14. The Lord Jesus Christ said, if ye love me, keep my commandments and I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you yet a little while And the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live, and ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If any man love me, He will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and will come on to him and make, and we will come on to him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. And the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you. My peace give I unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. We'll end our reading at the end of verse 27. Let's briefly unite in prayer with the word before us open. Our Father, we do desire to hear from Thee today. We desire, O God, a word, a word from the Lord, a word of instruction. Guide, O God, in the preaching of the word. Take possession of this vessel, we pray, Fill me, O God, with thy spirit, grandunction and power. May the word reach the heart, right into the very soul, the very center of our being. Lord, let it take possession of us. May we live it out, may we find profit and benefit, as the word is mixed with faith today. Come, not only filled preacher, but here alike we ask. And if there be those here unconverted, oh, grant the gifts of faith and repentance to them, even as they sit through this meeting. And may they come to know the one of whom we are speaking of. May they know his work and ministry, even in their lives. And may this be the day that the veil is lifted and grant dear God sight to be given and the light of thy word to shine into their very soul, we pray. So answer prayer and glorify thy son. We offer these our petitions and through our savior's precious name. Amen and amen. No man should ever leave a half or job half done. When we take to the task of doing something, we need to follow it right through to its full end and to its completion. And so, today I want to return to the subject matter that we have given almost 2019 over to in our family worship services, namely the person and the work of God, the Holy Spirit. Sadly, the third person off, the Holy Trinity, is too much overlooked in preaching today. When you consider what he has done and who he really is, we would have to conclude that the exclusion by some of him and the little emphasis placed on him by others is certainly not befitting the person that the Holy Spirit is and what work he is doing and what he has done. Now, in our previous studies together, we've considered various roles that the Holy Spirit has assumed. We have thought about him as our regenerator, the one who brings us initially to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that work that is solely his, of producing faith within the soul and bringing us out of darkness and into light, giving us a new heart, a heart of flesh, removing the heart of stone. We thought about him as our converter, We thought about him and how he infills the child of God and how he brings assurance to the believer that they are Christ. We thought about him as our teacher, our guide, our sanctifier. Well, today we want to think about him as he assumes the role of our comforter. We've been singing about that very theme today in our opening praises. We've been thinking about the comforter, the one who has come. has been sent into the world. So today we look at the Holy Spirit, our Comforter. I want you to think first of all with me about the promise of the Comforter. The promise of the Comforter. They had just been told that He was going away. His time on earth was coming to an end and soon He would return from whence He came. That news of the Saviour's return to heaven to sit at the Father's right hand caused His disciples great alarm and deep concern. The Son of God, knowing the hearts of all men, took to that concern or dealt with that concern and alarm in what we call the upper room discourse. The familiar words, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me, commences that upper room discourse. And I'm sure those words initially spoken by the Savior to his fearful disciples would have soothed their worries and their fears for a little time, to at least some degree. These words would have encouraged them. And yet the Savior went on to say, that I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. He spoke of his return to heaven, his ascension back to the Father's right hand. And so as he makes his way through, The chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17. He begins and commences to bring comfort and assurance to his disciples. These disciples whose hearts were troubled. Those who were afraid and anxious about his return back to heaven. And as he does so, he repeats a promise. Four times in these chapters, He promises these disciples that He's going to send another Comforter. Notice the verse number 16 of chapter number 14. This is the first mention of this promise. He said, I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. The word another. And this text means another of the same kind. This is not another of a different kind, but it is another comforter of the same kind. Someone just like me. One distinct from me, yes, but yet exactly like me in essence. This is what Christ is referring to when he speaks of another Comforter. Another of the same kind was going to come, a divine person was going to enter the world, who would be known as the Comforter. Cast your eye down to verse 26, because there again we have the promise. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." In case the disciples did not know who the Spirit of Truth was, in the verse number 17, Christ makes it more explicitly clear who particularly this Comforter is. The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost. chapter 15 verse 26 but when the comforter is come whom I will send on to you from the father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the father he shall testify of me and then into chapter 16 the verse number 7 nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient it is necessary for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come on to you, but if I depart, I will send Him on to you. Encapsulated in these four statements, uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ, is the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world in a much fuller extent to which He had been in the world before this particular time. You see, the Holy Spirit was coming to take the Savior's place. He was coming to be the Savior's substitute in this world. He, rather than the Pope of Rome, was to become Christ's vicar on earth, regardless of what is inscribed upon the Pope's mitre. Because inscribed upon his mitre is the very title, the vicar of Christ. But he is no vicar of Christ. Rather it is the Spirit of God who is Christ's substitute on earth. John Owen the Puritan wrote that it is the Holy Spirit who supplies the bodily presence of Christ and by him doth he accomplish all his promises to the church. The spirit, he said, is the vicar of Christ, vicarum Christi, the substitute who represents his person and discharges his promised work. You see, because the Lord Jesus Christ was going away, the Holy Spirit's coming to abide was given to these people, lest they felt themselves to be comfortless. We read that there. In the words of the chapter 14 verse 13, I will not leave you comfortless. The word is like orphans. I will come to you. The blessed thing that we note from these promises is that His coming, the Spirit's coming, was to be an abiding coming. It wasn't that he was to come for a matter of years or a few decades or some centuries, but rather his abiding was an abiding that would never end. Notice the verse 26 again, that he may abide with you forever. The Saviour's comforting ministry lasted for only three years with respect to these band of disciples. They had been with Him from the beginning of His public ministry, just three years. But Christ was affirming and showing these people that the Holy Spirit's comforting ministry was going to be an eternal ministry, an everlasting ministry, a ministry that was going to be forever. And we find the fulfillment of these promises of Christ. On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God was poured out upon the church and those gathered there were all filled with the Holy Spirit. On that day, the Comforter came in the fullest of senses. a comforter to help his people through all the trials and difficulties that they were going to face as believers now in the Lord Jesus Christ. What I glean from this is a very simple truth, that what God promises, He always performs. This promise of the Comforter was made good on and fulfilled in Acts chapter number 2. And if God fulfilled that promise, then why, child of God, should we doubt? And he would feel to fulfill any of the promises that he has made within his precious word to his own believing people. All that God has promised, thank God, he will see to its fulfillment right to the very last jot and tittle. So therefore we can take God at His word. We can trust Him, the promises He makes. We can claim them and stand upon them. We can plead them in prayer. We can wait for the timing and the granting of their fulfillment. Leonard Ravenhill, the revivalist, he said, one of these days some simple soul will pick up the book of God read it, and believe it, then the rest of us will be embarrassed. He said, we have adopted the convenient theory that the Bible is a book to be explained, whereas first and foremost, it is a book to be believed, and after that, to be obeyed. May we not stagger? at the promises of God through unbelief. But may we be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Those who are fully persuaded that what he has promised, he is able also to perform. The promise of the comforter. The second thing as we think about this comforter is the purpose of the comforter. the purpose of the comforter. Now the term comforter itself alludes to the purpose of his coming into this world. Now I want you to notice that it does not say that he would be to us a comfort, but rather that he will be to us the comforter. You see, comfort can be derived from non-living things. You think of a child. They find comfort from maybe some favorite blanket that they have, or comfort from some particular teddy that they have, or some type of stuffed animal that they have. They find comfort in such things. We can derive comfort from a bed. Nice to lie in bed, there's comfort to be found. Maybe lying in an armchair, there's comfort to be found. There's comfort in clothes. There are things that are non-living that can bring us certain comfort. But rather we find that the Spirit is not described as a comfort to His people, but rather that He is the comforter of His people, reminding us that this is a living entity. from which we derive comfort from, but he alone is our comforter. Now the Greek word that John uses throughout his gospel to speak of this comforter is the word parakalitos, parakalitos. It is a word that simply means to summons or call to one sign. especially called to one's aid. It can also translate to mean one who pleads another's cause before a judge, an advocate. This is the meaning behind the word or the word comforter. The English word comforter is derived from two Latin words, com, which means alongside of, and then fortius, which means strength. And thus looking at it from the English, we find that the comforter is the one who comes alongside a person in order that they might be strengthened. He's the one who comes alongside to strengthen the individual. He's the one who comes when we are weak, when we are infirmed, when we find ourselves to be distressed and discouraged. This is the one who comes alongside to strengthen God's believing people. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the comforter. We read of that when Paul writes to the Roman saints. These individuals that were in the middle of imperial Rome, these people who were being harassed by the Roman authorities, persecuted for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Apostle Paul, he says these words in Romans 8, verse 26, Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. He sustains us. He aids us, He suckers us, He strengthens us, He supports us. The very word, help us, brings that to our minds. God, the Holy Spirit, as the Comforter, is the one who comes to the aid and the defense of God's people. One who stands by us through thick and thin. through mountaintop experience and valleys low, through days of sunshine and days of shadow, times of barrenness and days of fruitfulness. This is the one who comes alongside, stands by us and strengthens us. Young person, that's who you need. That's who you need for this week. As you go back to school, college, others will go to university, others will go into higher employment or higher education, others will go into a place of work. Young person, that's who you need. You need someone to come alongside and to sustain you and to strengthen you and to uphold you because the world wants to pull you down and the world wants to conform you into its mold. and into its pattern. The world wants you to become like it, so that you don't stand out, as it were, that would embarrass them for their sinful living. And so God, the Holy Spirit, he has come to strengthen you, to aid you, to support you, to comfort you, to come alongside, and to impart strength for you. He's one who comforts. He's one who consoles. He consoles the sad, the sorrowing, the suffering, the solitary saint of God. The Holy Spirit is not merely a comforter who consoles us in trouble and makes us strong to endure that sorrow, but he is one who stands for us, in and by us. Is that not what a friend is? A friend is one who stands by us. and stands up for us. And such is the blessed Spirit of God. He's one who comes as a friend to his people. A friend we find in the Comforter, and surely in this world in which we live, we need such a one. We need a friend, we need someone to sustain us, to help us, to undergird us with strength, to impart His strength when we find ourselves about to fall. A world that's blighted by sorrow, a world that's full of disappointments, a world that is plagued by sickness. We need a Comforter. And such is found in God the Holy Spirit. What a terrible world this would be to live in if we hadn't the ministry of heaven's comforter. It is his purpose, it is his purpose to aid and assist us as his children through this world as we make our way through this veil of tears and through this land of shadows. The people of God need a comforter. How much there is in this world to render us unhappy, How many disappointments we face, discouragements along the road, sin in us, the world outside of us, Satan constantly trying to distress us and to cast us down. Oh, there's much to dishearten, there's much to distress us, but the Comforter has come to draw alongside, to get us through, help us through. Let me ask you, did you lean on Him this week? Did you seek His assistance? As you made your way through some difficult passage in life, some disappointment that came along the road, some news that came to your ears that caused much disheartenment within the soul, did you make your way to the Spirit of God who is your comforter? Did you find yourself in weakness this week? Did you seek His face? Did you seek the Spirit's ministry, His comfort to you? Think of all of the troubles that we meet. Octavius Winslow did, he said, who can compute the individual sorrows which may crowd the path of a single traveler to his sorrowless home? What a world of trial and how varied may be comprised within the history of a single saint. But if sorrows abound, consolation much more abounds, since the comforter of the church is the Holy Spirit. He said, what a mighty provision How infinite the largeness the God of all consolation has made in the covenant of grace for the sorrows of his people in the appointment of the third person of the blessed Trinity to this office, the office of the comforter of God's people. From sad and from bitter experience, we have learned too often that human comforters are weak, defective, inefficient when it comes to bringing comfort to our souls. But happily, in light of man's failure, we have learned that there is a God of all comfort. There is a God of all comfort who imparts consolation in our time of need by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. There's not a sorrow. not a sorrow-believing child of God, of which he is ignorant of, not a trial that he is indifferent about, but in his sympathy he embraces us, and in his power he alleviates our sorrow and our troubles and trials in his time and in his way. I wonder, are you here today in the house of God? You're maybe going through some kind of suffering in your life. Maybe there's a saint here in the throes of sadness. There's a child of the King. You're in this place today. You're dealing with sickness yourself or maybe within some loved one. Well, listen, the Holy Spirit has come into this world to be a comforter to you. Think of it. We would never know His comfort. We would never know the ministry of the Comforter if we never knew sadness, if we never had a heartache, if we never knew a day of sickness. We would never experience his comfort. And so God in his providence sends them in order that we might enjoy the comfort that is brought to us by the Comforter. Avail yourself then, child of God, of his comfort. asks the Spirit to comfort you, to draw near, to impart strength to your soul this very moment. Let him, let him buy his comfort with that which has disturbed the tranquility of your very soul today. Let me move quickly on to consider a third point in this service today, the particular ministry of the Comforter. I want to think about the particular ministry of the Comforter. Yes, we've thought about how God has provided for his people and the person of the Holy Spirit, a Comforter, and we've considered how it is his task to comfort the children of God, but how does the Spirit of God actually do that? How does he bring comfort into our lives? What is the medium by which this comfort is brought? What are the means by which we experience the comfort of the comforter? Well, I believe the way he brings the comfort to his people is by leading us to Christ. By leading us to Christ. If you look at John chapter 15 to verse 26 again, we read, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. That's how comfort is brought, by conveying the child of God to Christ, by leading the child of God to Christ. The Spirit of God, He testifies, He witnesses of Christ. And it is by seeing our Savior that comfort is derived. Comfort is derived as we see Him. And so we're brought, yes, to the written word. More than that, we're brought to the incarnate word, Christ himself. The scriptures speak of him, and as they do so, and what they say concerning him, it brings comfort to the heart of the child of God. The comfort is brought to the believer. by the Spirit bringing Christ to our minds and to our intention. He is the embodiment of every gospel promise. He is the fulfillment of all that God has purposed. And so as we are brought to Christ, we are brought to the very source of comfort by the Comforter. He shall testify of me. And as He does so, you will be comforted. Let me develop that thought for a few moments. In our spiritual sorrows, the Comforter leads us to Christ. Is that not the case? In our spiritual sorrows, we are brought to Christ by the Comforter. The first spiritual sorrow that a person ever experiences is the sorrow over their sin. What better sorrow there is? That knowledge that we have sinned against God, we have transgressed his law, We have slighted him in his grace. What sorrow enters the soul. The psalmist said, I will be sorry for my sin. Sometimes it expresses itself in tears, but there is at least bitter remorse. There is repentance for our sins. And so as we're brought by the Spirit, as He convicts us of our sin, as He regenerates our heart, what is the first thing that He does to the person who is experiencing this sorrow over their sin? The first thing that the Spirit of God does is to convey that sorrowing sinner to the foot of the cross. to bring them to the place where redemption's price is paid, to bring them to the place where Christ has died for sin, where death has died and sin has died. He brings them to the place of sacrifice. He brings them to the place of blood sharing. He brings them to the place where the atonement has been made. And he says to the sinner, here is where you must rest. This is where faith must be exercised. It is in the bleeding lamb, it is in the sacrificial lamb, it is in the perfect lamb that you are to rest if you're to know the joy of sins forgiven. And so he leads the sinning one to Christ. But does he not also Does he not also employ the same method for the child of God? The child of God who feels, who stumbles, who grows cold in their Christian life, the believer because of their sin. They are separated from God, as it were, with respect to fellowship, not with respect to salvation itself. It is an eternal salvation and eternal life is granted, but the fellowship, the communion is broken. And so where does he bring us? He brings us to the place where we met the Savior, the very beginning. He brings us back to the cross. He brings us back to the tree of suffering. He brings us back to the place where the blood was shed. He takes us back to Calvary. He takes us to the blood-filled fountain where there is cleansing for sin, for not only for the sinner, but for the child of God. Maybe you're here today unsaved, the souls in turmoil, There's trouble of heart. You feel your sin. You understand that you have transgressed his holy law. You understand that you're a rebel against God. There's an understanding that there is no peace between you and your God. What are you to do? You're to allow the Spirit of God to transport you to the place where sin died, to the place called Calvary. And there understand, as you stand under the cross, as you stand beneath the tree, as you look upon the blood sacrifice and the sacrifice of the Savior, you understand that Christ has died for my sin. He has paid the debt for me. He has cancelled my transgressions as I trust in Him, as I cast my sin burden upon Him. He bears my sins away as I behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Maybe you're a Christian here today. Maybe there was something you did this week. or something that you said this week, and today you're under the condemnation of the devil. I've been there. I've been where you are. I've put on the suit and the tie. I've come to the house of God. I've been there and I've sat there and I've found myself to feel so unworthy. I've understood what I did in the previous week. And yet the Spirit of God, as I sat there, He reminded me that the blood of Christ can cleanse my sin as much as the sinner's sin. It reveals as much for me as it did the first night I trusted in Him. It is able to remove the record, dispel the black blot, as it were, on my record. It's enabled to cleanse me and to bring me into fellowship with God. I've experienced it. The Spirit of God has brought me there. And I have again asked for a fresh cleansing in the blood of Christ. And I tell you, child of God, the promise is this, that if we confess our sin, he is faithful. And just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, there is an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, if any man sin, one who'll plead our cause. And so He brings us to the truth, the Spirit of God. He brings us to the truth that there is a full pardon for sin. And so look to the cross. Look to the tree. Look to the lamb. Whether you're saved, whether you're unsaved, whatever spiritual sorrow it is, the Spirit leads you to Christ. But secondly, in our temporal sorrows, the comforter leads us to Christ. Too often we forget that our pathway through this world is not a smooth or to-ever-be-as-flowers-strewn pathway. Rather, our journey through this world is to be a rough and a thorny one. Through much tribulation, we all will enter the kingdom of God And thus we are to expect our times of sorrow and our times of sadness in this life. Those sorrows may arise from many quarters, because as believers we'll have our share of sickness and pain. We'll have our losses and gains. We'll have our crosses to bear. We'll have our deaths and bereavements, the partings and the separations. We'll have our vexations and or many disappointments like anyone else. And yet, there is one who knows our sorrows. He is a man of sorrows. Christ is. He's acquainted with grief. And so, the Spirit leads us to such a one. He leads us to the great high priest, one who is not touched, or who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. We read there in Hebrews 2, 17 and 18, wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. By taking on our nature, by assuming our humanity, Christ has a closer now affinity with the suffering saint. And thereby he is enabled to supply all the grace that we need, and all the comfort, and all the support that we need. Maybe you're here today and you're a sorrowing saint of God. Death, death has taken a loved one. Christ would remind you that the one who died in Christ has gone to be with them. Taking up residency in the better land, entered their eternal reward. Maybe health has failed you, maybe friends have forsaken you, family disappointed you. Christ is a friend that sticketh closer than any brother. How true the words of the hymn writer who wrote, sometimes our skies are cloudy and dreary, sometimes our hearts are burdened with care, but we may know whatever befall us, Jesus is always there. Never a burden he doth not carry, never a sorrow that he doth not share, whether the days be sunny or dreary, Jesus is always there. And the Spirit of God reminds us of that. In our temporal sorrows, he reminds us that standing somewhere in the shadows we find him. He's always with us, never to leave us nor forsake us. Maybe you have doubted that this week. May the spirit of God convey you to Christ. Thirdly and finally, in our temptations, the comforter leads us to Christ. Tempted and tried is oft times the experience of the child of God with foes within and foes without. We ask ourselves, how are we to meet such temptations? Well, we meet them. We meet them as those who are in union with Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God reminds us that in the days of his temptations, Christ, Christ triumphed. Yes, he met the full spectrum of temptation. The full spectrum of it. and came out the other end as the conqueror and the victor. Hebrews again reminds us, he himself has suffered being tempted, and because he was, he is able to succor them that are tempted. And so the comfort comes from the knowledge that there is one to whom I am united to, who has met this temptation, who has met every form of evil and was victorious over it. It assures us, first of all, of his sympathy. He understands. He understands. your temptations. He knows what your struggles mean. And secondly, He assures us, having overcome, that we ourselves are able to overcome. Maybe you feel yourself to be sorely tempted today, then look away to your Savior, look away to Christ. Christ in His humanity was tempted in all points as we are, and yet, just as He overcame in His humanity, Thank God I can overcome as I am brought into union with Him. Through Christ I am more than a conqueror. As the Paul said, who shall deliver me from this body of death? But thanks be unto God. Through Christ, we can know what it is to triumph in our days of temptation. When writing about the comfort that the Holy Spirit brings to the tempted believer, Winslow gave this encouraging counsel. Listen, lift up your head, tempted soul. You shall obtain the victory. The seed of the woman has bruised the serpent's head, has crushed him so that he can never obtain supremacy over you again. He may harass, annoy, and distress you, but pluck you from the hollow of the hand that was pierced for you. He can never, he can never pluck you out of his hand. The Holy Spirit, as our comforter, simply conveys us to Christ, who is our comfort. How then we ought to value the work of the Holy Spirit as our comforter. Too often we grieve Him, we provoke Him, we vex the Spirit, and because we do, we miss out on His ministry to us. He would have brought the comfort But because we had vexed him and grieved him by our sinning, that comfort has been withheld until the fellowship is restored. Then the child of God enjoys the full ministry of God the Holy Spirit as a comforter. Let me end with a final quote from Mr. Spurgeon. He said, the Holy Spirit has graciously engaged to be your comforter. Do you imagine a weak, trembling believer that he will be negligent of his sacred trust? Can you suppose that he has undertaken what he cannot or will not perform? If it is his special work to strengthen you and to comfort you, do you suppose that he has forgotten his business or that he will feel in the loving office which he sustains towards you, no, no? Do not think harshly of the tender and blessed Spirit, whose name is the Comforter. He delights to give beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair. Trust in Him, and He will surely comfort you until the house of mourning is closed forever. and the marriage feast has begun. May we come in all of our lives to know the ministry of the Comforter, not only today, but in the days and months and years that lie ahead. The Comforter has come. May we experience his ministry of comfort to our souls as we make our way through this troublesome world. May God bless his word to our hearts today. Let's seek the Lord in prayer. Our loving Father, our gracious God, how much of the Holy Spirit's ministry of comfort we need this world with all of its troubles and trials. We think of the worldling, the ungodly, and we wonder how they ever make it through this world with all of the sickness and sorrow that beset their pathway. They face it all alone, and yet here we are as thy children, a comforter has been sent, one like Christ, on whose ministry is as divine as Christ's was to his disciples, the one who brings and conveys us to the Savior, reminds us in our days of sorrow and sadness that we have one in Christ who stays close and stays near, and who never leaves his children but carries them through and parts strength and grace for the trial. I think of those who are not here today, thy sins, and surely they need this ministry, the ministry of the Comforter, those who are lying in hospital beds, those who are lying, oh God, maybe in some nursing home or some kind of hospice. Lord, they just need the Comforter to draw near, draw near to thy people, we pray. Minister to them, point them to Christ, who is the comfort of his people. The consolation of Israel is what he was called by, and surely he is much more than just the consolation of Israel. He is the consolation of his people, the comfort of his people. Oh, may I see him more and more. May, dear God, my heart go after him, and may we know the comfort that is derived from knowing our Savior. Oh, may the Spirit do his work. Lead us to Christ, we pray. We thank Thee that Jesus is always there. Whenever everyone else has gone, Christ is there. Christ is with us. And as if He before us, and since He is, then who can be against us? Oh, draw near, we pray. Comfort Thy people. Blessed Spirit, do thy work. Minister to every heart, we pray. We offer these, our petitions, in and through the Savior's precious name. Amen and amen. Thank you.