is from John, the Gospel of John, chapter 16. I'll be reading the second half of verse 4 through verse 15. These are the words of God. Please give your careful attention to the reading of them. Jesus says, I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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 go, I will send him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see Me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine. Therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you." And all of God's people said, Amen. Please be seated this morning. And let's ask the Lord's blessing as we come to his word and consider him as spirit this morning. Father, we thank you for your kindness to us. We thank you for your gracious condescension in that you have spoken to us. You did not remain distant. You did not remain only transcendent, though you are. You have become imminent. You have placed your words in our hands, that we may read them. And You have placed Your Spirit in our hearts that we may understand them. And we give You praise. Father, thank You. I pray that You would give us understanding this morning as we come to Your Word. I pray that You would give our minds and our hearts a willingness and a readiness to hear, to respond, to receive, to give back to You our thanksgiving and our praise. Father, may the meditations of our hearts and the words of my mouth this morning be a pleasing aroma to You, we pray in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Well, this morning we are going to continue this brief series on the Trinity, and this morning I want to consider God as Spirit. We looked at God as Father, we looked at who He is as the Son, and this morning I want us to consider what it means for God to be the Holy Spirit. And so to recap, it is a great comfort to know that God is our Father, is it not? that He is our Abba, our Home, He has made us His own children. Good fathers in this world are counted good because they reflect in some small way the perfections of our Heavenly Father. Good fathers protect, provide, care for, love, identify with, and encourage their children. And they are called good when they do this because in those moments they are actively mirroring, again in a small way, but they are mirroring, reflecting the goodness of our Heavenly Father. And on the flip side, bad fathers, abusive fathers, are so because in their mistreatment or their neglect of their kids, they skew or misrepresent the true nature of our true Father. In other words, our Heavenly Father is the standard from which we understand fatherhood, not the other way around. And then last week we looked at the Son, at our High King and our High Priest. Jesus wields the authority of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and at the same time is full of a compassion, the compassion of a High Priest who meets us where we are and sacrifices himself for our sake. He has the compassion to love us in our trials and in our darkness and he has the authority and power to love us all the way to redemption and to our own resurrection. The Gospel of the Son of God means actual life, actual reconciliation with God, actual peace with Heaven, and the freedom to enjoy that life and that peace with our Lord and with our Father through our Spirit forever, end of days, eternity, everlasting life. And so this morning we come to the Spirit, considering God as Spirit and considering what comfort can be gleaned from knowing God as Spirit. But before we consider who the Spirit is, it is important to make sure that we are thinking about the Trinity in the right way. I've titled these messages, God as Father, God as Son, God as Spirit, but I don't want to mislead you into what theologians call modalism. That is one God and three modes of existence. Three modes in which that one God works. Modalism wants to get around the mystery of the Trinity and the mystery of that triune majesty by saying there is one being, one person, who simply puts on different masks depending on what time of day it is or what action needs to be performed. That is heresy. That is heresy and should be roundly condemned. And this is the subject of another sermon, probably what we're going to look at next week. But if God is not three distinct persons, If God is not Father, Son, and Spirit, where the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father, and the Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, if they are not three separate persons while remaining one being, then every aspect of our faith is undermined and utterly destroyed. There is no justification without the Trinity. There is no sanctification without the Trinity. There is no gospel without the Trinity. And there isn't even a real basis for creation itself without the Trinity. And so, just to be extra clear, when I say God as Father, God as Son, God as Spirit, I am emphatically not saying that God is Father on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, God as Son, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and God as Spirit on the weekends. as if God is one person with three suits of clothes and not three distinct, separate, individual persons who also happen to be fully one inseparable being. Our Triune God is one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. Fully Father, fully Son, fully Spirit. And if you have trouble fully understanding how that works, don't worry. You're not alone. We believe it to be true because the Bible says so. So with that clarification, as we look at the Spirit this morning, the question again is this. What comfort is there in knowing God as Spirit? In knowing the Holy Spirit? In knowing that the Holy Spirit is divine? Knowing the third person of the Trinity? Knowing the Comforter? Knowing the Helper? But before we can glean that comfort, we really need to nail down exactly what it is that the Spirit does. We live in a highly spiritualistic age, a highly spiritualistic area here in Santa Cruz, where spiritualism and spiritual arguments are extremely popular. There is a lot of false teaching and wicked practice that gets stamped with the words, Holy Spirit, and if us Christians, we are not careful to read between the lines when we interact with the spiritualism of this area in this age, we can get led astray. This is exactly why we have to submit ourselves to scripture first as our ultimate and highest authority. The devil likes to use words that sound right, that sound spirity, but if swallowed without discernment can lead people into some seriously destructive lies. Just think about it. Which lie is more effective? One that is closer to or further from the truth? Closer to, right? The best lie is 99% truth. And if we are not practicing knowing the truth, if the truth of scripture is not deeply embedded into our bones, we will be led astray. We will be children, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and by deceitful schemes. For craftiness and deception to work, it actually has to feel like the truth. And if we are not fully aware, if we are not being regularly equipped in Christ, we will fall for the lie. In our generation, no person in the Godhead is more lied about than the Holy Spirit. People simply slander God as Father, because Fatherhood itself is under attack in our country. And people just reject Jesus altogether, because who wants to admit to needing a Savior, right? But the Spirit, they will say, is common territory. You believe in a Spirit? Awesome! We believe in a Spirit. It's all good. It must be the same Spirit. See, we spell it the same way. So how can we discern the truth from the lie? Thankfully, Scripture gives us a really easy test that will help us and also lead us into the main themes I want to look at this morning. The Bible gives us one very simple, one very basic litmus test to use when confronted with anything the world says is the ministry of the Spirit. So keep your thumb here in John 16 and flip over to 1 John 4. 1 John 4. We're going to look at this really quickly and then get to our text. 1 John 4, starting in verse 1. Somehow mark this in your Bibles, underline it, highlight it, write in the margins, say, this is a good litmus test for understanding what the Spirit does. He says, starting in verse 1, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. John wants his readers to know that there are really false spirits out there. Lying spirits are a reality. Just because we have a dream or a vision or a feeling or an impulse doesn't mean it is from the Holy Spirit. Just because we have a piece about something or feel led in a certain direction doesn't necessarily mean it is the Holy Spirit. There are deceptive spirits out there. There are lots of spirits who you are commanded to disbelieve. There are lots of spirits out there that are not from God, and so we have to be on our guard, ready to test each one that comes. John goes on, by this you know the Spirit of God. And here's our litmus test. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. It's as simple as that. If the preacher you are listening to is really, really animated, dynamic, excited, passionate, authentic, engaging, and morally upstanding, and a really good storyteller, and uses lots of Christian-sounding words, but does not openly confess that Jesus Christ really came down from heaven, was really born of a virgin, really did take on flesh and blood so that he really could die and really deal with your sin, then you need to walk away. I don't care how winsome or how funny he is, he is not filled with the Spirit that is from God. In fact, John calls that the spirit of Antichrist. If he is not for Jesus, he is against Jesus. There is no neutral spiritual middle road where we can all just get along. Either you are for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, or you stand against him. And that is the true ministry of the Holy Spirit. That is our test. That is our standard. Now turn back to the Gospel of John, where Jesus himself defines for us what this ministry looks like. From about chapter 13 on, Jesus is with his disciples the night before the crucifixion, and he is preparing them for the days and weeks ahead. So this is Thursday night, this is right before Good Friday, And he's teaching them, he's explaining these things to them, and he's preparing them, equipping them for what's coming. And they still don't understand that he has to die, and that he will be raised again, and then ascend to the Father. And so he's carefully laying it all out before them here. He explains that he didn't tell them everything when he first began his ministry, because he was still with them. There was no need at that time, verse 4. But now, verse 5, he needs to tell them about these things because he is about to return to the Father. The disciples are sad about this, understandably, verse 6. But Jesus, verse 7, wants them to know that it is for their good. It is to their advantage that he goes away. For unless he goes away, he will not send the Helper. Now put your Put yourself in the disciples' shoes for a moment at this moment here in John 16. Try to imagine that you are standing with Jesus. You can reach out and touch him. You can hear with your own ears the words that he is saying. You have spent the last three years watching him do incredible things, miracle after miracle. You have seen him walk on water. You've seen him turn five loaves and two fish into enough food that can feed probably around or more than 10,000 people. You have heard the Father audibly speak words from heaven. You have been convinced that this is the Son of God Himself, the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, born to redeem God's people from their darkness and their sin. And now you are listening to Him tell you that He is about to leave. You would be sad too, would you not? Sorrow would fill your heart, just as it did the disciples. And then you hear Jesus say, but don't worry, it's better for you that I leave, because if I don't leave, I can't send the Helper. Now again, standing there with the disciples, they already know from chapters 14 and 15 in John that the Helper is the Holy Spirit. But do you think they care at this point? I'm sure they're thinking, how in the world is that going to be better, Jesus? How is it going to be better when you're gone? He had hinted to them already some of what the Spirit would do when he came. He would be with them forever, 1416. He would teach them all things and bring to remembrance all that Jesus had told him, 1426. He comes from the Father as the Spirit of Truth and would bear witness about Jesus, 1526. But Jesus needs to explain it even more clearly to them. He says, here is why it is better that I go to the Father and send the Spirit to you in my place." Again, standing there with the disciples, what might you expect Jesus to say at this moment? He's about to explain, here's why it's better. Here's why it's better that I leave. Here's why it's better that I send the Spirit to you. Jesus knows your heart is full of sorrow, and He is about to tell you why it is better that He goes away and that the Spirit comes instead. Might you be thinking, is it because the Spirit is going to take away my sadness? Is it because the Spirit is going to help me with my problems? Is it because the Spirit is going to give me some pretty awesome emotional highs? Is He going to come and give me crazy powers of communication and persuasion? I don't know about you, but to my discredit, I think that's where my mind would go in anticipating the reasons Jesus might give as to why it is better for the Spirit to come. But what do all those reasons I just listed have in common? Me. It's all about me. If I'm standing there with the disciples about to lose personal interaction with Jesus himself, I'm going to start feeling pretty sorry for myself. I'm going to hope that somehow this Holy Spirit will come and meet my felt needs. But of course, this is not what Jesus says. And I think it would be fair to say that verse 8 is not the answer the disciples were expecting at all either. Here is the real reason it is better for the disciples that Jesus goes away and sends the Spirit. It is better that the Spirit comes, because when He comes, He will do three things. He will convict the world regarding sin, He will convict the world regarding righteousness, and He will convict the world regarding judgment. Now, what in the world does that mean? Jesus explains a little, verses 9-11, concerning sin, because they do not believe in Him. Concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged What is Jesus talking about? Why is this the reason it is better that Jesus goes away in the Spirit comes? Why is this the definition of the Spirit's ministry that Jesus gives us and not something? Well more immediately and personally comforting Well, the truth is, what Jesus says here couldn't be more comforting. Like almost everything Jesus says, it will take some unpacking. So first, verse 9, Another word that touches on what John is saying here in the Greek, the word translated convicted here, is that the unbelief in the world will be exposed by the Spirit. And perhaps you don't see that as particularly comforting. I dare say not many do, and the reason why we in our flesh don't see this as immediately comforting stems from what we as humans define as our central problem. Our expectation of what comfort should look like depends entirely on why we think we need comfort. Think about it this way, just an example, if it's a hot day like it was last month and and I'm burning up, I'm working in the yard or working in the garage, and I'm sweating, it's really, really hot, and someone promises to bring me something comforting, and when they come back ten minutes later, they have a huge flannel overcoat and flannel pants, I'm not going to be very comforted by that, because the comfort doesn't match the problem. Or on the flip side, say it's freezing, the heater's broken, and a friend calls and says, hey, I want to be a comfort to you. Let me bring over something comforting, and they bring over an ice pack. Again, it's not going to be very comforting because the solution is not meeting the problem. There is no comfort received in those things at that moment. Now, the misunderstanding can happen on both ends. The person bringing me comfort can misunderstand my real problem, either being too hot or too cold, and so bring me the wrong thing, the thing that actually isn't comforting. Or I can misunderstand the problem. and therefore not be able to take comfort in the right thing when it does come. If I go to the doctor, convinced in my own mind and unwilling to believe anything else, but convinced that I only have a bad cold, and the doctor says, no, you've got double pneumonia, it's not going to be very comforting when he tells me that it's okay, all you need to do is stay here in the hospital for a couple of nights and receive a regime of antibiotics. But if I'm convinced in my own mind and unwilling to believe him, I'm not going to receive that comfort that he gives me. Because I'm expecting to just go home with some cough syrup. He's offering real comfort, and I'm not able to receive it because of what my own thinking is, where my own mind is. In our flesh, we think the true nature of our problem is any number of things. Loneliness, ignorance, abuse, rejection. anything that has happened to us. In our flesh, we want to play the victim card. The real problem in this life is that no one understands me. No one loves me for who I am or how I want to be loved. No one appreciates my personalities or my gifts. And there can be some genuine hurts going on, some genuine things that have happened to us, but none of those things is the central problem. They are all bad colds compared to the double pneumonia that we refuse to acknowledge. Before anything else in this world, the true problem is sin. And not first and foremost everyone else's sin. My sin. My sin and my sin in the first instance is what's wrong with this world. And that is the only honest attitude that we can have. And how does Jesus define sin here in John 16? he defines it as not believing in him. If you think about it, that's a really good definition of sin. Sometimes we define sin as transgressing the law of God, or acting in a way contrary to the holiness of God, and those are good definitions, and they're right, but they're really wrapped up in this, in our refusal to believe in Jesus, to believe both what he says and who he is. When we act or think in any way, shape or form, we are acting in accordance with what we believe to be right and true. Every human does. Every person born in this world has a vision of the good life, what it means to be happy, what it means to be content, what it means to succeed. We're all born with this and we all strive after that. Every one of us is born with this vision. And Jesus has told us what that vision should be and how to achieve it. The real vision, the real good life, the real way to success is holiness. It is submission to the Father. It is faith. And every time we sin, we are saying, no, Jesus, I don't believe you. I think my way is better. I don't believe you are who you say you are. I don't believe you know what you're talking about. Sin is me saying to myself, my way is better, Jesus. That's the problem. Again, the problem is right here. My sin and my sin in the first instance. Not your sin. Not the sin of the liberals, not the sin of this people group or that nation or this anti-Christian league or that secular humanistic philosophy. My sin. I am what's wrong with this world. I am the problem. But to admit that is to admit that we are way beyond double pneumonia, right? To admit that is to admit our own death-loving darkness and rejection of Christ and of the Father. This is us, this is all of us, outside of Christ. And so, enter the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit comes, He will convict the world or expose to the world their sin, expose to me my sin, convict me of my refusal to believe in Jesus. Now consider that for a moment. Do you see how truly, deeply, and life-changingly comforting that actually is? Outside of Christ, I am a walking corpse. I'm alive on the outside, but I'm dead on the inside. And all I have to look forward to is more death, more darkness, more terror, more suffering, more hatred throughout all eternity where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth. My problem isn't loneliness. My problem isn't that no one appreciates me. My problem is separation from God. But in my darkness and in the hardness of my heart, I refuse to know that. I need someone to come and turn on the light. I need the Spirit to enter into my tomb, breathe new life into my dead soul. I need a new mind and a new heart that sees Jesus and believes in Jesus, both in what he says and who he is. That is the first thing the Spirit will do, the Helper will do when He comes. Because the Spirit doesn't simply come and expose the wound and then pour lemon juice on it. He doesn't come to expose your problem and then laugh at you. He comes to bring life, to transform you, to rescue you through the blood of Jesus, and bring you before the Father, wrapped in the righteousness of Christ. That is the comfort of the Spirit. That is the comfort the Comforter brings to you. Jesus isn't off His nut here in telling us why it is better that He goes away and sends the Spirit in His place. If He didn't finish His work, if He didn't go on the cross and say, it is finished, if He didn't die, if He wasn't raised again, if He didn't ascend and sit at the right hand of the Father, He would have nothing to give us. The Spirit would have nothing to bring us. the Spirit would have nothing to comfort us with. There would be no comfort, no solution, no fix to my problem. If Jesus didn't leave and return to the Father, the Spirit would have nothing to comfort us with. But Jesus did return to the Father, which is the second point of comfort He offers us here. The second thing the Spirit will do when He comes is convict or rebuke the world concerning righteousness." Again, Jesus' explanation is a little hard to understand. How is righteousness connected to the ascension? How does Jesus going to the Father, which is what he says in verse 10, how does that make sense of the Spirit convicting the world of righteousness? Why is that a proper explanation? Well, the central contention between the Pharisees and Jesus was his claim that he was sent from the Father. Had Jesus admitted to being merely a prophet or an ordinary sinner, just like everyone else, had Jesus downplayed his divine origins, they probably wouldn't have wanted to kill him so badly. It was because he claimed he was one with the Father. It was because he said he was the Son of God that they wanted him gone. And by the way, it wasn't from a holy zeal for the reputation of God that they were so concerned with this claim of Jesus. It wasn't because they were wanting to protect God whom they loved and were honoring from being and wanting to protect him from being blasphemed. They actually knew he was from God and that he was God. In John chapter 3 verse 2, Nicodemus comes, a Pharisee comes and says to Jesus, Rabbi, he comes in the middle of the night, remember? He says, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God. We know that this is true because no one can do the things you're doing unless God is with him. And so it's not that they actually believed in Yahweh, but simply out of some misplaced zeal for holiness, refused to believe in Jesus. No. They hated both Father and Son. They were in it for themselves. And so they refused to publicly acknowledge that Jesus and the Father were one. For that would mean the destruction of their whole way of life. They refused to believe Jesus was from the Father, was speaking the words of the Father, was testifying to what the Father was doing, was accomplishing the Father's will. They refused to believe He actually was and completely righteous. That He was without sin. Because if He was righteous, that would mean He wasn't lying all that time before that He said He was from the Father. Because to lie is to sin. he was righteous. In fact, this is the very substance of Jesus' righteousness, his obedience to the will of the Father. Just listen to the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 10. He says this, Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, and this is Jesus quoting Psalm 40, by the way, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. Then I said, then Jesus said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Jesus came in obedience to the Father, not merely to offer an external show of religiosity, like the Pharisees did, but to practice true religion, which is to do the will of God. He came from the Father to do the Father's will in obedience to the Father, which is why the Jews wanted to kill him so badly. If Jesus was just that much right it meant that they were completely and utterly wrong. And so, self-preservation demanded that they put Jesus to death. John, in fact, testifies this in chapter 5, verse 18. He says, this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling even God his own father, making himself equal with God. But Jesus was sent from the Father, and it was to the Father that he was about to return, thereby proving his testimony, proving his authenticity, proving that what he said was true, proving his own righteousness beyond a shadow of a doubt. This is the second thing the Spirit will do when he comes. Jesus is saying he will expose all the lies of the Jewish leaders and vindicate Jesus before the eyes of the world. See? The Spirit says, Jesus was who He said He was. He is who He says He is. And He continues to be forevermore. What is the comfort in that? Again, if we are thinking our central problem is anything but sin, we will be hard-pressed to see this as comfort. What does that have to do with us? This guy, 2,000 years ago, going back to God. How does that help me? Our flesh wants to say. But if we are honest about the darkness within us, if we are honest with ourselves regarding the fundamental hostility toward God with which we are born into this world, having the Spirit testify to our spirits that Jesus is who He says He is, that He has accomplished the will of the Father, that through the crucified Jesus the Father is drawing all men to Himself, and that in Jesus Christ I am a new creation, that is good news. That is deep comfort. For if Jesus was lying, if Jesus was just some crazed wacko calling himself God, like the Pharisees wanted us to believe, then I am lost in sin and damnation. Simple as that. But Jesus was truly righteous. He truly was sent by the Father, and having accomplished His good purposes, having laid down His life, He returned to the Father, triumphant over the powers of this world that would seek to chain me forever in slavery to sin and death." No, it is true comfort the Spirit brings when He convicts us, when He convicts the world of righteousness, exposing our self-deception and vindicating the name and work of Jesus. For only through a righteous Fully righteous Savior, can there be real and effective salvation? The third comfort Jesus points to when persuading the disciples why it is better that he returns to the Father and sends the Spirit in his place is this. When the Spirit comes, he will convict the world of judgment. And verse 11 explains concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. This one gives me goosebumps. First, the Holy Spirit turns my heart toward Jesus, causing me to believe in him, in both who he is and what he says. Secondly, the Holy Spirit proves this to me through the vindication and glorification of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father. And third, the Holy Spirit exposes the ruler of this world for what he is and lays bare the judgment that he has received. So what does that mean? Who is the ruler of this world? How has he been judged? And why is this comforting? Why does Jesus point to this as a good reason for him to leave and to send the Spirit to us in his place? The phrase, ruler of this world, is used two other times in the Gospel of John, in chapter 12, verse 31, and in chapter 14, verse 30. And in all three instances, it refers to the principal demi-ruler, not of creation itself, not of the created world, but rather the ruler of the kingdoms and institutions of men. That's what John means when he says the world here. And that ruler, up until the time of Christ, was Satan. In Matthew 4, when Satan comes to tempt Jesus, the third and final temptation was that Satan would give Jesus power and authority over all the nations of men, if only Jesus bowed the knee and worshipped Satan. This implies that they were actually Satans to give, right? It wouldn't be much of a temptation if Satan didn't actually have the authority or ability to give the kingdoms of men to Jesus. In fact, keep your thumb here in John 16 and turn over to Matthew 4. Let's look at this really quickly. This really is an important thing to grasp. Matthew 4, chapter 4, verse 8. Again, Jesus has been in the wilderness. Jesus has been tempted twice already by Satan, and this is the third temptation, starting in verse 8. He says, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. A couple of things to notice here. First, the kingdoms of this world were glorious. Notice that? The kingdoms of this world and their glory. And there is no hint in the Greek that Matthew is being ironic here in any way, or sarcastic. The kingdoms were truly glorious. Jesus didn't look at them and go, ugh, hideous things, take them away. Remember, this is a temptation. That means the kingdoms and their glory needed to be actually tempting. Secondly, notice also what it is that Jesus objects to. He doesn't say, well, no big deal, because they're all going to burn someday anyway. His objection has to do with how the kingdoms are obtained, not the kingdoms themselves. His objection is to bowing down before Satan and worshipping him. The nations of men did not disgust Jesus. They are what he came down to purchase by his blood. But bowing to Satan was not the correct way. Bowing to Satan would accomplish nothing, because Satan would still be in charge. He would still be the ruler of this world. No, the old ruler needed to be kicked out to make way for Jesus. And this is exactly what happened. Just listen to these texts. Mark 3, 27. No one can enter the strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman. Then, indeed, he may plunder his house. The house is the world. The strongman is Satan. Jesus wants to plunder the strongman's house. And so he comes and he binds the strongman and plunders his goods. John 12, 31, now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Satan's got to go, and he will go. He will be cast out. And when I am lifted up, referring to the cross, I will draw all nations to myself, away from Satan, out from underneath Satan's rule, out from under his dominion. John 1633, take heart, I have overcome the world. Colossians 2 15, he disarmed Christ, disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them on the cross. Hebrews 2 14, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. Deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery Revelation 11 15 then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and He shall reign forever and ever Matthew 28 18 all Authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me Go, therefore, and make disciples of the nations. Romans 16, 20. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The ruler of this world has been judged. This is what the Spirit comes to tell us, to convict us of, to expose to us, to show us, to persuade us of, to point to, to say, look, The ruler has been kicked out. He has lost his teeth. He is chained. The seed of the spirit serpent has been triumphed over by the seed of the woman. Justice against the evil one has been accomplished. The strong man has been bound and his house has been plundered. The nations of men are under new management. There has been a dramatic change in the power scheme of this world. The ruler of this world has been cast out. The King of Kings has been lifted up, first on the cross in victory, and then to the right hand of the Father in glory. He has broken the chains of death and the dominion of Satan. Through Christ, God has reconciled himself to the world. He has thrown down the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame. He has destroyed the devil, the accuser. The Lord Jesus now sits on the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his rogue fills the temple. To Him has been given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that all peoples, all nations, all languages should serve Him. And in His temple all cry glory. Glory. Comfort, Christian. That is comfort. That is what the Spirit has come to tell us. That is the comfort of the spirit. That is the comfort he brings us. That is what it means for the spirit to convict this world of judgment. To show that the father of lies has been bound and shackled. That the erstwhile ruler of this world has been judged. That we no longer need fear his wiles or his lies. For the accuser stands accused. The deceiver has been declared guilty. The one who held the power of death is himself now bound in chains. The serpent stands condemned. And this is the testimony of the spirit. And it is good news. Good news. Comfort. It's common Christian parlance to say, man, I felt the spirit moving this morning. Why do we say that? I've said it. And he does move, but what are we pointing to when we say that? What is it about a particular morning that makes us think the Spirit was moving? Were we convicted of the sin of not believing in Jesus? Were we convicted of trusting in anyone or anything other than Jesus? Were we convicted of the sin of doubting the power and authority of the Son over Satan? Or do we simply mean I had a great emotional high this morning? The style of the music perfectly fit my personal tastes. I just felt spiritual. I'm sorry, but the Spirit was not sent to simply give us an emotional high, something fleeting, transient, altogether untrustworthy. He did not come to point to something in you. He came to point you to Jesus. He came so that you might say, man, I saw Jesus this morning. And when we say that, it needs to be shorthand for saying, I saw myself as the sinner that I am. I saw all my weakness, all my frailty, all my unbelief. And then I saw Jesus in all his perfection, in all his strength, all his faithfulness and steadfast love toward me, all his exalted and majestic glory. The Spirit convicted me of my sin, but at the same time, by showing me Jesus, He assured me that I stand before the Father uncondemned and righteous, and that He is rooting out the sin that remains, and is busy growing me up into the maturity of faith. That's what the Spirit came to do. Anything short of that, Christian, and it's not the Spirit. For the Spirit's only comfort is that He points us to Jesus. The Spirit's help is that He teaches us all things, reminding us of what Jesus said. He guides us into all truth and only speaks what He hears from the Father and the Son. He came to glorify Jesus, to take what belongs to Jesus, to take who Jesus is and what He has done and declare it to us. And so what is the comfort of the Spirit? What is the comfort in knowing God as Spirit? Jesus is. All that Jesus is. All that the Father has given to Jesus. All that the Father and the Son together has given to us through the ministry of the Spirit. That is the comfort the Spirit offers. Not some weak, short-lived, mountaintop experience. Rather, the Spirit gives us true, lasting, undeniable, indestructible hope. Because He says, look at Jesus. come in the flesh born to die for you, born to take upon himself the sins that weigh you down, born to take your every last failure to be holy to the cross, and there pay for each and every sin. Look at Jesus. See him there standing in the garden, raised from the dead, filled with the power of an indestructible life. See him there, coming on the clouds of heaven, being given dominion over all things. See him there, sitting at the right hand of the Ancient of Days, establishing his kingdom, drawing all nations to himself. See Jesus, the Spirit says. And he opens our eyes wide. And we see Jesus. Comfort. Comfort. Father, we thank you. Father, without the Spirit we'd be lost in our own sin, lost in our own darkness, lost in our own deceptions, lost in our own self-will and our own self-preservation. Father, it's not that we wouldn't know you, we would, but we would hate you. And we would suppress that knowledge in all unrighteousness, wanting our will, wanting our life, wanting our own ways of comforting ourselves. But Father, you did not leave us there. You came. You sent your Son. And then He left and sent His Spirit that we might know all that the Son has done for us. The Spirit has inspired 66 books of the Bible to be written. The Spirit has given us the words that you would want us to hear, that you would want us to read, that you would want us to understand, by which we come to know you. And the Spirit has given us understanding that we might indeed know them, that we might indeed know you. Father, we need your Spirit every day. We need to see ourselves for who we are. We need to see Christ for who he is. And we need to believe him. We need to see him at your right hand ruling all things. We need to see Satan bound and shackled and utterly vanquished. We need to see our own feet on top of the head of Satan by which you are crushing him, even now. For we are in Christ, and his victory is our victory. His dominion is our dominion. His kingdom is our kingdom. His rule is our rule. We are in Christ, and therefore we have life, indestructible. We have hope, undeniable. We have peace, utter peace with you, Father, that we may come and be in your presence, translated into the heavenlies of heavenlies by the power of the Spirit that brings us to you, that opens our eyes that we may see Jesus. Father, thank you. We stand before you with nothing but gratitude in our hearts, for that is all that we have. There's nothing that we can point to to say, this is why the Spirit came down and saved me. No, we do have that within us, but it's not flattering. We can point to the darkness and say, that's why the Spirit came down and saved me, because I was dead. I was lost, and He found me. I was blind, and He opened my eyes. Father, thank you. Thank you for the comfort of the Spirit. Thank you that you have given us your own Spirit, the Spirit of Christ Himself. And now you are with us even to the end of the age. Father, bless us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Let's stand in response this morning and sing, come down, oh love divine.