verses 15 through 18. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, or the King James says, comforter, that he may be with you forever. The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not See him or know him. You know him because he abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans." Again, the old King James says, I'm not going to leave you comfortless. I will come to you. The promise of the Spirit, not Sprit the promise of the Holy Spirit I Trust that you have heard the expression Like a deer in the headlights familiar with that The phrase refers to a person that is paralyzed with fried or bewilderment and that is unable to react or speak and I think this may be a good way to describe the disciples in the upper room that night, like deer in the headlights. Remember that the Lord has told them, one of you will betray me. Peter, you will deny me. All of you will abandon me. And I'm leaving you. And where I'm going, you can't go. Not right now. And so these men sit in that borrowed room, frozen, in shock, surprise, and fear. But our Lord loves them too much to leave them in that stupefied state. So he imparts these glorious truths to them, wonderful truths, comforting truths to them. Not only does he say, Let not your heart be troubled. I'm going to prepare a place for you. There is room in my father's house for you. But now he begins, and this is the weight of the message, now in the upper room, he begins to teach them about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. And friends, this is deep stuff. This is really deep stuff. And if you and I, if you and I will spend any measurable time deeply studying this section of Scripture, really diving into the depths that are here, we too will be like deer in the headlights, studying this text. There's simply so much here, there's not a chance that I can understand it all, let alone teach it all. But one of the biggest topics One of the largest subjects that Jesus teaches his frightened followers on that night is about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Now for those of you who take notes, I just want to give you this. In our chapter, chapter 14, really in verses 15 through 26, Jesus teaches on the Holy Spirit. Chapter 15, verse 26, Jesus teaches about the Holy Spirit. Chapter 16, verses 7 through 14, Jesus teaches about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. But our Lord begins this upper room crash course in pneumatology Every once in a while, I have to throw a big word out just to make y'all think I know something. But the word pneumatology just means the study of the Spirit, the study of the subject of the Holy Spirit. The Lord begins this upper room theological crash course by telling them the Spirit of God is with them and will be in them. and that the indwelling Holy Spirit will teach them, empower them, comfort them, and abide with them throughout their entire lives. And although He is leaving, He is not leaving them alone. That's important. He's leaving, but He's not leaving them alone. They will have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within them, living within them, taking up permanent residence within them. And the Spirit of God will continue the work of Christ through them. Now they don't fully get all that. In the upper room that night, these men, They just don't fully get all that. God's Spirit in them, to them, for them. They don't get all that. But neither do we. Neither do we. You just have to, if you would for a moment, envision the disciples like frightened deer in the middle of the roadway about to get crushed by the hard realities of what lies just ahead. But the gentle Jesus comforts his scared little sheep. And he does so by leading them out of darkness and into the light, away from danger and into hope by preparing and teaching them about the work of God's Holy Spirit in them, to them, and for them. So this morning, let's take note of the promise that Jesus makes concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit. And here's the big idea that I want you to take away from this passage. The Son of God promises to give the Spirit of God to every child of God. The Son of God promises to give the Spirit of God to every child of God. Those men in that upper room, they really did not fully appreciate the weight of that promise. The people in this room, myself included, we really do not fully appreciate the weight of this promise. It should humble us. It should humble the Christian, that not only would the Son of God die for them, but that the Spirit of God lives within them. It should humble us. Let me say that again. That not only would the Son of God die for us, but that the Spirit of God would live within us. That should humble us. So today I want to make four divisions within this passage. I will give you My points and then we will develop them as we move forward First thing we'll notice is the proof of love Then secondly the person of the spirit And third the promise of the spirit and then fourth The presence of the spirit The first note First point is the proof of love. Verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now, we're actually not going to spend a lot of time on this one point right now, this one verse right now. And I want to explain to you why that is. And that is because Jesus says this repeatedly in this section of John. Verse 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Look at verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. Verse 23, Jesus answered and said to them, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Verse 24, He who does not love me does not keep my words. So we're not gonna spend a lot of time talking about that right now because Jesus repeats it and we'll hit that point again with more weight later. But I wanna give you just a couple quick thoughts about this verse. Different Bible versions Translate this verse differently. The King James says, if you love me, keep my commandments. The Amplified Bible says, if you really love me, you will keep or obey my commands. The Legacy Standard that I'm reading from says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. The truth is, this is not so much an order as an observation. A.T. Robertson, the great Baptist scholar, said that this was written in the future tense. That is, those who love Jesus will do this. That is, the natural outflow of a love for Christ is to obey Him. Those who love Jesus obey Jesus. Or let me say it like this. obedience is the proof of genuine love. Willing obedience is the proof of genuine love. Those who love the Lord, they strive to obey Him. Now we don't do it perfectly, but our desire is that we would honor Him and obey Him with our lives. I think you could actually flip this statement over inside out and it would also be true. You ready? If you don't love him, you don't keep his commands. The reason I know we can do that is Jesus does the very thing. Those who do not love me do not keep my commands. You remember when Jesus said this? Why do you call me Lord, Lord? and do not do the things that I command or the things that I say." Willing obedience is the proof of genuine love. 1 John 5 verse 3, this same writer says later, for this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous, they're not burdensome. So according to Jesus and John, the mark or proof of true love for Christ is obedient to his word. And I want to be clear. We are not trying to earn God's favor by keeping his commands. But those who have enjoyed God's favor strive to keep his commands. The really good question that you should ask yourself today is this. Do I care one bit what this book says that I should and should not do? Those who love Him, obey Him. If you go through life absolutely disinterested in what God's Word has to say to you, you have no reason to believe that you are a follower of Christ. I'm going to throw this at you. I'm going to come back at it later. Some of you may think, preacher, you're just going off the deep end. But I think there's something here. If you put in your mind that upper room, and those disciples, like a deer in the headlight, freaked out. Jesus is saying to them boys, If you really love me, you would stop shivering and start serving. If you really love me, you would stop cowering and weeping, and you would get busy working and serving. If you really love me. I can't preach this now, but my mind is captivated later in this chapter, Jesus says, He says, fellas, if y'all love me, you would rejoice that I said I'm going to the father. Now he's saying, if you love me, you're going to serve me. Right now you're cowering in a corner afraid, but if you really love me, it will be proven by what you do. So that is the proof of love. But I want to add something here. The desire the ability to keep his commands begin with the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us. The desire and the ability to honor Christ with our lives begin with the work of the Holy Spirit within us. These greater works, do you remember that? The greater works, he said, his people would do praying in Jesus name, keeping his commands, all of this stems from the work of the Holy Spirit within us. So secondly, I want you to notice the person of the Spirit. The person of the Spirit. There's no way that you and I sitting here today are going to value or appreciate what our Lord is saying, what he is teaching, if we don't understand who the Holy Spirit is. One pastor said this, he said when it comes to the Holy Spirit, most people are either uninformed, misinformed, or well-informed. Probably have some of all of that among us today. But we want to be the well-informed. So let's just take a moment, very quickly, and teach on the person of the Holy Spirit as concisely, as quickly as I can work through. I want to put three quick thoughts in your ears about the Holy Spirit. Now first, the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. God has revealed himself as a triune being. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We do not have three gods. There is one God in three persons. You say, well, now preacher, I don't really understand all that. Welcome to the club. But the fact remains in the Bible God has revealed himself as a Trinitarian being, a triune being, Father, Son, and Spirit. None of us will ever fully grasp this truth, but you don't have to fully grasp it. You're just simply told to believe it. The Holy Spirit was involved in creation. Genesis 1 verse 26 God said let us make man in our image That's plural God speaking of himself spoke of himself as a plurality and then in the very next verse spoke of himself as one So the Bible is clear for all who have ears to hear and The Spirit of God is the third person of the Trinity. He was involved in creation. He has been involved in the works of God's people. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit empowered judges, prophets, priests, kings to accomplish His work. Secondly, the Spirit, Holy Spirit, has always existed as co-equal, co-eternal, with God the Father, God the Son. The Spirit has always existed as co-eternal, co-eternal, excuse me, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Son. You can go all the way back to Genesis. Genesis 1 verse 2 says the earth was without form and void. Darkness was on the face of the deep. And listen to this. And the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, was hovering upon the face of the waters. The Holy Spirit is as ancient as the Ancient of Days. The Spirit of God is not lesser than the Father or the Son, but equal to. equal in power, in might, in purpose, in eternality, in sovereignty, in holiness, in omnipotence, in immutability. The attributes that could be assigned or are assigned to the Father can also be assigned to the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was baptized, we see the Trinity. We have God the Son in the Jordan River, We have the Spirit of God descending on the sun in the form of a dove, and we have God the Father thundering from heaven, speaking. And when we baptize today, which I wish we could do every Sunday, but when we baptize today, we baptize what? In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father, excuse me, the Spirit has always existed as co-equal, co-eternal with Father. And the third, my third under the person of the Spirit is this. This is deep stuff, hold on to your pew. The Spirit is not an it. The Spirit is not It and should not be spoken of as in it In fact if you will notice in our text verse 16 Jesus says I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate that he he May be with you the spirit of truth verse 17 whom the world could not receive because it does not see him or know him as You know him because he, you get my point, right? Every time Jesus mentions the Holy Spirit, he uses the pronoun he or him. You see, some people think of the Holy Spirit as just some sort of a mystic power. For those of you who are cultured enough, you would be familiar with the force from Star Wars that's how a lot of people think of the Holy Spirit but he's not some mystic power he is a person the third person of the Trinity who has mind will and emotion now that is as brief a study as pneumatology you ever going to hear Brief a study of the person and work of the Spirit that I can possibly give you this morning Moving forward and Jesus will get into this some now But as we move into the next few chapters, we'll learn about the work of the Spirit right now the person of the Spirit I Want to move in to verse 16 and see the promise of the spirit the proof of love the person of the spirit and now thirdly the promise of the spirit verse 16 I will ask the father I will pray I will beseech the father and he the father will give you another comforter helper advocate, counselor, that he may be with you forever. The Son of God promises to give the Spirit of God to every child of God. That's right here. Now you got to put this context, right? Jesus has made clear that he is leaving but he also says I'm going to ask the father and he will give you the Holy Spirit he will give you another comforter I hate to do this to you but we must If you want to get into this, we must do some tedious word work. It's hard to tell by simply reading, but stuff gets lost in translation. It just does. It happens. Stuff gets lost in translation. I'm interested in that word, another. Another. There are two Greek words that are translated as another in our New Testament. The words allos and heteros. I don't know Greek. I could have just butchered that up, but probably none of you would know either, but that's OK. But those two words, though they are translated the same, have a different meaning. In fact, a failure to make this language distinction undermines the very argument that Jesus is making. Alos means another of the same kind. Heteros means another of a different nature. heterosexual Attracted to people of the opposite sex different sex. I Want to illustrate this Follow me Two dogs are walking towards you One is a chihuahua The other is a Rottweiler Now you could say there's one dog and And there's another dog. But they're not the same kind, are they? That little Chihuahua might think he's a Rottweiler. They're both dogs, but they're not the same kind. They are heteros. They're different. I want to give you a biblical illustration. Do you remember that after the death of Joshua, in the Old Testament after Joshua... Joseph. Joseph, not Joshua. Joshua dies too, but after the death of Joseph, there arose another Pharaoh that did not know Joseph. And if you're familiar with your Old Testament, you remember Joseph was really important. He was in charge of everything. Only the Pharaoh had more authority than he did. But then Joseph dies. Generations pass, and there comes another Pharaoh into power. And the Bible says, but this one, he didn't know Joseph. He didn't have any respect to the people of Israel, so he enslaved them. But that same word is used, another Pharaoh. Now he was still Pharaoh, but he was a different kind, different one altogether. And now let me tell you why that matters. Jesus is telling the disciples, I am leaving, but God the Father is going to send another who is like me. And he uses the word allos, not heteros, allos. Not something, someone different, but the same. Another of like kind. Or let me put it as simply as I can say. The Holy Spirit is picking right up where the sun leaves off. Both are God. The Son of God is leaving, the Spirit of God is arriving. And the disciples, get this, those disciples and us, Christians, we're not left with something inferior, someone lesser, but one who is equal to the Son of God. Not the same person, but still divine. It's not like Jesus is leaving and they are getting stuck with some lesser deity that's not really gonna get them through. Instead, God is sending another like His Son, not a physical person, but the Spirit that would dwell with them forever. That's the verse. I will ask the Father, He will give you another advocate comforter that He may be with you forever. This is not some second-rate source of comfort, some lesser advocate. No, God, the Father, is sending God, the Spirit, whenever He takes His Son back to heaven. In fact, in chapter 16 and verse 7, Jesus tells the disciples, it's better for you. that I go away, that the Spirit can come. Now if you can envision that, those men in the upper room scared out of their mind and Jesus saying to them, it's better if you leave? What? No, no, it is to your advantage that I leave that the Spirit of God will come. Friends, when the Son of God took on mortal flesh, he willingly confined himself to the restraints of a mortal body, which means that Jesus can only be in one place at one time. However, the Spirit of God, because he is spirit, can be all places at all time. And God the Spirit has the ability to indwell every believer on the planet and he has done so for some 2,000 years. And he will continue to do so till what? Till the Lord comes again. So that little innocuous word, another, has a deep meaning to it. But because we hadn't had enough fun yet. I want you to take notice. Of the title in verse 16. That Jesus gives the Holy Spirit. He says I will ask the father. And he will send you another another like me. who is an advocate. And he uses the word, Jesus uses the word periclatos or something like that. And the word literally means to come alongside. That's what the word literally means. To come alongside. Now this is one of those places where you can't translate into one word and capture the full meaning of the word. It's impossible. Some Bible translations have comforter. Some have counselor. And when we think about a counselor, we're not talking about a marriage counselor. We're talking about a lawyer, a litigator, that kind of a counselor. an advocate, a helper, one who comes alongside. Get this, I'm leaving, but there's one who's going to come alongside you, not leave you. In fact, this word that John uses, he's the only inspired writer that uses this term of the Holy Spirit, And it is used again in 1 John chapter 2. You would be familiar with this. 1 John chapter 2 verse 1. My little children, these things have I written unto you that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father. An advocate. A representative. So get this. What Jesus was to them, the Spirit will be to them. What Jesus is to us, the Spirit is to us. Jesus was their Comforter, so is the Spirit. Jesus was their Helper, So is the Spirit. Jesus was their advocate. So is the Spirit. And that's true of them, and it's true of us who are saved. This is another of the same kind. That's why I drug you down that little language rabbit hole. The Holy Spirit is the only one that is adequate, sufficient to take the role of the Son. Where the Son of God leaves off, the Spirit of God picks up, if you will. So Jesus promises this person, not a thing, but this person will be with you forever. That's his promise. And today, If you will turn from your sins, and repent, and put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the promise of the Spirit can be yours. Because listen, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as our Lord, the Lord our God shall call. That's Peter preaching in the day of Pentecost, Acts 2. The Son of God promises the Spirit of God to the children of God. Number four. from verses 17 and 18, the presence of the Spirit. Note these verses. Jesus says, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and He will be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you Notice that, would you please? Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus has just said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, right? And now he says, here comes another like me. The Spirit of Truth. Of the same kind. But Jesus says the world cannot receive Him, the Spirit, because it doesn't see Him, it doesn't know Him. In other words, just as simple, in the same way the world rejected the Son of God, the world also rejects the Spirit of God. In fact, the Apostle Paul picks up this same sentiment in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14 where he said the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Although the world, the lost world does not receive the Spirit Jesus says fellas you will you will Because notice that verse 17 at the close because he is with you he abides with you and Will be in you The Spirit is with them as the Spirit dwells in the Son with all fullness. The Spirit is with Him because the Son of God is with Him and He has the Spirit without measure. The fullness at all times of the Spirit. And so the Spirit is with Him. But there's coming a time, Jesus says, that not only will the Spirit be with you, He will be in you. And I think the very shadow of that promise, if you want to write this down, is John 20, verse 22, on Resurrection Sunday. Resurrection Sunday. The followers of Christ are gathered together, still trying to figure out what is going on. He died. But now we're hearing rumors he's alive and Jesus shows up in the midst of their church service and he says, receive ye the Holy Spirit, John 20, 22. And I think that was just a taste of what would happen some 50 days later on Pentecost. But the point being, The Holy Spirit of God was going to take up permanent dwelling within these men and within every believer. Now friends, they did not appreciate that promise like they should. We do not appreciate this promise like we should. The promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit. That God in the person of His Spirit would dwell within us is a gift beyond measure. This same Holy Spirit that convicts and converts, regenerates, comforts, encourages, sanctifies and will one day glorify that He dwells within us. Listen to me. If you're here today and you're a Christian, listen to this promise of the presence. God dwells in you. And if that's not enough to make you shout, I don't know what's wrong. The God that spoke and the worlds were framed from nothing lives in here? Yes, he does. That should thrill our hearts. It should humble us that the infinite God is pleased to dwell in these vessels of clay. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you, 1 Corinthians 3, 16? You realize the idea of God dwelling within an individual was way, way more than those apostles could fathom that night. In that Old Testament economy, God dwelled with Israel in the tabernacle, in the temple, but veiled behind the curtain. But now, now, that same glorious Shekinah glory of God, Christian, lives within you. What a promise this is to these disciples and to us. God in us. Can you see now why I'm saying over and over that Jesus is teaching, teaching, teaching these men. They don't get all that. Matter of fact, it is the Spirit of God that's gonna bring all this back to their memory a little bit later on. You know that light bulb's going on, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. These men, frail, frightened, fickle as they were, or finna turn the world upside down. Empowered and enabled by the Holy Spirit of God. And you ready for this? We should be doing the same thing because we have the same Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Amen, Brother Lewis. Alright. So hear this. Verse 18, and we're headed towards the closing. 18. I will not leave you. If you have a King James that says, I will not leave you comfortless. That Greek word there is the word orphanos. And it's where we get our English word Orphan. Orphan. This is good stuff, brothers and sisters. Fellas, I'm leaving, but the Spirit is staying. He is with you. He will be in you. I am not going to leave you like orphans. I'm not going to do that to you. I love you too much to abandon you. I'm leaving, but I'm not abandoning you. I'm leaving, but I'm not leaving you alone. I am leaving, but the Spirit is arriving. Jesus is not a deadbeat dad, bailing on his own. Instead, he is promising to send another like him that will take good care of his people, his children. These men are frightened, they're unsure, they're nervous, but Jesus makes them a promise that is richer and deeper than anything they can possibly imagine. I don't have time, but you can get over to the book of Romans where it talks about God has given us the spirit of adoption, not orphans, the spirit of adoption to be God's children. God's Spirit dwells in them, leads them, teaches them, comforts them. And these men, empowered by the Holy Spirit, are going to do great works in Jesus' name. And that same Spirit dwells within us, and we Christians, we should continue the ministry and works of Christ, empowered by the same Spirit that dwells within us. The proof of love is obedience. The Holy Spirit is God. In this passage, the Son of God promises to give the Spirit of God to the children of God. And this is a permanent indwelling as long as we are in these bodies. Today, if you're a Christian, contemplate this truth. God's Spirit dwells within you. And oh, how much we grieve Him. How much we grieve Him. Sometimes we think a lot about the sacrifice of Jesus, and we should, but don't you think for one minute there's not a sacrifice in the work of the Spirit in putting up with us. I'm closing with this. Do you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you? Have you received this promise that Jesus made? Because the Bible says if you do not have the Spirit of God, what? You're not a child of God. If you do not have God's Spirit living within you, you are not saved. You're not a Christian. But today, this promise, This blessing of immeasurable value can be yours. The gift of the indwelling Spirit, that promise, can be yours if you will embrace the finished work of the risen Messiah, Jesus. And if you do, you'll serve Him. Because if you love Me, you will obey me.