Pretty straightforward question. Maybe it'll open up some discussion for us this morning. I think that's always a wonderful thing when we're studying this. So as we proceed forward, I'd like to read this morning, John chapter 16, going back to verse, we left off basically right around verse 13. And let's read verses 13 to 22 as we move forward. John chapter 16 and verse 13 we read, Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself. But whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine. Therefore said I that He shall take of Mine and shall show it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me. And again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us? A little while, and ye shall not see me. And again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. They said, Therefore, what is this that he saith? A little while? We cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said a little while, and ye shall not see me, and again a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament. But the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrows shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. What are some of the components? What's going on here? As we look forward, Jesus is saying things at the time. You have to put yourself maybe in a time capsule and go all the way back and listen to what Jesus is saying. And you're going to be asking a lot of questions back then because you have no idea. We have the luxury of looking back over all of this and knowing basically how it kind of played out. But what exactly is happening here? What's what's Jesus trying to tell them? We have so many things going on here. And so many things were one of the things Jesus says is that you you'll all be scattered. He says this down the road here a little bit about in verse 32. But what's going on here? Dave? Right. Right. He's been dropping breadcrumbs all along. What about this hour? And we never even saw them ask him before about what does this hour mean? What does it mean? It's a good point. Matthew. Right. He's saying basically, he already said that he would be lifted up. Three days, the temple would be torn down and it would be built back up. And then he was rebuked by the Pharisees for saying such a thing about the synagogue, like he was going to destroy the physical temple. But he was talking about who the real church is. Want to remember what Paul said, Paul the Apostle, remember? On the way to Damascus, Christ said, why persecutest... Saul, Saul, did he say, why persecutest thou the temple? Why persecutest thou Jerusalem? Why persecutest thou the synagogue? No, he said, why persecutest thou me? And he's talking about not the church building, not the chairs, not the altar and the implements. He's talking about his body. And if you remember, if you've ever noticed when Pastor Olson is giving communion, when I come up and he calls the elders and Dave and Greg, the deacons to come up, I immediately sit down every time and turn right to the passage. Pastor Olson has always, every single time, he has preached communion services from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And he goes right into the communion narrative about the corporeal work of Christ's body on the cross, but not his body being re-crucified. He was talking about the symbolic nature in the sacraments of when communion is distributed that the body was broken, the blood had poured out, and that's what we're doing to remember. But always remember, you have to remember this, if you are going to defend your position against the Papists, is what Calvin calls them, you have got to remember his work was finished on the cross. So what are some of the other components leading up to it? What else was going on? There were so many things. It's okay if you don't remember, I'll help you. Anything? Something really major happened in verse 13. Look at the first phrase of verse 13. Yes, the transfer of Christ himself, he says he must needs that I leave. I need to leave because when the spirit of truth cometh, he will convict those that don't believe on me. He will convict those that are sinning, those that are going to be judged. But he says something that's very profound. He says, don't ever forget. The prince of this world is already judged. All the judgment. Think about that. If the prince of this world is already judged, then that coincides with the very last phrase in chapter 16 where he says, I have overcome the world. Christ is not here. One of the components of what we're looking at. I found there's so many messages that I've listened to on this and so many different commentaries that I've had the privilege of being able to read. for such a time as he's going through all the times I've gone through John 16, and I've read it many, many times. And what's fascinating about this is that when you see Christ's work here, he's leaving a lot of very big breadcrumbs of doctrine and showing us basically what real theology is all about, just in this chapter alone. He's talking about, when you see him speaking in the personal pronouns, he's not talking about himself on the level of being some kind of selfish warlord. He is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. And he is talking about what is going to happen to us. And it's amazing how we as Christians, we sit back and we read this Consolatory Discourse, and when we read it, it's just normative to us that He knows what's going on, that He's sitting here talking about everything that's going to be happening in the future. If I stood here and I told you what's going to happen in your lives in the future, in the next 10 years of your life, without fail, you'd think I'm crazy. You think, I mean, this is going to happen to you. You're going to die on this day. You're going to make all this money. You're going to do all of this. It's amazing. What is amazing is what we're seeing is something that I believe people have a real problem with scripture. Now, what do I mean by that? This is what I think. I was watching a conference in You know, I love listening to John Piper, and there's something that he said, and this is going to really hit close to home and maybe bring some of this out. And right now, the question, before those just walked in, the question was, what are some of the components of the things that's happening here? What are some of the things about to happen and what's going on here? Well, here's what Piper says. This is what people have a problem with with Scripture. He says, and he can, what I love about him is he can be so practical and he can like bring things really close to home in the current age. He goes, here's what the Bible doesn't tell you. And he was almost saying it sarcastically. The Bible doesn't tell you whether to use Geico insurance or whether to use Progressive. The Bible doesn't tell you what internet plan to use or what cell phone plan to use. The Bible doesn't name the person you're going to marry or how you're going to get married or who you're going to get married. The Bible doesn't tell you whether you're going to be a butcher, baker or candlestick maker. And that's what most people think. Well, if scripture can't tell me what to do in my personal life, then basically maybe scripture really isn't what I need. And I know people think that way. But you know what he says? You have to recognize the commands in Scripture. And everything from the commands and the perfect, written, inspired, perfectly, absolute, perfectly organized structure of Scripture and what it says, gives you the insight on what to do in your life. And everything falls down from that, from obedience to God. Because you can look at certain things and say, well, maybe I shouldn't purchase this because this is not a good place to support. Or maybe this is something that I should do because God would honor it. Or maybe the big decision is, well, should on the Lord's Day, should I be going to a football game and skipping church? Or should I go to church? And that is dealt with in scripture. If we could just stop minimalizing the Bible and just take it for what it's worth and we read these, when you dig, you'll find the answers. I've never had a problem. I've never had a problem. Because one thing I learned early on, and I'm so glad that I did, don't ever question Scripture against Scripture. Don't sit there and try to be some ecclesiastical jury and sit there and try to pick the Bible apart and try to find parts with it that are not right. Don't ever do that. You always give it the respect that it demands. And right here what I'm trying to say is there's a lot of components going here. When I saw MacArthur, John MacArthur preaching on this very passage, he was saying, consider what would, this is what brought me to ask this question this morning, consider the events going on all around John chapter 16 leading up to 17. Christ Himself has now, He's going to pass the baton to the Holy Spirit. As He goes up on the right hand of the Father, He says the Spirit is coming in verse 13, which is what we read. Then in verse 14 He says, He will glorify Me. He shall receive of Mine. And what He is saying, this is the bond between the triune God. This is where the Trinity is brought together and we see the presence of the Father. We see the presence of Christ Himself and His corporeal work. He's getting ready to go. In His incarnation, He is getting ready to decrease physically, but increase spiritually as He goes up. We see here There's encouragement here. There's comfort. There's forewarning. There are training tools that Christ is arming the disciples with, and He's giving it to us here as well. And He's now getting ready to leave and then send heaven down on the earth to reprove sin, righteousness, judgment, and to tell us, no matter what happens to you on this earth, the Prince of this world is already judged. I've already taken care of Him. What's going to happen is what's left over. There's going to be persecution. And it's going to be for many years to come, but it doesn't matter. I've already taken care of them. And then once again, it goes right into the very last phrase in John chapter 16. I have overcome the world. The question is, do we believe that? Do we? What does it mean? What does that mean, I have overcome the world? Well, he gives every component leading up to that beautiful benediction, that last phrase here in John chapter 16, he gives all the components leading up to that, how he's overcome the world. He has sent the Holy Spirit. He knows that basically the disciples are going to be scattered. He says in verse 15, we see here he says, the Father, everything that the Father has is mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. And no wonder, back to what we read earlier, he said, he goes, I call you my friend. I don't speak to you as a servant because the Lord does not tell his servants what he's going to do. It's what he says. But then what does he do? He turns right and tells us everything. He tells them mine hour is coming. I am going to do the very thing that Peter rebuked me for. Remember the Caesarea Philippi confession Remember how remember how we the Sunday school class last week. I think the question came up Pastor Olson was showing Caesarea was Caesarea the same as Caesarea Philippi. There are two different towns Caesarea Philippi is on a mountain and that's where Christ took the disciples up to the mountain and he looks at him and what did he ask? Remember whom do you say I the son of man am I First of all, it was the scuttlebutt of the town. Who do they think I am? They think Elijah, Moses, whatever prophets, Jeremiah. Who do you say I am? And then Peter gives the ultimate answer. He says, Thou art the Christ of the living Father. Thou art the Christ of God the Father. And then they have a wonderful conversation. Then the whole thing turns around. That's when Christ says His hour is going to come and He's going to the cross. And Peter says, Not so, Lord. And the Lord Christ himself he got furious and he said get thee behind me Satan. Don't question me That's what Satan does to me. He questioned me in the garden He questioned me and when being tempted in the wilderness, don't do that You're never gonna win that you're never gonna win that I'm going and when my hour comes I'm gonna tell you when it's coming he retells them and they're still scratching their heads and Just like people today. People today are still scratching their heads over salvation and what it means. And here it is right here. Couldn't be any plainer. We see here that if you go, Matthew 15 verses 7 and 8, I'm going to start on the left side of the room here and go around to some verses. I have plenty of verses coming up and this will take a lot of time, but it's okay. Matthew, you can read your namesake there. Matthew 15, verses 7 to 9, if you could read that. Here Christ is speaking. He's talking about the prophets. 7 to 9. Matthew 15, 7, 8, 9. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain did you worship me, and teach me for doctors, and commandments of men." Wow, that's a pretty riveting accusation. That's one of the last things you ever want to be called by Christ, as a hypocrite. I mean, we all, by nature, are hypocrites. We are. David said himself, and we can see why, and he actually, as I've been reading through Psalm 119, he comes back and he begs the Lord, Lord, don't let me lie again. And I found some more words this morning we were reading that David calls the Scripture. He says it's his song and it's his pilgrimage. I like that word pilgrimage because it kind of connects the name of this church with what he believes scripture is. Pilgrimage, we're pilgrims, strangers in a strange land. But he says, remove my lying lips. He says what back in Psalm 116, 11, I think it is. And I said in my haste, all men are liars. But we're forgiven. We love the Lord and we repent, the Lord will forgive us. And we walk over glass to be truthful. We walk over glass to be original, to be authentic, to tell people the truth. We don't go around telling people the gospel and making up our own gospel and putting a wax nose on it like a lot of ministries do. We dig. We dig. And we go in and we look and we say, what do I tell somebody that's dying? What do I tell somebody that may be dead in their heart because they're not saved and they're questioning me and they're trying to put me up against the wall? They're throwing all these other religious things at me. What do I tell them? As Christians, one of the assurances that we have is to dig, to get the truth, is having that truth and going and giving them that truth. And here Christ is doing that here. He's giving them the unbridled truth of what's going to happen. And then what He's going to do, I asked about some of the components of what's happening right now. It's extremely important, because when MacArthur preaches this, he comes back and he gives the whole setting of what's going on. Christ is fulfilling everything that was leading up from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and when He goes to the cross, He's fulfilling Scripture. I was listening to a message this morning about the Magnificat, and I never thought of this. When you hear the Magnificat from Mary, she's quoting Scripture. She's going back and she's actually directly quoting Hannah. And she's directly quoting many Psalms when she says Christ's three components. Christ is mighty, Christ is holy, and Christ is merciful. That's what she's talking about. And she's saying that she needs a Savior. And here the setting is all coming together. And here Christ's hour is coming. He's going to leave the Holy Spirit. He tells the disciples, you're going to scatter, but I'm going to bring you back. and then I'm going in before Annas and Caiaphas and I'm going to have three kangaroo courts and they're going to lie they're going to lie me all the way to the cross and they're going to put me on there from a pretense but I'm going to shed my blood for you and it's only I can do this but I'm doing it I'm not going to run I'm not going to abrogate the fulfillment but I'm going to do this and here we see this all coming together right here in John 16 and he says my hour is coming For us as Christians, this would be so wonderful. Our hearts should be connected. This whole chapter should be like blood running through our veins. It's so incredible. When Matthew reads here in verse, he says, you hypocrites, what is he talking about? This is another component of basically what he's talking out is Christ is fighting the false religions of the world here. And he's showing them what the real true doctrine is. He calls the Pharisees, he's saying, you're hypocrites. You call out... He says that Isaiah prophesied of you. He said that you were no good, basically, and we see that all through the minor prophets. And then we see He says that your heart is far from Me. What does that mean? What is He saying? That's very important. That's a hard saying of Christ. There are many hard sayings. What's He saying that your heart is far from Me? Anybody have any idea? You honor Me with your lips. He says that people draw nigh unto me, but your hearts are far from me. Lisi. Right. Right. That's a great answer. I mean, look at what's going on today. Look at some of the stuff we've been seeing. I saw a new representation of this ex-NFL football player who now goes out and street preaches, he goes into Daytona. And this is his ministry. He has his wife take a bullhorn. I mentioned him, Maurice Price. This is nothing. I haven't talked about this yet. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was fascinating. I mean, what he did was incredible. It took a lot of guts to do it. Lisa and I saw that. He walks into this, it's this, I don't even know what you call it, but it's supposed to be like a house of worship, and it's in Daytona, Florida. There's a big rainbow out in front of it. And then it has all this stuff about diversity and all that. And he goes in and calmly talked to the pastor, who is a woman who has a black, the black has the white collar and the black and the gray pants. And she's up there just talking about how God has loved all the sodomites and how he has no problem with it and all this stuff. And he just sits there and he takes it and he goes up to you. Do you really believe this? And she goes, well, don't you love me? And something like that. She was like, aren't we supposed to love each other? And he goes, no, he doesn't love that. He hates that. She mentions the name of Christ and part of his name is in the title of their ministry. And he says, You're mentioning Christ, but you're bringing your children to hell. You're bringing your families to hell. You're bringing yourselves to hell. You are doing things that are not right. And he reads, he stands there and he won't leave. And she's asked him, she asks him, like, I don't know how many times to leave. And he goes, but I, but you, I don't understand. He goes, you need to declare yourself as a false prophet and you need to repent. You're bringing these people into hell. And then they make him leave and he goes, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ. What you're doing is you're all going and people were walking. You're going to go to hell and you're going to go to hell. Don't listen to these people. They're false prophets. And he stood there and he called that she pastor. He says, you're a wolf. And he didn't mince words and he gave her scripture and he stood out in front of that place and he preached for like a half an hour and the police came and he starts witnessing to the police and they couldn't do anything to him because it's perfectly legal. He witnesses and he does that and I'm saying this, they mention Christ but their heart is far from him, right? Doesn't that make sense? Lisa. teaching the law, which is the opposite. I mean, yes, we have the law. No, we don't throw it away. But Christ was saying, you can't fulfill the law. Only I can fulfill the law. That's right. So they were teaching the law, and they were saying that this is God's way. But it really was not God's way. They weren't teaching the doctrines of grace. They weren't teaching what Christ was teaching. That's why they were using the law to manipulate people. Right. People didn't see how they were being manipulated, but they were being manipulated. They were being controlled. Right. And they were making the Pharisees and the Sadducees rich. Right. Let's be honest. They were taking from the people, and the people were willingly giving it. But then, you know, they were Right? And what's one of the things through the law that they're bamboozling today? And we discussed this a little bit Wednesday evening, and I think it's very important. They have bamboozled the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day, according to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, is a day of rest. But it's still by Jewish communities called the seventh day. We now honor the Lord's Day. It's the first day of the week. And still a lot of people today are just they're just they're totally, totally tearing the Sabbath day apart. And instead of worshiping on the first day, you have Seventh Day Adventist, you have a lot of non-messianic Jews, and they're still doing exactly what Lisa just said. They took the law and they wrote up now it's over 600 different of their own versions of the law. And what they do is they live by that. They do not want Christ. They mention God, they mention Isaiah, they mention Abraham. What did Christ say about Abraham? Before Abraham was, I am. What did he say about Moses? Moses longed, he loved, he joyed to see my day. And when he said that, they hated him. They wouldn't sit back and they wouldn't repent, they hated him. And so here, he comes right back and he's telling them, why? Why? Why am I fulfilling the law? Getting back to one more thing real quick. What Lisa said, this is very important. Do you know what all these people say, like this Daytona church, and a lot of these other so-called evangelical churches are saying today? We don't live by the old law anymore. It's gone. That's not gone. It's not gone. And I think we need to be reminded of that. I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, Matt, go ahead. Basically, the old law just simplifies it. Love thy neighbor as thyself. And it's written in the greatest commandment, love the Lord with all thy heart and mind and soul. And it's basically the Ten Commandments all summed up. They read that. I mean, the people came to Jesus and said, how would you basically, how would you sum up the Ten Commandments? Love the Lord with all thy heart and mind and soul. And then the second one, love thy neighbor as thyself. Right. Now, that's another thing they said at the Daytona church, that pastor said, aren't we to love our neighbors? What does that mean? Do we realize, Christians, we should know what that means. What does that mean, love our neighbor? Right. There's a difference between loving your brothers and sisters and loving your neighbor. R.C. Sproul did a whole series on this. He spoke about the difference. Loving your neighbor, your neighbor are those that are not of the household of faith. That's your neighbor. Anyone who, if you're not sure or you believe that they're possibly are not of the household of faith, they are your neighbor and you are to love them. We're to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, but then we're to love our neighbors. See, what they're saying is that everyone is our neighbor, no matter what. And that's the problem. That's where the dividing line is. And did Lisa, you had your hand up? Right. Right. Right. But it works, doesn't it? Look at the penny in the coffer. Yeah. When that penny in the coffer cling, add up all the money that that penny in the coffer, that when it clinged into the coffer, look how much money was made off of that over the years. We couldn't even begin to fathom how much money it is because of that. Yeah. Right. Going back to what we were talking about Wednesday night. Real quick, Matt had his hand up. Go ahead, Matt. I'm sorry. Basically, everything is wrong with these people. It's like everything is god-damn right until it disadvantages them. Recently, I've seen that the top Christian songs, like Spotify or something, are by AI. And a lot of these Christian singers are upset because they're like, oh, this is wrong because it's not human to glorify God. And I'm just like, that's because it's Right. Yeah. Yeah. Those things could be a real problem. You just made a very profound statement. Teresa, what did you just say? to serve them. That's it. That's what it was. Remember we were talking about Rosaria Butterfield on Wednesday night? She said there were three major components that brought her out of that horrible, dark lifestyle. Rosaria Butterfield was an absolute flaming lesbian. had all these affairs and everything, had all these women, and then she had a pastor that lived next to her, and she got saved, and she is on fire for the Lord, and she now has conferences, she's bringing people, she's trying to go to these people that she would give them the Bible and all, but she said, one of the things that I noticed that really, really, that really lit my heart up was knowing that this pastor loved me as his enemy. and served her because what she believed in was totally opposite of what he would ever have believed in as a Christian, but he still loved her and brought her to the well, just like Christ did, the woman at the well. He and his wife brought her and loved her, even as an enemy, and not just one time, but consistently kept going back. I think that's important. And when the Lord opens up those opportunities and we have somebody that keeps coming back and keeps resurfacing, we stick with them. We keep trying to feed them with that gospel and give them that wonderful, those wonderful words of life that the Lord gives us. We're now to verse 17. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, what is it? Here we take this literary structure and it takes kind of a turn. They said among themselves, what is this that he saith unto us? They're still asking, what is he talking about? I mean, here they're still not sure. They're still in the grip of ambivalence. I don't even begin to know exactly what the whole opposite side of what they're thinking is. They're still questioning Him. Why are they questioning when Christ made it very clear? Look at all the sermons they had heard. And they're still questioning even after the sons of thunder were asking which ones get to sit on the right and the left hand sides of Christ. And he goes, can you bear this cup of wrath? Can you do what I'm going to do? And they're talking about their positions in heaven. And they come back and they're still asking, what are you talking about? In verse 17 he says, a little while and ye shall not see me. And again, a little while and ye shall see me, but because I go to the Father, And then they said in verse 18, they said, therefore, what is this that he saith? A little while, we cannot tell what he saith. And they're still asking. And I've got to tell you, I basically, I embrace this. It helps me and it helps me to learn and to dig because there's no doubt that this is the very same questions being asked today in most theological ranks. And I'm sorry to say, but a lot of the pastors I love to listen to and that I've studied from, and even reading commentaries, some of the biggest questions that come up like this are right inside the only walls of their church. The very people they've been preaching to all these years. Same thing, MacArthur said it, Dr. Sproul said it, so many others have said it, inside the confines of their own church. This is what people are still asking them. What is doctrine? Well, how do I know that I'm assured to be assured of my salvation? Did I do what was right this week? Did I do what was wrong this week? And all of the things, all of these wonderful foundational principles are given through Scripture, and they're still asking the question. Lisey. Yeah, that's Paul. Right, right. Right? Right. Sure. Yeah, growth. just growing, growing in the Lord and understanding these things. That's what Christ is talking about here. Many times he had asked, you know, he asked Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, you know, you don't know these things, you know? Well, we see that we see here that end of judgment when Christ had said judging the world that's under Satan's control, that he has that, the judgment of the world. He was talking about the blind, the empty, the lying, the evil that's out there. And it's all that is completely evidenced basically through the verdict of Christ himself, and this is one of those components where Christ is heading when we read these verses, that Satan basically is casting his unbridled assault against Christ and doing everything he can to stop him, and there's nothing he can do. We see the judiciary adjudications without the law of God have no ability to make righteous judgments. And what that means is all those that were coming after Christ boils down to the very statement that Pilate made. I find no fault in this man at all. That was the benediction to his comment, at all. And they still did it. And he says, you have nothing against me. John 7, 7, 23 and John 7, 23 and 24. Could you read that, Jacob? Go back to John 7 and read verses 23 and 24. Satan's laws, basically his ethical structure, it's filtered through all these false religions. And Greg, could you go next to John 8, verse 44? Go ahead when you have that, Jacob. If a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision, and the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at me, because I have made a man every wear and hold on the Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, Great, that's a great, great verses, as always. And thank you, Jacob. And here we see here, Christ says here, can you question me? Can you question me on this? If I make a man whole on the Sabbath day, didn't Christ say to leave the 99 to spare the one? We just let somebody just die or let somebody be hurt on the Sabbath day because we're breaking what was supposed to be the Torah, the Jewish law, and they're against that? OK. So in Moses' case. The circumcision is performing the same work as Christ who is making someone whole. In other words, what I'm trying to say is that circumcision is foreshadowing the event to come, which is Christ dying on the cross. His blood, like the blood of circumcision, is there to cleanse. And the gap in between is John the Baptist comes and says, And not using baptism as a means of salvation. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. That's right. Yeah, Greg, if you have John 8, verse 44. That's pretty understandable, I believe. This is one of the components that we're talking about, and here the disciples are saying, we don't understand what you're talking about. Remember what John the Beloved said in 1 John, and he talked about those that had left? He said, they were with us. They were not with us. Basically, their hearts were not with us. And here, Christ back in John, and what Greg just read, which was great, Christ calls out those ones that are not of Him. They're hypocrites, He said. When we go back in Matthew chapter 15, they're hypocrites. They're of their father, the devil. They're following the very one that is going to destroy them, and I'm going to destroy Him. And so why follow Him? But they did. They would not stop. They're basically telling Him, You are healing by the power of Satan. And that infuriated Christ, and it should have. Because what they were doing was they were kicking against blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And I truly believe a lot of these religions have already gone past over that line by sitting there calling their leader the Vicar of Christ and basically saying that the Holy Spirit does not sit on that seat. That's blasphemy. And teaching people that and having them follow a man that calls himself the Vicar of Christ. This is what Christ is talking about. These people had taken on the position of calling their false religion that Christ calls them out. Right here we're in verse 18. The disciples have made it very clear. We still don't understand what you're talking about. What part of me calling out the Pharisees and the Sadducees don't you understand that I called them a generation of vipers? That I said that they're hypocrites because they hate me and I know they want to kill me. But they're too much of a bunch of chickens to do it. They're going to turn me over to the Roman Empire. That's politics. This is what gets me about all these religions and all these... I've heard it so many times. So many people say, we need to keep politics out of the pulpit. That's politics and that is in its truest form. Do you have your hand up? No? I'm sorry. But anyway, see, we see here Christ is talking about these judiciary adjudications. And what is an adjunication? An adjunicator is one that sits back and confirms all the evidence in a court trial and really feeds it back and goes back to the judge. And really, when it comes down to it, the adjunicator really makes the final decision what really can happen in a really very difficult court case when really nobody knows what's going to do, what's going to happen. And the adjunicators here, with what Christ is talking about, His hour is coming, they are all going to turn against Him and say that He was an insurrectionist. He's a criminal. He totally violated the law. He totally, basically, has declared himself king over Caesar. And what we're going to do, as Caiaphas said back in John chapter 11 towards the end, we have to get rid of this guy. And that was really, that was the foundational statement after Christ healed Lazarus. And then he had, I think he had like breakfast with him or dinner with him. In the beginning of chapter 12, right after that, Caiaphas says, we have to get rid of him. And that's basically when he said, I and my father are one, going back to John 10.30, that infuriated them. How can he call himself one with the God of Moses? And saying, using these I Am statements. Verse 19 here we see, now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him and said unto them, do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said? A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me. I don't blame the disciples here. How can you see a dead person? This opens up such wonderful, a wonderful window on the absolute studying of the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ. How are we going to see you? If he starts explaining to them how he's supposed to die, which he's, but he's saying, how are we going to, what are we going to do? He's going to leave us. When someone leaves us, how can we see them? But he kept telling them to have faith, be patient. This is everything to us. This verse is important for us. How are we going to see anything? We're so afraid of the death process and dying. I think it really jumbles up our clear vision of what heaven's really going to be like. And they're asking the question, what? How are we going to see you? How are we going to find you? If you're going to leave us, why? And then they're like, why are you leaving us to begin with? When he's been telling them about it all along. In verse 19 and in verse 20, he comes back and he says, Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Wow, another prophecy. While Christ's death looks like Satan's greatest victory, it was actually Satan's destruction. Teresa, could you read Colossians 2, verse 8, and then hop over and read verse 15? Colossians 2, 8, and then verse 15. Yep, that's it, Colossians 2, 8, that's it. Wow! Triumphing over what? Powers and principalities? What does it say that he's triumphing over? The demons. He's triumphed over the demons. That's who I want to worship. If somebody can triumph over the demons and eradicate the filth that comes out of demonic possession, and you can see that when we were talking about that precious man Maurice Price, and he's poking the demons, and they're furious, and they're doing everything they can to get him out of there, and he goes, That's just what the demons do. They want me gone. You want me gone. You don't want to talk with me." He said, you do not want to debate with me. You can't debate with me because you're nothing but a liar and I have the truth. And he said, he looked at that pastor and he said, you are demonic. That's what the demons do. Remember, what did the demons do at Gadara? It's incredible they knew the actual one of the names of Christ that was a very highly used name of Christ. O thou son of man, what would thou have us to do with you? They didn't want nothing to do with Christ because they knew. They knew who had power over them. They knew that. We see the Spirit would lead the sinners in true judgment and expose all unrighteousness. And here Christ, now, He is declaring His unbridled assault against Satan, who is Christus victor, soul of Christus, Christ alone. He is declaring war on Satan. How? I am sending the Spirit of truth from heaven to judge all of the wicked, but the prince of the world is already judged." Look at that. I mean, what we're reading here is perfect prophecy. This is what's going to happen. Oh, eschatology. What's going to happen in the end times? Christ is laying it out here. Red letters. His very own words out of His own mouth. I just find it awesome. The Spirit will lead. the Lord's army against the sinners. You have many more things to say, many more things to teach. 2 Timothy 2.15, and I'll have to stop here. 2 Timothy 2.15 and 2.16. Don't ever forget this. Always remember this. Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth. Doing it right. but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness." And what we just read, what Teresa wonderfully just read, we looked at what he said, he used the word philosophy. Oh my, what has philosophy done to the educational structures of the country now? Philosophy has all but tried to do everything to destroy the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look what he says in Colossians about philosophy, rudiments, and he says traditions. The whole Catholic cult is predicated on tradition. How many Catholics do you know go back and say, well, my grandfather went there, my father went there, they went to Mass, that's where they went. So you're just going to follow them to hell? Think about it. We better stop. I'm sorry. Heavenly Father, I just thank Thee and praise Thee, Lord, for these words. Increase our knowledge, increase our faith. Help us, Lord, to go forward. Help us to love these words and help us, Lord, to meditate upon them day and night. Lord, these are Thy words, the words of the living God, the second person of the Godhead that came down here and taught us and had a perfect ministry. And as we're right here in John 16, we are seeing how thou art setting and waging war and has already defeated Satan. Lord, as thou says in the very last phrase, I have overcome the world. Be of good cheer. And even in the worst trials and in the hardest times in our life, we need to learn to be of good cheer because thou will never leave us or forsake us. Lord, guide us through this service this morning. Bless Pastor Coleman. We thank thee that he and Miss Millie have gotten here safely. that thou hast answered our prayers and that they're here with us. And I pray, Lord, that thou would walk amongst us greatly. For it's in thy name we pray. Amen.