Well, I trust you've had a good week, and it's good to see you back on the Lord's Day, a place of worship and instruction, and thank the Lord for each and every one of you. Today we begin our fourth lesson in this matter of the communion with God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, but adding the feature or the element little by little and week by week concerning the experiential knowledge that I believe is a very unique and very important aspect of our communion. with God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. This is something I want God helping me to, as it were, weave into the fabric of the lessons. And thank you for your prayers and trust that the Lord will bless as we endeavor to. include this in our relationship with God. Let's open our Bibles, if you will, to 1 John 1. I want us to give reading to verses 1 through 3. 1 John 1, and let's read verses 1 through 3. What was from the beginning what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld and our hands handled concerning the word of life. And the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also, that you also may have, here's our word, fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship, or translated sometimes communion, is with the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. And as we will see, although the Holy Spirit is not specifically individually named, yet is included in the triune God. And we will be dealing with that somewhat today. So in our previous messages, we have seen that recently communion with God is of course in essence communion with Christ and of necessity with the Holy Spirit. We learn that communion with God the Father has to do with this primarily. Receiving of God's love and making appropriate returns of that love, consisting of acts of faith and acts of obedience. That's a lot to put into one phrase. But think about that. Let's take it a little bit slower and think about it as we repeat this. communion with God the Father consists of, I'm going to change a few words here as we do, the receiving of God's love. And you know we could probably spend the rest of the lesson on that issue. Receiving of God's Love. Think of the ways in which God has and does manifest his love to us. And the ways we receive that love. And in the giving and the receiving of that love, what takes place? Well, fellowship or communion is actually taking place when that occurs. the receiving of God's love, and then we have the making on our part, the appropriate returns of that love. But how do we do that? Well, we do it by acts of faith. And here's a very key word in our fellowship and communion, obedience. obedience to his commands, obedience to his revealed will. Now, the Browns have raised children. The rest of you are getting there. But as a parent over the years, with two children that God I can tell you there is a unique sense of joy and satisfaction whenever your children obey you. Not because at any given moment there's a problem and you have put enough pressure on them to get their obedience. but just because out of a sheer heart of love that they have for you as parents, they want to please you. And I can tell you there's something that occurs as fellowship, communion, going on when that takes place between the parent and the child. It is unique, it is wonderful, it is truly a blessing. I just hasten to add, it doesn't come naturally. It takes prayer, patience, training, discipline to bring it about. But when it occurs, what a delight, what a joy. That brings to your heart. We have seen that communion with Jesus Christ has to do particularly with what we have pointed out being the means of grace or grace in itself. What about grace? What can you tell me about grace? Well, let me tell you a few things this morning about grace, and let's think about it. What kind of grace are we talking about? Well, let's think a moment. There's saving grace, how we thank God for the manifestation of that saving grace in our life. What about sustaining grace over the period of time? Perhaps in times of testing and trial, persevering grace would be related to keep on keeping on. As my your friend, Andy Hamilton, who's doing the missionary work over in Burma. Whenever he would greet me at a pastor's conference or we would be talking, he'd come to part, he'd grab my hand and say, presum, brother, presum. And unforgettable. But what did that convey to me? It conveyed to me perseverance. Keep it. Here's one about enabling grace to give you that particular edge of strength or endurance along the way. the trials, the hardships. I sometimes refer to it, toughing it out. I guess by now you probably surmise that Paul was one of my favorite heroes. But you think of the perseverance, and that's already stole some of my thunder, because that's one of the other points here, persevering grace. to just keep on keeping on in the face of difficulty, in the face of trials, not throwing in the towel, not saying, I quit, but enduring week after week, month after month, year after year. And where does that come from? Do you not see that in each of the ones that we have named, be it saving, sustaining, enabling, persevering, do you not see that in the interaction of those things being carried on in your life, whether it is being saved, whether it is sustaining, whatever, do you not see that that is the very, I don't even know what word I want to use here, the very essence of communion, of fellowship, one with the other. On a human level, I just, want to express this. Because when I say human level, I don't necessarily mean entirely human level at any given point of our life. But I would give personal testimony to the fact that my dear wife and I, we went to Mexico to start a four year Bible school. And God blessed and brought it about. But living conditions were not always ideal. When we first moved in, we moved into a three-bedroom, two-bath, two-story house. Nice. Tiled floors. There were no sinks to wash your dishes. There were no stoves. to cook your food. There were no cabinets to put your food in. A few items missing. My wife taught my children their first year of public school in the kitchen using an electric stove that we had brought from Phoenix to warm things up during the wintertime. I can go on and on and on. I won't." But enough of that to say things were not ideal. But we continued on day after day after day with the best we had and could get at the moment in our situation. What was happening between the relationship between Loretta and I during those times when we were toughing it out with our little kids? I can tell you there was a lot of fellowship. There was a lot of communion between the two of us, expressed, implied in many ways. What brought that about? Well, it wasn't the ideal condition that brought it about. It was the fact that God was giving us grace to respond physically, mentally, psychologically, and spiritually to the situation that we were in. Rather than breaking down, complaining, quitting, I'm out of here, whatever, no, day by day by day. And only by the grace of God were we able to see things gradually fall, come into place by God's grace. And when those things happened, they came to us as special provisions of God himself, what was taking place when that happened. A missionary working up in the mountains of Mexico had an old gas furnace that he didn't need and wanted to get out of the way. We had to put it in the living room. Guess what? The floors upstairs were nice and warm. So there was a blessing there, too, as well as heat for downstairs. Now, we look back and we smile and we think, you know, boy, we had a good time. The Lord blessed us. But there was that element, not necessarily spoken, but there was communion going on between Loretta and I, and between us and our children. And both of my children today will tell you it was one of the greatest experiences of their life to go and live in a different culture for four years. Three of those years going to Mexican schools and now speaking the language fluently. The blessings that came out of it. I will tell you one amusing little incident for your enjoyment. The house had three bathrooms, but only one of them worked. There was a, I guess what you call a homemade repairman of some sort that attended one of the local churches. We said, as soon as we want you to come by and fix our bathroom, a couple of bathrooms. He arrived and checked it out. He said, well, you got two that worked. What's the problem? I mean, one that works. You only have one that works, but there was two that didn't work. He said, you got one that worked. He said, what's the problem? He says, why do you want to go to this extra trouble? He did. But I thought that was kind of amusing. But those were good days. But there were days of communion, days of fellowship on a human level, but let me say this, on a spiritual level as well. It wasn't all joy and happy, happy, happy. There were matters of concern, sadness. My wife will tell you, would tell you, the only time she ever cried was when it dawned on her she was unable to read our children's textbooks. Because after the first year, we put them in public schools. And it really bothered my wife that she couldn't know Spanish well enough to keep up in detail with what was going on in their school. So a page or two out of our life. But I think sometimes it helps to bring it down on that level of nitty gritty, where here you are, what are you going to do, and make the most of it for a time of deep, deep One with the other. Your relationship between you and the Lord. Growing grace in the knowledge of Him. Well, that brings us to our passage. I want you to look at John 16. John chapter 16. And let's look at verses 1 through 7. through seven. These things I have spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcast from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think. He's offering service to God. And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father or me. But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now, I'm going to him who sent me. And none of you asked me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Do you see any communion there? I see a lot of it going, taking place. But I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. That, of course, being the Holy Spirit. Dear ones, the sending of the Holy Spirit is foundational to our holy communion with the Holy Spirit. Back in verse one of that chapter, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. Christ, what is Christ doing here with the disciples? very kind, very graciously, very lovingly, he is sending the Holy Spirit, which will be the foundation of their holy communion with the Holy Spirit. Christ is forewarning his disciples of the kind of treatment that they can expect. It's not all going to be roses and beautiful things. There's going to be some suffering. He's warning them. In verse 1, he says, these things I have spoken to you that you should not be offended. What do you think that means? Well, I think it certainly might and would include physical harm at some point. Do you think it means more than that? Yes, obviously it does. It is a wounding, you know, you have these high hopes and you're all excited about this or that opportunity and then you meet with persecution and rejection and everything else you can think of. They were offended. he's because of the issues. He does not want them in the course of their future, near future and long range service ministry, serving God. He doesn't want that to bring about their falling away. from God. Listen to these words of our Lord. They will make you outcast from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. He's laying it on the line. This is what it's going to be. And it's not going to get any easier. He's honest with them right up front. Now, our key verse is going to be verse seven. Our Lord is addressing the disciples. But I'll tell you the truth. It is your advantage But I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send him." A word of explanation. This is the way it is. This is the way it works. Now, who is this comforter? John 15 and verse 26. John 15 and verse 26, when the helper or the comforter comes, whom I will send you from the Father, that is the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me. Interesting. Does that sound like communion? I think so. Here's the Holy Spirit bearing witness of Christ. Think of the spiritual blessing and benefit that is to them. What they're learning, what they're experiencing, the revelation that is being given to them. That is spiritual. encouragement. And it comes under the category of communion, interchange, experiencing. Do you not think that very soon after these words were spoken, that they had reason enough to put into practice what the Lord had just told them? Yes, by all means. It's practical application 101. And they began to discover experientially what they had just been told, experiencing in their own heart their own emotions, the power of God ministering to them in indescribable situations, there was something happening. There was that inner exchange. of God's presence and power and blessing in a given situation. Heard it? What next? Here it is. It's the experience. Let me make a summary observation here. The presence of the Holy Spirit with believers as a comforter sent by Christ for the purpose for which he was promised is better and more profitable for believers than any corporal presence of Christ can be. That's a lot to think about. It's a lot to put into practice day by day. And you know, working on these lessons and thinking about them a lot, Sometimes, often the thought comes to my mind, just think. I'm in the position of being able to know, understand, experience what these disciples experienced. in terms of the personal presence of our Lord, the Holy Spirit, ministering to my needs that are peculiar and unique to Los Wolvers. And it's the Holy Spirit, it's Christ who can fill my heart and calm my concerns that sometimes can increase with life. They're there and God knows and he knows how to address each one. Turn with me to John 14 in verse 16. John 14 in verse 16. What do we have here? And I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper that He may be with you. I like this. Forever. Forever. Given as a gift. Received as a gift. We are, dear ones, to pray that the Father and the Son would grant to us the spirit. I don't ask you to turn there. I've asked you to look a lot today, but Luke, just listen, Luke 11 and 13. If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? We have a place. We have a responsibility to do that. But I like those three little words. You know what they are. How much more. It's not just this. How much more. This and much more will be given to you. And what a great privilege, blessing it is to know that. Now, about the receiving of these blessings. What does that involve? Well, let's establish a few facts. And the first fact that I think we need to underscore and establish is this. Every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That's a foundational fact that you need to nail down. Every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You say, Pastor, show me some proof of that. I'm glad you asked. Turn to Romans 8 and verse 9. Romans 8 and verse 9. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if, if, Indeed, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Further explanation, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Pretty straightforward, pretty clear. So we've established that fact, is that each believer Being born again of the Spirit, spiritual birth, as the Holy Spirit, takes place at regeneration. Even though we were dead in trespasses and sins, for His great love for which He loved us, quickened us by this together, alive together with Christ. If then the Holy Spirit indwells each believer, question, how is it then that the believer can receive the Holy Spirit? First of all, we need to keep in mind that we're primarily referring to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. And it's mentioned in John 14, you don't need to turn there, just listen carefully, John 14, 17, that is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. Note, he is referred to as the spirit of truth or as comforter. John Owen says, Now the power that is here denied to be in the world, with the reason of it, that they cannot receive the Spirit because they know him not, is ascribed to believers. They can receive him because they know him. So that, pay close attention, there is an active power to be put forth in his reception for consolation, though not in his reception for regeneration. So we're talking about two different things. receiving of the Holy Spirit and the quickening, the regeneration, but also the receiving of the Holy Spirit as he is made available to us for consolation. And that, again, just spells out very clearly communion. And I trust it. We will take these things home with us, think about them, pray about them, and begin to fully understand, with God's help, what a blessing it is. All that has come about in the saving of ourselves and continues in our life day by day. Let's pray. Our gracious God, we pray now that you would use these words, these truths, to encourage us, to instruct us, to equip us, day by day, to benefit from all of the trials and difficulties that we face in life, and do so by entering into a more conscious awareness of what a privilege it is to have communion with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We pray in Christ's name, amen.