We believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Tonight we consider our confession of God the Holy Spirit, and we do this in the light of Pentecost of last week, where we celebrated the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. We do this with a view tonight to celebrating that same gift of the Holy Spirit with a vibrant and powerful Christianity at the end of the age. Lord's Day 20 in the back of the Psalters, page 27, gives us the Catechism's brief exposition of what we believe concerning the Holy Spirit. The question is asked, what do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit? And we answer this, first, that He as well as the Father and the Son is eternal God. The divinity of the Spirit is set forth here. Secondly, the personal property of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of His comfort is especially emphasized in the second answer. Second, we believe of the Holy Spirit. He's given to me personally so that by true faith, He makes me share in Christ and all His blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever. Well, beloved, we have here, as I say, a very brief exposition of the Holy Spirit. He's God, and He's given to me, and He's given to me to comfort me with the blessings of Christ, and that forever. It's an amazing brevity here for the Holy Spirit. Much has been neglected of the Holy Spirit, but also much said in latter days and among theologians and preachers. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is said to be the forgotten person of the Trinity, the one who hides, as it were, behind the Father and the Son and not wanting to draw attention to himself. And indeed, you would think because of the life of many Christians today and the preaching of the gospel and the deadness of churches, that the Holy Spirit is indeed forgotten by us himself because we're not living the life of piety that he works in those who believe. In fact, we wonder about that forever. We wonder about that second question of which we'll speak, especially in our sermon tonight, We wonder if that Spirit is given to us personally, really, and that we are to have Him forever, and then we wonder sometimes, well, what's the use? What's the practical purpose of having the Holy Spirit, whom we cannot see as the presence of Christ, who seems a very dim and ethereal presence of Christ, because Christ dwells bodily at the right hand of God, but this one, inside of us, we're told, Where's the power? Where's the power? In fact, we wonder, because of the public state of Christianity, where so many seem to be going astray from the faith, if the Holy Spirit has left and we deservedly have been abandoned by God because of our miserable state and our powerless Christianity. Think of these things. Think of them as well as we turn to the exposition that Paul gives to Timothy of the perilous times, 2 Timothy chapter 3. We read of that now. And this will be for light upon the state of the world and the spirit of Christ in this world as we consider one of the verses here, the first verses of 2 Timothy 3. But let's read the whole of the Word of God. inspired by the Holy Spirit, to say this, But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves. lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and then this, which will be our text for this evening, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away. For of this soar to those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janus and Jambres resisted Moses, And it is thought that these were the two magicians that resisted Moses by imitating his miracles, though they could not after a while. As Janice and Jamres resisted Moses, so do these, who have a form of godliness but deny its power. They resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith. But they will progress no further. For their will, their folly, will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Beloved, so that there might be Pentecost today, not a recovery of all of the things that happened that first Pentecost day, but that there might be the fruits of Pentecost today, we do preach, and we would hear what God has to say. There is, in this description of the inspired Paul to Timothy, young pastor Timothy at Ephesus, a description of the last times and no less than 19 evils which will be upon us in the last perilous, dangerous, deceptive, and destructive times. The 19th is our text. Those will be, there will be those who have a form of godliness but deny its power. That takes us into the church. It might be the case that there are mere men outside of the church who are described in the first 18 of the verses, lovers of themselves, lovers of money and so on, but it cannot be denied that the last of the description of the ungodly and perilous times are those who have a form of godliness but deny its power. And I wonder, beloved, if this fruit of the evil spirits of the age is so increasing among us that we begin to wonder. Perhaps we're wondering about the power of religion in our lives, all the choices we make which are not informed by God in answer to prayer. All of the ways we seek, the entertainment we seek, the habits we fall into that show we are not gripped by the gospel, but instead compelled by the advertisement and the entertainment of the world. How about you? How am I doing on this score? There are those who reveal that they are the reprobate in the end of time in the church, having only a form of godliness, but denying its power. May this not be said of us, but positively, may we have both the form and the substance and know its blessing. That's my first point, in fact, of this sermon. We are going to consider those who have the form of religion but no power. We need to consider having both the form and the substance and what that means, and its blessedness. But then... As we are called here, we are to turn away from people who have a form of godliness but deny its power. And finally, we want to consider what the Catechism reminds us of, that great blessedness of having the Spirit every day and forever on the ground, not just in theory or in a creed, but having the Holy Spirit and power in perilous times. What the Bible assumes at this point when it considers and would have us to consider or know that in the last days there will be in the church those who have a form of godliness without its power, even denying its power, what the Bible, I say, wants us to consider is that there are two things, two aspects of the Christian religion. There is a form and there is a substance. There is something that's an outward thing. That's the idea of form. It's the Greek word morphe, only used in one other place. But it has to do with an outward thing of religion and a thing that has a shape to it, an appearance of godliness and religion, even the Christian religion. Not said to be bad in itself. But it is bad if you only have a form, an appearance, if you only show up to church, if you only perfunctorily, that is, out of rote and custom and superstition merely, read the Bible, slam it home, and then go on to surfing the internet. There is, I say, a problem if there's nothing more than a form to your religion. There needs to be something substantive, the real blessing. Now, theologians have wrestled with what is the power that is to be had. And we're going to be considering these two things, the power of our religion and the form of it. But theologians have disagreed about what is the real power of religion that's referred to here. Some think it's the gospel, and they would not be far off. they would be, in a large degree, correct. For the gospel, Paul says in Romans 1, is the power of God's same word unto salvation to all who believe. So that definitely is the power, one aspect of the power, the real blessedness of a Christian. We're here, you see, to testify to the world, in fact, and to ourselves, and to encourage one another in ourselves that Our church is more than a building, and our religion is more than religiosity. There's something real here. There's a gospel here, which is the power of God unto salvation. Included with that is the scriptures, are the scriptures, which Paul says to Timothy at the end there, are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, verse 15. So the gospel is a power to save. And then there's the scriptures themselves, which perceived and understood and followed by faith, are able to make us wise to salvation. That ability of the Bible, that power, is indeed magnificent and is a great reality of the Christian life. People, we are of God and of his book. Yes, indeed, a powerful, infallible, inspired book is the word of God, the power. But I believe, beloved, it's more, is the power that these people will lack at the end of time, they will deny the power, that power is more than the gospel and more than the Bible. Now you say, Reverend Dick, hold it, where are you going here? What could be more than the gospel, more than the Bible? Well, beloved, how about God? God is given to us, and Pentecost, as we saw last week, was a celebration of God still with us, now in the person of the Holy Spirit, and the Father, and the Son, coming to sons of God, ordained to eternal life, in the regenerating work of this lavished blessedness of this person of the Divine Trinity, so that in Him, There is this presence of God and this powerful presence of God. In fact, as the disciples were told in Acts chapter one in verse eight, they were to remain in Jerusalem and that they would receive power from on high. That's a reference to the Holy Spirit. Whatever else he is, this mysterious person of the Trinity, he's the power of God. He works in the forms. He works in the Word, teaching us of Jesus and commanding our attention by sanctifying us and being called, as the churches say, the Lord and giver of our life. This is the blessedness that we have as believers. We have the presence of God. It's true, then, that as Jesus said, he goes away, I will be with you always. He is with us always in His Spirit. He poured out the Spirit. This is the Spirit of Christ. He is with us always according to his promise in John, the last night in which he was betrayed before he was crucified, that he would send another comforter, and that this would be like unto him. Indeed, this is Christ with us in his Holy Spirit, and in a great way, even greater than it could be that we could know the presence and power and the personal favor of God when Jesus only was here. Oh no, that sounds like blasphemy, nigh unto it, but Jesus, you see, himself knew that he had to die and be risen and go away and then send the Spirit for an advancement of God's people in their intimacy with God, in their access to God, in their knowledge of God. This is the New Covenant reality. And this is what is assumed here, is forgotten, denied in the end times and the perilous times. Think of that. What a terrible sin. To have a church building, to have a creed, to have a kind of confession of Christ, but deny God. Deny Him. Say no to Him. This is blasphemy. We have, positively, all the blessings of the Holy Spirit. That's what it is to have His power. The life of Christ is given to us in the Spirit regenerating us and joining us to Jesus in all His blessings, as the Catechism says in Lord's Day 20. The works of faith, He works in us so that we are made willing to do of His good pleasure. This is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. We live joined to Jesus now. This is the power of Christianity. You know that? This is the blessed power. This is the amazing divine grace thing that's given to sons of men who are no better in themselves than any of the sons and daughters of men, but it's a power, all right? Power so that we are joined to the crucified life of Jesus, partakers of his atonement and all the wonderful completeness of that forgiven sin. It's the power of that risen life whereby we are risen with Jesus because we're joined to him, you see, by this powerful Holy Spirit. It's the power of God leading us to repent who are naturally so proud and stuck on ourselves. It's the power within to make us believe and to conform us to the image of Christ. It's a power indeed, as our text is reminding us of godliness. Many in the end times will have a form of religion, a form of godliness, excuse me, but they will deny its power. But the blessedness of the Christian is that we have the power of the Holy Ghost, and we have this godliness that results from this power, this piety. But we also, we should know, have the form. This is where many people go astray here. They're so spiritual, they think there's no form to Christianity. The same kind of persons who say the body isn't very important, but God made us to have bodies, and we are body and soul. Even many kinds of religionists will deny the body and the motions of the body, not just the lust of the flesh, but any natural passions and say that's all wrong. Well, what they do is dehumanize us. God made us to be body and soul, and Jesus died for us body and soul. He made us to be a package, as it were, and there is this kind of outward shell in the body, which is not really outward. That's more like the philosophy of the Greeks, but there's a connection between body and soul. That's why it's important to believe in the resurrection of the body. And there will be glory and glory and hallelujah with us in our transformed bodies, in our souls, as we gather around the throne of God and worship Him. This is why the importance of the body is why God showed the real and great mystery of godliness Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3, took on a body, the person of his son. So there's a body, a form, an outward appearance of things religious, and I'm referring to things like church institute, this, and the ordinances of preaching. This is a bodily thing, you're hearing with ears, and I'm speaking with a mouth, and I've worked on these sermons in prayer and in study, and you come to this and you understand that God uses the form of preaching. and the sacraments as well to work and increase and encourage our faith. There's a connection between God and this earth, you see, and between us and God and this earth as well. And so the form and the substance are so very important. But you cannot be religious, truly religious, and truly godly if you only have the form. It's striking that this is what is described here. There's people who end up in the church, who have a form of godliness, but that's all they have. They deny its power. They resist the power. They're fakes. They're just formalists, as we call them. This is, in fact, listed among these new, these last days, perilous times, evil, evils, the 19th of them striking. There are similar lists of evil in the Bible, you know, long lists of evil. The Bible is quite negative. It brings out the positive on the dark backdrop of all the evil from which we're delivered and need to be warned about. There is, for example, in Romans 1, a list of all the evil of the pagans. They turn the good gifts of God into idols and they're not thankful. They're foolish and they suppress righteousness and ungodliness and so on. Sadly, that's what a lot of our people in our own country do in the name of this great American country we have and so on. They're evil for all that. They know more about heroes and superheroes than they prefer to know or care about Jesus Christ, Savior. Be that as it may, there's a new form of paganism that's being prophesied here in the last times. The pagans are described in Romans 1. The new pagans are described as church folk in 2 Timothy chapter 3. New pagans. They are Christian pagans, as it were, formalists. For to deny the power of Christianity is to deny the God of Christianity. It's to be sacrilegious. It's to be blasphemous. It's to say one thing and mean another. It's the condemnation here of anything that is like hypocrisy. So what does a new pagan look like in the church? Well, they profess Christ and they profess the Bible. That's what has them have a form of godliness. They profess Jesus Christ. and they profess to believe the Bible. They pay attention to these things as well. They'll bear along with the minister who reads from a creed once in a while. They'll put up with and even engage in the customs of the things that they've learned in their Christian and religious family. They are those who engage in religious activities, maybe even go on the mission field. But for all of this, their lives are not changed. They're not changed. They are not truly sons and daughters of God. You can tell, mostly, some people fool you, but these increasingly don't even care if they're found out. To them, the whole form is everything, and that's all that matters. Well, how does this come to pass? That's a question. And theologians and ministers study these things, and we should study these things to be warned about how this can come to pass. Well, it could be, beloved, that the cares of life, anxieties, and we have them. We all have them. We all have our struggles. Well, they burden us so that we are swallowed up by them. Any of you swallowed up by a burden? Maybe it's a decision you have to make and you just don't want to make it, or you just can't find wisdom. Maybe your family's far away. Maybe you know a loved one and that loved one is sick, hurting, and even nigh unto death. Maybe there's a loved one gone astray from the faith. They once confessed Christ, you thought it, they made a beautiful confession, and now they don't give a snap about religion not only, but about the God of religion, even our Father in heaven. The cares of life can swallow us up. And then we're like Peter, looking at the water, aren't we? We began walking by faith on the water. Now we look at the waves. We are swallowed up by them. Jesus warns about that in Matthew 13. The thorns and thistles of life and all the difficulties and the briar patches, they just interfere with our believing, with that word of God, that seed-taking root, and we don't have the faith to carry on. Well, this can happen in the Church of Christ among certain people, maybe from good families. The cares of life have said, you know what, it doesn't work. I have not experienced the comfort of the Holy Ghost of which the Bible speaks and of which my other peers, they do speak. And so I've tried it. That's enough. I'm going to try other things. There's other comforts. And so they lose the power. They lose altogether their confession. After a while, they go lost. They never were saved. but this happens through a process. You see, denying the power is not, first of all, a thing that just happens usually, but there's a gradual saying, I don't need the power. I don't trust the power. There's other things that are more powerful in my life that I like. The Holy Spirit power, we realize, is a convicting power, and it leads us to Jesus and someone else's righteousness than our own. You can't, you see, build any castles for yourself in the Christian religion. It's all about God the king, and there's only one king, and it's not you, it's God. Well, cares of this life, what about the good things of life? They can overwhelm us too, can't they? And as Americans, we have these liberties, and we have great resources, more than any other country on the planet, and we simply take them for granted. Or we take them as everything and we take them and run to the bank, to the church. We don't leave the world out of the church. We're constantly thinking upon this because after all, we have these good things. We want more of them. Yes, we're all covetous. The miser, the poor man, the rich man. All we want is one dollar more. These things lead to a virtual denial of the power of God in our lives and a resistance to it. See, these things are part of our lives, good and bad, but God, he's an interferer. We say, I don't know about that. And he's one who really ruffles my feathers and turns me not to myself, which I want to be consumed about, but to himself and to other people and to love God and to love other people. And what does it get me? We say, compared to the neighbor. This can happen in a hereditary sort of way. We grow into a Christian family, and we see the hypocrisy and the inconsistencies in our parents, and we say, none of that. They fight. They covet. The Bible says you're not to do that. I want out of here. I'm a child of hypocrites, or at least of inconsistent, weak parents." Maybe you've had authority figures in your life, and they've compelled you to go to church, and this is what parents should do. We don't give children the option about church, but the force of our authority should be gentle and kind and righteous in the name of God, according to the Word of God. Some people rebel against even that. And so they say, no, no, no, I want to make the choice. And in America where it's all about independence and making your own choices and having people be tolerant of us and so on and me identifying as the king and you identifying as the queen of the universe, well, we get to make choices. And this religion thing in which we've grown up has been about me inheriting something and I don't like that inheritance. So there you go. There's no power of religion. It's not the power of our choice, you see. And we don't like that. Maybe friendships lead this way. Again, it's a process. And I take some time here to explain this because this is this 19th of so many evils in perilous times that comes to the church and is seen in the church. People who have a form of godliness, but deny the reality of it, the power of it, the cross of it. Sometimes friendships lead us astray. We don't shun those who have a form of godliness. We don't turn away from them, as the text says we should, but we welcome them into our lives. So they're just there. We like to do a certain thing. We hook up with people on the internet. They like to do the same thing. Pretty soon we're gaming with them. We're doing this and that with them. And they say they're kind of Christian, but that's all they are is kind of Christian. And this is exactly what's described here, kind of Christians. Not real Christians, kind of Christians. And you make friends with them or buddies with them, pretty soon you'll be a kind of Christian. You'll deny the power of the distinction of being a child of God, of being a soldier of the cross, of being committed to another called God. who is the only significant other there ought to be, first of all, I say, in your life. So by these and by marriage, many people are sucked away into a powerless form of religion. Oh, we need so desperately a wife or a husband. And oh, we haven't really confirmed to our mind, to our satisfaction that indeed this is a godly person and the Lord's Day is important for them. But never mind. God will certainly bless me through this. Well, this is the beginning of the end of godliness in that family. Might not be for your being destroyed yourself completely, but it will be this compromise here. Mark well these words. It will be for a compromise in your family. You see, you never, if you're marrying a person who's not consistently godly and not positively for Christ, you will never be influenced for the good. or she will never be influenced for the good. That is generally speaking. But you will be brought down. That is also generally speaking. Be careful. Well, there's so many ways. Some people used to like the honor of being religious, even Christian. Oh, they fought for this. They fought for the office of cardinal and bishop and so on in the Roman Catholic Middle Age Church, and they still do. There's honors to be had here and money. Some people that way go for the honor and go for the money, and they have nothing to do with the power of religion. Oh, beloved, this is a sad thing and a sad process. It is formalism, and we are called here to turn away from such people. Turn away from such people. And that means turn away from such people. He says this often in the Bible, have no company or fellowship with unbelievers, he says. Here, turn away from such who say they are believers, but are only half believers and kind of Christians. It means shun them. And the reason is because they're dangerous, and they're deceptive, and they're destructive. Have no fellowship with them. Turn away from them. Look what they do. Verse six and following. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Then these formalists are compared to Janus and Jamras, who resisted Moses. And so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith. But they will progress no further, for their following will manifest to all, as theirs also was." So there's the danger. There's the destructive danger of these men and women who are half Christians, which is no Christians at all. Resist them. Don't have fellowship with them. It is so very important that we ourselves not be content with anything fake. If you ever try to witness to a person about their fakeness, you have to be in a good position. And the position is not you're better inherently than them, But the position is you being in the Spirit and they not being in the Spirit. From that vantage point, you think of Romans 8, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. But from that vantage point, you'll have a proper attitude of humility and grace and wisdom to testify of the futility and vanity of being a fake Christian. Parents, as Reformed parents, we are those who just don't assume obedience. We command obedience, and we expect it. We look forward of our children. When they don't, we warn them. We rebuke them. You're baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be real, to be real. And God will not accept a person who, though they bear the mark of baptism, bear no mark of the fruit of the Holy Ghost, no understanding and fruit of the power of the presence of God. This is, I say, a position you can be in to witness to people like this. One of the commentators beautifully and poetically described what it is to be a formalist. He said there's no use in it. There's absolutely no use in being a fake Christian. There's nothing. No good comes of it. Just all kinds of webs that you weave when first you practice to deceive. It's like trying to ride home, this person goes on, on a dead horse. It's like trying to hunt with dead dogs. It's like going to battle with a cardboard shield and expecting that to ward off the blows of steel swords. Being a fake Christian is like thinking that in the depth of winter you could warm yourself by a painting of a fire, or in the pains of hunger that you could be fed by a painting of a meal. All these things are useless, aren't they? So why then do you pretend to be a Christian? It's useless. And worse, it's a great blasphemy to God, a danger to your soul, and to everyone about you. So what's this sermon for, beloved? What is it for? We're called here to know. In the last times, it'll be perilous. It'll be very dangerous. And there's a list here of so many things, so many evils. Men are lovers in themselves, lovers of money, boasters and proud. The end of the list is those who are in the church still. They have a form of godliness. They're not quite ready to get rid of that form of godliness because there's something in it, they think, for them. And though you remind them that there's really nothing in it for you, and it's all fake, and it's like a fire that's no fire, and a horse that's dead, and so on, and a Savior that is not Jesus, they still want to hang on to it. Well, I guess the sermon then is to say to you, don't hang on to that. If you're a formalist, cease and desist from your formalism and repent of that half-hearted Christianity. Repent of it. You see, you're all in or you're not in. It's about the substance of God in your life, the reality, the presence of God. And it's about a powerful godliness in perilous times. Note how the apostle, who's always one who brings the negative and then the positive, and he's always encouraging, and here now to Timothy and those who believe as Timothy, verse 10, he says, but you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life and purpose and faith and longsuffering and love and perseverance and persecutions and afflictions and so on. He's saying there's these people who in the end time, they're half-hearted Christians, they're not really in it. But you, I know things better of you. You're following hard after. You are pursuing the things that you've seen and heard and saw done in me. That's who you are. And I would encourage you, beloved, because The temptation here, when you consider that there's going to be formalists, the temptation on the one hand is to deny that you are, even though you are, or to say that you are and you're really not. What I'm trying to say here is this formalism is indeed a problem for all of us. But I don't want you to lose heart, dearly beloved of God. I know the formalism of some of you, the inconsistencies. That's the advantage of being a pastor of a congregation for as long as I have been here. That's an advantage to you. But I also know the grace of God in my own life, and that's necessary. You see, this is 2 Timothy 3. But there's also Romans 7, which speaks of the struggle that the apostle himself had. The good that I would, I do not, the evil that I would not, that I do. Christ was everything to him, but he's in this terrible predicament of having an old man with the new and seeing all of the inconsistency and as a preacher of the gospel, that's the most shameful thing. Maybe that's the hard thing for children of a pastor to see or a wife of a pastor to see. There's an inconsistent man in the pulpit and we know him better than you do, congregation. But I say to you now, resolved, you are pastor. And I dare say for the elder's sake and the deacon's sake and the leaders of the church's sake, on their behalf, we are resolved to be real. We are resolved to live so that to live is Christ and to die is Christ. for the sake of the congregation and the truth and the testimony of the reality of God. That's why we're here. That's why you're here too, aren't you? And if you're having trouble being consistent and a struggle being consistent and real and applying the word of God to every aspect of your life, Repent and believe in the forgiveness of sins, also the sin of formalism, of denying the Savior when the fire gets hot, when the controversy becomes real and close to home. That's our sin. Don't deny the Savior. Don't deny the power of the presence of God and godliness in your life. May God work in you to be a real congregation and all who may be gathered to us to be real Christians. Together, in these perilous times, we get to preach grace and live by it. Believe that. Amen. Father in heaven, we pray that we may have power in our lives, the Holy Spirit and grace of Jesus. Rid us, Lord, of all mere formalistic Christianity. Of the dead wood in our lives, trim the branches, Father, prune us, and only give us, Lord, to abide in Jesus. Ah, we need Him, Lord. How we need forgiveness and pity from on high. How we need, Lord, that you would say to us, you are mine and you are forgiven. Now carry on, soldier. Carry on, runner. Carry on, child of the living God. Lord, bless us. We live in perilous days. They are upon us indeed. And we, Lord, want to be a part of those who have the answer by living out the powerful Christian life. Help us to resolve difficulties in light of the word of God. Help us to face every adversary and every obstacle in light of the gospel of God, the power of God unto salvation. Help us to know our only comfort in life and death, which is belonging to Jesus. Take not your Holy Spirit away from us, but give us anew and renew in us a new and living and right spirit that we may abide with you forever in the conscious experience of faith and fruitfulness that is your own fruit unto godliness. Hear our praise, Lord, because that is our most important concern, that we would praise you now and forever. Amen.