and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us take this opportunity to prepare our hearts for worship. I'm going to go and see my dad. I'm going to make sure he doesn't get to see my dad again. I don't want to ruin anything. I don't even want to have any of this. Okay. Now, I want to make sure I go see Donna and Andrew. I'm really looking forward to that. Yeah, are you going to keep an eye on Donna and Andrew? It's a great idea. I'm going to be staring at Donna and Andrew. We might come up around 2 or 2.30, I guess, just to get it out. And then 2 o'clock, we can go see them. Thank you. so so So, We welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. We are glad to have you with us this morning. It is great to see your faces, and it is a delight, I know, for y'all and especially for me to have my Sandra back with us from her recent trip back up to Canada. I want to encourage you to take your bulletins, and we have some things to go over here. So you'll see that our website is dsf.org, and I encourage you to go there to find all kinds of helpful information about our church. And then you'll see that we're in 1 Samuel for our Sunday school hour. This has been a great study so far, and we were in chapter 8 this morning. And so the people are rejecting God as king over them, demanding a king like the other nations. I encourage you to get that message online this week and be blessed by it, and prepare for chapter 9 next week. Down the page there you'll see that we have no Wednesday evening activities this week, and then the sermon passage for a week from today will be John chapter 16, verses 16 through 24, as we continue in our main sermon series through John's Gospel. I just encourage you to be reading that passage this week in preparation for Sunday, a week from today, just in your private devotions or family worship time. Across the page, the monthly free resource that I am recommending to you is an old book written by the Puritan Edward Fisher. The title of it is The Marrow of Modern divinity. And the link that I give you there is not only a link to this book in various e-book formats, but also several articles and even audio messages about this book and about the controversy that ensued in Scotland. It involves the ordination of a man to a ministry who assented to a particular statement and then recanted of that. It led to a great controversy called the Marrow Controversy, based off of the title of this book, The Marrow of Modern Divinity. And many of you probably know the Puritan named Thomas Boston. Thomas Boston came to be known as one of the Marrow men, one of the men who promoted and was very favorable towards this book. In fact, the link here takes you to a version of this book that has Thomas Boston's introduction and notes. So you're sort of reading Fisher's book alongside Thomas Boston to guide you through it. A great book that really helps to navigate a pure path of understanding the gospel apart from legalism. on the one hand, and antinomianism on the other hand. So very, very helpful. I recommend it to you this month to be reading it free and to use the money that you would normally spend to buy a book to go to the work of the Lord and the mission that we are all on together. We are in need of nursery volunteers over here to watch the babies. And so if the Lord is leading you to take part in that opportunity, you can see Susie Phillips to join the rotation. And then I'm very excited about this September conference. So it's going to be a Sunday evening on September the 8th over at Park Hills Baptist Church, which is just off of Mopac, just south of the river. There is going to be a free Christian conference titled, The Church and Politics, Quit or Conquer? Following Christ Through Political Turmoil. And we came up with that title before there was as much turmoil as there is now. It's in a very unpredictable election year, and so I think this is going to be a great church conference for the churches here in the Austin area. We have about 14 churches now that are all like-minded. The pastors, we all get together. once a month, and it was during one of our monthly meetings that we came up with the idea of we ought to put together a conference. And so I think this is something we'll do every year. It's not going to be about politics. Every year it'll be about something totally different next year. But I think it'll be helpful this year to speak on this particular topic. There will be three speakers that are going to give just 20-minute messages, and then there's going to be a panel discussion afterwards. So I think it's going to be helpful. to you. Mark your calendars for it, September the 8th, it's a Sunday evening. Doors will open at 4.30, and there will be refreshments and coffee, and you can get to meet some of your brothers and sisters from all of these like-minded churches here in Austin. And then we will get started promptly at 5 p.m. They've asked me to speak first, and so I'm going to be speaking on a biblical theology of human government. And then I believe that Pastor Ben Wright will be speaking next. He's the pastor of Cedar Point Baptist Church in Cedar Park on 35 things that we as Christians all agree on related to politics. And then finally, Pastor Josh Hayward that many of you know well from Kenny Avenue Baptist Church, he'll be speaking on how to love your political opponents with a focus really on how to love your brothers and sisters in Christ who are on a different side of the political aisle than you. I think it's gonna be a great time. I look forward to it. So mark your calendars and plan to be there. And then finally, this Friday, July the 26th, the Dayspring Ladies will be meeting at 11 a.m. at Mandola's Italian Kitchen, which is just right down the road here, located at the Triangle, 4700 Guadalupe. And they will be, the sisters will be gathering to discuss chapters eight through 11 of Corrie Ten Boom's wonderful book, The Hiding Place. So that'll be a great time, ladies, this Friday. So plan to be there. Let Alyssa Cantrell know if you plan to join them so that she knows about how many chairs to gather around a table there. As we begin worship this morning, I want to invite you to find your red hymnal. Turn with me in the red to hymn number 302. 302 in the red, and please stand together for our call to worship. All right, well, our call to worship this morning, it comes to us from the great 22nd Psalm. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel. For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. Let us sing together. Come, Christians, join to sing, Alleluia, Amen! Loud praise to Christ our King, Alleluia, Amen! Let all with heart and voice before his throne rejoice. Grace is his gracious choice. Alleluia, amen. Come, lift your hearts on high. Alleluia, amen. Let praises fill the sky. Alleluia, amen. He is our guide and friend. To us he'll condescend. His love shall never end. Alleluia, Amen. Praise yet our Christ again. Alleluia, Amen. Life shall not end the strain. Alleluia, Amen. Let us pray together. Almighty God and our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning to to praise your holy name. And we thank you that even the end of this present life does not end the strain of our praise to you. And we thank you for being our anchor in times past and our hope for years to come. We thank you, Lord God, that Jesus, the Lord, the man, the king, he reigns today as our God, seated at your right hand, exalted and ruling over all heaven and all of earth. We pray, Lord God, that as we come to worship you this morning, that you would inspire us by your spirit to sing songs that are pleasing to your ears, that we would offer up prayers that are a sweet smelling aroma to you. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would meet with us in communion that you would speak to us through the reading and the preaching of your holy and perfect word. May it be your voice that we hear speaking into our lives for our spiritual nourishment and growth and for your great glory. We ask, Heavenly Father, that you would accomplish all these things by the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray that you would ensure above all else that everything that we do would be done for your honor and your glory, in Jesus' name and for his sake we pray, amen. You may be seated. Well, good morning, everyone. Please turn to hymn 128, God Moves in a Mysterious Way, and he sure does. God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of never-failing skilled, He treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. May fearful saints' fresh courage take the cloud she so much dread. Or pick with mercy and she'll break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by people's sins, but trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. Amen. Now please turn to hand number 503. 5-0-3. Out of the bondage. Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night. Out of my bonded sorrow and night, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come, into Thy freedom, gladness, and light, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of my sickness, into Thy health, Out of my want and into thy wealth, Out of my sin and into thyself, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shameful failure and loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come, Glorious gain of thy cross, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of earth's sorrows into thy balm, Out of life's storms and into thy calm, Out of distress and turmoil and harm, Jesus, I come to Thee Out of unrest and arrogant pride Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into Thy blessed will to abide Jesus, I come to Thee Out of myself to dwell in thy love, Out of despair in truths from above, Upward for I on wings like a dove, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the fear and dread of the tomb, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come, into the joy and light of Thy home. Jesus, I come to Thee, out of the depths of ruin and torn, into the peace of Thy sheltering fold. Now we have the reading of God's word. Good morning. Today's reading is from Ephesians chapter 3, verse 1 to 6. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me, for you how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles, our fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. We celebrate that unity into one body across all nations, Jew and Gentile. Every Lord's Day here at Dayspring. We're a unique church in a lot of ways, and you can learn a lot about a church just from its architecture and its decorations. The fact that we have a red door that you come through to enter into the church and that you are covered in and surrounded by this red, it communicates something. And the fact that this pulpit is front and center, and that this table is front and center, communicates something very unique about Dayspring. Because I grew up in the Episcopal Church, and in the Episcopal Church we were a very table-centered church. Everyone and anyone who walked through their doors was Welcome to the table. The table was front and center. The whole worship was revolved around the table. There was a pulpit, but it was way off to the side, way over here, and there would be a little sermonette that would last about 15 minutes in their Sunday morning hour. But the main thing was the table. You go into other churches and what is front and center is the pulpit. They stand upon the Word of God. The table, well, you may take the Lord's Supper once a quarter, you know, something like that. I think Dayspring is unique in that we are a very table-centered church and a very Word-centered church. And that is why, since we're table-centered and Word-centered, that every Lord's Day we let you know that you must be qualified to partake of this meal. It's not for everyone who walks through that door. And so we want to tell you up front that this sacred and holy meal, it is not for good upright people. If you're a good upright person, don't partake of this supper. This meal, it's for those who know that they have no righteousness of their own, that they stand guilty before a holy God and that they are casting themselves on the mercy of God provided to them through Jesus Christ alone. So the first thing that we ask of you is that you are one who is trusting in your Savior and your Lord Jesus alone. for your salvation. You're not looking to any goodness, to any works, to anything that you have done. You're not even looking backwards to the past, to a prayer that you prayed, or an aisle that you walked, or even to your own baptism. You are this very moment today looking to Jesus Christ, to his perfect life lived in your place as your substitute, rendering to God perfect worship and obedience. And you're looking to his sacrificial death in your place as your substitute, as the Lamb of God, slain upon that cross for all of your sins, past, present, and future. That's what you've trusted in Him for. That's what you're trusting in Him for now, today. So you are one who has been saved by God's grace through faith alone, in Christ alone, to His glory alone, so that there's no boasting on our part. And then secondly, we ask that you be a baptized believer, but we do leave the details of your baptism up to your own individual conscience. And finally, we ask that you not be under church discipline from your local congregation, where your membership resides, so that we might respect the work of King Jesus as he invincibly and sovereignly builds his church here in this world. As we prepare ourselves now to partake of the Lord's Supper, Let's do that by asking a question. We want to turn in the Red Hymnal to hymn number 261 and ask one another, what wondrous love is this? Number 261 in the Red Hymnal. Let us sing together. What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul? What wondrous love is this, O my soul? What wondrous love is this that cost the Lord a bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul, to bear the dreadful curse for my soul? To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing. To God and to the Lamb I will sing. To God and to the Lamb, who is the great I Am? While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing. While millions join the theme, I will sing. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing in joyful beat, And through eternity I'll sing on, I'll sing on, And through eternity I'll sing on. In the New Testament book of Acts, Luke part two, in chapter two, 3,000 sinners were radically converted to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in just one day. when the apostle Peter, after being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that Jesus poured down upon his apostles, he preached the gospel then to this unbelieving crowd, a crowd that certainly contained people who had cried out, crucify him. And he begins that sermon with these words. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know. Notice how Peter, he begins his gospel proclamation that ends up with 3,000 people converted. He begins it with the life of Jesus Christ. That's the first point in his evangelical, evangelistic sermon. And this first point in his sermon, it's a huge point. God was commending Jesus to the human race through miracles, and this was common knowledge. Peter's beginning here with with common, understood, well-established facts that were known in the early first century. The Jews knew this. He had done these things among them. Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to them by God. And that word attested here, it has the idea of being proven and demonstrated. And what the apostle Peter means by that is that in Jesus, God worked such miracles, wonders, and signs in their midst that all of them are aware of. And these are things that prove to all of them that this Jesus is their King, is their Messiah, and that He is from God, that He is their God. and that he fulfilled all of God's promises, that he lived a holy life, perfectly bearing the image of God, attested by God through many, many signs and wonders. These things, they could not be denied. So many mighty works and wonders and signs. We've been reading all about them in the Gospel of John. You can think to the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Just so many wonders and signs that that you could look at that God did in Jesus, which made him a man, attested to by God. But I just wanna consider one of my favorites. Jesus was attested to by God at his temptation in the wilderness. As the promised son, as our king, as our representative, he's led, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit, from the waters of baptism to the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and he fasts. And he faces there the temptations of Satan. And this man, a human being in every possible way, Jesus was a man, remember, he was a human being in every possible way, shape, and form. And he endured, as a man, the full weight of temptation to sin. And he did not. He did not fall. And he did that for us. This work, this mighty miracle in this sign, it points us back to Genesis 3 and to the temptation in the garden It points us back to Israel's 40 years in the wilderness where they fell into idolatry with the golden calf. And in this episode, in Jesus's life, it is testifying to the fact that where Adam failed as our head, as our representative, where Adam failed, Jesus has succeeded as our head, as our representative. And it attests that where Israel fell into idolatry in the wilderness, rejecting their God, Jesus, the new Israel, the faithful remnant, he succeeds. He succeeds so as to inherit all of the covenant blessings that God promised to Israel in the law for their obedience. Only Jesus wins those. And this is such good news. Because the mighty and wondrous life of Jesus means that when those who have failed, when sinners like you and me, when we come to Jesus and believe on Him as the only Savior whose death on the cross paid the price of all of our sins, His faithfulness, His righteousness, it gets counted and credited to our account. So that all of those covenant blessings that were merited by Jesus's faithfulness as the true Israel, he turns around as King of Israel and gladly showers all of those blessings upon his people who enter into his kingdom by faith alone in him alone. He showers those upon us in full, making us co-heirs with himself. of all that he inherits forever and ever into a new creation in which righteousness dwells. And so I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." Brothers and sisters, let's take a moment of silence before the Lord to examine ourselves. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank you that you sent your Son to be our representative, to become man, to represent us before you, to face temptation and remain allegiant to you in our place, to both live for us and to die for us. So we ask you, Lord, to bless this bread and this cup, set them apart for their holy use, and bless us in partaking of them, to do so by faith alone, in Christ alone, to his glory alone, and so in a worthy manner. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is the body of our Lord, crushed for our iniquities. Sister's body. This cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. This is the new covenant. Please turn to hymn number 726 in the red. We will be singing this twice. ♪ Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me ♪ Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Break me, melt me, hold me, fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. Break me, melt me, hold me, fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Now just turn a few pages back to page 800. And 8, 8-0-8 in your red hymnals. We're going to read responsibly Psalm 68, the first 20 verses. Please stand together. May God arise, may his enemies be scattered, may his foes flee before him. As wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God. But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God. May they be happy and joyful. Sing to God. Sing praise to his name. Extol him who rides on the clouds. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. When you went out before your people, O God, when you marched through the wasteland, You gave abundant showers, O God. You refreshed your weary inheritance. The Lord announced the word, and great was the company of those who proclaimed it. Even while you sleep among the campfires, the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold. The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains. Rugged are the mountains of Bashan. The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary. Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves. From the sovereign Lord comes escape from death. Let us pray together. Almighty God and Great Father, we trust in you today. We trust in you to save us. We trust in you to help us. We trust in you to get glory for yourself. And we trust you, Heavenly Father, to work all things together for the good of those who love you, who are the called according to your purpose. Our hearts, O God, are filled with gratitude for the good things that you have done for us and for the glory of your name. There are too many to number, and we pray, O Lord, that you would lift up those who are sinking down, those who feel forsaken, those who cannot recall to mind the great mercies that you have shown Remind us that you are always with us, that you sustain us by your word, that you provide for us, that you lavish upon us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are so grateful that you are our heavenly Father who delights to give us your love and to seek our good and to hear our prayers. We lift this congregation up to you now and ask that you would work among us to build us up in our love for you and for one another. We lift up to you all who are unable to be with us today. Lord, we pray that you would be with Stella and all who are traveling to provide them safety back home. We pray, Lord, that you would be with those who are sick. Lord, that you would be with Arwit Graw and Nancy Decker and Marie Collins and Ben Parker Lord, all who are sick or suffering, that you would draw near to them and comfort them today. You are our sovereign, Lord, and you are all our help. And so we call upon you, we depend upon you to be with us, to see us through every affliction of this life in this fallen, broken world. Lord, we pray for our congregation that you would protect us from the evil one who is a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour. Father, we pray for this nation around us. We thank you, Lord, that you've allowed us the freedom to worship you openly here in it as pilgrims. And we pray for repentance and for revival in our land. We pray for your protection of the unborn, for the sanctity of life in this land. We pray for President Biden and all our leaders in government, that you would guide them in wisdom for the good of your people. We lift up our unsaved loved ones and pray, Lord God, that you would open up their hearts to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, that your perfect word would go forth in power. We thank you, Father, for those who preach the one and only true gospel, and we ask that you'd be with Pastor Samuel Klintock at Park Hills Baptist Church this morning as he preaches that word to our brothers and sisters who've gathered there Heavenly Father, we lift up to you all of our missionaries and pray that you would bless their efforts for Jesus' sake to the nations. Minister your grace to them and to their families and give them all that they need to press on in faithfulness to their calling. Lord, we pray that you would see to it that your church is added to daily and built up and prospers and brings glory to your name. We pray, Lord God, that all Israel would be saved Jesus would return quickly in glory to judge the living and the dead so that the whole earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated, and our children may go out to Children's Church at this time. And as they go, please turn with me in your copy of The Living and Active Word of God to John chapter 16. We are in chapter 16 of John's gospel now, where this very intimate moment exists between Jesus and his 11 disciples. This great discourse is unfolding as Jesus prepares them. He is preparing them for what is about to take place, His betrayal, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension back to the Father and the sending then of the Holy Spirit to the church. So look with me at chapter 16, sort of in the middle of verse 4. You probably even have a heading. there in your Bible that will show you where I'm gonna start. It'll say the work of the Holy Spirit, something like that. Jesus continues and he says, I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me. And none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Now this is a fascinating portion of the great discourse of the last half of John's gospel. There's just a lot going on here. We're going to try to unpack all of it. We're going to talk about, in fact, the main point in just a moment, but the little observation that I'm about to share with you is not the main point, but I think it's just really interesting. I want you to notice first that this little section starts in these first couple of verses by just telling us that the disciples, these 11 disciples, they were sad. And why? Why are they sad? Well, they're sad because they didn't want Jesus to leave them. Now, that may seem like a minor, very obvious point to you. Like, duh, that's exactly what the passage says. But I want you to think about it a little bit. And I want you to take that reality and kind of line it up to or against the conceptions that we can often have of Jesus Christ, because I think it's a wonderful point. Because I think sometimes we as Christians, and folks who are non-Christians as well, can think of Jesus as this kind of a stern, severe, royal master who's seated way up there on the throne, way up high. He's someone lofty and unapproachable and in whose presence you feel condemnation and guilt and shame, someone that you would shrink from. But the disciples, you see, they loved being around this man, right? It was apparently wonderful to be around this man. He was good company and a great guy to be around. And wherever he was leaving to go to, they didn't want him to go. And that's really the only thing that they could think about, his absence from their lives, from their dinners, from their travels, which they would have done on foot. They didn't have smartphones or earbuds. You actually had to talk with one another back in this day. And they would have talked with Jesus. They would have spent time with Jesus. And they enjoyed that. They enjoyed it. So his absence is going to leave a hole in their lives. And it made them very sad to think about the day when Jesus was gone. And yet that day was coming. That day was here. The hour was at hand. So Jesus, he takes these last moments, he recognizes their sadness, the sadness that has filled their hearts, and he uses these moments to comfort them and to tell them something that if they had thought about it even for half a second, they really already should have known. And that is that it was actually better, it was better for them if he went away and left them. Well, how can that be? Why is that? Well, he says it there. It's because his ascension and enthronement at the right hand of the Father in heaven would mean that the kingdom of God had finally come and been inaugurated, that the king sits, he's enthroned, and he gives away gifts from the throne, gifts to his people. And therefore it's better, it's better that he be away and enthroned than he be right there with them unenthroned. And what he tells them here in this passage is that one of the greatest gifts that he's gonna pour out upon them as king, once he's enthroned, is the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. Now what you've got here in these verses is really the longest teaching in the entire Gospel of John about the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is, he's talked about him before, we've talked about those passages, but this is the longest one. It doesn't say everything there is to say about the Holy Spirit, but he speaks here of two really specific kinds of works that the Spirit does And they're both necessary to the advancing and the sustaining of Jesus's kingdom. You can see them in the major paragraph break. So verses 4 to 11, he's talking about the Holy Spirit's work with regard to the unbelieving world. That's 4 to 11. And then 12 to 15 here, he talks about the Holy Spirit's special work with regard to the apostles. Not to us, to the apostles. And the main idea of all of this is that Jesus' kingdom advances and is sustained by the work of his Holy Spirit. Jesus' kingdom, this is the main point of our passage, Jesus' kingdom advances and is sustained by the work of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus' kingdom advances, that's gonna be our first point, and is sustained, that's gonna be our second point, by the work of the Holy Spirit. So just two points to the sermon this morning, looking at those two paragraphs. Number one, the Holy Spirit's conviction of the world. The Holy Spirit's conviction of the world. That's how he advances. Jesus's kingdom. And then number two, the Holy Spirit's inspiration of the apostles. His inspiration of the apostles. That's how he sustains Jesus's kingdom. So let's look at it. Point number one, the Holy Spirit's conviction of the world. the Holy Spirit's conviction of the world. This is what advances Jesus's kingdom. In the section that we looked at last week, so end of chapter 15, first few verses of 16, Jesus has been telling his disciples about the persecution. that they're going to face from the hostile, unbelieving world around them. He says that's coming, you can bank on it, and that's what he's been telling them. And then at the start of the passage we're looking at today, Jesus is about to move on to talk about the Holy Spirit, more about the Holy Spirit, but in this second part of verse four and on through verse seven, you get the sense that he must have seen their faces change, right? He must have seen these 11 men and their countenance change. So Jesus says there, look, I know this is surprising to you. I didn't tell you about all of these things before. I didn't talk about this hot persecution that you're going to face, and you're going to face it without me. And the reason that I didn't is because I was with you. But I've got to warn you about it now because I'm going away. and you are going to face it, and I won't be there to take it all, to absorb it for you. Well, the next few sentences in verses five to six, they're pretty tightly packed, but essentially Jesus is kind of rebuking them for what's going on in their hearts, but it's a very kind, it's a very gentle rebuke. I mean, look at it, verse five. Now I'm going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. It's just a little bit of a rebuke. Yes, I'm going away, and your hearts are filled with sorrow because of that, but the reason he's saying that your hearts are filled with sorrow is because you're not thinking about the whole thing rightly. You friends, you 11, companions, you disciples, you apostles, the reason you're sad is because you're thinking about the bare fact of my absence, right? You're thinking about where I am not gonna be, rather than where I am gonna be. And that's on the throne of heaven, where I can act as king of the universe to help you. I mean, if you look at verse five again, I'm going to Him who sent me and none of you asks me, where are you going? Some people have tripped up over that because they've said, well, we'll wait. You know, there actually have been a couple of times back in chapter 13 and in chapter 14 where the disciples have in fact asked that very thing. Jesus, where are you going? And there's people, mainly on the internet, who say, see, there's a contradiction in the Bible. Because they did. They did ask where Jesus was going. And yet Jesus says, no, no, they didn't. But it's not a contradiction. You have to read it way more literarily and deeply than that. Because Jesus's point isn't that the disciples have never literally mouthed the words, where are you going? That's not his point. It's that they have not. ever really thought about where he's going. They haven't cared to think about the ramifications of that. So it's probably better to read this as meaning, I'm going away, and yet none of you cares to really think about the implications of the question, where are you going? Because if you did, if you thought about the implications, if you thought not just about my absence here, but rather my presence there, then it wouldn't be sorrow that fills your heart, it would be joy, it would be excitement. But as verse six says, it is sorrow and not joy that fills their hearts. So in verse seven, at least the first part of it, he just tells them plainly that it's better. He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. It is to your advantage. Now why would that be? Well, I've already alluded to it a couple of times, but the teaching about it is actually in Ephesians chapter 4, where the Apostle Paul, he actually quotes Psalm 68, which we read together earlier. He quotes that Psalm to say that what is going to happen, or really what by that time already did happen, is that when Jesus ascends to heaven, and takes his seat on the throne of David. He begins to throw out gifts from his throne. As king of Israel, he begins to throw out gifts to his people. It was not an unusual thing when a king was crowned and coronated. They would often have a procession through the middle of the capital city, and the king, he would literally have like gold coins or something, and he'd be showering his people with gifts. And that's the image of Psalm And then Ephesians 4 also, when Jesus takes the throne, he is to throw gifts upon you. And in Ephesians 4, he lists off a whole bunch of them. But here, the great gift that the newly enthroned king is going to pour out upon his people is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the helper, the spirit of truth. He says, if I do not go away, then the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And what that means is not some sort of ontological weirdness where Jesus and the Holy Spirit can't exist in the same room together at the same time. It's not that at all. It's just to say that this eschatological fulfillment is about to happen. The king is about to be enthroned And at that point, at the coronation, the enthronement of the king, everyone knew that that was what would trigger the new covenant. The New Covenant was promised in the Old Covenant, and this would be the triggering of the New Covenant. And in the New Covenant, remember that the New Covenant is characterized by the age of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And so in the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit would come in power. So that's what's going on. From verse 7 on, Jesus starts detailing this work that the Holy Spirit is going to do once he gets here. And the first thing he talks about is that the Holy Spirit, he's going to convict the world. The world. So look with me at verse 8. He says, when he comes, when the Helper comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. Now, a couple of comments about this. First of all, you've got to remember that for John—remember, we've seen this all the way back to at least chapter 3—for John, that word world, it's always, always here, talking about the world system that's in rebellion against God. It's the unbelieving world. And Christians, remember, are being plucked out of that world by the gospel and by the power of the Spirit so that they are no longer the world. So if you're a Christian today, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is not convicting you of these things anymore. He's not. If you've been plucked out of the world, then you're not being convicted of these three things. But the Holy Spirit, he continues his work of convicting the world of these things. What he does is that he convicts them of three things, right? Sin and righteousness and judgment. There's an easy structure to this whole thing. So you've got the statement up front in verse eight, all three of these things, sin, righteousness, judgment. And then in verse nine and 10, he looks at each of those three things and he gives a reason for why. The Holy Spirit is convicting the world of them. So you see that? Look again with me one more time. He says, when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Now, most people, including myself, right up until last night, to be honest with you, have read that as saying, okay, not that hard. The Holy Spirit, he's gonna convict the world of their own sin and of God's or Jesus's righteousness and of the final judgment that God is going to bring upon the world. And so I've thought, in other words, what that means is he's gonna make the world aware of these things. He's going to press it on their hearts and on their minds, sort of bring them to mind, make them aware of these three things. But that's not it. That's not it. And the reason why that's not it is that that's just not what the word convict means. It doesn't mean to make someone aware of something or to press something on the mind so that they become aware of it. You can't just pick up your phone and call your spouse and say, hey, honey, I'm just calling to convict you to pick up milk on your way home. It doesn't make any sense. And that's not what the word means. It doesn't mean to remind or to bring to mind. To convict means exactly what you're probably thinking that it means. It means to indict for something bad or evil. It is to stand in judgment. It is to push something on the consciousness and the awareness, yes, but as a bad thing. And it's to try to make the person feel bad about that bad thing. In fact, when you see the word convict of something or convict concerning something in the Bible, it's always, always followed by a bad thing, an evil thing. And that works here with convicting of sin, right? That makes perfect sense. But if it's going to convict the world of sin, bad thing, then what about the next two? Righteousness and judgment. Those aren't bad, right? You can't convict the world of Jesus's righteousness. You can't convict the world of God's final judgment. You could convict them of wrong ideas about those two things, but that's not what the verse says. It just says it's going to convict them of righteousness. What does that mean? It doesn't even say convict them with righteousness, it's convict them of it. So what does it mean? Well, if it's not talking about Jesus's righteousness, And God's judgment, what is it talking about? Well, what if it's talking about the world's righteousness and the world's judgment? That you can convict of, because the world's righteousness and the world's judgment are worthy of conviction, right? And the Bible talks about this all the time. In Isaiah chapter 64, verse six, the prophet says there that all of human righteousness, all of our righteousness, is like a polluted garment. Matthew 23, 28, Jesus says it straight up to the Pharisees. Outwardly, you appear righteous to others, but within, you're just full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. You're rebels, right? You see, there's something that The world often holds out as righteousness, but which isn't righteousness at all. And the Holy Spirit's job is to convict the world of that falseness. Same with the world's judgment. In other words, the world's declaration of what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. The Holy Spirit's job is to convict people if they've got wrong ideas about what's right and wrong. He's to convict them of that. Isaiah 5, verse 20, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Those are judgments that the world makes, and they're wrong, dead wrong. Romans 1, verse 32, Paul, he lists out all these horrible things that he says that though they, the world, though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do those things, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them. So they make a judgment about those evil things that they are actually right, those evil things are right, that those bad things are actually good, like we saw last week from verse two here, that they make the judgment that killing Jesus' disciples is actually a good thing, offering service to God, he says. Now, once you see that, once you see that Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit's work of convicting the world of its sin, of its false righteousness, and its wrong judgments, then it falls into place really quickly. So the Holy Spirit convicts of sin because the world is sinning, primarily by not believing in Jesus. That's the big one, right? He convicts them of their own righteousness because that had been one of Jesus's main aims when he was on earth, was just to puncture the world's sense of righteousness over and over and over again. And now that he's gone, the Holy Spirit picks up that work and continues it. He convicts him of the world's judgments because all those lies, evil for good, good for evil, bitterness for sweet, sweet for bitter, all of those lies that the world perpetuates are ultimately from the tongue of the father of lies, the devil. He calls him the ruler of this world here. And as he is condemned, as he is judged, so are the lies that perpetuate from him. So that's what it means. Now what does that mean for you? that the Holy Spirit does that. Well, if you're a Christian, it means that at some point in your life, the Holy Spirit did this work in you. He convicted you, and he brought your soul to life to see your sin, to see your false righteousness, to see your wrong judgments. And he brought you to Jesus, and you ought to praise him for that. If you're not a Christian, then what it means is that the Holy Spirit is already about that work of convicting you of those things. And what you need to do is for Him to do it more and more and more until you recognize and respond to it rightly. Maybe you've already felt that kind of conviction. It's just like a clear as day knowledge somewhere in the back of your mind, or maybe for you right now, it's just right in front of your face. It's this clear as day knowledge that you don't even want to admit, but it's there, that you really are a sinner before God, that you really have rebelled against your creator. the one true living God. It's a sin not to trust and depend on Jesus Christ, not trusting Him for salvation. That is a sin. The Holy Spirit will convict you of that sin, and He'll use it as a chink in your righteous armor to get the spear in. And what happens over time is that the spear goes deeper and deeper and deeper until ultimately it opens up your heart so that you realize that it's not just this one little thing about you. It's my whole heart that's messed up, and I need a new one. I need a new heart, and the only person who can give me a new heart is Jesus, and he offers that. When you need Jesus. If you're feeling conviction, if you've got this clear as day sense that you're a sinner and that you need salvation, that's the Holy Spirit working on you. And what you need to do is not fall into despair. It's not just to try to clean yourself up or fix that one little moral thing. It is to come to Jesus and to say, Jesus, I cannot save myself. The bottom has dropped out from underneath me. The Holy Spirit has shown me the depth of my sin, and I need for you to save me. I need for you to live for me. I need for you to die for me. And I need to grab onto you with everything I've got so that I don't die. That's what you need to do. Come to Jesus. Put your faith, your reliance, your trust in Him. Put your belief in Him. Your reliance is what that means. Lean upon Him and say, Jesus, either you save me or this whole thing is lost. Here's another thing we can learn from this. You and I, as Christian witnesses, me as a pastor, we as a church, we cannot manipulate or talk anybody into believing in Jesus. We can't argue anybody into being converted, right? We can proclaim the gospel. We can answer objections. We can clear away intellectual obstacles. We can do all of that kind of stuff, but we will never logic anybody into believing in Jesus. And why is that? Well, it's because the Bible says that lost, unbelieving people are dead in sin. They're not just sick. So if anybody's going to come to genuine faith in Jesus, What has to happen? It has to be the Holy Spirit of God doing a miracle in their hearts, bringing them to life from the dead. Now these verses, the ones we're looking at, say that the Holy Spirit does this kind of conviction one way or another to the whole world. And he's working everywhere to convict the entire world of sin and righteousness and judgment. But there's another kind of work that the Holy Spirit, that He does according to the Bible, where He takes this conviction, this general work of conviction of sin, and He makes it effectual for the elect. He makes it work to bring a spiritually dead sinner to life, one that Jesus died for on the cross. And the thing is, you and I, we cannot make that happen by playing soft music on the piano with every head bowed and every eye closed or something like that. And if we want people to come to faith in Jesus Christ, if we want to see people, radically converted to Christ, to come alive spiritually from their spiritual dead state. The main thing we do is we speak the gospel. The Bible calls it the imperishable seed that caused you to be born again. It caused you to be born again. It's not like an elect person is just walking down the sidewalk and the Holy Spirit says, zap, you're born again. No, he uses means. And the means is the imperishable seed of the gospel. And so we speak that seed. We plant that seed. We speak the gospel. We sow the seed. And then we pray. And then the Spirit does the effectual work. That's how the kingdom advances. But the Holy Spirit, he also sustains the kingdom. And he does so, this is point number two, he does so through his inspiration of the apostles. His inspiration of the apostles. So the Holy Spirit, he inspires the apostles, verses 12 through 15. This is the way the kingdom is sustained. Jesus, he turns to another work of the Holy Spirit, so that is sustaining the people of his kingdom, particularly through the inspiration, the inscripturation of the New Testament books. So look with me at 12 through 15. Jesus says here, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine, therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Now the fact that that's talking about the inspiration of the New Testament is not immediately obvious on the surface, is it? You have to kind of see how the story unfolds through the rest of the Bible. But I think that there are a couple of clues here that just flag us to the fact that this isn't just a general work of the Holy Spirit that he does for all believers. One of those clues is in verse 12, where Jesus, he's obviously talking very specifically just to these 11 men sitting right here in front of him. Verse 13 also, where he doesn't say that the Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth. He didn't say that. Do you notice that? He said the Spirit will lead them into all the truth. So that little article there, the, it's flagging you to the fact that there is a contained, definite body of the truth which the Holy Spirit is going to reveal to these disciples, these apostles. And that's exactly what ended up happening when they wrote the books of the New Testament and then handed them down to believers. And there's also the fact that the apostles themselves They just use exactly this kind of language from our passage, that they use this language when they're describing their work of writing down the New Testament Scriptures. So Paul, in Ephesians chapter 3, which Joan read for us earlier. He says, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me, how? By revelation. as I've written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles, and that's me, Paul says, and prophets, by the Spirit. Now Paul's very clearly there in Ephesians 3. He's talking about revelation from God, right? Divine revelation. He's talking about inspiration. He's talking about writing scripture. And you hear the language that he uses. It's language from our passage in John 16. It's been made known to me. But let's look at exactly what Jesus says the Holy Spirit is going to do for these apostles who are sitting right in front of him. Look at it again. He says, I have many things to say to you. You can't bear them now. It's coming later when the spirit of truth comes. He will guide you into all the truth. That's kind of the first link in the chain. He will guide you into all the truth, but also, he doesn't speak on his own authority. There's something behind that, Jesus says. So whatever he hears, he will then declare to you the things to come. So he will glorify me, for he will take what is mine. Okay, there it is. Right, so you got the Holy Spirit and me, Jesus, back behind him. The Spirit will listen to me, Jesus, and then will speak what he hears from me, and the Spirit will glorify me, Jesus, because he's gonna take what is mine, and he's gonna declare it to you, the apostles. But then look at verse 15, because there's a step even beyond that. All that the Father has is mine. And therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." So what's happening is Jesus, he's just setting up an incredible chain of custody for the truth. And it's an amazing chain. Everything that the Holy Spirit has to say to the apostles, it's coming straight from Jesus. And everything that Jesus has to say because he perfectly reflects the Father. It is coming straight from the Father. It's amazing, do you see it? The truth, this truth, the truth, it comes from the Father to Jesus, to the Spirit, to the apostles who write it down to you, to me. It's just an incredible chain of custody. And the really interesting thing is that the apostles themselves, they seem to have realized that they were writing down that kind of authority when they wrote. So in 2 Peter 3, for example, Peter, he's encouraging people to pay close attention to the apostle Paul's writings. And it's got that funny little remark, remember, about how there's some stuff in Paul's letters that are really, really hard to understand, amen? But it's still scripture. Peter calls Paul's epistles scripture, and he says that people in the future, they're gonna take it, they're gonna twist it, just like they do the rest of the scriptures. So he's talking about Paul's writings, and he's setting them at this high level of even the Old Testament scriptures. The apostles had been particularly and specifically authorized by their Lord Jesus to teach the church the rest of what he wanted taught from the Father to himself, to the Holy Spirit, to the apostles, and then to the church. That was always the chain of custody. He says, I have more to tell you. You can't bear it now, but it's coming through the inspiration of the Spirit. So what does this mean? Well, what it means is that the New Testament, the New Testament, just like the Old Testament, is instruction to you, encouragement to you, His people, straight from the throne of King Jesus and from the heart of God, delivered to the apostles by the Holy Spirit. That's what it means. And so this book right here from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelation, this book is your life. This book is how God gives you life. Jesus endorsed the entire Old Testament and then he authorized the entire New Testament, the whole thing. The whole thing is your life. I mean, you probably know this, but this is why we say here at Dayspring that our main acts when we gather for corporate worship, our main worship, the time that we most clearly and powerfully encounter the living God It's not really the singing. The singing is great, but the singing is mostly preparatory and responsive to the treasure in the middle of it all, which is the gospel proclaimed in the Lord's Supper and in the proclaimed Word of God. That's why we spend so much time on it here every week. I mean, this is also why we preach the Bible in a particular way. Pastor Boyette established the tradition that we preach the Bible here, verse by verse, through books of the Bible, instead of, you know, a verse here and a verse over there. The reason that we do that is because we believe, we confess that the Lord inspired this Bible for our life, right? And he inspired it in a certain order. through each one of the books. So to go from the very beginning of the Gospel of John to the end of John, verse by verse, as we've been doing for over a year now, that's how the Bible was meant to be read. And so that's why we do that. This also means that although Jesus is in heaven, he's enthroned at the right hand of his father, he still cares for us. He's still working on our behalf. He's still actively sustaining us in our spiritual life by his word. He's still present with us through his spirit in the supper, in the word. He meant it. when he said, it's better, it's to your advantage that I go away. And he meant it when he said, I will never leave you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Listen, Jesus, he doesn't have bigger things to do than us. He doesn't. This is his big thing. Let's back up just for a second. We'll end with this. You hear people say sometimes, Well, I just really wish that I had been there with Jesus. That would have been amazing. It would have been so much better than what we have now, right? Because I could see Jesus, I could touch him, I could see what he did, all the miracles, the raising of Lazarus. I could hear what he said, the whole Sermon on the Mount, not just the abbreviated version that we get. But in John 16, here's Jesus telling us straight up that no, no, no, it is better, it is better to live when we do right now than to have lived back then. Why? Why is that? Because we have the Holy Spirit. Now you may think, I'm not sure why that matters so much, but just think about it for a second. In Jesus's day, during his earthly ministry, when he was giving that Sermon on the Mount, when he was healing people along those dusty roads, there were only a few people, only a few people who believed in him, just a trickle of people in the grand scheme of things. But remember what happened when he sat down at his father's right hand in heaven, and the king enthroned poured out His Holy Spirit to begin His work. The church was born. There were 3,000 people who savingly believed in a single day. And that's incredible, for 3,000 people to believe in this Jewish carpenter as the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior and Lord in a single day. And the thing is, is that if Peter had preached that sermon from Pentecost one day earlier, When the Holy Spirit had not rushed out of heaven yet, nobody would have believed. Nobody would have believed. The apostles would have been laughed out of the city for speaking such nonsense. But the Spirit comes, Peter preaches, and 3,000 people repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior for their eternal salvation. And then it's 5,000, and then it's tens of thousands, and then it's hundreds of thousands, and then it's millions and hundreds of millions throughout church history. And all at the same time that that's happening, is that whole thing is beginning. The Holy Spirit is also laying the foundation of the church, not just in crumbly oral tradition, not just in the pooling of opinion and logic, but by inspiring the written, inscripturated Word of God. And brothers and sisters, we serve a king who is enthroned in heaven and who continues from his throne in heaven as the victorious king, he continues to lavish us and pour out his gifts upon us. So let us rejoice in him and let us rejoice in the Holy Spirit who indwells here among us. Let us pray. Our sovereign Lord King Jesus, we praise you this morning as the risen, ascended, God-enthroned, and reigning King. We thank you that you have seen fit to pour out gifts upon us, your people, and we thank you that the greatest gift that you have poured out upon us is the presence of the third person of our triune God, the presence of your Holy Spirit with us here, even this morning, indwelling us as believers, each and every one of us individually, but also here corporately present where we're gathered together in your name. And Holy Spirit, we ask you to be active among us, to make our hearts sensitive to your gospel. Make our hearts sensitive to Jesus's word. Cause us to be more like him because of it. We pray all of this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Well, please stand together. Be sure to take some time to greet one another. And I pray that the Lord would be with you by His Spirit this week. I eagerly await time again with you next week. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.