so so We welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. We are delighted to have you with us on this morning to praise God on the Lord's Day and worship Him together in spirit and in truth. I'm delighted to see you. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Greg, and I'm one of the pastors here. And I've been away for a couple of Sundays and am delighted to be back. with you. So thankful for everyone who led in my absence. I want to especially welcome visitors who are with us and encourage you to grab one of these booklets titled Ultimate Questions by John Blanchard. We have these out on the hall table for free for visitors to take, so we encourage you to take one before you leave here today. And if you would sign our guest register out on the hall table, we would love to have a record of your visit. I look forward to meeting you after the service. this morning. I want to direct your attention to your bulletins, and inside the bulletin you'll see that we are continuing in 1 Samuel. We'll go from 1 Samuel on into 2 Samuel when we get there in our Sunday school hour. We're doing one chapter a week, and we were in Chapter 12. That was recorded this morning. If you were not with us, you can grab that and listen to it online this week. And then you'll see that there are no Wednesday activities this week. This past Wednesday, we had a lecture up here on angels, and that was recorded. And so if you're at all interested in learning more about angels and Satan and demons, we talked about all of that and had a Q&A discussion afterwards, and that all got recorded. So you can grab that on our sermon audio page. You'll also see that our sermon passage for next week is John chapter 16 verses 29 through 33. So we're gonna do four verses this morning and then the last four verses of chapter 16 next week. I encourage you as always just to be reading through and preparing your hearts for the next week's sermon passage in that way. Across the page here you'll see that the monthly free online resource that I'm recommending to you for the month of August is this wonderful book titled Battling Unbelief. Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure by John Piper. Battling Unbelief, Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure. Just a wonderful book by Piper, and it's available completely for free. You can download it as a PDF in the link that I give you there in the bulletin. We have opportunities to serve little ones next door here in the nursery. And so if you want to take advantage of that opportunity, see Susie, and she will add you to the rotation. We also have a conference coming up next month, so on Sunday evening, September the 8th, at Park Hills Baptist Church. Park Hills is hosting this conference, Christian conference, that's free, and it's titled, The Church and Politics, Quit or Conquer. subtitled Following Christ Through Political Turmoil. We wrote that subtitle before Donald Trump was attempted to be assassinated and before Joe Biden stepped down out of the race. So how much political turmoil has evolved even since we wrote that? I think this is a timely conference. I encourage all of you to be there for it. It is free. The doors will open at 4.30 p.m. Conference will begin promptly at 5. There'll be three speakers giving three short messages. Ben Wright from Cedar Point Baptist Church, he's the pastor out there. He'll be speaking on 35 things that we all agree on. Pastor Josh Hayward from Kenny Avenue Baptist Church will be speaking on how to love our political opponents. And I will be speaking on a biblical theology of human government. There's going to be a panel discussion afterwards that I think will be helpful. And it's just going to be a great time to get together with our fellow brothers and sisters here in the Austin area. I hope to do a conference like this every year from here on out. There's also a parenting seminar coming up that I want to bring attention to, especially for those of you who have young children, or if you know of those who have young children, let them know about this conference. It is not very expensive. It's titled Reaching Your Child's Heart Parenting Seminar. It's going to be led by two couples, Juan and Janine Sanchez. Juan's the pastor out at High Point Baptist Church, and then Josh and Christina Hayward. It's going to be held at Josh's church on Saturday, October the 19th, Kenny Avenue Baptist Church, and it only costs $10. Child care is also going to be provided for free. Parents should take advantage of this Saturday opportunity to register or to see more information, you can visit the link there in your bulletin. But this will be a great opportunity for parents. And then finally, it is time for me to advertise our annual day spring retreat. and let you know that there are these yellow flyers out on the hall table. You'll want to grab one of these today before you leave. It has a map on how to get out there, the things that we do out there, what to bring, what's there. The most important thing on here today is the fact that the deadline to register for the retreat this year is September the 1st. That's two Sundays from today. So we're registering much, much earlier than we have in the past. This is at request from the River Inn Resort, who has a lot of people trying to sign up for that weekend that we're there. So they just want to make sure that they have all the numbers right of who is coming from our group so that they can release the other rooms earlier to those who are seeking to get in. So we want to do this early. There's a link here in your bulletin. You can go there to sign up. Just as a reminder, signing up on this Signup Genius, it only just gives me the information that you've signed up. It's not a way to pay for the retreat or anything like that. If you have any questions about the signup, you can see me. I will send an email out with the link to it as well, so you don't have to type in all these letters and numbers. The bulletin is available online at our sermon audio page, too, which is a hyperlink that you can click. So lots of ways to do that, but we want to do it before September the 1st. You don't have to pay until October the 13th, but we do need you to sign up by September the 1st, and it's just going to be the honor system, right? You sign up by September 1st. We'll give you grace period to pay, but if you do end up having to cancel for any reason, that first night's rate will still be owed if it's after September 1st. So that is new to us this year. The rates have gone up a little bit with inflation, and so you'll see those rates on the sign-up sheet as well. And as in years past, we want those, if it's a financial burden to come to the retreat, we still want you to come. And so this year, what we're going to do is we're going to pair you with a Day Springer who is going to sponsor you. And so we need to hear from you. If you need financial help in coming to the retreat, get in touch with me so that I can pair you with a Day Springer who is going to be sponsoring another Day Springer so that we can make sure that everything gets paid for. We want to be really mindful of, we have a real tight budget this year, and so we want to be careful in stewarding God's money well. Because in years past, the church general fund has lost money every year on the retreat. This year, we're going to go ahead and pay for everything ourselves. So let's be sure to do that. But if you need help, let me know. I will pair you with someone who will sponsor you to come to the retreat this year. It's always a great time, and we look forward to it in the last weekend of October. Well, as we begin worship this morning, I want to direct you to your red hymnal in front of you on the rack there. If you would grab that and turn with me to hymn number 521, 5-2-1 in the red, my hope is built on nothing less. We're going to sing that in a moment, so hold your finger there and please stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship this morning comes from the great 53rd chapter of Isaiah the prophet. This was written 700 years before the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be counted righteous, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. Let us sing together. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I cannot trust the Savior's strength, for only in God Jesus' name. On Christ's solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. rest of his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ's solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath is covenant. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. He shall come with trumpet sound, O man, and in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness alone, The masses stand before the throne. On Christ's solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand. dead and enthroned him. over all creation, that he intercedes for us. And so we rejoice in your purposes. We praise you, Lord, this morning for sending your life-giving Son into the world to die in our place under your wrath on the cross so that we have the great privilege of crying out to you, Abba, Father. We thank you, Lord, that in Christ Jesus you are our Father and that we are your chosen and treasured people, loved by you before the foundation of the world. We thank you, Lord, that we can draw near to you in confidence. We come to your throne of grace today to obtain mercy and to find grace to help in time of need. Our need today is that you would direct our heart and mind to you, and so we ask Lord God that the Holy Spirit would work in every heart here, encouraging, convicting, healing, equipping us for worship of you and for the ministry toward one another. Direct our love and our passion toward you and toward your people today. Help us to honor you as we sing these psalms and hymns and spiritual songs We pray that you would meet with us as we celebrate the Lord's Supper this morning. Help us to remember again what you have done for us in your son, Jesus. Help us to look to him for our every need. Lord, hear our prayers and speak to us in your word, and may this sacred gathering of your people today bring you all honor and glory and praise by the means of your spirit sovereignly working within and among us to glorify you. In Jesus' name and for his sake we pray, amen. You may be seated for our scripture reading. Good morning. A reading is from Hebrews 4, verses 14 through 16. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Amen. Well, we do draw near to that throne of grace every Lord's Day here in communion with our Lord corporately together. at the supper, and we want to make it clear who is welcome to participate in the supper. So we ask three things of you, and if one of these three things or more does not apply to you, we want you to know that we are so glad that you're here, and you are welcome to be here, and we encourage you during this part of the service to reflect upon your need for salvation, Respect the sacredness of this meal and just pass the elements along as they come to you. We are delighted you're here and we're praying for your eternal salvation. The three things that we ask of you are these. First, we ask that you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. So you're not looking to any righteousness of your own, to any merit on your own part. For your standing before God, you're looking to Jesus's merit, to his perfect life lived for you in your place as your substitute, to his Death, that he died in your place as the Passover Lamb of God, as your substitute, taking the wrath of God for all of your sins upon himself. So you are one who has been saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, to his glory alone. 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 so that we might respect the work of the Lord as he builds his church in the world. As we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Lord's Supper together, I want to direct you in the Red Hymnal to hymn number 308 as we remind one another that Jesus didn't pay for 99% of it, Jesus paid it all. 308 in the red. Let us sing together. ♪ I hear the Savior say, your strength indeed is small ♪ Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me your all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain, washed to twilight snow. O now indeed I find your power and yours alone. ♪ And changed the leopard's spot ♪ ♪ And turned the heart to stone ♪ ♪ Jesus made it all ♪ ♪ All to Him I owe ♪ ♪ Sin had left a crimson stain ♪ ♪ Washed it by death's snow ♪ ♪ For nothing good am I ♪ ♪ Whereby thy grace to claim ♪ I have washed my garments white, and the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I, standing incomplete, Jesus died, my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed the twilight snow. Many years ago, there was a famous movie star who had car trouble while he was driving on a highway near the beach outside of Hollywood. Some of you might remember him. His name was Kirk Douglas, the father of the actor Michael Douglas. His car broke down. He was walking along the road. A motorist saw that he needed a ride, and so he pulled over and invited him into his car. And this famous actor got into the car, and the driver took one look at him and said, do you know who you are? Well, that's the question that I want to put to you this morning. Do you know who you are? What does the Bible say? God's Word says many, many things about you. Those of you who are trusting in Jesus alone for salvation, the Bible calls you Christians, which means little representative Christs. The Bible calls you disciples of Jesus, which means followers and students of Jesus. But one of the most frequent words that the Bible uses to describe you is the word saint, saint. Most people don't know what the word saint means anymore. There's a lot of confusion about this word. If you remember the old radio preacher, J. Vernon McGee, he once told the story of sitting across from a Roman Catholic priest on the subway and asking the priest if he'd ever met a saint before. And the priest responded and said, no, he hadn't. And immediately, he stretched out his hand and shook it and said, well, now you have. I'm Saint J. Vernon McGee. What does that word saint mean? It's simply an adjective that means holy. It means holy. In the Greek, it's the exact same word that's always used to refer to the Holy Spirit. It's the exact same word that the living creatures around God's throne use when they say in Revelation 4, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And God's inerrant word, it says all over the place that you are holy. You are the holy ones. How can that be? I mean, you know your sin. You know what you've done. You know what you've done even this morning. I know what I've done. How can God call sinners holy ones? Well, it's all because of the work of Jesus that we're about to celebrate here at this table, isn't it? When Jesus died on that cross, you died. The old self, the old you is dead if we are disciples of Jesus. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. And scripture says that when he is revealed, you will be revealed with him. Your identity is bound up with Jesus who has gone before you. You are united to Jesus by faith alone. And your position in him is the basis of your boldly being declared holy. In other words, though you are a sinner, you are called holy because Jesus is holy. His holiness has been credited to you. He has always been perfectly devoted to God the Father, and his holy devotion as a man on earth was substitutionary. for you, for me. 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's 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 to examine ourselves before the Lord. Our Heavenly Father, we confess that in ourselves we are unworthy to have any part with Your Son, to participate in His blood and in His body. We have fallen far short of holiness, fallen into all kinds of sin, and illicit devotion to other things. And so we thank you that your son Jesus is our substitute, that he has stood in for us, your people, as our holy one, devoted to you perfectly in his righteous life of obedience, in his death and suffering for our sins. Jesus alone is worthy and he has given his own body and his own blood that we might be united to his holiness and so become forgiven and reconciled to you, Father, through your son and in him and seen by you as his holy ones, as your holy ones. And so we ask you, Lord, to bless this bread and this cup, set them apart for their holy use, bless us in partaking of them, to do so by faith alone, in Christ alone, for your glory alone, and so in a worthy manner. It's in your name, the name of Jesus, that 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. This cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. a new covenant in Christ's blood. Let us continue to worship the Lord by singing one of our favorites from the Red Hymnal. If you would turn with me in the red to hymn number 457. We sing, come thou fount of every blessing as it's written here in the in the hymnal. But then there's a refrain, we sing it to a tune called Animation Secondly, with a refrain, oh glory, glory hallelujah, glory be to God who reigns on high. Let us sing together. And I found everywhere I've seen from a heart to see Come, the fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy praise. Strings of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it, mount of God's unchanging love. Here I raise mine amnesia, hither by thy help I'm come. And I hope by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor daily I am constrained to be. Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Thrown to wander, Lord, I feel it, thrown to leave the God I love. Here is my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above. Come Thou Fount of every blessing Fill my heart to sing Thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing All for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mound, I'm fixed upon it, beautiful girls and changing love. Here I raise mine ebonies, and hither by thy help I come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wand'ring from the fold of God, Begged to rescue me from danger, Interposed his precious blood. Oh, glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory be to God who reigns on high! Oh, glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory be to God who reigns on high! O to grace, how great a debtor, daily unconstrained to be, let thy grace now like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory be to God who reigns on high. O glory, glory, hallelujah, glory be to God who reigns on high. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to keep the God I love. Lift my heart and take it, seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Oh, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to God who reigns on high. Oh, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to God who reigns on high. Oh, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory to God who reigns on high. Well, if you would, with your red hymnal still in hand, if you would turn in the back of the red hymnal to page 790, 790 in the red. We're gonna read responsibly Psalm 23. Please stand together. Page 791. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me inside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are my living, your rod and your staff. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my hand with oil. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let us pray together. Our blessed God and heavenly Father, our shepherd who knows all of our needs. We lift up to you this morning your persecuted church around this world and remember to you all of our brothers and our sisters who know the danger of confessing the name of Jesus publicly and who are gathering today in secret to worship you. We think especially of our brothers and sisters throughout the Muslim world and pray that you would cause even the oppression, the persecution, the hatred of your congregations that they suffer and that they endure, you would use that to further the spread of the gospel to those who don't know you. Lord, may your laborers faithfully go out to the ripe harvest that you have won. We thank you, Lord, for bringing our sister Isabel back safely to us from Angola. We thank you for all that you have done for us and sustaining us, and we lift this congregation up to you and ask you, Lord, to be with all of those who are in need of you, in need of your divine intervention. We pray for our Austin neighbors, Lord, for their awakening, for revival. Lord, we pray that sinners would be drawn into your loving arms by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We pray, Lord God, for our own lost loved ones today, that you would just impress the gospel again on their minds and hearts, that you would save them. We pray for our president and all the leaders in government in this land, that you would guide them in wisdom. We pray for Pastor Juan Sanchez as he leads our brothers and sisters in worship of you at High Point Baptist Church this morning in Austin. We pray that all Israel would be saved, and we pray that your word would accomplish that which you have designed before creation. We pray that your divine plan and sovereign purposes would be completely fulfilled throughout all the inhabited world so that the whole earth may be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In Jesus' name and for his sake we pray, amen. You may be seated. And our children may go out to Children's Church at this time if they would like. And as they go, please turn with me in your copy of God's inspired and errant word to the Gospel of John and chapter 16, John 16. I'm so thankful to the Lord for everyone who served and labored over the past two weeks while my family and I were up in Canada caring for my wife's parents and their needs. I am especially grateful to Bill and to Jonathan for their leadership. They led us and preached the word for us so faithfully. It's such a great blessing, isn't it, to have men in this congregation who can step up and take the lead in that way. We have been greatly blessed by the Lord. Well, if you remember where we are in John's Gospel, we're in this lengthy private discourse between Jesus and and his 11 disciples. And in the time that we've spent studying it together over many chapters, Jesus has just done a ton of work here. And by the time you get to this portion of his speech that we're in today, We're almost at the end of it, but before his final prayer in chapter 17. So he's just done a ton of work. He's told his disciples all about their own identity as the new people of the kingdom. He's told them that they are united with him as king, as branches to a vine. And therefore, they're united to each other. And therefore, their lives ought to reflect the love for each other that he has personally for them. He's told them about the fire of persecution that they're going to face, about the hatred from the world. He's told them about the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom he is going to send to comfort them and to strengthen and encourage them. He's told them about how their sorrow would be turned into joy like water into wine. And then he's told them about their new privilege, their new right, this incredible right that we'll talk even more about today, to actually go to the Father and pray in Jesus's own name. He's given them reasons to sort of not be sad, reasons for joy in the midst of their sorrow over his going away, over his leaving them. Well, our passage Today it just continues to lay out these reasons for why his disciples just shouldn't be swallowed up in sorrow over his leaving. And we're gonna pick that up as Jesus is laying out these blessings in John chapter 16. I'm gonna start reading for us now in verse 25. Jesus says there, I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father." Well, starting right about here, Jesus starts to move toward a wrap-up of this whole speech that he's been giving over all of these chapters. So if you've been with us through this series in John's Gospel, you'll notice that all of the themes that he talks about in our passage here, and then pretty much moving on from verses 29 to 33, there's some new ones in there. We'll talk about those next week. But in these verses, 25 to 28, there really aren't any new themes. Everything that Jesus raises and brings up here He's already introduced to the disciples. And the reason that Jesus is now choosing these themes to talk about again is because they are the most important themes that he has been talking about through the entire discourse. And in these last few moments before he and his disciples pray and then head out to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus is betrayed and ultimately crucified, He wants to talk about these things. Out of all the words that he has said over all these chapters, he now says, oh, and I want to particularly cause you to remember these several things. And essentially what he does here in these verses is just remind them again of three great gifts that they have in this new kingdom age that's gonna be inaugurated by him. Three great gifts that should cement their joy even in the midst of sadness. That's the main idea. The main idea of this passage is that in the midst of the sorrows of this life, Jesus' people can have joy because of the gospel and access to the Father and eternal life with Jesus. So I'll say that again. In the midst of the sorrows of this life, Jesus' people can have joy because of the gospel and access to the Father and eternal life with Jesus. He's telling them, you're going to be sad. You're going to have sorrow. You're not going to have me bodily with you anymore. That's going to make you sad. You're going to be hated, and you're going to be persecuted. That's going to make you sorrowful. but take these things and drive them deep down into the foundation of your heart and cement your joy in place so that the sorrows and the hardships and the difficulties just fall down on that foundation like rain on a granite patio. That's what he's telling them. So three things that I think you can see pretty clearly in these verses as you look at this passage, number one, And this comes from verse 25, a clear understanding of the gospel. That's point number one. First blessing that Jesus says should bring his people great joy is a clear understanding of the gospel. Then in 26 and 27, you've got the blessing of bold access to the Father's throne. Bold access to the Father's throne. And then number three, in verse 28, The promise of eternal life with Jesus. The promise of eternal life with Jesus. So those are the three points that I think are laid out in our passage, and they're the three points of our sermon. So number one, a clear understanding of the gospel. Number two, bold access to the Father's throne. Number three, the promise of eternal life with Jesus. I mean, think about it, Jesus knew beyond a shadow of a doubt because Jesus knew everything. Jesus knew that life was about to get really hard for his disciples. And you know what? Jesus also knew and knows that life will be hard for us as his followers here in the 21st century. And so what does He do? He warns us of that. He prepares us for that. But thank God, it's not just a bare warning, is it? It's not just sort of, you know, steal yourself for this, guys. Plant your feet and get ready. Steal your spine for what's coming. No, He also wants His disciples then, and us as his disciples now, to know that, look, if you're a Christian, no matter what happens, and no matter what sorrows you face, there is never, for a Christian, there is never a reason to despair totally, never. There are high truths and great promises. that are there, promises that the darkness and the sorrows and the difficulties of this world will totally obscure. And our joy as Christians is found by keeping our eyes on those fundamental truths. So that's what we're going to try to do this morning as we study this passage together. So let's look at it. Number one, a clear understanding of the gospel. If you look at verse 25, that's really exactly what Jesus is talking about there. I have said these things to you in the past, meaning up to this moment, I've been saying these things to you in figures of speech, but the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you like that in figures of speech, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. Now, what is he saying there? That phrase, figures of speech, it's actually just a single Greek word, paroimia, that can refer to analogies, metaphors, parables, symbolism, allegories, puzzles, riddles, all kinds of things. But the essential meaning of it is sort of any way of communicating, any way of speaking that isn't just plain and straightforward. So anything you do that kind of obscures the plain truth means that you're speaking in these things called figures of speech. There's a way to say what you're saying in sort of obscured figures of speech, and then there's a way to say it just straightforward and right to the point, cutting right to it. Well, up to now, what Jesus has been saying has been essentially in figures of speech. The confusion and bewilderment and misunderstanding of the disciples has been a major theme throughout the Gospel of John, because they just don't get Jesus' figures of speech. And it's not because they are slow. You and I, we wouldn't have understood Jesus either, since it's because they didn't have the Holy Spirit and they didn't have the rest of the New Testament and the gospel events that were about to take place. It was not clear to them because the capstone had not fallen into place. To the disciples and literally to everyone around them, much of Jesus's teaching would have been completely bewildering. So why does Jesus do that? Why does he speak in parables, for example? Why does he speak in riddles? Why not just come right out with the plain truth, with this sort of bracing, slicing clarity? Look, let me tell you exactly who I am and what I have come to do. Why doesn't he just do that? Well, I mean, there are a lot of times in the Gospels where he gets really close to doing that, right? I mean, before Abraham was, I am, is really close to that. But the fact is that at this point, neither his followers nor anybody else in the world has the spiritual capacity to grasp the full truth. And there are a couple of reasons for that. One of the reasons they don't have the spiritual capacity to grasp it all is because The key events have yet to happen. I mean, he is about to go to the cross, and then he's about to be resurrected. When his death and resurrection take place, the disciples start to understand it. That's one reason, just the key events haven't yet happened. The other reason is the Holy Spirit hasn't been given yet. They don't have the Holy Spirit living and dwelling inside them to help them to understand. But once the capstone events go in and once the Holy Spirit comes, then you start to see just this amazing clarity and just bracing straightforwardness coming from the disciples, these same disciples. And verse 25 here, if you look, Jesus says that the hour is coming when it's not gonna be the case anymore that he speaks sort of unplainly. Notice, too, that it's not the day is coming. He'll often say, you know, the day is coming. Here, it's the hour is coming, which almost always refers to his crucifixion and resurrection. So he's saying the hour is coming, and it's pretty much here already, when the capstone is going to be put into place, and then everything will lock together, and it will begin to make sense to you. And the thing is, it's really amazing, you can see that happening. You can see that clarity and that bracing straightforwardness coming into focus as you read the New Testament. Have you ever noticed that? I mean, if you flip from the Gospels to the book of Acts or to the epistles of the apostles, you start to move from the stories where the disciples are like they're listening to these cryptic statements by Jesus, and they're just bewildered and misunderstanding all over the place. I mean, the Apostle Peter, he watches the transfiguration on the mountain, and his first inclination is to say, we've got to build three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. But that's just not the kind of misunderstanding that you get in the epistles, is it? I mean, Peter, the guy who said, I'm gonna build, let's build three booths, he's also the guy who ends up saying with just this slicing clarity, Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. That is not the same guy. I mean, it is, but he's been changed, he's been transformed because of the gospel events and the Holy Spirit now indwelling him. Peter's got it all figured out. The capstone has fallen, the Holy Spirit is in him, and he's got it. You can hear the clarity in what he's saying in that first sermon that he preaches on the day of Pentecost. You can just feel the conviction behind it. These guys have gone from bewilderment about what Jesus was talking about to just a complete and utter certainty and conviction about who Jesus is and what he came to do. And that's an amazingly good thing for you and me. Why is that? Well, it's an amazingly good thing for you and for me because religion is usually thought about as this kind of cloudy, mystical, impossible-to-nail-down, you-can't-really-think-about-it-too-carefully kind of thing. You just have to feel the burning. in your bosom like the Muslims or the Mormons say, something like that. And for a lot of people, including me... That sort of mystical thing is not remotely satisfying. I don't want it. That is of no help to me. Chasing after a feeling of transcendence is of no help to me. If I'm gonna believe in something, really believe in something, if I'm gonna stake my life upon it, I want to know exactly what it is that I'm staking my life upon. I don't want enigmatic cryptic metaphors. I don't want winks and nods from people who think they're in the know. I want statements that can be thought about and weighed and ultimately accepted or rejected. You know, maybe you're here today and you're not a Christian, but you kind of feel the same way I do. You just had this idea of Christianity as being this cloudy, mystical sort of thing. Well, the good news is, and that's what Jesus is saying here, Christianity is not. It is not that. It is not a cloudy, mystical thing. It's got statements that are true and weighable. You know, Christianity says, just in the plainest of terms, It says that you were created for greatness. Not because you're so great, but because the God who created you is so great, and the greatness that you were created for, it was to glorify him and enjoy him forever. But it says you and I and all the rest of the entire human race, we messed that all up by rebelling against him. We decided that worshiping and enjoying him forever was not good enough for us. We decided that being kings and queens under his reign was not good enough for us. And so we put our finger as a race into his face and said, we will not bow to your authority. We declared war and independence against heaven, and therefore we all deserve to die. I mean, you know, the penalty of death in the Bible makes perfect sense, right? It's not random. It's not arbitrary. It's not as if God just pulled it out of a hat where there were other options, other choices, you know, in the day that you disobey me and you eat of that fruit, you shall surely turn into a toad or something like that. It makes perfect sense because if you declare war and independence from the source of all life, guess what happens to you? You die. You cannot declare independence from the source of all life and expect to continue living. You and I, all of us, are rebels against our creator, God, who owns us, and therefore we deserve to die. But you know what the gospel of Jesus says? It says that God himself, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, came to earth, became a human being, and then died in our place so that we wouldn't have to. It says that the good news, the good invitation that's given to us because of that is to turn away from our sin, turn away from our independence, turn away from our rebellion and look to Christ in faith and say, Jesus, I can't save myself. I've got to trust you to stand in my place, in your life, in your death. You gotta do it for me so that I will be saved. You see, that's not some mystical thing. It's truth about who we are as human beings and who God is and who Jesus is and what is now required of us by the king of the universe in order to be saved from our rebellion against him. It's to come to Jesus Christ in faith and say, I cannot save myself, I've gotta trust in you. You know, faith is one of those words that sometimes gets cloudy and mystified too. But essentially, faith just means to trust, to rely on something, something that's reliable, right? It's to size Jesus up, it's to look at Christ and say, you know, I believe, I see that you are who you say you are, I trust that you can do what you say you can do, you can Save sinners. I believe that with all my heart. And so now I am jumping into your arms. You've got to catch me. I'm relying upon you, because you, Jesus, are reliable. That's what faith is. It's not some mystical feeling or the burning in the bosom. It's just to say, yes, I believe you, and now I'm going to trust you to do it. For some of you, some of you may need to do that today, to stop sort of looking for a feeling, looking for a transcendence, and you just need to say, yeah, these things, they are true. Jesus came, he lived, he died, he rose again, he ascended to the Father's right hand, he is coming back to judge the living and the dead, and I'm gonna trust in Jesus now. That's what it means to be a Christian. So don't walk away from this place today still looking for some kind of a feeling. Just believe in Jesus. But if you are a Christian already, the clarity of the gospel is also a really good thing for you. Why is that? Because it gives you a bedrock to stand on. And when life gets hard, when things get difficult, you're not just left doing some kind of religious ritual over and over again, waiting for the darkness to break, you know, hoping for transcendence. Go into a temple and pour water on Buddha's feet or something like that, or reciting mantras and prescribed prayers. You know, as a Christian, you're not left doing those kinds of things. Now, what you can do in the midst of the hardships, the deep sorrows and griefs of life, is to fix your mind on the clear truths about who you are, who Jesus is, and what Jesus has accomplished for you. I think one of the main lessons that a mature Christian learns is right in the middle of hardship and suffering and discouragement or even persecution, right in the middle of it, a mature Christian learns to call the truths and the promises of the gospel to mind. It's not just to try to summon up a feeling, right? You don't sort of close your eyes and grit your teeth real hard and say, I'm joyful. I'm joyful. I am joyful. No. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is no. That's not what you do. You call these glorious truths to mind. I am forgiven of all of my sins. Jesus has died for me. Jesus, who loves me, lives and reigns on the throne right now sovereignly over all. I can trust him in this. I can trust him through this. And no matter what happens, I have all of eternity in front of me, worshiping Him and loving Him and enjoying Him forever. Learn to do that, brothers and sisters. Learn to do that. Live and rejoice in the clarity of the gospel. It is a good gift from God. Here's number two. The next gift that the Lord gives to us is bold access to the Father's throne. Bold access to God the Father's holy throne. In verses 26 and 27, Jesus, he returns to the topic of prayer. And he tells his disciples that one of the greatest reasons they have for joy, even in the midst of all this sadness that they're feeling now and the coming difficulties and the sorrows, one of the greatest blessings is that they have completely unfettered and unobstructed access to God the Father in prayer. Now Jesus, he's already talked about this a couple of times. Three weeks ago, for example, we talked about what it means, remember, to pray in the name of Jesus. Remember that there were several things that that means. One, it means to pray as a believer in Jesus, who he is and what he has done. His name speaks to that. Second thing is that it means to pray by his authority and on the basis of his merit. So you don't just sort of strut into the throne room of God and say, hey, I'm here. No, you say, by the name of Jesus, by the authority of Jesus, on his merit, I am here. It also means to pray in line with Jesus's character, to pray things that Jesus himself would pray. It's not a magic word. Dear Lord, give me a Lamborghini, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, it's not abracadabra. To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray in his character. In other words, to pray the things, the very things that he would pray for. Well, all of that is still in view here, but Jesus, he pushes it even a little further, and he makes it different, an even more wonderful point. So look at verse 26. that day you will ask in my name and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." All right, so what's he saying there? He starts in verse 26 by saying just what He's already said, that in that day, the day when He's finally exalted and enthroned at His Father's right hand, we, His people, we will pray in His name. So we've already talked about that. But then look at what comes next. I do not say that I will ask the Father on your behalf. Well, what does that mean? Because it's a little bit confusing, right? Because there are other parts of the New Testament that make it clear that Jesus does, in fact, intercede on behalf of his people. Lots of places. Even what we read at the beginning of the service from Isaiah 53. But I think that the next phrase about God's love makes it clear what he's saying. He's not denying that he is going to intercede for his people. He does, in fact, intercede for His people. He is interceding for us this very moment before the throne of God. It's just that here He's making the point, look, I don't even need to intercede for you. It's not like you've got to come to me and then I will take your requests to God because God doesn't want to be around you. No, no, you won't need someone to speak for you to the Father because you have complete, wide-open access to the Father. You will be welcomed into His presence to ask Him whatever you want to ask Him in my name. And why is that? Because He loves you. That's the next phrase. Do you see that? Because the Father Himself, God the Father, loves you. He has acted to save you, to bring you into His family, and now He wants you to be near Him, to pray to Him, to open your heart to Him. He is a Father who delights to hear His children pray, and who delights to answer His children's prayers when they do pray. Is that the way that you think about God the Father? I mean, I really do think that we as Christians, we can so easily start to think that God sort of feels imposed upon by us. That he sees us walking into his throne room once again, yet again, and he rolls his eyes. Maybe even that Jesus, the Savior, he has to kind of step in and talk God the Father out of kicking us out of the throne room. Oh, but brothers and sisters, listen to what Jesus is saying here. God the Father loves you, and He wants you in His presence. He wants you close as His child. He wants you to pray. And there's even more. Look at verse 27. The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. Now look at that second phrase real carefully. The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. Now you can read that verse and you can think that God's love for us only comes after and in response to our faith in Jesus. You can read it and think God's love only comes after our love for Jesus. But that would be a terrible misunderstanding of what Jesus is saying here. And it would be to ignore the whole rest of the New Testament. I mean, after all of this, that this guy who's writing down this speech, John the Apostle, he's the same apostle who would write just a few years later, we love him because he first loved us. We love him because he first loved us. I think you can kind of see the same truth in the last phrase of verse 27. I came from God. I mean, who's the first mover in the work of salvation? It's not you loving Jesus, it's Jesus coming, right? God so loved the world that he gave his only son, he sent Jesus into the world. That's the first move in the work of salvation. God is always, always the first mover in his relationship with human beings. If you love him right now today, that is only because He first loved you. He first came to you. He first reached out to you in grace and compassion and love. But see, once you get that, that God's love for us, it precedes our love for Him. Once you get that logic sort of nailed in, then the logic of what Jesus is specifically saying here starts to take over. It's not only that God's love is prior to your love, it's also that God's love is after your love. Do you see that? This is what happens in sort of your own personal salvation story, your history. God loves you. and does all the things he does because of that love. And then what happens? You come to spiritual life and you start to love and trust Jesus, right? And then what happens because of that love and trust? God continues to love you in new and amazing ways because all of a sudden now you're not just a creature anymore, you're a new creation in Christ. You're not just a human being anymore, you're a son or a daughter of the King. You're not just a part of this age anymore, you're a part of the new age to come that is coming. And God loves you in that way too. When you've been loved by God for all of eternity in Christ, you will be loved by Him for all of eternity future as well. Revel in that. And what does that do for your desire to pray? I think it's just extraordinary that in this speech, right before his crucifixion, how many times Jesus encourages his disciples to pray. He tells them to pray and to do so in his name. You see the importance of that? What that means is that prayer is not just one more spiritual discipline that you have to do. It's not just a traditional religious thing that Christians do. It's not just a mystical thing that Christians do. It is one of the primary rights and privileges of a citizen of the kingdom of God. It is one of the primary rights and privileges of a citizen of the new age. So pray, pray individually, pray corporately. We have a prayer service at the end of our Sunday school hour every Sunday morning. Come pray with us. We have a men's prayer breakfast every month, the first Saturday of every month. Men, come pray with us. You get to pray to the Father, and you serve a good God who wants to do good for you. Just ask, just ask Him. Here's number three. The third blessing that Jesus holds out is this promise of eternal life with Him, the promise of eternal life with Jesus. That's ultimately the point, I think, of verse 28. Look at it. He says, I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father. So I came from the Father, came into the world, now I'm leaving the world, going back to the Father. I mean, think about it. That's just a really beautiful summary of Jesus's entire life, right? I came from the Father and I have come into the world. In other words, I have been incarnated. I was born of the Virgin Mary and lived a perfect life here in this world. And now I am leaving this world because my mission is to die for the sins of my people, and I'm going back to the Father to be enthroned, right? It's just this massive sweeping arc of both who Jesus is and what he has done. But here's the point, it's not just in verse 28, it's not just that Jesus is going back to the Father, it's that he is going there so that his people can be with him there. Remember chapter 14, when this speech began, first few verses of that, he said, I am going back to my Father, and the reason I'm going back is in order to prepare a place for you. And then there's chapter 17 on the other side of that. He says, I am going, and then he prays, Father, I want them to be with me where I am. So you see the beauty of that verse. It is that Jesus is going to the Father so that his people will be with him. A couple of things here. First of all, I want you to just think about the fact that Life after death and the reality of that, the reality of life after death is not a small or insignificant thing. It is hugely important to Jesus and therefore it ought to be hugely important to us as well. And yes, there's always a danger that Christians can become so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good, there's also an enormous danger of forgetting all about heaven, forgetting all about the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth. So how often do you think about being with the Lord and with his people? I think it's a very natural thing to think more about heaven as you start to get older. Partly I think that's because you start seeing how fleeting and crumbling the things of this world are, and you just start longing for something that is finally not going to change right under your feet. I experienced this just on our vacation to Canada with my father-in-law as we were helping him box up all of his things to be moved as they're going to sell everything and sell his house. And I'm looking at photographs, all these pictures of my father-in-law in his prime. shaking hands with President Ronald Reagan in the White House and just rubbing elbows with senators and prime ministers and people all over the country, and then seeing him as this shriveled, frail man who's just moving his whole life into this one solitary room, and his friends are gone, and his His wife has lost her memory, and just the fleeting, crumbling nature of this cursed world where everything's just a striving after wind, you start to long for something that doesn't change, for something permanent, and that's coming. But I think there's another part of it because I think that as you live your life and you live through decades of life, you really start to long for heaven more because your heart kind of goes a piece at a time to heaven. And you more and more, you long to be there, to see all the smiling faces at you when you get there. And above them all, behind them all, Jesus himself who has been faithful through it all to you. Brothers and sisters, death, death comes to us all, but it is not the end. It's just the beginning of eternity. And the Lord Jesus, he has gone to prepare a place for you that will be more wonderful than anything that you could ever ask or imagine. And when all the hardships are done, when all the suffering is over, When the pain and the anxiety and the troubles are over, you will get to heaven and you will find that Jesus has meticulously prepared a place for you that is going to bring you joy. It is designed to bring you joy. Why? Because he loves you and he wants you to experience joy. He wants your heart delighted. He wants your soul thrilled. Charles Spurgeon put it like this. He said, there is a crown there which nobody's head but yours can ever wear. There is a seat in which none but yourself can sit. Friends, there will be hardships. There will be sorrows in this life. There will be difficulties. There will be persecution. There will be sickness. There will be death. But in the midst of all of that sorrow that we're going to endure in this life, there is Jesus at the end of the road saying, remember what I told you. Remember the gospel. Remember to pray. And remember, I have been at work preparing, and I've got a place ready for you when you get here. Let us pray. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you and we praise you this morning for all that you have accomplished for us. We thank you that in your love and compassion for us, you gave your own life. You died on a cross so that we might not have to die, and you paid the penalty for our own sin. We thank you that and praise you that you rose again from the dead, that you ascended into heaven, that you sit now at the right hand of your Father who has become our Father, and you invite us to come into the throne room of God himself in your name to make our requests known to him. We thank you, Jesus, that you have now gone to your Father and that you are determined that we should be with you where you are. We long to be there. And Lord, we thank you for all of these blessings. Please help us to revel in them and help us to stand upon them, even through the sorrows of this life. We pray all of this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, please stand together. Be sure to grab a flyer that gives you all the information you need about the church retreat, and go to the sign-up to sign up as soon as you can. We need a full and accurate number of those who will attend this year. It's always a blessing. I encourage you to do that. And now I encourage you to greet one another, greet visitors, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.