The Gift Of The Holy Spirit

So, how many of you know what your responsibility is next?

You know what you're supposed to do. You know why it's necessary. And you know that in part, should you leave here this morning not encouraged, refreshed, convicted, that while I may be part of the problem, if you have not prayed for the preaching of the Word of God, you certainly own part of the matter.

I am fully persuaded that praying does more for preaching than most people understand.

And I would plead with you this morning that you pray for me. Now, let me tell you ahead of time that there are certain individuals this morning that this sermon is directed to.

Now, sometimes people have walked away and said, were you preaching at me? And most of the time, that's not the case.

Okay, here are the ones that I'm preaching to. Any of you here that have struggled with a lifelong battle for moral purity?

Don't raise your hand and wave at me. But just if you're one of those, I'm preaching to you. If there are any of you here that have kind of a disposition towards being easily offended and not very happy with the fact that there are too few people who really like and love you and are engrossed with you.

I am also preaching to you who are struggling with covetousness. I am preaching to those that are here today that have to admit they're still wrestling with indwelling sin and aren't very happy with that.

Did I leave anybody out? Just curious. Just another word.

You can pray that I don't get fired up to the point that I lose. I can get energetic. How many of you knew that? Most of the time I'm moderately calm. And lest you think this is put on, that's not the case.

Any of you who remember me in my previous life when I used to coach soccer can tell you that I was a very passionate coach. I want to keep it within the coach. I want to keep it within the bounds so that you can hear the word and be refreshed and convicted, encouraged, and instructed.

So let's start with prayer. Again, focusing our hearts on Him. Father, prayer for us is the glad expression of Your sufficiency.

We who have need. We who have need come to the only one who can satisfy the longings of our heart, who can't.

Who can remedy the emptiness, who can strengthen the frail and convict sin, as well as draw the sinner to the cross.

We are thankful this morning for the ministry of the indwelling spirit in the believer's life. And we revel in the truth.

Amen. So my preaching this morning is going to take up John chapter 15, verse 25 through 31. And I will just start and focus your heart, if you will, there on verse 25.

I'm just going to kind of look at this statement. These things I have spoken to you while I was still with you. That's where Jesus starts in our passage this morning.

And I think it's fair for us to remind ourselves again. It helps us frame things to understand that here Jesus is speaking to His 11 disciples only hours in front of the cross.

The synoptic gospels, the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, are relatively similar in that they spend a larger portion of their attention on the historical and factual part of the ministry of Christ.

John, in contrast, spends very little on what Jesus did.

And he spends a great deal on the theology underlying the person and the work of our Savior. And it is played out in this passage as well where we see five, six hours, just the last few hours of the Lord's life before His betrayal and then eventual crucifixion.

There are four chapters, count them, there are four chapters, 13, 14, 15, 16, that deal with the brief time that Jesus was teaching His disciples.

And as we look at this segment of teaching, I want you to understand that this chapter, these chapters in particular, are profoundly theological.

And when we use the word theological, we're not talking about some abstract, irrelevant minutia that really is not important. We're talking about things that are profoundly valuable to the believer.

In fact, I want to go on record and say this. Your joy, your satisfaction, your victory over indwelling sin is directly linked to the truths that we're going to be looking at.

Now, if you're sitting here this morning and there are aspects to your life, I'm talking to you, that you're not happy about, I would encourage you to understand that the word of God has truth for you for the sake and blessing of your well-being.

And paying attention and tracking it and then absorbing it through the enabling of the Spirit of God is significant to your future and to your joy.

Anyway, of all the Gospels, in fact, probably of all the New Testament authors, John spends more time talking about the Holy Spirit than any other author.

We're going to see the ministry of the Holy Spirit play out over and over again. And I trust that one of the things that happens as a result of our attention to the Word of God is that you sit here and say to yourself, I am so thankful not only for my salvation, and I trust that it is something you regularly do, but you also say, and I am thankful, I am thankful for the indwelling Spirit of God that abides in me as a believer.

However, teaching on the ministry of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.

And it's an area of Bible teaching that is often marked by a great deal of confusion. So much so that some have shied away to a large degree and done so at the hurt of their own soul.

I mean, all of us here can point to one incident or another where we have seen individuals professing that certain characteristics of their behavior or certain theological truths were really kind of linked to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

And we've said, whoa, not in your life. I'll give you an illustration. A number of years ago, there was something called the Toronto Blessing. How many of you have ever heard about the artificial, inaccurate teaching that happened up in Toronto in particular?

And it became an international movement where supposedly when people were filled with the Holy Spirit, they would bray like donkeys and they would roar like lions and it was the work of the Holy Spirit.

Well, that kind of is a little off-putting to some of us. It's like, that's enough. I have to tell you that I was one of those individuals who at an earlier time in my life, there were experiences with individuals that supposedly were filled with the Holy Spirit and were behaving in really odd, strange, unacceptable manners.

And I thought, you know what? Whatever they have, I don't want it. And so I kind of, whoa, way back, way back, way back. You know what? Follow me? And as I have continued to study Scripture, I have come to profoundly appreciate the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

And this morning, my aim is to preach with the enabling of the Holy Spirit and make the text of John chapter 14, verse 15 through 31 as clear as I can with His help.

So let's begin in verse 25 and kind of step into the truth here and appreciate two great truths. One is the blessing of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And then, hey, here we go.

This is a little cryptic. The blessing of knowing what we know. Now that, oh yeah, wait till you get there. Let's talk about the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Beginning there in verse 25, Jesus says, These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.

This little sentence here is actually a very interesting one because it is a reminder to us in the flow of John 13 through 16 that Jesus is engaged in a farewell discourse.

A farewell discourse is a particular form of communication that was very popular in the ancient world. And it was used as a means of putting some very, very important truths out front and kind of saying, this is important.

And so if you were a literature major, you'd probably remember some of the farewell discourses that Shakespeare wrote into various plays. Some of you who are here that are older may have had a farewell discourse to your daughter or your son as they were leaving to do something important.

I had farewell discourses with two of my daughters back there at that door when they were getting ready to walk down to the front. I had some very pointed things to say to them. And after that, I've got to tell you, for the most part, my counsel to my adult children has been far more limited than it used to be.

I remember saying to my sons, as both of them left to go into the armed forces into basic training, I had very little succinct statements that were part of my farewell discourse.

Here it is. I said, honor Christ and come back on your shield or with it. That was it. But farewell discourses were designed and they were used often to kind of drive home some very important points.

And so here we have Jesus telling his disciples important things. And as he was delivering these final lessons and encouragements, I want you to know that he was expressing to his disciples his incredible love and the infinite value of his wisdom and counsel to them.

Put it this way. He wanted them to have hope and to succeed. And by the same extension, he has the same purpose for us as well. I want you to understand that these words here in John chapter 14 are profoundly significant and valuable to you as believers in relationship to the life you live.

It's important to understand that. And so here we are, kind of in the middle of thinking, are these words really important? And what we're going to study.

So I want you to stop just for a minute and do a little bit of self-evaluation and kind of get your value system out in front for your own sake. Okay. How many of you honestly, everybody look up because I'm talking to you.

How many of you honestly think that you would really ultimately be happier and well-served if you were better looking? I mean, you know, if you were better looking.

Most of you looked in the mirror this morning and thought, Sheesh, I am aging. You know, other things that you thought. I wish I had a bigger nose. I wish I had a smaller nose. I wish I had a flatter nose.

I wish I had a pointier nose. I mean, there are lots of things about the nose you don't like. How many of you thought to yourself, Honestly, I would be happier.

You're looking at my nose, aren't you? Stop. Some of you are thinking, You know, I would be happier if I were more athletic. I mean, you know, if I could just be an NFL star or an NBA star, you know, blah, blah, blah.

That would make me happy. Oh, I would be happier if I really had more people like me.

I mean, you know, why be followed on Twitter by 23 people when you can have, you know, 20,000K or whatever, you know. It's like it would make me feel better about myself every time I tweeted some dumb thing that everybody kind of tagged in.

Ooh, Tim said something. You know, yes. How many of you think you'd be better off if you had more money?

I mean, truthfully. How would you like a stipend of $10,000 per week?

I mean, truthfully. A stipend. That means you just get it because you're you. And it won't stop. I really bring that up because I want you to understand that your value system will be expressed in whether or not you are overwhelmed and satisfied and blessed at the understanding of the ministry of the indwelling spirit in your life.

I saw an interesting YouTube clip the other day. There was a little girl, probably three or four, that came out to her father who was working on a computer.

I don't know if he was playing a game or what, but he was really engrossed in that computer, a little laptop, and he was sitting on a stool, and she came out with this teeny little cup, kind of plastic cup.

She gave it to her daddy, and her daddy drank it. Okay? And she toddled back and came back another time, a little cup, little cup.

And he drank it again. He's working on his computer and having whatever's going on in his mind, and she does it a third time. And so the mother decides that she would kind of follow her daughter and see where she was getting this from.

It was from the toilet. Now, it was flushed, and it was fresh.

But you get my point, don't you? Now, listen to me. There are far too many here this morning that are drinking water from the toilet instead of the water of the living word.

How do I know that? For one, because I've done it too. And I can tell you, when Tim is drinking toilet water, he is very easily discouraged and overwhelmed.

He can be pretty surly and grumpy and unhappy. He can think that buying another tool or gun will really bring satisfaction.

Or he can look with envy on things that God has given other people and think, why not me? That's toilet water.

That's toilet water. And this morning, I want you to understand that when Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says what he does there in verse 25, he says, these things I have spoken to you while I was still with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring you to remembrance all that I have said to you.

You know, go back to that question I had for you. You know, when you thought about if I were a little more athletic, if I were a little better looking, if I had a little more money, you know, if I had more friends that were following me on Twitter, that would make me happy.

And I guess I think you need to understand that all of those things really are not the issue. And I wonder this morning, are you really overwhelmed, overwhelmed with his goodness and the gifts or are you drinking from that same insufficient source as the guy in the story?

It's interesting to remind ourselves that Jesus was going to the cross. He was going to be crucified. And in the face of all that lay in front, here he is.

You ever wonder about how much Jesus loves you? Here he is in the face of all that suffering. His primary interest was encouraging and comforting and strengthening his disciples. And in relationship to that, he wants them to understand, hey, I am going to see to it that you receive the indwelling spirit.

And I want you to understand that as he speaks about this, he made that point repeatedly. You look back in verse 16, he says, I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth.

Verse 18, I will come to you and then in verse 23, we will come to him and we will make our home in him. And Jesus is making it clear to his disciples repeatedly and that's one of the things that you're going to find.

The profound significance of the ministry of the indwelling spirit is something Jesus kept on reminding his disciples of and by extension, he wants you to know the blessing of having the indwelling Holy Spirit.

and he wants that to be a significant truth in your life. So I would encourage you this morning to recognize we really should be overwhelmed and blessed that we receive the Holy Spirit.

We should be overwhelmed and thankful. Hey, hey, hey, I want you to stop just for a moment. Think with me. What kind of facial expressions would you expect from a wife if the husband came home on Valentine's Day and brought her flowers?

What would be an appropriate facial expression? I'm just going to ask a couple husbands. John.

I mean, if she frowned, what would you think? Ooh! Okay. Okay.

Okay. Tom, what would you think if she frowned? Yeah, there's something wrong. Here I am. I'm doing a good thing. There must be a lot of baggage behind the scenes, right?

It's like, did I forget to take out the garbage? No. Did I forget to make the car paint? You know, what are you thinking? What went wrong? Okay. So, here's the thing. When I encourage you to know that we who are, I don't know if you're a believer or not.

I mean, the truth of the matter is I don't read hearts. But here's what I do know. It's a giveaway when people understand the blessing of the Holy Spirit that they can't at the same time they appreciate that truth be a moody, sour, unhappy, self-focused person.

Does that make sense? Nod your head if you understood that point. Okay. So, let's think now of this passage because Jesus explains what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is.

The helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. recognize that the Holy Spirit is the teacher of spiritual things. He's the teacher of spiritual things.

Now, question, how important are spiritual things? How important are they? They're profoundly important.

In fact, they are the most important things. I think back to the passage in the book of Exodus. I believe it is. I think it's Exodus. No, it's Deuteronomy where Moses in his last sermons to his people, he says, yea, he loved the people, he gave his law.

Do you understand that the Word of God is an expression of the love of God for you? I mean, it says that it has all that we need for life and godliness.

I mean, how much better does it get than that? And so, I want you to understand that the Holy Spirit is the teacher of spiritual things. I want you to recognize that without the help of the Holy Spirit, we don't get it.

don't think that showing up in church makes you smart. Don't think that showing up in church makes you learn. Turn in your Bible back to Mark chapter 4.

By the way, bear with me because I'm going to preach my heart out and if it's past 12 and you have to leave, go for it. Mark chapter 4, verse 10. And thank you, John, for giving me a couple extra minutes.

I will use it. Mark chapter 4, verse 10. And when he was alone, now here's the story, he told the parable of the sower. And I want you to kind of imagine, we're not going to read all through this, but here's the, and when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parable.

So get this. When Jesus was telling the parable of the sower, the disciples who were kind of the inner circle, I mean, you can kind of imagine they were nodding their heads, right?

I mean, yeah, yeah. Right on, Jesus. Nail him. Enthusiastic about how he was getting the truth out there. And you know, when the Pharisees, I don't understand this parable, there were the disciples at least faking it, right?

Like they were really involved in all of this. And then when they got in the private room with Jesus, what'd they say? Peter, knowing how Peter would probably be, he'd say, you know, Jesus, I really appreciate that lesson.

But Andrew's been having some trouble with spiritual truth. Just for his sake, will you go back over this? The disciples didn't get it.

And here we are. An illustration that apart from the ministry of Christ opening up the word and helping them understand it, they didn't get it.

And we all know that there are innumerable instances where we, like the disciples, desperately need Jesus' teaching to open our eyes to spiritual truths.

Now recognize this, the disciples did understand that that was part of Christ's ministry to them. They appreciated the fact that he made the word clear and they could see it and they could understand it when he opened it up.

How do I know that? John chapter 6, the lengthy sermon, and at the end, how does the crowd react to the teaching of Christ? Does anybody remember?

I mean, there are people who are saying, yes. No, they leave. They leave. In fact, as the crowd is dissipating, Jesus turns to his disciples and he says, hey, are you guys out of here too?

And what does Peter say? Not in your life. You're the one who writes our check. No, that's not what he said. What did he say?

Where can we go? You have the words of life. What he was saying is this, is that he understood that Jesus was the one who opened up the word and made it clear and beautiful and practical and understandable and a joy to their heart.

And so here we are. We recognize that in the face of the cross, the disciples had a legitimate concern for, well, who's going to help us understand the word in the future?

And Jesus says, hey, hey, it's going to be okay. You are going to have the ministry of the indwelling spirit and he will teach you the word. He is our beloved teacher.

That's good, isn't it? That's good. Listen to me. There are many of you here that have faced at different times significant challenges and battles in your life.

And I can tell you ultimately the remedy to those challenges and battles have not come through any other means than the sweetness and the comfort and the truth of the word.

He's our teacher. There's another thing that it says there in that passage in verse 25. It says this, going back to John chapter 14, verse 25. He will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Now, quickly, just for the sake of the argument, because when I say something, one of the things that I would plead with you, you always do, is you always think to yourself, yeah, where is that in the Bible?

Okay? Yeah, where is that in the Bible? Yes, where is that in the Bible? We're in John chapter 2, verse 22. Remember? The Holy Spirit brings things to remembrance.

When therefore he was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered. How many of you discover how frail your memory really is? I wrote something on my hand, and someone said, oh, that'll wear off.

I said, well, actually, the ink's pretty good. It's good for two days. It is, I can tell you. I will shower tomorrow morning. It's a general habit for me, and it will still be there, and I'll remind myself, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, and it's good for two days.

There are things I forget that come back to mind, and when that happens, I'm incredibly thankful, and in this case, what we see is that it is Jesus who's given us the Holy Spirit, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to bring Christ's teachings to our mind, to our remembrance.

John chapter 2, they remembered. John chapter 12, verse 16. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

The fact that the disciples remembered what Jesus had said and done is not to be attributed to their own intellect, their own memory, but to the work of the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God who indwells every believer is at work bringing Scripture to mind in direct proportion to your exposure to it. How many of you have ever tried to access a hard disk and discovered that if the information is not there, the program will not pull it up?

You get that one? Okay. But if the information is there, and you have the right search tool, and you put in the right string, it'll come up. So when I tell you that the Holy Spirit is in the business of bringing things to remembrance, I want to make this point.

Now, along with that, the Holy Spirit will not bring Scripture to mind where it has not been read or heard. Okay?

It's not going to happen. By the way, just a little aside, I haven't said this for several weeks, so I'll say it again. When we are singing, I would always appeal to you, I would plead with you that you use our singing time as a little time to kind of encourage the ministry of the Holy Spirit in bringing Scripture to mind.

Do you follow that? Are we singing words that are biblical, or are we just talking about, I go to the garden alone? You know, wonderful song. What does it have to say about the Bible?

You know, I don't know. But I probably talked about someone's favorite hymn. Send me a note later. But here's my point. When you're singing, cross-reference what we're doing against the Bible, right?

Now let me emphasize this truth in relationship to our Savior's life. How was it that Jesus invariably recited Scripture?

Oh, He's the Word of God. Listen. The life of Christ serves as an encouragement to the average generic believer who enjoys the same blessed ministry of the Holy Spirit.

By the way, this is a truth of Jesus' life, that He enjoyed the Spirit without measure. Do you know what it's saying? He had it all. He was full. And how did Jesus know?

And by the way, when He argued with the Pharisees, when He was dying on the cross, when He was teaching His disciples, it was Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture. You get that? It was always Scripture.

Can you open your mouth and say something that's not biblical, Jesus? Okay. So how did He learn all this? How did He learn all this? Where did it come from?

Look at Isaiah 50, verse 4. Isaiah 50, verse 4. Just quickly. This is a dynamite passage that encourages us to understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ, but also to apply it to our own life.

Isaiah 50, verse 4. Remember, this is a messianic passage, and it is talking about the Lord Jesus.

And I want you to imagine that in the mornings when Jesus would awaken, the first thing that He would do is spend time in the Word of God. The Lord has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.

Morning by morning, He awakens me. He awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. But the Lord has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious.

I wonder about your devotional life. Listen to me. We're either swimming upstream against the struggle with our own heart and against the world that we live in, or we're drifting towards disaster.

Now, here's a practical takeaway for you. The believer has received the Holy Spirit, and the full blessing of His indwelling is there for us, but we have to depend upon Him.

We have to rely upon Him. We have to pray for His enabling, and we need to soak in the Word through Him. And if you are one of those individuals who finds your mind incessantly laboring under the consequences of an unholy thought life, there is no remedy for it just by saying, well, I don't want to do that.

Bury yourself in the Word of God and allow the Word of God, enabled by the Spirit of God, to change the way you think, and with that change also comes deliverance and behavioral change that's profound.

Now, before I go to the next point, and you're thinking, how is He going to get the next point done in four minutes? We'll find out. I want to read something from J.I. Packer in relationship to the Holy Spirit. Let me go slowly. I don't know if it's put up, but here it is.

The Christian life, in all its aspects, intellectual and ethical, devotional and relational, the upsurging in worship and the outgoing in witness is supernatural.

Only the Spirit can sustain it. Now, given the centrality of the doctrinal truths of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, I have put most of the time on that point.

Let's look at the second point this morning, and now is the time for you to really pray because some of you have this reflex that once you hit 12, you turn into a pumpkin.

It won't happen, but just kind of let you know it's okay. Verse 27 through 31 are verses that continue in the purpose that Jesus had in giving His disciples reason to not be anxious or troubled in the face of what was coming.

And so, kind of to put it together here, understand this, that He was making it clear that the story was going to end well. And so, put it this way.

He says, one, I'm going away to the cross and I will come to you through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Second, my going to the Father is a good thing for His glory is the heart of my mission.

Why did Jesus come? Yes, He came for sinners, but He came principally to satisfy the direction of His Father. His Father willed it and He did it.

Third, He made the point very clear, Satan was not going to win. I like that. I like that.

Well, with this in hand, let's go back to verse 27. Look at this verse. And if you are here this morning and you have a battle with your thought life, this is a real set of thoughts to hold on to.

Verse 27, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Biblical peace is not so much a state as it is a relationship with Him.

Biblical peace is not so much a state as it is a relationship with Him. I want you to understand the use of the word peace in theological settings and the use of the word peace in the world is radically different.

Jesus made that point. He said, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives. Let's explain it this way. Biblical peace refers to wholeness, to oneness, togetherness, to peace that is settled and quiet and satisfied.

The world uses the term peace, particularly in ancient Greek culture, peace was the brief moments between battles.

peace. We have a treaty of peace. There is peace. Remember Neville Chamberlain?

I mean, who as a student of history cannot remember Neville Chamberlain? We don't want to be a... Some of you are saying, who is that? Forget it. I'll stop talking about him. Hey, here's the deal. The world understands peace only as the brief interlude, break, between conflict.

Well, I've got peace with my neighbor. Wait till you have another one. Huh? You know what? I want you to understand that in practical terms, our peace is inseparable from where we are in our relationship with Him.

Will you hold on to that one? Our peace is inseparable from where we are in our relationship with Him. So let me solidify with a couple different verses that kind of amplify this truth.

For one, Ephesians 2, verse 14 says, He Himself is our peace. Huh? He Himself is our peace.

My friends don't like me. Huh. Jesus does. My friends think ill of me.

Jesus doesn't. I would be happier if I were better looking or more popular or faster or had more money or, you know?

No. He is Himself our peace. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 16. Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in, hold on to this one, every circumstance.

Huh? How's that one? I wouldn't be remiss, I would be remiss if I didn't draw a sharp contrast in closing between the incredible blessing of peace we have in Christ and the absence of peace that is the characteristic of the unbeliever.

I have to tell you, I confess to Pastor Saul that I was of the mistaken thought that after the elections things would kind of calm down in the arena of politics.

Grossly exaggerated and ill-advised thinking. I mean, the world's a mess! What made me think that after November elections everything was going to calm down? It didn't!

Why? Why? Well, in summary, let me put it this way. Passage over in Isaiah chapter 49, verse 22, and it is something that actually appears in three different frames in Isaiah.

It says, there is no peace, saith the Lord, for the wicked. There is no peace, saith the Lord, for the wicked. There is no peace, saith the Lord, There is a part of me that is not the least bit troubled by the messy world we live in.

Do you know why? Twofold. Because I can hear the words of Jesus in my ear, my peace I give to you.

There's another reason that I am not the least bit put off, because here's what I know. Until I stop drawing breath, Tim Knoyer actually is here on a very simple and singular assignment, and that is to draw attention to people, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's it. You know what? One of these days, I may retire. I mean, I plan to. I may die first, but you know, I plan to retire. And some people say to me, so what are you going to do after you retire?

It's the same thing that I was doing before. You know, I was like, what are you doing? I get to tell people about the only person who can make a difference and they're messy, unhappy. Peace shattered lives.

Isaiah said, there is no peace for the wicked. And so here's where we are. Repentance and faith and the finished work of Christ on the cross brings peace in this life and peace for all eternity.

Last week, I spent some time with an individual who is nearing his home going. I don't mind being around believers that are dying.

Do you know why? I'm okay with it. I know how their story ends. And if you are here this morning and you are a believer, let me tell you something.

The story ends well and there's no reason while you're taking this journey, please listen to me, to be so out of sorts and so out of peace when he who has redeemed you is your peace.

my heart breaks when I see that. There's another side to this. There's peace only through the Lord Jesus Christ and so I have to tell you that a hardened heart and refusal, listen please, please listen, don't look away, a hardened heart and the refusal of the offer of grace will bring you through a fitful life and will ultimately bring you to eternal judgment before God forever.

And so it makes it fitting that my last words to all of you are this, be reconciled to God through the finished work of Jesus on the cross who paid the penalty for your sins and apart from whom there is no peace forever.

Let's close in prayer. Our Father God, we understand that the purpose of preaching is to put people on the spot of saying yes or no to you.

There are some believers here this morning who have allowed the struggles of their life to rob them of the peace that they have in the Lord Jesus Christ and lift up their eyes to see the beauty of the truth and the sufficiency of the ministry of the Spirit of God in the believer.

Let them live at peace so they may bear witness to the peace that may be had in you. I pray for some who are here today whose hearts are hardened and only your Spirit can break through.

Help them to understand that the turmoil, the dissatisfaction, the bitter memories of things that happened in the past will have no remedy apart from them crying out and asking Jesus to be their Savior.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together as we sing this morning. you