b-15

[0:00] For today, it's going to be John 16, 4-15. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

[0:35] 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.

[0:49] When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you all into 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.

[1:02] All that the Father has is mine. Therefore, I said to you... Correction. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Did you guys hear what they said up front?

[1:21] In some traditions, when someone says this is the word of the Lord, the congregation responds and says, Praise be to God, or thanks be to God. And it's actually not something we've done at Shoreline, but these two have been doing it.

[1:34] Tyler's been doing it. And it would be a good thing to start. So, I'll say this is the word of the Lord, and you can all say, praise be to God. This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. Please pray with me.

[1:44] Heavenly Father, God, we ask that you would do the things that you say you will do in this text. Your spirit, Christ says, will convict.

[1:58] Your spirit will guide your saints into all the truth that is bound up in Christ. And your spirit will glorify the Son. And so, we ask that through the preaching of this text, that you would do those things, that you would do these exact things that we long to see you do, that you promise to do.

[2:20] Would you convict our hearts, Lord, and show us the ministry of the Spirit to do that in the world? Would you guide us into the truth of these words? And would you glorify Christ?

[2:32] We pray this in his name. Amen. Well, good morning, church. My name is Mike, one of the elders here at Shoreline, and I'm so glad that each one of you have chosen to come here and worship with us this morning.

[2:45] I want to ask, if you've ever been to a new place, maybe a new city, maybe on a hike somewhere that you've never been, and you had absolutely no idea how to navigate your way around.

[3:00] Now, in these days, we have smartphones that we can look at for maps. We have all trails, so you know exactly where the route is. But if you've never, ever been there before, even still today, there might be some twinge of fear that you might turn down the wrong place or get lost.

[3:14] Now, maybe you've been in a situation like that, but you actually had, you know, maybe a friend living in the city that knew their way around the city. Or you went on a hike, and you were with a guide that actually had been there before, that knew the trails like the back of their hand.

[3:27] And so you had no fears whatsoever. You knew that wherever you went, whatever, you know, unknown situations you would encounter, that person with you would make all the difference.

[3:38] Or consider the great sport of basketball, right? March Madness is underway. Some people are upset. Some are happy. When I think about basketball, I can't help but think about the greatest basketball team that ever existed, which is the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s.

[3:54] I know I'm stuck in the past. I say it from time to time. But, you know, what was it that made the Bulls so great? It's not a mystery. It's Michael Jordan. I mean, he's the reason that they were. You could talk about the coaching on their players.

[4:06] Michael Jordan. He's what made the Chicago Bulls great. And they could be trailing with only a few seconds to go, you know, and nobody would be worried because you had the ultimate advantage, right?

[4:19] You had Michael Jordan. He was going to make the shot. He was going to win the game. Now, what do you do, though, if you're, you know, in that city that you've never been to or on that trail or the Chicago Bulls and that person, that go-to person is gone?

[4:32] Like, what do you do in that situation? In the case of the Bulls, you know, they imploded and haven't recovered, which is why I always refer back to the 90s because that was the glory days. Now, in our text for today, right, we find that the disciples are overwhelmed with sorrow because Jesus has been talking about His imminent departure from them, right?

[4:53] He's going to go back to the Father. He's leaving this world and the disciples are going to face opposition from the world. Now, in the middle of this discourse, right, the upper room discourse, Jesus has also been telling them glorious things, right?

[5:08] He's told them that He goes to prepare a place for them, right, in the Father's house. He told them that they're going to be united, Father and Son and the saints united together.

[5:18] He's told them that they're going to perform greater works than these, greater works than even Christ. He's promised them already the Helper's going to come. He's going to dwell with you and in you.

[5:28] He's going to guide you into truth. He's told them of the power of answered prayer, right? If you pray four different times, He's told them, if you pray in my name, the Father's going to hear and He's going to answer.

[5:40] And yet, they cannot shake the sorrow that they feel, right? They can't shake the grief it's weighing down on them. And as Jordan just pointed out, Jesus, who Himself is only hours away from unimaginable suffering, from death on the cross, He continues to speak hope and comfort to their troubled hearts.

[6:04] And so we see, firstly, that reasons for sorrow abound. And that's the first point for today. Jesus 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.

[6:20] See, throughout Jesus' earthly ministry, it was not yet time to say to His disciples all the things that He has now been revealing to them in these final hours because He was still with them.

[6:31] Now, we see examples of various farewell addresses all throughout Scripture. You can think about Moses, Joshua, and other leaders of the nation of Israel. We've seen it throughout history as well.

[6:44] Even life today, teachers, leaders, you know, passing on final and pertinent instructions as they hand off the baton, as it were, to those in their stead. And Jesus is now, He's about to return to the Father.

[6:57] He's no longer going to be with them. So now is the time to talk to them of these things, right? Things that were not relevant even just a few months before and they weren't ready to receive these words.

[7:10] And just as an aside, really, have you ever seen God wait to tell you something, right? Wait to give you insight into something until a certain point because you weren't yet ready for it.

[7:21] You weren't mature enough to receive it. You know, I just, when I see the wisdom of Christ here, I'm just reminded that we can trust Him. Like, we can trust the Lord in His timing and the unfolding of His plan even in our own lives, His timing and teaching us.

[7:39] But Jesus says next, He says, And none of you asked me, where are you going? Now, this is kind of strange because in chapter 13, verse 36, it says, Peter said to Jesus, Lord, where are you going?

[7:52] And so I'm like, well, wait a second, Jesus. In chapter 14, Thomas had said, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? This is a little perplexing.

[8:03] There's different ideas about what Jesus is inferring here. Perhaps He's saying that the disciples are not now asking. A few hours have passed by in the conversation. Perhaps they're not now asking because they've come to grips with the fact that Jesus is leaving.

[8:18] His departure is happening and they're coming to grips with that. Now, I think it's more likely, though it's still sort of speculative, that Jesus is making a comment about what Peter and Thomas were really asking when Peter said, Lord, where are you going?

[8:32] It wasn't so much out of a concern for Christ as it was a concern for themselves, right? Like, what's going to happen to us when you leave? But regardless of why Jesus says this in verse 5, the next verse, He makes something clear about the disciples' hearts, right?

[8:48] And He said, But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Right? Despite all of the glorious realities that Jesus has been unfolding to them, the disciples just can't shake this growing, this overwhelming sense of sorrow that's flooding their hearts.

[9:06] Parents, think about if you tell your kids that you're going on a date somewhere or you're going on a vacation somewhere, right? You might comfort them by telling them about all the wonderful things that grandma and grandpa are going to spoil them with, right?

[9:19] All the candy they're going to give them, how you're definitely going to come back and return. But your kids are scared because they're not used to you being apart from them. And so maybe in a similar way here, the disciples, though they've been hearing all these amazing things that are going to happen, they're just overwhelmed with sorrow.

[9:36] And I think we can relate to the disciples in this life, in our own lives, because like them, we too, we face overwhelming griefs and sorrows sometimes, right?

[9:46] We live in the brokenness of a world gone wrong, in the brokenness of sin. And so sorrow comes at us in infinite variety, right? Sometimes it hits us in overwhelming fury, right?

[9:59] Like a nor'easter, it just shakes everything and rattles us to the core. Or sometimes it's like a light but incessant drizzle, right? Like the spring rains that we experience these days.

[10:10] And I just wonder what flavor of sorrow is filling your heart today? The disciples in the upper room, they had a myriad of reasons for sorrow as we do today.

[10:22] But into that sorrow, right? And remember, when Jordan said, Jesus, his impending suffering, still speaking into the disciples' sorrow to bring hope and to bring comfort.

[10:33] And that's what he does next. He says in verse 7, and the next point is that we have the ultimate advantage. Jesus says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

[10:45] 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.

[10:57] As great as the grief and the sorrow that the disciples faced, greater still was their reason for hope and joy. And that's why this is actually the fourth of five passages just in the upper room discourse about the helper, about the Holy Spirit.

[11:12] We've seen three of them already. As fierce as the opposition to the gospel that the disciples would experience after Jesus leaves, more powerful still would be the helper on their side.

[11:27] And you know, when Jesus repeats something, it's important, right? And that's why we need to look in this upper room discourse and see those different times he's talking about the helper. We talked about, it's the word paraclete, and it means helper or advocate.

[11:41] And what Jesus says here in verse seven, it's been implied in those previous paraclete passages about the Holy Spirit, but Jesus wants to make this explicit.

[11:52] It's been implied that it will be an advantage for them for the Spirit to go away, but now he says it explicitly, right? He's like, no, no, really, I'm actually serious. When I tell you that it's to your advantage that I go away, that it's better for you, that it's profitable for you, that you will actually be glad at the outcome.

[12:12] So he repeats this over and over again about the paraclete and says it is to your advantage. Now you might say, well, Jesus is just, he's just trying to make his disciples feel better, right?

[12:23] He doesn't really mean that it's better for the Holy Spirit to replace his physical bodily presence. Like he can't actually be saying that. Now church, I think that we might not actually say that question out loud, but I wonder if like the disciples, we are skeptical about what Jesus says here, that it's actually to our advantage that he goes away.

[12:46] Yes, Jesus is trying to make his disciples feel better, right? Jesus is seeking to comfort his disciples, but he's not doing so with a half-truth or some sort of platitude.

[12:58] Like Jesus is God, right? God is not a liar like man. God does not distort or twist the truth. He doesn't speak a single syllable that he does not fully intend, right?

[13:09] Jesus is comforting his disciples with truth, with rock-solid truth, with the deep and profound reality that the Spirit in them is better than the Jesus beside them, right?

[13:22] The Spirit with and inside them is better for them than the Jesus beside them. And that is true for us today, saints. It is true for us today that the Spirit in us is actually better for us, for the church, than Jesus bodily beside us.

[13:41] And how can that possibly be, you might ask? Well, Jesus is about to give us three different ways that that is true. But before we see what Jesus says, I first, I want us to consider this truth from the opposite angle.

[13:56] I first want us to consider the ministry that Christ has been doing in this world, right? Look at what Jesus has done and then just take him at his word. He says it's better.

[14:07] It's to our advantage that he goes away. So, Jesus, in his physical presence among the disciples, he's taught them the things of God, right? With audible words. He has been preaching and teaching and explaining things, deep things of God.

[14:22] And he says, it is to your advantage that I go away. Right? It's to your advantage. Jesus has modeled for them the character of God, right? With physical actions, but he says it's better for you that I send another helper to be with you.

[14:37] Jesus has demonstrated the power of God, right? With signs and with miracles and he's saying it's actually to your prophet that I return to the Father. Jesus has manifested the love of God with tangible expressions and he's saying but it's in your best interest that the Spirit comes.

[14:57] The Spirit comes and takes residence in your hearts. He's saying that you have an unceasing reason for hope and joy amidst the griefs and the sorrows of life.

[15:08] There are uncertainties in the road ahead as I leave but you have the helper and advantage, right? Even over my physical bodily presence with you. So brothers and sisters, we need to take Jesus at his word before we move on to seeing what Jesus says exactly here.

[15:25] Take him at his word that it is actually the ultimate advantage for the saints that the Spirit of God is with us and in us. Now when I hear the word advantage, all you EB heads and Navy folk here, you know, the slogan of EB, the mission statement if you will, is we deliver the advantage that protects our sailors, our families, and our freedom.

[15:49] For years I would walk in an electric boat and see that plastered on the wall of one of the buildings there. and we would say that we don't ever want our sailors to enter a fair fight, right?

[16:00] Like we want to give the Navy, we want to give the military every advantage over the enemy so that the fight that they enter is not a fair fight, right? And so we believe that submarines are a great technological advantage that we give to the Navy, right?

[16:15] And in the same way, the saints, us, brothers and sisters in Christ, the church, the church does not enter into a fair fight, right? We are not in a fair fight.

[16:26] We have the decisive ultimate advantage in the Holy Spirit who is with us and in us. And so Jesus then moves on to explain to the disciples how the helper's presence will be to their advantage.

[16:40] And so we're going to look at this. The Holy Spirit's threefold ministry in and through the saints. And the first thing that he talks about is the world's guilt. Jesus says in verse 8, And when he comes, the helper, the Holy Spirit, when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

[17:04] Now it's important here, that word convict is a really important word. To convict is to declare somebody guilty, right? In the biblical sense, it is to show somebody their sin and to summon them to repentance.

[17:19] And this is not the same thing as to condemn, right? To condemn is to actually sentence that person to punishment. There's a conviction and in the world, right, in the court of law, it's usually immediately followed with the condemnation, with the sentencing.

[17:34] But right now, Jesus is talking just about the conviction. Now throughout Jesus' earthly ministry, he has been showing the world, primarily the Jews, right, he's been showing them their sin.

[17:45] He's been calling them to repentance. He's about to bear the world's condemnation on the cross, right, that they might not have to if they but believe in him. So he's been calling them to repentance that they don't have to bear that condemnation that he is about to bear.

[18:02] And Jesus is saying here, though, to his disciples that when he goes and the Holy Spirit comes, the Holy Spirit is going to continue that ministry of conviction to the world.

[18:14] See, in God's sovereign grace and patience, he is delaying final condemnation, is he not? It is the grace of God that there is time in between conviction and condemnation.

[18:27] God's sovereign grace drawing us and more people into the fold of God. Praise God for that. Like you and me, we are gathered into the fold if you believe in Christ because of his patience because he hasn't returned yet before we have believed upon him.

[18:45] Now the Spirit will bring this conviction to the world. And he says he's going to do it in verse 9 concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Because they do not believe in me.

[18:56] See, unbelief is sin at its core. Right? The Jews have rejected Christ. The Jews have not believed his words or his works that he had done before them.

[19:07] And so they are in sin, right? And not only are they in sin, but they actually are wrong about sin because they believed Jesus to be the sinner. Right? They believed Jesus to be the blasphemer.

[19:18] They are going to crucify him with that charge against him. Right? They believe that he is in partnership with Satan. But they are dead wrong. Right? So they are in sin. They are wrong about sin.

[19:29] And the Holy Spirit, when he comes, when he comes, he is going to declare their guilt to them and call them to repentance. Concerning righteousness, verse 10, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer.

[19:47] How are those phrases linked together? You will see me no longer. See, the Jews believe themselves to be righteous, right? Just like they believe Jesus to be in sin. They believe themselves to be righteous, not realizing, as it says in Isaiah 64, verse 6, that their righteousness is like filthy rags.

[20:05] Right? They are wrong about sin. They are wrong about righteousness. Jesus has been showing them what true righteousness actually looks like, right? He's been modeling that for them.

[20:15] No, this is the picture of righteousness. This is the picture of God's holiness and his justice. And Jesus is going to the Father. It both vindicates him as the righteous one, right?

[20:28] We talked last week from Ephesians 1 about Jesus would be exalted at the Father's right hand, vindicated. He is the truly righteous one. And also, it's going to leave a gap because he's been declaring to the world, showing them what righteousness looks like.

[20:42] And now the Spirit, he's going to come do that same thing. He is going to show the world the righteousness of God. And Jesus says he will convict the world concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

[20:56] So just like the Spirit will expose the world's righteousness as a false righteousness, he will also expose their judgment as a false judgment. D.A. Carson writes, all false judgment is related to him who was a liar from the beginning, right?

[21:09] That's the devil, whose children we are if we echo his values. If he stands condemned by the triumph of the cross, the false judgment of those who follow in his train is doubly exposed.

[21:24] Right? Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Right? When Christ said earlier in John 12 that the ruler of this world, now is the time that the ruler of this world will be cast out because through the triumph of the cross, Satan would be dealt a fatal blow.

[21:43] Right? His doom is sure. The ruler of this world is judged because of the work of Christ. And another commentator compares clinging to the world as clinging to a sinking ship.

[21:54] Right? We know the end of the world and its principles led by Satan. Right? We know that Christ has triumphed. We know that its doom is sure. So it's like clinging to a sinking ship.

[22:08] And so this is what the Holy Spirit will do when he comes. He's going to declare to the world its guilt regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. He's going to call the world to repentance. And I just want us to notice how centered on Christ this ministry is.

[22:24] Christ is saying that when the Spirit comes, he's going to compel the world, believe in Jesus. Right? See the righteousness of Jesus. See the triumphant Jesus bow before him.

[22:35] He's the triumphant one. He's the judge of all the earth. The ministry is centered on Christ. But I don't want us to lose what Jesus is doing here. He is saying that this, you know, this world-convicting ministry of the Spirit, it's something that is an advantage to the saints.

[22:52] It's an advantage to the saints. Now I want to ask, where is the Holy Spirit going to be when he's doing these things? Jesus said in the verse prior that this helper will come to you.

[23:08] Right? He will come to you. In verse, in chapter 14, he said that the Spirit will be in you. He will dwell with you. Right? So the Holy Spirit is going to be with and in the saints doing this work of conviction.

[23:22] So what that means is that the world is going to be convicted primarily through the witness of disciples of Jesus. Right? The Spirit making our witness, the church's gospel witness, effective.

[23:35] And that's the advantage for the saints. Effective witness through the Spirit. Right? Through the witness of the lives of the saints. You know, as we grow in conformity to Christ, as we witness with our lips the message of the gospel, we declare that to the world, the Holy Spirit brings conviction to the hearts of men.

[23:56] Some are going to respond in faith. Right? We pray for that. But some respond in faith. Some are going to respond in indifference. Right? Some will respond in hatred. But everybody will respond in some way.

[24:10] And this is a result of the Spirit making the witness of the saints effective. I mean, just consider what happened. Again, after the Spirit came, on the day of Pentecost, what happened?

[24:21] Peter preached a message before thousands of Jews. He convicted them of their sin. He told them that you crucified Jesus. Right? God raised them from the dead and they were cut to the heart.

[24:33] And 3,000 souls, 3,000 souls were added to the church on that first day of Pentecost. That's effectiveness. Right?

[24:43] That's the Spirit's work convicting the hearts of men by the sovereign grace of God, applying the redemptive work of Christ to them and bringing 3,000 sheep into the fold of God.

[24:56] That's the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit. Right? And then a few chapters later though, we see that Peter and John are arrested for sharing the gospel. They're beaten by the Jewish leaders that crucified Christ and then they're released.

[25:10] Right? And so there we have the opposite. We have the complete rejection, the opposition of the world that Jesus predicted would happen. But there is effectiveness in the witness. There's effectiveness.

[25:21] So that is something for us to take to heart today, church, that our witness before the world is made effective by the Holy Spirit. Let us be emboldened.

[25:32] Let us be emboldened for the sake of Christ, the sake of the gospel, that you and I have a helper. Right? He is pleading the cause of Christ through us. Right? He is strengthening us for the task that we've been commissioned to do by Christ.

[25:46] Right? To go into the world and make disciples, the Spirit making our witness effective. On Friday, my wife was just at a funeral. Her, a mentor that she had growing up, her father passed away.

[26:01] He was 96 years old and passed away. And he was a man that was a self-made American man. He went to church, but they doubted for his whole life whether he was saved.

[26:13] And on the day before his death, the day before his death, he asked a pastor friend of his to come and pray with him and he prayed to receive Christ on that day.

[26:25] And nobody knew that he was going to pass away the next day. He passed away the very next day. And I only, I say that story, we don't actually know his heart, right? But I say that story as an encouragement because there are those of you in this room who have been praying for mothers or sisters or friends for years.

[26:42] Right? And there has been no fruit. There's been no fruit that you can see. And we don't know what God is doing in somebody's heart. We don't know the timing of the Lord.

[26:52] It might be that he will bring them to a full conviction and bring them into salvation at the last day of their life. And we don't know. But we can trust that God is good and we can be emboldened in our witness knowing that he makes, by the Spirit, that witness effective.

[27:10] So the first ministry of the Spirit, the first advantage for the saints is that Jesus lays out the world's guilt, right? Bringing effective witness. And then we see the second thing is the disciples' guidance.

[27:23] The disciples' guidance. Jesus says, I still have many things to say to you, verse 12, 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.

[27:46] Jesus here, with pastoral care and sensitivity, he refrains from expounding on all the things that he would like to say to the disciples, right? Their hearts are too troubled.

[27:57] They're too burdened to receive what he has to say. And I think more significantly though, the disciples cannot possibly grasp all the truth that is bound up in Christ before his death, resurrection, and exaltation, right?

[28:14] There is truth to be revealed in Jesus' work that is not yet finished and the Spirit is not going to come yet because the Spirit is waiting for the fullness of Christ's revelation to come.

[28:25] That redemptive work, it is finished and Christ is resurrected and ascended back to the Father and then the Spirit comes, right? And then the Spirit comes, the helper, the Spirit of truth.

[28:36] Then he will guide the disciples into all the truth. And notice how it says that he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority, right?

[28:49] But whatever he hears, he will speak. He won't speak on his own authority. Whatever he hears, he will speak. In the next two verses, Jesus will say twice that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

[29:03] Now why is this important? Jesus is making a statement here about the fact that he himself is the climax of God's revelation to mankind, right?

[29:17] Like, through Christ's words and deeds culminating in the cross and the empty tomb and then his return to glory, Jesus has revealed God in a far surpassing clarity than God has ever been revealed before.

[29:31] Jesus is the climax of God's self-disclosure to the world. I mean, do you remember in Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus, right?

[29:42] It says that beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. That would have been the most amazing Bible lesson to ever have existed.

[29:57] Jesus telling these two men how all of the scriptures pointed to him, right? Because he is the ultimate revelation of God to the world.

[30:08] So the Holy Spirit, he is going to guide the disciples into all the truth that is bound up in Jesus and his self-revelation. He's going to enable the saints to understand, to grasp, to take to heart, to live out all the truth of and in Christ.

[30:27] I mean, this ties so much to what we were talking about last week from Ephesians 1, right? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, right?

[30:42] That was Paul's prayer, that the spirit would be the one revealing to us the mysteries of God. He also says in 1 Corinthians 2, we quoted this last week, the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God, right?

[30:54] And he enables the saints to understand the things freely given us by God, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. He is going to guide the disciples into all the truth that is in Jesus and all the implications of that truth.

[31:11] And then Jesus says here that he will declare to you the things that are to come. What are the things that are to come? Now, certainly, some people see this and they read apocalyptic end times stuff into this.

[31:29] And that's true, right? The spirit gave us, he gave to the apostle John the book of Revelation and that vision. So certainly, it's true that the spirit would reveal times, you know, end times theology and truth.

[31:45] But here in this context, it seems that Jesus is referring to what we've already said. The spirit is going to reveal the fullness of God's revelation in Christ and all of the implications for the church.

[31:59] Things that the disciples cannot possibly bear to receive right now. Those are the things to come. Those are the things to come and the spirit is going to declare those things to the saints.

[32:12] So how might we characterize this great advantage for Jesus' disciples? The New Testament writings and New Covenant wisdom.

[32:22] New Testament writings and New Covenant wisdom. Now, the 11 disciples in this room, this applied most directly to them because they would go on to write the rest of scripture, God's holy and errant inspired word in the pages of the New Testament.

[32:39] So this applies directly to them. The spirit's going to guide them into that and then give the New Testament to the church. And Jesus' words, they certainly apply to all of the saints, to all of us.

[32:52] A few weeks ago we read from Jeremiah's prophecy of a new covenant to come. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

[33:03] I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

[33:19] It's Jeremiah 31. That picture of the new covenant to come, Jesus is saying that new covenant is here. It's here. It's now. I'm going to send the Spirit. He's going to write the law on your hearts.

[33:31] He's going to guide you into all the truth that is in Christ. He's going to help you to know me, to know the Father. And so every person who has placed their faith in Christ has been indwelt with that promised helper, the Holy Spirit, the advocate who guides us into all the truth that is bound up in the revelation of Christ which has been written for us in the pages of Scripture.

[33:58] In the pages of Scripture. Now there's so many implications for this. I just want to mention two quickly. One is that the saints can minister to one another because we all, you all, brothers, sisters in Christ, if you are in Christ, you have the Spirit of Truth in you, guiding you into the truth.

[34:20] You don't need, you don't need a pastor to explain all of the truth of God's Word to you because you yourself have the Spirit of God. Right? Now there's complicated things in Scripture and we help one another to understand them and you can do that in your community groups.

[34:34] You can do that one-on-one of guiding one another into the truth that is bound up in Christ, written for us in Scripture because you yourself have the Spirit of God.

[34:45] Right? You have the Spirit of God in you. Another implication here, whenever you pick up this book to read it, I would encourage you to stop and pray to the Holy Spirit to guide you into the truth as you read.

[35:04] As you read. He will do it. Speaking of prayers that the Father delights in answering, right? A prayer in Jesus' name, I think that if you pray for the Spirit to guide you into the truth that is in this word, that the Father will answer that prayer and He will help you.

[35:20] The world's guilt, the disciples' guidance, the third ministry of the Spirit that Jesus mentions here, the Son's glory. In verse 14, He says, He will glorify me for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.

[35:38] All that the Father has is mine. Therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you. Jesus in His earthly ministry was all about the Father's glory.

[35:50] Right? And we've seen that throughout the book of John. Always doing what the Father said. Always doing what was for the glory of God the Father. And so the Holy Spirit is all about the Son's glory.

[36:04] Andrew talked about this just a couple weeks ago. He talked about how the Spirit is like a spotlight. Right? The point of a spotlight is not to draw attention to itself but to shine a light on the thing that it's illuminating.

[36:16] Right? And so the Holy Spirit's role, He's not to draw attention to Himself. The Spirit's role is to put a spotlight on the excellencies and the beauty and the loveliness of Christ.

[36:27] Right? So that our gaze is fixed upon Jesus and everything that He's done and everything that He's revealed to us. And how does He do that? How does the Spirit do that?

[36:38] Well, in the way that we just talked about by guiding the disciples into all the truth that's bound up in Christ. Right? And here we see that the purpose of that is Christ's glorification.

[36:51] Right? The purpose of that is worship. It's worship. And that's the advantage. How is this an advantage for the saints? Right? Because this is the point of Christ's, this whole discourse here, this section, is that it's to your advantage that I go away.

[37:07] Endless worship through the Spirit. Endless worship. Right? Our worship of Christ is inextricably linked to our sharing in the divine life of God.

[37:23] Right? We share in the life of God and we are at the same time worshiping God. And sharing in God's life is our highest joy.

[37:34] It's our highest delight. Right? Infinite joy, infinite love is what the Father and the Son and the Spirit have been experiencing from eternity past. And now, Jesus has been telling us all throughout the upper room discourse that I am bringing you through the ministry of the Spirit into that divine life.

[37:53] You are one. You become one with the triune God. And so, your joy, it's bound up in my glory. Right? This is like, it's like the musical motif that Jesus has been sounding like in each movement of this symphony that is his farewell discourse.

[38:11] The Father sharing with the Son. The Son sharing with the Spirit. The Spirit sharing with the saints all of the things of God. Right? The Spirit's applying the redemptive work of Christ to the saints.

[38:25] Right? So that we are enveloped into the life of God. And this is amazing stuff. Right? God's glory, our joy, bound up together.

[38:36] Right? And this is the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It says, man's chief end, right, is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. our chief end.

[38:47] So what a great advantage the Holy Spirit is. Right? The saints are able to fulfill our God-given purpose. He created us for this. He created us for his glory and our joy and the Spirit.

[39:00] He enables us to actually worship God and be filled in, filled up with his joy at the same time. which reminds me of Jesus saying to the Samaritan woman, but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

[39:20] In spirit and truth. And here we have the Spirit of truth with us. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

[39:32] So the Spirit enables us with all of our lives to worship God, to be filled with the joy that Christ came. He came to give us the fullness of his joy and those are linked together because we have the helper.

[39:48] The helper. As I thought about this dynamic that's going on, it reminds me of just a series of electrical switches.

[40:00] Right? A series of, now bear with me here, the Father sharing, speaking to the Son. Right? The Son is receiving from the Father. The Father is sharing with him. That is a closed switch.

[40:10] That connection is always there. Father sharing to the Son. Right? The Son, all the time, is sharing with the Spirit everything that he is. There is love. There is joy. Right? The connection is secure.

[40:21] Father to the Son to the Spirit and then the Spirit to the saints. Now in the Old Testament, that connection was sort of spotty. How did that work? How did the saints receive the divine life of God?

[40:31] Was the Spirit in the saints? Clearly the Spirit was at work in the saints. He was doing something, but the connection was spotty. We're not, it's mysterious. But what Christ is saying is that connection has been made secure.

[40:45] Right? The Spirit now is sharing everything about God with the saints. A secure connection. Right? So we have, church, the saints have the ultimate advantage in the person of the Holy Spirit.

[41:02] And that's why Christ can say this to the disciples that they need not let their hearts be troubled. He's said this to them multiple times. Right? They have the Spirit coming to be with them.

[41:15] Right? And they don't know what's up ahead. Christ has given them some forewarning, but they don't know what's up ahead. They don't know the persecution that awaits them, the opposition that awaits them, the sorrow that awaits them, but they don't need to fear because they're going to have God's very presence with them.

[41:32] Right? The life of God surging in power through them, to them, in them. Right? He is the fountain of all hope. He is the fountain of all joy.

[41:44] Right? Amidst the griefs and the sorrows of life. The source of all spiritual power as we seek to worship God. Right? As we seek to grow in wisdom as we seek to witness to the world, no matter what comes our way today, no matter what comes our way, we have the ultimate advantage.

[42:04] Right? Enduring any trial, enduring any difficulty, enduring any opposition because we have the helper. We have the helper. God's almighty presence with us and in us.

[42:19] And just one final word. Brad mentioned earlier that maybe there's people here that don't feel like they need any help. Right? They don't feel that.

[42:30] They feel very self-sufficient. I was able to do everything for myself this past week. Right? And I just want to beckon you that that, you do need the helper.

[42:42] You do need the Holy Spirit. The things that you are able to do for yourself are not going to fly when you are standing before the judgment seat of Christ who is the judge.

[42:53] Right? Your righteousness, your good deeds, your abilities, your everything that you're able to do, it will not stand in the courtroom of God. It will not stand. There is a helper who comes to bring us into the life of God that we so desperately need.

[43:11] Right? Applying the work of Christ. Applying the work of Christ because your righteousness will not hold up. We need the righteousness of Christ. We need that. And the Spirit comes and applies that to our hearts and that's what each one of us needs here this morning.

[43:30] But saints, let us be encouraged that God's almighty presence is with us and in us for our good and for the glory of Christ. Heavenly Father, God, help us to believe this today.

[43:45] Help us to believe this today. To receive this into our hearts, into our souls. God, renew our minds with this truth but awaken our affections as well and conform our will to your will.

[44:01] God, help us to believe that the Spirit, the helper, is actually an advantage to us. God, I'm reminded of Ephesians 1 that we talked about last week.

[44:13] The Spirit helps us to know, to really know the hope of our calling and the riches of God's inheritance in the saints and the immeasurable greatness of your power toward us who believe.

[44:27] So Spirit, would you do that in us, Lord? Do that in us. Make our witness effective and guide us into the truth, into your wisdom and help us to glorify to worship Christ.

[44:43] We pray this in his name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.