Francis Havergale is one to emulate, and it's one to be an example to us of godly living and consecration to the Lord. John, we begin our reading at verse sixteen, a very familiar portion of the Word of God, where we read, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. Because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Verse twenty six. But when the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Now may the Lord bless his word. Let us pray. Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow in thy holy presence and we thank you for this glorious truth. Deliver us, O God, from ignorance of the Spirit of God and His mighty working. Not only deliver us from ignorance, but deliver us, O God, from ignoring the Spirit of God and His mighty workings in us and His desires to be with us. We pray, our Father, that you will take this word this morning. and use it to speak to every heart, especially mine. We would say to thee, like Esau of old, when he said to his father, Hast thou not one blessing for me, for me also? And we pray that this may be our portion today for Jesus' sake. Amen. we have examined from first corinthians chapter thirteen last sunday night three of the texts that begin know ye not now i made a mistake last sunday night i said there were eight texts that said in first corinthians know ye not there are nine there are nine texts i mentioned also that the seven texts that follow the first one are related Upon more careful study this week, I find that the first text and the last text are really related. In First Corinthians chapter three, verse sixteen, the apostle says, What? Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ. That's not what he said. Excuse me, I'm not quoting it properly. First Corinthians three sixteen says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God. and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. And this text is given in relation to the judgment seat of Christ. For that is the context of First Corinthians three. When you come to the last text in First Corinthians nine, verse twenty seven, he says, What? Know ye not that they who run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? so run therefore that you might obtain. So the first and the last of the know ye nots regarding the Spirit of God have reference to the judgment seat of Christ. For we are all going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The church at Corinth was a church that is contemporary with us. In our day we are more man-centered as a church then we are God-centered. And may God deliver us from us. We are gathered around the men instead of being gathered around the Lord. And we need to become God-centered in our thinking. We need to become God-centered in our actions. Not only are we indwelt by the Spirit of God individually. That's another know ye not. First Corinthians six nineteen. Know ye not. that your bodies are the temple of the Spirit of God, which ye have of God. You are not your own, for you are bought for the price. But the know ye not, in First Corinthians three, verse sixteen, has reference to the corporate dwelling of the Spirit of God in the church. When the church is gathered together, the church of Corinth was so man-centered, They missed the ministry of the Spirit of God, and therefore the other know ye nots follow in that epistle. And they all have reference to First Corinthians chapter three, verse sixteen. Now God has a purpose for his redeemed people. God did not save us simply to keep us from going to the lake of fire. And all whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life will go there. We read in Revelation chapter twenty and verse fifteen. And it's a great thing to be delivered from the wrath to come. So we read in first Thessalonians chapter one and verse ten. But God has a purpose for his people now. And God's purpose in redemption for his People know is that we possess the Spirit of God, that we walk in the Spirit, and that we enjoy fellowship with the Spirit. Writing to the Galatians, chapter five, he says, walk in the Spirit, and ye will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, friends, it is impossible to be a believer and not be indwell by the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter eight verse nine says now if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his you cannot be saved you cannot be a redeemed soul and not possess the Holy Spirit now the blessing friends of the covenant of redemption the great covenant that God made with Abraham back in Genesis chapter fifteen is that you and I might possess the Spirit of God. I want you to turn to the book of Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three and verse thirteen. One of those great verses of the New Testament. Galatians three verse thirteen says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us here's the grand work of Calvary Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone that hang us on a tree why that we read in verse fourteen that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles and you and I are Gentiles by nature that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And the blessing of the Holy Spirit's indwelling individually, corporately, is the object of the great covenant of redemption. that God made with Abraham, and everything in the covenant of redemption goes back to God's eternal purpose, which was announced in Genesis three-fifteen, and subsequently throughout the Word of God, God's eternal purpose. Now, to a large extent, friends, the Church of Jesus Christ of the twentieth century has ignored the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, this is due to a large extent, I believe, because of the extremes that the so-called charismatic movement has taken the work of the Spirit of God. But when we come to the New Testament, there are five texts that are given, they are interlocked, which deliver us and show to us the five ministries that the Spirit of God does for a believer, that you can't get anywhere else, and He wants to perform them for you. There are five things the Holy Spirit does. Now, we won't get over all five this morning. I'm going to go over the remainder tonight that I don't touch on this morning. There are five problems that every one of us face. Every one of us face five specific problems in life. And when you read five texts from the New Testament concerning the work of the Spirit of God, only the Spirit of God can give you help in relation to these five problems that we have. He's the only one who can help. Now, the word that is used concerning the Holy Spirit in John chapter fourteen is the word comforter. In the Greek it is the word paraclete. And I will pray the Father that he gives you another paraclete. Now that word parra in the Greek means alongside of and kratos and kaleo means to call. One who is called alongside of. You see, that's what the word means, to be called alongside of. And the Lord said to his own in John fourteen, they were so discouraged. He said to them in verse one, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And then he tells them he's going away. Their hearts were sad. Their hearts were troubled. But here he tells them he's going to pray the Father, that the Father gives them the Holy Spirit. To indwell them, he's one called alongside of. Let me illustrate that. My wife and I were at a supermarket. I forget which one. A few months back. Last summer. It happened last summer. And an Eastern couple. You could tell they were Eastern by the way they were dressed. And they said, could you help us tell us how to get to a Chinese restaurant? But they wanted some Eastern food. They wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant. I said yes, and I tried to explain to them how to get to the Chinese restaurant that I like the best. Well, I wasn't doing too well. They couldn't understand me as well as I was talking to them. And so I said, I tell you what, I'm going in that direction. I'll take you to it. You follow me. And I was there paraclete. I was the one that they followed, and I took them to the Chinese restaurant where they enjoyed some food that night. It was getting late, and my explanations weren't getting through, so I took them. I was there paraclete. They just followed me. They were alongside, they're alongside behind, you know, just following me, and we pulled in a side of each other. And I said, there it is. I hope they're still open at this hour. And they were. They came out to tell us. And I could leave. I was a paraclete. This is what the Lord says in that chapter. He says, I will pray the Father. And he will give you another paraclete. Now that word another is important. The Greeks had two Greek words for another. Another of a different kind. and another of the same kind. Allos, another of the same kind. That's the word here. You see, heteros is another of a different kind. But the Lord Jesus is saying, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, and he's just like me. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. That's what he says in this passage. The Holy Spirit is just like Christ. Now, the Holy Spirit has come to perform five ministries in our lives that he alone can do. First of all, there is a problem of social isolation. Man is a social being. The child of God... for the simple reason that he's in Christ, he's often lonely in the world. The world has nothing to offer him. Christ has to redeemed us from this present evil age. Now the world respects us as persons. They respect us as persons. A lot of people in the world want a Christian to work for them. They don't steal. They give you good days' work. The world respects us as persons, but they resent us as Christians because our manner of life is a rebuke to the man of the world. They respect us as persons. They resent us as Christians. It's an amazing thing. Human isolation. At the dawn of creation, when God looked over everything that he had made, he said it was very good. that's what we read in Genesis chapter one in verse thirty one everything was very good and Adam in chapter two he names all the creation that God had passed before him and whatsoever went before him the name that Adam gave to them that's what they were Adam was a wise man he came from the hand of God but then God said After Adam named all creation, God said, it is not good for a man to be alone. I will make a help fit for him. And out of Adam, God created the woman. Why did God create the woman for Adam? Because man is a lonely creature. All by himself. He created the woman in order that she might complement Adam in order that he would not be alone. And he's not good for a man to be alone. Now when I come to the Gospels, I find the second Adam or the last Adam, the second man, our Lord Jesus Christ. For truly the Bible is made up of basically two people. Adam. the head of the old creation Christ the head of the new creation and just as Adam chose for everybody in the old creation he did for by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon every man in that all have sinned and Adam chose in the new creation We have the last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. He chose for everybody in the new creation. He chose to give us life, and life flows out of his death. And you and I can say today, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift, for God so loved the world. that he gave and Christ loved me and gave himself for me he chose on our behalf now when we come to the new to the Gospels and we look at our blessed Lord he's alone isn't he he spent all night alone in prayer he was alone And he was betrayed by Judas. Oh, there was a band of disciples with him. They ignored the disciples. They wanted him. He was alone when he was denied by Peter. Oh, he was in Palat's judgment hall. He was there in the home of the high priest. Alone. No one with him. The hell. And no time was he more alone than when he was on the cross in Calvary's Hill. Forsaken by God. That lonely cry of desolation, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And the last Adam redeemed us, gave us the Holy Spirit, why, that we'll never be alone again. I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Oh, friend, he dwelleth with you, he said. He shall be in you. Oh, this blessed one who indwells us. By the way, he not only loves me, he likes me. You see, I'm commanded to love everybody. The Bible says love your enemies. The Bible says, I'll love your wife. The Bible says, we're to love the brethren. We're commanded to love. But by the way, there are a lot of people I love that I may not like. But what about the Spirit of God? He not only loves me, he likes me. He will never depart. He said, he'll be with me forever unto the end. You see, the blessed Spirit of God is with us in every trial and in every difficulty. Romans chapter eight, verse twenty-six says, he makeeth intercession for the saints according to the will of God. He's the omniscient psychiatrist. There isn't a thing about you and me. that he doesn't know. I will pray the Father that he will give you another comforter. And this one knows everything about you. That's what the hundred thirty-nine psalm is about. Lord, thou has searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising. Not only, friends, is he the omniscient psychiatrist He's the unending psychologist or the unerring psychologist. He has the remedies. He never makes a mistake. Friends, you and I are living in a day when professing believers are running here and there to find an answer to their loneliness. The Spirit of God dwells within. Why? To give us the only answer to the problem of human isolation. He indwells us corporately as a body of believers. Paul says in First Corinthians three, sixteen, know ye not that ye are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. God has placed us in such a way, in such a position that He alone can meet our needs. We need one another. We need other believers. But the Spirit of God indwells us individually. The Spirit of God indwells us corporate land. I'd like to take up another of these problems that we have, but our time's gone. Friends, are we ignorant of the Holy Spirit's indwelling? The Holy Spirit indwells us to make Christ known. He is just like Christ. He loves us. He likes us. We should be enjoying Christ. Fellowship within. I have a question for you. Are you? Are you enjoying fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Do you know anything about fellowship with the Holy Spirit? And this is a most logical question. Do you ever read the word and the Spirit of God teach you from it? Show you things that you had never seen before. Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. You're never alone. God says it's not good that man should be alone. It is the only thing in creation that God said it's not good about. And God gave to the man a woman. and he gave to the church and to Christians living in a world where they're respected but rejected and resented one to indwell them with whom they can have fellowship at all times and under all circumstances this past Wednesday night our brother Carl not from Spain wrote a letter that was read in it he told of a man who trusted Christ when he went home his wife the priest and others hounded him for four hours trying to get him to renounce the faith how many of you could would stand true under that kind of situation. We have it so easy, and I'm so afraid in the midst of it, we have ignored one of the principal functions of the Spirit of God. Do you know anything about it? Now remember, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And in this age of affluence, when it's easy to get away, we can run hither and yon to fill up our time and to do this and that and miss the rich blessing of the Lord. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. to the Corinthian church in the midst of their man-centeredness, they missed it. And you and I are living in the midst of a man-centered church today, rather than God-centered. Be the glory of friends. Let him glory in the Lord. Let's pray. We ask you to search our hearts. Deliver us, we pray thee, from man-centeredness. Center our affections upon thee. Give us that blessed fellowship of the Spirit that the Apostle prayed when he said, May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion and fellowship of this Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.