The Gospel of John, chapter 14, and I'd like us to consider together verse 15 to verse number 27. "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day, you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest Yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. And My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while I'm 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 to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all Thy quickening powers. Kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours. Open our eyes, oh God above, that we might see Jesus and understand the fullness of the richness of Your love toward us in Him. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. In our series through spiritual depression, we will look—we looked last time at our friendship with one another. And we considered the value of friendships that we, God has designed in creation a certain companionship that is there to help us in our journey through life. Human companionships are a necessary part of a healthy spiritual life and also helps us work through the various trials and troubles that we experience in life. Yet, there is a friendship like no other. Not a friendship that competes with human friendships, but rather one that actually supports and enhances them. And that is friendship with God. Heaven will find, in heaven, we will have the fullest expression of that reality revealed to us. We will find out in heaven what it really means in all its fullness to have friendship with God. But that privilege that we will one day know in heaven in its fullness has come to us here now on earth in the salvation of God through His Son, the Lord Jesus. What is uniquely true of the Christian God is that God is inherently, within Himself, relational. All the monotheistic religions, apart from Christianity, just have God, but not a triune God. And in Christianity, we do confess the Lord our, the Lord our God is one Lord. But that God, as we sing so often, is God in three persons, blessed Trinity. When the Bible teaches us that God is love, God is love in Himself, which is quite interesting when you think about it. But it tells us something about God. Before the creation of the world ever was, God is love. And God shared the love in the intimacy of the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In fellowship, in love, sharing in the glory that is in themselves. This is the glory of, of our God that makes God unique, our God unique. God is satisfied in Himself and has been from all eternity. Well then we ask the question, why did God make us? Was God bored? No. Was He lonely? Definitely not. Was there any deficiency in God for him to think, "Well, I need some human companions"? No. We answer the question by saying God created us for His glory. But what does it mean that God created us for His glory? Does it mean that God was deficient in His glory and somehow that we add to God's glory so that it becomes more glorious as a result of what we do? Well no, that would go back to the deficiency point and we would have to reverse our argument there and say that there was deficiency in God then. So in what sense then do we glorify God? If we do not add to His glory, in what sense then do we glorify Him? Well, we glorify God by reflecting the glory that is His. Not adding to His glory, but His glory revealed in us as we are partakers of His fellowship, as we are partakers of His divine life, do we then share in that glory and reflect that glory back to God. How does this work? Well, a helpful illustration of how this work works might be found in the relationship between the sun and the moon. The moon is a non-luminous object that has no light in and of itself. All its light is derived from the sun. Yet the glory of the moon, as we look at it and behold it and the brightness of the moon, only tells us of how bright really the sun is and how glorious the sun is. And so it is for us as believers in Jesus, as we share in the light of God's glory, be image bearers of God, in fellowship with God, and the radiance of God shines into our lives in our union with Him, that we are in a position to glorify God and to praise Him forever. And therefore, as humans, it's important for us to understand that we must realize that there is no way for us to understand and fathom our purpose, nor even to experience joy as we ought to, outside of a relationship with God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism's first question says, "What is the chief end of man?" To which the answer is, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." And when Adam and Eve were fulfilling this chief end in the garden, they did so in the relationship of friendship with God. And so it will be for us the same. Therefore, friendship with God has always been the goal of the gospel. You see, when Adam and Eve enjoyed this friendship with God and was glorifying God as God had intended them to do, as He intends all His creation to do, it was sin that disrupted the friendship and the fellowship and the communion and the union that Adam and Eve had with God. And the goal of the gospel, since the fall, has always been to reunite man with God. It has been to restore this relationship, to restore this fellowship. And so we can speak of the goal of the gospel as ultimately being reconciliation. Enemies of God being now made friends with God through the death of Jesus Christ who deals with the sin that separates us from God. And the goal of the gospel will be fulfilled in the, in the final day, in the final state, as we look at the world as redeemed by God. In the book of Revelation chapter 21 verse 1 to 4, when John sees a new heavens and a new earth, and the first heavens and the earth, first earth is, is passed away, he sees a holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, and he sees her, the city as a bride adorned for her husband. And then he hears a loud voice from the throne saying these words, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them. And they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God." You see what's happening here? Friendship with God. We will be His people, He shall be our God. The cross of Jesus Christ, in its redeeming power, will reunite all things together under God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, it's important for us to realize that eternal life, as spoken by our Lord Jesus and taught by the apostles, is not merely a ticket to heaven and a pass out of hell. What eternal life is primarily concerned about—they are byproducts of this great and glorious gospel—but what it is primarily concerned about is your friendship with God. What it is primarily concerned about is that you might know God. And this is eternal life, said Jesus, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And so, as we come to this passage in the Gospel of John, we see that Jesus is describing to His disciples what life will be like after he has gone. You see, the disciples of Jesus understood friendship with God as, as it were, friendship with Jesus. "You are my friends," said Jesus, "if you do whatsoever I've commanded you." And they just said, "Jesus, show us the Father and it will suffice us." And Jesus will say, "it'll be enough for us." And Jesus says, "Have I not been with you, Philip?" What he's basically saying to you, in my earthly presence, I have communicated to you the glory of the Father, that you might see the Father as you have communed with me as your friend, and that you might know God in this way. And Jesus is explaining to his disciples that now I am going away, but as I go away, I want you to know that this is not the end of the friendship that you might have with God. This is not the end of the friendship that you have with me, God manifest in the flesh. There will be one called the Holy Spirit who will carry on this work in replacement, as it were, of Jesus's earthly presence here on earth. And he says in verse number 16, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever." The Helper. And the translators are, scramble for ways to translate this. Some of you might have in your Bibles the Advocate, or the Counselor, or the Comforter, or the Helper. And you might have a variety of other ones too, and all of these actually fail to gather up the full-orbed meaning of this word Paracletos or the idea of the one who comes alongside. But all of them contain very helpful truth that are all speak to this. For example, He is our Advocate because the Holy Spirit is the one that stands beside us who is our legal adviser against our enemies. You know, when the enemies come in, and we have the devil, and sin, and Satan, and the world, all plaguing us, there we have within us and there we have beside us the Holy Spirit who is speaking to us of the redeeming love of Jesus Christ, keeping us from the, the, the, the sense of ultimate and utter condemnation. He's our advocate. And as a counselor, He guides us. And as a comforter, He consoles us and soothes us and assures us. And as a helper, He is one who comes alongside us, empowers us, He aids us, and He supports us. But what term really captures all this, these ideas? Well, Tim Keller said the term "ultimate friend" does. I think it's a helpful term. The Holy Spirit then, in one sense, is our ultimate friend. He says Keller says, "This is someone always with you and always for you. A true friend, a real friend is willing to be with you and is always for you and is willing to argue with you." And Jesus is saying that the Spirit will come and be as I was to you. And He will not only be with you, but will be in you. And Jesus says in verse 15 that the Holy Spirit will be given to those who love Him. He says in verse number 15, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper." Those that love Christ, that is another way synonymously for saying, "those that believe in Jesus." Those that know Him and they have that, that life of God in their soul and it evidences in a love that that that keeps his commandments. The Holy Spirit is something that the world cannot receive. Look what it says in verse 17, "even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him." And then we have that he, see here in this passage in verse 16 that He is given as a replacement to Christ's earthly presence. In verse 16 when he says, "and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper." The idea of another is He will give you another of the same kind, another helper, one that will stand in the place where I am standing right now in my relationship to you and He will be just like me to you. It's another of the same kind. He's saying that this is going to be in many respects a replacement of sorts. And so in one sense the Holy Spirit will mediate Christ's presence to the disciples though Christ is away from them. And the language is quite mystical here, isn't it? To try and really comprehend what's going on sometimes it's a little bit hard but it's it's it's impossible to understand apart from a good comprehension of the Holy Spirit. These are spiritual words. Look what it says here in the text of scripture in verse number 18. Jesus says, "I will not leave you as orphans, and but I will come to you." "Well you're going Jesus, when are you coming back to us?" He's not talking about the resurrection because then they'd be orphans again at the ascension. So what is he referring to? I'm coming to you in the Holy Spirit. I'm coming to you through the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. And again in verse 19 he says you will see Me and again in verse number 21, I will manifest myself to you. How will this happen? When will this happen? In what day will this happen? In the day in which God sends the Spirit, the comforter, the helper, that one that would replace Christ's earthly presence. And this would be advantageous for the disciples. They would be benefited by this. This is not any loss on their part, Jesus is trying to help them understand. My departure from you is not, it is in one sense a loss but it is, it is better that I go away, he says. He says in John chapter 16 verse 7, "Nevertheless, I tell you 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 away, I will send him to you." And so Jesus says it's beneficial for me to go. Why? Because this companion that I'm sending to you as verse number 16 says, will be with you forever. You see, Jesus is going, but the Spirit will never be leaving in this sense on earth. And so Jesus will be ascended and sitting at the right hand of the Father but the Spirit will be sent and He will be with us forever. And the Spirit will also be one who communicates God's nearness and Christ's nearness to the believers. Verse number 20, have a look at verse number 20. "In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and and you in me, and I in you." In that day, they will know that they are in union with God and with Christ by the work of the Spirit who indwells in them. And not only will the will God the Spirit give them assurance of their union, but he will also give assurance of God's presence and love for them. He says, I will manifest myself. Look at that in verse number 21, "Whoever keep my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." There's a lot of love in that passage. God's love, Christ's love, given to those who love him, as they intimately experience the assurance of God's love for them. Now Judas tries to understand this saying, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Because he's thinking of the kingdom of God coming in in in an earthly way. He's thinking, well, when when when Jesus manifest himself, what we're going to be having is this physical throne and a physical kingdom and all these things will be here. And and Jesus says to him, no, no, the way in which I am going to manifest myself to you is by the coming of the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God will be in your hearts. You will know my nearness, you will know the nearness of the kingdom of God because God will make his home with you Judas, not Iscariot that is. Verse 23. Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He is simply saying that your body will be the temple of God. The tabernacle in the Old Testament. Okay, where the presence of God was, the Shekinah glory. Now revealed in Jesus and you've had me around as that tabernacle among you, but I'm going and and and and God will tabernacle among with you. He will live in you. And the result of such a relationship to God will be peace. So Jesus can say in verse 27, "peace I leave with you." What is He talking about? The peace that the Holy Spirit will give as He occupies the hearts of the disciples of Jesus Christ. A peace not like the world gives will be given to them through the coming of the Spirit sent by Christ. This spirit will give us, the Holy Spirit and assurance of truth and a depth of understanding. Verse number 26, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." I don't know about you, but when I read a passage like this, I just think to myself, "Wow, there is so much here that I don't understand that I want to understand." You say, "But you've just explained it to us." Yes, I know. And this is exactly the problem. The problem is for many of us, a text like this has a theoretical and even a theological comprehension of what Jesus is saying, but what does it mean in our experience? Because you cannot look at a passage like this and not be challenged by what Jesus is speaking about. You see because Jesus is not speaking about, "I will go from here and your relationship with God will be a one-way street." And what He's simply saying is, "All you need to do is read your Bible, pray, attend church, do these things, and do that till I come, and that will be the essence of my relationship with you." No, what Jesus is saying here is you are going to have a friend in the Holy Spirit. And that friendship is not going to be a one-way street, it's going to be a two-way street, as all true friendships are. And so this whole text is filled with things that the Holy Spirit will do in us, for us, to us, as if Jesus was right here with us. And I think to myself, "Wow." Changes things, doesn't it? Because it makes you ask, do I know anything of this? How much do I know of this? I want to know more of this. The language is rich. What what he's trying to say is that the goal of the gospel in reconciling you to God is not merely just about your standing before God as those that are justified. Out of your union should arise communion. Out of your union with God should be the life of God in your soul. The Spirit should be to us a very present, real friend. And this was the assurance that the disciples had from our Lord, which ought to be also our assurance as we go about our life in the world. This is a fellowship. This is a friendship. And a friendship and a fellowship is a communion which is always two ways. Communion and fellowship literally means a sharing of more than two or two or three parties, like more than one more than one person sharing. That's what a fellowship is. When we fellowship with one another, you're your speaking to me and I'm speaking to you. And so what does it mean to have fellowship with God? What does it mean to have friendship with God? It means that there's a two-way, intimate relationship between us and God. And here Jesus says that will be communicated through our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Here in this text is the unfailing fulfillment of that friend who sticks closer than a brother. In this passage, you have everything that you would want in a good friend. You have an advocate, you have a helper, you have a comforter, you have one who is committed to you, one who is near you, one who loves you and helps you understand that love. And and as a good friend, this one doesn't leave you. He he is with you and shall be in you forever. This is the joy of of the permanency of this relationship. So as we encourage friendship with one another, we understand in a fallen world, these friendships, you know, up and down and we we lose many of them. But this one friend you will never lose. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Now, why is this a necessary consideration with regards to spiritual depression? Why is it important? If anything, it could be quite confusing for you this morning thinking I thought spiritual depression is when I struggle to sense this. Yes, in many respects it is. But I want you to see the value of walking with God now before the darkness hits. And I want you to see the value that when the darkness hits, how it is important to know who is your true, unfailing friend. This experiential knowledge that Jesus is speaking of in this passage as our relationship with the Holy Spirit, gives both a valuable reference point to us in our lives, and it produces in us hope. Let me explain it to you like marriage, right? We would argue and believe with all of our hearts that marriage is built upon covenant. Right? Union. It's a covenant union made between a man and a woman. This is a covenant union whereby the two shall be one flesh. And a strong marriage is built not upon necessarily the experiences but has more a foundational thing called its union in covenant relationship. Yet, let us not dismiss the wonder and the beauty and the benefits of communion in your marriage. And what I mean by that is that your experiences of joy and love that you share with your spouse set for you memorable reference points that give you hope of the possibilities of what your marriage can be like when it's not like that. You look back. Perhaps things in your marriage aren't the way that you'd like them to be, but you look back, yes, finally and ultimately the bedrock of the covenant that you've made, but you look back on those joyous experiences that you've shared with the one that you love and have been joined with. And even though you go through a dark patch, as it were, in your marriage, you think about the possibilities of what that communion can be like coming out of that union, as you look back on that, and you get a sense of hope. And I think it's very much the same with a believer in his relationship to the Lord. The communion that we share with the Holy Spirit and with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, it it serves as a sort of reference point with us to say, I know this God that has touched me. I know this God who has saved me. I know this God who has given me joy and satisfaction and peace and life. And and even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I know this God is with me and I can long to have what I've had before and it will project me forward to seek after him even more. This is what happened in the with the psalmist. You know, he is going through times of depressive moments in his life. Psalm 42. "Why are you cast down, oh my soul? Why are you disquieted within me?" He says, "Hope in God." And yes, he we we look at this passage in more detail next week, but what we what we understand in in Psalm 42, that in the darkness, as he's questioning himself, he begins the Psalm by saying, "As the deer pants after the water brooks, so my soul longs after you, oh God." You see that? There's a reference point for him. He knows this God. He has seen this God. He has tasted of this God that is his God. And so when he goes through his dark patches, where does his heart go? It goes to the joyous occasions where he worshipped God in the sanctuary and knew the nearness of his God, and he longs for that all the more. So instead of his depression going to despair, he has certain reference points of hope that stirs him up and causes him to long for the possibilities that are his in his relationship to his God. This is all the confidence of the psalmist in Psalm 27. He says, "One thing have I asked of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. Hear, oh Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, 'Seek my face.' My heart says to you, 'Your face, Lord, do I seek.' Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. Oh, you have been my help. Cast me not off, forsake me not. Oh, God of my salvation. For my father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, oh Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me and they breathe out violence." Listen to what he says, "I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord." He knows his God. He knows his God. And when all around him seems dark and troublesome, he knows his God. He longs to be with Him in His house, in His temple, worshipping Him, desiring to gaze upon His beauty and have as it were the love and the manifestation of God's working in his heart because he has tasted and he has seen that the Lord is gracious. This has been the strength of God's people throughout history. In the early church. You know, it's not enough just to know doctrine. We need to experience the doctrine. We need to long to taste what God says about what is true of Him. It is so valuable when you're feeling, as it were, that that that God doesn't love you, to have that as it were, that commitment, the understanding of that bedrock in the covenant relationship. But oh the more beautiful and strong and helpful that will be is if you cannot only look to that covenant, but you can look to times of sweet communion with him where you have tasted of His love in your life. I'm afraid that in the church of Jesus Christ today, our experience of God is so weak and shallow that the only thing we've got going for us is our doctrine. But there is such a thing as dead orthodoxy. Did you know that? Where you can have the right theology but not understand the power and the experience of that grace in your life. And look, that would be fine if Jesus was still dead and buried. But because the scripture teaches us that He's alive and He has raised from the dead and He sits in the heavenly, He sits in in, He sits up on the Father's throne and He has sent forth his spirit, we are peculiar, we are as a as a as the people of God to know and understand that our relationship with God is more than just theoretical. Must be alive. Must be real. Romans chapter 5 verse 1 to 5. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, also, we have obtained access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Praise God, justification. Though I do not feel it, I know it to be true because God declares it. And how we need that bedrock. But the verse doesn't end there. Look what it says. "By faith in this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that our suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been shed abroad, poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." What Paul is saying here is justification has brought you into fellowship, in a relationship with God, with union with God, but that union is for a life of communion. The Holy Spirit has been, the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. Do you know anything of the love of God being poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit? Because the doctrine of justification by faith meant is meant to lead us into these kind of experiences with God. And so in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 to 9, the believers are going through trials and he says to them, you know, "Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, He has caused us to be born again. He has made us alive to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And he talks about the great salvation and how we've been kept and that and that we've been, we've been guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. And we say, what a great salvation that we have. A verse 6 goes on to say, "in this we rejoice." In our trials, in our afflictions, in this we rejoice, though now for a little while if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the test, that so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Look at this, verse 8, "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible, filled with glory." I say, I I want to know this. Because he's not just saying that you have little bits of joy and happiness along your day. You are filled with joy, inexpressible, full of glory. We must not change the language of this text to make it suit our experience. We must rise to the standard of scripture and ask ourselves, "Lord, I want to know what it's like to be such fellowship and communion with You, even in my deepest trial, that I might have joy inexpressible, full of glory." There's almost it's almost hard to explain that humanly speaking. This is our union of salvation leading to communion. And so Paul when he prays for the believers at Ephesus, he says, "For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father from whom the family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you," listen to this, "to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner being." This is what God has designed for us in this great salvation that Paul is praying that they might know this, to be strengthened with might by the spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. You say, "Well Christ already dwells in my heart." Yes, but the experience of knowing Christ dwelling in your hearts through faith. Listen this says here, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And say, "Paul, pray that for me too." So Paul says, "Just pray that for one another and for yourself." Paul wanted them not just to say, "I know God loves me." "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." It's true. But Paul prays that they might know that in their experience, that that to them might be a reality that the that the that they might have this knowledge, not just an intellectual knowledge but an experiential knowledge of God's love shed abroad in their hearts, to see how great it is, how wonderful it is as a sustaining power through our difficult seasons in life. All, of course, coming to them by the work of the Spirit. This the Puritans themselves were so concerned about for the church of the Lord. They understood their theology like none other. These were great theologians of the faith but they wrote about communion with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They wrote about this reality of the relationship that we should have with God. And so I'll give you some examples of their own experiences in life. John Flavel said this, this was his experience who was on a journey one day and enjoyed God's presence so powerfully. And this is what the writer says of his experience, "Thus going on his way, his thoughts began to swell and rise higher and higher like the waters of Ezekiel's vision till at last there became an overwhelming flood. Such was the intention of his mind, such the ravishing taste of heavenly joys, and such the full assurance of his interest therein that he utterly lost all sight and sense of the world and all the concerns thereof. And for some hours, he knew no more where he was than it had been in a deep sleep upon his bed. Arriving in great exhaustion at a certain spring, he sat down and watched, earnestly desiring that if it was God's pleasure that this might be his parting place from the world. Death had been the most amiable face in his eyes that he had ever beheld, except the face of Jesus Christ, which made it so, and he does not remember though he believed himself dying that he ever thought of his dear wife and children or any other earthly concernment." Should think about your wife and kids, but he was so taken up by the presence of God that he forgot where he was, what he was, what what was happening, even his own family, and he was ready to die now. You know what I'm saying? He's saying, I'm ready to go to heaven because this fellowship that I'm tasting below now with Jesus is so sweet, if I could just pass from this life to the next, that's all I want. You know, Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. This is what John Flavel wanted. On reaching his inn, the influence still continued, banishing sleep. Still the joy of the Lord overflowed him, and he seemed to be an inhabitant of another world. He many years after called that day one of the days of heaven and professed that he understood more of the life of heaven by it than all the books he had ever read. Amazing, isn't it? Jonathan Edwards says, "As I rode into the woods for my health in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that was for me extraordinary of the glory of the Son of God as mediator between God and man and His wonderful, great, full, pure, and sweet grace and love and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thoughts and conceptions which continued as near as I can judge about an hour, such as to keep me a greater part of the time in a flood of tears weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ alone, to love Him with a holy and pure love, to trust in Him, to live upon Him, to serve Him, and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with the divine and heavenly purity." And these are not just men who are preachers, they were in the world. Sarah Edwards, Jonathan Edwards' wife, meditating on God's word, Romans 8:34. "Who is the one who condemns? Christ is he who died, yes rather was raised at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." Here is what she said happened. This is her own experience. "When I was alone, the words came to my mind with great power and sweetness. They appeared to me with undoubted certainty as the words of God, and as words which God was actually speaking personally to me. And I had no more doubts of it than I had of my own being. I cannot find language to express how certain this appeared. My safety, my happiness, my internal eternal enjoyment of God's love seemed as durable and unchangeable as God Himself." She said, "Melted and overcome by the sweetness of this assurance, I fell into eternal enjoyment of God's love." It's seemed, sorry. It says, "Melted and overcome by the sweetness of this assurance, I fell into a great flow of tears. The presence of God was so near, so real, that I seemed scarcely conscious of anything else." I give these examples only as practical experiences of what the Bible speaks to us about. This is not about have you had this many hours or that many hours. I'm asking you, have you tasted of anything like this? You see, your walk with God, brothers and sisters, is more important than you realize. Your greatest protection and prevention from spiritual depression and your greatest cure is fellowship and friendship with God. Not the kind which is a one-way street, but the kind in which God Himself appears to you in glory as you read His word and pray and meditate on His goodness. And the question that I want us to ask in closing is, do we anticipate fellowship and friendship with God like this? Have we come too content with the one-way street of our relationship with God? Have we become too satisfied with not hearing from God, as it were, not experiencing God's love toward us, not knowing the joys that we may have in him through his son which he has purchased for us through his blood? Have we been so satisfied with union that we have not entered into sweet communion with God? Has the comforter as it were come to you in such a way as to comfort you, rebuke you, illuminate you? You see, He is the living God. And God seeks such relationship with us. We are a spiritual stones that make up a spiritual house. And I'm afraid that many of us have settled for a kind of relationship with God that is nothing more than what we do for God. All the testimonies that I've read here and even the text of scripture are showing what God does in us and through us. These people are not utterly passive, but there's a sense in which God is doing this work in their hearts. And this is so vital for the Christian faith because if our faith is nothing more than theoretical knowledge, what demonstration of the power of God's love are we showing to the world? Where is the joy, where is the vitality? Where is the satisfaction in God that tells the world, "Come to this fountain and eat and drink and you'll never be hungry or thirsty again." May the prayer in the song of Isaac Watts be our prayer. And I'll finish with this in closing, "Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all thy quickening powers. Kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours. Look how we grovel here below, fond of these trifling toys. Our souls can neither fly nor go to reach eternal joys. In vain we tune our formal songs, in vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues, and our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we ever live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to thee, and thine to us so great? Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all thy quickening powers, come, shed abroad a Savior's love, and that shall kindle ours." Why don't you turn your sorrow into prayer like the psalmist? And instead of despairing, beg and cry and plead with God that you might know the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. It is time for us, dear brothers and sisters, to seek the Lord. Let us pray.