Dear brothers and sisters, I want to tell you how happy I am to have this opportunity to visit with you. Brother Armstrong and I were coming this afternoon, and in the Lord we know the most wonderful people in the world. The Lord’s family is just wonderful, and it is a great delight to be able to come here and meet more of the Lord’s wonderful family.
Thank God for His faith and grace, His cleansing power, His seeking power, and the life of the Lord Jesus that has been given to us by the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Praise the Lord.
I would just like, for one moment, to share something with you that has been a help to me—something with which the Lord has strengthened my own heart in fellowship with God’s people. It is the thing that ought to motivate us all the time in fellowship with the Lord’s people.
There are many pictures we could take to illustrate this, but I think I will take the very familiar verse, 1 Corinthians 12:12.
Those of you who do not know this verse, it is a very easy one to remember, because it is 12:12.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
—1 Corinthians 12:12
The thing that will give strength to us as the Lord’s people, and enable us to continue, is being deeply moved and deeply founded upon the fact that we are one body in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There will be hard times in many fellowships. Sometimes it will seem dry. Those without this foundation will say, “Well, I am not going there again. I do not get anything.” Or, “The ministry is not very moving over there, so I am not getting anything.” And so we drop out.
There will be many temptations in life, in fellowship with the Lord’s people, to drop out because you are not getting anything. But if the Lord gives us a real understanding—not just theory, but a real view of the fact—that whether we like it or not, whether we are getting something or not, we are members of the same body.
I am a member of the same body with these brothers and sisters in Christ. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a fellow member of Christ, and I must always interact with every other brother or sister on the basis that we are one body in Christ. I cannot drop out so long as I am one.
I was in a fellowship where we had some real testing. Some dropped out. There were difficulties and misunderstandings, and sometimes the meetings did not seem to have much to offer. But there were some who thought, “I cannot drop out—no more than I could drop out of the body of Christ. I cannot drop out.”
So they prayed together, and they hung in there. God blessed and changed the situation because they saw that they were one in Christ. I cannot drop out any more than my hand can drop out from my finger.
That is the first thing I would underline: we are one body in Christ; we are members of Christ. What a wonderful thing it is to realize that the verse does not say, “As the body has many members, and all the members, being many, are one body, so also is the church,” or “the assembly.”
That is what it is really referring to, but it says, “So also is Christ,” meaning that we, united in Christ, are the very body of Christ. The body is not different from the Head; it is all the same Person. When we are united with Christ, we are His own life living out in the world.
What a blessing there is when we see that. I am sure we all long to see it more, and we need this foundation because there will be testing. If we are looking for something for ourselves, we are going to drop out. We all want blessing, and we all want joy, but the Lord is going to have to test that.
Are we really founded on Christ, or merely on something for ourselves? It is not just the theory of it; there is the life of Christ.
In the fellowship I mentioned, there were those who saw the life of Christ. Then life flowed, and there was blessing. We must not be satisfied with merely the teaching of it. We must have the wellspring of Christ rising within us, allowing Christ to make Himself real by the Holy Spirit.
The Lord said that He would be in us a spring of living water, springing up unto everlasting life. So we are not content merely with knowledge. Sometimes you have to say, “Lord, I need You.”
If we meet a brother or sister and perhaps disagree, we have to stay on this basis: we are one in Christ. At the same time, we want not only head knowledge but the springing together of Christ’s life, showing Himself not only in the head but in the heart.
Thank the Lord for the privilege of fellowship this evening. I appreciate your prayers as we seek to see what God will do in our own suburban community near Washington.
[Congregational hymn]
May we turn to Galatians 5. I will read from verse 16.
But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would.
But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.
And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.
If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.
Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.
—Galatians 5:16-26
Let us also read Galatians 6, beginning with verse 11.
See with how large letters I write unto you with mine own hand.
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they compel you to be circumcised; only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
For not even they who receive circumcision do themselves keep the law; but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Henceforth, let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus.
—Galatians 6:11-17
Lord, we have read Thy Word, and now we ask Thee, by Thy Holy Spirit, to quicken Thy Word to us. Thy words are spirit, and they are life. O Lord, we commit ourselves to Thee for Thy Word. We want Thy Word to be magnified in our lives, and we want Thee to be glorified. In Thy precious name, amen.
Some time ago, in fellowship on the letter to the Galatians, we mentioned that this letter has a very special message for us today. In this letter we find the very basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If we do not know this letter, our understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ will not be complete. For this reason Martin Luther considered this letter as his letter. It is on the basis of this letter that we have the Reformation.
So, brothers and sisters, we must, by the grace of God, enter into the very message of this letter and see the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we think that we are so far advanced that we can forget the basics, but very often we are led back to the very basics before we can go on.
In this letter to the Galatians, three basics of the gospel are presented to us. We have had fellowship together in the past on two of these three basics. The first, of course, is grace. The second is faith. We are saved by grace through faith.
But without the third, it will not be complete. So I feel compelled to fellowship tonight on the third basic of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Grace is more than merely receiving something freely. Grace is inherent in the One who is full of grace, and He gives Himself to us freely and universally. When we receive of His grace, we receive Him.
Grace is the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you take grace away, there is no gospel, because grace is none other than Christ Himself. The gospel is Christ.
The gospel is more than what Christ has done for us, more than what Christ gives to us, more than our experience of forgiveness of sins or even eternal life. Grace is Christ giving Himself to us, and that becomes the gospel.
Then there is faith. Faith is the receiving of that grace. In other words, faith makes that grace real; it brings Christ to us as a living experience.
Faith is a strong conviction born of the revelation of grace. Out of that conviction there is a selfless commitment, and because of that commitment there will be a corresponding walk. That is faith.
But, dear brothers and sisters, there is great deception if there is grace and faith and the third element is missing. It will not work. What is the third element? It is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the third basic of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the Holy Spirit is the Agent—the sole Agent—of the grace of God, which is Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts us and convinces us. He is the One who regenerates us. He is the One who quickens us. He is the One who operates the whole thing.
So, in coming to the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is a need to know the Holy Spirit.
On the night of His betrayal, our Lord Jesus was with His disciples. They had finished the Passover feast, and after they had what we call today the Lord’s Supper, the Lord began to speak to His disciples.
They knew that something was going to happen that night. They might not have been able to understand the whole thing, but our Lord Jesus had tried time and again to tell them that He was going to Jerusalem, that He would be crucified, and that on the third day He would be raised from the dead. Yet the disciples did not seem able to grasp it.
Even that night, they knew something was coming. The Lord was going to leave them, and they were very sorrowful. They had been with the Lord for over three years. They had left everything to follow Him, and during those difficult years they had found great satisfaction in Him.
Humanly speaking, it is not easy to live with the Lord. You may think it would be the most comforting and pleasant life, but you wait and see. For three years they were with the Lord. They were being disciplined and refined, but at the same time they were protected, provided for, comforted, supported.
Then suddenly the Lord was going to leave them. They literally felt that they would be left as orphans. If you try to enter into that feeling, you can understand that they wondered whether they should go back to the world—to where they had first begun. They had left all these things behind, and now suddenly the Lord was leaving. What would happen? How could they live for one day without the Lord?
The Lord knew their hearts. He knew what was going on. So that night, in that last conversation with His disciples, He promised that He would not leave them orphans.
He said, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter.” Not another of a different kind, but another of the same kind. In Greek, there are two words for “another”: one means another of a different kind, and the other means another of the same kind. The word our Lord used means another of the same kind.
“I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter of the same kind as I am, even the Spirit of truth. The world does not know Him, but you know Him, because He abideth with you, and shall be in you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
When the Lord spoke these things, He was not just trying to say something nice in order to comfort them. Brothers and sisters, very often when we find someone who needs comfort, we try to think of some good words to say. But words alone cannot comfort people.
Our Lord was not saying empty, sweet words. No. He was telling them something very real, very essential—as real as He was Himself. Another Comforter. The world does not know Him, but you know Him.
The Lord’s coming back does not refer merely to His second coming, which will happen in the future. It refers to the Lord coming back in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the other Self of our Lord Jesus—not of a different kind, but of the same kind.
The Lord said, in effect, “Yes, I have been with you for over three years, and you have found satisfaction with Me. You are sorrowful because I am leaving you, but I promise you something even better.”
“When I was with you, I could stand beside you and support you, but I could not be in you. Sometimes I sent My disciples out two by two, and when they went out, I was not physically with them. If they had anything to ask, they had to come back to Me.”
“But if I go and come back, it will be different. I will be in you. When I was on earth, I had flesh and a body. Because of that, I was not able to enter into each one of you. But when I come back in the Holy Spirit, I can enter into every one of you, and I will be in you forever. I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Very often we think, “Oh, if only I had lived two thousand years ago. If only I had been born in Judea. If only I could have followed the Lord as the disciples did, then I would be a much better Christian than I am today.”
But if you really knew your privilege today, you would know that you are in a better position than they were. In their time, the Lord was with them outwardly; now the Holy Spirit is in us. Dear brothers and sisters, the point is: do you know Him?
This promise of another Comforter was fulfilled on the day of the resurrection of our Lord. He said, “Ye shall be in Me, and I in you, as I am in My Father.” In other words, there is an inwardness and a new relationship that comes into being through the coming and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
This happened on the day of His resurrection. He appeared to the disciples, breathed into them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”
Brothers and sisters, everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus, everyone who is born again by the Holy Spirit, everyone who has been given a new spirit, has also been given the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Everyone who belongs to the Lord has the Spirit of Christ in him—none other than the divine Person dwelling in the heart forever. This is basic to the gospel.
In our English version, we use the word Comforter. The Greek word is difficult to translate into English because it is such a rich word.
Yes, it means someone who comes alongside you to help, to render aid. It is like a counsellor who represents someone in court—an adviser, a guardian.
This word is used in the Gospel according to John, chapters 14, 15, and 16. The same word is also used in 1 John 2. In the Gospel according to John, it is translated Comforter; in 1 John, it is translated Advocate. But it is the same word.
When you see the word Comforter, what kind of impression do you get? You may think of One who comes to comfort and console the soul. We have our problems, our sorrows, and our needs, so He comes, as it were, pats us on the shoulder, and says, “Do not cry. It is all right. Everything will be taken care of.”
Is that the whole meaning of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, the divine Person who dwells in you, is indeed there to help you and to console you. But that is not the deepest meaning.
How did we get the word Comforter in our English version? Some have searched for the first use of that English word, and it goes back to the fourteenth century, when John Wycliffe translated the English Bible. He used the word Comforter for Paraclete.
But do not blame him, because fourteenth-century English is very different from twentieth-century English. Today, when you see the word Comforter, you think more of consolation. But in old English, the word comfort meant “to strengthen.”
It carries more the thought of power and strength than merely consolation in sorrow. It includes consolation, yes, but the emphatic meaning of the word is strengthening.
How do we know? Because when Wycliffe translated Philippians 4:13, that familiar verse, “I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me,” he used the language of being comforted or strengthened by Christ.
So, in the fourteenth century, comfort or comforter meant one who strengthens. If you read the four places in the Gospel according to John where this word is used, you will find that each time it is associated with truth.
The Comforter is the Spirit of truth. When you come to the matter of truth, is it merely a matter of consolation, or is it a matter of strength? Truth is not weakness; truth is strength.
He is the One who leads us into all truth. In leading us into all truth, conflict must be involved. He is the One who bears witness to Christ, bearing witness for Christ in this world. That is comfort; that is power.
He is also the One who brings conviction into this world, to convict and convince men concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. So the very basic thought is that He comes to strengthen and empower us.
He strengthens us so that we may enter into all truth, so that we may be witnesses of Christ, and so that Christ may be glorified. He brings Christ to us; He brings us into Christ; He makes Christ real to us; and He makes Christ known to this world.
Brothers and sisters, we have the Comforter. We have One within us who is here to strengthen us and bring us to God’s purpose.
The word advocate is another English word that comes close to the Greek word Paraclete. In modern English we might say “lawyer,” but the old sense of the word is much richer than the modern sense of a lawyer.
An advocate not only represents his client; he defends his name, pleads his cause, and manages his property.
Brothers and sisters, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is that divine Advocate. He represents His client, defends His name, pleads His cause, and manages His possessions. But the question is: who is His client?
We often think that we are His client, but we are wrong. The Holy Spirit’s client is the Lord Himself. He comes to represent the Lord; He does not come to represent you.
He comes to defend the name of the Lord, not your name. He comes to plead the cause of the Lord, not your cause. He comes to manage the Lord’s property, because you are His property.
Here is a great mistake. We often think of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us as a good uncle. We think that He always stands for us, always gives in to us, always protects us, and always does everything for us. We say, “Oh, He is good.”
But your experience tells you this is not true. How often you want one thing, and the Holy Spirit says, “No.” Then you think that you have the wrong lawyer.
The Holy Spirit is a divine Person. He dwells in you, but He is not representing you. He is representing the Lord. No wonder, every time something happens, you may find Him on what you think is the wrong side. But even when you think you are right, you may be on the wrong side.
What is the work of the Holy Spirit? The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring Christ to us and bring us into Christ, so that Christ may be made real and living in us. Anything less than Christ grieves the Holy Spirit.
We are bought with a price. We are His possession. Because of that, the Holy Spirit is sent to manage the possession of the risen Lord. Thank God, He is fully responsible for this work.
Of course, there is One who represents you: the Lord Jesus. He represents you at the right hand of the Father. Therefore, in 1 John 2, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
When we fail, our Lord represents us before the Father and says, “Father, I have shed My blood for that one.” If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He is the propitiation, not only for us, but also for the whole world.
So you see the two things: the Lord Jesus Himself in heaven is our Representative before the Father, but the Holy Spirit within represents the Lord.
Do you know the divine Person? Do you know that He is entrusted with the most divine work? There is no task more divine or important than this one: to conform you to Christ.
He is intent on doing His job. Brothers and sisters, He will fight with anything that hinders that purpose. Do you believe it? He will not allow you to have a free hand in your life, even in your vacation.
That is why Paul said, “O foolish Galatians.” God has already made every provision for you. There is grace, there is faith, and there is the Holy Spirit. He is the One who gives us faith. He is the One who brings grace to us. Yet they did not know Him.
Paul asked, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” The Galatian believers had received the Holy Spirit by grace, not because of anything they had done. It was simply by faith.
They began in the Spirit, yet they were trying to perfect themselves by the flesh. Here, in the letter to the Galatians, you find that the Holy Spirit is the way to perfection.
By perfection, of course, I do not mean sinless perfection. There is no one sinlessly perfect on this earth except our Lord. In Scripture, perfection means maturity.
How can we grow? The gospel of Jesus Christ is not merely that we may believe in the Lord Jesus and go to heaven. That is only the beginning. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the whole purpose of God: God gives Christ to us, and He wants us to receive His fullness, so that we who are His children may be conformed to His image.
How are we to grow in Christ? How are we to mature? How can we be perfected? The Galatian believers, after they had believed in the Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit, became impatient. They wanted to speed up their growth. Like people today, they wanted instant spiritual perfection.
They did not know that the work of the Holy Spirit is very patient. They became impatient, and someone came to them and said, “If you want to be perfect, it is very easy. Keep certain rules, laws, and regulations. Keep days and seasons. Do this, and do not do that. If you can do these few things, you are perfect.”
In our flesh, there is always a desire to do something. If you do not do anything, that is humiliating. “Do you mean I cannot do anything, even though I am not perfect? Let me do something.”
Instead of letting the Holy Spirit do His work in them, they tried to do something. Circumcision was easy. Keeping certain days was not too hard. If they did these things, they could say, “See what I have done. Now I am perfect.”
They had the Holy Spirit, but instead of listening to the Holy Spirit and allowing the Holy Spirit to perfect His work in them, they set the Holy Spirit aside and tried to do something themselves.
For outward appearance, they had things that looked pleasant. They did certain things and kept certain things. It was a kind of inconvenience, perhaps, so they thought, “We are doing all these things for God, and it makes us perfect.”
But they did not know that if they went back to the flesh, even if it began with what seemed to be good intentions, it would end up in the deeds of the flesh, because it was still the same flesh.
You may begin with a good intention: “I am doing it in order to be perfect.” All right, you try to do it. As you begin to do it, you will find that the whole flesh follows, until you look back and discover that you are down in the works of the flesh.
If you read the list, it is not very pleasant: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, anger, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Those who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Who strives against the flesh? You? That would only be flesh against flesh—the good flesh against the bad flesh. You are against yourself, and you will never overcome.
It is the Holy Spirit who strives against the flesh. It is the Holy Spirit in you who strives against the flesh, and the flesh strives against the Spirit, so that you should not do the things that you desire.
There is a difference here from Romans 7. In Romans 7, you cannot do what you want to do, and you do what you do not want to do. But here it says that you should not do the things you desire. The Holy Spirit restrains.
You find a contrast. On one side is the Holy Spirit; on the other side is the flesh. On one side is life; on the other side are the works of the flesh. On one side is eternal life; on the other side is corruption.
If we live by the Holy Spirit, we bear fruit, and that is eternal life. If we live by the flesh, even if we think it is good flesh, the end is corruption, because flesh always produces works.
There is a great difference between works and fruit. Work is something you do yourself. You apply yourself, put your effort into it, and out of what you have done you produce something. That is work.
Fruit is different. Fruit is the overflow of life. When life is mature, it bears fruit. It is not self-conscious; it comes spontaneously from within. Work is done from without, but fruit comes from within.
How often it is work. We keep this rule and keep that law. We think that by this we shall become perfect. Then we boast of what an achievement we have made. Brothers and sisters, this is the work of the flesh, and the end result is corruption.
But if we live by the Holy Spirit, how do we live by the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is within you—the divine Comforter, the divine Advocate.
As 1 John 2:27 says, the anointing which you received of Him abideth in you, and He teaches you concerning all things. Just follow the teaching of the anointing and abide in Christ.
He is with you all the time. He never leaves you nor forsakes you. He is teaching you all things—big things and small things. You do not go to the Holy Spirit only when you come to a crisis. He walks with you every day.
When you are at home, He is there. When you are in the office, He is there. He never leaves you nor forsakes you. In everything—in big things and small things—the anointing is there to teach you. His speaking is true and is not a lie.
As you walk in that way, unconsciously fruit comes forth: the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. That is life. That is the abundant life.
How are we going to be perfected? Not by the works of the flesh, but by the Holy Spirit.
How important it is that we know the Holy Spirit as a divine Person in our daily life and experience. Do we know the Holy Spirit in this way? Do you draw upon the Holy Spirit only when you are having a problem, angrily asking, “Now come, come, come”?
Or are you listening to Him all the time? To many believers, the Holy Spirit is only an idea. For many believers, the Holy Spirit may be an experience from five years ago. But according to the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is a daily reality.
How can we live the Christian life without knowing the Holy Spirit today? It is impossible. How can we be conformed to Christ if we merely try to work? You will never get there.
Brothers and sisters, knowing the Holy Spirit as a divine Person transforms life. You are not alone, struggling along. The Holy Spirit is there, bringing you to Christ. All the strain is gone; you can rest.
God has provided for us not only grace, but the Spirit of grace too.
How do you know that you are walking by the Spirit? How do you know that you live by the Spirit? There is a mark. The Holy Spirit always leads us to the cross and conforms us more to Christ.
It is by the eternal Spirit that our Lord Jesus offered Himself without blemish unto God. Because Christ has been glorified, the Spirit is here. You can never separate the Holy Spirit from Christ.
If the Holy Spirit is really working in your life, He will link you to the cross. If there is not a mark of the cross there, it is not the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Galatian believers did not understand this. They were offended by the cross. They wanted to avoid the offence of the cross. But Paul said, “Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. If the Holy Spirit is truly working in your life, you will find there will be need, there will be marks. But thank God, out of those wounds flows the Spirit of life.
People want to avoid the cross. Why did the Judaizers want the Galatian believers to be circumcised? They themselves did not keep the law, but they wanted the Galatians circumcised so that they could boast and say, “This one was circumcised through my persuasion.”
But wherever the Holy Spirit is working, there is a spirit of humility. Brothers and sisters, it is not difficult to know whether the Holy Spirit is really working in your life. It is not difficult to distinguish whether you are truly walking in the Spirit.
People sometimes think that to grow in the Spirit means there is no problem. But if you read the Word of God, you find that it is different. Our Lord Jesus, throughout His life, lived by the power of the Holy Spirit, but all the way He went to the cross.
Out of the cross flows the river of living water. The Spirit is given abundantly to us. So, dear brothers and sisters, Paul is trying to tell the Galatian believers that the basic of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes people say, “If you talk about the cross, it makes you very gloomy. It is so negative.” Is that true?
If everything ends at the cross and there is nothing beyond, then it is indeed a very sad end. But thank God, everything of the old, natural life ends at the cross, and everything of the new creation begins from the cross.
There is a death side of the cross, but there is also a resurrection side of the cross. There is life out of the cross. Brothers and sisters, that is the gospel.
So we do look to the Lord. May we know the Holy Spirit in our daily life and experience as a divine Person. Learn to listen to Him. Follow Him, because He must accomplish the work entrusted to Him by the risen Christ.
Yes, the cross will be involved. You cannot escape that. But thank God, it does not end there. There is resurrection, something beyond the cross.
Everything that goes to the cross and cannot get beyond it is brought to an end, because it cannot be brought into resurrection. But whatever goes beyond the cross is willing to become life. So this is the letter to the Galatians, and I do hope that we shall hold on to these things.
Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee not only because Thou hast given our Lord Jesus to us—O, what a marvellous Christ Thou hast given to us, full of grace and truth—but we thank Thee because Thou dost give us the Holy Spirit.
O divine Person, representing Christ in us and bringing us into Christ, what a work this is; what glory it is. Lord, we want to know the Holy Spirit for our daily life. We want to know Him as the divine Person who is within us.
We want to finish the course gloriously. And Lord, beneath the cross, teach us how to bear the cross and glorify Thee, because there is resurrection again. There is a river of living water coming from the throne.
O Lord, we desire that the gospel of Jesus Christ may not only be believed, but may become very real to Thy people. O glorify Thyself, O Lord. Lord, we worship Thee, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.