I know this is the way my dad
used to drink coffee. He'd just have it pure black
all the time. Well, I pray the Lord brings to remembrance
the things that he's put on my mind this morning. I kind of
had a thought this morning about a verse of scripture. And as
I got to thinking about it and kind of pursuing some other passages
pertaining to it, the Lord just kind of led me down a rabbit hole or whatever you want
to call it. And all of a sudden out of that
kind of emerged something that wasn't intended whenever I jumped
into it, but it truly blessed my heart this morning. If you would turn to 1 Timothy
chapter 2, verse 15, I want to read a passage of scripture here.
And I want to start maybe with this as an overarching thing.
This wasn't the verse that I was looking at this morning. This
is kind of a verse that came to mind. And I apologize if anybody's
over here that says anything. I can't hear out of my left ear.
So if you're hollering at me over here, flag me down or something. This is one of the verses that
kind of came to my mind after I got to looking at the verses.
We're actually going to be in John chapter 14, 15, and 16 here
in just a little bit. But I wanted to, before I get
there, I want to look at some things leading up to what I found
in John, what the Lord brought me to look at this morning in
John. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15, The Bible says, excuse me, 1
Timothy 2 and verse 5, not 15. My mistake there. It says, for
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man,
Jesus Christ. There is one mediator, there's one God, and
there's only one mediator, and that mediator is the mediator
between God, the one God, and man, and that's the man Jesus
Christ. So the office of Christ, the
office of Jesus Christ, God in flesh, the whole purpose for
why God assumed flesh and dwelt among us, Emmanuel, God with
us, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in this man bodily. Three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
There is one God, there is one person who is the image of God,
who is the face of the invisible God, who is the one who makes
God known, the one who displays God, who is God manifested in
the flesh, and that is the man, Jesus Christ. And brethren, I
tell you, the Godhead and the mystery of godliness, God being
made into flesh, is something that is so far beyond my comprehension,
beyond my fathomless that I can't even begin to elaborate on the
depth of how this goes and how it scrambles the eggs in my head
a lot of times when I try to think of this. But one thing
is for sure is we know that there is such a unity in the work of
God in that Godhead towards His people. and it's done and magnified
and shown, worked out, and will be glorified in the man Jesus
Christ. So whatever of the Father, whatever
of the Word, whatever of the Holy Spirit, those three record
bearers that are teaching and pushing and pointing and directing
towards the man Jesus Christ, whatever the unity that there
is within that one God, Brethren, it's found in Christ
Jesus. Whatever it is, it's found in Christ Jesus. And I know you've
got to have heard me say that over and over and over again,
but here we have one of the plainest things in all the scripture that
tells us that there is only one God and there is one mediator
between that one God and men, and that's the man, Jesus Christ. It doesn't speak of the Godhead.
Although the Godhead surely is involved because all the Godhead
is in fullness in the body and man, Jesus Christ. So God is
mediating between Himself and between men through the avenue,
through the direction, through the office of Jesus Christ, the
anointed salvation of God. That's how God mediates. He mediates
through the God-man, Jesus Christ. I said that because in my estimation, from a lot
of what I hear and listen to when I do listen to preaching
and whenever I do read some things from the writings of men and
things like that, commentators and different things like that,
a lot of what I see is a total rejection and denial of the importance
of the work of the Holy Spirit. We talk a lot about self-responsibility. I hear that a lot. I hear a lot
about self-accountability. I hear a lot about man's free
will. I hear a lot about man's doing
this or doing that as far as a condition is concerned. But
there's not a whole lot of teaching about the overwhelming work of
the Holy Spirit. And to go even further than that,
and I'll just say what I mean by that, is whenever you say
that, whenever we say that man is saved apart from any condition
that he does, we are saying that the Holy Spirit is doing the
work that God has sent it to do. The Holy Spirit is coming
and quickening that sinner. The Holy Spirit is coming and
convincing that sinner of sin, that Holy Spirit is coming and
giving faith to that sinner. The Holy Spirit is coming and
giving knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ in the Gospel. He is giving that person to believe
upon that Gospel. And He is keeping that believer
from straying away and losing the faith that is found in that
Gospel. And that person is by the work
of the Holy Spirit being kept until the day of redemption or
until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, until the day that this
body is taken away and that new body comes and inhabits this
person that's inside of us, that's been born from above. The Holy
Spirit has been the one sent to seal us until the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit is the one that
Christ has given us to do all of this work. But you hear in
most preaching out there, you hear that it's our responsibility
to make appropriation of the means that God has given us to
do all these things. We believe because we have read
the Bible, heard the preaching, and then acted within our will
to accept or reject Jesus Christ. That we have been given a set
of things to believe, and by holding to those beliefs, we
continue in the faith. We, by our own ability we stay
and we pray and we read and we come to church and we do all
these things that keeps us walking in the faith and keeps us looking
to Jesus Christ. And so we look and we place all
of the work of the Holy Spirit as a condition that man must
keep. And I think that that is a blasphemous thing for us to
do. I think that's a blasphemous
gospel to preach. And it denies the work of the
Holy Spirit. But brethren, In the very end,
it's not just a denial of the work of the Holy Spirit, it is
an actual denial of Christ Himself. That's why we are so adamant
about why we believe in Holy Spirit quickening, apart from
the means of preaching the Gospel, that preacher. You know, there's
a lot of people that say, well, you can't be saved unless you
hear the Gospel. You have to hear the Gospel to
be saved. You have to hear the Gospel to believe. You have to
hear the Gospel to repent. You have to hear the Gospel to
be quickened. There are some people that believe
that we're quickened because of the Gospel. So whenever we
say that, we're saying there is an element that man has to
be a part of, that God has ordained and has in His sovereignty put
man at the hinge pin, that unless man is involved, or unless man
does something, then what God has desired and wants and has
provided for, can't give you unless man is involved in it. Last I remember, the Bible said
that he will share his glory with nobody. That the Bible said
that salvation is of the Lord and not part you and part me.
Last I heard, that he has done all things and claimed it is
finished. that the works were done from the foundation of the
world. That He has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His mercy and His
grace, which He hath given us in Christ Jesus from the foundation
of the world. So to me, it's a denial whenever
we deny the work of the Holy Spirit to be able to convict
us of sin, in a repentant state, as we were
talking a while ago, that whenever I stray, that Holy Spirit convicts
me. I don't need the preacher bird-dogging
me all the time. I don't need the child of grace
bird-dogging me all the time to tell me I have the Holy Spirit
of God to do that. That doesn't mean to say that
whenever I see somebody that I love walking, not according
to the Word of God, I don't come alongside of them. But listen,
we can't just keep browbeating people until they, you know,
want to say, you know what, go away from me. I don't ever want
to talk to you again. No, what do we do? We trust that the Lord
is doing that, because if that is a child of grace, the Holy
Spirit will do His work that He was given to do. And if they
are not a child of grace, the Holy Spirit of God will also
do the work that He was sent to do, and He will cause that
division to be divided within the church, because He will keep
His church pure and clean. He will divide, and those who
are not of us will go out from us. And so the Holy Spirit will
do His work. But people don't seem to think
that the Holy Spirit can do its job. We think that the Holy Spirit
cannot teach us without this or without some other person
telling us this. But yet the Bible is very clear
that the Holy Spirit is the one who teaches the child of grace.
So we have all this work of the Holy Spirit And we deny that
work whenever we think that man has to have any means that he
has to appropriate before God will do what He said He would
do. That is an ultimate denial of
Jesus Christ. You say, well, how do you get
in there? I don't understand the correlation here, preacher.
It says that there is only one mediator between God and man,
and that is the man, Jesus Christ. What is Christ mediating? He's mediating to God on behalf
of the sinner, and He's also mediating to the sinner on behalf
of God. So that means that person who
is the mediator is mediating something from God to the sinner
that the sinner needs. But He is also mediating something
to God on behalf of the sinner that God also, and I don't want
to use the word needs necessarily, but something that God requires. God requires justice. God requires
perfection. God requires righteousness. The mediator is mediating on
behalf of the sinner righteousness to God on behalf of that sinner.
Is that not what Christ's job was? as coming as the mediator,
He came to be faith for us because we have not faith. He came to
live faith and obedience to God because man cannot keep the law
of God because He is flesh and natural. He can't keep the law
of God So the child of grace cannot keep the law of God. So
Christ came as the substitute or the mediator to mediate a
righteousness on their behalf because they can't keep a righteousness. And just on the opposite end,
he mediates the love, the grace, the mercy, the salvation, all
the things of God, the righteousness, the holiness. He mediates all
the things of God to the sinner who the sinner can't receive
that because being born of God, they have been taught of their
inability before God, their sinfulness, their unholiness, their unrighteousness. They've been taught that of God,
and so they cannot receive this work to themselves unless Christ
comes and mediates to say that God has deemed you righteous.
God has justified you. God has forgiven you. God loves
you. And Jesus is the one who is that
mediator to bring all of the love of God, all of the salvation
of God, and to bring it to the heart of the child of grace so
that the child of grace can receive what has been done for them.
They're going to do one of two things. If they have not been
quickened of God and born from above, they're going to continue
to say, well, I don't need none of that. I have my own self-righteousness. And they will continue in their
religious activity of going to church and tithing and praying
and reading their Bible and witnessing to their neighbors and giving
money to missionaries to go save the world, because the whole
world's going to go to hell if they don't get to them, and do
all these other religious things that are out there. I'm not knocking
going to church. I'm not knocking giving in support
of the ministry. I'm not knocking all these other
things about telling people the gospel and all that stuff. The
way that they do those things, I'm knocking. But anyway, I'm
not knocking all that stuff. But what I'm saying is that we have a mediator who is mediating
this to us And because He is mediating that to us, we can
receive that. So He is mediating something
to God on behalf of the sinner, and He is mediating something
to us on behalf of God. But the question is, how does
God do that? How does Christ, the man, the
mediator, how does He do that? Look with me if you would. There's
another verse that's similar to that one in 1 Timothy. It's
in 1 John. Look at 1 John chapter 2 and
verse 1. 1 John chapter 2, verse 1. John writes, My little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
Righteous. Now, pay close attention to what
is being said here. If you've got your Bibles open. Because there's some words here
that I want you to pay close attention to because they're
going to come up again here in just a few minutes when we look
at some other verses. And not only that, they're going to come
up again as other words. But it's the exact same word
that we find translated just as a different word in our King
James Bible. It's the exact same word. But, look if you would,
number one, we see if any man sin, we have an advocate with
the Father. We have an advocate with God.
Jesus Christ. Who is the advocate with God
when we sin? Jesus Christ. There's only one
mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Jesus Christ. Well, what's a mediator? A mediator
is someone who goes between them. Someone who mediates between
them. Someone who stands as a representative
for God or stands as a representative for man. So he is a dual representative. He represents God and he also
represents man. He also is standing there as
the lawyer for God and he's also standing there as the lawyer
for man. Now here, he's called the advocate. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ. But notice what God puts in there
for us. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
See, whenever we sin, it isn't us that goes before God and says,
will you forgive me? And God says, well, because you
asked, I'm going to forgive you. That would be God forgiving us
on the basis or the condition of our humility and our convicted
heart. So God would be looking at us
and saying, I'm going to forgive you because you asked me. Because
you were kind enough, because you realized your need, and because
you humbled yourself and came to me, I'm going to forgive you
on those grounds. No. God doesn't forgive us on
those grounds because God cannot acquit the wicked. And when the
wicked come and confess that they are sinners before God,
that still does not remove the guilt of sin. There's only one
thing that can remove the guilt of sin. The Bible says that without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. The only thing that removes the
guilt of sin and causes God to be able to forgive us, or is
the basis and grounds of God's forgiveness, is the shedding
of blood. Christ's blood was shed so that
we could be forgiven. So whenever God looks at us and
forgives us, it isn't because we came to Him and asked Him,
although we should come to God and confess our sins before Him.
and look for forgiveness because surely if we confess our sins
to Him, He is faithful and just and will forgive us of those
sins because Christ's blood was shed for us. And He will forgive
every sin that Christ has died for for whoever He died for. But it says here, Jesus Christ
the righteous. Why did God put that in there?
Well, because we have to have someone righteous who mediates
for us before God because we are sinful. If any man sin, and
we know all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we
have an advocate or we have a mediator with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. So we have someone standing as
righteous for us before God. So that verse goes hand in hand
with 1 Timothy 2.15. Now, what exactly is an advocate? An advocate is one who convinces
another. If you look at the word that's
found in the New Testament, that's behind this word advocate or
mediator, we find that that word is translated, or King James
Bible is translated, and it means to convince of sin. It's one
who convinces another. Not just a sin, but it convinces.
It's one who convinces. So an advocate is one who goes
before another person and convinces them something about the person
they're representing. So Christ goes before God the
Father as the righteous one, goes before God the Father who
is righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, and he convinces
through justice that this sinner's wages that he owed, which was
death, has been paid in full, that this sinner is now righteous
based upon the righteousness imputed to him. So the justice
of God is convinced that this sinner is righteous because of
the righteous one who is advocating for them, convincing the law,
convincing the righteousness of God that this sinner is now
made righteous. Not in actuality, where all unrighteousness. But in accounts. In reckoning. We are reckoned as righteous.
And that's what the mediator does. That's what Jesus is advocating.
But, brethren, there's the aspect that comes from God to us that
I want to talk about today, and that's where the Holy Spirit
comes in. Is God in Christ Jesus is advocating to the sinner or
convincing the sinner something on God's side. He is convincing
the sinner of something that God has done for the sinner. And that's why it's so important
that we see these two verses before we dive into this weighty
topic of the work of the Holy Spirit and how it's connected
to the man Jesus Christ and how a denial of the work of the Holy
Spirit is actually a denial of Jesus Christ Himself. Because
Jesus Christ is the grounds of everything in the salvation of
Jehovah. Jesus Christ is God manifesting
in the flesh, but He is also the representative to all of
His people. He is the mediator between God
and man. He is the advocate for not only
the Father, but also to His people. And we see here that He is the
advocate. We have an advocate with the Father. That means I,
if I am a child of grace, have an advocate going to the Father
on my behalf. But does the Bible say that there
is an advocate of God to us? Well, I think we find that out.
Look with me, if you would, to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Now, we know verses 28 and 29 and 30,
these great golden chain of salvation. But right on the heels of that,
in verse 31, start reading with me here, it says, What shall
we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now we're talking about what's
going on on God's end. So one thing the Bible tells
us, if we are His people, verses 28, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are be called according to His purpose, for whom He did
foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn. But many bread moreover
who He did predestinate, then He also called, and whom He called,
then He also justified, whom He justified, then He also glorified
all that's past tense, that's because that is in the declaration
of God, the works, the end from the beginning. God declared these
works. He declared these people as such before the foundation
of the world. He declared them to be called,
justified, glorified before the foundation of the world. The
works were done before the foundation of the world. Brother, we keep
stressing the importance of the work of God being done before
the foundation of the world, but being manifested in time.
And we get such flack from people, especially of the Reformed persuasions,
because we look to the eternal aspects of things and we give
glory to God because all of it was settled long ago, but not
at an old-fashioned altar. It was settled long ago before
the foundation of the world. So we know it's talking about
the people of God because of the context, right? He says,
what shall we say to these things if God be for us? So God is for
us, not against us. But how do we know that? How
often have you felt that God is not for you? That he seems
to be, listen, when me and Zach was sitting at the side of the
road for eight hours waiting for a tow truck after I run over a metal
ice chest that put $14,000 worth of damage in my work van, while
I was sitting there, there was a lot of time that I was thinking
God is not for me at this point in time. But the Bible here clearly
reassures us that if God be for us, Verse 32, He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. What
is God mediating? What is Christ mediating? Advocating? What is Christ convincing from
God's perspective to the sinner. We know that Christ, from the
sinner to God, is bringing the convincing of what He has accomplished
on their behalf. He has kept the law of God on
their behalf, and He has paid the price for their sin on their
behalf, so He goes to that throne room of God, to that mercy seat,
and that blood is spilled out upon that mercy seat that was
built in the heavenlies before the foundation of the world,
and he presents that sacrifice to God that says, it is finished,
it's all done, my people are now redeemed. They're saved. There's nothing on the part of
man that does that. Christ is the one that convinces
justice and righteousness that it has been accomplished. And
justice holds it up and says it's done. He says right here,
it is God that justified. But look at verse 34. Who is
he that condemneth? Is not Christ that died? It is
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. So what's Christ telling us? What's Christ mediating? He's
mediating the fact that God has justified us. No one can lay
any charge to His elect because Christ has done the work on our
behalf and God has accepted that work because God has justified.
The work that Christ did, God viewed that and justified us
on grounds of what Christ did. He said, okay, what Christ did,
is acceptable to My righteousness and My justice. Therefore, they
are free. They are not guilty. They are
forgiven. And God is not wrong to love
us. God is not wrong to accept us, to keep us, to bring us to
Himself. He says, Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Notice
that we are conquerors through him that loved us. We ourselves
are not conquerors. He is the one who conquered and
we are made conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So what is Christ interceding?
What is Christ advocating? What is Christ mediating from
God to us. He's mediating the good news
that He has accomplished it all on our behalf, that you don't
have to worry about keeping it up, or performing, or making
sure that you're righteousness enough, or done enough, or are
doing enough. I've already done it all for
you. And God accepted that, what I've done. Because He's never
going to accept what you do. He's accepted what I have done.
And He has justified you. He has deemed you as worthy. And He did that before the foundation
of the world. But I just came in time to perform
all these things, because that's what God based it upon, to show
to all the Old Testament saints who was looking forward, and
to all the New Testament saints who are now looking back, to
show the grace of God, and the mercy of God, and the salvation
of Jehovah in me. It's all about Christ Jesus.
He's the Mediator. He's the Mediator of the Old
Covenant. He's the Mediator of the New Covenant. He's the Mediator
of all these things. He is the go-between before God
in all things that pertain to the salvation of Jehovah. But here it says that He is at
the right hand of God who maketh intercession for us. still remains
is how does Christ intercede that, or make intercession, or
how does Christ advocate, how does Christ do that to us from
the right hand of God? Because it's saying that Christ
is doing this. Christ is interceding. Christ is being the advocate.
And to be the advocate, that means he's advocating to us from
God, just as much as he is to God from us. But how is he doing
that? We see another parallel verse
to the one we just read there in Romans. Hebrews 7, look if
you would with me down to verse 25. It says, wherefore, now the wherefore
is there because of everything that's gone before, and I won't
rehash everything that's gone before, but talk about Christ
being our great high priest. It says, wherefore He is able
also to save them, and the them that's in context here again
is His people. He is able to save them to the
uttermost. That means fully, completely.
The word uttermost there is a word that means forevermore. That means there's no end to
it. There's no beginning, there's no end. I think Brother Larry did something
on that just recently on everlasting or eternal. It says, Wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing, here it is, he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. Look, if you would, back to chapter 2. Look at verse
18. It says, for in that he himself
has suffered, talking about Christ, he himself has suffered being
tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. Now, I
don't know that word succor there. Succor or succor them that are
tempted. That's a word that we don't hardly
use much anymore nowadays, right? But that word there, that word
sucker, it's a word that means to put at ease, to comfort. Because Christ himself, whenever
he was here as our substitute, keeping the law of God for us,
and then ultimately going to the cross and dying the death
that we deserve. In all of that, the Bible says
that he was tempted like unto his brethren. So he experienced
all the things that we experience, yet without sin. See, there was
no sin in him to be tempted. Yet he was tempted in all points
just as we are. And so because of his being tempted,
He is able to now come because of not having sin, not being
subjected to the drawing away, not being subjected to the flesh
that we have that cannot be righteous and keep the law of God. Him
who is righteous and kept the law of God, although tempted,
proved who He was being God. that now going through that temptation
can come and comfort us in our temptations. And those temptations
aren't just whenever we're tempted to sin, but whenever that temptation,
whenever those trials come. The word temptation can mean
to try to entice to sin, but the word temptation in the Bible
also can mean to test. There is a testing. Whenever
God came to Job, He tested Job. The Bible said that God tested
or tempted Abraham. And I know people are going to
say, well, the Bible says that God tempted no man. In James,
God tempted no man. But yet in the Old Testament,
it says that God tempted Abraham. You've got to look at the word. You've got to know the word.
In our English language, it's one word, tempted. But in Biblical
language, there's other words for that. We only have one word.
The word tempted can mean tested. And in that case, the context
fits that God tested. And Christ here is saying that
He was tested in all points, such as we are, and that He is
able, Himself being tested, He is able to comfort them who are
being tested. Those who are being tested. Who
are being tested? Well, God is not testing The
reprobate, he is testing the child of grace. That's the testing
that Paul was preaching about in Romans chapter 7. The testing
of the spirit and the flesh. The testing is also whenever
Christ was tempted. A lot of people say, well, obviously
he wasn't God because the Bible says that God cannot be tempted. But yet Christ was tempted. We
know that Christ was tempted. Well, the Bible also says that
Christ was being tested. That word tested again, it means
to test for the validity of something. Christ claimed to be God. Well,
God cannot sin. So why did Satan come and test
Jesus Christ? Because God, before the foundation
of the world, had ordained that Satan would come and test that
man, Jesus Christ. Why? To prove the validity that
there was no sin in him. That he is the spotless Lamb
of God. He is the anointed of Jehovah. He is the Christ. He is the Son of God. Why? Because there is no sin found
in Him. That they can find nothing in me because there is nothing
in me to tempt. Therefore, the testing that is
true, that is real, cannot find anything because I am God. Therefore, I am qualified to
be their representative. Listen, whenever we talk about
the impeccability of Jesus Christ, it raises the hairs on a lot
of people's necks because they think that if Jesus couldn't
have sinned then his temptation wasn't really real and he can't
really be our great high priest to sucker us whenever we are
tempted because he really don't know what it felt like. Brethren,
it never was to tempt Jesus so that Jesus would hang on strong
for you The testing was there to prove who he was so that he
could be our great high priest and lamb. The testing was there
to prove the validity to his people that you can trust in
what this man is and what this man has done. He is the son of
God and he is your righteous representative and he has been
tested in all points just like you, yet he doesn't have any
sin that could have drawn him away or anything in his heart
that could have invalidated what he did. No, he went to the cross
without one spot, without one blemish, not because he held
on with the sin nature, but because he had no sin nature. Therefore,
he accomplished the salvation that you could not accomplish
for yourself. God sending his only son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, made an atonement for His people, and that atonement
was accepted by God. And now that man, Jesus Christ,
who has experienced all the testing that you will ever experience
in this lifetime, is now seated at the right hand of God, seated
in the heavenlies, interceding for you. And what is He interceding?
He's interceding that God knows your plight. He has put you in
that plight. He is testing you in that plight.
But I am with you. I will be there for you. I will
keep you. These light and momentary afflictions
pale in comparison to the weight of what is waiting for you in
eternity. That's what Jesus is advocating.
That's what Jesus is mediating. That's what Jesus is interceding
from God to us on our behalf. So how is He able to do that?
How is He able to do that? Well, that was basically the
introduction. I want you to look, if you would,
at these glorious passages in John chapter 14. This is where
the Holy Spirit comes in. The way that Jesus Christ mediates
between God and man, how He is the Advocate to the Father on
our behalf, is in His office as the Christ, as the Son of
God. As the Son of God, Christ mediates
to God on our behalf. But how does He do that to the
child of grace on behalf of God? As God? He does it through the
Holy Spirit. His Spirit. There is no difference
between Christ and the Holy Spirit. Just as there is no difference
between Christ and the Father. Just as there is no difference
between Christ and the Word. Everybody is trying to separate
these as so distinct beings. that they have lost the unity
of God and the work of God and the testimony of God's Scriptures,
the Word of God, that Christ is the everlasting Father, the
eternal Word, and the Holy Spirit of God manifested in flesh. And the Holy Spirit, that aspect
of God that is the sealer, that is the worker of The advocating
of Christ to His people. They lose that when they try
to separate things out so great. They lose the work of Christ.
Christ is the one doing the advocating. Christ is the one doing the mediating.
And He does it by sending His Spirit. Sending Himself in the
Spirit to His people. I think that's clear here. John 14 if you would. Look at
verse 16 with me. It says, This passage, John 14, 15, and
16, is Jesus' basic last sermon or teaching time to His disciples
before He goes to the cross and dies. So these are basically
Jesus' last words before He dies, and then shortly after He dies,
I say shortly, roughly 40 days, or exactly 40 days, His ascension
back into heaven. So Jesus here is giving him basically
his last words. And Jesus is telling him, verse
16, And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
comforter. That word comforter there, brethren,
is the same word that we have already read in 1 Timothy. Whenever we read, we have an
advocate with the Father. It's the exact same word. How
does Jesus be the advocate? By being the comforter. But you
know that word comforter there? A lot of people, whenever we
hear that word comforter, at least again, I'll speak on my
behalf, how I used to hear that word and understand that word
is Jesus is going to bring peace to my heart and just make me
feel good. He's going to make me feel wonderful and joyful
and loving. He's going to comfort me. Oh,
it's all right. Don't worry about anything. But really, that's not the gist
of that word. That word comforter there, the
word comfort, is the word that means the convincer. The way
that Jesus becomes our comforter, or whenever He sends the Comforter,
capital C there, when He sends the Comforter, He is sending
the one who is to convince us. The one who is advocating for
us. the one who is mediating for us. And here he says, I will send
you another comforter. The word another there, again,
it's hard to pick up in English because we have one word for
another, but this word another doesn't mean another as in a
different one, a different comforter. It means one of the same kind.
This word, another comforter, means a comforter of the same
kind. He said, I'm going away with
you. I have been a convincer while I've been here. I've been
convincing you of everything that the Father has sent me to
do. Isn't that what Jesus prayed in John chapter 17? Whenever He said, I've given
them all the words that you've given me to tell them, I've told
them these things and they've believed it. I've told them the
things that you told me to tell them and they've believed it.
He's convinced them of the truth. He's convinced them of the Gospel.
He's convinced them of His Messiahship. He's convinced them of His Godhood. He's convinced them of what God
wanted to tell them. That's what He says in John 17. I've come and I've told them
everything that you've told Me to do. I've done everything that
you've told Me to do. And they have believed. Not only they,
but all those who will believe on Me from what they tell. All
the rest of the people that will ever believe that you have given
Me, they will also believe. Christ has come and been the
convincer. But now Christ, the convincer,
the advocate, the mediator, the comforter, is going away. And He says, I'm going to go
to the Father or I'm going back to God. The man is going back
to God. invisible spirit that indwells
him. I'm going back to God, but yet
I will send from God to you another comforter, a comforter of like
kind, a comforter who is the same, but he is going to come in a
different way. I came in the flesh this time
before There was no Comforter. In the Old Testament, the Holy
Spirit had not yet been given as a Comforter. Right? They had the Law and the Prophets.
But now, Christ has come and He has been their Comforter here. See, God the Father was their
Comforter in the Old Testament in His direct relation to them
as the Father. Christ came as the Word of God,
manifested in the flesh, speaking for God, speaking on behalf of
God in the man Jesus Christ, and He had relationship to them
as the Son of Man, the Son of God. Now He's going away back
to Heaven to be glorified with the glory that He had before
the foundation of the world, and He's sending God as the Comforter
or the Holy Spirit, this time to dwell within them and to continue
the comfort that Jesus, as Christ has comforted them, as the Father
has comforted them in the Old Testament, in direct relation
to them as the Father, is now going to give that same comfort
to them, yet He's going to bring them that comfort inwardly as
He dwells within them. Now, they still have the Holy
Spirit in the Old Testament, but not as a convincer like they
did in the New Testament because we know that the Bible says that
the Holy Spirit had not been given in that capacity yet. But
now He's being in, He said He will be with you and He will
be in you. And so we see now that the work
of Christ is going to continue and He will return to them. He's returning again to them.
But this time, He's returning to them on the day of Pentecost
to indwell them, to empower them, and to convince them of something. Look at what He says. He says,
"...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 ye know Him, for He dwelleth
with you and shall be in you." I will, I will. I will not leave
you comfortless. You know what that word comfortless
is, brethren? I looked that word comfortless up. You may even have it in the margin
of your Bible there. The word there means orphans.
I will not leave you orphans. You know what another word for
orphans is in the King James Bible that we find? Fatherless. Christ Jesus is claiming to be
their Father. He said, I will not leave you
fatherless. Why? Because He is the everlasting
Father to His people. The relationship has always been
God has been a Father to His children. And He has given them
to the man Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus as man now becomes
their mediator, Godward and manward. He indwells the humanity of Christ
Jesus so that God can continue the relationship of Father to
His people in being everything that they need for their salvation.
But now He's going away and He's going to continue to be their
Father, but He's going to do that through the work of the
Holy Spirit, His Spirit, that He will send back to be in them
to father them inwardly. They will not be left fatherless.
God will always be our Father. Christ will always be our Father.
The Holy Spirit will always be our Father. The convincer. The one who is convincing. That's
what a father does. A father is there to convince
his children of what is right and what is wrong. A father is
there to convince their children the path that is right, what
is just, what is right, what is holy. And that is what the
convincer does. That is what the Holy Spirit
does. I will not leave you comfortless. And look, Jesus says, I will
come to you. Jesus is saying, I'm going away,
but I am coming back to you. It's just going to be in a lightness,
not the same as what I came now, but I am the one coming back
to you. Why? Because I've manifested
in the flesh now. But whenever I come, I'm coming
to you manifested in the spirit. Chop down to verse 26 if you
would. It says, But the Comforter, again capital C, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in
my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to
your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Now look here. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not
as the world give it, Give eye unto you, let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said
unto you, I go away and come again unto you. So Christ is saying, I'm going away,
but I am coming again unto you. But Christ is coming again as
His Spirit, as the Spirit of God. You can't dissect the Holy
Spirit, Christ's Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of
the Father. You can't separate them out.
They're the same thing. And you can't separate the Spirit
from the Word and the Word from the Father. They're all one God. And all of that is found in the
man Christ Jesus. So you can't separate the mediator
from the Godhead. And you can't separate the Godhead
from the mediator. And you can't say, well, this
one has his little section and that's all he does, and this
has a section and that's all he does, and this has a section
and that's all he does, and they're three distinct and separate personalities,
beings, persons, distinct from each other, not the same person.
You can't say that. Because to deny that this is one God and one
mediator, will deny Christ as the Father, Christ as the Word,
and Christ as the Holy Spirit being sent back. He has been
the advocate for His people as the Father, He has been the advocate
of His people as the Word made manifest in flesh, and He has
been the advocate for His people as the Holy Spirit. To deny the
Father is to deny the Son. To deny the Spirit is to deny
the Son. To deny the Word is to deny the
Son. And to deny the Son, Jesus Christ said, is to deny the Father,
and the Spirit, and the Word. If you deny one, you deny the
other. And if you break them up, you remove the unity that
God has made within His Scriptures. That how God, as God, one God,
one mediator, did that mediatorial work as the Godhead manifested. Just a couple more verses I want
you to look at. Look at John chapter 15, verse
26. It says, but when the Comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you from
the Father." I know a lot of people look at those things and
say, there you go, there's three separates. But brethren, that
is not saying three separate things. I don't see that. It's
three separate things. Christ the man is speaking on
behalf of God, the Godhead, which we recognize as being the Father. And He's talking about His Spirit
that He's about to send back. because He already said it was
Him that was coming back. You can't separate the Holy Ghost
and Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus said, I'm going to go away,
but I am coming. If there was two separate beings,
He would have said, I'm going to go away from you, and He will
come back to you. But He said, I am going away,
and I will come back to you. But when the Comforter has come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth which proceeded from the Father." Now He's saying He proceeded
from the Father, but a while ago He said it was Him. Here's what I want you
to recognize. Remember, Jesus said, I'm going
to leave you peace. We've already heard that Jesus is going to
be an advocate, that He is going to be a mediator, that He is
going to do something. What is He mediating? What is
He advocating? What is He convincing the people
from Godward to usward? Now, look at chapter 16. I think
he brings this out even more as we go forward here in verse 16. Remember,
this is all one sermon that Jesus This is all one discourse that
Jesus is preaching to these guys. He's teaching them something
about the Holy Spirit. And something that He's teaching
about the Holy Spirit is His continual work as our Father. He's continuing this work as
our Father beyond the Father in the Old Testament, beyond
the Son of God who came and was our substitute. He's continuing
that on as the Spirit here. Look at verse 7. It says, Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he has come, he will
reprove the sin. Now, again, we've got to keep
in context the he here. And when he has come, what's
the context of he? You can't cut that off from what
Jesus has already said whenever He said, I will come. The He
in context here is Himself. He will come back to them as
the Holy Ghost. And when He has come, He will
reprove the world. Now this is what He's telling
you the Holy Spirit is coming to do. What's He coming to do
as the advocate, as the mediator of what God has done on our behalf? What mediator between God and
man? The man Jesus Christ. The man Jesus Christ is sending
His Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, that comes from
the Father, to us, to what? Reprove the world of sin, and
of righteousness, and of judgment. Now, He just told us that He
was coming to testify of Christ, right? So if He's coming to testify
of Christ, He's going to testify of how Christ and His relationship
to reproving sin, Christ and of righteousness, and Christ
and of judgment. These are not distinctive things
separate from Christ. These are things that He is coming
to reprove or to convince us of, about, and how Christ pertains
to these things. And He begins to break them up.
Of sin, because they believe not on Me. One of the things
the Holy Spirit comes to do is Christ comes back as the Holy
Spirit to His people to convince them of their sins. Why? Because they don't believe
on Christ Jesus. They believe in their own righteousness.
They believe in their own religious activity. They believe that they
are good enough that God's going to weigh them in the balance
and find more good than they're going to find bad. They don't
have need of a physician because they're well. They're religious
and working for Jesus. And He says, whenever the Holy
Spirit comes, though, He's going to convince them of their other
sinfulness. So Jesus Christ is being testified
as the One who came. The Holy Spirit said, listen,
you are so sinful that God Himself came in the flesh and had to
die for you and had to live for you. He had to obey the law for
you because you can't do it. That's your sinfulness. But look
at verse 10, of righteousness because I go to my Father and
you see me no more. Now what does that mean? I've
read that a hundred times and wondered why did he say that
that way? Well, I think the reason why
is he's convinced us of our sinfulness and how we didn't believe on
Christ Jesus as our righteousness. But now he's also convinced us
of righteousness, that there's only one who's righteous, who
is Jesus Christ. And how did Christ prove, or
how did God prove Jesus was righteous? A lot of people believe that
Jesus was a sinner and put to death on a cross because he was
a sinner. Remember those thieves that were hanging next to Jesus?
The one guy was railing about Jesus, they were sitting down
there, hey, he's a blasphemer. He blasphemed God, said He was
God. Now look at Him. If you're the
Son of God, bring yourself down from that cross. Save yourself
and save all the rest of these people. It's hanging here. Then the other guy said, listen,
this guy here, he's done nothing wrong. We deserve everything
that we give, but this man hasn't done anything. So, the Holy Spirit convinces
us of our sin, but He also convinces us of righteousness. And how
God proved that righteousness is that whenever Christ died,
God three days later raised Him from the grave. That means that
God approved of everything that Jesus did, that God accepted
everything that Jesus did on our behalf as righteousness.
Therefore God raised him from the dead. And the Bible says
that he has been highly exalted and is now sitting at the right
hand of God. Meaning that he is in authority
and power as God. He is the name of God. He is
the power of God. He is the righteousness of God.
And now we see, look at verse 11, of judgment because the prince
of this world has been judged. He is now the judge of this world.
He is over all. All authority has been given
unto Him in heaven and on earth. He's been given power over all
flesh. Jesus Christ is the center of
the message of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes back to
us to testify of Him, and He testifies of Christ in being
our sin bearer. He testifies of Christ as being
our righteousness. And he testifies of Christ as
being our judge and the judge of this world. And as the judge
of this world, he has judged Satan, who is the prince of this
world, and has defeated him. He has overcome the world. And
if we are his children, we have overcome the world because he
has overcome it. because he's advocating on our behalf to God
that everything that he has done on our behalf, God has accepted,
and God has accepted that, and since God's accepted that, we
live in the good of that. We live as justified even though
we're sinners. We live as forgiven even though
we've done wrong. We live as defeated people even
though we're truly overcomers. He says, I have yet many things
to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. How be it? When
He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into
all truth. He's going to convince you of
truth. Well, who's the truth? Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. He's going to convince you of
the truth of Jesus Christ. That's what I'm saying. If a
person is truly a child of grace, they're going to come to the
doctrines of grace. Why? Because the Spirit of God has
been given to convince men of the truth of who Jesus is and
what He has done. And His doctrine says that His
salvation is not a salvation that is conditioned upon anything
that we do. For He shall not speak of Himself. Listen, all these churches that
are out here praising the Holy Spirit as being a separate entity,
the third person of the Trinity, And all they do is talk about
the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit. The Spirit doesn't speak about
Himself. He doesn't come up and preach Himself up. Even though
He is Christ. He's the Spirit of Christ. But
what's He going to do? He's going to turn around and
He's going to point you back to the God-man mediator. He's
going to point you back to God manifested in the flesh in what
He did in Christ Jesus. He said, For He shall not speak
of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak,
and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for
He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are Mine. Therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall
show it unto you. A little while, and you shall
not see Me. And again, a little while, and
ye shall see Me." So here again, Jesus is saying, a little while,
you're not going to see Me, I'm going to go away. But then in
a little while, you shall see Me. Well, how shall you see me?
Because I go to the Father. He just said, if I don't go to
the Father, I can't come back again to you as the Comforter.
A little while, you're going to see me. A little while, you're
not going to see me. Then in a little while, you're
going to see me again, but you're going to see me as the Comforter.
I'm going to come as the Comforter. Look down at verse 31. He says,
Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea,
it is now come, Ye that shall be scattered, every man to his
own, and shall leave me alone, and yet I am not alone, because
the Father is with me. These things, these things, this
is the verse that stuck out to me this morning. These things
have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. How do we find peace with God?
Through the Lord Jesus Christ. not just legally. Our peace with
God comes legally through Jesus Christ and His redemption. But
brethren, we have peace with God in the fact that He mediates
His work on our behalf in front of a just and holy God to a sinful
people. He mediates that and brings peace
to us through the work of the Holy Spirit, Comforter, Advocate,
Convincer that He sends back to us. In me you might have peace. Did
he say that a while ago? In the verses that we read, peace
I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. How does he do that?
Through the Holy Spirit, by giving himself. In the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. Who are those who overcome the
world? He said, for whatsoever and not
whosoever. Ain't that strange? That's something
to think about. For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world. And this
is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith. But let
me ask you, brethren, is He talking about our believing in Jesus
Christ? That's what's overcoming the world? No. Who is our faith? See, that's what this whole entire
thing was all about. This whole long thing, it took
me to get to here, was to tell you that our faith is the mediator
between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. He became our faith. That's why the Bible says that
we are justified by faith of Jesus Christ. That's why the
Bible says that justification comes by the faith of Christ,
not our working faith out in the inward gift of God that He's
given us, it is Christ's actual mediation of faith on our behalf. And now Christ, who goes away
to the Father, and us who are still sinners, who oftentimes
knows our sin, knows that we should be judged for our sin,
and realizes that, I don't have faith. The Holy Spirit of God is given
to us to convince us that God doesn't look at that He looked
at our faith, Jesus Christ. He looked at Him. His faith is
what overcome the world, not your faith. Your faith can't
overcome a thimble. Your faith can't overcome a cramped
leg in the morning. It's going to get you off to
a bad start. A flat tire. Your faith goes out the window
when you walk out the door late for work. Now I've got a flat
tire. It's going to make me even more late for work. Your faith
can't get past that. If your faith was as the grain
of a mustard seed, you could remove mountains, but guess what?
Nobody's moving mountains. So it's not our faith that he's
talking about, brethren. He's talking about the work of
faith in the man of faith, Christ Jesus. He's the one who overcome
the world. And now, that man, through his
Spirit, which is in us, that convinces us the truth that everything
that He did is what's accepted of God. Everything that He has
done has been all that we need. And that we can rest assured
that from the day of our birth until the day of our death, that
He has kept us. And from the foundation of the
world until the end of time and moving into eternity for us,
we are kept of God and cannot be lost. And no one can bring
one charge against us. Brethren, I'll tell you what,
that's good news. You know what that means? That means whenever
Mike Smith fails and I fail often, that I can't lose it. That doesn't mean that, well,
live like Harold and you're just the wrong statesman. No, what
I'm saying is, when this old flesh that cannot do anything,
there's been somebody who has redeemed this flesh. There's
been somebody who has died for me and paid my penalty, but there's
also somebody who has lived already for me so that because in this
flesh I cannot live, I don't have to worry about living. Now
again, as me and Larry were talking about this morning before the
cameras came on, that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit of
God doesn't within us create an experiential desire for walking
rightly before God and being obedient to God. It creates that
in us. But brethren, that's never the
grounds for dismissal or the grounds of lack of anything before
God. God does not forgive us because
of those things. God does not reward us. God does
not do anything based upon that. Everything, everything is based
upon the mediator. If it ain't on Him and it's left
on us, we get nothing. And if it isn't on Him to mediate
that back to us from God, We would never experience it because
we can't receive it the natural manner, receive it not the things
of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him, neither
can he. For they are spiritually discerned. So we have to have
the Spirit of God to know those things that have been freely,
freely given to us. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. And I will convince you of me.
It's always convincing of Him. I don't have to convince you
of the church. I don't have to convince you of me as a preacher.
I don't have to convince you of good men or good women in
the brethren. Listen, the Holy Spirit comes
and convinces us of Christ. And it's ours to declare that
Christ. To glorify in that Christ. To magnify His name. Not the name of a church, not
the name of ourselves, not the name of a preacher or an organization,
but to glorify His name. Alright. I've gone way, way far
than I thought I was going to go. Does anybody have any questions
or comments, anything you'd like to add to it? Rebukes or corrections? Alright. Anybody got anything
you'd like to say? Amen. Amen. All right, let's start back.
Lord, we thank you for the day. We thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your Holy Spirit that you've given to us. We thank
you for being a father to us and never leaving us fatherless.
Many of us in this room, even today, has experienced the loss
of a father, whether it be by death, whether it be by divorce,
or whether it be by just promise to your children that
you will never ever leave us fatherless. What a blessedness
that is and that you will convince us of your fatherhood through
the man Jesus Christ. We don't know anything about
you Lord if it wasn't for Christ. He has made you known and he
continues to mediate you to us and we are thankful for that
He has mediated on behalf of us to you. And so we give all
glory and honor and praise today to the Lord Jesus Christ, God
manifested in the flesh. May we ever be found proclaiming
His name, lifting up His works, lifting up His righteousness,
and not our own. In Christ's name we pray, amen.