Alright, let's turn now to John
14. I want to talk to you this morning about the person and
work of God the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ was telling
His disciples that He was about to go to the cross and telling
them what He was going to endure on the cross. And you can understand
how their having His bodily presence with them for so long had been
full of blessing to them. So when they looked at the cross
and what He was saying about the cross, all they saw in that
was just a shameful death, and they saw themselves losing all
the blessings that they had had with Him. And our Lord, knowing
the hearts of His people, knew this. And our Lord is so gracious.
He said in Isaiah 40, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell
her her warfare is accomplished. Tell her the Lord has rewarded
a double for all her sins. And he saw their hearts and so
he begins to tell them that it was expedient that he go away
because when he goes away, he said, I will pray the Father
And let's just read it here together. Look at verse 16. John 14, 16. 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. And I want you to see that the
Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, is God the Holy Spirit. And He
has a distinct work of comforting the believer with the truth of
Christ. So this morning we're just going
to look at the person and the work of God the Holy Spirit.
Now, the first thing I want to look at here is that God the
Holy Spirit is a distinct person in the Godhead performing a distinct
particular work for his people. He's not a, when you think of
the Spirit, maybe you think of something that's coming out of
God, the Father, or some sort of a virtue of God or something
of that nature. That's not what he is. He is
God. the Holy Spirit. We worship one
God. We don't worship three gods,
we worship one God. But we worship one God in three
persons. In three persons. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One God, but one God
in three persons. The triune God, the Trinity. Co-equal, co-eternal, one God. So, now I know that's a mystery
and that's hard for us to get our little minds around to try
to understand that, but it's the truth and it's revealed by
God the Holy Spirit so that every believer believes in the triune
God. We believe in God in three persons.
The scripture is very clear in John 5, 7. There are three that
bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. Alright? Now we've got different proofs
in the scripture that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person in
the Godhead. And one of those is right here
in this text. The Lord said right there, I
will pray the Father. So you got the Son, God the Son
praying, making intercession to the Father. And then He says,
and the Father will send. So you got God the Father sending
and then he says he'll send another comforter which is the Holy Spirit
God the Holy Spirit so here you got all three you got God the
Son making intercession God the Father sending and God the Holy
Spirit coming to comfort and we have other evidence in the
scripture you know how at when our Lord was baptized when the
Lord Jesus was baptized he came up out of the waters baptism
the Spirit of God. God the Holy Spirit descended
upon him in the form of a dove, in a visible symbol. And him
coming from heaven shows he's God. But we see him there in
a distinct person, from God the Father, God the Son, descending.
And then again, when he had given the apostles this promise that
he would come, that he would send forth the comforter. They
were waiting on the day of Pentecost, you know, the day of Pentecost
for this promise, and there came a rushing mighty wind, and the
Holy Spirit came upon them in the visible form of, it looked
like fire, but it was like cloven tongues that sat upon them. So
we've had two visible forms of God the Holy Spirit show Himself.
And then there's other proofs in the Scripture. Look over at
2 Peter 1.21. We see that he's a distinct person
in the Godhead by acts and deeds that God the Holy Spirit does. Look at 2 Peter 1.21. These scriptures
we hold right here, they're God breathed. That's by God the Holy
Spirit. And prophets of old spake as
they were moved by God the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 21. 2 Peter
1.21. The prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost." Then sinners, you know, as we
come into this world, we're born dead in sin, dead in trespasses
and sin. You're looking at Romans 15.
So the work of the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, is to regenerate,
that is regenerate. We lost our electricity. Everybody
here, you know, recently, we used generators. Those generators
generated electricity, generated power. God the Holy Spirit comes
to dead sinners and regenerates. enlivens His people, gives us
life where there was no life, no power. And the Lord said,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh, it's dead, it's sinful,
it can't do anything. But that which is born of the
Spirit, God the Holy Spirit is Spirit. And He sanctifies us
in conversion. We have to be regenerated first
to have life, to hear the gospel, to be able to by His grace take
in the things we hear And then he also sanctifies us, converts
us, the God the Holy Spirit does. Look at Romans 15, 16. Paul is
saying, speaking of the grace of God to him, and he says that
I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering
the gospel of God. That the offering up, or you
might say the conversion, of the Gentiles might be acceptable,
acceptable to God, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. You see, God
the Holy Spirit sanctifies. Look over at Acts 13. I'm just
trying to show you God the Holy Spirit is a distinct person in
the Godhead. He has an office to perform,
that He performs. He separates and He calls and
He directs men to the work of the ministry. Look at Acts 13,
2. As they ministered to the Lord
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul,
for the work whereunto I have called them. Do you see that?
That's God the Holy Spirit speaking. Back in Acts 8.29, look back
there. You remember when Philip came
upon the eunuch? Acts 8.29 says, Then the Spirit
said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot.
The Spirit said to him, go near and join yourself to this chariot.
And then after he preached the gospel to him and the Spirit
gave life to the eunuch and converted him, afterwards look at verse
39. And he was baptized, it says,
and when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord called away Philip. And he went on his way. You see,
he calls and separates and directs his ministers to the gospel.
1 Corinthians 2. Look there with me. 1 Corinthians
2. And hold your place here. We may look back here in a moment.
1 Corinthians 2. The Holy Spirit is a distinct
person in that He has personal qualities. We see here He knows. He knows things. Look at 1 Corinthians 2 verse
9. As it is written, eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
Those that he's going to call and calls to love him, these
things have never entered our mind. We've never seen them,
heard them, and they never entered our heart. How do we get them
then? Verse 10, But God hath revealed them unto us by His
Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which is in him?
Only you know what you're thinking. And he says, Even so the things
of God knoweth. You see that word knoweth? No
man but the Spirit of God. God the Holy Spirit knows. What
is the mind of our God? The Holy Spirit wills. The Scripture
speaks of Him giving gifts. And it says, All these worketh
by that one and selfsame Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, dividing
to every man severally as He will. You see, God the Holy Spirit
wills. And then powers are scribed to
him. It says in Romans 15, 13, the God of hope fill you with
all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. The point I'm making to you is
by these, by him being seen in a visible manifestation, by personal
acts and deeds, along with qualities like understanding and will and
power, these prove that God the Holy Spirit is not an attribute
of God. He's not an influence of God. He is God. He's God. He's God,
a distinct person in the Godhead. We worship one God in three persons. All right, let's second and look
at what he says back in our text there in John 14, 17. He says, I'll send him, he's the Spirit
of truth, and he says, whom the world cannot receive. The world
cannot receive God, the Holy Spirit. Read verse 17. Whom the
world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him. Who's the world? Well, the world is natural man. That's who it's speaking of here.
When you read the word world in Scripture, it applies to different
ones in different places. But here the word world means
natural man. It means all men as we're born
into this world, dead in sin and dead in vain profession.
It means we're destitute of spiritual life. No man in a carnal state,
as he's born in Adam, no man is able to believe God the Holy
Spirit. He's not even able to believe
God the Holy Spirit exists, much less what God the Holy Spirit
reveals. And he does it for two reasons.
He says right here, because the world doesn't see him. Because
natural man sees him not. See the problem is always in
man. There are no problems with God. The problem is always in
man. Man cannot believe what he cannot
see. He's got to see it with his carnal
eye to believe it or he can't believe it. And we can see buildings
that have big ornate, you know, buildings with stained glass
windows. We can see big giant choirs singing, you know, at
the top of their lungs. We can see men dressed in robes
getting up, you know, to preach, dressed in some big outfit. We can see all kinds of religious
ceremony going on. We can see all kinds of religious
activity. And when men see those things,
the carnal man is so impressed with that. I mean, it's an impressive
thing to him. And so he'll go to it. He's drawn
to it. He'll flock to it. And he'll
join himself with it because he can see it. It's something
he can see. And false religion uses it. They
use those things because that's what they're appealing to. It's
one of the reasons that when Christ walked this earth, he
said, don't do your alms. Don't do any act of mercy you
do for somebody in need. Don't do it to be seen of men.
He said, when you pray, don't call big prayer meetings for
everybody to see you, or get out on the street corner somewhere
so everybody can see you praying. And he said, and don't do any
kind of acts of self-denial for folks to see you. And one of
the reasons is because when the carnal man sees those things,
the carnal man will be drawn to it, and he'll join with you.
Not because of Christ, but because it's something he can see, and
something he likes, and something he enjoys. But it's detrimental
to his soul because he's joining for all the wrong reasons. He's
coming and joining himself for just a natural carnal thing he
can see and touch and feel and not because of Christ. It's harmful. It's not helpful at all. And
folks who do that, Individuals who do those things to be seen
of men and whole congregations that do it. The Lord said they
have their reward. They want men to see them. They
want men to admire them. They want men to join with them
and use those things to get men to do so. And they get it. And
that's all they get. They got what they wanted. That's
what Christ said. But the things that God's freely
given to His elect, they're spiritually desired. That means that they
have to be revealed in us. We have to be regenerated by
the Holy Spirit and we have to have these things revealed in
us by the Holy Spirit and this true revelation. Now you listen
to me because this is going to help you especially if you don't
believe the gospel. I'm trying to tell you, the Lord's
gracious, isn't He? Because He tells the man sitting
there that says, I'm not buying any of this. God tells you exactly
why you're not buying it. He's not trying to hide anything.
He's telling you, this is why you don't get it. This is why.
Because the things that are revealed in the hidden place of the heart
by the Holy Spirit are not appealing to the flesh. Nothing God does
is appealing to carnal flesh. Nothing at all. And therefore
natural religion doesn't look like true religion at all. Paul
said we're the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Those
that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. That's how we worship God. But natural man's hypocritical
when you think about it. Because there's a whole bunch
of things you can't see that we can't see that we believe.
We can't see the wind. You can't see the wind. There's
no way you and I can see the wind. But you look down the shore
right now, and we can see the effects of it, can't we? We can
see what the wind does. And so we believe the wind exists,
even though we can't see it. So what the Lord's teaching us
here is, He said, the wind blows where it listeth. It goes where
it will. And He says, and you hear the
sound of it, but you can't tell where it's coming from or where
it's going. You can't see the wind. He said
in everybody that's born of the Spirit, it's the same way. The
Spirit's going to go where He will. And you're not going to
see Him coming, you're not going to see Him going. You won't know
what He's doing. But you know how you're going
to know that He exists, and how that God the Holy Spirit is true
and real, and how that these things that we're hearing about
week in and week out or so, when you when you see him by faith
from the effect that he's going to have upon the heart when he
enters in. That's how we know he's real.
When he touches us, we know it. And then second reason he gives
here that the world can't receive him is neither knoweth him. Doesn't
see him, doesn't know him. And that word knowing him simply
means that he had been touched by the power of God the Holy
Spirit, had been touched by his power. We were without electricity
for nine, ten days. That's how long I was without
it at my house. And so I was talking to Brother Darwin Pruitt
on the telephone the other day. And we're sitting there talking.
I was telling him we've been without power for nine days. And all
of a sudden, light came on. And when the light came on, I
went jumping up and down. I said, we have electricity!
We got it! You know? I never saw the electricity. I've never seen electricity,
ever. But I saw the effects of it.
And the effects of it was the light came on. And I could see. And when you know God, the Holy
Spirit, when He knows you, what happens is He touches you. He enters in, and there's light. And when there's light, you see.
And when you see, that's by faith, by faith, things that you can't
see with the carnal eye. That's when you'll know. That's
when you'll say, God is true. And everything He's been saying
is true. I believe Him now. Art just mentioned that about
light and dark in the picture, and I was just thinking about
this. Marvin Stoniker, you know, Marvin's a really good artist,
and Marvin sees things. When he looks at things, he don't
look at things like we look at things. He sees light and dark. That's what he sees. And when
he showed me how he paints pictures, he don't paint pictures like
you would think you paint pictures. He paints a dark patch, and then
he leaves a patch light, and he paints another dark patch,
and he's just dealing with light and dark. That's all he's dealing
with. But it takes light and dark to see an image. If you
didn't have light and darkness, you could see nothing. You got
to have light and darkness to see. And so, when we're just
in darkness, we can't see Christ. We can't see the things of God.
We can't see electricity. So we say, are we going to say,
well, electricity don't exist? If you ever are touched by it,
you'll know it exists. And that's the same with the
Holy Spirit. If we're ever touched by God, we're going to know He's
true. He's true. The light comes on
and we see now, in the midst of our darkness, we see Him that
is true. Well, but this is what His promise
is to us rather than to His people. Look there in verse 17. He says, but you know Him. You
know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. He dwelleth
with you and shall be in you. When Christ prayed in John 17,
and He said, I pray that they may be one, they all may be one,
as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one. You know what He's asking? He's
asking for all of His redeemed to be filled with God the Holy
Spirit so that Christ might be formed in them and they might
be one with God the Father and God the Son. and God the Holy
Spirit, just like they're one, that we might be made one and
be made perfect in one, in Christ. And this union is that vital. It has to happen this way for
us to be made one in Christ experimentally, for us to experience it and to
know Him and believe Him and trust Him. And when it does,
He makes us to see that this union is unbreakable, And it's
everlasting, as unbreakable and as everlasting as the union between
God the Father and God the Son. If you can sever God the Father
and God the Son from one another, you can sever God's people, born
of God, from Him. And it won't happen. And every
one of them that He redeemed shall have this happen to them,
because He said, neither am I praying for these alone that you've given
Me, but for them that shall hear through My Word. He's praying
for all of His people to have this, and they all shall. He
says right there in that verse, in verse 17, You know Him, for
He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. He shall be. So, everybody
that Christ has has redeemed, they're going to have this union.
Sooner or later, they're going to have this union with Him.
Well, look back at 1 Corinthians 2.12. I want to put this all
together for you now. Just read this out. 1 Corinthians
2.12. So when God the Holy Spirit enters
in, it says here in verse 12, of believers. Now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. Which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth. Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. You see what we're doing? What
we've been doing since we started this morning at 10 o'clock is
we've been looking at spiritual things with spiritual things.
We've been comparing this scripture with that scripture and looking
at seeing how God says He saves His people. That's what we've
been doing. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judgeth all things. yet he himself is judged of no
man." That word judges means he discerns all things. But he that is spiritual discerns
all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But
we have the mind of Christ. God the Holy Spirit has taken
the things of God and He's revealed them in us and now we have the
mind of Christ. We know what His thoughts are
towards us and what He's freely given us because God the Holy
Spirit revealed them in us. So now We've seen, first of all,
God the Holy Spirit is a distinct person in the Godhead with a
personal work to do. And we've seen, secondly then,
how the world can't receive Him because it don't see Him, it
hasn't been touched by Him, it doesn't know Him. But we have,
we who believe, so we know Him. Now, let's see some of the things
that God the Holy Spirit, as the Confederate and Spirit of
the Truth, how He confers us, what He gives us. Now, He said
to be here first of all, back in John 14, He said in verse
17, He's called the Spirit of Truth, and He comforts us through
the truth. That's what He uses to comfort
us. So I want to look at that first, the fact that He's the
Spirit of Truth. The truth that the Spirit teaches
His people. Is Christ the truth? That's the
truth He teaches His people. Look at John 16, look at verse
12. John 16, 12. The Lord said, I have yet many
things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit,
when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into
all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself,
He's not going to speak about Himself. And He's not speaking
alone. He's not speaking about Himself
or by Himself. He's not speaking of Himself
at all. But whatsoever He shall hear, That shall he speak, and
he shall show you things to come. He shall glorify me. Do you see that? This is the
Lord Jesus speaking. God the Holy Spirit 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. Now you think
about this, the spirit of truth. God is true. In God there is
no darkness. He is true. He is all truth. That's who our God is. And God
the Father saves His people in a way that declares the righteousness
of His truth. It declares his truth in righteousness. This is so critical. Every time
I preach to you, I talk to you about the righteousness of God.
I tell you how that God can be just and the justifier of a believer. How can God take a sinner who
justly deserves the wrath of God and yet be merciful to that
sinner without without tearing apart His own justice and His
own holiness and His own righteousness. How can He be righteous and be
just and yet be merciful to a sinner that deserves nothing but wrath?
That's the key. That's critical because God's
just. He will not at all pour out unjustly
wrath upon one that is just. And He will not at all acquit
one who's guilty. You see, God's just. He's right. This is the critical issue here. How can man be just with God?
How can a man that's a sinner, that's just, he thought, he's
conceived in sin, he thinks sin, he does sin, he loves sin and
hates God. How can this one who deserves
eternal separation, eternal wrath, eternal judgment, justice, how
can such a one be justified with God and yet God remain just to
do it for him and be merciful to him? That's the whole gospel.
God the Holy Spirit guides us into this truth and teaches this
truth when it comes that God is just because He sent forth
His Son. God is just because He's in His
Son, Christ Jesus the Lord. And God Himself is the one that's
justifying His people. He comes forth and shows, this
is my righteous one. And then He makes Him to be sin
for us. This One who knew no sin makes
Him to be sin for us. So that He is a sin offering. He is offering Himself and offering
for sin. And the way He did that was He
was made sin for His people that God might be just in pouring
out the punishment for that sin. I've told you before, iniquity
in Scripture means two things. It means the sin And it means
the punishment for the sin. And the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of all those He redeemed. The sin and the punishment
for the sin. Because God's just in the way
He justified His people is in a just manner. In a manner according
with His justice. He wouldn't pour out wrath upon
His Son who's that perfect, holy, spotless One. until He made Him
to bear our sin and His own body on the tree, then He pours out
wrath upon Him. And when He's put that away so
that He's justified His people from all our sins, now God is
just to come to you and I who are totally unrighteous, totally
unfit. He's just to come to us by God
the Holy Spirit and not use anything that's there. not use anything
about us, because that's all the product of Adam, and it's
all sinful, and he can't use anything about us. It's all just
a broken down, dilapidated house. It's been flooded by sin. The winds of sin have come and
tore off all the shingles and tore the roof off of it and gutted
it, and it's no good to be used. He can't use it. He can't salvage
anything about it. That house has just got to be
torn down and returned to the dust. He comes in and just like
he made his son sin, he makes us the righteousness of God,
not as if he really does it. He enters in and he creates a
new man, a new heart in righteousness and holiness by the incorruptible
seed that can't be corrupted, that'll never be fallen away
and torn from him and corrupted ever again. And he makes us in
that new nature to behold God and who he is and how he's done
this thing righteously. And one day, when this old body
of death goes back to the grave, He's going to raise us incorruptible
and raise us to be with Him in a new body. So that when we're
in glory, everything that will be there, none of it will be
the creation of Adam. None of it will be anything that
had anything to do with Adam. All of it will be the just and
righteous and holy creation of God the Son, God the Father and
God the Holy Spirit. Everything. Now, when He teaches
us this, He's not guiding us into error and guiding us using
lies. He's the Spirit of truth. Now,
if God was just that it had to be done in truth so that He sent
His only begotten Son to do this, you know God's going to teach
us this in truth. He's not going to teach us this
in error. That's why John said, you have an unction from the
Holy One, God the Holy Spirit. and you know all things. I've
not written to you because you don't know the truth. I've written
to you because you know the truth and you know that no lies of
a truth. Truth is how the Spirit is our
comforter. Is that right? Truth is how the Holy Spirit
is our comforter because He comes and teaches us the truth. After
regenerating us at conversion, It's not fun at all because he
tells us the truth about what we are. He's the only one that's
ever made it known to us. He comes to us and He makes us
known. That preacher has been standing up there saying, I'm
a sinner, and ungodly, and God-hating, and a rebel against God, and
God won't have anything to do with me, and I'm a worm, and
I'm a maggot, and I'm a puddle of puke. He's trying to think
of the worst possible things He can use to describe me, and
I don't believe a word of it. But when God the Holy Spirit
comes in and tells you that's exactly what you are, it's a
heartbreaking, humbling work. Because you see, this is what
I am. And if God is just, he has every
just right to just put me in hell now. I'm just not fit to
be saved by him. That's why that publican came.
And while that other self-righteous man was sitting there and he
was boasting about everything he'd done, how good he was, that
publican wouldn't even lift his eyes up to heaven, but hit his
breast and was just begging God, have mercy on me, the sinner,
because he saw what he was. He saw what wretched thing He
is. This is what the truth teaches
us. But then once He teaches us that, He comforts us, brethren,
with the good news of this full, perfect, complete atonement that's
been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. And not until we've
heard the worst possible news that we could ever hear, and
that is what an ungodly rebel we are, will this news of the
perfect atonement of Christ being accomplished be the best news
we've ever heard. We gotta hear the worst news
we've ever heard in our life spoken to us in truth, in spirit,
that we're ungodly and not worthy of the least of his mercies before
we behold all the grace and mercy that he's given to us and delight
in it. Until then, we won't. So then
we just won't. We will not delight in it. But
we will then. We will then. And that's how
He comforts us. He lets us know that all the
judgment that you deserve, that you were headed for if you would
have been left on your course, if God would have just, if He
would have just said, well, He's just too dignified to offend
Him. He's just too dignified and just too good in the things.
He tries to be good. I just don't want to offend him.
If God would have left us like that, we would have just ended
up under the fierce judgment of God and been cast out. But
God violated us. God came and would not take no
for an answer. And God enters in, and when He
does this, you're going to thank God that He wouldn't let you
do do what you wanted to do. And the Spirit of Truth turns
the sinner from our flesh, and from our will, and from our wisdom,
and from our works, and He draws us to Christ our all. For the
first time we hear the truth of election, that God chose a
people. And what happens is, is it draws
us to Christ, the elect of God. Because we behold the one, He
doesn't just teach us a doctrine, Who cares? Who really gives a
hoot if you believe the doctrine of election? I could care less.
I want you to know Christ, the one whom God elected, to come
forth and be the salvation of all those He gave to Christ.
That's who I want you to know about. And when you know Him,
you'll behold the doctrine of election, the best news I ever
heard, because you'll be drawn to the elect of God, God's Son
Himself, the truth of predestination. Oh, men don't want to be a robot.
Men don't want to have their destination predetermined. And yet we do it every single
day. And if we could do it like we want to do it, we do it exactly
like God has the power to do it. We would. But whenever you
find out the Spirit of Truth reveals the truth that God predestinated
His people to be conformed to the image of His Son so that
Holy God will now receive you in the image of His Son, predestination
becomes the best news you've ever heard in your life. You
think, if God hadn't set my course to be conformed to the image
of his son, I never would have been. And you become, you rejoice
in it then. He teaches you the truth that
Christ successfully accomplished the redemption of His people.
And when He tells you that, it makes you to cease from continuing
to try to work, to do something in the law to make yourself presentable
to God. And you're taught the truth that
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. And you just rest in Christ. And it becomes the
greatest news you ever heard. Because Christ accomplished the
work of redemption, of making atonement. when you hear about
the truth of Christ being our sanctification. It's an amazing
thing that when you hear and believe the truth of sanctification,
you have been sanctified. Or else you wouldn't understand
it. You wouldn't get it. Because the truth of sanctification
is through the blood of Christ, He's made you have a new heart
that's pure now, set on Christ, with the only motive for anything
now being Christ and His glory, so that you turn from dead works
to serve the true and living God. And when that happens, when
He makes you understand that Christ is your sanctification,
your holiness, your separation from all things unholy, you've
been sanctified already. And until we get an understanding
that with a pure motive for nothing but Him, we haven't been sanctified
yet. Christ hasn't been made our sanctification
yet. But the truth that the Spirit's doing the same work, when you've
experienced it yourself by His power, So that you see the only
way a believer is going to be able to stand and continue and
be turned from error and from falsehood is by the Spirit of
Truth. Because you've experienced it
yourself and you know that's the only way you would have been
kept and drawn to Him and continue in Him. Then you know he's doing
the same thing in his people and should do the same thing
in all his people so that now you can lay down all of your
weapons that you were using to try to get everybody to do what
you wanted them to do. And you can trust that Christ
is able to make them stand because it's God that's working in His
people both to will and to do of His good pleasure. It's the
best news. Now this is stuff He reveals
in truth. No sinner's ever taught in spirit
and in truth unless he's taught of the spirit of truth. And all
of those that Christ has redeemed shall be. Everyone. God the Holy
Spirit never fails. He never fails. You hear me say
that God the Son never fails, God the Holy Spirit never fails,
because God never fails. Men will beguile and they'll
trick and they'll try to fool folks and nothing breaks my heart
more than to sit and to be preaching to people and hear them say things
that are encouraging and sound as if they're delighting in the
message and then they just turn on you and go away. But this is confidence I have.
You know who will go away? those who can. That's the only
ones that'll leave. And that doesn't mean that everybody
that leaves this place are not God's people. It doesn't mean
that at all. But folks that just leave and don't go anywhere else
and have no commitment to a work of the Lord anywhere in truth,
a true work of God, the only ones that can do that are those
that He doesn't dwell in, that He's not keeping. And they will. Eventually they will. And so
the comfort is knowing that those He dwells in, they can't be deceived.
It's not possible for the elect of God to be deceived. They won't
be. He will keep them because God the Holy Spirit does not
fail. Let me hurry along here. Oh, I'm out of time now. Well,
let me just talk real quick about this comfort He gives. A few
things here. When your conscience is burdened
down with guilt, you're just burdened down with guilt, He
applies the blood of Christ and gives us the peace of that atonement.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law
of sin and death. He continually does that. He
continually reminds us there's no condemnation now. Whenever
you go through these inexplicable trials and you don't know, you
know, it just... There it is. Got a terminal illness. There it is, you know. Husband
and a wife suffering now. And nothing, just can't do anything
about it. But God the Holy Spirit comes
and with glory and tribulation also, because tribulation works
patience and patience experience and experience hope for this
reason. Because the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost which is given to us. He continues to remain. This love of God's unchanging,
unchangeable, everlasting can't be severed from it. We become
anxious about our daily necessities, about how we're going to provide
and all that. It's the Spirit that stops our murmurings. It's
the Holy Spirit that comes and reminds us that our Redeemer
was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief.
He knows the feeling of our infirmities and He draws us to Him. When
we need dying grace, it's the Spirit that will come and remind
us that He's dried up the Jordan for us. We're going to walk across
on dry ground. He's the one that comes and applies
it to our hearts and makes it real in our hearts to know that
death's just a shadow to a believer. And all this because he's the
comforter. And that word comforter means he's the advocate. He's
the advocate. I want to read this to you, Romans
8. Turn over there real quick. We'll close with this, but I
want you to see this. I got a word here I want you
to see. I want to show you this. Romans
8, 15. It's quite a little bit of scripture here, but I want
you to read it with me. Romans 8, 15. You've not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. You know, a baby
can't say a whole lot, but a baby can say, Father, Daddy, Father,
Father. That's what He's given us the
Spirit to cry to Him. And the Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we're children of God. And if
children, then heirs, heirs of God. Join heirs with Christ,
if so be we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us." Look down at verse 26.
Likewise, the Spirit helps our infirmities, for we know not
what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth their hearts knoweth what's the mind of the
Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the
will of God." Now get all that. He's an advocate. Christ is our
advocate in heaven. The Spirit's the advocate who
comes and applies this truth in our heart. Now get this. I
want you to see this right here. Here's what true prayer is. True
prayer is this. It's Christ praying the Father
to give us the Holy Spirit. And so God the Father gives the
Holy Spirit who comforts us and gives us grace to come to the
Father in Christ's name, to pray to Him in Christ's name so that
Christ receiving that prayer, praise the Father, and the Father
sends forth the Spirit, and the Spirit compensates and gives
us more grace to do the same thing again. That's true prayer. That's true prayer. So you see the eternal security
of a believer. We have the security of God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in this thing.
So I want you to go home remembering this, as long as we live in this
earth, as long as the believer lives in this earth, this is
the sure promise we have through Christ our advocate. He says,
God, the holy comforter, the spirit of truth, dwelleth with
you and shall be in you. That's His promise. We'll always
have the faithful, unwearied, wise, trustworthy, active, ever-present
comfort of God the Holy Spirit. That's right. And by that same
Spirit, one day, we're going to be raised to be with Christ. If the Spirit of Him that raised
up Jesus from the dead dwelling in you He shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. This is
a great comforter. Do you see why He's called the
comforter? Do you see why He's called the Spirit of Truth? All
right, amen.