Let's turn to God's Word in the
Gospel according to Saint John. In John chapter 14, I'm directing
you to the words that we find here at verse 26. John chapter 14 and verse 26. But the Comforter, 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. But the Comforter, 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. and addressing from these words
that theme of the teaching of the Holy Ghost the teaching of
the Holy Ghost the verse of course occurs here
in this 14th chapter and you know chapters 14 15 and 16 contain
those remarkable discourses that the Lord spoke as he came to
the end of his earthly ministry and the principal subject matter
that he deals with in these three chapters is the truth of him
going away and yet he's not going to leave them as orphans but
he will send the spirits, there's the promise of the coming of
the Holy Ghost here at verse 16, 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 neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Well, the promise
here that there will be that ministry, that best of all donations,
God, the Holy Ghost, and He will come as that One who is the Spirit
of Christ. As the Lord says there at verse
18, I will not leave you comfortless or orphans, it says in the margin.
I will come to you. Now, the Lord does come by and
through that blessed work of the Spirit of God. As we see
in chapter 16, verse 14, He shall glorify me, says Christ, for
He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. And so as we turn to the verse
that I announced as a text here in chapter 14, 26, I want to
deal with two matters really concerning the teaching of the
Holy Ghost. Firstly is teaching in terms of the outworking of
the covenant of grace, and then, secondly, his teaching as the
sovereign spirit of God. And there is a distinction that
we need to make with regards to that teaching. First of all,
then, his teaching in the outworking of the covenant. It says here
in the text, concerning this ministry, he shall teach you
all things. And Christ is evidently speaking
in particular of the Holy Spirit. And yet, we know that salvation
is very much a Trinitarian salvation. And we certainly see that in
the whole context of the verse. Although the Lord is speaking
of the Spirit coming and that ministry, that teaching that
He will give, yet it's all couched in language that includes not
just the Spirit, but the Father and the Son. Look at the words. The Lord says, the Comforter.
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name."
Here we have the three persons. We have the Father, we have the
Son, the One who is speaking, God incarnate, God manifest in
the flesh, and the subject matter really of His conversation is
that of the Holy Spirit. And We're familiar, of course,
with the fact that when we come to the great apostolic benediction
at the end of 2 Corinthians 13, it speaks very much in terms
of those three divine persons, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And it's interesting, time and
again when we come to the Word of God we see so much couched
in terms of these three persons. For example, there's a passage
in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 where we see mention of spirits, lords,
and gods. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 4, Now
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there
are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there
are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which
worketh all in all. We have the Holy Spirit, we have
the Lord Christ, and we have God the Father spoken of in these
verses. It's a Trinitarian passage there. Although Paul is, in particular,
speaking of those spiritual gifts, those extraordinary gifts that
were so evident in that apostolic day. And he does go on to speak,
in particular, of the sovereignty of the Spirit. in verse 11 there
all these worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing
to every man severally as he will the sovereign will of the
spirit of God then in the distribution of those remarkable gifts and
so coming back to the words of our text we see this Trinitarian
formula But we're concerned particularly with what Christ is saying concerning
the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit. The names are interchangeable. Spirit, of course, from the Latin,
and Ghost from the Anglo-Saxon. And throughout the New Testament
Scriptures, these words are interchangeable. various ones might be used, but
it's always referring to that self-same person, the third person
in the Godhead. And this title that we have,
Spirit, like that that belongs to Christ, Son, is expressing
not his essence as gods, but these names tell us something
about the relationship with the other persons in the Godhead.
The Lord Jesus is God the Son because he is the only begotten
of the Father, eternally begotten of the Father. The Father begets,
the Son is begotten. and the name Spirit also tells
us something about his relationship with the Father and the Son. He is the Spirit in that he proceeds
from the Father, and he also proceeds from the Son. And doesn't Christ go on to say
that in chapter 15? And verse 26 he says, When the
comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father. He
proceeds, he comes forth from the Father, but he also comes
forth from the Son. Later, in chapter 20 and verse
22, after his resurrection, we are told how the Lord Jesus,
with his disciples, breathed on them. and said, Receive ye
the Holy Ghost. In His very breathing, He is
breathing forth upon them. He is giving them that gift of
the Holy Spirit. He proceeds from the Father and
from the Son. Now clearly here, He is spoken
of as a person. The Holy Spirit is not just a
force, He's a person. and how the Lord speaks of him
by using the masculine pronoun. He shall teach you all things,
he says. He is the third person in the
Trinity and he is co-equal and he is co-eternal with God the
Father and with God the Son. But the interesting thing is
when we come to this portion of Scripture, this particular
chapter, The Lord Jesus is not so much speaking in terms of
that relationship that there is in the Godhead, in the doctrine
of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, and the fact that they're all equal. There's no superiority
or inferiority. They're equal. But the passage
in which we find our text tonight, this 14th chapter of John, is
one in which the Lord is really speaking more particularly about
the covenantal relationship between the divine persons. And we see
quite clearly that the Son is that one who was sent by the
Father. It was not God the Father that
became incarnate, nor was it God the Holy Spirit that became
incarnate. It was God the Son. It is the Son then who is sensed
by the Father. And in terms of the covenant
then, there is that idea that the Father who sends is greater
than the Son who is sent. And we see it here in verse 28.
At the end of that verse Christ says, My Father is greater than
I. What does the Lord mean? Well,
He is that One who has been sent by the Father and has come to
accomplish a work that the Father had given to Him in that eternal
covenant. In fact when we when we come to the end of this
chapter what does the Lord say? that the world may know that
I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment even
so I do he comes as that one who loves the Father and he expresses
that love to the Father by doing the commandment that the Father
had given him to do. He is, in that sense, the servant
of the Father. And, of course, that is the relationship
that he has in terms of the covenant. We're familiar with the words
of Isaiah 42, Behold my servant, whom I uphold. mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him."
He was sent by the Father and he was anointed by the Holy Spirit. That's the amazing thing. As
he is sent by the Father, so all the time he is here upon
the earth, he is accomplishing the work of the Father. He's
doing the will of the Father. He says, my meat is to do the
will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work. And then
when He comes to the end, after these chapters, 14, 15, and 16,
these discourses, then we have His great high priestly prayer,
Now the content there in chapter 17, and what does Christ say
as he prays to the Father? I have glorified beyond the earth,
I have finished, I have finished the work which thou gavest me
to do. Well he's found in fashion as
a man, he humbles himself in the incarnation then, even as
a man he humbles himself and he's obedient unto death. even
the death of the cross. This is the context here, he's
speaking very much then in terms of those covenantal relationships
between the three persons. It is the father who has sent
the son, and as he has sent the son, so he has anointed him. mine elect in whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon him. And what do we read in chapter
3 of this gospel, the end of that third chapter, in verse
34? We have these words, He whom
God hath sent speaketh the words of God. For God giveth not the
Spirit by measure unto him. He is anointed. He is the anointed. He is the Christ. And God does
not give the Spirit by measure. There is a great effusion of
the Spirit upon him. We see that, of course, in his
baptizing, the heavens open, the Spirit descending on him
in the form of a dove. He's led by the Spirit into the
wilderness. He's tempted of Satan. He returns
from the wilderness in all the fullness of the Spirit. And the
exercise is that ministry by and through that gracious unction
of the Spirit. All we see then here are that
the Lord Jesus Christ is that One who was sent by the Father,
and He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. He comes then as that
One who will serve God's will. But here He is speaking of the
coming of the Spirit, the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name. Now the Spirit is equal to the
Son and to the Father in the doctrine of God, the doctrine
of the Trinity, but again we see here that in the outworking
of the covenant of Christ the Holy Spirit also serves the Father
and serves the Son. Christ says he will come, not
in his own name, the Father will send him, says Christ, in my
name. He comes, as it were, as Christ's
substitute, as the Vicar of Christ. Vicarious simply means in place
of. I'm sure you're well aware that's
one of the titles that the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, likes to take
to himself. He calls himself the Vicar of
Christ. He is not the Vicar of Christ. He is the Antichrist. We read of Antichrists there
in that portion in 1 John 2. It is the Spirit who comes as
the Vicar of Christ, who comes in the place of Christ. And there's
that promise. that we have back in the Old
Testament at the end of Isaiah Isaiah chapter 59 the very last
verse of that chapter As for me, this is my covenant with
them, saith the Lord, my spirits that is upon thee, and my word
which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's
seed, saith the Lord from henceforth and forever." All that Spirit
that was upon Christ, He has now come in all the glory of
the day of Pentecost. This is really the dispensation
of the Holy Spirit, this day in which we are living. And this
is what the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of here, speaking
of the coming of the Spirit and the ministry of the Spirit. And
Christ is the one who prays to the Father and asks, I will pray
the Father, he says at verse 16, and he shall give you another
comforter that he may abide with you forever. He prays to the
Father and he prays for the Spirit. And then, in the words of our
text, the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father
will send in my name. And you know how later as we
see these things being worked out, the outworking of God's
great eternal purpose, the outworking of the covenant of grace, There
on the day of Pentecost, what does Peter say in his sermon
concerning Jesus of Nazareth being by the right hand of God
exalted? He has shed forth this which
ye now see and hear. It is Christ who sends the Blessed
Spirit and he comes therefore to serve Christ just as the Son
came to serve the Father. in the next chapter we have an interesting verse
there at the end verse 26 Christ says when the comforter is come
whom I will send unto you from the father even the spirit of
truth which proceeded from the father he shall testify of me
referred to it already, but it's the most interesting and significant
verse that we have here. Because we not only have the
Spirit's eternal relationship with the Father, as I said, He
proceeds from the Father, just as the Son is begotten of the
Father. But we not only have that in
that verse, we see something else. Christ says, Whom I will
send unto you from the Father. Christ sends him, but Christ
sends him from the Father. In other words, the Spirit's
mission is one that comes by Christ, it comes in answer to
the prayer of Christ, but he is coming also from God the Father
and so not surprising when the Spirit comes his ministry is
so self-effacing he is God and he is to be worshipped as God
equal to the Father and equal to the Son but what sort of a
ministry does he exercise? Well look at what the Lord says
there in verse 13 of that 16th chapter. Now be it when he the
Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth 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 of mine therefore said I
that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you he comes
then to bear testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ that is ministry
he comes as the Spirit of Christ in chapter 15, 26 he shall testify
of me That's the ministry of the Spirit,
not to call attention to himself. But though he be equal to the
Son, equal to the Father, yet his work in the Covenant is to
testify to Christ and to glorify Christ. And yet that ministry
is such an authoritative ministry because it is the ministry of
God. And so what do we read at the
end of this verse? He shall teach you all things
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have
said unto you. Oh, He will bring all the ministry
of Christ to their remembrance. He will work so mightily and
so effectually in their hearts and in their minds? Is he not
that one who makes the Lord's people a willing people in the
day of Christ's power? And so, having said something
with regards to his ministry, in terms of the covenant, I want,
in the second place, to say something more specific with regards to
his teaching as that one who is the sovereign spirit. who
is truly God. Now, when we look at this verse
in the historical context, we have to recognize that it is,
in many ways, a promise of the inspiration of the New Testament
Scriptures. Because the Lord is speaking,
of course, in particular to his disciples and to his apostles.
and he tells them that when the Spirit comes he's going to teach
all things and he's going to bring all things to their remembrance
all that ministry, all that teaching that the Lord had been giving
them in the course of his preaching ministry over these past three
years they're not going to forget they're going to be in a supernatural
manner cause to remember all that teaching. He will inspire
them. I mean, Peter tells us concerning
the prophets of the Old Testament, the prophecy came not in old
time by the spirit of man, but those holy men of God, they spake
as they were moved by the spirit of God. And it's the same with
regards to these who are going to be the writers of the New
Testament Scriptures, the Gospels. And the Acts and the Epistles,
all that we find here in the New Testament, is given by divine
inspiration, all Scripture. That is Old Testament and New
Testament, given by inspiration of God, says Paul, there in 2nd
Timothy. And it's profitable, because
it's not the mere words of men. And so the church is built upon
this sure foundation of the apostles and New Testament prophets and
Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone. That is certainly
part and parcel of what's being spoken of here in our text. But there is also a more general
application when we think of this ministry of the Spirit.
Because all those So as all this dispensation of the Holy Spirit,
all those who come to saving faith will experience something
of that ministry of the Holy Spirit that is being spoken of
in our text. He is that one who will come
and be their teacher. No man can say that Jesus Christ
is Lord but by the Holy Ghost." That's a tremendous statement
that the Apostle makes there in 1 Corinthians 12.3. No man
can say that Jesus Christ is Lord, that is to say it savingly,
believingly. He must say it if he says it
in that manner only by and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Isn't that really what John is
saying in that short portion that we read in his first general
epistle? He has spoken, you see, of the
false teachers, the antichrists. But then he says to those who
are his little children ye have an unction from the Holy One,
and ye know all things. Verse 20, then he repeats himself,
verse 27, but the anointing, really the same word, but the
unction, which ye have received of Him abideth in you. And ye
need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie. And even as it
hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him. Oh, He teaches all things. What are these all things? Well,
it's all those things that are necessary to salvation. That's what He teaches. And that's
what the Lord is saying here. When the Holy Ghost comes in
the name of Christ, and comes from the Father to fulfill His
covenant office, He toucheth you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Well,
as we close, I want to mention three things that the Spirit
does in the hearts of all those who come to salvation, all those
who come to saving faith. First of all, He must, of course,
convince them of sin. What was the ministry of Christ?
He came not to call the righteous, but sinners. And if the Spirit
is going to come as Christ's vicar, His ministry will be the
same. It will be a ministry for sinners. And so, He comes to reprove. He comes to convince. That's what we're told here in
chapter 16. and verse 8 when he is come he
will reprove the margin says convince the world of sin and
of righteousness and of judgment of sin because they believe not
on me of righteousness because I go to my father and you see
me no more of judgment because the prince of this world is judged
there is a work of conviction there is a work of conviction and it's a spiritual work and
it's a work that involves of course a proper understanding
of the of the Holy Lord of God, that law which is holy, that
commandment which is holy and just and good that Paul speaks
of and Paul certainly as a Pharisee would have considered himself
to have been an authority concerning the the Lord of God. They were those Pharisees and
they were lawyers, lawyers in the sense that they they concentrated
on that Lord of God they knew all about it how the Lord has
to deal with them in the course of his own ministry and then
subsequently of course how the Lord has a work to do in the
soul of that man who was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee you
thought touching the righteousness of the Lord he was a blindless
man and he didn't know the Lord at all but what does he say in
Romans 7 11 we know that the Lord is spiritual but I am carnal,
sold unto sin." How does the Spirit convince of sin? By and through the Lord of God. But He shows a man the real spiritual
nature of that law. And it's not made for the righteous
man, it's made for the sinner, for the ungodly, for the disobedient. As we read there in 1 Timothy
1, The Spirit comes to convince
us of our sins, to show us what we are, to reveal to us our true
self. And there were those who sinned
in Adam, and we've sinned in our own persons. And we're not
just sinners because we do the deeds, but it's bound up, of
course, in our very hearts. But the Spirit convinces of sin,
but that's not all. It's not enough to know I'm a
sinner. I need something more. To know
I'm a sinner doesn't save me. But the Spirit comes, you see,
also to reveal the Gospel. He comes as the Comforter. And
isn't this a blessed name that we have in the text? used repeatedly
of course in these chapters concerning that ministry of the Holy Ghost
the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send
in my name now you're probably aware that it's it's that word
paraclete and it literally means that one who comes alongside
or this is what he does he comes alongside and his ministry is
a self-effacing ministry And what does he come alongside to
do? He comes alongside to reveal Christ to that poor lady's sinner. He bears testimony to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, remember how the Lord continues
here in chapter 16 and verse 15 concerning the spirit of truth.
He will guide you into all truth. 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 mine for he shall receive
of mine and shall show it unto you all that ministry that blessed
ministry of the Holy Spirit he doesn't just come to convince
he comes to comfort and Paul says what man knoweth the things
of a man say the spirit of man which is in him even so the things
of God knoweth no man but by the spirit of God how we need
that blessed ministry that gracious working of the spirit to feel
something of those saving operations taking place in our very souls
we know the natural man does not receive the things of the
spirit of God that foolishness to him neither can he know them
as spiritually discerned or God grant to us that discernment
to understand something of the Lord's dealings. And there we
have that great promise of the Lord Jesus himself. He prays
the Father to give the Spirit. Here in verse 16 of our chapter. But what does he say on another
occasion to his disciples? If ye, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And we can
ask, you see, on the authority of Him who is our Mediator, who
has gone before us and has already made that request. And we not
come with that Holy Ghost boldness and remind the Father that Christ
Himself has prayed this prayer, And he cannot deny Christ. Now
we need this blessed work of the Spirit. And you know the
language of the Song of Solomon, that lovely verse in Song 4,
16, Away come north wind and come thou south. And blow upon
my garden that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and partake of his precious fruits." We should take these
words of Scripture and pray over them and pray them. As the old
Puritan said, we should be always thickening our prayers with what
we find here in Holy Scripture, reminding God of what He has
said. These are the things then that
the Spirit does. He convinces of sin, He comforts with the
gospel, he bears testimony to Christ and then thirdly and finally
he comes to conform the sinner to the image of Christ. Isn't he referred to in scripture
as the spirit of holiness? There in the opening verses of
Romans, Romans 1 through 8, he is He is the Spirit of holiness
and if we know that ministry of the Spirit, He will make us
holy. He will not only reveal Christ
to us as our justifying righteousness but He will work to conform us
more to that precious image of Christ. Look at the language that we
have there in 2 Thessalonians 2.13 God says Paul, hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. If we're brought to believe the
truth, we'll know the sanctifying effect of that truth. Sanctify
them through thy truth, thy words. His truth is the prayer of Christ,
here in chapter 17. And so it's not just a matter
of conviction and comfort, it's also that conforming, that transforming
ministry of the Spirit that we should desire that we might know.
Even the fulfillment of what the Lord says in the text. The Comforter, 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." Well, the Lord blessed to us the text. Let us, before we turn to the
Lord again in prayer, sing our second praise, which is the hymn
754, and the tune is Providence 490. Holy Ghost, descend, testify
of Christ the Lamb, from the foe our hearts defend, and with
zeal our hearts inflame. 754 TUNE 490