Complete dependence upon the
Lord for all needed help this evening. Wish to direct your
very prayerful attention to John's Gospel, chapter 16. And our text this evening is
found in the 13th and 14th verses. But so as we may ascertain the
more immediate sense, I'll read from verse 7. the Lord Jesus here is speaking
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 is come
He will reprove 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 ye see Me no more. Of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say
unto you but ye cannot bear them now how 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. Howbeit, 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. Yesterday morning I received
an email confirming some very sad news that the Cause of God
and Truth at Canterbury, where I preached almost since I was
sent out here, is to close at the anniversary this June. friends we could weep. We've been favoured to know some
good times there. But we have to bow to the Lord's
sovereignty in that respect. However, what is the effect of
these things? It made me really search my own
sort of heart and soul and thinking what is happening? what is happening? there's a tendency amongst us,
all of us to bury our head in the sand as it were and pretend
these things are not happening but they are, it's a reality In the 1973 Gospel Standard List
there were 350 chapels. We're now a third of that number.
And is there not a withdrawing of the Spirit? Is this not the
root of the matter? I'm not saying this is the only explanation for the state
which we are in. But is it not the primary reason
why the Lord is not moving in and amongst us? Because, because
there is no reviving, there is no spiritual religion, there
is no reality at all, if the Holy Ghost is not in it. We live in interesting times in many
respects but the answer is always the
same. We read by context very deliberately
from the Acts of the Apostles in the second chapter because
there we have the day of Pentecost fully come. and what do we see
there but a mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost now if you
and I are to witness any reviving of true religion I don't just
mean outward religion I mean true religion religion of the
soul religion that regenerates religion that has Christ at the
very center, then this is what must take place. There must be a sovereign outpouring
of the Spirit. Now I say these things because we witness something very different
today. There's an acknowledgement amongst
men, professing Christian people, that times are somewhat different. And because we don't see revival
happening in the chapel, we have to attempt to create it. And it's do, do, do, do, do. Evangelistic Sunday school, track
distribution, knocking on doors, begging people to come to chapel.
Dear soul, that is the work of man. It's the work of man. And there is a deliberate attempt
among men to do the Lord's work. Divine work in the souls of men. will only be achieved by the
way that the Lord has set down Himself in the Scripture. They continued steadfastly in
the Apostles doctrine in the breaking of bread and in prayers. So although the days may be dark,
although there may be many discouragements in many respects, the moment we depart from those
principles preaching services prayer meetings and the ordinance
we're on a downward path we're on a downward path we might get
people in we might get people in but what
are we getting in? what are we getting in? that's
the difference here so in venturing upon our text we must immediately
consider the context. Well, John, throughout his gospel,
was dealing with errors that had already crept in to the church,
mainly what we would term Christological errors. There were those who
denied the deity of Christ. There were those, and we've got
one today, putting out leaflets, who denies the very humanity
of Christ. Nothing's changed there. There were those who attacked
the very essence of the Godhead. John deals with
these things. And within our text we have doctrine,
we have practice and we have experience, do we not? very rich
particularly in the doctrinal content notice how the text begins
how be it when he the spirit of truth is come he there we
have the distinct personality of the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost
is referred as he I raise these things of course
because the Jehovah Witness denies the personality of the Holy Spirit. What wickedness! What blasphemy! Dear soul, here we can see the
triune Godhead in perfect harmony. of righteousness because I go
to my Father. The Father is mentioned. He,
the Spirit, is mentioned. He shall glorify me, the Son
is mentioned. This is the harmony of the Trinity
in covenant love to His people. This is an absolute necessity. and if we die without acknowledging
this, mind and soul, it is damnable heresy. Damnable heresy. Article 5 of the Gospel Standard
Articles makes clear the Lord Jesus Christ had a human body,
had a human soul, and is in perfect harmony co-equal with the Father,
co-eternal with the Father, co-equal with the Spirit, and co-eternal
with the Spirit. Perfect harmony here in the Covenant.
Notice the Lord says, it is expedient for you that I go away. The Lord
Jesus here took upon himself the form of a servant. He goes
away. Very necessity, absolute necessity
that he goes away. The Lord Jesus like ourselves
was body and soul and it was needful for him to suffer body
and soul. This is substitution doctrinally
applied but it must of course be experientially
applied. What does the death of Christ
mean to us? What does it mean to us? If we are to receive the promises
of the Gospel, then we must feel our need of them. When He, the
Spirit of Truth, is come, and we would notice here that the
Lord is speaking unto his most intimate followers those of whom
he took into his trust those of whom he loved naturally and
of course in the bonds of truth but see how gentle he deals with
them his remark to them here is perfect it is just what they
needed but it demonstrates how much we lack in verse 12 when
he says I have yet many things to say unto you many things but
you cannot bear them now now those of you here who are
historians will realize that the papacy jumped upon these
words and uses it and uses that particular text as a pretext
for declaring papal infallibility. Well, I shan't say any more than
that. You know better than that. What is meant here, and what
the message is here, is needful for us. It's needful for us because
we're no better. Why did the Lord say these things?
because the disciples had a very limited understanding. And one commentator particularly
presses home the fact that the Jews, they were Jews and because
of their background they would have been steeped in racial prejudice. Nothing there has changed. Man
is still the same in that respect. We are doubtless, we are the
people. Wisdom will die with us. That was their attitude of
the Jews at large. Notice here, in the Acts of the
Apostles in which we read, they could see the Spirit was to be
poured out upon all flesh. All flesh. All flesh. But they couldn't bear it. At
that particular point it was an amazing a feat, an amazing
truth to see, was it not? The Spirit was to come. This
was the Spirit in prophecy. Remember, I'll turn to it so
that I quote it exactly. The Apostle Paul, I say the Apostle
Paul because we believe the Apostle Paul was the author of the Hebrews
said God who at sundry times in the opening chapter and in
divers manners speak in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets that was the occasional outpouring of the Spirit hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. Now, we believe in the doctrine, do
we not, of the indwelling Spirit? In the Old Testament days it
was that occasional pouring out of the Spirit, but here we have
the permanent indwelling Spirit in the believer. And that is why it is a grievous
thing for a believer to sin. The body of the believer is the
temple of the Holy Ghost. And that's why it's grievous
to sin. Grieve not the Spirit. And that's got nothing to do
with legality. nothing to do with eating a plate
of chips or drinking a pint of beer and all these things evangelicals
tell us about. It's nothing to do with that.
It's to do with the soul. It's the exercise of mind and
heart. Quench not the spirit. Quench not the spirit. It speaks
to the innermost man, doesn't it? speaks to the animals, man. The Spirit of truth is come.
He will guide you into all truth. Real religion has the authorship of the Holy
Spirit upon it. Everything else is simply carnal
and is simply outward, fleshly religion. We can be full of that. Fleshly religion does not just
come in the trappings of the bells and smells of the Anglican
Church. We can be the most orthodox,
gospel standard strict Baptist and be filled with the trappings
of outward religion. What is here spoken of is an
experiential moving of the spirit. Guiding into all truth. If you and I go to an ancient
building, perhaps an ancient monument, if it's a place of any size,
were met by a guide who will very often take us round and
explain to us what various things mean what they are the intricacies
and they will follow in a logical order if we were to go around
ourselves without such a guide we would miss many of the important
facts we would miss much of the substance of the of what has
been demonstrated now that's a simply a carnal
illustration but here we have a heavenly application that truth
without the spirit what is it? what is it? well we see that the spirit is
vital in that work of conviction and in that work of conversion. It's been presented to me of
late that the Spirit of God convicts, and then when you're under conviction
of sin, you've got to believe. Where does that leave us? Well,
we read precisely the opposite in John's Gospel and Chapter
6, do we not? because we read in verse 63 it
is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing that
speaks of a dead sinner nothing the words I speak unto you they
are Spirit and they are Life. It is the ministry of the Holy
Spirit to reveal Christ and to speak of Christ. In conviction and conversion
the heavenly soul is drawn by the mighty act of the Spirit. And do we not believe in that
glorious doctrine? We spoke a little of it this
morning at Hedgen Chapel. That glorious doctrine of irresistible
grace. He will guide you into all truth. Now we being flesh and bone can
avoid one another there may be certain relatives
that may wish to avoid you, there are certain relatives I know
that wish to avoid me and dear soul that simply can
be arranged that can be arranged but in respect of heavenly matters
in respect to experiential things you can't escape true religion
you won't escape the work of the Spirit you cannot resist the Spirit's work because it's
inside the heart, it's inside the soul It's that which comes
and arrests us. This is the difference between what we believe and what
the professing church at large believes. The intercession of
the Holy Ghost, the necessity of the Holy Spirit to work within
our souls and to draw us by His power. This isn't man speaking,
this is the Lord Himself speaking. He will guide you into all truth. Now, there is of course that
necessity of the new birth, which the Spirit is the author of.
We just saw it there, the Spirit quickeneth, reveals Christ, brings
about the new birth, But things don't end there, do
they? No. He will guide you into all truth. Growing in grace is the work
of the Spirit. And again, this is a very necessary
work. Now this is very different to
what Reformed Baptists call progressive sanctification. the very concept
of it is grotesque. The idea that the flesh improves,
that the old man gets weaker, the new man gets stronger, and
we're on an upward plane all the time. Dear soul, you don't
find it like that. You won't find it like that.
It's very different to that. There are times when we may feel
a withdrawing of the Lord's face these are not desirable things
but there may be times of backsliding that you see here the Spirit of Truth will come
and will arrest a man or a woman in such a state there will be
a renewed sense of repentance there will be a renewing of faith but as we go on even if outwardly we're not left
to such a condition inwardly are we not continually dependent
upon the manifestation of the Spirit within the soul for that continual communion
with the Lord, for that continual looking unto Christ by faith,
He will guide you into all truth. Do we not have the doctrines
of the Gospel opened up and made precious to our souls all that
much more clearly? We see the necessity of these
things. We see the necessity of them.
The Spirit coming and guiding us into truth. Perhaps we've
been brought out of some error. Perhaps we've been brought out
of some snare within our souls. Perhaps we've been delivered from some awful providence. The Spirit comes and guides us
into truth. And if the Spirit guides us into
truth, we catch it under lies. In fact, even in the natural
sense, will despise lying. Some of you know what it's like
to be lied to. Some of us know what it's like
to be lied to. It's not pleasant. It's not pleasant. But to sit
under a preaching which is not faithful and to hear things from
the pulpit that are not accurate. We can't stand it, can we? No! No! We must separate from such. In fact, speaking to a good friend in the ministry yesterday,
we were both concurring that we find ourselves separating
more and more from men these days. It's not that we desire
to be difficult, It's not that we desire to be unkind or unpleasant,
but we have to come out from among them and be ye separate. It has to be that way. It has
to be that way. We cannot compromise with the
truth. For he shall not speak of himself. What a self-effacing ministry
this is. very evidently self-effacing
the spirit draws not attention to himself but draws attention
onto the Son this is covenant union this is salvation being
made known that he shall have the preeminence now we can't
enter into this mentally if we attempted to work out the mysteries
of the Trinity by human reason we would drive ourselves to distraction. I mean that more seriously because
these are matters of faith and these are matters that are presented
to us, I believe, partly to demonstrate to us the great gulf that is
between eternity and the temporary existence that we have yet now he shall not speak of himself this is salvation being made
known the spirits indwelling work it may be in Providence
the Spirit works by bringing you into contact with a certain
person, which then brings you under the sound of the Word.
It may be the Spirit's prompting, as it was with me to go to chapel
one particular Lord's Day. It may be the Spirit's prompting
to convince you to seek Better things! These are all the Spirit's work. But where does it lead us? Surely
it must lead us to Calvary's tree. Surely it must lead us
to the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus. Surely it
must lead us into all truth. But whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak. Hear! these might seem peculiar
words to us but they're speaking very specifically of the personality
of the Spirit whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak this
is the covenant union being made known the Father, Son and the Holy
Ghost demonstrating to us that great
plan of salvation. What do we know of it? What do
we know of it? And He will show you things to
come. Now, that has a specific application
in respect of the disciples. of whom were used of course within
the early church who were witnesses to the outpouring of the Holy
Ghost and were used in that way but there was a mystery to it
at this point they couldn't work out these things and is that not like you and
I very often we think of that scripture, you
shall not know now but you shall know hereafter many truths of the gospel may
seem puzzling to us even perplexing to us but afterwards we see them
more clearly we see them with the eye of faith we see them
as they are whether that be the doctrine
of the Lord's sovereign electing love, whether it be the doctrine
of God's providential leanings, whether that be the great jewel
of Christian contentment. These are all things we must
learn and we learn them by the Spirit's teaching. Verse 14 almost speaks as a summing
up of these things. He shall glorify me for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. He shall glorify
me. There we have Christ pre-eminent. And is that not the great difference
between a sermon and a lecture? The sermon must have Christ at
the very center, must point a sinner to Christ as the only way of
salvation. And this is a specific application
in respect of the convinced sinner. Because the convinced sinner
will look to anywhere that relates to the flesh until
he is brought out of himself will go to the law. I heard a sermon yesterday of
a man pointing us to the law for our sanctification. Awful! You can't point a man to the
law to find any liberty there. The law defines sin. Sin is transgression
of the law. You won't find any mercy with
the law. Sainiai says, pay what you owe,
pay what you owe, pay what you owe, and no more, there's no
mercy at Sainiai. Then men will say, look to self,
I believe in Jesus. I've made my decision, I've made
my commitment, and it's gone in a moment. The first trial
comes and they're back in the world. You see, that's not real
religion, is it? That which begins with a capital
I, we'll sing about that in our final hymn. He shall glorify me. But when
the sinner is brought to the end of himself, he has nowhere
else to go. He must by necessity flee to
Christ by that repentance and that faith which is given unto
him. And we would resist it if we
could. That's for sure. We're living in examples of that. But praise God you can't resist
these things. He shall glorify me Here we have a shawl of the scripture. Note this as well. The Spirit
guiding into all truth, glorifying of Christ, this is a perfect
work. A perfect work. The work of grace
in the soul is a perfect work. Because the author is the Holy
Ghost. that is why salvation must be
of the Lord because salvation must be a perfect work and as
soon as we put our hand to it it's no longer perfect it's rotten
to the very core what a mercy here he shall glorify
of me for he shall receive of mine All those who are given unto
the Son by the Father in the covenant bonds of the Gospel
receive the operation of the Holy Ghost within the soul. He
shall receive of mine the work in the soul of a sinner and shall
show it unto you real religion is a revelation that's what free grace is it
is a revelation of truth the Lord has ordained it to be so
by the means of the preaching of the gospel it's a revelation
of truth And nothing short of this will
do. And you know when the Lord moves
upon our souls, we'll speak as the prophets of old, when they
said, I fell at his feet as dead. But oh, there is a marvelous acknowledgement of the mercy
and of the free grace of God. By the Holy Ghost, Paul writing
to the Galatians says, But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel
which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received
it of man, neither was I taught it. but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Paul on the Emmaus Road who pricked
him and it was the Holy Ghost pricking the conscience and revealing
Jesus Christ. This is simple. It's not easy. We don't believe
in easy believism. But it is simple and it is profound. And it is effectual. Real religion
is effectual. And shall show it unto you. If somebody shows you something,
you have no option but to see it. Somebody offers you something,
well you might take it and you might not. But this is revelation. He shall show it unto you. now is it our continual exercise
that truth may be made manifest unto us that we may see these things
in the power of the Holy Spirit is it our continual prayer that
the Holy Spirit will make himself known unto us and open the eyes
of men and women and bring about that better day for the Gospel
and for Zion. We conclude by quoting a hymn. It's not in our book. We found
it in the Wells hymn book. It's a hymn of John Kent's, 457. When I saith the Saviour, ascend
to my throne, the Spirit to comfort I'll surely send down. And this,
saith Jehovah, his mission shall be, of sin to convince and glorify
me, to set the foundation whereon they have stood, and show them
the worth of salvation by blood, And when to Mount Sinai for refuge
they flee, Shall point them to Calvary and glorify me. In truth all essential my chosen
shall guide, Whose surety I am and for whom I have died, And
when from the sheepfold they wandering shall be, Shall lead
them to Zion and glorify. me. How 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." Amen.