John chapter 16 and look at verse
4. John chapter 16 and verse 4. But these things have I told
you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told
you of them and these things I said not unto you at the beginning
because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that
sent me and none of you asketh me whither goest thou. But because I have said these
things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. 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. 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. All things that the Father hath
are mine. Therefore said I, that he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. Today, is Pentecost. Today is Pentecost, at least
by some calendars. While I wanted to remind you
of that, I will also say that we are not too much engaged with
what is sometimes called the high days and holy days of church
ceremony and church ritual. Nevertheless, it is interesting
for us to recognise the way in which the Lord himself made use
of the Jewish feasts in order to typify his work of redemption. And, of course, we don't celebrate
any of those Jewish feasts. But we do remember the fact that
the Lord used these feasts to explain things about his own
work. And indeed, he used those feasts
in olden days, in the times of the Old Testament, to reveal
to his people, to reveal to the true believers amongst Israel
and amongst the Jews, the meaning of what God would later do in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So for example, of the
three major feasts that the children of Israel had, the Feast of the
Passover, perhaps one of the most important, reminded Israel
of how the Lord had delivered the nation out of Egypt and how
the death angel had passed over the land of Israel and slain
all of those who were not covered by the blood of a lamb that had
been slain. The Jews were instructed to take
a lamb, to make sure that it was a pure and a perfect lamb
without spot, without blemish, and having examined it, to slay
it and put its blood upon the doorposts and the lintels of
their home. And when the angel of God passed
over, it saw the blood and it saved those who were under the
blood. Whereas the land of Egypt found
that the firstborn of the houses were slain by the death angel
as part of God's punishment against that nation for its domination
and the slavery, the enslaving of Israel. And it also spoke
the Passover of the angel that passed over and the way in which
a flight of escape from captivity was afforded to the Jews. And
so we find it interesting to discover that the Lord Jesus
Christ as the Lamb of God, as that spotless Lamb, that Lamb
without spot or blemish, He was in His innocence and in His holiness
slain at Passover. And so the Lord God used the
fact of the feast of the Passover and the meaning of the Passover,
the content of the Passover, to speak about the Lord Jesus
Christ, to foreshow that the Lord Jesus Christ was coming
and the Lord Jesus Christ proved to be the fulfilment of that
feast and what we sometimes call the anti-type. So the type speaks
in picture form of a subsequent reality and the antitype is the
fulfilment of that reality and the Lord Jesus Christ in dying
at Passover proved himself to be the antitype of that Passover
ceremony. Showing that these Old Testament
pictures pointed to him as the Lamb of God John could say, John
the Baptist could say, that taketh away the sin of the world. And other feasts included the
Feast of Firstfruits, and the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast
of Booths, and these feasts also had significance, typological
significance, symbolizing what the Lord Jesus Christ was going
to do. For example, we've just spoken
about the Feast of the Passover, and that was when the Lord Jesus
Christ went up to Jerusalem. He celebrated the Feast of the
Passover with his disciples. You'll remember about the upper
room. They were there. sharing the Passover meal. That's why they were there together.
And part of that celebration, the Passover celebration, it
lasted a week, was the Feast of Firstfruits, which happened
on the day after the Sabbath day in the middle of the Passover
week. So the Passover Let's say it
started with the Passover meal on, say, the Thursday night,
and then the Lord had been slain, of course, on the Friday. He
rose again on the first day of the week, so the day between
that was the Saturday, was a Sabbath. On the first day of the week
after that Passover Sabbath, there was another feast called
the Feast of Firstfruits, where the very first gatherings in
of the harvest was dedicated to the Lord. And in the Feast
of Firstfruits, which lasted for a day and was just a very
small ceremony and a very small feast because it was just literally
the firstfruits that had been taken from the fields, they were
offered to the Lord. And that is why the Apostle Paul
says of the Lord Jesus Christ that having risen from the dead
on the day after, the first day of the week after that Passover
Sabbath, he was the firstfruits from the dead. And so again,
that feast of firstfruits really pointed to the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ would rise from the dead. and the firstfruits
of the harvest were offered that same day that the Lord Jesus
Christ rose. The Lord Jesus Christ, it's 1
Corinthians 15 20 I think, he's spoken thereof as the firstfruits
of them that slept. Well, those were two of the feasts. So there was Passover, there
was the Feast of Firstfruits, and then we're told that 50 days
after that came another feast, and that was called the Feast
of Weeks. And that was a celebration of
the end of the harvest. So as first fruits at the time
of Passover was the beginning of the harvest, the Feast of
Weeks came seven weeks and one day after the first fruits. And seven weeks and one day is
50 days. So they called that Pentecost,
which means 50 days later or 50 days. And that was the end
of the harvest. And so in this feast of weeks,
we find that there was much bigger and more joyful celebrations
at the feast. And again, all the Jews would
come up. They had been to Jerusalem for the Passover. They went back
to their farms, back into the country. They collected in all
their grain. They collected in all the fruits
of the year's growth. And they went back to Jerusalem
and they thanked God for the harvest. This was what they were instructed
to do, but there was a meaning behind that. And that is the
reason why at Pentecost, there were Jews in Jerusalem from many
different nations and many different parts of the world, because they
had come in order to be part of that Pentecost celebration. And it speaks to us of the great
ingathering of believers that followed the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. 10 days prior to Pentecost, the
Lord Jesus Christ had ascended into heaven, and he had told
his disciples to go to Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost and
wait there for him, or wait there for the Holy Spirit to be sent
by the Saviour. And in Acts 1, verse 8, we read,
but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you. and ye shall be witnesses unto
me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost
part of the earth. So when I say this is Pentecost,
What we are recognising here is that this is the 50 days after
the Lord rose from the dead. Now it's not perhaps the exact
date on a calendar, but then calendars have changed over the
centuries. But this is 50 days after the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ at what we sometimes call
Easter time. And it's on this day that the
Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples to equip them for their ministry. So this morning I want to think
not so much about the event, we've kind of sketched that out
in rough ways already, but not so much to think about the event
of the disciples being there in the upper room and the Holy
Spirit falling upon them and the wind and the flame and the
speaking in tongues and going out in the ministry that they
did, but to think rather about Why did the Holy Spirit come?
What is it that the Lord Jesus Christ was telling his disciples
in John 14 and 16? Do you realize that John 14,
15, 16, 17, these chapters all cover a very short period of
time just before the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, just
before he was arrested. These chapters are all the things
that the Lord Jesus Christ said, as it were, in his final comments
to his people before he went to the cross. And when we read
in 14 and 16 so much information about the Holy Spirit, we ought
to realize that the Lord Jesus Christ felt it very important
to speak about the coming of the Spirit and the Comforter. We spoke last week about the
Remembrancer, how that he would remind the Church and how that
he would comfort the Church. So it's that question that we
have before us today. Why did the Holy Spirit come
and what does he do? And how are we to consider him
and his ongoing work in the Church? So the first thing I want to
just draw your attention to in that context is this, that the
Holy Spirit, or he's sometimes called the Holy Ghost, is God. He is God, our Lord. Just as
much as God the Father is God, and God the Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, is God, so the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost is God also. The Father in Scripture and the
Son in Scripture have many, many names given to them. And so the
Holy Ghost has many names given to him because these names that
are given are intended, are designed to illuminate a little aspect
of the work of each of these persons of the Godhead. They speak about the nature,
they speak about the personality, they speak about the work, and
they bear titles which speak to us and reveal to us aspects
of each of the persons of the Godhead's work. And I mention
that to note that the principal title that is given to what's
sometimes called the third person of the Trinity, but let not us
think that there's priority in that as far as importance is
concerned, but is that he is holy. He is the Holy Spirit of
God. And he is distinguished from
the Father and the Son, which is why we know that there are
three persons in the Godhead. He is the Eternal Spirit, who
is holy. So this one that came at Pentecost
is the Eternal Spirit, who is holy, and he is God. He is holy
in all he does. He is holy in all that he accomplishes. And everything about the Holy
Spirit is, as his name declares, holy, true and good. In Matthew chapter 3 and verse
16. We're given an account there
of the way in which all three persons of the Godhead came together
when the Lord Jesus Christ was baptised of John. We're told
there, and Jesus when he was baptised went up straightway
out of the water and lo the heavens were opened unto him and he saw
the Spirit of God descending like a dove. and lighting upon
him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So here we
can see the three persons of the Godhead, God the Father in
heaven speaking about God the Son who had just been baptised,
and God the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and lighting, or
alighting upon the Lord Jesus. Three persons. God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. And these are
the three persons of the Godhead. When the time came for the Lord
Jesus Christ to go to the cross, when the time came for the Saviour
to die for his people and then rise again, He began to prepare
his disciples for their own ministry. He had been teaching them for
three years. He had been showing them mysterious
things, glorious things, the fullness of the revelation of
God. And right to the end, he has things to say to them. But
the amazing thing is that the disciples seemed to struggle
so much with what the Lord had to teach them. It's like he said
to Nicodemus, how can I tell you heavenly things when you
don't believe the earthly things that I tell you? And we discover
that the disciples they had too small a view of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They continued to think right
to the end, even until after the Lord was dead, until after
the Lord was resurrected, that the Lord Jesus Christ's purpose
on earth was to create a physical kingdom, a military kingdom,
if you like, an earthly kingdom on earth. that he was going to
be a messiah to Israel upon earth. And that's an example of an assumption
so strong that it affected everything that the Lord Jesus Christ taught
his disciples. No matter how many times the
Lord said to them that his kingdom was spiritual, they always held
this idea that Christ was going to establish an earthly kingdom
and they would be members of that. But the Lord Jesus Christ
did not come to create an ethnic kingdom in Israel, but to gather
a spiritual Israel from all over the earth. It was both Jews and
Gentiles. That's the point that we had
testified and reinforced at the Council in Jerusalem. That was
what angered some of these Pharisee Jews and had to be understood
by the apostles when they went out and the Gentiles started
trusting and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was nothing
to do with the nation of Israel. It wasn't to be the establishment
of a kingdom in a land in Israel somewhere on the face of this
earth. And it's certainly nothing to do with the nation of Israel
today. The Lord Jesus Christ has a redeemed
people all the earth over. A people for whom he has bled
and died. A people whose sins are forgiven,
cleansed in his precious blood. A people whom he has saved. And
now as he has returned to heaven and as he sits in heaven with
his human body, he has no earthly throne. If the Lord Jesus Christ
was still alive upon earth, sitting in a kingdom in Jerusalem, then
we should all go to Jerusalem to worship him. But that's not
the kingdom. The kingdom is in the heart.
The kingdom is in the spirit. The kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
went back to heaven and there he is in heaven, in his physical
body in heaven. So he could not be everywhere
on the earth with every one of his people at all times if he
continued in a human body here upon earth. So rather he went
back to heaven and he sent the Holy Spirit to be the comforter
of his people in his absence. because the disciples needed
help. And he knew that they needed help. He knew that they needed
a comforter because of the loss of their friend, the Lord Jesus. He knew that they needed a remembrancer
because they had forgotten much of what he had told them, taught
them, because of the false notions that they had and the false assumptions
that they carried. For all that Jesus had taught
them, in order to have the power to fulfil his commission, they
needed guidance, they needed help, they needed the Holy Spirit
to come and to teach them and to lead them into truth and to
empower them. So the father receives the Lord
Jesus Christ back into heaven and he sends the Holy Spirit
to help the young church. The Comforter, the Remembrancer,
the Witness to Christ, the Spirit of Truth, all names that the
Holy Spirit takes. And from these passages that
we read, I want you, or I want to provide you with some insight
into the role and office that was undertaken by God the Holy
Spirit for the help and well-being of the church when he came at
Pentecost. And while these initial promises
that were given in 14 and 16 were primarily for the apostles'
assistance, they do also have a continuing effect. So I've
got four little titles, and we're going to be quick in going through
them, but four little titles, all beginning with D, that I
want to show you as being the work of the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit came to defend. He came to declare. He came to
distinguish. And he came to direct. And just
to think about that first D then, defend, declare, distinguish,
direct. The first D is to defend, and
we often think, and rightly think, of the Holy Spirit as a comforter,
the comforter. But perhaps we don't rightly
consider what a comforter is. The disciples needed real and
practical support as they faced the challenge that was before
them. Remember who these men were. They were tax collectors,
they were fishermen, they were ordinary people, they were relatively
unlearned. I'm not saying that they were
completely uneducated, but they were not steeped in the theological
training of their day. They had had the Lord with them,
certainly, but they had forgotten much of what the Lord, and misunderstood
and misapplied much that the Lord had taught them. Even the
men that the Lord met on the road to Emmaus couldn't get their
head around the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. These were not brave men in the
sense that they had a boldness that would lead them to conquer
the world. They had fled when the Lord Jesus
Christ had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. They turned
on their heels and ran away. And once you've run away once,
it's easier to run away a second time. And I accept that they
were fishermen and they had a familiarity with braving the elements out
on the sea. And they would do a lot more
than I would do, I'm sure. But that's what they wanted to
go back to. Peter had said, I'm going fishing. I go fishing. He had wanted to
return to that old way of life. And these men had powerful enemies
and they needed help, they needed strength, consolation, they needed
enabling, they needed courage, they needed protection. And that
was what the Holy Spirit came to give them. What was going
to stop the Jews or Herod or the Romans crushing this small
band of Jesus followers? They had already slain the leader. What was to stop them now from
completely destroying the rest of the Jews, the rest of the
disciples and the apostles? And yet what do we find? We find
that Peter and John and Stephen were filled with boldness and
confidence and they were filled with ability. They could speak
wisely, they could speak profoundly. Within a few days of the Lord
Jesus Christ descending back into heaven, 10 days, the Holy
Spirit had come and completely transformed these men. This was
the comfort of the Holy Spirit. This was the comforting power
of the Holy Spirit. It was transformational. It was
enabling. It was empowering for the situation
that these men faced. And the next role that the Holy
Spirit fulfilled was to declare. He defended these young believers
and the early church and he declared the truth of the glory of Christ. And I think that's a beautiful
little statement of the gospel just there. He declared the truth
to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I fail to see
how the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified if people for whom
he shed his blood, if people whose souls he redeemed, whose
sins he atoned for, and for whom he died, propitiating God's wrath,
end up in hell. I don't see how the Lord Jesus
Christ is glorified if people for whom he died and shed his
blood and propitiated God's wrath end up in hell. Christ isn't
glorified if that's happened. The Holy Spirit glorified Christ
by applying the benefits of the work of Christ to those to whom
the blood of Christ applied, and those whom God the Father
had chosen in eternity. This is the declaration of God
the Holy Spirit. This is the gospel that God the
Holy Spirit came and taught and enabled and empowered in these
emboldened disciples. he brought the gospel to them
and he brings the gospel to the hearts of men and women. We read
that in John 16. Let me just read a couple of
things again from John 16 verse 13. Howbeit when he the spirit
of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall
speak not of himself. That means that he won't just
speak the things that the Holy Spirit speaks, he will speak
things that declare the glory of God the Father, the glory
of God the Son, and the glory of God the Holy Spirit. This
is a united message. And God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit are bound together in one great gospel
purpose, one great covenant theme, one great union of accomplished
salvation. And God the Holy Spirit comes
with a message that declares the glory of the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ and calls out and gathers out those for whom
Christ died, that people that God the Father had chosen in
eternal election and predestinated to become conformed to the image
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a distinct people and
this is a declaration of the truth of the covenant purpose
of our God. Truth is fixed and the settled
purpose of the triune God for the salvation of His people is
fixed. Do you think that God chose a
people in eternity? He elected a people? The Lord
Jesus Christ died for that people? And then God the Holy Spirit
would stand by passively watching as the people for whom Christ
died and the people that God had chosen end up in hell? That's
impossible. This is God the Holy Spirit that
we are talking about. And He declares the truth to
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not all He does. This
is the work of the Holy Spirit. That's what the Lord tells us
here, that when he comes, verse 8, he will reprove the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. So what is that
declaration? What is that reproving? This
is how the Holy Spirit gathers the church. This is how he brings
in the elect people, the people for whom Christ died. He calls
God's chosen people. quickens Christ's redeemed people
by that powerful, efficacious work of regeneration. And this is the Lord God being
specific. This is Him accomplishing the
purpose. And this is Him bringing the
church of Jesus Christ into the experience of salvation. Let
us be honest with one another here. And let us be specific. Do you know what sin is? And have you seen sin in your
own heart? Have you felt the weight of sin
in your conscience? Do you know what righteousness
is? Do you know whence it cometh? Do you know where it comes from?
Do you know where righteousness is to be had? Do you know where
righteousness is to be gotten? Do you know what you can do to
make yourself righteous? Have you tried making yourself
righteous? Have you tried to live well?
Have you tried to live right? How is that working out for you? Do you have hopes yet of securing
a justifying righteousness before the Holy God outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you think you're going to
ever achieve that? A perfect holiness that you are
going to be able to take to heaven with you and show God and say,
there you are, this is what I've done, this is why I deserve to
come into heaven and be with you and to stand beside your
throne in all of your holiness and glory and majesty. This is
what I've done. Do you still have that hope?
Or has the Holy Spirit brought you to confess that Christ alone,
and the work of the cross alone, and the shed blood alone, is
the only ground of hope for a sinner like you? That's what the Holy
Spirit teaches. He teaches what sin is, He teaches
what righteousness is, and He teaches what judgment is. The
Lord said to Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is
flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Ye must
be born again. There has to be a spiritual work,
a Holy Spirit work in the life of the individual. And that's
how Jesus is glorified. The Lord said to his disciples,
when he has come, he will glorify me. He will speak of me. How
is Jesus glorified? because the Holy Spirit holds
him forth in the gospel. He is preached as a wonderful
saviour, one who is holy, loving, gracious, and true. But two,
the Holy Spirit works pervasively. He works in the hearts of men
and women to woo them and to win them. and to bring them to
that place of confessing their sin before the Holy God and trusting
in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. That's the work of the
Holy Spirit. Does that work apply to all men
and women? Is everyone brought to that place?
No. No. In no way can that possibly
be perceived as being true in this world. Never has been, is
not now, and never will be. Not all men will be saved and
not all men will be worked upon persuasively by the Holy Spirit. Not all men will hear the gospel
preached. But those whom God has elected,
has chosen, and those for whom Christ died, they will hear the
gospel and the Holy Spirit will apply that gospel to the saving
of their souls. And herein lies that third D
that I spoke about. The Holy Spirit comes to defend
and he comes to declare. to the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he comes to distinguish because he has a distinguishing
ministry. It is he who opens hearts. It is he who powerfully
persuades some to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ while passing
by others. Maybe you don't like that kind
of teaching. Maybe you don't like that kind
of theology. But what did the Lord say to
Nicodemus? Flesh is flesh, spirit is spirit. You must be born again. You can't
born again yourself, no more than you could born yourself
the first time. The Holy Spirit brings the new birth. The Holy Spirit quickens and
enlivens. You must be born again. And that's a new creation. And
that's the work of God the Holy Spirit. We call that work effectual
calling because it is God the Holy Spirit calling the elect
of God, the redeemed of Christ, into the experience of the salvation
that God has for that chosen people. And men hate that doctrine. They hate the doctrine of effectual
calling because they say it's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair that God should
choose some people and leave others. It's not fair that the
Lord Jesus Christ should die for some people and not everyone.
It's not fair that God the Holy Spirit should quicken some people
and not everyone. You want fairness? I'll tell
you what that is. That's grace. That's graciousness. Fair would be if God slew every
last one of us. Fair would be if God demanded
and condemned every last sin-loving rebel to eternal separation. Justice, justice would count
up all of our sins. and apportion us a hole in hell,
commensurate to the gravity of our disobedience. That's fair. That's just. You want fairness? You want justice? Or do you want
grace? Do you want goodness? Do you
want mercy? The work of the Holy Spirit is
distinguishing. and the work of the Holy Spirit
is directing. The Lord God, the Holy Spirit,
directs the church in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
he guides us into all truth. You know, truth is a precious,
precious commodity, and it seems in this world that it is increasingly
rare. Truth is a name that the Lord
Jesus Christ takes. He says, I am the way, I am the
truth. But it is also a name of the
Holy Spirit, because the Lord Jesus Christ said, when the spirit
of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. And so God,
the Holy Spirit, is also the spirit of truth. Christ is the
truth and the spirit is the truth. There has never been more information
in the world than there is today, never. We are in the information
age. Once there was a stone age, and
then there was an iron age, then there was an industrial age,
and now we're in the information age. We're certainly not in the
age of truth. Never has truth been more elusive
than it is today. Do you realise what a privilege
you have to possess truth? To be guided by the Holy Spirit
of truth into an understanding of what truth is about. Truth
is about knowing we are sinners. Truth is about knowing where
righteousness comes from. Truth is about knowing what God
judges to be right and wrong. Truth is about knowing our need.
and God's provision for that need. Truth is about Christ's
death in my place. That's the truth that saves a
soul. We're deceived by the world, but we're illuminated by the
Holy Spirit. We're ensnared by this sinful
flesh but we are set free by the gospel of truth. We're perplexed
by the conflicting pressures that come upon us in this world,
but we are comforted by the simplicity that is in Christ. Let me provide a personal example,
if I may, just to show you what I mean by this. We, I, am confronted by hundreds,
thousands perhaps, of moral issues, economic issues, religious questions,
social problems, educational needs, racial tensions, scientific
conundrums, political questions, all going on around about me,
all around my head, all around my life, all around my family,
all around my society, all around my relationships with my neighbours
and my friends and my brothers and sisters in Christ. All of
these issues, moral, economic, religious, social, edgy, whatever.
And I might imagine that I've got the right position on something.
I might imagine that I can even bring the Christian position
to one of those problems. And I can argue as adamantly
as I like. And one thing is for sure, I'll
be wrong. I'll be wrong. I'll be wrong
because I'm neither sufficiently informed Nor am I adequately
qualified to decide on those issues, those problems, those
decisions, those judgments. And the best I will ever be able
to do is express some arbitrary, legal, self-righteous judgment
or notion. And I won't have added anything
to the debate or to the question. That's just the reality of the
confusing, confusing life that we have in this world. But we possess the truth of the
gospel in Christ. We have been led by God the Holy
Spirit, if indeed we are saved, if indeed we are Christ, to know
sin. to no righteousness and to no
judgment. And on this point, and on this
point alone, I have something useful to say to men and women. I have something important to
say to my friends and neighbours. I have something to declare to
this nation and to this world. On all those other problems,
I can imagine that I've got some insider understanding and I've
got nothing. But on this, the church has got
something to stand upon and something to declare. Why is that? Because
God the Holy Spirit has led us into all truth. Look at verse
13. 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 is, he'll
speak for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in union
together for the accomplishment of the purpose of salvation.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will
show you things to come. He will show us things to come.
Now I don't doubt for a moment that that had particular relevance
to the apostles. That's who the Lord Jesus Christ
was speaking to here. And it was for New Testament
revelation. These are the men, Peter, Paul,
Luke, these were the men who would write the New Testament.
These are the men who would set forth the epistles, the doctrines,
and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament
as the Holy Spirit revealed these things to them. And these are
the things of the last day that the Holy Spirit would show to
the apostles. And no doubt this is a reference
to apostolic authority and to the authority of New Testament
scripture. And it's a testimony to the success
of the church because these men knew that they had a message
to carry to the nations, to the glory of Christ and to the gathering
in, the successful gathering in of the church. They knew that
they had a power in their gospel preaching, and they knew that
there were going to be many examples of divine intervention in their
lives to the authentication and support of that preaching of
the gospel. But what about us? Does the Holy
Spirit show us today things to come? Is the Holy Spirit still
showing the church things to come? Still showing believers
things to come? Yes, yes and yes! not new revelations
beyond what is already written in Scripture, but he is continuously
opening us up to new insights, new interpretations, new depths,
new joys that come to the Lord's people of the wonder and glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ that is to be seen in Scripture and
in the Gospel and in the testimony of our Saviour, our beloved Saviour,
Jesus Christ. and that's the Holy Spirit's
office and ministry, and it's all our delight. May God, the Holy Spirit, our
blessed comforter and remembrancer, continuously show us the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that these things to come from the unfolding
of Scripture and in the preaching of the Gospel, shall be our lot
and our portion to the good of our souls until the Lord Jesus
Christ himself comes for us. And then we will see and we will
know our precious Saviour, and we will wonder at our precious
Saviour for all eternity to come. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.