In the 15th chapter of John's
Gospel, that very well-known chapter in which Christ speaks
of himself as the true vine and of his people as being branches
in that vine that bear fruit through him, he goes on to say
from verse 9, that as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved
you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept the Father's commandments,
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. This is my commandment, that
ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. But I have called
you friends, for all things that I have heard of my father I have
made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever
ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
These things I command you, that ye love one another, if the world
hate you. Ye know that it hated me before
it hated you. If ye were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you. The servant is not greater than
his lord. If they have persecuted me, they
will persecute you. If they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for
their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
Father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But
now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They
hated me without a cause. But 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. And ye also shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning. But 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. And ye also shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning. What a chapter
this is, and what love is shown in Christ for his brethren, for
his disciples, for those whom he loved, for those whom he chose,
for those for whom he came into this world to suffer and die. These disciples under whom he
speaks here were hated of the world because they followed Christ,
for they were loved of God eternally. and Christ loved them with an
everlasting love and such was his love that he came into the
world for these poor broken sinners and suffered the rejection and
hatred of all men and was persecuted and hounded unto death. Such was Christ's love for these
poor disciples that he went unto the cross for them that He was
crucified for them, that He took their own sins upon Himself and
bore the wrath and judgment of God against sin Himself for them,
that they who were born dead sinners, that they who went astray
from the womb, that they who hated God by nature, that they
who had multiplied iniquity up to the heights, that they who
were lost in sin and had no hope and deserved the judgment, that
they should be washed clean, that they should be spared the
judgment. that they should be made to be
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, that they should be redeemed
and ransomed from the grave, that they should be delivered,
that they should be saved. He loved them to the end. Greater
love have no man than this, that a man laid down his life for
his friends. And Christ came to lay down his
life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever
I command you. These things I command you, that
ye love one another. Oh, I ask you, do you love Christ? Do you love his people? If you
do, you're one of his friends for whom he's laid down his life. Oh, what love He has for His
people, for sinners, for the lost. Greater love have no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And
that is why Christ came into this world, to lay down His life
for His friends. But the love that they know from
Christ results in a world that hates
them as it hated Christ. If the world hate you, ye know
that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world,
the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also. They hated Christ,
they hated his gospel, they hated his message, they hated the truth. and they took him and they crucified
him and the disciples who followed him and spake of him and loved
that truth and knew the truth were hated also and if you know
the truth if you've heard the voice of Jesus Christ if you
know his salvation if you know his love and you follow him you'll
find the world persecutes you and hates you and despises you
too but you'll also know the love of God, which is beyond measure. You'll also know what it is to
be kept by God whilst you journey through this evil world of darkness
and sin. Whilst you feel the hatred of
the world and the persecution, you'll know what it is to be
held up by God, to be kept safe in the hands of Jesus Christ,
to be watched over and cared for. You'll know His love. The
more the world hates you, the more He loves you. The more you
experience the world's rejection, the more you'll experience the
love and care and grace and mercy of God. and in order that the
disciples should go away with that knowledge and with that
comfort Christ tells them that when he goes after he had laid
down his life and risen again and brought in salvation when
he departs to his father he would not leave them comfortless he
would not leave them alone But he would send the Comforter unto
them, as he says in chapter 14. He'd send the Comforter. He'd
send the Holy Spirit to be with them. To be with them every day. And as he says here at the end,
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. And ye also shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning. I'm not going
to leave you alone, I'm going to send the Holy Ghost to comfort
you, to comfort you in the Gospel, to comfort you as He testifies
of me. Whatever circumstance you're
brought into, whatever straits you're brought into, whatever
persecution and hatred you feel and experience from the world
around you, the Comforter will come and He'll remind you of
Me. He'll bring you comfort by speaking
of me in the gospel. There's your comfort. 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." Now, what a verse and what an encouragement
that is, that the comforter should go, and that he should testify
of Christ. But it comes, as we've seen,
in the context of this chapter, where Christ warns His chosen
disciples, His elect people, those for whom He came and suffered,
where He warns those whom He loves that they will know the
hatred and persecution of the world, because the world hated
Christ, it hated the Gospel, it hates Christ, it hates the
Gospel, and it hates all those who preach it and preach Him
and follow Him. You'll know this hatred, you'll
know this persecution if you know Christ, but he will send
a comforter. What a name and what a description
for the Holy Spirit this is. What a name given unto this third
person of the triune God. What a name, the comforter. How descriptive of his role that
he is called The Comforter. That the children of God, as
they journey through this world, as they are led by the Spirit
of God, they're not under the law. If ye be led of the Spirit,
ye are not under the law, but under grace. As Paul says elsewhere,
their walk through this world is a walk under grace if they're
led of the Spirit. And if they're led of the Spirit,
they're led by the one who is called the Comforter. And the
comfort that the Comforter brings is seen in Christ, in his gospel,
and in the fact that salvation and their walk and their life
is entirely by grace. If you're led of the Spirit,
you're not under law. If you were under law still,
there'd be no comfort. If we were left under the condemnation
or the rule of the law, having been brought to Christ and delivered
from condemnation, and delivered from judgment, and delivered
from the penalty of the law, if we were left under the law
in any sense, if the law was our rule to guide us as we journey
through this world, there'd be no comfort. There'd be no comfort
because every day we fall. Every day as we journey through
this world, still having the flesh, which wars against the
spirit within us. Still having the old man, which
wars against the new man. Every day we fall and every day
the law says, regarding our failure. that we are guilty. Every day
the law comes with its accusations. It says, but thou shalt, and
you haven't. But thou shalt not, and you did. You call yourself a follower
of Jesus Christ. You call yourself a Christian.
Why are you living like this? You're guilty. And every time
we turn to the law and read its commandments, and hear its word,
and compare what we do, we'll know we're guilty under it. We'll
know we don't in ourselves live up to it. It comes as an accusing
rod. It comes as an accuser. It finds
us out. And there's no comfort in that.
Which is why Paul says that if you're led of the Spirit, you're
not under the law. If he left you under that, if
he kept bringing that message to you, all you do is feel guilty
every day. Because you break it every day. But the Spirit leads us under
grace and testifies of Christ and the Gospel and the finished
work of the Gospel. Every time we sin, the Spirit,
the Comforter, comes unto us and says, that sin has been paid
for. that sin has been judged. The guilt you feel because you
fell today, when you didn't want to, when you would love to walk
before Christ aright, but you keep falling, that sin that you
committed has already been judged. Greater love have no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Christ
has already paid the price. You're set free. You're delivered. You're redeemed. You're ransomed. You're under grace. There's no
more to pay. The law has no more to say to
you. You owe it no debt. The price
is paid. What comfort there is in the
grace of God which brings salvation. Yes, that's what the Spirit does.
Nowhere in the scriptures do you ever read that the Spirit
of God is sent to teach, direct, accuse, lead, guide us by law,
but through Christ, by grace, in the gospel. If you're not
under law, if you're led of the Spirit, you're not under law,
but under grace. 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." That's
his message, Christ and his gospel. But some will come and say, but
Christ says if you love me, keep my commandments. Doesn't that
not mean that we should be striving to keep the law, and striving
to live a right, and striving to do this and do that? If ye
love me, keep my commandments. But Christ says in this passage
what his commandments are. If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. This is my commandment, that
ye love one another as I have loved you. If we follow Christ,
we'll keep his commandments. And his commandments are to walk
in the Spirit, under grace, in the Gospel, loving one another,
and loving Christ, who has delivered us from condemnation. Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever
I command you. These things I command you, that
ye love one another. Yes, he sends the Comforter.
What a name! The Comforter. Not the Accuser. Not the Accuser of the Brethren.
There is one that knows all about the Law of God. There is somebody
that is very, very good at coming alongside us and telling us what
we've done and what we haven't done that we should, shouldn't
have done or should have done. There is one who's very good
at accusing the Brethren and knows the law inside out and
knows every precept of the gospel inside out and knows every exhortation. There is somebody who knows everything
that he can accuse us with. Old Testament or New Testament,
every place where we fail, oh you're not praying enough, oh
you're not reading the scriptures enough, oh you're not edifying
the brethren enough, oh you're not in the meeting enough, oh
you're not doing this enough, he can come with an accusation
from any place in the scriptures, whether he comes with a thou
shalt not steal, or thou shalt not covet or wherever he comes
with her thou shalt not forsake the assembling of thyselves together
or thou shalt rejoice every day and he can take every exhortation
that he can find in the epistles or anywhere in the scriptures
and say well you should be doing this and you should be doing
that and it's the spirit he comes with a legal spirit, an accusing
spirit, and he stands alongside and tries to take our gaze away
from Jesus Christ and his finished salvation and the shed blood
and says, but look, you should be like this and you're not.
And he accuses. He comes as a judge. to bring
his accusations and bring down his penalty and make us feel
guilty before God. And he comes with instruction
as a guide and says, you should walk like this and you should
live like this. And when we don't, we feel guilty.
Yes, there is one that's an accuser, but he is also called the devil
and Satan. Satan, our adversary, he'll come
with every deception and every subtle accusation he can bring
from law or gospel, wherever he can get you, he'll bring something
against you and say, yes, but you're not as you should be.
But Christ has sent the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who comes
from the Father, and testifies of Christ. He shall testify of
me. He's a comforter. And the comfort
he can bring to the child of God will always come in Christ
and in the finished work of the gospel. When you fall, when you
stumble, when you're bruised and broken, when you doubt and
when you fear, when trials come your way, when you fall into
sin and you feel that God is grieved with you because of what
you've done, where's your comfort going to come from? Do you think
that you're going to turn to instruction and get up in your
own strength and put things right and suddenly you'll know some
blessing? Do you think that if by your own strength you try
to seek God and pray and read and get yourself closer to God
that by your efforts you will bring blessing? No, the comfort
will come in the gospel. It's the gospel and a view of
Christ by faith which will bring you back to Christ. It's the
gospel that will bring you to your knees to pray. It's the
gospel that will cause you to turn from sin. It's the gospel
that will cause you to walk a right and do what the law demands but
which the law never provided any means to do. The Gospel,
ironically, without ever telling you not to do this or not to
do that, will cause you not to do this and not to do that. The
Gospel, without ever having to tell you, worship only God, will
cause you to worship only God. Because as the Comforter testifies
of Christ, He's whom you will see, and whom you will hear,
and whom you will believe. And there before you, as the
Spirit testifies and preaches the Gospel unto you and reminds
you of Christ and His Word and His grace and His truth, there
before you is all your comfort and all your righteousness and
everything you need to live and walk in this world. Far from
being an accuser, The Comforter will come unto you and say that
everything you have ever done, ever do or ever can do that is
wrong has already been answered. It's already been blotted out.
You're clean, you're righteous, you're perfect in Jesus Christ. You're perfect. He brings comfort. and the comfort he brings doesn't
lead us into a way and into an antinomian spirit as some would
accuse us or into a lasciviousness it doesn't lead the believer
to say well it doesn't matter then look everything's finished
Christ has done it all I can live as I like it doesn't lead
a believer to turn away and to sin and use it as an excuse to
do what he likes to do Not really what he likes, but to sin, because
the believer doesn't like to sin. Now, the comfort that the
Spirit of God brings, by testifying of Christ, leads a believer away
from sin. And away from such a lawless
spirit, it leads a believer to walk before God freely, willingly,
in love. The only way you will ever see
anyone live a life which is not full of sin, but a life which
is in any way pleasing under God, is through the Gospel. Because that's the only way that
men can be fruitful. And that's the fruit of which
Christ speaks in this passage. I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. What will make you fruitful? What will make us live aright
before God? Instruction in the law? Commandments
of men? Accusations from the accuser? No. abiding in Christ. He will make us fruitful. Without me ye can do nothing. Then what we need is for the
Comforter, the Spirit of God, to come unto us and testify unto
us in the Gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. To testify
of me. This comfort is exactly what
hated and persecuted disciples of Jesus Christ believers need. When our love of Christ brings
upon us the persecution and hatred of the world around us, when
our belief in Christ and his gospel causes men to reject us
and hate us, then we need comfort. and the Comforter, the Holy Spirit,
is exactly what we need. We need Him to come with the
truth. We need Him to come with the
Gospel. We need Him to come with the
grace of God which brings salvation. We need Him to testify of Christ. That's what we need. If anyone
should ever ask, now I've come to know Christ, how do I live
the Christian life? You live it through the comforter. You live it through the gospel.
What you need is the gospel. Especially. when that gospel
and when the truth that you believe brings upon you the hatred and
persecution of the world. And not just the world as in
those that know not God in any sense, those who are irreligious,
those who are heathen, but the world in every respect, particularly
the world of the religious. Who put Christ to death? The
scribes and the Pharisees. the religious world of the day,
and who most hates the believer, the religious world of our day. The most hatred, the greatest
persecution that we will experience comes when we testify of Christ,
when we stand for Him, when we stand for His truth, when we
stand for the grace of God. Then religious men say, oh no,
you can't go that way. That will lead to this, that
will lead to that. and they find every kind of theological
term and accusation they can bring to silence the believer
and to quench the gospel and to silence the message of the
gospel and the preaching of the gospel. But God sends his people
the comforter. 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. He's called the Comforter. He
is also called the Spirit of Truth. the spirit of truth of
truth of christ the truth he's the spirit of christ he proceeds
from the father declaring the truth the truth is jesus christ
i am the way the truth and the life this spirit has no other
speech and nothing to say but the truth then Christ, the Word
of God, the Truth of God, the Way, the Truth and the Life,
is the very message of the Spirit. Which is why the Spirit of God,
when He comes declaring the Gospel, will declare the Way unto God. The Truth, as it is in Jesus
Christ. And He brings Life, that takes
dead, fallen sinners like you and I. and causes us, through
the truth, through the preaching of the Gospel, through the preaching
of Christ, by the Spirit of God, to be quickened unto life. Ye
must be born again. How are we born again? By the
word of truth, by the Spirit of God preaching unto us the
Gospel and no other way. That is how God by His Spirit
begets His children. We're born, we're quickened unto
life through the truth. He is the Spirit of truth and
He is sent of the Father, whom I will send unto you from the
Father. he comes from one place he is
not the spirit of lies sent from the father of lies satan but
he is the spirit of truth sent from god the father who only
speaks the truth who only speaks the truth There are many spirits
in this world. There are many messages in this
world. There are many who come saying,
Lo, here is Christ. Lo, here's salvation. Lo, here
is a message you should believe. Lo, here is a way to live. Lo,
here is the church. And they come with many messages
and many corruptions of the truth and corruptions of the message
of God. But they haven't come from the
Father. and they haven't come with the
truth. Therefore, however they may describe
themselves, however angelic they may appear as messengers, they
are coming with a lie. We're told that Satan can transform
himself into an angel of light. He can appear as though he's
coming from God. He'll say he is. He'll send his
messengers. He'll send his preachers. He'll
put them in the churches. And they'll say, we're preaching
Christ. But they're not. Because their
message is not the truth. And their message doesn't truly
testify of Christ as he is in the scriptures. as he was when
he spoke to the disciples here. They'll come with another Christ
and another gospel. And their Christ and their gospel
will direct you for salvation unto yourself and unto your own
decision. Their Christ and their gospel
will say, you must make a choice. Their Christ and their gospel
will say, you must live a certain way. Their Christ and their gospel
and their spirit and their messengers will testify of you and what
you do and what you don't do. But they don't testify of me,
Christ says. Because they come as those spirits
of lies that come from the father of lies. He's a master of deception. a master of lies. He'll take
as much of the truth as he can, as long as he can put enough
of a lie in there to lead you astray. But not so the comforter. The comforter is sent from the
Father as the spirit of truth, and he only speaks and preaches
the truth, and that truth brings life. he's sent of the Father
and he also proceedeth from the Father he proceedeth from the
Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father
he's constantly proceeding he's constantly being sent forth he's
not just sent forth once He wasn't just sent forth once in the past. Christ didn't just send forth
the Comforter historically soon after he spake in John chapter
15. The Comforter didn't only come
to the disciples when Christ had died, risen and ascended
and when the Spirit of God came down at Pentecost. The Spirit
of God didn't only come down in that day and age, in the New
Testament Apostolic Church. He didn't just perform mighty
works of salvation at that time, only to return unto God and not
repeat them. He isn't just sent once, nor
is He only sent once as far as the believer is concerned. If
you know what it is to have heard the Gospel and believed on Jesus
Christ and been quickened unto life by the Spirit, He won't
only come unto you on that day. He doesn't only come on the day
that you're brought to life and born again. But he constantly
proceeds from the Father. He's active now. He's been sent from the Father
in years gone by. He's being sent today. He'll
continue to be sent. right up until that day when
Christ comes and gathers in his church and brings us into the
very presence of God the Father and the very presence of the
Spirit of God when we're gathered before their throne before the
throne of God and the throne of Jesus Christ he constantly
proceeds from the Father the Spirit of God is constantly being
sent and the way that he is sent It's through the preaching of
the gospel. There's an immediacy to this. God is actively, continuously
speaking through his spirit in our day and age who testifies
of Christ. If you don't know what it is
to have heard the Spirit of God testify of Christ. If you don't
know what it is to be comforted in the Gospel by the Spirit of
God, it's because He hasn't come unto you in that Gospel. If you
remain sat under lies, if you go to these churches and places
which preach another Gospel, You won't hear the Spirit of
God comforting your soul in that place, under that message, because
he won't use lies, he'll bring the truth. He will bring you
to a point, if you ever come to know the truth, he will have
to bring you to hear the truth, somewhere, somehow. Now if that is to bring you into
contact with someone who knows the truth, who says unto you
something, different from what you hear in the church where
you're going and hearing these lies, then he'll do it like that. If he has to bring you out from
that place and bring you into a meeting where the gospel is
preached, he'll do that. If he has to bring an audio message
into your ears, telling you a message you've never heard before in
the places you're going, he'll do that. But he has to bring
this message to you. There's an immediacy to this.
God sends the Spirit. Christ sends Him. When the Comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you, Christ will send Him from
the Father to His people. He'll send the Spirit of truth
which proceeded from the Father and He shall testify of me. Now
have you heard Him? Has He come unto you? Is He testifying
of Christ? Or all you hear is it simply
men's words, taking holy things of God, taking the name of Jesus,
taking the name of the Spirit, taking the name of the Father
and telling you about what you must do in order to be saved,
about the decision you must make. about a Jesus who loves everyone,
but he wants everyone to be saved and he can't save them unless
they will. If you're just listening to these
deceptions, then you won't hear the truth. But God will send the truth to
those whom he's chosen. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring
forth fruit. and that your fruit should remain
that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name he may
give it you these things I command you that ye love one another
there's a people whom God's chosen and that people will hear the
gospel and the Spirit will come to them and he will comfort them
in the gospel comfort ye, comfort ye my people God says unto Isaiah,
that's the message of his preachers to bring comfort unto fallen
broken sinners in the gospel. Because yes, by nature we are
lost. We're sheep that have gone astray.
We've turned our back upon God. We've gone our own way. We've
exercised our will. We've tried to live a right and
everything has come to nothing. Our will led us away from the
truth. It led us to embrace a lie. It
led us to trust in our own riches, in our own strength, in our own
self-righteousness. It led us to think that God would
be pleased with us if we did this or that. It led us to pray
and to read and to attend meetings and to be zealous and to do all
manner of things and think that when we die and when we stand
before Almighty God, He would receive us and bless us because
of what we did. It led us to think that we could
come before God and say, yes I went to this church and I heard
this message and I made this profession and I was baptised
and I served in the church and I did this. And think that somehow,
something we've done would please Him. When the reality is that
all we do in our own strength is as filthy rags before a holy
God. and if we're gods he'll bring
us to see that he'll bring us to see that because he'll testify
the truth he'll make known the truth of who God is what God
is like and what we are like before him and where we stand
before him and he'll make known the truth unto us and he'll make
known the truth unto you if you're his that you by nature are a
fallen dead sinner you're lost and you're under condemnation
and none of your works, none of your righteousness, none of
your attempts to be holy in religion will please a righteous and a
holy God. You cannot come into his presence
with sin upon your hands. You'll be struck down dead in
a moment. There's no hope in that. He'll
testify that truth and if you're given ears to hear, you'll hear.
you're here because your life depends upon it because your
life depends upon it you'll come to know that you're lost and
all you're striving to be right before God you'll know it's not
good enough you'll know that you're trying to climb upwards
and you're falling downwards You'll know that you're trying
to please God and you feel more and more guilty every day. You'll
feel the wrath of God from heaven above burning against your iniquity. You'll know you're lost. And
you'll know you're lost because God has begun to send the Spirit
of Truth unto you, testifying of Jesus Christ and declaring
unto you things as they really are. And you've ceased to hear
the lies of religion and the false comfort of religion that
says that you're saved because you accepted Jesus into your
heart at a certain date and a certain time and you made the difference. You'll stop believing their deceptions
and their lies and the Spirit of God in the truth and in the
gospel will start awakening you to realize that without Christ
you're lost. and the spirit will testify of
Christ and he'll set Christ before your gaze and declare unto you
greater love have no man than this that a man laid down his
life for his friends your salvation Your hope is not in your righteousness
or in your will or in your decision. It's not in your obedience or
your religion. It's here in Christ. He came
for sinners and he bore their sin, he bore their iniquity.
He died that people like you might live. He was judged because
he bore the sins of sinners like you, that those very sinners
for whom he suffered would be cleansed and would live. He comes unto you with the gospel
and the sovereignty of God and the truth of election and repeats
unto you as Christ has said to his people, ye have not chosen
me but I have chosen you, he says unto his own. So when you
come with your lies in your hand and your pleas of I accepted
Jesus Accept me into thy kingdom Lord. He'll come unto you with
the truth and say you've not chosen me. And you can leave your arguments
and your theology and your discussions and debates about Calvinism and
Arminianism to one side. You've not chosen me. You had
a choice. You exercised your free will
and you didn't choose God because you would not choose God and
you could not choose God your sinful wicked nature was such
that the very nature of the fall that caused you to be born a
dead sinner was that you worship self you put your own self upon
God's throne you want to have the decision you want to be able
to choose And that's the problem. You want a religion where God
doesn't force you. You want to be able to say, I'll
worship him if I choose to, and I'll go my own way if I want
to. And that's what Adam did, and
he plunged the whole human race into sin and condemnation. And
that's what you're doing with such a choice. you're rejecting
Christ, you're rejecting his salvation, you're taking the
nails and taking Christ and nailing him to the cross and saying away
with him, crucify him. You're piercing him through with
your hatred of the truth. But in that state, if you're
his, if he has chosen you then he will send the spirit of truth
unto you from the father testifying of Christ in the gospel and he
will say you haven't chosen me but if I came and suffered in
your place for your sins it's because I chose you and I did
come for sinners I did come for my own I did come for those that
hated me and I suffered for them I suffered for them because I
loved them. I loved them and I gave myself
for them. And if you're his, he'll say
unto you, I loved you and I gave myself for you. You're mine. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you. That you should bring forth much
fruit. He brings the truth. The Spirit
testifies of Christ. He doesn't preach how we must
live the Christian life. He doesn't preach about our experience. He doesn't come simply preaching
messages about what we will experience and what will happen and what
will be, but he comes to declare that Christ has delivered us
from our sins. He points us unto Christ as our
only hope. He says, Lo, here is the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He says, Behold,
here my beloved Son. He says, Here is Christ, who
on the cross when he'd suffered in the darkness and borne the
sins of his people and borne the wrath of God against them,
cried out, it is finished. He says, look at the brazen serpent
and be healed. He says He delivered us from
condemnation. He delivered us from sin. He
delivered us from hell. He delivered us from the law.
He delivered us from every enemy and everything that was against
us. Here is life. If the Son of Man be lifted up,
then all who look upon Him shall be saved. look unto him the spirit
of god preaches christ he preaches christ he preaches the gospel
and the gospel's only preached when that message of Christ and
whom he is and what he has done is preached. If all you hear
is preaching about the gospel or about our experience of the
gospel or about our ups and downs, if all you hear is preaching
about our life and how we should live and how we shouldn't live,
you're not hearing Christ. But the Spirit testifies of me,
Christ says. Now of course to preach the Gospel
is to bring the message of who God is into a fallen world, describing
that world and describing man and describing our sin, describing
the fall, describing our need and leading us from that unto
the Saviour and describing what He's done to bring salvation.
It encompasses the message from beginning to end. There is a
beginning of the Gospel, as Mark says in his Gospel. A beginning
of the Gospel, in which there's a voice crying in the wilderness,
and coming unto us in the darkness of this world, and saying, repent
and turn, you need salvation. There's a crying out. There's
a convicting of our sin, the Spirit of God convicts us. But
he brings us through that unto Christ. And indeed the conviction
of sin comes when we see Christ bearing it. We may say, well,
Shall we preach the law that people might realise that their
sin is under it? Well you can, but the greatest
conviction that truly comes unto them is when they see the penalty
of that broken law exacted upon Christ. When they see the love
of Christ that caused him to bear that iniquity and bear that
guilt and bear the judgement against their failure to keep
that law. That will melt the heart. That will convict and
that will lead us broken unto the feet of Jesus and cause us
to bow down before him and say, have mercy upon me Lord, a sinner. 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. And ye also shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning. You believers
who've heard the message of this Spirit, who've heard his testimony
of Christ, you'll know Christ. you'll know him and you'll preach
him you'll also bear witness as the spirit gives you utterance
he's all out in all he's all of our message christ is all
of our message Christ is the answer to all things. He is our justification. He justifies us. He declares
us to be righteous because he's taken away our every sin. We're
declared righteous. He brings in the righteousness
of God for his people. They are without spot or blemish. according to God's very character
of righteousness, he can find no fault in them because every
iniquity, every sin, every deviation from righteousness was blotted
out at the cross. He's our justification. We're
just, we're righteous, the law can find no fault in us, the
righteousness of God can find no fault in us. Christ's death,
Christ's blood, has appeased the wrath of God. It's propitiated
it, it's quenched it. There's no more anger proceeding
from God's throne against His people because all God sees when
He looks upon them is Christ. Christ and Him crucified. He
sees Christ and the righteousness of God in Him and He sees His
people wrapped up in Him. Here's our justification, here's
our sanctification. We've been separated from the
world, from sin, from all that is evil unto God. We're sanctified
in Him, we're set apart. Set apart as holy things for
God's service. You say, I don't feel holy. No,
but in God's eyes, your sin, your old man is done away with.
You're set apart in Christ. There's nothing else to be done.
People talk of sanctification, progressive sanctification, as
though they need to as though they need to live a certain way,
as though there's some improvement across the 30 years of their
life from when they believe in Christ to when they go to glory,
as though there's some progress going on. There's no progress. Every sin in you has already
been judged. The righteousness of God came
in perfectly. The thief who died at the cross
with Christ, unto whom Christ said, today ye shall be with
me in paradise, was as righteous and sanctified as anyone else,
as the Apostle Paul, as David, as any believer who spent 50
years in as a believer journeying through this world he's a sanctified
because the sanctification is in the finished work of Christ
he is our sanctification Christ is our deliverance from sin.
He's our deliverance from death, from hell, from judgment, from
the wrath of God. Christ gives us the very righteousness
of God. He's our righteousness, He's
our holiness, He's our peace, He's our salvation. He is the
way, the truth and the life. He is the resurrection. He is
our water and our bread. He is our life. How do we know how to live in
Christ? We just live in Christ. He is our life if we have him,
we live. If we have Him, we will live
by the nature of that life and that life has a righteous and
a perfect and a holy nature. Everything that proceeded from
it is righteous. As John says in his epistle,
he that is born of God, born of the Spirit of God, by the
truth of God, by the gospel of God in Christ, does not sin. He that's born of God cannot
sin because that life is righteous. Turn from that life to your flesh. Turn from that life to obeying
in your own strength in the flesh and you will sin. But in Christ
you are perfect. You do not sin and you live. Hence the Comforter testifies
of me. When he is our all in all, everything
is in Christ. Every answer is found in Christ. I am the way, the truth and the
life. When there was division at Corinth,
how did Paul address it? Did he come and condemn the sin
there? Did he preach against the causes
of that division? Did he come with an accusation? Did he come with a judgment?
No. He preached the answer to that
division. He preached the message which
would heal that division. He brought them back to first
principles. He preached Christ. He preached
the cross. That was his starting point at
Corinth. The reason they were dividing
it is because they'd gone off onto this question and that question
and this matter and that matter and some had said do this and
do that and they strayed from the simplicity of the gospel
as it is in Jesus Christ. and hence came in division. They
started following this man and that man and the other man. This
man says this, that man says that. They started looking at
the men and not Christ. They started looking at the messengers
and not Christ. Just like John in Revelation
when the angel came and spake unto him and he fell down and
the angel said don't worship me. Well don't worship the messengers. Don't worship the spirit. Worship
Christ. Paul preached Christ and the
cross. That was the answer and is the
answer to every division, every trouble, every sin and every
error. If you come across any meeting
of God's saints and discover any problem there, or any division
there, or any trouble there, what do you preach in order to
address it? You preach Christ and His cross. you preach Christ and his cross. As the Spirit testifies of me,
Christ says. He constantly sets him forth. He places Christ before the gaze
of faith constantly, continuously, every day. How shall we live? By faith. How? By faith, looking unto Jesus
and following Him. As Hebrews 12 tells us, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. Always beholding Him. Always believing Him. Always hearing Him and always
seeing Him and always being comforted. comforted in Christ. Do you know trouble? Do you know
disappointment? Do you know sickness and despair? Do you know bereavement and loss? Do you know loneliness? Do you
feel hated? Do you feel persecuted? Are you
under trial? What is the answer to everything
that you may encounter in your pilgrimage through this world,
believer? It is Christ. You need a comforter. and Christ has said unto his
people that when he returns unto the father as he has done he
will send unto them the comforter and 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
I will preach unto you the gospel The Spirit of God, from the Father,
will testify in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and His cross,
and His finished work, and His salvation, and His grace, and
His love for sinners. He will say unto His people,
greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends. Ye are my friends. Ye have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye
should go and bring forth fruit. For ye shall also bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning. Amen.