We're going to be working in
1 John chapter 5, verse 9 and 10. And verse 10 will be where
we will put our labors in tonight. We've been dealing with the concept,
the witness or the testimony of God. That's what your outline
says, the witness or the testimony of God. We've dealt with three categories
and tonight we're going to be dealing with the third category.
The witness of the Spirit in the life of the believer. The
witness of the Spirit in the life of the believer as is given
to us in verse 10. We're going to take that and
look at eight components, eight aspects of the Spirit's work
in the life of the believer to affirm the witness and to give
credibility to the witness that the believer has obtained by
the revelation of God. The verse says in verse 9 and
10, if we receive the witness of men, if we are inclined to,
if it's part of our cultural mandate in the life of human
beings, issues are settled, lawsuits are settled, court matters are
settled based upon witnesses, then the witness of God is greater.
That's going from the lesser to the greater. If we accept
the witness of men, if the testimony of men resolves matters, if the
testimony of men put to end arguments and debates, then automatically
it would only follow that the testimony of God would put to
end arguments and debates as well. That's the logic that John
is setting forth here. For this is the witness of God,
which he has testified of his son, The logical thought is that
we will now have the witness testified to, but when he uses
the word this, he's basically summing up the whole of the epistle,
and more particularly John chapter 5, as he has explained at length. The nature and the character
of the testimony of the believer, both in terms of the heavenly
witness, the earthly witness, and now the spirit's witness
in our life, this is the testimony, or the witness, God, hath witnessed
are testified of his son." Now here's the proposition that we're
going to deal with as we open in prayer. The one that is believing
on the Son of God, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself. So now we want to take that statement
and consider the profound and privileged and serious implications
of what it means to have the witness in ourselves. Let's pray. So Father, we come
to you at this time and we thank you for an opportunity to hear
your word once again on a Friday after a long week and all of
the different toils and labors we find ourselves inclined to
do out of necessity or out of want or out of other urgencies. But here we are again and we
thank you for a country that still allows the gospel to go
forth and we thank you for space and a place to hear and to meditate
upon your precepts, to worship you and to adore the revelation
of your darling son as it is given to us in the scriptures.
Spirit of God, we ask you to help us again tonight in our
studies to grasp the truth, the important truth of what it means
to be a true and faithful witness and help us to be just that as
we are called upon to testify to the glory of God in Jesus
Christ. Forgive us of our sins, wash
us clean in the blood of the Lamb. Strengthen us, Lord, to
walk in your precepts. Help your church all around the
world as only you can help her to achieve her goal and her calling
as it is in Christ. For those that are yet coming,
give them traveling mercies, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So if you have your outline,
the witness of the spirit, the witness of the spirit, verses
12 through 13, verses 6 through 12, and then verse 13, that's
where we're going before we turn the corner. As John begins to
wrap up 1 John chapter 5, he bears down on the life of the
church, the believers that are listening to him, crucial importance
of them being called into the courtroom of heaven and being
made to be Qualified to hear the testimony of God as it were
the testimony of the father and of the son and of the spirit
This is what we learned last week. It's in your outline In
a certain category the true and the faithful witness of God that's
in your cat outline and under that are a number of verses that
substantiate the The fact that when God says that he has a testimony
or a witness to bear, he follows the very rules that he gives
us as human beings. And the rules go like this, out
of the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be
established. Sometimes again, in religion,
we quote these things and we're not quite serious about their
implications, but God is. So when God gives us his testimony
or his statues or his precepts, or his laws, they actually proceed
from him, God. And they proceed from God in
truth. And they proceed from God in
the kind of truth that is judicial in nature. That means there are
at least two witnesses to God's truth. Now what this does is
it allows us to now contemplate something of the nature of God.
You and I know that there is one God, right? revealed in three
persons. And these persons, all being
one in nature, but three distinct persons, therefore constitute
a truth witness among themselves, a truth testimony among themselves. When the father speaks, he speaks
truthfully because the son bears record with what he says, and
the spirit bears record with what he says. When the spirit
speaks, I'm sorry, when the son speaks, The Son speaks truthfully
because the Father bears record with what the Son says and the
Spirit bears record with what the Son says. And when the Spirit
speaks, He speaks truthfully because the Son bears record
of the Spirit and the Father bears record of the Spirit. These
three are the true God that speaks truthfully because they bear
record of themselves. This is the relationship between
the three. The father has given us a testimony,
the son bears record of the father, the spirit bears record of the
what? Of the son. This here is the
coordinate relationship between all three persons, and they are
bearing record of their own will, of their own purpose, of their
own plan, of their own scheme, of their own agenda, and we call
it the gospel. The gospel is the testimony of
God. The gospel being the testimony
of God is completely credible within itself. It doesn't need
another person to give credibility to it because within the framework
of the Godhead, we have three persons. They bear record. They
are all true. And this is what we learned last
week is that in the ultimate sense, there is only one true
faithful what witness that's in your outline you and I will
revisit that here for a moment that there's only one true and
faithful witness and who is that now obviously when we use that
statement I make that that emphatic exclusive statement what we are
saying is there's only one true and faithful witness among men
among men because Jesus bears both humanity and divinity and
humanity and deity. He is true in his deity, but
he is also true in his humanity. Well, that is a right and privilege
exclusive to Christ. It's in his nature. It's in his
work. This is why he said when he came,
which one of you can convince me of sin or affirm that I have
sinned or fallen short anywhere. And no one in the world can do
that. Jesus is the only true credible witness. He's the only
true incredible witness between God and man, both for God and
against man, and for man towards God. He is the one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. His true and faithful witness
in relationship to those who become believers become a testimony
that is imparted to believers which qualify believers in union
with Jesus Christ now to become witnesses as well. We are talking
about the primary but not exclusive role of the believer. Ye are
my what? We talked about how serious that
claim is, how very important it is for one to be able to reckon
with and deal with the importance of saying, I'm a witness for
God. I'm able to testify to what God
has said, and my witness is true because of certain qualifying
factors. The ultimate qualifying factor
for which every believer is made to be a true witness is because
of their participation in the ministry of the Spirit of God,
the Spirit's witness in us. This is where we are today, the
Spirit's witness within. Apart from the witness of the
spirit within you and I would be false witnesses. Okay. Apart from, um, the work of the
spirit of God in verse 10, uh, uh, verse 10, he that believeth
on the son of God, half the witness in himself, apart from the spirit's
witness in us, two things. What we, what we would say, we
could not affirm to be true because in our limited finite space,
you and I were not there 2000 years ago to be a credible witness
of the life ministry and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So even if we read it in the Bible, you and I could not of
ourselves affirm it. We would read the testimony like
you can read the testimony of anything. and say, that's an
interesting testimony, but I'm sorry, I was not there. So therefore
I cannot bear record with and verify in any authentic, credible
judicial sense, the testimony of those things that went down.
You see how important therefore it is for us to have an internal
witness who spans time and is able to say that he was there
and he can bear record to our conviction that those things
are true so that our witness in accompaniment with his witness
makes our witness credible. Did you hear what I just said?
Do you see how important it is for us to have the third person
of the Trinity to be present in our life, to qualify our capacity
to be an authentic witness? And this is why Jesus told the
disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until you be endued on high with
power So shall you be my what? witnesses So shall you be my
witnesses? Well what I want us to work with
today as we have already looked at the concept of faith being
a gift of God being planted in our heart and regeneration and
and then being strengthened by the presence of both the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit in our life, all three persons
work to strengthen the faith of the believer. In our life,
we saw this promise in John 14, where Jesus said, the person
that loves me, he will keep my commandments, and I and my Father
will come and make our abode with them, right? So the presence
of the father and the son in the life of true believers is
there in order to buoy and to strengthen and to affirm our
faith so that our testimony is credible. But then Jesus said
in John chapter 14, which we're going to be going to in a moment,
I am going to send you another comforter who will also abide
with you and also be in you. And he will be with you forever.
And his role will be to substantiate your witness. That's the role
of the Spirit of God to substantiate your witness. And this is what
John says is going on in verse 10. He that believeth on the
Son of God. This here is what we call the
fundamental evidence of being a witness. You believe on the
Son of God. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. The one that believes not God
hath made him a liar, because he believes not the record that
God gave His son and this is the record or witness or testimony
that God has given us Eternal life and this life is in his
son. Now what John does in verse 11
is closes the door He closes the door of the claim that a
person can have eternal life Anywhere else but in Jesus Christ
Are you following me? See, what he did was close the
door after affirming the fact that we who are believers are
believers because we have the witness in ourselves. The one
that is not believing the testimony of God has made God a liar. He's
still dealing with the heretics that left the church. And then
he says this, and this is the record that God has given us
eternal life. And this life is in his son.
And then he concludes in verse 12, with the implications of
this exclusive source by which life is given. He that hath the
Son hath what? And he that hath not the Son
of God does not have life. If you understand what John is
doing, John is making sure that the believers understand that
it is a non-negotiable for you to conclude that you can know
the Father but not know the Son. That you can have the Father
but not have the son that you can love the father but not love
the son that you can honor the father but not honor the son
see this is about John's affirming the gospel that God has given
us eternal life but that life is in his son in the goal of
the Spirit of God as we're getting ready to work through is to bring
that home in the life of the believer as the non-negotiable
witness and truth that we are to bear to everyone in the world. So in your outline, under the
internal and prevailing witness of the Spirit, do you guys see
that? the internal and prevailing witness of the Spirit. There
are eight things that I want to call your attention to that
I think are important for you to know with regards to the work
of the Spirit of God in affirming the truth of the gospel in the
life of the believer. There are eight things I want
to call your attention to. They're all in your Bible, and we're
going to look at them. How does the Spirit of God work
in bearing record in the life of the believer with regards
to the truth claims of Jesus Christ. How does the Spirit of
God bear record on the inside of the believer? He that believeth
on the Son hath the witness in himself. How does the believer
bear record, buoy up, strengthen, confirm the witness in the life
of the believer? How does he do it? He does it
in eight ways that I wanna deal with. Just eight ways. Eight
terms. that are in the scriptures that
I want us to look at today with regards to it. And we will expand
them point by point. What did Christ say the purpose
and role of the spirit would be in the life of the people
of God, by which their witness would be made credible, that
they would be able to serve God and that they would be able to
hold their witness even to the point of death. There's eight
things in your outline. The first is he will show us
He will teach us. He will guide us. He will show
us, teach us and guide us. Actually, I'm going to start
with guide. I'm going to move to the next word, teach. Then
I'm going to deal with the word show. And after that, there are
a few more that I want us to look at. This is the role of
the spirit. He will empower us. He will constitute our witness.
He will bear witness to us and he will keep us. So I want you
to see these terms to empower. to empower. He will bear witness. He will bear witness. Now that's
distinctly different than our bearing witness. It's critical
that the Spirit of God bears witness to us in order that we
might also be able to bear witness. I want us to see that too. He
will keep, he will conform, and he will glorify. He will keep,
he will conform. These are the roles of the Spirit
of God. And lastly, he will glorify. Let's talk about these things
for a moment. Go with me in your Bible to John chapter 16. We're going to look at the few
places in the gospel of John and then some of the New Testament
verses around what Jesus promised was the net consequence and outcome
of his accomplished work at Calvary. In John chapter 16, he's dealing
with the disciples and he's working with the disciples on the testimony that he has given
them about his necessity to depart from this world. He's told the
disciples in John chapter 14 and 15, I must go. But when I
go, I will send another comforter to you. And as he's talking to
them in John 14, 15 and 16, he's explaining the necessity of the
spirit of God given to them because of the prerequisite work that
he has already done in their life that needs to be expanded
and affirmed. So I want you to think like this.
When the son came into the world, there was a specific work for
him to accomplish and he accomplished that work on the behalf of his
father. The work that he accomplished
was the eternal redemption of all of God's people for all eternity
with respect to their justification, with respect to their imputed
righteousness, with respect to their standing with God. Christ's
death at Calvary made all of his people right with God for
all eternity. But what Christ's death at Calvary
also did was precipitate a work that was part of God's covenant
plan, which would constitute the third person of the Trinity
to have to now work in the life of the people of God, those who
would become children of God, the church of the living God,
men and women from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue throughout
the whole of the New Testament era up to now, the work of Christ
on Calvary's tree was to affect the outpouring of the Spirit
of God. Are you guys hearing me? The
work of Calvary was to affect the outpouring of the Spirit
of God. This is something we are learning
in biblical theology. This is something that should
be critically comprehended to you. When Christ said it is finished
on Calvary's tree, almost 2000 years ago, not quite, What he
was saying was his part of the covenant scheme that all three
persons had agreed upon before the world began would be accomplished. Once he accomplished eternal
redemption for us, he would go back to glory and him alone with
the father would send the third person. And now the third person
is here to do an effectual missionary work by which all of God's people
would be brought into the kingdom. And they would serve now as representatives
of Jesus Christ on the earth. Are you guys following me? So
he goes back to heaven in order to send the comforter of which
in John 14, 15 and 16, what Jesus says is, It's necessary that I go because
when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of God, He will do a work
in your life that will have a greater impact. than the work that I
was assigned to do exclusively in my incarnation that had everything
to do with your salvation. But it was a work that I had
to do exclusively. It was much more objective. It
was much more judicial. It was much more in terms of
your standing with God. It had to do with satisfying
God's justice and God's holiness and God's righteousness. The
spirit of God will be working more subjectively. He will be
working more personally. He will be working more powerfully
to actually get a hold of you and bring about in your life
the kind of qualifying experience that will allow you to enjoy
who Jesus Christ is. I want you to see these things
that the Lord Jesus is talking about. In John chapter 16, we're
gonna look at 14 and 15 as well. He starts at verse 12, and this
is what I meant by his work was exclusive with regards to our
justification. and our eternal security, but
his work was also to initiate the outpouring of the Spirit
because of other things that needed to be done. We read in
verse 12 of John 16, I have yet many things to say unto you.
You got that? So what that means is, even though
Christ had ministered to the 12 disciples for three and a
half years and said a lot of things of which John said, if
all the things that Christ had said and done were written in
books, none of the libraries in the world could contain them.
Isn't that what John said, John chapter 21? Now watch this. I
want you to think this through as I lay this foundation for
you to consider the, again, inward dwelling and powerfully prevailing
work of the spirit of God. If Jesus said, there are other
things that I want to say to you, but I can't say them now,
And yet all that he had said was so prolific and so extensive
that John is saying we couldn't even fill up all the libraries
with what Christ did. He is implying that there's more
to be said to the disciples than what he said when he was in his
incarnation. More to be said. Are you guys
following me? More to be said. Notice, I have yet many things
to say to you, but you cannot what? Bear them now. Now the
term bear there simply means that they don't have the capacity
within themselves to be able to comprehend nor to respond
to what Jesus would say to them if he said more. So Christ spoke
in a very limited fashion to the disciples because he realized
that in order for them to really understand the things that he
wants them to know, it would require their participation in
the ministry of the Spirit. We can put it like this, the
words of Christ, Christ's words, were in what we can call seed
form. Seed form. Are you following
me? I want you to get this now. We
can imagine our Lord Jesus Christ being the great sower, and he
is, is it not? Christ is the Son of Man. He
is the sower and the sower was the Son of Man. You can imagine
the sower sowing the seed of the Word into the hearts of the
apostles for three and a half years. Now he sowed some of the
seed in the soil of many women who heard him all throughout
Palestine, Capernaum, Galilee, and all the regions thereabout.
He sowed the seed, didn't he? Now, I want you to comprehend
the seed that he sold in the definition with which I have
given you for several years now, that a seed is a body of substance
that capacitates potential power and promise. Potential power
and promise. But the seed, when it's given
in its native form, is bare, And without any kind of illustrative
or fruition or fulfillment, it's in seed form. This is one of
the reasons why when you read through the Gospels, you don't
find our Lord doing any kind of extensive theological development
of doctrinal truth. You find him speaking very simply,
very plainly to the common folks in common vernacular. Our Lord
never used highfalutin theological concepts are terms. He did not
draw out extensively biblical doctrines like justification
or propitiation or the concepts of sanctification. When he talked
about these doctrines, he talked about them in the context of
illustrations and in parables and in simple concepts by which
you and I in our mind could grasp the terms in seed form, in seed
form. When Christ preached in his incarnation,
He preached and taught in seed form. You guys got that so far?
In seed form. This is what he meant. Because
they would not have been able to bear a full development of
the implications of every doctrine that Christ came to fulfill.
They wouldn't have been able to do it. You and I know that
the disciples, when they walk with Jesus, heard Jesus say things
and teach things even in seed form. that were difficult for
them to grasp. Do you realize that? I want you
to then put your shoes in there, your feet in their shoes and
think through what they were experiencing during the time
of his incarnation and ministry as a Messiah. He would often
quote the Old Testament and then says, these things are fulfilled
in me. Hence, the scriptures are fulfilled.
But he wouldn't go through a lengthy diatribe or full explication
or exposition of those things that he said he fulfilled. He
simply fulfilled them. The role of the Spirit of God
would be that of exclusively coming and taking that which
Christ gave in seed form and watering it and causing it to
grow. The expansion of biblical truth
in the ministry of the Spirit of God would take place in the
life of God's apostles and then to us. as we would have it in
the New Testament, working in a very harmonious way with the
Old Testament that they already had, so that we would have a
fuller revelation, a fuller revelation of God's word. Are you with me
so far? So John chapter six, verse 63,
I think says it like this, my word is spirit and they are life. My word is spirit and they are
life. Let me make sure that's the right
quotation. Yes. I'm in John 6, 63. It is the spirit that does what?
Quickens. That is, gives life. The flesh
profits nothing. Now, I want you to hear this
now. The words that I speak unto you, they are what? And they
are what? Life. Life. Life. Life. Now, I want you to grasp
the concept. Jesus knew He was speaking to
them in seed form. But just like you and I know
that a seed possessing all the potential and all the promise
and all of the power of becoming a vegetable or whatever that
DNA constitutes its fruition or identity is, we know that
it has the power to be that once it hits the ground and is germinated,
is watered and brings forth fruit. We know that. This is exactly
what Jesus meant. My word is spirit and they are
life. And so what he's doing is depositing
his word into the heart and mind of the disciples over the three
and a half year ministry that they're being qualified to be
missionaries. And he would say, you don't understand
these things now, but you will understand them later. Right?
So he wasn't worried about them grasping the deep and profound
inferences and implications of his doctrine. He was worried
about them being mere witnesses of what he said and what he did.
Are you with me? He wasn't telling them that you
have to now go back and study these things in a very didactic,
analytical, deconstructive, propositional way and draw conclusions based
upon your intellect. No, I want you to simply hear
what I'm saying and see what I'm saying, because that's what
it means to be a what? A witness. Hear what I'm saying
and see what I'm saying. And here's what he said. The
spirit of God will take everything that I said to you. Got it. and everything you saw me do,
the third person who now will be the internal and prevailing
witness, he will take all of that and he will make you understand
it more fully. He will make you understand it
more fully. It's in C form, but when the
third person comes, he will take what you heard and bring it back
to your what? Remembrance. So see if remembrance
becomes a part of the ministry of the Spirit of God in the life
of those 12 foundation pillars, remembrance, then somebody had
to deposit into them something to remember. Who was that? Christ. Christ gave them his word in
seed form. And then he said, when the Spirit
comes, he's going to take that word and open it up fully. This is what I want us to talk
about tonight because this is very important. so he told them
you can't bear it now verse 13 how be it when he he he he masculine
form he the spirit of what the spirit of truth is come when
he is come he will guide you into all what now we were reading
it in the original it would have a definite article there he would
guide you into all the truth now now watch what Our Lord says
he will guide you for he shall not speak from himself He shall
not speak from himself, but whatsoever. He shall what? You know why Jesus
just made that statement with regards to the role of the Spirit
of God Because the Spirit of God has to be just what Jesus
had to be just what we have to be witnesses The role of the
Spirit is not to come and give you some new things some different
thing, some other testimony, some other account, some other
revelation that originates from Him. His job is exclusively to
bear record to Jesus. Got that? As Jesus' job exclusively
was to bear record to His what? Father, which is what Jesus said
in John chapter 15. I do not speak of myself, all
that the Father gives me, that I speak and that I do. Within
the inner Trinitarian relationship, we see a corresponding connection. The father is testifying. The
son is bearing record to the father. The son is testifying.
The spirit is bearing record to the son. See the connection? Because they are all witnesses
of the same council that they will fulfill. So Jesus didn't
have the right to come down here and do his own thing. This would
have divided them in their purpose. And we know the three are one,
not only in the ontological nature are being since, but they are
three, they are one in purpose. That means that Jesus, even though
he had his own individual will, he had his own individual mind.
He never operated, operated outside of the will of his father. You
know what we call that agreement. Are you hearing me? It's called
agreement. Now would not be agreement if Jesus didn't have his own
will. It would simply be a robot or a tape recorder merely mimicking
the will of the original author. But Christ had his own will,
didn't he? It was revealed to us in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And he said it frequently, I did not come to do my own what? but the will of him that sent
me. So he had his own will. This constitutes what we call
personhood. Okay. He wasn't a robot. He had to
have his own will because he had to be an authentic, incredible,
voluntary witness to the things that his father told him. Got
it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be legitimate. Like in a court case,
you can't coerce a person to actually subscribe to information
that you lay out before them with threats and warnings. It
makes their witness incredible and invalid. They have to voluntarily
agree with the information that's before them as to corresponding
with the facts based upon their testimony. I'm just laying down
some foundation for us as we go into the fascinating and profoundly
important ministry of the spirit of God. In the same fashion in
which Christ had to strictly do what his father sent him to
do, that's what it means to be an apostle, the Holy Ghost had
to strictly do what the father and the son sent him to do, because
he's an apostle too. He had no freedom to do what
he wanted to do. It's one of the reasons why we
have said many times with folks who are fascinated by the ministry
of the Holy Ghost, You will not be able to substantiate these
foolish and arcane, these pagan manifestations of the so-called
Spirit of God in the churches that you see going on today.
You will not be able to substantiate that as being authentic because
you won't be able to find Christ anywhere in the Word of God acting
like the folk act in churches today who call it the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost has but one responsibility. to reflect accurately as a legitimate,
incredible witness, the character, person, and work of Jesus Christ.
And we haven't even touched it yet. But his role is to rightly
represent Christ as Christ's role was to rightly represent
the father. Otherwise, Christ's testimony
would have been distorted. For if Christ did not rightly
represent the Father, we cannot know the Father in truth because
the testimony of Christ would not have been a truthful testimony
of the Father. Am I making some sense? And if
the Spirit of God is doing his own thing in an arbitrary, whimsical,
capricious fashion, because he's here now, he on the road, so
we're gonna get on our Holy Ghost Harley and ride down the road
as some of these clowns talk. He is now acting out of character
Misrepresenting the one for whom he is called upon to be an accurate
representation The moment the spirit does something like that.
He is an incredible non-substantial witness. Am I making some sense?
So so very important for us to understand that and by implication
it would mean the same thing for us. I If the third person
who is God himself, the spirit of God garnished the heavens,
the spirit of God through the word of Christ by the power and
prerogative of the father created the universe, the spirit of God
sustains the universe. He upholds all things. Psalm
104, God sends his spirit. They live. He takes his spirit
away. They die. I'm talking about the spirit
of God. I'm not talking about a limited pagan spirit in people's churches.
I'm talking about God, the Holy ghost. Okay. All of the attributes
of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit are attributes
that are consistent in their characteristics and manifestation
because they are one. And therefore, as the Son is,
so is the Father, and as the Spirit is, so is the Son. You're
not going to have a diversity of manifestations between the
three persons. They operate as one, and therefore, they are
synonymous in their representation of each other accurately. I'm
just driving at home because we don't understand this with
regards to the nature of the work of the Spirit of God in
our churches. The Spirit of God doesn't just get the clown, okay? His job is to glorify the son. His job is to glorify the son
in eight ways. So that's what we're going to
deal with tonight briefly. So our Lord said over in verse 13,
when the spirit of truth, and you know what truth is, just
in case you guys don't know, write it down. Truth. I'll let the
O is Reality according to God. Truth is reality according to
God. Truth is not your reality or
my reality or how we see it or how other people see it. That's
what we call relative truth. But it cannot be truth in the
ultimate truth sense because our relative truth has been proven
many, many times to be false. And so if a thing is presumed
upon to be true today and then tomorrow be found to be false,
it was always false. You just assume that it was true,
but God is truth by nature and therefore he never changes. This
is what we call immutability, the doctrine of immutability,
the unchangeable, impeccable nature of God. Truth resides
in God. And because God is a God of truth
and Christ is the way and the truth and the spirit is the spirit
of truth, all three of them see the same things the same way.
And what they see is reality because they see it accurately.
Right now, for you and I to be able to say we know the truth,
it has to be revealed to us. because by nature we cannot possess,
contain, retain, preserve truth because we're fallen creatures.
You guys got that? We don't have truth intuitively.
Well, I've always known the truth. No, you haven't. No, you haven't. Truth has to be revealed to you.
By nature we're liars and by nature we see things in a distorted
way because by nature we look through the prism of our own
selfish agenda. How many of you remember prior
to the gospel coming to you in power, and land blasting you
of all your false notions of who God was and who you were.
It was humbling, wasn't it? Truth is designed to demolish
all false notions. And the only person that can
do that is God. Only person that can do that
is God. And so I'm simply saying that to help us understand the
importance of the mission that Christ is about to state with
respect to the spirit of God. There are eight things that I
have categorized. There are many more. But the first thing our
master says, ladies and gentlemen, is this. When the spirit of truth
has come, he's speaking in the future tense, he will guide you
into all truth. You guys got that? I want you
to grasp our term guide for a moment. The word guide has very strong,
strong, strong inferences. Here's what it means. When a
person is guided, When a person is guided, what it implies about
the person who is guided is that they have no ability within themselves
to know where they are going. When the text says that the Spirit
of God will guide you into truth, it means you and I are lost to
the ability to find the truth on our own. You got that? When what the scripture says,
he will guide you into all the truth. What it's saying about
you and I is that we don't have the ability in ourselves to find
the truth. And that with regards to coming
to the truth. Now I want you to mark this now.
In order for you and I to come to the truth, we have to humble
ourselves before God as if we are utterly blind. For the term
literally means to take by the hand someone who is so ignorant
or blind and lead them to the place that they need to go. You
got that? This is Matthew chapter 15, when
Jesus said concerning the rulers in Matthew 6, 15, if the blind
lead the blind, both of them will fall into the ditch. This
is what he meant in Romans chapter two, when the apostle Paul speaking
to the Jews said, are you a teacher of babes? Do you boast yourself
in the law? Do you know God's word? Are you
able to say, I can lead that person? Are you a guide to the
blind? Got that? That's our term. Are
you able to guide people who are utterly outside of biblical
truth, outside of theological truth, outside of the reference
point of truth? Can you bring them into the sphere
and rim of truth? Can you help them discover the
truth? Can you show them the truth? Can you lead them to the
truth? That's what he's saying, the
teacher's job is to do. Are you hearing me? So the first
word that Jesus uses is a strong word that implies that even the
apostles, were by nature so inept, so unqualified to be able to
come to the truth of Christ that it required the third person
to come into their life, humble them to the dust, help them understand
that they have absolutely no ability in themselves to comprehend
truth. That's the first place that we
have to come to before the gospel is revealed to us. In other words,
what Jesus is doing in this word guide, Hodiego, Uh, he is excluding
any human intellect, any human wisdom, any human power or prowess
that one might want to incorporate by, uh, and therefore say, you
know what? Me and the Holy ghost work this
out. And this is how I came to the truth. Well, no, what the
text is saying is you don't bring anything to the equation of coming
to the truth other than the acknowledgement that you have no ability to come
to the truth on your own. And so the work of the spirit
of God is to guide us into the truth. The word is used also,
uh, in a very interesting way, uh, with regards to guide in
the, uh, in, in the book of Luke where, uh, uh, and in fact, it's
in Mark chapter 15, Matthew 15. No, it's not Matthew 15. It's
in Luke's account where, uh, Judas Iscariot. No, this is an
act chapter one. Judas Iscariot is said to have,
On the night that Jesus was crucified and he was in the garden of Gethsemane
praying and the disciples were there after the upper room. Cause
Judas left out the upper room and went and betrayed Jesus.
Remember that? Well, the text says in Acts chapter eight and
Judas was guide to them that betrayed him. You know what that
meant? That meant that those who came
to take Jesus would have never found Christ because Christ went
to a secret place. that he and the disciples went
to all the time to pray. And none of the centurions, none
of the soldiers that came with Caiaphas and the high priest
would have found Jesus where he resorted if someone did not
guide them there. You got my word? The word then
guide means that the work of the Holy Spirit is to come and
be a sovereign teacher. an absolutely sovereign teacher
and the student or the pupil takes a position of complete
poverty, complete helplessness, a complete state of, I must be
fully led by you because I'm blind. I'm totally inept. I have
no qualifications for coming to the truth. That's what that
word guided means. So that means the first work of the spirit
when he comes into the life of the believer is to get his hand.
Get the hand. Like a father, guiding his child,
then the Holy Ghost now becomes a tutor. He gets your hand. And
this is the hand of faith that submits to the work of the Spirit
of God and leading us to truth. Are you guys with me so far?
This is the hand of faith. And except you humble yourself
like a little child, you will not see the kingdom of God. You
will not enter into it. You will not comprehend it. You will not
be useful in the kingdom until you stick out the hand of faith
and say, lead me by the hand. Show me the truth. I can never
come to the truth by my own intellect or by my own power. That's what
the word means. Now, what he's going to do is
lead us into all the truth, all the truth. We've already explained
the second clause for he shall not speak of himself. That means
the goal of the spirit of God is not to take the hand of the
child of God and bring him to a place where the child of God
is fascinated with the Holy Ghost. The goal of the Spirit of God
is not to take the hand of the child into the interpreter's
house, if you read Pilgrim's Progress, and give you pictures
of the Holy Ghost doing this, and the Holy Ghost doing that,
and the Holy Ghost doing the other thing. So you are constantly
talking about the Holy Ghost this, the Holy Ghost that, the
Holy Ghost the other. If you're talking the Holy Ghost
this, Holy Ghost that, Holy Ghost the other thing, then either
the Holy Ghost has aborted his mission, or the one guiding you
is not the Holy Ghost. Are you with me so far? The role
of the Holy Ghost is to lead you to truth. Are you hearing
me? To truth. And now Jesus is going
to explicate that, make it more fully clear. Now the things I'm
sharing with you, you get to examine your own excursion, your
own experience, your own state right now, and ask yourself,
am I being led by the Spirit? Okay, you get to do that. So
here's what he says. He will not speak of himself,
he will not speak from himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak. Now watch this. And he will show
you things to come. Do you see it? He will show you
things to come. So that's our second word. He
will show you things to come. It's an interesting term. And
technically what it means, ladies and gentlemen, is to fully declare. fully utter, fully proclaim,
thoroughly explicate, like a heralder. He will say everything that was
meant to be said about everything that constitutes our eternal
redemption. He will fully declare, fully
declare. That's what the word means, fully
declare, fully declare. Like Paul said in Acts chapter
20, when he was about to leave the church at Ephesus, having
been there for two and a half, three years, ministering to them,
he says, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. He says, when I leave you tonight,
they were weeping and crying because Paul had to leave from
Ephesus after two and a half, three and a half years. He says,
I taught you day and night with tears. I labor every day explaining
to you everything about the gospel of the glory of God in Christ
So that I can say to you no man's blood is on my hand. I didn't
withhold anything from you. That was good for you I fully
declare to you watch this all the counsel of god You guys got
you got that now. That's the role of the spirit
of god now what he's doing He's taking the seed that was sown
in the heart of the disciples and he's watering that seed So
that seed now is coming to fruition, is growing up doctrinally, is
growing up prophetically, is setting forth a maturity of the
message of Christ that was in them by Christ in a way that
they would now be able to explain the Old Testament in a much more
thorough fashion to their Jewish brethren and their Gentile brethren.
So you read in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost, Peter
standing up and preaching with great clarity out of the Old
Testament. And this is that which the scripture
said would occur in the mouth of Joel. Isaiah said this, I
know you read this about David, but David's in the ground, this
is about Christ. And you're wondering how Peter
could be so eloquent, so thoroughly knowledgeable, so fully understanding
of those Old Testament passages when just a few weeks ago he
was a buffoon like you and me. The Holy Ghost is guiding him
into the truth, bringing back to his remembrance what he had
learned as a child and what he had learned from Christ. Are
you guys following what I'm saying? So the first application is to
the apostles because they are the medium between you and I. Whenever you read these promises
given in John chapter 14 through 16, it means to fully declare,
to show they are first and foremost to the apostles. Be careful when
you hear people expound the Word of God and fully or consistently
disregard the context. Okay, be careful. Because we
are so me-driven, self-centered, egocentrical, we like to think
that we have a special in with God where this is between me
and God and it has no historical context whatsoever. But to take
away the historical context is to destroy the continuity of
everything the New Testament says, okay? So when you and I
have the promise of the Spirit of God guiding us into truth,
we must not disregard the mechanism or the instrumentality by which
that truth is brought to us. So when you meet people who call
themselves prophets or prophetesses, where the Lord guided me into
this truth. No, he didn't. Not if you have
not submitted to biblical truth, to apostolic truth, rightly interpreted,
the Holy Ghost was not in it. If you have not submitted to
the Bible, which is the inspiration of the Spirit of God, all scriptures
given by what? Inspiration of God. If you have
not submitted to the writings of the Holy Ghost, and you have
not submitted to the Holy Ghost rightly interpreting those things
that were given to you by the Holy Ghost in the pen of the
apostles, then you have not been guided into the truth. Am I making
some sense so far? Because for a legitimate Christian
to be able to be an authentic witness, they don't get to jump
over the scriptures. The scriptures are the witness.
We don't get to jump over the apostles. They are the witness. We don't get to tell the Holy
Ghost to tell us directly. He's working through them by
the word in us so that we verify what the apostles said of which
the apostles got from the Spirit of God having already received
in seed form what they got from Jesus Christ. Am I making some
sense? The first word that I want you
to grasp in is guide. People are not going to be advanced
in biblical knowledge just because they have a high IQ. The second
word is to show. I like the way the King James
puts it. And it means to fully declare. And we could, with that
word show, imply the idea of unveiling. We could, with the
word show, imply the idea of unveiling. And what I mean by
that is this. The Spirit of God, when He shows us things to come,
or as is going to be declared, He's going to take the things
of Christ and show them unto us. he's simply gonna pull back
the veil so that that which is already declared of Christ might
be made manifest to us in our sight. Are you with me so far?
To show then is to open the curtains and allow us to see the revelation
of Jesus Christ in all of his offices, in all of his work,
in all of his prophetic purposes. I'll give you one example of
what I mean by that. The book of Revelation is a showing. It's
the opening of the curtains of the things that would transpire
from the earliest of the New Testament time, the beginning
of the church age, all the way to the end of the world. And
when you and I read the book of Revelation, what we have is
the work of the Spirit of God showing us the exalted reigning
ruling Christ governing the whole world Unfolding the scheme of
redemption in the seven seal book that he took from the throne
and opened up and Demonstrating how he is ruling all things even
to the end of the world. That's an unveiling He will show
you things to come now to show you things to come is to simply
give you the privilege of seeing what's behind the veil and What
that implies and infers is that there was something already there.
It wasn't produced in the moment that you saw it. It was already
there. This is what we call the apocalypse. Something's there,
but the curtains have to be pulled back so we could see it. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? So in the real sense, with regards
to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, from the standpoint of guiding
and showing, He's taking you by the hand, He's bringing you
into a theorio scenario, that's a Greek term to see or to observe,
but it's from where we get the term theater, theorio, or from
the term theorize. which is what John used to first
John chapter one around verse one. And when he says, we saw,
we gazed, we looked upon and we handled of the word of life
to gain and we beheld his glory, the glorious of the only begotten
of the father, full of grace and truth. We gauged upon him
is as if the curtains are opened up and we get to see the movie.
Are you following me? the privileged are allowed to
see the movie. It's called the revelation of
Jesus Christ. So we are guided in a helpless,
blind, childlike state to a place where the Spirit of God unveils
the curtain so we can see. But we still got problems because
we don't know what we're looking at. So the third word that comes
into view is the word what? Teach. teach. So here's what he says, how be it when he the spirit
of truth has come he will guide you into all the 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. Got it? He will glorify me. He will exalt me. He will magnify
me. He will manifest the riches of
the treasures of the glory of God in me. He will make me magnificent
in your eyes. For He shall receive of mine
and He will show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine. Therefore I said that He shall
take of mine and show it unto you. That's the emphasis. He
will show it unto you. Now the idea of teach goes back
to John chapter 14. and John chapter 15 as well.
Let me do it at a John chapter 15. John chapter 15. No, John chapter 14 and John
chapter 14. Let me start at verse 26. Let
me start at verse 25. These things have I spoken unto
you. This is Jesus talking, being present with you, but the comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the father will send in my what?
Which means on the basis of my authority, he will send the spirit
on the basis of my authority with my authority in his being. He will become the vicar of Christ.
He will become the ambassador of Christ. And thus the spirit
of God will be called the spirit of Christ. You guys got that? So that when he speaks, he will
not speak of himself like an ambassador has no right to represent
himself. He can only represent the country
from which he came. I speak to you in the name of
Jesus Christ. So the Spirit of God comes bearing
all of the authority of Christ to speak to us on a personal
level. I used this years ago when we went through systematic
theology and we dealt with the hierarchy or the positions of
the persons in the Godhead in relationship to the believer.
The father is always viewed as seated on his throne and fundamentally
fixed a permanent state of absolute authority regal authority over
everything you guys got that Whenever the heavens opened up
to the prophets in the Old Testament and they saw the ancient of days
sitting on his throne. That's the father Okay, he's
seated on his throne. That means he's not moving. He's
running the universe But he governs the universe by his son and through
his spirit. You got that. I By his son and
through his spirit and that's why when you see the son You
see the son both on his throne with his father and yet down
here on the earth actually bringing to pass the will of god when
john gives us the revelation in john chapter and first uh
in revelation chapter one concerning the um The qualities and properties
of the risen christ. He says and I beheld one Whose
hair was white as wool And that attribute is denoted of the father
in Daniel chapter seven, who was called the ancient of days.
And yet Christ is possessing that same ancient of days quality,
which constitutes the unity of their deity. You got that? Christ
is as old as his father. Possessing equal authority and
representing his father so fully that he could say, if you have
seen me, you've seen the father. And in fact, you cannot see the
father apart from the Son. Am I making some sense? It's
not possible to comprehend God, the Father, apart from God, the
Son. There's only one way to rightly comprehend the Father,
and that's through the Son. So when we actually see the Son,
we see those characteristics and attributes that pertain to
the Father in the Son. Now, how do we see the Son? By
the ministry of the Holy Ghost. Got that? How do I comprehend
him who from his tops or his loins all the way down to his
feet wore a vestment and his feet were as brass and his eyes
were a flaming fire and out of his mouth went a two-edged sword
and his hair was white like wool and he was glorious in his appearing?
I can't talk like this unless the Holy Ghost pulled back the
veil and let me see. Now I may not even know what
I'm talking about, but I may sound very eloquent setting it
forth, right? So I have the revelation because
I'm able to repeat the revelation to you. But the question is,
do I understand what it means? Right. That's the third concept
of teaching, isn't it? So he guided me to the show.
He pulled back the curtains and let me see the revelation. Now
he has to teach me what those things mean. That's the goal
of the Holy Ghost. Now Jesse, let me help you understand
what the robe meant, what the vestment meant, what the white
hair meant, what the bronze feet meant, what the sword coming
out of his mouth meant, how all of these relate to not only his
deity, but his work as our high priest and our mediator, having
accomplished eternal redemption for us and having risen from
the dead, having gone through the depths of hell. He is now
in a triumphant state. as the mediator walking through
the midst of the church, purging and guiding and controlling and
cleansing and watching over his church. The Holy Ghost has to
teach me that and he doesn't teach me that in a dream or a
vision. He teaches me that through the word. Am I making some sense? He helps me precept upon precept,
line upon line, here a little, there a little, understand the
attributes and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed
to me in the scriptures. But he didn't reveal that to
me directly. He revealed it through the scriptures
as he gave it to the apostles. He gave them the revelation to
give to us. You guys follow what I'm saying?
Very important for us to understand then what he's doing. Now, what
Jesus said over in verse 26 is, but the comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall what? Teach you all things. So we move
into the powerful work of didactics. We move into the powerful work
of teaching. When I use the term didactic,
that is our Latin term for education. That's the difficult discipline
of being taught. The Greek word is didoske, same
word. That's what it means to teach.
When he sets you down and works through the principles of education,
helping you understand what things mean. starting with the fundamentals,
starting with the ABCs, starting with the rudiments, so that you
can begin to understand how to interpret the Scriptures properly.
In other words, you and I have to be taught. Got that? Remember when you started reading
your Bible and you were enjoying what you were reading the first
few years of your Christian life, or maybe even the first few months,
but it dawned on you after a while that you were just seeing things
that you didn't understand, right? So you had the revelation, but
what you did not have was the interpretation. You had the revelation,
but you didn't have the interpretation. And your soul started saying,
what does this mean? So the Spirit of God now is there
as the resident tutor to help us comprehend biblical truth
and biblical truth relative to the glory of God in Christ. Are
you guys following what I'm saying? And by the way, this is true
of all of God's elect everywhere in the world. If you are being
taught wrong and you don't have a proper teacher who himself
has been taught properly and therefore assumedly taught by
the Spirit of God, your soul will never be satisfied with
what you were taught. Are you guys hearing me? Your
soul will never be satisfied with what you're taught because
so long as you and I are taught wrong, we cannot have the affirmation
that it was true. We just had issues given to us.
We had doctrines taught to us. We had concepts given to us.
And we were in a quasi realm of hope because we were in the
scriptures. But until the Scriptures are
rightly interpreted, we don't have that sense of satisfaction
that I now understand. The struggle the disciples had
was, Lord, why are you speaking to us in parables? And every
now and then he would penetrate the parable, give them the truth,
and they would say, as you read it in John chapter 16, Lord,
now thou speakest plainly and no more in parables. The soul
is satisfied when you get an accurate interpretation of biblical
truth. Am I with you? Are you with me? And what that
would mean is the Spirit of God has qualified you to hunger for
truth. So you weren't satisfied with
some babble about the text that operates on the periphery and
doesn't actually penetrate the text to explain the text. I need
to know what the text means, because until I know what it
means, I don't actually have the teaching of the text. I may
have the revelation of the text, but I don't have the teaching
of the text. Are you guys with me so far? And don't ever betray
your soul. Don't betray your soul. by sitting
and listening to things that are peripheral in nature and
kind of have you within the framework, but does not penetrate the text
to explain the text. You want to be able to have a
sense of clarity and affirmation of the truth in your soul, because
only then will your soul be satisfied and happy when you are properly
taught. So he says. We're almost done
here, but the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father
will send in my name with my authority, with regards to my
glory, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to
your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." So in that realm
of teaching, once again, in the historical context, you and I
have to be sure that Jesus is talking first and foremost to
whom? The apostles. And then secondarily to us through
them, right? So go with me in your Bibles
to Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews chapter, I'm going to look at
verse 11. Then I'm going to go back to first John chapter two to
close out on this part. And then I'll deal with one more
word tonight. And that's the word empowered. Hebrews chapter
eight, verse 11. So here is a critical truth with
regards to us being taught and taught in what we call in theology,
saving knowledge, the knowledge that actually saves. Many of us are persuaded that
unless you and I are being taught in a biblical fashion, in a crystal
centric fashion, in a spirit aided fashion, you don't have
what is called saving knowledge. You just have knowledge. Like
many, many folks who grew up in church and having the Bible
stories read to you and all that type of stuff, you remember the
stories. This is one of the things about biblical theology. We're
learning how to take the story and find his story in the story. until his story in the story
is made manifest to you, you don't have a saving knowledge
of God. You just have a head knowledge
of historical facts that are written down that have no eternal
efficacy in so far as your salvation is concerned. What gives you
a sense of the saving efficacy of the word is when the truth
of Christ inherent in the text is applied to your heart by the
Holy Ghost and you have the reason for which those things are written.
in relationship to your salvation. Got that? Like we're dealing
with the Ark of Noah and understanding all of the implications of that.
And we can clearly see that God was working salvation in a redemptive
way, in a magnificently Christ-exalting way, through that big old boat
that was more than two football fields long, testifying to the
whole world that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life,
and no man comes unto the Father but by Him. and we can experientially
and subjectively identify with the art, because that's how God
has saved us. He called us out of darkness.
He opened up the ark door. He put us in the ark. He closed
the ark. And when the ark went through
hell, we went through hell with the ark. And when the ark came
out on the other side, we came out on the other side too. And
when God opened the door on the ark, the olive branch was given
to us by the dove, which is the Holy Ghost to let us know that
our sins were paid for. put away. There is therefore
no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. That's the
gospel rendered in the heart of those who are saved from the
beginning of time to the end of time. It's the same message.
It's the same salvation given to us in all of these pictures.
Can you see that? Can you guys see that? And this
is what's taking place. And here is where this promise
is rendered. It's rendered in the new covenant
as we have it in Hebrews chapter eight, verse 11. I'm gonna start
at verse 10 for this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days that is after the days of the Old
Testament said the Lord I will put my laws into their what I
will write them in there what and I will be to them a God and
they will be to me a people you know what we call that regeneration
that's where the Spirit of God takes the letter of the law and
writes it on the heart of and makes you and I living epistles
written and known on the hearts of all men, because now it's
no more on the tables of stone in an external fashion, which
everybody can read. It's planted in our heart. And
if any man be in Christ Jesus, he's a new creation. Old things
have passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. And the spirit of God now is residing in the heart, in
the center, in the core of our being to cause the truth, to
make sense in our soul, in our soul. That's the new covenant
promise. You guys got that? That's the new covenant promise
and while as yet a person is not regenerate or born again,
they're just like the Old Testament Saints They can receive the letter
of the law on tables of stone But it didn't change their life
It's not a saving knowledge until the Spirit of God takes the letter
and make it life in the soul Until the Spirit of God takes
the letter and make it life in the soul and only the Spirit
of God can do that watch this I will put my laws into their
minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them
a God. This is the prerogative and the volitional work of God.
Notice what it says. I will put my laws in their heart
and mind. I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people.
Now watch it. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor
and every Man his brother saying know the Lord you got that See
now we're talking about the saving work of the Spirit of God in
the life of the people of God Teaching us personally what salvation
really and truly is This is part of the new covenant promise watch
this Saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least
to the greatest Knowing again is the concept of intimacy and
it connotes a real vital relationship and this is eternal life that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou has said now follow this now God said in the new covenant
He will be the one making men and women to know him got that
that's the prerogative of the Spirit of God He's the ultimate
teacher And when he's done teaching you in the intimacy of covenant
relationship by which you are brought into union with Jesus
Christ, you are his and he is yours and the life of Christ
is in you. Now follow this now, no one can teach you that but
the Holy Ghost. Now watch this now, when you
are then authentically a child of God, you know it, for they
shall all know me from the least to the greatest. No one can know
God for you. Only you can know God for yourself.
And for you to know God for yourself is for God to reveal himself
for you and the efficacy and power of the ministry of the
spirit of God. So you know what we do when we
talk to people and ask them about their spiritual condition? Here's
what we say. Do you know the Lord? Is that
what we say? Do you know the Lord? Is that
what we say? Do you know the Lord? You know what we never say? Can
I help you know the Lord? Can I show you the Lord? Can
I reveal the Lord to you? You don't know the Lord? Here,
let me help you know the Lord. We have no prerogative. Only
the Spirit of God can make a man or woman come to know the Lord. All we hope is in the ministry
of teaching that one day they come to know the Lord. See what
I'm getting at? One more word, one more word,
then I'm done. And I'll come back and touch
on this next week. The other word is empower. Empower. I think I'll wait till next week
because it's a very important concept. For the spirit of God to give
us the ability. To bear record to the truth. In a manner in which we are able
to testify testify. on the behalf of Jesus Christ.
For this hour, we have observed that it's the commission by Christ
to the Holy Ghost to hunt down and to bring men and women by
guiding them, by showing them and by teaching them who Jesus
Christ is according to the scriptures as it's laid out by the apostles
so that they come into a saving knowledge of him. That's what
we're doing. That's the work of the spirit of God. But that's
only the introductory work of qualifying us for what God has
called us to be. And that is witnesses. You guys
got that? Witnesses. A witness constitutes
two things. What he knows, that's the internal
witness, and what he says. God didn't save you to keep your
mouth shut. No one would be persecuted who
kept it to themselves. No one would experience the spirit
of glory which rests upon the children of God all around the
world who suffer for Christ's sake if when called upon to testify,
do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
God. They held their peace. Christ didn't call us to be a
light under a bushel. So he puts the witness in so
that it comes out of our mouth as he empowers us to stand and
to testify to the reality of God. Am I making some sense? And we haven't even gone through
half of the extensive work of the Spirit of God to take men
and women who, in and of themselves, cannot be witnesses for God and
make us to be able to be witnesses of God. Let's pray. Father, thank
you for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for my brothers and sisters who have made it out. As we go,
give us traveling mercies. Take us to our homes. Prepare
us to worship you on Sunday as you ought to be worshiped. In
Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.