Okay so the subject for our meditation
this morning is the second half of John chapter 14 from verses
16 down to 31. And we've been looking in recent
weeks at the account of Jesus just before he went to the cross.
These are the last few days. This is in and around Bethany,
it's the week of the crucifixion. He's already ridden into Jerusalem
and had the people cry Hosanna and all of that acclaim and now
he's at Bethany in the evening and they're going to go into
Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover itself when he will be that Passover
lamb and he's saying to them as he's done on many occasions
that he's going away from them and that he's got a dreadful
path to tread and Peter says ah they're not going to do this
to you even if everybody else leaves you I will never leave
you and Jesus says to him Peter, Peter in your weakness of your
flesh before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times
but don't let your heart be troubled you see there isn't a chapter
division there really it's only there for convenience that chapter
division isn't inspired you'll deny me three times before the
cock crows but don't let your heart be troubled I've got work
to do, there are mansions to prepare, in my father's house
are many mansions and I go to prepare a place for you and I'll
come and I'll bring you again to myself and so they go on and
last week's message we're entitled Knowing God. Knowing God, what
it is to know God. Knowing God in Christ, knowing
God in the only way that he can be known which is in the Lord
Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life and no man
comes to the Father but by Him and nobody is accepted outside
of Christ and the atonement that He has accomplished. Nobody has
accepted with God, nobody has that peace of knowing, eternal
acceptance with God outside of Christ and the atonement that
He has accomplished. And how do we know it? It's through
intimate knowledge of Him. It's knowing Him. If ye had known
me ye should have known my Father also. What is it to know the
Father? What is it to know the Father?
John 17 verse 3, this is eternal life, this is eternal life, that
they might know thee, the only true God, knowing the Father
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Well show us the Father.
If you've seen me, said Jesus, you've seen the Father. There
is nothing more to see. This intimate knowledge of God,
this union with Christ, is union with the Godhead, for in Him
dwells the fullness of the Godhead, bodily, says Paul to the Colossians. And that union with the Godhead
leads us into this experience of the fullness of eternal life. And what is it based upon? Is
it just based on some mystical knowledge of this spirit being
who we call God? Is it just based on that? No
it isn't, it's based on justice established, absolutely justice
established, debts paid, sins blotted out of the book, sins
blotted out, taken away as far as the east is from the west.
Now Jesus had told them that his earthly ministry must end
He told them that the hour had now come. You know again and
again they tried to take him but they couldn't because his
hour had not yet come. But now he says his hour has
come. Now is the time when what the
prophets said must happen. Zechariah had said a few hundred
years before, the shepherd must be smitten. Now is the time for
the shepherd, the one who is my fellow says God. The shepherd
must be smitten. and in the process the sheep
will be scattered Zechariah 13 verse 7 but don't be troubled
it's just for a while just for a short while, he's going away
from them and they're going to be troubled and they're going
to be in anguish for a time but don't be troubled. You know how
John had leaned on Jesus' bosom, John the disciple whom Jesus
loved, verse 23 of chapter 13, now there was leaning on Jesus'
bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved, that's John the
writer of this gospel and Jesus is going away And no more would
he be able to sit at table and lean on Jesus' bosom in that
intimate physical closeness. What would they do? What would
they do when he's gone? How would they go on living without
him? They'd become so dependent on
him. He'd said to them back in chapter 6 at the end of chapter
6, will you also go away as many went away from him? And Peter
speaking for them said, to whom shall we go? You have the words
of eternal life. There's nowhere else we can go.
We can't envisage living without you here with us. But now he's
going away. How are they going to cope with
this situation? How are they going to survive?
He's got the words of eternal life. How are they going to continue
living without him? You know there are human situations
that are often the stuff of Hollywood and of sentimental stories but
imagine the situation where there's a man and his wife and young
children and they're scratching out a poverty stricken existence
in extreme poverty and hardship and how difficult it is for them
and they hear that there's prosperity across the sea that there's good
farming, there's work to be done, there's money to be earned, they
can have a roof over their head that doesn't leak, they can clothe
the children, they can put food on the table but he must go away
he must leave them, he must go across the sea and start to earn
some money and get established and set up a home and then come
back and bring them to be with him and take them out of that
situation of poverty and you can imagine the heartache, the
feelings of human heartache that he must go away this is a good
honourable man and they'd so much miss him and he's going
to go away and when he's away the only things that they will
have will be the pictures, the photographs perhaps, they'll
have the letters that they get from him, they'll have the money
that he sends home and they'll be longing for that day when
he's established what's needed and he comes and gets them and
takes them. I know none of these human pictures
come anywhere close to explaining or illustrating what Christ was
talking about here. But he's going away and it's
going to be a tortuous, tortuous journey. It's going to be an
anguished path that he's got to tread. It's a dreadful road
that he's got to tread. He sweat a few hours later as
it were drops of blood at the prospect of being loaded with
the sin of his people and we can talk about it because we're
sinners and we live in the realm of it but to him the Holy One
of God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity to be loaded
with the sins of his people must be like the thought that you
would have if you see somebody with the most dreadful horrible,
weeping, sore skin disease and feeling that you're going to
be covered with that same thing. Just a dreadful shrinking away
from that prospect. He's got a dreadful path to tread. But he says, don't let your heart
be troubled. It's all for the purpose of establishing
eternal life, of accomplishing redemption. of making atonement
between between fallen men and women and a holy God and he's
going to accomplish it so don't let your heart be troubled but
they are troubled obviously they are troubled he says that they
must look at him to see all that is in God and he says that after
these things they will ask whatever they want in his name as the
apostles of Christ for the expansion of his kingdom for the growth
of his church and he will do it he promises that in verses
10 to 14 if you ask anything in my name I will do it that
doesn't mean you know you can ask for a new flash car that
you want and he will do it it means for the gospel of his grace
in his name for the gospel of his grace in that New Testament
age in the age of the Acts of the Apostles they would ask those
things and he would do it and he says and if you love me keep
my commandments and then He makes a promise, and I've got three
things this morning. In these verses from 16 down
to 31, we've got the promise of a person, we've got the promise
of a presence, and we've got the promise of peace I know I
don't often do these alliterations but that one just came to me
and whether it turns out to be helpful or not I'm not sure at
this stage but anyway there you are three P's the promise of
a person the promise of a presence and the promise of peace and
I've got the points taken from out of not in sequence through
these verses but taken out of these verses you know picking
from here there throughout it so he promises a person he's
going away and you can imagine the anguish of their hearts at
the thought that he who has the words of eternal life is going
away and leaving them alone and his physical presence that they've
enjoyed for three and a half years is not going to be there
anymore he says he must go away he says later you'll rejoice
that I'm going away if you understand these promises you'll rejoice
in them And in verse 16 he says, I will pray the Father, the intercession
of Christ for his people, I will pray the Father and he shall
give you another Comforter, with a capital C, a person that he
may abide with you. I've only abided with you for
three and a half years physically but he will abide with you forever. He will never not abide with
you. I will pray the Father and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world, people in general,
cannot receive. Because it seeth Him not, they
can't see Him, neither can they know Him. The things of the Spirit
of God are spiritually discerned, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 2.14. The natural man cannot receive
them. The world cannot receive them. They're spiritually discerned.
Neither can he know them. He doesn't understand them. They're
foolishness to him. But you will see him. You, his
people, will see him. He will give you this comforter
who will abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive. But you know him, for he dwells
with you and shall be in you. He promises a person, the Holy
Spirit, the third person of the Trinity and he'll be with you
forever, forever. The scripture is clear. There
is one God. There is one God. I could turn
you to Mark 12, but I won't for the sake of time, where one of
the scribes gives an answer to Jesus that our God is one God. You can refer back to Deuteronomy
and throughout the scriptures. There is one God, but our glorious
God is manifested in three distinct persons, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. One God manifested in three persons. You know the verse of great contention
in 1 John chapter 5 and verse 7 says this, For there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy
Ghost and these three are one. If you look at most modern translations
they will omit that verse or if they include it they'll put
a marginal reference saying that they don't really think it should
be there. The reason why is because those words that there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy
Ghost and these three are one only appear in the three or four
latest manuscripts of the Scriptures. But this is the whole point about
what's called the Textus Receptus, the received text. They're in the received text
which is the text that the Holy Spirit kept to be used by the
church and it's that text on which this translation of the
Scriptures is based. And the more modern ones tend
to say that best is oldest but best isn't necessarily oldest.
Best is the one that God has preserved and God preserved this
one and it says there are three that bear record in heaven. The
Father, the Word who is Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and
these three are one God, but individual persons, each individual
and personal, each spoken of in Scripture as He. Did you notice? I will pray and He shall give
you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever, even
the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, not it, doesn't sense it,
he would have said sense it, neither knoweth him but you know
him for he dwelleth with you and he shall be in you. This
is a personal, personal presence of the living God, God the Holy
Spirit. They're all fully God, yet they're
quite distinct in persons and in manifestations. And the Spirit
we read again and again in Scripture, and the purpose of this this
morning is not a study of the person of the Holy Spirit, but
you can read in Scripture that the Holy Spirit does things that
only a person can do. Not just a force, not just a
sense, not just an impression. The Spirit does things that only
a person can do. The Spirit speaks expressly certain
things. The Spirit guides. The Spirit
moves. The Spirit opens doors. The Spirit
closes doors. The Spirit can be offended. The
Spirit can be resisted, we read in the Scripture. All things
that relate to a person. And whilst the Father is not
the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, yet each is fully God. Now don't ask me to explain it,
because I can't. No mortal man can. It's a mystery. But the Scriptures reveal it.
We don't understand what God has revealed, but he's revealed
it for a purpose, that we need to know these things are true,
and believe them, and follow them, and live in the light of
them. You see we know the different roles that the Father chose a
people in Christ before the foundation of the world. That is attributed
to the Father, that sovereign choice of election is attributed
to the Father. And the Son, in the covenant
of grace, covenanted to stand surety as a substitute for that
people, and to come in time to become that which He wasn't until
Bethlehem, which is a man. He'd appeared in a form as a
man, as an angel at various times. He's often called the Angel of
God. He was seen by Isaiah in the temple in Isaiah 6. But at
Bethlehem he was made of a woman, that which he hadn't been before.
In time he became a man, made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem those who were under the law. He became a man to redeem
his people. by walking in their place and
by them walking in him. That union that there is between
Christ and his people, that intimate union that there is with him.
As we sung in one of the hymns, that unity, being united with
Christ in everything he did so that everything he did we did
in him so that when he earned righteousness we, in the reckoning
of God, earned righteousness in Him. When He died to pay sin's
price, we died in Him to pay the price of sin. And it's all
done, it's all dealt with. And then in time, in time, in
each life of the elect of God for whom Christ lived and died,
the Holy Spirit comes because as they're born and as they grow
just children of wrath, even as others. From the outside they
just appear as no different to anybody else. Children of wrath,
even as the others. But the Holy Spirit comes. And
in His work, you see, the Father chose, the Son redeemed, and
the Holy Spirit regenerates each one of them. He makes that which
was dead alive. You who were dead in trespasses
and sins says Ephesians 2 verse 1. He has made alive, he's quickened
and made alive. And how does he do it? By regeneration. He plants a new man within. A new man that whereas the old
man couldn't receive the things of the Spirit of God, now this
new man can. Whereas the old man couldn't
see the Gospel of God, the truth of God, he gives the gift of
faith, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. And which person of the
Godhead? It's the Holy Spirit who comes
and gives that gift of faith to see. And Jesus promises this
person I'm going away but I'm going to give you another comforter.
I pray the Father I'll intercede for you and the Father will send
another comforter to you that he will abide with you forever
that where I cannot possibly abide with you forever in a physical
format He will come and He will abide with you forever and He
shall be with you and He will dwell with you and He shall be
in you and I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. How will He come? Through the
ministry of the Holy Spirit whom He'll send. You know this denial
of the Trinity being no doubt that if you hear somebody espouse
the doctrine of the Trinity by no means means that they are
purveyors of the truth of God. You'll hear like as I heard on
the service on the radio this morning quite clear affirmation
of the doctrine of the Trinity but at the same time denial of
the Trinity is one of the hallmark signs of the false sects. They
nearly all deny the Trinity and the true deity of Christ. But
here Jesus tells his people, his disciples, and us in that
respect. He's speaking to his disciples,
the apostles who were with him then, but the same applies to
us. He tells them that by the Holy Spirit coming to them by
him coming to them believers know Christ's presence and that
although he's going away and wouldn't be with them physically
they'll know his presence and they'll also know the presence
of the Father. Look at verse 23. Jesus answered and said unto
him if a man love me he will keep my words and my father will
love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
He's talking about the Father and the Son coming and living,
making their abode, making their dwelling place with that person. With which person? The man who
loves Christ. Who is the man who loves Christ?
Peter tells us. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 7 I think
it is. To you who believe He's precious. Is he precious to you? Do you
love him? If a man loved me? Oh, I love
him so imperfectly. Peter, Peter, do you love me?
Do you love me? You know Peter denied three times.
before the cock crowed, he denied three, crowed, sorry get my past
tenses correct, before the cock crowed he denied three times
and Jesus asked him after he'd risen from the dead at that breakfast
on the beach, Peter do you love me? Peter do you love me? Peter do you love me? Oh so imperfectly,
you know Lord I am very fond of you, if I'm getting my Greek
words for love right. Do you self-sacrificially give
yourself up? You know Lord that I'm very fond
of you because I know my own weakness now. I know what I am
in this flesh but albeit weak because of the flesh and because
of sin to you who believe he is precious. You love him. If
a man love him he will keep my words and my father will love
him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
How will we do that? How will they do that? by the
Holy Spirit, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit within. And
verse 28, verse 28, Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away,
and oh how that grieved their hearts, and come again unto you.
If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the
Father. For my Father is greater than
I. If they really understood, they would rejoice that he was
going away. They would. They would rejoice
that he was going away. Why would they rejoice? Because
of this. The one who was with them in
physical form, the man, Christ Jesus, the one who walked this
earth with them, was made a little lower than the angels. Or, you
could translate it, was made for a little while lower than
the angels. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9. He
was made for a little while lower than the angels. Why? For the
suffering of death. that he might save his people,
that he might pay his people's sin debt. He was walking this
earth in humility. He laid that glory aside, Philippians
2. He who was in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but laid that
glory aside and humbled himself unto death, even the death of
the cross. He became obedient, he humbled
himself for a little while, made lower than the angels. And so
in that state, as he was with them, he would say, the Father
is greater than I, for at this time I am in a state of humility,
of human humility, about to go to the cross to bear the sins
of his people but he's going to be exalted back to where his
rightful place is. A couple of chapters on, chapter
17 and verse 5, Christ prays to his Father, restore unto me
the glory that I had with you from before the beginning. Restore
that glory you know God says in Isaiah again and again and
other places in the scriptures that he will not share his glory
with another and yet there Christ prays restore to me the glory
that I had with you he's going to be exalted back to that position
of glory if you understood that I must go away to be restored
back to that place he must go back there to be restored to
that glory to that honour and in doing so He will be of so
much more good to His people, I can't think of a better way
of putting it. He will be of so much more benefit to His people. You would rejoice if you loved
Me. My people, He's saying, if you
understood that I must go back to that position of glory, you'd
rejoice because yes, physically, bodily, He's going away from
them but He's going to give this person, this Holy Spirit, this
Comforter who will come and not leave them without comfort, not
leave them comfortless but He is going to be glorified back
to His rightful position and so therefore His people should
rejoice in that that he's restored to the glory that he had with
his father from before the beginning of time and rejoice also because
of this rather than just being a small group being with him
in one place in one time all believers through the ministry
of the Holy Spirit would know his presence worldwide throughout
time so that now so that now what is it, you know often we
say that choruses have got so little so little solid truth
in them. There's one that we used to sing
years ago back in our Minion Circles but I still like it.
He lives, he lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He
walks with me and he talks with me. Christ Jesus. He's going
away. He walks with me and talks with
me. A long life's narrow way. He lives, he lives. Salvation
to impart. You ask me how I know he lives.
He lives within my heart. And how does he do that? By the
Holy Spirit. whom the Father sends to each
of his people, who dwells in us, who he's promised to give
to us. We have the promise of a person
who is the who is the manifestation of the living Christ to each
of his people. Each of his people, wherever
they are, they'll be getting up in the United States of America
any time soon and preparing for worship and there they'll be
worshipping the same Lord Jesus Christ. They'll be knowing his
presence where two or three of them are gathered in his name.
He will be there in the midst by his Holy Spirit, this Comforter
whom all of his people have. I go away from you, don't let
your hearts be troubled. Rejoice in this, that he sent
this person. Then secondly, the promise of
a presence. So he promises them a presence
with them, the promise of Christ in them. And what is the promise
of Christ in them? It's the hope of glory. What's
the core of our witness to this world? The hope of glory. I have
a hope of eternal salvation. When it comes to that moment
of death, when it comes to that moment of parting, we do not
grieve as those who have no hope, for believers in Christ have
hope. We have hope of eternal life. We have a sure, solid foundation
that it is well with my soul and it is well with the soul
of that one that we know to be in Christ who has departed. for
to leave this life is to be with Christ which is far better in
a state which surpasses this current experience of him and
it's all by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Look in verse 17
he says, I'll give you this comforter who is even the spirit of truth
whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him, the Spirit of Truth, not known to the world, only
to God's elect, only to his believing people, and he will dwell with
you and shall be in you, and he will comfort you, and he will
assure you, and he will live in you, and he is the Spirit
of the Word of Truth. Note, he's the Spirit of Truth.
The Spirit doesn't speak randomly and tell us to do this and to
do that and you know you hear stories about somebody I can't
remember any details but I'll just try and remember the girl
going up to the young man in the church and saying that the
Spirit of God has told me that I need to marry you and the guy
saying well sorry but the Spirit of God hasn't told me to marry
you you know he doesn't speak in that sort of way He's the
Spirit of truth. He speaks by the Scriptures to
the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word there is no light in them. So we discern that it is
the Spirit speaking because He speaks the word of truth. He
is the Spirit of truth. He will never ever deny the truth
of the Scriptures and the truth of Christ. You know when Paul
says we have the mind of Christ it's by the Spirit within revealing
the things of truth. to the believer and we have this
person, we have this presence with us. All believers, every
single one has the Holy Spirit within them. Romans chapter 8
and verse 9, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is
none of his, he doesn't belong to him. If any man have not,
there's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't yet have the Holy
Spirit. According to this book Every believer has the Holy Spirit. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ he is none of his. There is no second blessing as
we hear. There is no second blessing that
you become a Christian and then sometime later you move up to
a higher plane of a second blessing where the Holy Spirit comes and
you speak in tongues and you have all of these other things.
No. Each believer has the Holy Spirit. He prays, and there is
no distinction made here. This is for all of his people.
If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will
love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him
by the Spirit of God. All believers have the Holy Spirit,
they all have the promise of this person and his presence
with them. And verse 23, look at it again,
Jesus answered and said to him, if a man love me he will keep
my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him
and make our abode with him. All of Christ's people, all of
his believing people have the father and the son making their
abode in them. And how do they do it? by the
Holy Spirit. They love Him because, as we
already saw, to you who believe, He is precious. And not only
this, what is this about making our abode with Him by the Holy
Spirit? What is the dwelling place of
God upon earth? In the Old Testament order of
things it was the Temple of God. It was the sanctuary in the wilderness,
the tabernacle and then in Jerusalem when the Temple was established
it was the Temple of God built out of stones hewn from the quarry
and all put together and the cedars of Lebanon and all of
those things and there was a veil and within it there was the Holy
of Holies and the Holy Place and all of the symbols of the
Gospel of Grace. And there God was said to dwell,
all symbolically. Obviously God inhabits all places. Where can I go from your presence,
says the psalmist? If I go into the depths of the
sea, you're there. Wherever I go, you're there.
I can't get away from you. But in this special, symbolical
way, the presence of God was said to dwell in the temple of
God. Now where is the temple of God
today? You notice that that temple was destroyed in AD 70 and it
was never re-established as the Jewish temple. It's gone forever
and sacrifice and all of those things finished exactly as Daniel
had prophesied. An end of sacrifice when Messiah
comes he would put an end to sacrifice. Today the temple of
God is the church of God. For Paul says to believers, all
obviously in a rebuking spirit in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, but
he says this, know ye not, don't you know that you are the temple
of God? You're the temple of the living
God, therefore don't defile your bodies with all these other things,
you're the temple of the living God, you're the place where God
dwells in this world, in this fallen world, where does God
dwell? He dwells in a temple And that
temple is the church. And the stones that it is built
out of are not stones quarried out of a stone quarry but they're
stones quarried by the Holy Spirit out of humanity. Living stones,
read the end of Ephesians chapter 2. Living stones, the place where
God dwells. We will make our abode with him. And by his presence believers
believe the gospel. by the presence of the Spirit
of God within, you believe the Gospel. When so much else would
tell you to go with the philosophies and the culture of the world,
the presence of the Spirit of God, for you're so weak in and
of yourself, I know I am, but the presence of the Spirit of
God says what, causes you to say what Peter says, to whom
can we go? You have the words of eternal life. You believe
the Gospel. You love Christ by the presence
of the Holy Spirit. You experience God's love and
comfort with you. You keep his commandments. Look
at verse 21. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me and he that loveth
me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will
manifest myself to him. And some would take that and
say well okay there we've got the law of God and if you keep
that law perfectly thereby you demonstrate that you love him
failing to see that no man can keep them you who desire to be
under the law says Paul to the Romans you who desire to be under
the law do you not hear the law? don't you hear what it really
says? so what is this saying? it can't
mean obey the law perfectly for no man in the flesh is able to
do that but it does mean this hath my commandments, and keepeth
them." He has the testimony of Christ, concerning the Gospel
of Christ, concerning the fruit of the Spirit of Christ. It does
mean clinging to his testimony. It does mean clinging to his
truth. to the precepts of salvation, desiring the honour of Christ
in all things, and loving the Gospel that He has revealed,
not that man has invented or added as a distortion to it,
the Gospel that He has proclaimed. And verse 19, Yet a little while,
says Jesus, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because
I live, ye shall live also. He's going away. physically they
won't see him anymore yet a little while and the world the scribes
and the Pharisees all saw Jesus physically before them they heard
his voice they saw the things that he did they even saw the
miracles that he did and in a little while they won't see him anymore
because they're going to nail him to a cross and put him in
a tomb and then to them he's just going to disappear he's
not going to be there anymore they're not even going to have
a body that they can they can bring out and show to prove the
error of what he'd been saying not at all he's not going to
be there physically the world can't see him but his people
see him the world will see me no more but you see me his people
will see him and because I live you shall live also his people
see him by faith in the word through the Holy Spirit's ministry
the Holy Spirit comes and testifies to his people Romans 8 16 he
testifies that we are the children of God that's the witnessing
that's bearing record he comes and bears record in your heart
that Holy Spirit they say how do you know you're a Christian
and I remember once being asked this for membership of a church
and the elders asking this question, how do you know you're a Christian?
And all I could keep coming back to was, Well the spirit witnesses
with my spirit that I'm a child of God. He bears record with
me that I'm a child of... No, no, that didn't do for them.
No, that wasn't good enough. No, no, no. I had to say because
the Bible said X, Y and Z and I'd plugged in my parameters
into the formula therefore that meant. Well yes, I know what
they meant. I know I couldn't be a Christian unless I believed
the truth of what the scriptures declared. But when it comes down
to it, how do you know? The Spirit bears record with
your spirit that you're the children of God. Because you know that
despite everything else, how was it that Peter was able to
say, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. How was it that Peter was able to say when he asked, who
do men say that I am? Well some say this, but who do
you say that I am? We're convinced of this. You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God. The Spirit bears witness that
we're the children of God and He teaches, He teaches His people. This presence with us teaches
God's people the things of Christ. Look in verse 26 Look what else
he will do. This one whom Christ has promised
when he goes away. The Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you
all things and bring all things to your remembrance. whatsoever
I have said to you." Obviously it had immediate application
in that John and the other writers of scripture were able to bear
such a true record because the Holy Spirit bore them along,
inspired them, carried them along as they wrote the words in their
own style but those words which the Holy Ghost intended that
should be committed to paper for the record of all time all
things, he'll bring all those things to your remembrance but
this more than that to all of his people he will reveal the
things of Christ turn over to chapter 16 and verse 14 just
a page over again he's speaking well let's start in verse 13
how be it when he, note again personal When He, the Spirit
of Truth, is come, this Comforter, He will guide you into all truth. Many men and women have the Scriptures
and they come to completely fallacious conclusions based on the Scriptures
that they have. But when He, the Spirit of Truth,
is come, He will guide you into all truth. For, what will He
do? He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that He shall speak. Whatsoever
He shall hear in the intimacy of the Trinity of God. And He
will show you things to come. And verse 14, He shall glorify
Me. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit, is to glorify Christ. Oh, we praise the Holy Spirit,
but it's not the work of the Holy Spirit to glorify the Holy
Spirit. In fact, you can almost guarantee it, that wherever,
wherever the Holy Spirit is the preeminent one of the Trinity,
though they're all equally God and all equally worthy of our
worship, wherever the Holy Spirit is the preeminent one, you can
guarantee that Christ is not there, in truth, because the
Holy Spirit's work is to glorify Christ. for he shall receive
of mine and shall show it unto you. All that the things that
the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he the Holy Spirit
shall take of mine and show it unto you. So we have this comfort of this
person and of this presence with us and by his spirit by His Spirit
Christ comes and believers know that Christ is in the Father
and in His people and His people in Him. Look at verse 20. At
that day you shall know that I am in my Father and ye in me
and I in you. What's the significance of those
words? I know that we can barely scratch
the surface of what is really hidden. There are depths hidden
here that are profound indeed. At that day, living as believers
now, with the Holy Spirit within, you shall know that Christ is
in the Father. In other words, that which walked
this earth as the man Christ Jesus is truly the manifestation
of God to mankind. He is the voice of God speaking.
He is the voice of the unseeable, unknowable God speaking. He is
the way, the truth and the life. And as Philip said, well let's
just get to the Father and then that will do for us. And Jesus
said, but you've seen me. So you've seen everything. At
that day by the Holy Spirit's ministry within you shall know
that I am in the Father. You shall know that everything,
the fullness of the Godhead dwells in our Lord Jesus Christ. and
you'll also know this intimate union you know when Paul talks
about marriage in Ephesians 5 and about the husbands loving the
wives and the wives loving the husbands and obeying the husbands
and the children and so on and it looks like just such a good
recipe for family life and so it is there's such profound but
then Paul says I'm not really speaking about that What I'm
really speaking about is the mystery of Christ and his church
and the marriage of Christ and his bride which is his church.
And that union that there is, that legal union because this
is what our society has lost so much is this concept of marriage
and the legal union that there is between a man and his wife.
and how they together, you know it used to be the case, I'm not
advocating this in our society, but it used to be the case that
a man was held culpable for the deeds of his wife in ancient
law. That was how it was, that's why
the man had the right to exercise such authority over the woman,
he was held culpable. Now I'm not talking for any kind
of return to that kind of legalistic system, but what I am saying
is this, it's a picture of the union of Christ and his church
because I tell you what I'm delighted that Christ's people have that
union with him because in that union he bore the responsibility
for the sins of his people. He stood before the bar of divine
justice with his people united to him and he bore their sins
in his own body on the tree and he who knew no sin was made sin
that we his people might be made the righteousness of God in him
with the books cleared the debts paid because the husband has
paid the debts of the bride. In that day you shall know that
I am in my father and he in me and I in you. And I know it because the Holy
Spirit is within. And so finally, finally, the
promise of peace. And I think I've gone on far
too long, haven't I? I didn't set my watch, but never mind.
The promise of peace. A person, a presence, and peace.
Verse 27. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto
you, I go away and come again unto you. peace I leave with
you. Because of all these things Christ
is able to give his people his peace. He leaves his peace with
his people. This isn't the world's peace
because the world's peace is transitory, it's fickle and above
all with the best of intentions it's bound to fail because it's
subject to sin. We listened on the television
last night to the prom that was recorded two nights ago, played
by the World Orchestra for Peace, started by Sir George Sholty
back in 1997 and conducted by Valery Gergiev, and absolutely
magnificent they were as a group of musicians, absolutely stupendous. The World Orchestra for Peace. Sorry, I don't think it's going
to do a solitary thing for the situation in the Middle East
or the situation in Afghanistan. It's a very nice sentimental
idea but it's not going to do a solitary thing for genuine
peace. It genuinely isn't going to do
a solitary thing to make certain extreme elements in Northern
Ireland want to stop killing certain other elements in Northern
Ireland, not in the slightest, because of sin. But the peace
that Christ gives is His peace. It's His peace. It's peace with
God. the blessedness of peace with
God through Christ's blood. Colossians 1 verse 20 says this
about Christ, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say,
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you
that were sometime alienated, you believers and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the
body of His flesh through death. to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight, having made peace through the
blood of his cross. What is the peace? It's the peace
of no condemnation, for there is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. It's the comfort of indwelling
assurance that it's well with my soul, irrespective of what
happens to us. So don't be alarmed, says Christ,
to this ragged little group, of his disciples, this pitiful
little group of his disciples who when the shepherd would be
smitten in the next 24 hours and the sheep they would be scattered
and would be so pathetic you know it's like a sheep threatening
to put up a fight against a lion it's just not even one blow would
be cast they'd be scattered Peter with all of his bravado would
instantly deny even to a young maid by the fire in the courtyard
he'd deny that he knew the man. Don't be alarmed dreadful things
are about to happen he said to them there's a painful path that
must be trodden but there's a glorious outcome. When I say I'm going
away rejoice because I'm going to send you another comforter
and when he comes he'll show you all truth and he'll be with
you forever not just for a while and what he promised then 2,000
years ago he promises to each of his believing people today.
So let's us take comfort from that. Amen.