John 14, 16, the Lord says, and
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter. I have entitled this message,
Another Comforter. and he is speaking of God the
Holy Spirit. God is one God in three distinct
persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Now I think it's interesting,
if that's the right word, that we can grasp more easily the
thought of God, the father, because we know what a father is. And we can, in some measure,
grasp God, the son, because we know what a son is. But we have
a harder time grasping this thing of God, the Holy Spirit, the
other comforter. And yet, while we probably have
a more limited understanding of God, the Holy Spirit in our
experience. If we're believers, all we experience
of God is through God, the Holy Spirit. Now, as Christ is one
with the father, he's one with his spirit. These three, John
said, are one. And if I know Christ, I know
God the Holy Spirit is in me. And as I said, that's a hard
thing to grasp, but it's what the scripture teaches. Another
comforter. Now the disciples had a very
limited understanding at this time what was going on and they
were troubled. Look what verse 1 of chapter
14 says, let not your heart be troubled. Well, they were troubled. Why were they troubled? Well,
their trouble consisted of these two things, what he said they
would do. He said, one of you shall betray
me. And every one of them answered, he said, I? Am I the one that's
going to do it? Of course they were troubled. He said to Peter, you're going
to deny you even know me. Of course he was troubled. He
didn't believe it. He said this other bunch might
not be. And the Lord had actually said, I'm going away. And they
were troubled because he was leaving them. Now you think of
the confidence they had with him around. He controlled the
weather. He healed the sick. I'm sure they felt very confident
with him being there with them. But he said, I'm leaving. And
sorrow had filled your hearts. I'm not going to be with you
anymore. So they had a very limited understanding of what was going
on and they were troubled. Verse 16, but here's what I'm
going to do. I will pray the father and he shall give you another
comforter. God, the Holy Spirit is called
the comforter. In the original, it's the paraclete. And this word comforter or paraclete,
it's also translated the advocate. Remember in 1 John 1, 1 and 2,
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father. Jesus Christ,
the righteous, same word. And when the Lord gives us this
comforter, there are four ideas involved in this word. He's the comforter. I need comforted,
don't you? I need him to comfort me. It
won't do me any good for you to comfort me, really, and it
won't do you any good for me to comfort you. I need him to
comfort me, the comforter. The advocate has the idea of
a lawyer. I need him to represent me. I'm
not going to come into God's presence on my own. I need a
lawyer. I need an advocate. I need this one whom the Father
will hear. It has with it the idea of an
intercessor. And as a matter of fact, it's
translated that as well, the intercessor, one who represents
me, one who represents me before the father. And it has the idea
of a helper. He is all these things to those
who believe. I will pray the father and he'll
give you another comforter, another advocate, another intercessor,
another Helper, even the spirit of truth. God, the Holy Spirit. And I'm so thankful for the word
of God because we'd never know God as one God and three distinct
persons without the Bible. Give me your concept of God.
Every one of us would have something that's totally wrong. Whatever
it is we would think, it would be wrong. The Bible tells us
that God is one God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy
God is one God in three distinct persons. One God in three distinct
persons, all of which are one. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Now in Genesis 1, 1, and 2, we
read in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and
the earth was out was without form and void and darkness covered
the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the
waters. In the very opening account of
Genesis, we read of the Spirit of God. God the Holy Spirit is
the author of the new birth. Now for me and you to be saved,
we'll have to be born again. We'll have to be given a new
nature, life that was not there before. And this is the work
of God, the Holy Spirit, that which is born, birthed of the
Spirit is The Lord said, the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak into you,
they are spirit, spiritual given by the Holy Spirit and truth. It's the spirit that quickens,
gives life, the flesh profits nothing. Now, when the Lord announced
his public ministry in Luke chapter four, he quoted from Isaiah 61
and he said, this is the First public sermon of the Lord. His
first words, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. For he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. John said, the Father giveth
not the Spirit by measure unto him. Now you and I, if we're
believers, we have a measure of the Spirit. He had the fullness
of God, the Holy Spirit. Everything he said was the direct
word of God. Look in John 14 once again, I
will pray the Father. Verse 16, the Lord Jesus says,
I will pray the Father. This is the intercession of Christ. I will pray the Father. I love
it when he said to Peter, Peter, I pray for you. Don't you want
the Lord praying for you? Representing you? Peter, I pray
for you. When he said, Father, forgive
them, everybody he prayed for was forgiven. You see, the Father
always hears the prayer of the Son. He's one with the Son. They have the same will. They
have the same purpose. They're one. He said, I and my
Father are one. And he says, I'll pray the Father.
Don't you want him praying for you? I'll pray the Father. And
he shall give you another comforter. Through my prayer, he'll give
you another comforter, another advocate, another intercessor,
another helper that he may abide with you forever. You have him,
you have him eternally. He never leaves. He is there
eternally. And look what he calls him in
verse 17. Even the spirit of truth. This is who God the Holy Spirit
is. He's the spirit of truth. Whom the world cannot receive. They're unable to receive the
spirit of truth. Now who is meant by the world?
Everybody that's not one of the elect. Let's keep it simple. Everybody who does not believe.
Everybody for whom Christ did not die. Everyone who has no
love for Christ. Everyone who does not believe
the gospel. That's what is meant by the world.
The world is unable to receive him. You remember when the Lord
said in John 6, 44, no man can come to me. except the Father
which has sent me draw him. No man is able to come to Christ
except God brings him to him, draws him. No man can receive
the Spirit of God. And look what he says. Even the Spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive, why? Because it seeth him not, neither
knows him, but you know him. Now, every believer, You know
him. You know little of him. I realize
that. I know little of him. But if
we know Jesus Christ, we know him because he's one with Christ.
He's the spirit of Christ. And you know a lot more of him
than you realize, actually, because all you experience of God is
by his spirit. If you look to Christ, it's because
God the Holy Spirit caused you to. If you repent before God,
it's because God the Holy Spirit caused you to. He is the Spirit
of truth and the world does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him. Verse 17, for
He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you
comfortless I will come to you. When God the Holy Spirit comes
to you, that's me coming to you. Because he's the Spirit of Christ. One with Christ. When God the
Holy Spirit comes to me and reveals Christ to me, it's Christ coming
to me. He is the Spirit of Christ. Look in chapter 16, verse 7. Nevertheless, well, let's start in verse five.
But now I go my way to him that sent me. I'm going back to the
Father. And none of you asketh me, whither goest thou? But because
I've said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
And it did. If I had the Lord's presence
with me every day, and all of a sudden he's gonna be gone,
I'd be uneasy, to say the least. Sorrow had filled their heart. They'd been with him every day
for three and a half years, and now he says, I'm leaving? Verse
seven, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It's expedient for
you. It's necessary for you. It's
for your best interests that I go away. For if I go not away,
the comforter, God the Holy Spirit, the other comforter he spoke
of, will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
unto you. Now, I would like to consider
him for a few moments first as the spirit of truth. There is such a thing as truth.
Somebody says, can anybody know the truth? Yep, they can. There is such a thing as truth.
Well, there's no absolute truth. Yes, there is. He is absolute truth. He said, I am the truth. Anything that is contrary to
me being the truth is a lie. I am the truth. And God, the
Holy Spirit is called the spirit of truth. Look in verse 13 of
chapter 16. How be it when he, this is the
Lord speaking of the spirit of God. How be it when he, the spirit
of truth is come. He will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself.
You know how I love the Lord tells us that. Somebody that's
always talking about the Holy Spirit doesn't know the Holy
Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit speaks of Christ. He shall not
speak of himself. What he shall hear from the Father
That shall he speak. He will guide you into all truth,
the objective truth of the gospel. Let me repeat that. I've heard
people say, well, this is my truth, or this is your truth. This is their truth. That's foolishness.
That's all that is. There is the truth, the objective
truth of the gospel. He shall guide you into all truth. It was said of the Lord Jesus
Christ in John 1 14, that he was full of grace and full of
truth. Now, That reminds me that grace
and truth can't be separated. You shall know the truth. And the truth shall set you free. Now, it's not your knowledge
of the truth that sets you free. It's the truth himself. The truth
is a person. God the Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is full
of grace and truth. God is the God of truth. Without
iniquity is He. You know the truth in your knowledge
of the truth. He is the truth. He's the one
who sets you free. You don't set yourself free.
He sets you free. You shall know the truth. You'll
know me, is what He's saying. And I will set you free. Oh, I love the fact that He is
called the Spirit of the truth. You know, when the Lord was talking
to Pilate, He said, I came to bear witness to the truth. And you know, the cross is His
great bearing witness of the truth. I came, this is my purpose
in coming, to bear witness to the truth. Now, in the cross,
Jesus Christ nailed to a cross, there we have him bearing witness
to the truth of God's character. And here's where I want to begin.
God is no respecter of persons. Everybody in this room is. We
are, whether we'll admit it or not. We're respecters of persons.
God's not. When sin was found in His Son,
He killed Him. God is no respecter of persons. God is holy. God is just, absolutely
just, absolutely righteous. And the cross is a demonstration
of that. My sin became His sin. He didn't stop being the Son
of God when my sin became His sin, and the Father punished
Him. God is just. God is all wise. He's found a way in the cross
to be just, absolutely just, and yet justify somebody as sinful
as me and make me to be not guilty and without sin. What wisdom,
what power, of God is revealed in the cross when he made a way
to make my sin not to be anymore. I don't have any sin. If Christ
died for my sin, it's been put away. Oh, what power, what independence. God doesn't need me to do something
before he can do something for me. He did it on Calvary's tree. Oh, the character of God. Every
attribute of God is manifest in the cross of Christ, the declaration
of the truth of God. You and I see the truth about
myself only when I see the cross. Now, everybody in here, you're
aware of weaknesses, flaws, character flaws in your own character,
and you see them even more clearly than everybody else's, but you
know you got some. Sinfulness weakness, but do you
know you don't have any idea of how simple you are until you
see Christ nailed to the cross? You're so wicked I'm so wicked
Listen to me. This is the way you are. This
is the way I am. I am so evil. I that if God left
me to myself, I would murder his son, put him off the throne,
and put myself in his place. Somebody says, I wouldn't do
that. Yeah, you would. Yeah, you would. There's no question
in my mind about it. Yeah, you would. You don't understand
sin until you see the wickedness of man in nailing the Son of
God to a cross. And you don't see the truth of
salvation until you see that he is salvation. What he accomplished,
what he did on Calvary Street is why any sinner is saved. That's the truth. He came to
bear witness to the truth, and it's God the Holy Spirit that
bears witness to us that this is the truth. Now think of the
importance of truth. Salvation is described in 1 Timothy
2.4 as coming to the knowledge of the truth. Listen, you will
not be saved apart from coming to the knowledge of the truth. I've heard preachers say, well,
I hope their heart's better than their head because what they
believe in their head's obviously wrong. Heart's not better than
the head, you can't separate them. You will not be saved apart
from hearing, believing, bowing to and receiving the truth. Faith is called in Titus 1.1,
the faith of God's elect, the acknowledging of the truth. That's
what faith is. It's the acknowledge against
the embracing of the truth concerning who he is, who I am, how he's
saved by Christ. Repentance is called in 2 Timothy
2.25, repentance if per venture God will grant them repentance
to the acknowledgement of the truth. I want you to turn to
2 Thessalonians 2. I want you to see this. 2 Thessalonians
2. Verse 13. But we are bound to thank God
always. We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. We're bound to thank God for
you. You know, Preachers might look at a congregation,
we're so thankful you're here. I am thankful you're here. I want thousands of people to
be here, if it's the Lord's will. I'm not talking about indifference,
but if you're here and believe, I don't thank you, I thank God.
He's the one. He's why you're here. I'm not
going to thank you for that. Thank God. We're bound to thank
God. Always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning, before time began, chosen you
to salvation. If there was no other scripture
than that, we would be bound to believe the doctrine of eternal
election. There's a whole lot more, but
I don't know how many ways there are to take that. God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit, and belief of the truth. Now, here's two things that cannot
be separated. If you're sanctified by the spirit,
if God's done a work of grace in your heart and given you life,
what's the evidence? Belief of the truth. That's the
evidence. Belief. of the truth. And if you do believe the truth,
why? It's because of the sanctifying
work of God, the Holy Spirit. I will send you another comforter. God, the Holy Spirit, another
comforter. Now, let me ask you a question,
and this can be answered real simply, or by listening. Are you a sinner? If you are, and I'm not talking
about, well, sure I commit sins. That's not what I'm talking about.
Sure, I make mistakes. Sure, I do bad things. A sinner
is someone who all they do is sin. They cannot not sin because they
always have that evil nature. That's what we're talking about,
a real sinner. Somebody that all they do is sin. And it's
all their fault. They can't blame somebody else.
It's my sin is my fault. I can't look down my nose at
one person alive. I can't sit in judgment on one
person alive if I really believe I'm a sinner. And I know I have
no claims on God. If God passed me by, he'd be
just, he'd be right. Are you that kind of sinner? Now, if you are, the only comfort
you can have is that Christ does everything for you and that it
is what he accomplished, not what you do, but what he did. And did you know you can't even
hear the gospel unless you hear as a sinner? It won't come as
good news to you. Let me show you a scripture in
Luke chapter 15. Last phrase of chapter 14, Luke
chapter 15, but let's look at the last phrase of verse 35 of
chapter 14. He that hath ears to hear, not
everybody does. It could be that this is just
rolling off you like water off a duck's back, meaningless to
you, maybe even boring. He that hath ears to hear, there's
some who do, Let him hear. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. Who had ears to hear
all the publicans? Worst person you could be. And
sinners. They're the only ones who can
hear. You can't hear the gospel unless you hear as a sinner and
you can't really even discern what you're hearing unless you're
hearing as a sinner. If you're not hearing as a sinner, you
believe you have some kind of goodness. You believe you can
be saved by your works and you can't understand what's being
said. It's a foreign language to you. The only way you can
hear the gospel is as a sinner. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am the chief. We read in Acts 9
31 of the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And he is the one who
comforts with the gospel. Now, how can a sinner be comforted? I can only be comforted by the
gospel. I want you to look at this with
me if you turn to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, familiar passage of
scripture. Remember, he's called the comforter.
I'll send you another comforter. Isaiah 40, verse 1, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people. Say if you're God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned, for
she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now the only thing that comforts
somebody that's a sinner is something that's already been accomplished.
Tell her her warfare, her battle, it's already been won. It's accomplished. Her iniquity
is pardoned. Listen, God doesn't offer you
the forgiveness of sins. That is just, that's stupid. Lynn says, I shouldn't use the
word stupid. Well, that's stupid. God offering
forgiveness? He doesn't offer forgiveness,
he forgives. Her iniquity is forgiven. Salvation begins with the forgiveness
of sins. It doesn't end after you've done
this and you've done that. Now I'll forgive you your sins.
You've done the stuff you need to do. No! God forgives sins. You tell her her iniquity is
pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sin. Not only is her sin not
condemned, she's justified. She stands before God having
no guilt. Now this is the only thing that
comforts a work already accomplished. Expressed by the Lord from the
cross, it is what? Finished. It is finished. Revelation 21, five and six,
and he that sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things
new. And he said unto me, write, write
this down, for these words are true and faithful. And he said
unto me, it is done. It's done. It's done. My salvation is done, perfectly
completed by Christ, by one offering he had perfected forever, them
that are sanctified. And we will never understand
or experience the comforts of the gospel without the comforter. I'll send you another comforter. Are you comforted right now by
the fact that it's finished, that it's done, that your salvation
has already been accomplished? It's because the comforter himself
is comforting you. The word comforter is also advocate.
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And the Lord said, I'll send
you another advocate. Just as I am your advocate with
the Father, He is your advocate. He presents your prayer to the
Father. That pitiful, pathetic, wondering prayer you just prayed
that lacked so much sincerity and the confession lacked so
much feeling. And we could go on talking about
our prayers. He presents that prayer to the
Father as our advocate, and it's holy to God, acceptable to God. We read in Romans 8, 27, that
he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit,
because he, the spirit, makes intercession for the saints according
to the will of God. We have another intercessor.
We have another comforter. We have another intercessor.
And what a mighty intercessor he is. I love the scripture with
regard to Christ's intercession. Who is he that conniveth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather, that's risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. He represents us as our interceder. Well, we read in Romans 8, 26,
the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. This goes beyond language. Somebody
says, explain that. How am I supposed to explain
that? I can't. He makes intercession for the
saints according to the will of God with groanings which cannot
be uttered. God understands him. And what a helper he is. Romans
8, 26 says, likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Weakness, weak, sinful. He helpeth our infirmities. Paul says we don't even know
what to pray for. Isn't that so? We don't even
know what to pray for, but he does. He helps our infirmities. We're so weak and infirm, we
don't know what to pray for, but he does. Now, all we experience
of Christ, our point of contact with the living God, is God,
the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you and will be
with you forever. I'd like to close by having you
turn to 1 Corinthians 2. I'd like you to look at this
with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The other comforter. I will pray to the Father and
He'll send you another comforter. Even the Spirit of Truth. God
the Holy Spirit's the Spirit of Truth. Now let me remind you,
He doesn't use error. He doesn't speak through a false
gospel. If you believe a false gospel,
it didn't come from God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit always
uses the truth. God is spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. First Corinthians chapter two,
verse 11. Or let's start in verse 10. But God hath revealed unto
us by His Spirit, this other comforter
we've been reading of, the author of the new birth. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of man, say the Spirit of man which is
in him. What's that mean? You know the only one who knows
what's going on in here right now? Me. Same is true of you. You're the
only one that knows what's going on in your mind. I can guess. And I can make some pretty good
guesses. Lynn tells me she knows what I'm thinking. And a lot
of times she does. But not always. Not always. I do. Even so, in the same manner,
the things of God knows no man. But the Spirit of God, only the
Spirit of God knows what's in God's mind. Now, we have received,
not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. When the Spirit of God is revealing
himself to you, You know what's given to you is given to you
freely, no cost. If you had to pay something for
it, you wouldn't have it. You know that if God the Spirit
is your teacher. Verse 13, which things we speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth. but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Every word in this book is spiritual,
and you won't understand it apart from God the Holy Spirit giving
you a spiritual nature. You know, it kills me the way
people say, well, I'm a spiritual person. No, you're not. The only
people who are spiritual are people who have God the Holy
Spirit have a new nature. They're spiritual. Everybody
else is just fleshly. Carnal, that's it. Verse 14, but the natural man,
the way you were born, the way I was born into this world, receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God through their foolishness
unto him. Somebody hears the gospel, they
say, that's foolishness. I don't believe that. Well, you
don't have a spiritual nature to receive and understand. Look
what he says next. Neither can he know them. He lacks the ability to know
them because they're spiritually discerned. Only a spiritual man
can understand the spiritual things of the gospel. You've
got to be born of the spirit. You've got to be born again before
you'll even understand the gospel. I would just as readily see a
monkey understand quantum physics as a natural man understand the
gospel. He can't do it. He can't do it. Verse 15, but he that is spiritual
judges, discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned of
no man or judged of no man. I can understand a natural man
because I have, I am one in my nature. I've got an old nature.
I understand the way things, I understand. But a natural man
can't understand me. because he doesn't have the spiritual
nature that I have. And he can't understand. Verse
16, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that it may instruct
him? Who's given God instruction? But because of this other comforter
we have, because of this spiritual nature given to us by the Holy
Spirit, look what he says, we have. the mind of Christ. Every believer has the mind of
Christ. We see the Father the same way
he sees the Father. We see salvation the same way
he sees salvation. He knows he gets all the glory. We know it too, don't we? He
knows He's altogether lovely, we know it too, because we have
His mind. Aren't you thankful He said,
I'll pray to the Father, and He'll send another Comforter,
even the Spirit of truth, and you have Him forever. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
spirit, the comforter, who comforts us
with the comfort of the accomplishments of your son, that everything
you require of us, you look to him for, and we are complete
in him. Now, Lord, we ask in Christ's
name that you would give everybody in this room the Comforter. Birth us by Him and give us the
eyes of faith to behold Christ as your Son, as the second person
of who you are, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit,
and all of our salvation we look to Him for. Lord, please save
Everybody in this room, according to your will, in Christ's name
we pray, amen.