I'm going to read verse 13, 14,
and 15 again. It may be that God will visit
us with his presence and with his power. I think sometimes
we just meet in the strength and energy of our flesh. But John 16, 13, how be it when
he, when he, the Spirit of is come. He will guide you into
all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and
shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall
show it to you." Now, my dear friends, we have here the Trinity.
That's what we're reading about here. Our Lord Jesus Christ said,
"...all things that the Father hath are mine, and he," the Holy
Spirit, "...shall take of mine, and shall show it to you." You
have the Trinity. I don't profess to be able to
understand the Trinity. Because I can't understand it,
I'm not going to deny it. I don't profess to be able to
explain the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. I don't really
know how to say it. I hear people trying to figure
out ways to express in words the Trinity, God as Father, as
Son, as Spirit, God the Father, the Son and the Spirit, God Father,
Son and Spirit, I really don't know. But I do know that it's
here. I'm looking right at the Trinity
expressed in the Scripture. And I don't know how there can
be any praying or preaching or study or salvation or intercession
apart from the Trinity. I take this business of praying.
How does a man pray? who ignores the Trinity. I know
there are plenty who do. They say the word Trinity does
not occur in the Bible. Well, it doesn't. The word doesn't,
but the fact does. The truth of it does. How do
you pray without the Trinity? The Lord Jesus taught us to pray,
Our Father. When you pray, say, Our Father,
which art in heaven. If you do away with the Father,
to whom do you pray? Our Lord Jesus, look across the
page there at verse 16, the last line of John 15, 16. He said,
Whatsoever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to
you. Now, in whose name do we pray
if there's no Trinity? To whom do we pray? In whose
name do we pray? And then a third question is,
how do we know what to pray for? He plainly says, if you'll turn
to Romans chapter 8, turn over there just a moment, Romans chapter
8. It says here in verse 26, the Spirit, likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. We know not what we should pray
for, as we ought. We don't know. But Spirit knows,
and the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered, and he that searcheth the heart knoweth
what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints." As Brother Barnard said, prayer has something to
do with the will of God according to the will of God. Prayer is
no good if it is not in God's will. So how does one pray who ignores
the Trinity? Our Father, whatsoever you ask
the Father in my name, it shall be done And then the Holy Spirit
teaches us the things for which we should pray. How does one
preach who ignores the Trinity? Look at verse 15. All things
that the Father hath are mine. All things belong to the Father.
They always have belonged to the Father. The Father hath given
them into the hands of the Son. That's what the Scripture says.
The Father hath committed all things to the Son. Christ said
all things that the Father hath. He's the owner of all things,
He's the creator of all things, and He hath given them into the
hands of the Son. When the Son accomplishes His
work of redemption in fullness, He said, He shall deliver all
things back to the Father. And then He says, the Holy Spirit
takes of mine, that which the Father hath committed to the
Son, the Holy Spirit takes and reveals to us. That's the Trinity.
How do you preach if you ignore that? Look back at John 6. In verse 37, all that the Father
giveth to me shall come to me. How do we ignore the Father and
the Son? And then John 6.44, no man can
come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him,
and I will raise him up at the last day. It's written in the
prophets, they shall all be taught of God. Every man that hath heard
and learned of the Father cometh to me. You can't preach without
preaching the Trinity. How is one saved who ignores
the Trinity? What is the basis of your addiction
to ignore the Trinity? Turn to Ephesians 1. Let's just
pick up a verse or two here. In Ephesians chapter 1, verses
3 through 6, here you have plainly declared, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. He chose
us in Christ. Now look at verse 7, In whom
we have redemption through his blood. Now we're not talking
about the Father there, because the Father didn't come down here
and shed his blood, the Son did. the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace." And then verse 13, "...in whom
you trusted." You trusted the Son, didn't you? "...after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom after you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise." You can't pray, you can't preach. I don't know how
you can be saved without the Trinity. You say you belong to
the Son, by whose authority? Well, the Heavenly Father gave
me to the Son. You say you were awakened and
came to knowledge and heard the gospel and believed? Who revealed
it to you? Scripture says the Holy Spirit.
How does one study the Scripture apart from accepting or believing
the Trinity? Turn to 1 Timothy 2, verse 5.
1 Timothy 2, verse 5. How do you actually Study the
scripture when you deny the Trinity. Listen to this. How do you explain
verses like this? For there is one God and one
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The Lord
Jesus Christ is not the Father. He is the Mediator between men
and the Father. But it plainly declares Turn
back to John 14 and listen to our Lord here in verse 16 through
18. Now listen carefully to this.
This is Christ, our Lord, speaking. He is bearer God of bearer God,
the brightness of God's glory, express image of his person,
and yet he says in verse 16, John 14, I will pray the Father,
and he will 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 that
ye know him. For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you,
and shall not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. I will come
to you." And then our text. So our text
says, verse 13, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come. All
right, when he's There you have the Trinity. Now, what is the
chief office of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit shall come, Christ
said, and what is his chief office? Now, it takes years to preach
all that we need to say about the work of the Holy Spirit,
but what is his chief office, the chief work of the Holy Spirit?
I believe it's revealed in verse 14. He shall glorify me. he shall glorify me." Now, keep
this in mind, and always keep it in mind and never forget it.
Listen carefully. That which does not glorify Christ,
I don't care if it's a sermon, or a prayer, or a song, or a
good deed, or a gift, or what it might be, that which does
not glorify Christ is not of the Holy The Holy Spirit always
glorifies Christ, no matter how good it looks, no matter how
sweet it tastes, no matter how wonderful it sounds. If it does
not glorify Christ, I can assure you it is not of the Holy Spirit. And that which truly glorifies
Christ, the word exalts Christ, calls attention to Christ, that
which truly glorifies Christ is of the Holy Spirit. Now here
are four things I want to look at right here, four things that
I think are mighty important to me and to you. Remember this
in regard to all ministers and all ministries. That which does
not glorify Christ is not of the Holy Spirit. It says here,
he shall glorify me. Christ said, I'll pray the Father,
he'll send you another comforter that he may abide with you and
in you. And he's going to take the things of mine and show them
to you. He's not going to speak of himself. He shall glorify
me. Now, you take all ministers.
Now, there are many of them. There are many ministers and
ministries in this world, and they're very different. They're
different from one another. But this truth will always help
you to judge the minister that is of God or the ministry that
is of God, and that is this. He glorifies Christ. That ministry
which makes much of the Lord Jesus Christ is of the Holy Spirit. And that ministry which ignores
Christ or pushes Christ to the background or preaches a faith
without Christ is not of God and not of the Holy Spirit. Now
listen to the Apostle Paul. I am determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that minister
which makes much of Christ, he takes any and all scripture,
whether it be from the Old Testament or the New Testament, whether
it's in season or out of season, he will take all scripture and
he will glorify Christ. He will magnify Christ. He will
exalt Christ. This is the theme of that minister
or ministry which is motivated by the Holy Spirit. Turn to the
book of Acts. The book of Acts, I believe it's chapter 8. I want
you to listen to something here. Acts 8 verse 35. Now what I'm
saying is this, whether that minister is preaching on creation,
whether he's preaching on the temptation and fall in the garden,
whether he's preaching on the nation Israel, whether he's preaching
from the Old Testament or New, regardless of what he's preaching
about, giving, baptism, large table, witnessing, holiness,
sanctification, justification, it doesn't matter. Whatever subject,
whatever illustration, whatever scripture, he'll preach Christ.
And if he does not exalt Christ and glorify Christ, you can be
sure the Holy Spirit is not in him. Now listen to Acts 8.35.
Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. Now here's an Ethiopian eunuch
riding along in a chariot reading Isaiah 53, reading an Old Testament
prophet, an Old Testament scripture. And one of God's servants, we
know Philip was of the Holy Spirit, we know God brought him there,
the Holy Spirit took him to that place and took him away. And
he sat down and the fellow was reading the scripture and he
said, you understand what you're reading? He said, no I don't.
He said, let somebody show me. So Philip began at that same
scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And that will be a test
to which you can put any minister that you listen to. We were talking
a little while ago, someone was talking about hearing ministers
and hearing with a critical ear. That's all right. If this is
the type of ear that you listen with, you listen for that note
which glorifies Christ. If it's not there, he's not of
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ,
and I don't care what subject he's on, it doesn't matter where
he's preaching, it doesn't matter to whom he's preaching, if he
does not glorify Christ. Well, I can assure you he's not
of the Holy Spirit. There's no such thing, because
the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ. That's what Christ said here.
Our Lord said, he'll glorify me. All right? Not only the minister, but you
can remember this in regard to all religious movements. It doesn't
matter whether it's Catholic, or Baptist, or Pentecostal, or
Presbyterian, or Seventh-day Adventism, or Jehovah Witness,
or whatever it is. There are a lot of religious
movements, and we can judge them all by one standard. If these
movements are of the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit is in them,
if it's truly the Spirit of God. The scripture says, turn to the
book of 1 John, if I can, chapter 4, verse 1. Now listen to this,
1 John 4, 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits whether they are God, because many false prophets
have gone out into this world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God." In other words, if the spirit you are
listening to or encountering, if that spirit does not glorify
the incarnate Christ, the crucified Christ, the risen Christ, the
interceding Christ, the coming Christ, the sufficient Christ,
is not of God. There are many religious denominations
and movements and organizations, and we're prone to look on them
hopefully. I know you do, and I want you
to. But, Brett, let's put them to this test, always to this
test. Do they preach Christ? Do they
magnify Christ? Do they glorify Christ? I mean,
from first to last. Do they glorify Christ, or do
they glorify something? Is something else the primary
object? Now, I'm afraid it is. I listen
and watch groups that I believe their primary objective, concern,
interest is the healing of the body. I really do. I watch them carefully and listen
to them. And they have more to say about
the healing of the body. When they talk about Christ,
he's Christ the healer, he's not Christ the redeemer, Christ
the sovereign. There are others who magnify
the law and morality. They're going to legalize morality
and they're going to bring in morality and bring in obedience
in each thing. Even the law of God is not to
be glorified. Christ is. Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our motive. Christ
is our object. Christ is our strength. Christ
is our righteousness. I hear preachers and and fine
and good when they demand obedience to God's laws and man's laws,
that's wonderful. But it's not of the Holy Spirit
if Christ is not the central figure. Is it a ceremony or a
day? Seven-day Adventism, what does
that tell you? It tells you their emphasis is
on a day, not on a person. Prophecy, doctrine, theology,
brotherhood. I hear a lot of Sounds good,
let's all get together in a unity of the faith. Let's bridge the
gap, let's bring our hearts together. That all sounds pretty, but where's
Christ? Unity, brotherhood, sounds beautiful,
sentimental, sweet. But it's not of the Holy Spirit
if Christ is not growth up. This is a test to which you can
put every minister and every ministry and every movement.
Then there are those who the primary object, it seems to me,
is to actually exalt the Holy Spirit and his gifts. And Christ
plainly says here, he shall not speak of himself. He will not
call attention to himself. He will not lift up himself.
But he shall glory if I need. Satan is subtle. He's crafty. He's an imitator. He's one who
will move into spiritual areas and destroy them. So you can
put this test to every movement. Does it glorify Christ? To every
minister? Listen to a song. You can come
through this very book right here and find songs that in no
way do they glorify me, bearing my trials. You can sing about
trials. You can sing about trials. and
call attention to the one being tried instead of the one doing
the trying. That's right. You can even sing about faith
and call attention not to the one who gives faith or who is
the object of faith, but the one who does the believing. And
that does not, that's not of God. I don't care who's doing
it, how pretty it sounds, it's not of God. It's just not of
God. That which is of the Holy Spirit
will glorify Christ. If it does not glorify Christ,
it is not of the Holy Spirit. He shall glorify me. Thirdly,
remember this when you're listening to ministers. Remember this when
you're making contributions to movements. There's programs,
I hear them on WPAY, FM, that's teleporting orphans all over
the world. Sounds good. A lot of people
sending in money. He talks about the thousands
of orphans. But Christ is not glorified, Christ is not mentioned,
Christ is not preached. Is it of the Holy Spirit? Preachers
are bound to be good if you are feeding hungry children. Well,
bound to be good, but is it of the Holy Spirit? Not if it doesn't
glorify Christ. Whatever you do in word or deed,
do it for the glory of Christ. Remember this thirdly in all
your comforts. Now, all of us need comfort.
We're looking for comfort. We're looking for assurance.
Assurance of spiritual life, assurance of hope for eternity. We want assurance, but I warn
you, And I warn you solemnly and sincerely, this subtle deceiving
adversary is going about seeking whom he may devour, and any hope
or comfort which you have, no matter how sweet, no matter how
precious, no matter how emotional, no matter how sentimental, if
it does not exalt and magnify and find its reason and hope
in Christ, it is not of the Holy Spirit. That's right. If my hope, if my comfort, if
my assurance is not in Christ the sinner's substitute, Christ
the thief's ransom, Christ the harlot's redeemer, Christ the
publican's savior, Christ the sinner's substitute, if my hope
and my assurance and comfort is drawn from any experience
in prayer, or any experience at a mourner's bench, or any
experience in a religious emotional service, or any sweet feeling
that I have experienced, is not of the Holy Spirit. It's a demon
spirit. That's true, child. It's a demon
spirit. The only comfort that a real
sinner can find is Christ died for my sins. and was buried and
rose again and is at the right hand of God pleading for my redemption. And this world is being swept
in a flood of religious emotionalism, sentimental foolishness, how
sweet, how precious, oh how dear it all is, how rotten it all
is. That's what it is. Comfort, assurance, confidence. We want beautiful services and
beautiful buildings and beautiful candles and beautiful prayers
and beautiful sermons and beautiful fellowship. We need a crucified
Redeemer. That's what we need. We're hell-deserving, ill-deserving,
undeserving, rotten sons of Adam. who needs somebody to come down
here and lie down in the cesspool of iniquity and take our stripes,
that by his stripes we might be healed. And all this sweet
sentimentalism, if you look at what we call religion today,
it's a sissified sentimental foolishness, that's what it is,
it's all of this put on, piety, phony, it's as phony as Satan.
And the only one who can discern the difference is a Spirit-taught
man or woman. You can see through that veneer
of hypocrisy and Phariseeism, you can see through that outward
veneer of religiosity, and you can see the rottenness and dead
men's bones inside. My comfort is not a sweet prayer. Somebody said, my comfort is
a suffering substitute. hanging on a cursed tree outside
the city walls of Jerusalem, dying for my sins. What is my
comfort? It's not some sweet sentimental
sermon or some decision I made one time. It's that at the right
hand of God I have a high priest who has suffered and tried and
tempted in all points as I am, yet without sin, who dares on
the merits of his blood to call my name and ask God to forgive
me. That's the foundation. And you
remember this, any comfort, any comfort, religious comfort, that
you try to find in feeling, experience, decisions, sentimentalism, emotionalism,
or anything, if it does not glorify Christ, it is not of the Holy
Spirit. Satan gave it to you, and Satan
will help you hold on to it and laugh at you as God casts you
out of his presence at the judgment. All right, the fourth thing.
Remember this. He shall glorify me, Christ said, the Holy Spirit
when he comes. I don't know what spirit you've
got, but I know one the Lord says is going to glorify me.
I don't know about that spirit that comes and gives you all
these sweet feelings and wonderful visions and all of these revelations
and these new things, but I do know when the Holy Spirit comes.
Whether it's into preaching, praying, singing, or whatever
it is, he's going to magnify and exalt and glorify the Son
of God, the sinner's substitute. Now remember this, fourthly,
in all controversies. Now we better listen right here,
and we better listen good. There are a lot of religious
differences. It may be you've got a religious difference right
now with somebody. There are a lot of hurt feelings.
It may be you've got hurt feelings right now. There are a lot of
divisions in what we call religion. Paul said you're divided. One says I'm of Paul, one says
I'm of Apollos, one says I'm somebody else, you know, a lot
of divisions. Let me say this. Most of these religious differences
and divisions and controversies are not of God at all. We like
to think that that it is of God. We like to think that we're doing
what we're doing because we're right, because God led us, because
we're standing for the truth. But most of the time we're just
standing for our old sinful self. That's all. You know how you
can tell? You know how you can tell? You know how you can tell? It's what you're doing glorifying
Christ. Is it glorifying Christ? Say
you get mad at the preacher, the church, or somebody, song
leader, somebody at church, and you quit. Does that glorify Christ?
Does your staying home glorify Christ? Does your not speaking
to that man glorify Christ? Does your carrying those hurt
feelings and chip on your shoulder, does that glorify Christ? Does
your going out and meeting with a group of people in your home
because you can't get along with other Christians, does it glorify
Christ? Well, no preacher doesn't mean it's not of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit hasn't got a thing in the world to do with it. It's
satanic. That's right. God's not in it. God's not in it. I get mad and
resign this church next Sunday because somebody didn't do something
I wanted them to do, and I felt like doing that, and I'm glad
I didn't, glad God didn't let me, because that's satanic. The
only way in the world that we can have division and controversy
and it be of the Holy Spirit is for the results of it to glorify
Christ. And I'll guarantee you, if the
results of that division, if the results of that controversy,
if it glorifies Christ, then it was of the Holy Spirit. If
it does not, God wasn't in it. And we shall pay the fare to
Tarsus. That's when Jonah left When God
sent him to Nineveh and he decided to go somewhere else, it says
he paid the fare, and he sure paid it. And when God sends us
to Nineveh and we go to Tarshish, we'll pay the fare. God will
see that we paid it. All right, the Holy Spirit, what's
his chief office work? To glorify Christ. All right,
the second, look at our text again, John 16. And this is serious. This is the heart of this thing.
He shall glorify me. Now how does he glorify Christ?
I want you to listen to this. For he shall receive of mine
and show it to you. How does the Holy Spirit glorify
Christ? He shall receive of mine and show it to you. Look at John
14.26. Let's see if we can get some
help here. John 14.26, but the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father shall send in my name,"
John 14.26, "...he shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you, when the
Holy Spirit glorifies Christ." Now listen, and I'll make this
brief. What does he do? Does he go out and get some kind
of measures or means to glorify Christ? No, sir. You know how the Holy Spirit
glorifies Christ? You know what He uses? He comes to Christ Himself. He
comes to Christ Himself. Christ is His own glory. Christ's
glory is who He is, and what He is, and what He has, and what
He has done. That's what glorifies Him. There
is no greater glory than His own glory. When the Holy Spirit
is sent to glorify Christ, he doesn't go out and get some person
to glorify Christ, or some grand entertainment to glorify Christ,
or some new revelation to glorify Christ, or some miracle to glorify
Christ. He comes to Christ himself. He
shall take the things of mine and glorify me with myself. What
do we mean by that? Well, Christ needs no novelties
or inventions or sensational revelations to glorify him. His
person is his glory. Turn to Hebrews 1 and listen
to this. Hebrews chapter 1. This is a vital truth right here. Hebrews chapter 1, in verse 2,
it says, God hath in these last days, Hebrews 1, spoken to us
by his Son. whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory." His son is the brightness of God's glory, Christ
himself, in his person, his deity, his divinity, his incarnation,
his perfect life, his death. Oh, Paul said, the glory of the
cross, his resurrection, his ascension, his intercession,
his second coming. You know, the things that glorify
Christ are in Christ. Now, the glory of kings, what's
the glory of the king of England? His wealth, his possessions,
his gold, his silver. Christ glories himself. What's
the glory of an athlete? The glory of an athlete is his
strength, his records, The glory of Christ is himself. What's
the glory of a wise man? The glory of a wise man? His
inventions, his cleverness, his education. Christ's glory is
himself. You see that? So the preacher
who glorifies Christ will preach Christ. That's what Paul said,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ.
I'm determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. It may seem simple to you, it
may seem trite to you, but if you want to glorify Christ, preach
Christ. If you want to bring glory to
Christ, preach Christ. If you want to glorify the name
of Christ, sing about Christ. About Christ, not His benefits,
not His blessing, Himself. That's what he says here, he
shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and show it
to you. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
That answers your question, Eddie, and that fellow says, oh, we
all know that. Yeah, just push it to the background, now let's
talk about something else. Not if you're going to glorify
Christ. Himself, his chief glory. His deity. His incarnation. his perfect life, his death,
his burial, his resurrection, his intercession, his second
coming, his presence, his power, his authority, his sovereignty,
his omniscience, his omnipotence, his omnipresence. His glory,
Christ's glory is himself. If you want to glorify a man,
you bring him presence. If you want to glorify Christ,
you receive his blessings. That glorifies him. All right,
last of all, and I'll quit. To whom and in whom does the
Holy Spirit glorify Christ? Now, here's the Holy Spirit,
his chief object, or his chief office, is to glorify Christ.
And the way that he glorifies Christ is to take of Christ himself. Christ himself. He is his glory. His glory is himself. His love. His power. his wisdom himself,
his grace, his mercy. You've got a thousand subjects
and all of it is his. When the Apostle Paul taught
giving, he taught it based on the gift of Christ. Thanks be
unto God for his unspeakable gift. When the Apostle Paul taught
love, when our Lord taught love, he said, Love one another as
I've loved you, as I've loved you. When he taught forgiveness,
it's forgive one another, I've forgiven you. When our Lord taught preaching,
he said, if my Father sent me, so send I to you. Everything's
himself. Alright, to whom does the Holy
Spirit glorify Christ? To you. He will guide you into
all truth. What's the first thing the Holy
Spirit does in glorifying Christ? Well, look at verse 8. He shows
us our need of Christ. When he has come, he will convince
or reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.
The Holy Spirit, first of all, comes to us in glorifying Christ
and shows us our need of Christ. He convinces of sin, original
sin, actual sins, especially unbelief. Who is the object of
faith? Christ. Who is the object of
unbelief? Christ. Of sin? Because they
believe not on me. That's where this whole, this
is the granddaddy of all sin. You can talk about all of the
murder and kidnapping and thievery and robbery and adultery and
all these things you want to, but the essence of all sin is
what? Unbelief. Unbelief. They don't believe
God. That's the essence of it. And that's where the Holy Spirit
comes and does his convicting work. They don't believe in me,
Christ says, of judgment, of righteousness, because I go to
my Father. Whose righteousness we're talking
about here? Well, two people, talking about our lack of it
and his perfect righteousness. When he convinces us of our lack
of righteousness, he convinces us of Christ's perfect righteousness.
I go to my Father. I have died, been buried, been
risen again, and the Father has received me and accepted me as
the perfect justification and righteousness." That's the basis
on which the Holy Spirit convinces the world of righteousness, on
the basis of Christ's perfect righteousness, of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judged. Who judged him? Who cast him
out? Christ did. Christ did. All shall be judged. Christ is the judge. The Father
judges. No man has committed all judgment
to the Son. So the work of the Holy Spirit,
in convincing us of our need, is not we need salvation, we
need Christ. Is not we need a way to heaven,
we need Christ. Is not we need life alone, we
need Christ. of sin, because they believe
not on me, of righteousness, because I go to my Father, of
judgment, because I have judged the Prince of this world, and
cast him out. And then the Holy Spirit, watch
verse 13, it says, When he is come, he will guide you into
all truth. He will not drive you into it,
he will not force you into it, he will guide you into it. The
Holy Spirit guides us into the truth of redemption, into the
truth of justification, And then he says, he will take the things
of mine and show them to you. Now watch verse 12. Our Lord,
we're not born mature, we're not born adults, we're born babes.
And in the kingdom of God, our Lord said to his disciples, who
had been with him three and a half years, three and a half years
at the feet of Christ, He said in verse 12, I have yet many
things to say to you. You cannot bear them now. You
are not prepared for them, you are not ready for them. Now how
is he going to reveal them? His Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit
shows us our need of Christ His Holy Spirit guides us into the
truth of Christ, and then His Holy Spirit takes the meat of
the Word and the revelations of the Word and reveals them
to us day by day, step by step. Let me ask you this question
before we quit. Have you not in your spiritual
life, your life of faith, have you not owned a doctrine or a
truth to be a part of the Word of God? You've owned it to be
a part of divine revelation, and you had a grip on it. But
in God's good time, when the Holy Spirit in his grace and
mercy came and really revealed it to you, and it got a grip
on you. Do you know what I'm saying?
You've studied the Word, and you've come to see, oh, any,
just pick any of them. Say the doctrine of justification.
And you received it as a part of divine revelation, the scripture,
and you held on to the doctrine of justification, but then maybe
one night, maybe during a service, maybe reading the Bible, maybe
under preaching a sermon, suddenly the Holy Spirit brought you not
only to receive the doctrine, but to experience it. and you no longer had a grip
on it, it had a grip on you. It just encorposed you and killed
you. That's what he's talking about
here. The Holy Spirit will take the things of mine. And he's
not going to give you the whole thing in one lesson and say,
there it is, and zip your head open, stick it in, zip it back.
No, he's going to, in his own good time, when the lesson will
be learned and learned well, And when it will be experienced
and when it will be entered into, then he'll teach that lesson
about Christ, that truth about Christ. But I'll give you the
measurement even for that, even for learning, studying. We said we'll measure ministers
and ministries and movements and comforts and controversies. I'll tell you something else
you can measure too. Anything you're privately studying, any
book you're reading, any literature that comes into your home, religious
literature, does it glorify Christ? If it doesn't, it's not of God.
If it doesn't glorify Christ, it is not of God. No matter how
pretty or sweet or precious it might be, if it does not glorify
Christ, it's not of God. Our Father, in our thoughts,
in our faith, in our meditations, in our innermost secret person,
may we love and exalt and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, resting
in Him, trusting in Him, waiting upon Him. Grant, O Lord, that
before thee, in thy presence, that we may have a total honesty,
an openness of heart and soul and mind, confession of our sins
and of our need, and yet be able to say, Lord, thou knowest all
things, thou knowest that I love thee. Christ is my hope, I am
nothing, less than the least of all the saints, not worthy
to be called a child of the King, chief of sinners. Yet I find
Christ died for the ungodly. When we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. He pleads our cause, not our
merits, our cause. And he pleads his wounds and
his righteousness. O Lord, grant in our prayers
and in our thoughts and in our worship we may glorify Christ.
We're nothing. We have need of all things, and
the least mercy, the least mercy, we're not worthy of it. But we
receive it from Thou bountiful hand through Christ Jesus the
Lord. O God, in our worship service, in our preaching, in our singing,
may we glorify Christ. In our gifts, in our good works,
In anything that we do, grant that we may be able of our spirit
to do it for the glory of Christ our Lord. O God, let us weigh
our motives, our attitudes. Even those sweet comforts and
assurances, let us be sure that the foundation of them is Christ.
Let us not be deceived. Let us not perish, hearing me
say, depart from me, I never knew you. May the Holy Spirit
of the living God, in his chief office work of glorifying Christ,
in taking the things of our Lord and showing them to creatures
on this earth, may it please thee, O God, for him to show
them to us, that we may see him and believe on him. For it is
in his name we pray. Amen.