I'll ask you, if you will, to
open your Bibles to John, the Gospel of John. We're going to
be reading three different chapters, John chapter 14, chapter 15,
and chapter 16. John chapter 14 and verses 16
and 17, And 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 cannot receive, because it seeth Him
not, neither knoweth Him. But you know Him, for He dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you. And then down to verse 26, But
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, which the Father will
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Now in
chapter 15, verse 26, But when the Comforter is come, whom I
will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. Now, in chapter 16, let's begin
reading in verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient for you, necessary,
that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when He has come, He will
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go
to My Father, and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because
the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say
unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, When He, the
Spirit of Truth, 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 unto you. We should all, all
of us here today, we should all recognize that these are the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ spoken to his eleven apostles
the night before he was crucified. And as we've just read, he spoke
more at this time than any other time in his earthly ministry
about the person of the Holy Spirit. I don't know if you noticed
this, but as we were reading in chapters 14, 15, and 16, but
every time the Lord spoke of him, he referred to him as the
Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Truth. The Comforter. Now I have four truths about
the Holy Spirit this morning that I would like to mention
to us. First, The Lord Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as a
divine person. As a divine person. In each of
these three places that we read, he spoke of him as a person. If you look in chapter 16 and
verse 13, notice just how many times the Lord referred to him
and used the pronoun he, the personal pronoun he. It's never
it. He never referred to the Holy
Spirit as it. Notice in this verse, if you
will, verse 13, how be it when He, not it, but when He, the
Spirit of truth is come, He will divide 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. If the Holy Spirit were a power,
if that's all, just a power or an influence, then the Lord Jesus
Christ would have referred to him as it. But seeing that he
is not an it, He's not a thing. He's a person. Just like the
Father and the Son and the blessed Holy Trinity. If you keep your
places here, but look over just a few pages into the book of
Acts. There's many places we could
turn, but I wanted to go here to Acts chapter 5. And just look at the words of
the Apostle Peter to this man by the name of Ananias. No one
should ever question or doubt the person of the Holy Spirit
and his deity. Here in chapter 5, verses 4 and
5, Peter says to this man, was it, that is, the money that he
had received from selling this property, was it remained, was
it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
saying, in thine heart thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. But notice in verse 3, but Peter
said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to
the Holy Ghost? Peter clearly here refers to
the Holy Ghost as God. Ananias, why did Satan fill your
heart To lie to the Holy Ghost. You've not lied to men. He did lie to men, right? He did lie to the Apostle Peter
and others may be there with him. But that was not his sin. His sin was that he had lied
to God. And God killed him. Immediately. They carried him out and buried
him. He lied to God. So the first
truth that we see and are reminded of is that the Lord Jesus Christ
in all the Scripture, all the Word of God, He is spoken of
as a divine person, one with the Father and one with the Holy
Spirit. When we say that He is one with
the Father and one with the Holy Spirit, we mean of the same essence. There are three persons in the
Godhead, yes. But all of the same essence,
and all of the attributes, all of the characteristics which
are true of the Father, are true of the Son, and are true of God
the Holy Spirit. Now, here's the second truth
I want to point out to us. The Lord Jesus spoke of the Holy
Spirit as a divine person. Number two, the Lord Jesus spoke
of the Holy Spirit's coming as dependent upon His going away. Notice that. We read in chapter
16 in verse 7. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of
the Holy Spirit's coming as being dependent upon His going away. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. Now listen. For
if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if
I depart, I will send him unto you. We know, or at least I trust
everyone here this morning knows, that when our Lord in this passage
speaks of his going away, he spoke of his going away to these
eleven apostles that night before his crucifixion, and their hearts
were filled with sorrow. the passage begins let not your
heart be troubled he was going away he speaks of his death by
his going away it is expedient for you that I go away for if
I go not away if I do not go to the cross that's part of it
but not all of it if I do not go away The Comforter will not
come unto you, but if I depart, if I go away, I will send him
unto you. Now, this begs the question,
does this mean that the Holy Spirit was not in this world
when our Lord spoke these words? Of course He was here. That's
not what it means at all. The fact that He is God means
He's omnipresent. The fact that He is God, just
like the Father and like the Holy Spirit, is omnipresent.
There's no place where anyone may flee and be out of the presence
of God. And in that great Psalm 139,
where David celebrates the truth of God's omnipresence and His
omniscience, he said, Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Indicating
and confessing. There's no place. No place where
man might go and the Spirit not be there. He said, Do not I fill
heaven and earth? He's God. He's everywhere. Well
then, what did our Lord mean? Well, He certainly didn't mean
that He was not here. In fact, if you open up your
Bibles and begin reading in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1, in the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth And the Spirit,
immediately we read of the Spirit of the Lord being upon the waters
in verse 3. The earth was without form and
void and the Spirit of the Lord was upon the waters. Listen to what the Apostle Peter
wrote in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 21. What am I saying? I'm saying our Lord did not mean
that the Holy Spirit was not here. Not in that ultimate sense. He's God. He's everywhere. No
man can flee from His Spirit. In the beginning, the Spirit
of the Lord was here in the week of creation. And the Apostle
Peter said this, for the prophecy, the prophecy, that is the Old
Testament, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man. Isaiah didn't just sit down one
day and say, you know, I think I'd like to take up writing.
Or Jeremiah, or Moses, or any of those men that God used in
writing the Scriptures. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Just like the wind moves, the
same word, the wind, you see a sailboat out on the lake, and
the wind moves that boat along. So God, the Holy Spirit, moved
upon men. as they wrote the Word of God,
the Old Testament. When the Lord said this, it is
expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. Then what did He mean if He was
already here? He would not come in the manner
that He did come. That's what he means. The Holy
Spirit, if I go not away, the Holy Spirit will not come in
the manner that he is going to come. And it was predicated upon
Christ going away. And if you look, I wasn't going
to ask you to turn, but turn back to John chapter 7, because
here we have divine comment on this. It's always best to have
scripture comment on scripture, isn't it? Comparing spiritual
things with spiritual things. That's what preaching is. That's
what teaching is, isn't it? It's not some man just standing
up and off the top of his head spouting off what he believes
and what he thinks. Oh no. We want to know what God
says. What God says and we take one
part of scripture and we compare it with another part of scripture
and that keeps us from going off in some wild tangent and
teaching something that the analogy of faith does not support. Look here in John 7 and verse
39. But this spake he, this is John's
inspired comment, but this spake he of the Spirit, which they
that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet
given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. It is expedient
for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter
He must, first of all, be glorified. Consider these two things with
me. How do we know that Jesus Christ is glorified? And what
does that mean, Him being glorified? Well, it means several things.
It means a whole lot more than the fact that He received a glorified
body. that when he came out of that
grave, his body was glorified. It means much more than that. That's part of it, but it means
much more than that. For him to be glorified, first
of all, on the cross, he defeated all our enemies. Satan must be
defeated. Death must be conquered. Sin
must be answered. All of those enemies which were
against his people and thus against him, for him to be glorified,
all of these things had to be accomplished. And number three,
where is he? He is exalted to the throne of
God. You say, well, is God That was
always His throne. I understand that. It's the throne
of God and He is God. But we're talking about the man
Christ Jesus. The man who came into this world.
The God-man who died on the cross. That He is exalted to the highest
place that there is. The throne of God and reigns
and rules over everything. Look with me, if you will, in
Ephesians chapter 1, where the Apostle Paul speaks of this. Ephesians 1, and this is part of his prayer for
believers. Beginning in verse 20. His power which he wrought in
Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own
right hand in the heavenly places. Now here, here's him being glorified. Yes, he has a glorified body.
Yes, he conquered all our enemies. And yes, my friends, God has
placed him at the highest place. upon His throne, far, far above
all principality. That is, all angels and demon
spirits and all of that, above all principality and power and
might and dominion, and given Him a name that is above every
name. And every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. Notice where it says, God gave
him to be the head over all things to the church. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, upon this rock, and he's speaking of himself. Don't make a mistake here. He's
not talking about some weak, fallible man. Upon this rock
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not come
against it, not conquer it. And the reason being is because
he reigns and rules over everything. And all of this world and all
of providence, you see things happen, I do, and someone says,
well, how do you explain that? I can't. I can't. I wouldn't even begin to try.
I can't. But I do know this, that Christ
is seated upon the throne of God and He's reigning over all
things for the good of His church. He has a people in this world
that He was given by God the Father in eternal election, a
people that He loves, a people that He redeemed on the cross,
and you may be sure He's making all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. How do we know that Jesus is
glorified? He said, it is expedient for
you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will
not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. On the day of Pentecost, you
can read about it in Acts chapter 2. There's no question that he
is glorified. He sent the Holy Spirit, just
like he said he would do. But here's the second thing,
how do we know that His intercession is successful? And make no mistake
about it, we could not be saved apart from His intercessory work. If He were not at the Father's
right hand making intercession for all of us who come unto God
by Him, there would be no salvation for us. Well, how do we know
he's successful in his intercession? Well, what did he say? He said,
I will pray the Father and he shall give thee another comforter. The Holy Spirit coming on the
day of Pentecost witnesses to us that he has been glorified
and that he's on the throne and he's there making intercession
for all of us who come unto God by Him. Now here's the third. The Lord Jesus spoke of the Holy
Spirit's sovereignty. He spoke of His person. He spoke
of His coming as depended upon Him going away. And the Lord
Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit's sovereignty. Notice here in chapter
16, John chapter 16, how many times We read of will, W-I-L-L,
and shall. That's the way God speaks. You understand what I mean? We say, I will, the Lord willing. I shall, God willing. But when God speaks, God says,
I will. I shall. And notice here concerning
the Holy Spirit in verse 8. And when He has come, He will
reprove the world of sin. It doesn't say He's going to
do His best. It doesn't say He's going to
try. He's going to give it His best shot. No, no. When He has come, He will reprove
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And look in
verse 13. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will. He will. He's not going to try
to guide you into all truth. No. He's speaking to his apostles. 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. And verse 14. He shall. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. We do not read one
time that the Holy Spirit is going to try, or he may, or perhaps
not one time. He shall. He will. This speaks
of his sovereignty. Just as the Bible teaches us
and declares unto us, and we think of this as the Father,
as God the Father, He's sovereign. He said, I will have mercy upon
whom I will have mercy. He's sovereign. And God the Son,
we think of Him as also sovereign. I think of His words when some
came to Him and told Him that Herod Herod is going to get you. That's basically what they were
saying. He's going to get you. And our
Lord spoke like this, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures
today, and tomorrow, and the third day, and I shall be perfected. You go and tell that fox. That's
what he called Herod. Just like a little animal. You
go and tell that fox, until the third day, that's when I will
be perfected, that's when he would be offered up. Until he
had perfectly done the work he came to do, not Herod, not all
the devils in hell, not all men together could hinder him or
could stay his hand, because he is sovereign, just like the
Father. And my friend, so the Holy Spirit. He is sovereign. He divides.
When Paul writes about the several gifts that God the Holy Spirit
gives to his church, he said he divides severally to every
man as he will. As he will. That's in 1 Corinthians
12. Now, here's the fourth thing.
The Lord Jesus, I hope you're following, the Lord Jesus spoke
of the Holy Spirit's work in two areas. Now, the Holy Spirit's
work, his office work, is much more than these two things we're
going to mention. But in these scriptures that
we've looked at today, in John 14, 15, and 16, the Lord Jesus
spoke of the Holy Spirit's work in two areas. Number one, he
will inspire the word, the New Testament Scripture. He will
inspire the New Testament Scripture. The Lord Jesus declared that
the Holy Spirit, who He calls, remember, the Spirit of Truth,
He will guide you into all truth. Now that word, all, don't just
pass over that. He will guide you into all truth
because this implies the completeness and the perfection of the Word
of God. Some people say, well, I got
a word from the Lord. Well, I did too. When someone
gave me a Bible, I got a word from the Lord. And don't be looking
for any word from the Lord outside of this book. He shall guide
you into all truth. The completeness, the perfection
of the truth. The Holy Spirit guided the apostles
clearly. He didn't say He's going to try
to guide you. Let me say that again. He guided
them clearly, plainly, and powerfully in writing the Word of God, the
Scriptures. In writing the Gospel narratives,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we read here, He shall teach
you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever,
I have told you, whatsoever I have said to you."
Some people say, well how could they remember that? How could
Peter remember what Mark wrote? We believe that Peter is the
apostle who was inspired to give Mark the word that he wrote.
How could he remember that? Because Peter was with the Lord
for the whole duration of his ministry. He shall guide you
into all truth and shall bring to your remembrance, bring all
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. He brought
these things to remembrance, to Matthew, to John. In writing the epistles, And the book of Revelation, you
notice in verse 13, it says, he shall guide you into all truth. How did Paul, for instance, how
did Paul, in writing the letter of Galatians, how did he realize
that those two women by whom Abraham had sons serve as an
allegory of the two covenants? How did Paul, in writing Ephesians
and speaking about a husband loving his wife and the wife
being in submission to her husband, how did he know that that all
was just a picture of Christ and His church, His bride? Well,
we know how, don't we? The Holy Spirit, He shall guide
you into all truth. And then the book of Revelation,
and not only Revelation, but Paul also wrote about things
to come. Peter wrote about things to come.
They were promised this direction, this guidance of the Holy Spirit
by the Lord Jesus Christ. We speak about his office work. to inspire the writing of the
scripture. Well, you say, what about the
Old Testament? Well, consider the fact that
he inspired, we know he inspired the New Testament. The Old Testament
is quoted in the New Testament. Just about every book is quoted.
Plus, we know that the Jews, they accepted every book in the
Old Testament that we have as the inspired writing of God. Now I said we see two of his
office works here. The second is, the first was
the inspiration of the scripture. Second, he shall glorify me. This is a work of the Holy Spirit.
He's not here to call attention to himself. He's not here to glorify himself.
Our Lord said, he shall glorify me. It's interesting, if you
still have your scripture open to John 16, I trust that you
do. If you look at the word mine,
M-I-N-E, in verses 14 and 15. Our Lord said, 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 show it unto you." You follow what
our Lord said here. All things that the Father hath,
our Lord said, are mine. And the Holy Spirit will take
of mine, which were of the Father, and He will show it unto you. What clear proclamation of the
Trinity do people need? The Father, all things are His.
The Son takes those things of the Father, and then the Holy
Spirit takes those things of the Son, which were those things
of the Father, and shows it unto us. Only the Spirit of God searches
the deep things of God. The only person that knows what's
in your heart is you! You know. Your Spirit knows what's
in your heart. God the Holy Spirit, because
He is God. He knows all things about God. It was the Son's delight when
He came into this world. He said in the volume of the
book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God. And let
me tell you something, it is the Holy Spirit's delight Just
as it was the Son's delight to do the will of the Father, it
is the Holy Spirit's delight to take the things of Christ
and show them unto us. Now let's see, for just a few
minutes before I finish, let's see if we may trace the Holy
Spirit's work in glorifying the Son in the hearts of God's people. Number one, when the Holy Spirit
comes to those to whom he comes to glorify the Son, the first
thing he will do, he will lay the sinner low in his own eyes. He will lay the sinner low in
his own eyes. Oh, wretched man that I am. The Apostle Paul at the end of
his ministry when he wrote 2nd Timothy said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into this world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. He didn't say of whom
I was chief. He said of whom I am chief. Self-righteous people, they hate
that truth. Self-righteous people, they love
to brag and boast about their goodness and their good works
and whatever they think they've done to make themselves pleasing
in the sight of God. But let me tell you something,
when the Holy Spirit comes to a person's heart to glorify Christ,
he will lay that center low in his own eyes. He may come to see himself as
the worst of the worst. and look upon everyone else so
much better than himself. He will lay the sinner low in
his own eyes. One old writer said he creates,
the Holy Spirit creates a grief that none but Jesus can assuage. He afflicts a wound which none
but Jesus can heal. He creates a void in the soul
which none but Jesus can fill. In a word, he brings the sinner
into such a case that none but Jesus can meet the condition
of his soul. Our Lord said it like this, they
that behold, they don't need a physician, not at all. Now that's the first thing, if
we may trace his work in glorifying Christ. Number two, he reveals
how suitable, how suitable a Savior Jesus is to meet his case. He's both God and he's man. How suitable he is. Mohammed,
Buddha, Confucius, all these man-made religions, they can't
meet my case. No matter what they say, no matter
what they promise, I need someone, an intermediator. Intermediator
between God and myself. One who can touch God because
He is God, and touch me because I'm man. You tell me Jesus Christ
is God-man? That's exactly the Savior I need. The sinner comes to see that
he needs a righteousness to meet the claims of God's law and God's
justice. He needs a shelter, a refuge
to shelter him from God's wrath. And he needs a fountain. Oh,
tell me, is there a fountain? Is there somewhere where I may
wash and be clean? All my sins removed. The Holy Spirit gives him life
when he opens his eyes, his blind eyes, to see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. How that God may be just and
justify an ungodly sinner. He opens his eyes, he opens his
heart, and he receives the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. And then
notice in closing, in verse 15, here in John 16, He shows him the things of Christ. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall
show it unto you. You might have expected to read,
he will take the things of mine and give them unto you. But he
doesn't say that. He takes the things of mine and
shows them unto you. As long as we are in this world,
we need to keep looking to Christ. He keeps showing us Christ. We keep looking to Him. If He gave us everything, and
there's a sense I realize He gives us all things of Christ,
that's true. But He shows them unto us. As
we live our life here in this world until the Lord takes us
home, He continues to point us to Christ, to show us, to glorify
Christ in our heart, in our eyes. That's our experience. Well,
I pray that the Lord will bless this study, this message today. God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of Truth. And let me tell you something,
He's not going to use a lie to save His people. He uses the
truth. He is the Spirit of truth. May
the Lord bless His Word. Let's take our hymn books and
we'll sing a hymn, number 460.