The Holy Spirit Chapter
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The sixteenth chapter of John contains a part of our Lord's last message before He went out to Gethsemane and on to the Cross. The disciples were deeply concerned because He was going away. They were filled with sorrow. For this cause our Lord spoke tenderly and with deep concern.
In John 14:1-31 the Lord gave expressions of comfort. We have already studied this chapter, calling it the "Comfort Chapter." In chapter 15 Christ's message continues, centering in the call to abide in Him. He is teaching the disciples that even though He is going to the Father, He can still be with them and they can abide in Him. Chapter 15 may be called the Abiding Chapter.
In chapter 16 the Lord is showing the disciples that even with Him in Heaven, they will have the blessed Comforter with them on earth.
As a prelude to chapter 16 we wish to call your attention to what Jesus Christ said concerning the Holy Spirit in Chapter s 14 and 15.
1. The coming of the Spirit is called Another Comforter (John 14:16-17). The Lord says, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter." The word "Comforter" is, in the original, " Paracletos," and literally it means, "one at your side." Jesus Christ for more than three years had been their Comforter. He had walked beside them. Now, however, He was about to go away, and He said, I will "give you another Comforter."
When Rebekah came over the desert sands, Eliezer, the aged servant of Abraham, rode at her side. Thus, he was her " Paracletos." Today we have One who rides at our side.
(1) The Comforter described. In John 14:17 we read "Even the Spirit of Truth." The One who walks with us is the Spirit of Truth because He is the Giver of Truth. Even in the old days when the Old Testament Scriptures were written, holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. We read how "David in spirit" said this or that.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth because His Words are inerrant. He never speaks other than the truth. In this age of error it is a blessed thing to sit down and read a book which is free from error. Our Lord Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." He was the Truth. So also is the Holy Ghost, who walks with us, the Truth.
(2) The Spirit whom the world cannot receive. This is also in John 14:16; John 14:17. The world cannot receive the Spirit, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. This is the message of the whole of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit does not indwell the unsaved, neither does He become their Teacher and their Guide.
2. The coming of the Spirit is One who will teach us all things (John 14:26). Christ said, "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 unto you."
In this Scripture we find that the Holy Ghost is not alone the Spirit of Truth. He is also the Revealer of Truth. He is not the truth hidden and stored away, but He is the Truth revealed and displayed. He is the Teacher who teaches all things. Being the teacher of all things, He is the master of all things. He is Omniscient, inherently, that is, within Himself, because He is omniscient in what He reveals.
This verse is the Divine explanation of how the four Gospels were written. For instance, in Matthew, we read this expression, "[Jesus] went up into a mountain: * * and He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying." Then follow three Chapter s purporting to carry word for word the message of Christ upon the Mount.
Matthew, nor anyone else could possibly have remembered every word which Christ said. Thus we are driven to one of two conclusions. Either the Sermon on the Mount is an unfaithful record, owing to human frailties, or else, it is a word by word record faithfully and accurately given by Divine inspiration. In other words, we know that the Holy Spirit did bring to Matthew's remembrance, all things that Christ had spoken, and just as He had spoken it.
3. The coming of the Spirit as set forth in John 15:26. Here is the reading: "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." This verse emphasizes what the other verses proclaimed, that the Spirit is the Comforter, that the Spirit came forth from the Father, that the Spirit is Truth, and then the verse adds, that the ministry of the Spirit would be to testify of Christ.
John 15:27 adds this illuminating word, "Ye also shall bear witness." Thus Christians, whether preachers or laymen who bear witness to Jesus Christ, are working in conjunction with the Spirit, who bears witness. Thank God, our ministry is one. We are assured, therefore, that when we testify from pew or pulpit, the truth concerning Christ we will have the cooperation and enforcement of the Holy Spirit in our testimonies.
I. A PROPHECY OF THE COMING PERSECUTION (John 16:1-3)
The Lord Jesus did not desire to leave His disciples ignorant of what would befall them after He had gone away, lest they might become offended and discouraged in the hour of their persecution.
1. For this cause Christ said, "They shall put you out of the synagogues." We are not so sure but that this is still true in many places. In the early Church days, the disciples were put out of the synagogues because the synagogues which purported to be God's Temples had ruled out God's Son. He had come to His own and they had received Him not. His Father's House had become a den of thieves.
As the modern church becomes more and more Laodicean, Jesus Christ is found outside the door, knocking. It is no marvel, therefore, that when the Lord, Himself, is denied a place within the synagogue, that His people will also be so denied. When a church and its minister denies the vicarious Atonement, the Virgin Birth, the literal and corporeal Resurrection of Christ, and Christ's personal Return, it is no wonder that they will deny a minister who proclaims such a Christ, the privilege of their fellowship and pulpit. Fundamentalists are accustomed to being put out of the synagogue.
2. For this cause Christ said, "Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." We would not for a moment deny that the Pharisees of Christ's day, and the Modernists of our day are not sincere in their religiousness. Christ acknowledged their sincerity when He said, he "will think that he doeth God service."
The persecutors of the saints have throughout the centuries been religious men. That is, they have been men who professed to be godly, and who followed a form of godliness. Therefore, we should not think it strange concerning the fiery trials which will befall us.
The Lord said, "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Again, it is written, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
II. A PROPHECY OF CHRIST'S GOING BACK TO THE FATHER (John 16:5-6)
1. Christ lived with the consciousness that He was to return to the Father whom He had left. Down from the glory He had come to do the Father's will. He had been sent on a definite and distinctive mission. That mission was the redemption of the lost. He came to be a Saviour, a Redeemer, a propitiation, or Mercy-Seat. He came to die that others might live. He came to give His life a ransom for many.
As He spoke these words He had already broken the bread and poured forth the cup saying, "This is My Body, which is broken for you." He also said, "This cup is the New Testament in My Blood." He knew that the Cross was before Him. He also knew that beyond the Cross was the empty tomb, that beyond the empty tomb was the ascension from the Mount of Olives, and that beyond the ascension from the Mount of Olives was a seat at the Father's right hand.
Christ was not only going back to God, but He was going back, a Prince and a Saviour. He was going back not only to the glory that He had with the Father before the world was, but He was going back to this added glory, that He should be a Mediator between God and man; an Advocate, and a Great High Priest managing the affairs of those who put their trust in Him.
2. The disciples, seeing Christ about to go, were filled with sorrow. The sorrow that gripped them was a heart sorrow, for they loved Him. They believed in Him.
Perhaps another reason for their sorrow lay in the fact that His departure dispelled, at least for the time, their thought that He was to be crowned a King, and that they would reign with Him in His glory. They verily thought that He would redeem Israel. Thus they were doubly sorrowful sorry in the losing of a Friend, sorry in the blasting of their hope.
Beloved, let us trust and not be afraid. Jesus said to them, "I go away." Jesus afterwards said to them, and He now says to us, "I will come again." He went to be with the Father. He is coming back to be with us. Every promise of His Kingdom and His Reign will be fulfilled before our very eyes.
III. A PROPHECY OF THE SPIRIT'S COMING (John 16:7)
1. Christ's departure was best for His saints. He said, "I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away."
We cannot always tell the reason for the events as they pass before us. However, one thing we do know, "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
The things which we would call our "bad" He calls our "good." The things which we call our "sorrow," He calls our "joy." Would that we might learn to spell our disappointments, His-appointments.
We wonder why it was better for Him to go away. They loved Him. They trusted Him, and yet it was best for Him to leave them.
We wonder also, if it was best for Him to go away, why it is not best for Him to stay away. Yet, He has definitely said that He will come again. Known unto God are His purposes and His plans from before the foundations of the world. During this age, according to the Scripture, it is expedient for Him to be away. During the next or Millennial Age, it is expedient for Him to be here.
2. Why it is expedient that Christ should have gone away. Christ answered the question they asked, and which our hearts naturally ask. His reply is, "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." The coming of the Comforter, therefore, meant more to the Church than the retaining of Christ could have meant. It is better for us to have the Holy Ghost: with us during this age of grace, than it would have been to have had Christ with us.
We need to remember that Christ in the body was a ship tied to its wharf; Christ in the body was Christ circumscribed, Christ limited, held back.
The Spirit coming was Christ revealed, Christ made known, Christ glorified in us. Concerning the Spirit's coming, Christ said, "The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father."
We would not in the least belittle the great loss of the presence of the personal Christ, the Christ of flesh and bones and blood, but we would magnify the greater glory of the coming of the Spirit, of His presence with us, and of His ministry among us.
The reason that Christ is coming again is set forth in the conditions of the new era. with its new environments, such as will exist in His Second Advent and reign.
When He came the first time He came to be despised and rejected of men. When He comes again He comes to be admired in all that believe. During this age Satan is its Prince, unrighteousness predominates. When He comes again, the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Christ in His Second Advent will be Christ, not circumscribed, but glorified. Christ with the resurrection body, Christ radiating His glory, His might, and His power over the whole world; Christ shepherding His flock, and leading them by the waters of gladness.
IV. A PROPHECY OF THE SPIRIT'S WORK IN THE WORLD (John 16:8-10)
"And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."
1. Here is the distinctive mission of the Spirit world-ward. Mark, however, that it is when He is come unto you that He will reprove the world. The Spirit did not come unto the world; He came unto the saints; He does not reprove the unregenerated sinner apart from us, but through us, through our lives, our lips. It is by preaching that God hath chosen to carry the conviction of the Holy Ghost. It is also through holy living that the wicked will be aroused to a sense of their own ungodliness.
2. Here is the threefold method of reproof.
(1) He will reprove the world of sin, "because they believe not on Me." Many of our evangelists and the majority of our church people, we fear, are seeking to reprove the world of sin because of the immoralities of men. Some think that the Spirit will reprove men of the sin of gambling, of drinking, of impurity, of evil temper, of idolatry, of dancing, card playing, theater going, etc. This is far from correct. All men know they are sinners along these lines. The Spirit of God touches in His reproving and convincing-power the root of sin, and not the fruit of sinning. Back of all evil deeds is a heart of unbelief. Back of iniquity is a life that rejects the Son of God.
The Spirit is reproving men of the greatest of all sin unbelief. He convinces the world that their only hope is in Jesus Christ, the Sin-bearer, and the Saviour; other sins find men lost, but the sin of Christ's rejection finds men irreparably, hopelessly lost. No matter how great a man's sins may be Christ's Blood will wash them away. There is no power, however, to cleanse a heart that does not believe in Christ.
(2) He will reprove the world of righteousness. "Because I go to My Father."
Unrighteousness is upon all men, in that all have sinned. Jesus Christ, at the presence of the Father, is God's accepted Sin-bearer. The Holy Spirit acclaims Christ as Saviour, because He is the Christ, seated at the right hand of God. In other words, if Christ's body had remained in the tomb, and His Spirit had remained in Hades, the Spirit could never reprove the world relative to the possibility of righteousness. The Spirit says that Christ crucified is a possible Saviour, but that the crucified and exalted Saviour, is the power of God unto righteousness to all who believe.
The Cross satisfied the offended Law, sustained God's righteous judgment against sin, and fulfilled every basic need of a lost soul seeking redemption.
The resurrection of Christ and His being seated at the Father's right hand is the declaration of the Father's satisfaction with the Son's atoning work upon the Cross. Christ exalted, is a Saviour Divinely accepted and proclaimed, Christ exalted, is righteousness made practical and possible upon all who believe. There is another message, however, in this statement, "of righteousness, because I go to My Father." Redemption is accomplished on the Cross, but the power of righteous living is made possible through a risen and seated Lord.
(3) He will reprove the world of judgment, "because the Prince of this world is judged."
When Christ died on the Cross He met principalities and powers and triumphed over them. The Lord Himself spoke of the Prince of the world being judged. To the sinner in view of this fact, the Spirit is saying: judgment will fall upon all unbelievers, but judgment will never fall on those who know the Christ.
V. A PROPHECY OF THE SPIRIT'S GUIDANCE (John 16:13)
"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 shew you things to come."
1. The Spirit will guide into all truth. People today are carried about by every wind of doctrine because they listen to the cunning craftiness of men. When the church opens their ears to the Spirit of Truth they will be yet led to a unity of doctrine, the Bible says until we all come into the unity of the faith; this unity of the faith is dependent upon our being led by the Spirit of Truth.
2. The Spirit will not speak of Himself. It is for this cause that the Holy Spirit guides into all truth, even because He does not speak of Himself. He speaks whatsoever He shall hear. We may be startled for a moment at this expression, knowing as we do that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, and is God.
However, we need to remember that the Lord Jesus was also God, and He spoke the truth. Yet, it is written of Him, and claimed by Him, that He never spoke of Himself. He said that He spoke the words of the Father. The words which He spoke were spirit and they were life, and yet we read, "I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak those things." Thus it was that Christ did the work of the Father, spoke the words of the Father, and wrought the will of the Father. The Holy Spirit does the same. He speaks what He hears. In other words, the Bible, which He wrote through holy men, is the Word of God.
3. The Spirit will show things to come. Here is a blessed statement. The Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of Prophecy. The Spirit can tell the things which lie in the far distance with the same authority that He can tell the events of yesterday. The prophetic Scriptures are just as true as the historical Scriptures. Prophecy is as dependable and inerrant as is history.
VI. A PROPHECY OF THE SPIRIT'S GLORIFICATION OF CHRIST (John 16:14)
Our verse runs this way: "He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shew it unto you." The Holy Spirit speaks of Christ, glorifies Christ, tells of the things of Christ.
When Eliezer conducted Rebekah over the desert sands, he must have talked of Isaac. The Sphinx, the catacombs, the pyramids, perhaps came to view, but they were not the basis of conversation. Everything centered in Isaac.
The Holy Spirit is not here to teach geography, to guide in science, to proclaim literature. The Holy Spirit was not sent from Heaven to preach quality and the latest novels, and to acclaim the glories of the boys in blue or in gray. The Holy Spirit came to preach Christ, to glorify Him, to take of the things of Christ, and to reveal them unto us.
Let us who are ministers of the Word, be ministers of Christ. Let us separate ourselves unto the Gospel of God, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead and seated at the Father's right hand. Let us preach Christ Crucified, Risen, and Coming Again.
VII. A PROPHECY OF FUTURE JOY (John 16:16-22)
The present little while. Christ said, "A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father."
This expression "a little while" grips us with tremendous power.
" 'Tis not for long I'll be away,"
'Twas this I heard the Master say;
'Tis but a little while, and then
I will be coming back again.
His "little while" is almost past,
His absence can't much longer last;
His shout, e'en now, I almost hear,
His coming back is drawing near.
When strikes the hour, He will not stay.
He'll come to take us up, away;
The day and hour we "dinna ken,"
But this we know, He'll come again.
The fact of Christ's Return for His saints, and, afterward, with His saints, is plainly established by the "more sure Word of Prophecy."
The day and the hour of His Coming God has not seen fit to reveal. However, of the "times and seasons" we may know perfectly.
For half a century the Spirit has been placing emphasis upon the study of the prophetic Scriptures, and for the past decade that emphasis has been greatly intensified.
At this very moment the whole Christian populace is tremendously stirred by world events in the light of the Lord's imminent Return.
How soon we do not know;
It is far better so;
And yet, the hour is late
Expectantly we wait.
Be it at morn or noon,
His Coming must be soon;
In gloom the world doth grope,
While ardently we hope.
He told us He would come,
And upward take us Home;
We sing an even song.
As yearningly we long.
AN ILLUSTRATION
I went into a granite quarry in North Carolina. The manager of the quarry said to me, "We supplied the granite for the Municipal Building in New York City. We can lift an acre of solid granite, ten feet thick, to almost any height we may desire for the purpose of moving it. We do it by compressed air. It can be done as easily as I can lift that piece of paper and move it through the air." Air this thing that I can move my hand through, and which does not seem to have any power at all, and yet under compression can lift an acre of granite. O Thou Holy Spirit invisible, of whose presence we are sometimes not conscious, still Thou hast the power to lift a heart toward God, though it is hard and heavy as granite!
I went into the great building where artists from Italy were chiseling this granite into shape. Their instruments cut it round and round, carving that flower and that great pillar as easily as if it were cheese. I said, "How do you do it?" Again the answer was, "By compressed air." It is the compressed air that moves the instrument and, guided by the intelligence of the artist, can chisel this hard granite into any desired shape. Oh, that God, in the quiet power of His Holy Spirit, would not only lift us up, but chisel us into shape, into the very form and image of Jesus Christ our Lord, after we have been born from above!
A. C. Dixon, D. D.