Baker, Jim: The Holy Spirit John 6_5

To John chapter sixteen, reading please from verse five. Verse five. But now I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asked me whither goest I? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, 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 be passed, I will send him unto you. And when he is 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 ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 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, 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. That's the reading of his precious word once again this evening. We know that this is perhaps one of the most precious sections of the Gospel of John. The words that we find in it were spoken within hours of the cross. And these beautiful chapters from chapter 13 right through to the end of chapter seventeen form an address, the closing words of our Lord Jesus to his own disciples. They had been in his presence, in his company for these three and a half years. They had relied on him. He had met all their needs. When they had problems, he had answered them. He had given to them rich. They had observed the, the miracles that he did and listened to the parables which he taught them. But now he's going away. And from thirteen through to the end of chapter seventeen, we have these words, the closing words of Christ. Now, if you turn to Genesis forty nine, you would have the closing words of Jacob, the man of God. If you turned over to Deuteronomy thirty three, you would have the closing words of Moses, the man of God. Second Samuel twenty three, the closing words of David, that servant of God. Second Timothy, we would have the closing ministry of Paul. But here we have perhaps the most affecting of all, the closing words of Christ himself. Well, now, we must not take time this evening to try to analyze that broad section, but turn to the part to which we have turned in our reading. Did you notice the close, the opening words that we read together tonight, verse five? For the first four verses of chapter sixteen properly belong to the ministry of chapter fifteen and that is why I did not read them with you. But in verse five we read these words, now I go my way. And the first thing I want to say to you tonight is this, that as we turn to this section that we've alluded to from thirteen to the end, our Lord Jesus is constantly saying, I'm going away. He's constantly bringing before them the fact that he's going back to the Father. And this particular section that we've read from, in particular, emphasizes this. Look at verse seven: It is expedient for you that I go not away, that I go away. And then again, if you look at verse ten: I go to my Father. And you can see how that the Lord Jesus, and and if you looked at verse sixteen, you would see it again a little while, because I go to the Father. Verse seventeen, because I go to the Father. And if you read right through this chapter, you'll find he's constantly speaking about going back to the Father. Now, you might say, as you turn to a passage like that, it must have been a terrible blow to these disciples to know that he's going to leave them. They've listened to him, as we've said. They've gained all their help from him, but now he's constantly saying, I'm going back to the Father. But brothers and sisters, one of the beautiful things we find as we turn to John sixteen is this. In those verses from which we have read this evening, from five through to the end of fifteen, he says to them, I'm going away, for another divine person is going to come, and you're not going to be left bereft, and you're not going to be left on your own. But I want to talk to you, says the Lord Jesus, about the ministry of the divine person, the Spirit of God. So although he's gone away, because he's gone back to the Father's right hand, he has sent into the world the Holy Spirit. And that's what I want to talk to you about for these few moments at the beginning of the meeting now. If we turn to the next part of the chapter, which we will not do for consideration because of the limited time available to us, we would see from verse sixteen to thirty three, he gives to them some other encouragements, and he shows to them in that part of the chapter that, yes, he's going away, but he's going to leave with them a remarkable prospect. I'm coming back again. And in that section, he talks about the second coming. I'm coming back again. So you're getting what we're at now? First of all, he says I'm going away, but because I'm going away, you're going to get the Holy Spirit. And then secondly, he's saying because I'm going away, you're going to have the wonderful prospect that I'm coming back again. But then if you look at the next little section of that chapter, you'll see from verse twenty three through to verse thirty one, he says this, there's another benefit for you because I'm going away. You're going to have the privilege of direct access to the Father, prayer. And he talks to them about the advantage of prayer, which you never would really enjoy unless I was away. Because if you read the chapter, you'll see the reason. He says, when you had a problem, you always came to me. But you know that I live my life speaking to the Father. Now you're going to enjoy what I've enjoyed, and you'll have the very direct access that I've had, and henceforth you won't ask me anything, but you'll speak to the Father directly. Read it, you'll see it in the end of, near the end of chapter sixteen. So he's giving them the advantage of the Holy Spirit. He's giving them the advantage of the prospect of the coming. He's giving them the advantage of prayer. And then if you look at the closing verses of the chapter, from verse number thirty two to the end, he gives them another advantage. For he says, these things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. So he gives them prospect, he gives them prayer, and he gives them peace in the second part of the chapter, but that's not our subject for tonight. What I want us to do now is to turn to this section we have read from and to look what the Lord Jesus teaches them about the Holy Spirit. Now, I want to divide it into three parts and be quite brief with it to leave our brother the appropriate amount of time which is due to him. First of all, I want us to look at verses five to seven. and in those verses I want us to think about the Holy Spirit as the comforter. Now, you can see that's the title that's there. You'll see in verse number seven he says, the Comforter will come unto you. So verses five to seven he speaks of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. Then we are going to turn to verses eight to eleven, and in verses eight to eleven he speaks about the Holy Spirit as the convictor, the convictor. Why says the Lord Jesus in those verses, when he has come, he will reprove, or he will bring a demonstration, or in other words, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. So the Holy Spirit isn't only the comforter, but the Holy Spirit is the convictor. But finally, when we come to the last part of our section, we notice when we look at verses twelve through to verse fifteen, he's going to talk about the Holy Spirit as the communicator, the communicator. And in that section, we shall see, he says, there are many things I have to say unto you. You cannot bear them now, but when the Spirit is come, he will guide you into all truth. He'll communicate the truth to you. So the Holy Spirit is the comforter, he is the convictor, and he is the communicator. Now notice that, very briefly. As the comforter, he'll have a ministry for your heart, to encourage and comfort you. As the convictor, he'll be the power to enable you to witness to others, to preach the gospel. And as the communicator, he'll be the means by which you'll learn more of the truth of God. In other words, as the convictor, he'll help me preach the gospel. And as the communicator, he'll help me minister the word. You see how fully God has made provision for his people. And you see, what we want to notice now is this, come back to verse five. And he said, now I go my way to him that sent me. I only came for thirty three and a half years. I came to do the Father's will. I came to reveal the Father's mind upon earth, but I'm going back to him that sent me. Brethren, he didn't come to be down here forever. He took his visit down to our earth and lived amongst men, but he's gone back to the Father. Aren't we glad this after- this evening to know there's a man upon the throne of God. He's gone back to God's right hand. And says our Lord Jesus in those lovely words, I go my way to him that sent me. But look what he says next. None of you asketh me, whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Now, do you notice there in that verse, it doesn't say that you have told me that you are sorrowful in heart. He simply says, because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. You know why, don't you? He knows everything that's in our heart. You know, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you this evening that there's a man at God's right hand, and long, long before you ever tell him, he just knows what's in our hearts. Isn't that a lovely thing? That's what this Gospel of John is all about. He's the one who knows his people. He's the one who knows the thoughts and the feelings and the sorrows that we carry, carry. And he says, sorrow have filled your heart. But I want you to notice these remarkable words now in verse seven. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, the Lord Jesus says, it is expedient for you that I go away. Now, I suppose that if this was a Bible reading, we would now ask that question, what does this word expedient mean? Well, it means perhaps a slightly different meaning than we mean when we use that word today. It really is best explained by saying profitable or advantageous. And what the Lord Jesus was actually saying to those disciples around him that day was this: It's to your advantage that I go away. I think I can see the expressions on the faces of Peter and James and John, and these dear men who had lived with Christ over those years, they would have said to themselves, Lord, it's the last thing that we want for you to go away, and we certainly can't understand how it could be advantageous. What profit could there be in it for us, for you to go away, the one we've loved and served, the one we've been with? How could it be to our profit that you go away? Well, says the Lord Jesus, it is expedient, it is profitable for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to talk to you about the difference between the ministry of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You know that when the Lord Jesus was here, he took flesh and blood. That's what Hebrews chapter two says. For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. So he was a real man. Now you do believe, don't you, that when the Lord Jesus was here, he was only in one place at one time. When he was in Galilee, he wasn't in Jerusalem. When he was in Nazareth, he wasn't at Bethlehem. He limited himself to the limitations that we have in our bodies, and he did not use his divine prerogative and attribute of omnipresence, but he was only in one place at one time. But isn't it an amazing thing that you've sat in meetings and you've felt and known the power of the Spirit of God? Many of my brethren, not only on the platform, but in the audience, have preached and felt and known the power of the Spirit of God in their ministry. But while they've been preaching in Vancouver, we've been preaching over in Great Britain, and the same Spirit of God has been empowering his servants in Great Britain that was empowering his servants in Vancouver, but it's happening in Malaysia, and it's happening in New Zealand and all over the world. You see, brothers and sisters, the Spirit of God, his ministry is not limited. He's not in one place at one time, for the Spirit of God is omnipresent. The Holy Spirit never took human flesh. God is Spirit, and the Spirit of God's ministry is available to all the saints. You see, if the Lord Jesus sits down beside that woman at the well at Sychar in John chapter four, at that time he was only with the woman at the well. Are you following what I'm getting at now? So that Nicodemus could not have the advantage of the ministry of Christ at the same time as the woman at the well. But when the Spirit of God came, my, he can bring conviction in one gospel hall just the same as he's bringing conviction in another gospel hall at the center. This is what the Lord Jesus meant when he said, it is profitable for you that I go away. That's what he's really saying. For he's saying, if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart. Now, actually, it's a strange thing. You do know that the date in wi- uh, the year in which we got this beautiful version of the Bible, the King James Version, was sixteen hundred and eleven. It's a long time ago. It's now 1993. And language has changed a wee bit over the years. And strangely enough, that word that the translators wrote into verse seven, depart, has sort of changed in a way, and it really, if you look at it carefully, it means arrive. And what he's really saying is, if I arrive, that is when I get back to the Father's right hand, I will send him on to you. That's what Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. He being at the right hand of God, he hath shed forth which ye now see and know. So when the Lord Jesus went back to the Father's right hand, he sent the Spirit of God into the world. That is what he means when he says, if I depart, if I arrive, I will send him unto you. So you see, brothers and sisters, here we have the great comfort and encouragement of the ministry of the Spirit of God. It was vital that Christ go back to the Father's right hand so that the Spirit of God could come to earth. That's all I want to say about that section. I want you to come with me now to the second section. And we're going to notice that the Holy Spirit has the ministry of conviction. Look at verse number eight: And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now, you know, brothers and sisters, it is not, are you listening now carefully? It is not our work to bring conviction of sin. This is the work, this is the ministry of the Spirit of God. It is he who brings conviction. Our work is to preach. We must preach the facts of the gospel. We must seek to be in touch with God as we present them, but it's the Spirit's ministry to bring conviction, to bring demonstration to this world of sin. Now, will you notice that you don't really need, it's quite good to have some commentaries. I'm not against Bible commentaries, but a- and sometimes you take them down from the shelf and you see, what does this mean? But you don't really need a Bible commentary in this particular section, because do you notice that the Lord Jesus gives the commentary on sin in verse nine and on righteousness in verse ten m and on judgment in verse eleven? Are you noticing that? He gives us a little explanation of each of these things. First of all, he says in verse number nine, of sin, because they believe not on me. What our Lord Jesus is actually saying there is this. The greatest sin that the world can commit is to reject the one that God sent into the world. We know that man is condemned. We know that man is guilty because of his sinful nature. Don't we preach to the unsaved from this platform and every platform we preach on? We preach the utter total depravity of man. We must do that. But brothers and sisters, we must not only preach the sin that was original, that came through the sin of Adam, but we must preach to the unsaved the sin of rejection of a man that was taken and placed upon the tree and has been in the tomb and is now at God's right hand. For the Spirit of God, says the Lord Jesus, will bring demonstration to the world of sin because they believe not on me. You see, I was preaching on Sunday night in West Richmond and pointing out that in Numbers chapter twenty one, when the serpent was biting a person, you remember, and this poison entered in and they died, and the, the reason that a man died was because he'd sinned and God had sent the poison to s- to, you know, to, to kill him. But when the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, once that was lifted up in the wilderness, you could look at a man now, and if he said, I don't believe that, I'm not going to look at that piece of glass, that's not going to do anything for me. Look at my friends who've died, he says, and he turns the other way, and he dies. And we ask the same question, why does this man die? There's two reasons now. He died because of his sin, but he died because he didn't look. Do you see, brothers and sisters, what the, what we're learning here? Of sin because they believe not on me, and the Spirit of God will always bring attention to a Christ who is exalted at God's right hand. It's the Spirit's ministry. Now, that's very important. That's why when Paul went to Corinth, he says, we went in demonstration. We didn't give the philosophies, and we didn't give the teaching of men. And says Paul, I determined to go, when I went among you, to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And if anybody had the ability to be philosophical, it was Paul, that learned man, but he said we weren't going to do that. We preached Christ and him crucified. And you see, as we've sent Christ, the Spirit of God brings con- conviction of sin because they believe not on me. Now briefly, look again. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. And here we are learning that the Holy Spirit's ministry will bring to the unsaved not only the sin of unbelief in Christ, but will bring to the attention of the ungodly the righteousness that is linked to the man who died upon the cross, but who has now gone back to the Father. Do you notice it's of righteousness because I go to the Father? You see, brothers and sisters, we must not only preach a Christ who died. We must not only preach a Christ who was buried. We must not only preach a Christ who was raised. We must, must preach a Christ who is exalted at the Father's right hand. Paul preached that. He said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. You see, and, and you remember Peter preached that. He said, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. He sees Christ exalted at the Father's right hand. So the Spirit brings ministry, it brings demonstration concerning sin, concerning righteousness. But look again, not only of that, but it says of judgment. Oh, you say, now I know what that is. That's the coming judgment. That's the lake of fire. But it's not. You see, that's why we've got to look at this commentary, this commentary that the Lord Jesus gave. He says of judgment because the prince of this world is or has been judged, and he points back to the cross again, and he says, I want you to understand that when we preach, we tell men that all God's claims have been met, and the enemy of all enemies has been defeated, and the prince of this world has been judged. Now, I'd like to stay with that, but I'm not going to do it. I want just to spend my last few minutes in the closing section. Look at verse twelve. I hear some people say sometimes, now listen carefully, I hear some people say, I like to go to the words of Christ, and there's so many things that Paul said, and he didn't seem to like women, and he told them to be silent in the tears, you know, and he he said all these things, and people always emphasize Paul, but I love the ministry of Christ. And you'd almost think that there was a big difference between Paul and Christ. That's what we're learning today, hearing today. Now, I want you to notice what verse twelve says. Verse twelve says this: The Lord Jesus said, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. You see, they had sorrow in their hearts. When you, you know, if you've been bereaved, you don't, if a person's been bereaved, you don't go into their home and give them all sorts of involved doctrine. You want to bring them comfort, and the Lord Jesus was bringing these disciples comfort, but he knew that they would need to learn other things later. So he says, I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. He was kind to them, you see. But he says, when he, the spirit of truth, is come. Do you see that in verse thirty? He will guide you into all truth. So those epistles that Paul wrote, and those epistles that Peter wrote, and John and Jude and all these New Testament writers, were just as divinely inspired as the words of Christ. Now do get that. If you reject any verse in your Bible, it's as good as rejecting Christ. We need to grasp that clearly now. All the word of God is divinely inspired by the Spirit of God. So the Lord Jesus is saying, when he is come, he will guide the saints into all truth. Now bear that in mind. Now look again. He said, we're looking at him as the communicator, remember now. He shall not speak of himself. Now that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit will never teach you truth about himself. You've got New Testament epistles where we do learn about the Holy Spirit. Doesn't mean that. It's a preposition that means he will not speak from himself. In other words, the Spirit of God's ministry is not in independent of the other divine persons in the Godhead. That's what he's saying. In other words, brethren and sisters, whether you listen to the words of God the Father speaking, or the Son of God speaking, or the Spirit of God inspiring, they're all divine and they're all in agreement one with the other. That's what is in view when you read those words. Look again. He's saying, he shall not speak from himself, for whatsoever he shall hear, for he's a member of the Godhead, he's part of the Godhead, he shall speak, and he will show you things to come. All those New Testament epistles are divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. But I do, in these closing moments of my message, want to draw your attention to these, to this beautiful verse that we have read. He shall glorify me. Do you see that in verse fourteen? He shall glorify me. Now, one of the ways in which you can test anyone who comes to your door is what do they say about Christ? And you'll know if they've got the Holy Spirit, if they speak well of Christ. For the Spirit will always bring glory to the person of Christ. He shall glorify me. Now, Paul, when he wrote First Corinthians twelve, he said precisely that. No man speaking by the Spirit of God will ever call Jesus a curse, and no man can call Jesus Lord apart from the Holy Spirit. Can you see how these interlock and tie together? 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. Now, I want you to notice something. If you look at verse fifteen, he shall take of mine. It's that preposition that has been mentioned once or twice, I think, over these days. It's a little preposition in the Greek language, which was EK, just 2 letters that made a word EK. It's part of that word our brother talked about last night, ekklesia. EK is the first part of the word, you see, and klesia is the second part. Now, if I put my hand into my pocket and take my handkerchief out, the Greek preposition would describe what I've done. I've taken out, you see. He shall take out. That's what it means. It says he shall take out of mine and shall show it unto you. Let me illustrate it for you before I sit down. Do you remember the lovely story that is found in Genesis chapter twenty four? In that lovely chapter, we read about Isaac, given the prospect of having a bride. You remember how Abraham sent the servant. Now, we know his name in other parts, but you never read his name in Genesis twenty four. He's the unnamed servant because he's typical representative of the Holy Spirit. Now, you remember how the servant said to the woman, wilt thou go with this man? That's salvation, by the way. I hope you've, I hope you've started the journey with Christ now. If you're in the meeting and you're not saved, wouldn't it be a grand thing to get to know Christ as your savior tonight? Wilt thou go with this man? He's the only man that can take you to heaven. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by him. And that's what she said, wilt thou go with this man? And of course, the woman said yes, and she started the journey. Now, I think that I wouldn't be stretching my imagination to say that knowing that women are usually quite curious, I suppose men are too, but women are particularly curious, you know. I have an idea that as they took that journey across the desert, she's traveling to meet this man she's got to be married. Don't you think sometimes she might have said to that servant, what's he like? Is he tall? Is he small? You know, what sort of habits does he have? She's bound to have asked the servant, what's he like? And one of the things that the servant would do as they traveled across the desert, he'd start to tell her about the man she was going to live with, the man she was going to be married. That's one of the great ministries of the Holy Spirit. In the day in which we live, he's glorifying Christ. You see how it's in these verses? He's telling us something about Christ. He's helping us to get to know more about the man we're going to be linked with in the glory. But you know what else he did? He had a big bag with him, and in this bag he had jewels of gold and silver. And you know where they came from? He didn't get them down where she came from. He brought them from the father's house. And these were the evidences of the wealth that belonged to Abraham and to Isaac, and he gave them to her. And there was raiment there, and he took out from that raiment that he, he, that he had brought from the father's house. He took that raiment and he invested her, and she's now wearing the garments that came from the man she's going to be linked with. And she's wearing the evidences of his wealth. What is he? You see, he put his hand, now listen carefully, he put his hand into the bag. Ek, ek, you remember? He was taking out of the things of Isaac, and he was giving it to her. And that's the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our day. One of the great ministries of the Holy Spirit is to take of the things of Christ and to bring them to the saints. And brothers and sisters, everything we've ever enjoyed of Christ, everything we've ever learned of him, we've only learned it by the ministry of the Spirit of God. This is a large subject now, but it's a very important subject. We need to know more about the ministry of the Spirit of God, and we thank God that he said to his disciples, he'll be the comforter, he'll be the convictor, he'll be the communicator, and may the Lord bless his word.