The Promise of the Holy Spirit part 1

I'll go ahead and turn in your Bible to John chapter 14. Now this morning we'll be back in our verse-by-verse study through the Gospel of John. John has been presenting Christ as deity, the Son of God. We have learned what theologians call proper Christology, and now we are transitioning into learning who the Holy Spirit is. But we're back in our verse-by-verse study through the Gospel of John. We took a two-message break from John to get better acquainted with the person of the Holy Spirit. And to be honest with you, we have just begun to get acquainted with this person of the Holy Spirit.

Now last week we examined who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does. He had two messages that enabled us to get started. And I would encourage you if you've not listened to those messages, go to the church website and listen to those. If you have any assistance, if you need of any assistance there, we'd be glad to help you. Some of you from time to time will ask for my notes. I'll be glad to help you with that because you need to see how we got started. And that is examining who the Spirit is and what the Spirit does.

And like I've said several times, the purpose of these two messages are to get us ready, to prepare us for what we're going to look at in Chapter 14, Chapter 15, and in Chapter 16. Now in getting back to our study and getting back to our verse-by-verse approach, we need to remember the background of the verses that are before us. The 11 disciples, those who were with Jesus in this close, intimate teaching time, they were very perplexed about Jesus' teaching and what was taking place. He had been telling them all along that He was going to leave them. We see this in Chapter 13, Verse 36 and 37.

They saw that Jesus had withdrawn from this very popular public ministry. Peter, Thomas, and Philip, they had spoken up and they had revealed their own personal confusion about the way things were transpiring. And I think it's safe to say that their actions represent the perplexity of the entire group. So the background that we have here, it is the disciples and their confusion and their failure to see what Jesus is doing, what He is teaching, and what is taking place. Now just like we need to remember the background, we also need to remember what is taking place in the foreground.

Jesus is at the forefront of everything that is going on here. Jesus is preparing His disciples for the cross and His departure. He is sanctifying them, although they do not seem to understand what is taking place here. He has just tried to encourage them greatly through the hard to believe promises that we saw earlier, starting in Verse 12. He promised them that they would do even greater works than He had done. What a hard to believe promise. He promised them that He would answer all of their prayers according to His will and for His glory. Now notice I use the word tried. Jesus tried to do these things.

If there was any failure here, it was not with Jesus. The failure was in the disciples' inability to get what Jesus was teaching. Now failure could be a hard word here. I could be being a little harsh. They were just extremely slow in getting what Jesus was teaching. Now in looking at these verses in Chapter 14, if we take a step back and we look at Verses 1 through 14, I think we could summarize those verses with one word, and that word is comfort. That word is comfort. Jesus was comforting His disciples by meeting them in their doubt and in their confusion.

He was comforting them through the wonderful promises that He gave in Verses 12, 13, and 14. Now looking at our verses this morning, I think we could summarize these verses with one word, and that word is provision. That word is provision. Jesus is revealing to the disciples that even though He is leaving them, the Father is going to provide for them. Now truthfully, we in our day and time, we have a heads up on the way things are going to transpire. We have the full revelation of God in His Word, so we know what the Father is providing them.

We know, Verse 16, we've read it so many times in the past two messages that we've had on the Holy Spirit, and we know that Verse 16 speaks about the giving of the Holy Spirit, the providing of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. I think I said it last Sunday. Verse 16 was the launching pad for those two messages on the Holy Spirit. Now that leads us to the title of the message this morning. It's very simple, and that is the promise of the Holy Spirit. The promise of the Holy Spirit.

You see that this is a part one, because part one will cover Verses 15 to 17, and then next Sunday morning we will have part two, which will be Verses 18 through 26. All of these verses go together. They are part of this promise of the Holy Spirit. You see how we're going to divide these verses? We have the prerequisite to the Holy Spirit, Verse 15, and then the provision of the Holy Spirit in Verse 16 and 17. Just a few verses, but so much that we're going to learn here. I always encourage you to take notes to develop that habit. Encourage you to take notes so that you can be a good student of the Word. You can go back and study on your own.

You can learn all that the Lord wants to teach you. So you see how we're going to divide these verses, but before we dive into the message, let's read the verses together starting in Verse 15. Jesus says to the disciples, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper or comforter, that He may be with you forever." That is the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. So you see our first major truth.

We're going to examine Verse 15, and I'll call this the prerequisite to the Holy Spirit. The prerequisite to the Holy Spirit. Verse 15, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Now this verse, Verse 15, is a powerful verse, and it is really sandwiched in between two portions of teaching. Earlier in the chapter, in Chapter 14, Jesus had given the disciples some wonderful promises. We looked at those promises, the promise of doing a great work through them, and the promise of answered prayer. But starting in Verse 16, Jesus starts teaching on the wonderful provision of the Holy Spirit.

And Verse 15 can be overlooked, but Verse 15 needs to be understood before we can accept the teaching starting in Verse 16. Simply in this one verse, Jesus gives the prerequisites to the giving of the Holy Spirit. Now two observations I want to make here, two ways we're going to divide this verse. First, Jesus calls them to evaluate their love for Him. Look at the beginning of the verse, "If you love Me." Now this is not the first time Jesus has called the disciples to evaluate their love for Him. Truthfully, all through the Gospel of John, there were different times when Jesus would call them to examine their love for Him.

One that I refer to quite often is in John Chapter 6. But in John Chapter 6, there were these large crowds that were following Jesus, and Jesus began to identify the nature of those individuals, and the great crowds departed Jesus. And at the end of that two-day event, it was just Jesus and the Twelve, and Jesus turned to the disciples in Verse 67, and He asked, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" In that question, Jesus is forcing them to evaluate the validity of their faith in Him. He is forcing them to evaluate their love for Him.

In Verse 15 right here, the construction of the language reads as such, "If you keep on loving Me." The love Jesus was speaking of is an ongoing love, a never-ceasing love, a continuous love. So in this small phrase, Jesus is calling them to evaluate their love for Him. Then second, Jesus calls them to keep His commandments. Verse 15, "If you love Me, if you keep on loving Me, you will keep My commandments." Now in the original, this is not written with any emphasis, but rather it is simply stated.

Jesus is saying, "If you keep on loving Me as you have been, then you will keep My commandments." Now this is evidence of the validity, the truthfulness of their love. If they do keep His commandments, then they do love Him. Now remember who's right here in this audience? We have the 11. Judas the traitor has gone from their midst. Jesus knows them. He has called them. They know Him, and He knows them. He is persevering in them. And they will keep His commandments because their love is genuine, and their love will be ongoing. So in summary, what are we seeing here just in this one verse?

Jesus is saying that their genuine love for Him will, will produce an obedient life. They will keep His commandments even though they do not fully understand them. They will keep His commandments even though they are struggling with all that is going on. So He is saying that they will obey His commandments because their love is genuine. Now in application, I want to make two points of application for you, for me, and for us. First of all, I want us to see that genuine Christians, genuine born-again Christians love Him, and they obey His commandments. That is inseparable according to this verse and the teaching of the Word of God.

Let me repeat that. Genuine Christians, true Bible Christians, those who have been born to the Spirit like Jesus taught in John 3, they love Him, they have a continuous love for Him, and they do obey His commandments. Period. Paragraph. There is no way you can make that read anything but that. Now, I am sad to say that this has been almost totally lost in our church culture today. There are many people that will teach that you can love Jesus and be a Christian and never obey His commandments. I can give you plenty of evidence to that reality in our churches.

Most church roles are inflated with people who never come to church, they never attend Sunday school, they never attend Bible studies, they might be what we call Easter bunnies, they might come on Sunday morning on Easter. But they do not come to church, their name is on the roll, and their parents and grandparents would fight you tooth and nail that they really are Christian. But they don't love the church, they don't love God's people, they don't love worship, they don't love coming to hear the word of God taught, their name is on the roll, and if you were to remove that roll, you might have total anarchy in the church.

What they are saying is this, you can love Jesus and not obey Jesus. That's foreign to the scriptures. I could continue on, but in most churches we have a watered down version of what church membership is. Why? Because we've got to make room for those who say they love Jesus, but they won't obey the word of God. Now let me go back. Genuine Christians love Him, it's a continuous love and ongoing love, and they obey His commandments. I ran across a two or three sentence quotation that really summarizes this, I'm going to read this to you, it's from John MacArthur.

Then I'm going to turn John MacArthur's words around, and I think it will speak to us. John MacArthur says of this verse, "Obedience is a hallmark of genuine saving faith and love for God. Those who are truly saved, by grace alone, will invariably respond with a life of submission and service. With their hearts regenerated and their minds renewed, genuine Christians cannot help but outwardly reflect who they are on the inside, new creations in Christ." I want to turn John MacArthur's first sentence around. "Disobedience is a hallmark of non-saving faith and no love for God." Isn't that what the verse says? If you love me, you will obey me.

Well if you don't love me, you won't obey me. Now the second point of application I want to make here is this. The only prerequisite for the Holy Spirit is loving and obeying Jesus. Do you see that? What does He say? If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I, Jesus is saying, you fit in that category and I will ask and the Spirit will come and those who do not obey Him, those who do not love Him, will not receive the Holy Spirit. And listen, if you do not have a love that produces obedience, then you do not have the Holy Spirit.

If you are here this morning and you do not have a love that fits in verse 15 and you do not have a life of obedience to His word, then you do not have the Spirit. So you see how much truth is packed into that one little verse? This is the prerequisite for the Holy Spirit. If you love me, if you have an ongoing, continuous, never ceasing love, you will obey my commandments and then the Holy Spirit will come. Let's move on. I want us to notice the provision of the Holy Spirit, the provision of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 16, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper that He may be with you forever.

That is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. Now earlier in chapter 14, Jesus had promised to provide for them in the next life. Remember? He says, "I'm going away and I will provide and I will have a place for you." Within that promise, He also said that He would come again to bring them to Himself. While this was part of Jesus' teaching that He would leave them. Here Jesus makes another promise of provision. He promises to pray for the provision of the Holy Spirit.

Now there are quite a few observations here, lots of truth, and this is very critical information. So hang with me as we divide these verses. First notice, Jesus prays to the Father, and that what He says, "And I will ask the Father." Here we see the intercessory work of Christ as their great High Priest. Jesus knew what or who they needed, and He knew that the Father would grant them the Holy Spirit. This was not a plan B, this was part of the eternal plan of God from the beginning. So Jesus prays to the Father.

Second we notice, "The Father will give the Helper or the Holy Spirit." And that what the verse says, "And He will give you another Helper or Comforter." And we know that is the Holy Spirit. Now if we're not careful here, we can miss the magnitude of what is being communicated. Now to fully understand what is being taught, one must study the language. Two observations I want to make here. First, the text says that the Father will give another. No matter what translation you have, it reads that.

Go back to the verse, "And He will give you another." Now in our English language, we have one word for another, while in the language in which the New Testament was written, there were two words for another. One describes another thing of the opposite nature or value, while the other describes another of the same kind, nature or value. One is negative and one is positive. Let me give you an example that will help you here. Paul is writing to the church there at Galatians.

He had started the Galatian church and after he had left, there was a group of heretics, they were called Gnostics, who came in and they began to pervert the gospel and they began to preach a gospel in the church. But in Galatians 1, starting in verse 6, Paul strongly rebukes some in the Galatian church for what, for turning to a different gospel. The King James reads unto another gospel. There's that other word, another in the negative sense. This gospel was the opposite nature or value compared to the true gospel. So there's the negative example. But that's not the case here.

Here in verse 16, Jesus is saying that the Father will give you another who is of the same kind and nature. Now a question, the same kind and nature of who or what? He is saying he will give you another of the same kind and nature of Jesus. You see how powerful that one word is? The text says that the Father will give you another and if we're not careful, we can go right past that without some help. Second notice, the text says that the Father will give the helper. This word, helper, it can be difficult to translate and often it is misunderstood. Now difficult in that one word cannot fully communicate the meaning of this word.

The word literally means one called alongside to help. It has the implication of a comforter, a counselor, a helper, an encourager, an exoder, an intercessor, and an advocate. But the misunderstanding comes when some communicate the helper is simply a comforter. Some teach that the Holy Spirit is simply a comforter as maybe a counseling friend or a chummy counselor. And that is not the case. One Bible commentator that I like to use says that the word means a friend but especially a legal friend.

This word that was used here was used in the Greek culture and it was used in the Greek legal system and it was a technical term referring to a defense counsel. And this same word is used in 1 John chapter 2 verse 1 and it is translated advocate, meaning someone of a legal standing. Now let me pause here for just a moment or two. Since we have already learned that the Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity, we can easily see that the Holy Spirit can never be our chummy friend. The Holy Spirit can never be our camp counselor. Isn't it obvious that he is our advocate? He is our legal friend, our legal counselor.

Can a camp counselor or a chummy friend make intercession for us before the Father? No. So what do we see? The text says that the Father will give us a helper but it's more than a helper. He is our advocate before the Father, our legal representation before the Father. Then third I want you to notice we've seen first the Jesus prays for the Father, second the Father will give the helper and then third the Father will give the Spirit of truth. Look at verse 17. That is the Spirit of truth.

After Jesus gives more information about the advocate, about the counselor, the Holy Spirit of God, this is Jesus emphasizing the work of the Spirit in the lives of believers. The Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God to those who are true believers. The Spirit revealed the truth of God in the Old Testament as He revealed the truth of God to the prophets of God. The Spirit of God revealed the truth of God as He inspired those men of God to write the Word of God, those apostles and those other New Testament figures. And He reveals or He illumines the truth of God to all believers.

Leon Morris, one of the commentators at U says this expression can mean the Spirit who communicates truth. And that is true. So we see Jesus prays to the Father. The Father will give the helper, the advocate, the counselor and the Father will give the Spirit of truth. And then fourth we see that the Father will give the Spirit to dwell in them. Go back to verse 17. That is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive but it does not behold Him or know Him but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. Now this is the second portion of verse 17, the end of it.

And it seems as if Jesus is playing a word game here with the disciples. Here Jesus is describing how the Holy Spirit related to believers before the finished work of redemption and after. He is describing how the Holy Spirit related to those Old Testament saints and how His relationship is about to change. Now very simplistically I will break this down for you. First in the Old Testament in those days the Spirit of God did not dwell in those saints but with those saints. After the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit was with them in a general sense. Haggai 2 verse 5 shows us this truth.

According to the covenant and I'm reading the verse, that I made with you when you came out of Egypt my spirit remains in your midst. So we see that the Spirit in Old Testament times resided with the people. Then second in the days of the disciples living with Jesus. Here in verse 17 Jesus says, "You know Him for He dwells with you." Here Jesus is saying that I have been abiding with you and dwelling with you all this time. And then third after the work of redemption and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Here Jesus speaks of this new work.

Go back to verse 17, "But you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." This speaks of the permanent, indwelling Spirit of God in them. And this is permanent because verse 16 says that the Holy Spirit will be with them forever. So what do we see? Things are changing with the redemption of Christ. The Father will give the Spirit to dwell in them. And then fifth, the Father says that they know Him. For this we go back to the middle portion of verse 17.

He says, "The world cannot receive Him because it does not know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." Here Jesus contrasts the disciples with the world. That is lost humanity. Here He says that the world cannot receive Him because they cannot behold Him or know Him. This can be translated "perceive Him." This is a bold statement. Simply stating that lost humanity cannot perceive Him. Lost humanity cannot know Him, but not the disciples. He eases their tensions and their confusion by stating that they do know Him and He will be in them. So in summary, what do we see here? We have a lot.

We've got a lot of Scripture and a lot of truth here. Jesus is saying that the Father will give them another of like kind and nature. He's not an influence. We've already learned that. The Spirit of God is not an it. He is another of like kind and nature. Just like Christ, He is the advocate, the legal friend, the legal representation, the legal counselor, and He will give them the Spirit of truth. He will communicate truth to them and this one will be just like Jesus because He is Jesus and He will be with them forever. Now in application, I want to make or ask two questions. Two questions.

First question, in these verses here, what we've learned about the Spirit of God, what the Spirit of God does, and what the Spirit of God does in born-again Christians, my question is does He reside in you? Let me help you here. When the Spirit of God dwells in you, there are things that go on. There are things that happen. There are universal. First, the Spirit of God is our legal representation. He is our advocate. He represents us before the Father in the courtroom of justice. He stands between us and the Holy and just God.

And when we are redeemed, when we are born-again, when we are in right standing with God, there is a peace of God that comes from the Spirit of God as we know that He represents us before the Father. He is our legal representation. And then second, the Spirit, He guides us into truth, enables us to obey truth. He illumines the truth of God and He applies the truth of God to our lives. He does this in our personal Bible study. He does this as we sit under the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. And the Spirit of God will even help us identify false doctrine in bad teaching.

And then third, if you are born-again, you know who this is working inside of you and you know who this is doing this work in you. Now you may struggle. Sometimes people don't understand this work. Sometimes this work is clouded maybe by sin or disobedience. So my question for you is this, does the Spirit of God reside in you? Is this work going on in you? Do you have that legal representation before the Father and the peace of God that comes with knowing that? Is the Spirit of God guiding you into the truth of His Word? And is the Spirit of God working in you in such a way to enable you to overcome your flesh and sin and walk in obedience?

Is this going on in you? And then the second question is? Do you know Him because He resides in you? That might sound redundant to some. What is Jesus saying to them? I've been with you all along. You know Him and He will come to be in you. And do you know Him? Do you know Christ because the Spirit of God dwells in you? Or is Christ distant to you? Is He some distant God that you cannot get to because you don't know Him? Listen friend, when the Spirit of God resides in you, you know Christ and you know He is near. You know His voice. You know His working because you are much like the disciples. He is with you. He is in you.

And you know His working. Now let's move to the conclusion of the message. Move away from these verses. And in conclusion, I want to say that these few verses can correct major errors that many churches face today. Just these few verses. Churches that we know. Churches that we've been a part of. I know that this is negative, but it is the day and the reality that we live in. Now I want to cover in conclusion two errors that these verses can eradicate. Now the first error is this. That you can love Jesus without keeping His commandments. That is false doctrine. It is an error. It is contrary to everything that we see in the Scriptures.

There are some in the American church that have propagated the doctrine of Savior now and Lord later. That is not found in the Scripture. That is not found in verse 15. Now I'm not advocating a sinless perfection, no. But when Christ comes to live within us, He becomes Lord of our life and you cannot divorce Him. You cannot split Him as Savior over here and Lord over here. He is Savior and Lord and you cannot split the two. That is false doctrine. Another false doctrine is the doctrine of the carnal Christian. Now we know that Christians struggle. If you want to see how Christians struggle, you look in the book of 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

But mind you, Paul is dealing with sin in the life of the church and he calls some of them to examine if they're truly even converted at all. But there are some who have propagated this doctrine of the carnal Christian that someone can be born again and go out and live any way they want to, be disobedient to the Word of God and be loving sin and loving the world. That is not found in Scripture. That's an error. And the error is you can love Jesus without keeping His commandments. And there are lots of ways to package that error. There's one individual, I refer to him quite often. I use his study materials.

There's one individual in the American church who attacked this error. His name was John MacArthur back in the late 80s. He wrote a very popular book called The Gospel According to Jesus. This weekend I did a little reading on the background of that book. He said that that book really came out of a systematic study that they did, a systematic study through the Gospel of Matthew in their church. And he began to see how the gospel that Jesus presented was not the gospel that was so prevalent in the church in that day and time.

And what he did was he took what he learned from the Gospel of Matthew and he wrote this book called The Gospel According to Jesus. And it stirred up what some call the lordship controversy. Because what John MacArthur was saying is, "According to the Word, you cannot have him as Savior and not have him as Lord. You cannot love him without obeying his commandments." To be honest with you, I think that book is a must in your Christian library. It's called The Gospel According to Jesus. I remember I came across this book in seminary. I was not familiar with it.

I was writing a paper and one of my professors said, "You need to read this book because this is what you're trying to say." What am I trying to show you? There is this error in so many churches that you can love Jesus without keeping his commandments. You can package it any way you want, but verse 15 says, "If you love me, if you continue to love me, if you have this continuous, ongoing love for me, you will keep my commandments." The second error is that we can have a chummy friend, a counselor Holy Spirit. That is a grievous error in many churches today. No, the Spirit of God is not a chummy friend.

The Spirit of God is not this soft counselor. We've already learned He is God. He is God the Holy Spirit. He is the third person of the Trinity. He is eternal God. We have learned this morning that He is our advocate, our legal representation before God. He is our legal counselor, our legal comforter, our legal helper. Now I want to tell you a place that destroys the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. You're going to be surprised when I say this. K-Love Radio. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't listen to K-Love, but you need to be very aware of how they portray and teach the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

If you listen to lots of their music, Jesus is nothing more than a friend, and the Spirit of God is nothing more than a chummy friend or a chummy counselor. If you listen to lots of the things that they communicate, it's this, that Jesus and the Spirit of God will just come with you and get right in the trenches and the sin of your life. It will be just this chummy friend, this chummy camp counselor, but that is not the case. We've learned from the Scripture, no, He is God. He is the Holy Spirit of God. He is deity, and He cannot and He will not let us live in that sin. Why? Because if we love Him, He will obey our commands.

And if you listen to what they say, they denigrate the Spirit of God to a chummy friend, a chummy camp counselor. Now what are we looking at this morning? Very simple title, "The Promise of the Holy Spirit." But yet the promise of the Holy Spirit is so much. We have this prerequisite. You cannot have the Holy Spirit in you unless you love Him and you obey His commandments. And then when we receive the Spirit at the new birth, we receive so much because we receive, listen, the Holy Spirit of God, God, our legal representation. This is a loaded promise. My question for you as I close is, is this promise for you? Is this promise living in you?

Is the Spirit of God in you? Or do you have a mere decision, a cheap profession? Maybe your name is on a membership card in a church somewhere. Is the Spirit of God, this Spirit of God living within you? Listen people, when you're converted by the power and the work of the Spirit, this same Spirit lives in you. Has this happened to you? I trust and pray and hope that it has. Let's pray.