Open your Bible to John, chapter 14. It isn't a challenge because the words are
difficult. It isn't a challenge because we can't understand
the text. It is a challenge because it presents to us
the most inscrutable of all divine mysteries, the nature of the Trinity: God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three-in-one. There have been through the years, and even
through the centuries, efforts made by preachers and teachers to try to explain the Trinity
with illustrations. I have read many of them, heard many of them,
and found them all absolutely useless because the Trinity cannot be illustrated in anything
that is within the framework of our created world. It transcends creations. It transcends human understanding. There are inscrutable things in the Scripture. There are divine mysteries that we can never
comprehend that all have do with essentially the nature of God. This one is the most challenging of all, that
God is one, and yet three distinct persons at the same time. The best way to understand the Trinity, first
of all, is to start by realizing you'll never fully understand it. It may well be that even when we're in our
glorified form in heaven, there may be elements of God's Trinitarian nature that will forever
escape our comprehension because we will not, after all, be God, we will be human beings
in a glorified and perfected form. I think if you start by understanding that
you will not ultimately, certainly in this life, grasp the fullness of the Trinity, and
then move to understand no more or no less than what the Bible says about the Trinity,
you'll find exactly what God wants you to know. We can understand the Trinity to the degree
that the Scripture has declared it to us; and that is the opportunity we have before
us this morning. As believers, we have a heavenly inheritance
promised to us. We're not Christians just for this life only
- although this would be the best way to live this life - but we're Christians because we
anticipate the promises that God has given to those who believe in His Son and come to
Him for salvation, the promises that basically are laid up in heaven for us. We know we're all going to live forever either
in hell or heaven. We desire to live in heaven. That's our desire, that's our hope, that's
our longing, and that's the promise of God to us, to spend forever in a place of peace
and joy rather than a place of punishment and sorrow. Simply stated, we are Christians because we
desire heaven; we want to escape hell. But as believers, we hold tightly, not just
to the general idea of heaven, but to the specific reality of what heaven is. It is a promise that is an inheritance to
us. It is an inheritance. We are joint heirs with Christ. We inherit heaven. And Peter says it is a definite promise that
cannot be voided, canceled, or altered. In fact, he calls it an imperishable, undefiled,
unfading inheritance reserved for us. That's our hope. It is an inheritance beyond comprehension. "Eye has not seen; ear has not heard." That is to say, we can't grasp it empirically,
we can't grasp it experientially, we can't grasp it scientifically; nor has it entered
into the heart of man. We can't conjure it up intuitively. We can't sort of feel after it or find it
in some mystical manner. It is beyond comprehension. However, though it is beyond comprehension,
Paul did pray that the eyes of our minds, the eyes of our understanding, would be enlightened
so we could grasp some of its glory. So we approach the Scripture then with Ephesians
1:18 in mind saying, "Lord, at least give us some grasp of this inheritance that You
have for us." And that's what we're going to look at in
the text before us. But I want to sum it up and then take you
into the text. When most people think about heaven, even
Christian people, they think about a place; and it is a place. It is a place defined and described as to
its character, its nature, its components, and even its dimensions in the book of Revelation. It is a place. Most people, when they think about heaven,
they think about it as a place where certain activities take place; and that is true. There will be, around the throne of God in
heaven, activities. One of them obviously will be praise, and
worship, and adoration. That will be going on all the time. There will be in heaven other activities as
well. We will serve the Lord in heaven. We will serve throughout eternity in ways
that are unimaginable to us. So it is true; heaven is a place, and heaven
is a place where there will be activity. But if that's all you think about heaven,
then you miss the main event, you miss the main point. Heaven is primarily a fulfilled relationship. When you think about heaven, I want you to
think about it that way. It is the full presence of the triune God;
the full, glorious presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will be in the full, complete, transcendent
relationship with the Trinity. That will define our existence. So primarily - listen - heaven is a relationship. It is a relationship. It is communion. It is fellowship at its purest and highest
level. That's what heaven is. All of our praise is response to the relationship. All of our service is in view of the relationship. We praise because of that relationship. We serve because of that relationship. The dominant reality is the relationship. We will have a relationship with God that
is absolutely perfect and complete, as full and complete as is possible in an eternally
perfected human being. This is what heaven is. It is a relationship brought to its absolute
perfect fulfillment. It is defined as peace and joy because that
is drawn out of that relationship. That's what your inheritance is. To put it simply, heaven is the presence of
the triune God. Your inheritance is God; your inheritance
is the Son; your inheritance is the Holy Spirit. The triune God is your inheritance. Now, why am I pressing this? Because in the text before us in John 14,
our Lord promises to grant to us a preview of this full presence, a preview of this full
presence. We now, as believers, possess a down payment
on the full presence of the Trinity that we will experience in heaven. Now, again, I can't go beyond saying that
because we can't comprehend what that would be like. But we do know this: we in the current form
that we are in, in this current form, we are not fitted for that kind of full relationship. We need a different body because this one
can't function in eternity. This is a dying body. From the day that you were born, you began
to die. It's only a question of when you do. Life is really death. It's just a constant, inexorable movement
toward leaving this world. These are bodies that die; and along the way,
they are troubled, and sick, and injured, and wounded, and inept, and inadequate, and
disabled, and et cetera, et cetera. We struggle not only with the physical part
of our bodies, but the mental part as well. We have limits to our understanding, our capacity. We struggle emotionally. We struggle in terms of sin and temptation. So we not only need a different outside, we
need a different inside. If we're going to be in the full Trinitarian
presence of God forever, in perfect righteousness, joy, and peace, we've got to swap this for
another one. That is the promise of Scripture, that when
a believer dies, there is a complete transformation; that believer's spirit enters heaven. And one day, there will be a resurrection
of a new and glorified body like the resurrection body of Christ, to join that spirit and to
become that eternal being to enjoy the full presence of the triune God. So when you think about heaven, think about
a relationship: perfect, fulfilling relationship with the Father; perfect, fulfilling relationship
with the Son; perfect, fulfilling relationship with the Holy Spirit. Now all of that to say this: in the text in
front of you, our Lord promises to give His disciples, including us, a preview of this
full presence - a down payment, if you will - on the eternal heavenly celestial communion
with God, and give it to us here and now, here and now, so that as a believer right
now, you are in complete communion - to the degree that it's possible in the form we're
in - you're in complete, personal communion with the Trinity. I don't know if you think of your Christian
life that way, but that is reality, and we don't feel that He's far off from us, but
that He's near. We are called upon to call on Him. It works out that way with the Son. You have a love for Christ. You're being conformed to the image of Christ. It's one way to define a Christian as somebody
who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Don't we use that language? We talk about that because there is a real
life communion with Christ. The apostle Paul talks about being in Christ
and Christ being in us. And, of course, you recognize that the Holy
Spirit lives in you, right? You are the temple of the Spirit of God. You are the very house in which the Holy Spirit
dwells. And you can be led by the Spirit, and are
led by the Spirit, and filled with the Spirit, and enabled by the Spirit, and gifted by the
Spirit, and taught by the Spirit, and illuminated by the Spirit. So to put it simply, obviously you are already
a citizen of heaven because you already have communion with the triune God. You already are in constant communion with
the Father whose life you share, with the Son whose life you share, with the Spirit
whose life you share, who you are as a Christian. This is the preview of the fullness of that
communion that you will enjoy in heaven. Now all of that comes through the text that
lies in front of us in John, chapter 14. Let me start at verse 15. John 14:15, and I'll read down to verse 24. "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 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 see Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you
and will be in you. "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come
to you. After a little while, the world will no longer
see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day, you will know that I am in the
Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them
is the one who love Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love
him and will disclose Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what
then has happened that You're going to disclose Yourself to us and not the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone
loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and
make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words;
and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me." Now there are no difficult English words there,
but that is about as profound a portion of Scripture as you have ever heard read because
it takes you into the impossibly comprehensive and complex elements of Trinitarian life. "I am in the Father, the Father's in Me. I will send the Holy Spirit. I will come to you; the Father will come;
We will come make Our abode." I just want to draw you down to take a kind
of a bird's eye look. "First, I will send the Holy Spirit - " Jesus
says, " - then I will come to you. Then the Father will come to you." Summed up, the end of verse 23, "We will come;
We. We will come." This incredible text lays out the reality
that our Lord promised Trinitarian presence to His disciples that, "You are the temple
of God; that you are the abiding place of the Son, and you are the sanctuary of the
Holy Spirit all at the same time, and all of that will unfold." Now it's going to take some effort to unfold
that, and I'm not going to try to do it this morning, but we'll get started. Now keep in mind that our Lord is addressing
His disciples on Thursday night of Passion Week, and they know He's going to die. He has told them He would be arrested; He
would be beaten, mistreated; He'll go through a trial; He'll be crucified; He'll rise again;
and then He's going to heaven, go back to the Father. They're having trouble with this, lots of
trouble. In fact, chapter 14 begins with that: "Stop
letting your hearts be troubled. Stop letting your hearts be troubled. I'm going to deal with the trouble that you're
feeling." They were frightened, they were fearful, they
were anxious, they were doubting, because Jesus was everything to them. He was absolutely everything to them. Everything at every level of their life came
through Him; He was it. All their dependencies were on Him for absolutely
everything; and now He is leaving and they're filled with fear, and anxiety, and dread. And so that Thursday night, He unpacks to
them the very night in which He was betrayed. Judas is now gone. He left, as we saw back in chapter 13. Judas is gone to start the process of Jesus'
arrest later in the middle of the night, and it all takes place late in the darkness that
night. Then in the morning, fake trials are held;
and by the next day, Friday, He's on the cross. So this is the end. They know this is happening because He keeps
telling them. He has to get His arms around them. He has to strengthen them for what they are
about to face. Consequently, He spends that evening unfolding
these promises. He started in Chapter 13 talking about love
so very, very important. Chapter 14, He said that Peter would deny
Him, and He dismissed Judas to betray Him. Those things happened. Disciples were loved; disciples were troubled. Now in 14 begins the promises, and the first
one that I'm calling you to take a look at that is of such credible importance is the
one that we just read, starting in verse 15. He has already promised them that they would
do greater works than He did - greater in extent, not greater in kind. He already promised them that He would answer
their prayers and provide everything that they needed if it was in His name to His glory
and to His purpose. He's made some promises about the fact that
they're going to continue to work and they're going to continue to be able to have access
to the supply that He has in heaven to provide for that ministry. But now comes the ultimate personal promise. It's really a staggering one. But before we get into the promise in verse
16, there's a qualifier in verse 15. Look at it: "If you love Me, you'll keep my
commandments." Now that answers the question, "Why is that
here?" It's here because it defines for whom these
promises are given. To whom does He make such promises - promises
that, "You'll do greater works than these because I go to the Father," promises that,
"Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do," that He's made in the previous passage,
promises that the Trinity is going to come and take up residence? To whom does He make such promises? Answer: "Those who love Me and keep my commandments." That is the prevailing Johannine definition
of a Christian. You will see this in John's writings everywhere. For example, if you just drop down to verse
21: "He who has My commandments and keeps them, obeys them, is the one who loves Me." Or you could look at verse 23: "If anyone
loves Me, he will keep My word." And then verse 24: "He who does not love Me,
does not keep My words." All right, let's just make it simple. How can you tell a true Christian? A true Christian loves and obeys. Sum it up: a true Christian loves and obeys. It's not about a profession. "Many will say unto Me, 'Lord, Lord, I did
this; I did that; I did the other thing.' I will say to them, 'Depart from Me, I never
knew you.'" How do you know a true Christian? A true Christian loves the Lord, and consequently
obeys. Love is the motive and obedience is the action. This is the consistent, prevailing truth Go to chapter 15. John makes another statement that essentially
says the same thing. John 15:10, "If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in
His love." How do you know that Jesus loved the Father? How do you know Jesus loved the Father? Because He what? He obeyed the Father. That's the model; that's the pattern. That's the model. In chapter 15, He says, "No longer do I call
you slaves, for the slave - " verse 15 " - doesn't know what his master is doing; but I've called
you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I've made known to you." This is Jesus talking about His obedience
to the Father: "I showed you My obedience to the Father." That's the true proof of love. How serious was it? Verse 13: "Greater love has no one than this,
that one lay down his life for his friends." He is the model of love. He loved the Father enough to do the Father's
will, even when it meant laying down His life. So a relationship with God basically manifests
itself on the basis of love, demonstrated in obedience. You'll find the same emphasis made as well,
chapter 17, verse 6: "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the
world. They were Yours and You gave them to Me, and
they have kept Your word. They have kept Your word." This is always going to be John's standard
for manifesting true salvation. Look at 1 John for a moment and I'll show
you just a couple of parallels there; again, the same apostle John writing. This is an emphasis that the Holy Spirit had
him make. Verse 3, 1 John 2:3, "By this we know that
we have come to know Him." How do you know that you know Him? How do you know that you know the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous? If we keep His commandments. "The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,'
and doesn't keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps
His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know we are in Him." Again, it's love and obedience. It's always love and obedience. John makes this point again, and again, and
again. Chapter 4 is no different. John speaks to the same issue in chapter 4,
verse 19: "We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his
brother, he's a liar." So if you say you love God and you don't obey
His commandments, you're a liar. If you say you love God and you hate your
brother, you're a liar, because hating your brother is a violation of the second commandment:
"You love your neighbor as yourself." It's always the emphasis that John makes. Everyone who loves God, obeys; and obedience
starts with obeying the first commandment: "Love the Lord your God, and then the second,
your neighbor as yourself." Chapter 5 of 1 John: "By this we know that
we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His
commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." So how do we define a Christian? Love and obedience - an eager obedience, a
joyful obedience, a happy obedience, a thankful obedience. That's a characteristic of a believer. "If you continue in My word," Jesus said in
John 8:31, "you're my real disciple. You're the real thing." You know, when we look at people, we look
at their action and try to interpret their hearts. We look at people's action and try to understand
their heart because that's all we can do. But that's deceptive because people can do
the action without the heart. God doesn't view people that way. He looks at the heart and interprets the action. We look at the action and interpret the heart. God looks at the heart and interprets the
action. And what is God looking for? Not just obedience, but obedience motivated
by love for Him, love for Him - love for Him that transcends, love for self, the love of
a true worshipper. This all kind of came into clarity with Peter,
John 21, when Peter decided he was going to defect from his calling and went back to fishing. The Lord showed up in Galilee - you remember
- and He said to Peter, "Do you love Me? If you love Me, feed My sheep. Do you love Me? Shepherd My sheep. Do you love Me?" third time, "feed My sheep. "In other words, don't talk to Me about sentimental
love. Don't talk to Me about some kind of sloppy
spiritual feeling or some emotion. If you love Me, do what I called you to do. Do what I called you to do. Do what I commanded you to do." Love and obedience are always the defining
reality of true believers; and that is the starting point, folks. That's the starting point. So back to John 14, and in John 14, our Lord
reminds us that it is those who love Him and obey His commandments, and He reminds us three
times: once in verse 15, a second time in verse 21, and again in verse 23, and then
reverses it in verse 24. Really four times makes reference to this
idea. The promise that He's going to give now of
Trinitarian presence as a kind of a preview of heaven is for those who are true believers,
manifestly so because of their love and obedience, love and obedience. They are the true lovers of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And, by the way, 1 Corinthians 16:22 says,
"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he's anathema , let him be damned." If he does love Christ, it'll show up in His
obedience. All right, so this is giving to us the recipients
of this promise; and not just this promise, but all the rest of the promises in chapter
14, 15, 16. Let's unpack it then. First of all, the presence of the Holy Spirit,
then the presence of the Son, and then the presence of the Spirit is promised to the
true believer. Let's begin with the presence of the Holy
Spirit in verse 16. All right, now they're in a panic because
He's leaving. He says, "I will ask the Father," and, again,
the whole Trinity is involved in this on all levels. "I will ask the Father," there's the Son and
the Father, "and He will give you another Helper," that's the Holy Spirit. You have the Trinity in that verse: "I," the
Son; "the Father," the Father; "the Helper," the Spirit. "I will ask the Father. He will give you another Helper, another Comforter,
that He may be with your forever." Now listen, I told you heaven is going to
be primarily a relationship, and I tell you that, so is the Christian life. It is not primarily activity, it is primarily
a loving relationship that results in obedient behavior; but it is at the core, a relationship. So what our Lord says is, "Not that I'm going
to give you more instructions, it's not that I'm going to give you more duties, it's not
that I'm going to give you more responsibilities. I'm going to ask the Father and He's going
to give you the Helper so that you have the internal resident power of God to do what
has been commanded." It's personal: "I will give you," personal,
individual, relational. "I will give you the Helper. I will ask the Father." By the way, in Luke 11:13, Jesus said to His
disciples, "If you ask the Father, He'll give you the Holy Spirit." Well, Jesus didn't wait for them to ask, He
interceded. He's the intercessor and He asked. "I'll ask the Father and He'll give you the
Comforter, the Helper." Now this is a very general word. It's the word Paraclete . That's the transliteration in English. Greek it's Paraklētos . Klētos is a verb form of a verb kaleō which
means to call, pará means alongside like parallel - to call somebody alongside. That's what the word means, somebody called
alongside. Very, very general. Called alongside for what? For anything and everything that you would
need. Could be an intercessor, could be an advocate,
could be a comforter, could be an encourager, could be a teacher, could be somebody to warn
you - somebody called alongside, somebody with more wisdom, somebody with more truth,
somebody with more power, somebody with more experience, somebody with more knowledge than
you have. Not somebody less than you, but somebody infinitely
more than you on all levels of capability. That's the Helper. I know in many Bibles it says the Comforter,
but that's such a very small sort of narrow understanding of what the role of the Holy
Spirit is. Certainly there's that. Certainly He's there to comfort, and does. But far beyond that, to help at every level
where we need help. Now notice this: "I will ask the Father and
He'll give you another." In the Greek language, there are two words
for another. In English, there's just one. If I say, "Another something," that doesn't
tell you anything about it. It's just other than the one that you have
in mind. No, it's another person; or, no, it's another
event, or whatever. You don't have anything in the word "another"
that tells you anything. That's not true in Greek. In Greek, there's a word heteros . Heteros means another, but it means another
of a different kind from which we get heterodox or heterogeneous. It means it's different; another of a different
kind. For example, another Jesus is heteros Iēsous
. In Galatians 1, "If anybody preaches another
Jesus, let him be damned." So that word means another of a different
kind. Then they have the word állos . Állos is
used here. It means another of the exact same kind; and
Jesus uses that: "I will give you állos Paraklētos . I will give you another exactly like I am,
which is to say that I'm going to send you a Helper exactly like the Helper that I have
been," and that defines for you the ministry of the Holy Spirit. All you have to do is look at the ministry
of Jesus. What did He do for them? He did everything for them. He answered every question they ever had. He provided everything they needed. He supplied all their protection, all their
provision, all their instruction, all their wisdom, all their knowledge. Everything came from Him. He interpreted all their experiences. He not only told them the meaning of what
had happened and was happening. He explained to them what was coming ahead
and what was going to happen. He explained to them the significance of divine
revelation in the past. He did everything. He was absolutely everything to them, and
He says, "I'm going away, but I'm going to give you a Helper, a Paraklētos , exactly
like Me. And here's the good news; He is coming that
He may be with you forever. He is not going to be with you for three years
like I have been. He's going to be with forever. He will be with you through your entire life
here and through your entire life in heaven. He will be with you." That's why in chapter 16 and verse 7, He said,
"I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not
come to you. But if I go, I'll send Him. "I could be in another town, I could be in
another building, I could be down the road and I'm not there; but I'm going to send somebody. And here I am leaving after three years. I'm sending someone exactly like Myself - " listen
" - who will do for you everything that I have done, who will be your teacher, your
illuminator, who will warn you about temptation, who will draw you to God, who will teach you
how to worship, who will help you fight temptation, who will make all necessary protections and
provisions, who does it all; another exactly like Myself; and He will be with you forever. "And, of course, when you go into heaven,
your relationship to Him will instantaneously become everything that it could be and should
be in its perfection, forever, permanent." They're not losing anything, it's better. It's better to go, so He can send the Spirit
who will never leave them. And then verse 17: "He is the Spirit of truth." Of course, He is, because God is truth. And Jesus said earlier in the chapter, "I
am the way, the truth, and the life. He will be what I was to you; and I am the
truth, and He is the truth; and everything He tells you will be the truth. By the way, whom the world cannot receive
because it doesn't see Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you
and will be in you." So much to say about that. Let me have you focus on this: "He abides,
but you will know Him. You already know Him. The world doesn't know Him. The world doesn't know Him, but you know Him
because He abides with you." What is that about? How did the Holy Spirit abide with them? Listen, in the person of Christ, in the person
of Christ. That is the primary point of that statement. "He abides with you." Who was it that gave life in the womb of Mary? It was the Holy Spirit, right, who conceived
in her womb. It was the Holy Spirit who moved in the fetus
in the womb. It was the Holy Spirit who was at the baptism
of Jesus, and descended from heaven, and rested upon Him. And the Holy Spirit led Him into ministry,
and the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted, and the Holy Spirit empowered
Him and enabled Him; and Jesus committed all the credit for His ministry to the Holy Spirit. You remember how Matthew 12, the Pharisees
and the Jewish leaders said He does what He does by the power of whom? Beelzebub, the Devil, hell. That's proof that the world cannot receive
the Holy Spirit because it doesn't see Him or know Him. The Holy Spirit was there three years, working
through Christ, and they couldn't recognize the Holy Spirit at all, and they attributed
His work to the Devil. That's how blind the world is. "But you know Him because He abides with you. The Holy Spirit's been here, doing His work
in Me." That's why Jesus said to those who said He
did what He did by the power of Satan, "You have blasphemed, not Me; you've blasphemed
the Holy Spirit." "The Spirit of truth has been with you in
Me. It is better for Me to go so that He can move
from being with you in Me to being in you." What an incredible promise. What an astonishing reality that is: stunning. Now why is He called the Spirit of truth? Because He's going to have an initial task. He's called the Spirit of truth. Why? Just quickly in the last few minutes, verse
26: "The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name," here's why He's
called the Spirit of truth, "He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance
all that I said to you." He's called the Spirit of truth because He
is going to bring the truth to them. Look at chapter 15, verse 26: "When the Helper
comes whom I will send to you from the Father - " sometimes He says the Father will send
Him. Sometimes He says, "I will send Him." Again, the Trinity is all involved. "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send
to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He
will testify about Me, and you will testify also because you've been with Me from the
beginning." And then drop down to verse 13 of chapter
16. "When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will
guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own initiative, but
whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine
and disclose it to you. All things that are Mine come from the Father;
therefore, I said He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you." What in the world is this about? Here it is. This is an initial primary promise by the
Lord Himself that the Holy Spirit will come to the 11 disciples and those associated with
Him for the purpose of writing the New Testament, for the purpose of writing the New Testament. "When the Spirit of truth comes, when the
Spirit of truth comes, He will teach you all things, bring to remembrance all that I have
said. He will testify of Me. He will take what the Father has given to
Me and give it to you." Let me just put this all together. The revelation originates with God. God discloses that revelation in Christ. Christ lives and teaches and ministers, and
then the Holy Spirit comes, takes all of that and reveals it to the apostles, who then write
it down. In fact, in 2 Peter, that's exactly what Peter
said: "Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." No prophecy of scripture is from anyone's
own origination or interpretation. No prophecy of scripture was ever made by
an act of human will; men moved by the Holy Spirit. So understand this: the Father has the revelation,
He discloses it initially in Christ who is the living revelation of God. Then Christ sends the Holy Spirit who brings
to mind all that Christ taught and all that Christ did so that the gospels can be written
accurately, and instructs all the writers of the New Testament about all the revelation
of God so that they can write it down accurately. He is the Spirit of truth. Christ is the truth and God is true, God is
true. The conference a few weeks ago on inerrancy,
this point was made so very strongly by Sinclair Ferguson. "You have a God who is true. You have a Christ who is truth. You have a Spirit who is truth, who reveals
the revelation from God, to the Father, to the Spirit, to the apostles, who write it
down." All Scripture is God-breathed through the
Spirit, not from any human mind. So if you attack the inerrancy of Scripture,
you have made an assault on the Trinity, you have assaulted the Trinity. The God of truth revealed His truth perfectly
in His Son. His Son then sent the Spirit to reveal His
truth perfectly in the Scripture. So as believers, you say, "How does this apply
to us?" Well, I'm not waiting for revelation from
heaven. I don't have any promise that somehow the
Lord's going to supernaturally make me remember something Jesus said that wasn't written down;
that's not for me. What this guarantees to me is that this book
is true. That's all I need; that's all I need. I don't need anything else. I don't need private revelations; I don't
need the Lord giving me remembrances of things that Jesus did that nobody knows about; I
don't need to know ancient things about the apostle Paul. I just need this book, but I need this book
to be absolutely accurate. And here you have the Trinity engaged in the
process of the writing of Scripture. All that is the Father's, He gives to the
Son. "What is the Father's becomes the Mine. What is Mine, I give to the Spirit. The Spirit gives to you, you write it down,
and all that is the Father's and the Son's and the Spirit's becomes ours." You can't tamper with the doctrine of scriptural
authority and inerrancy without assaulting the divine Trinity. First Corinthians 2:16, "We have here the
mind of Christ." This is the mind of Christ. The world has no organ of discernment. Now you say, "Well, is this just a promise
for the inspiration of Scripture?" No, because the Holy Spirit is also the Helper. And one of the things He does to help us,
1 John 2:20 and 27, John says, "As He becomes an anointing that teaches us all things,"
so He becomes a resident illuminator. First Corinthians 2 says the same thing that,
"The Spirit teaches us the meaning of Scripture." So we have the Spirit-inspired text; and living
in us, we have the author who discloses its meaning to us. Of course, the world - part of the king of
darkness, under the rule of Satan, who is a liar and a murderer - Jesus said, "Because
I speak the truth - " in John 8 " - you don't understand Me." Of course they don't get it. Of course the world doesn't understand; but
we do. So the first of these amazing promises of
divine presence is that, "The Spirit has been with you in Me, and He will now be in you
forever." And the first task will be to bring to your
remembrance the full revelation of the Father, to the Son, through the Spirit, that you can
write it down. Holy men of God wrote as they were moved by
the Spirit of God. Now, that only gets us one-third through. Next time, the presence of the Son and the
presence of the Father. Lord, thank You, again, for this rich, wonderful
portion of the Scripture. To be a Christian is just a supernatural and
amazing thing. It isn't just about escaping hell; it isn't
just about being delivered from sin. This is beyond what we could ever imagine,
that You would come to us in Your full Trinitarian glory and make us Your sanctuary. It's just a staggering reality. We would want the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
fullness of the Son, fullness of the Father. And one day, we'll have that relationship
in all its perfection. But until then, may we be faithful to Your
presence in our lives, to love and obey, to love and obey. Father, I pray that You will do a saving work
in the hearts of any here today, who sins have not been forgiven, who have not come
to You for forgiveness, and salvation, and grace, and mercy. I pray, Lord, that You would open their hearts
to the truth, that they would embrace the death and resurrection of the Savior on their
behalf, be saved from judgment. For those of us who are believers, who are
marked by love and obedience, increase our love and increase our obedience, and our usefulness
to You. Increase our joy and the priviledge that is
ours, to have this relationship that we have with You even now.
