PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: JOHN 14:16-26




INTRODUCTION:


  1. The discourse recorded in John 14-16 has often been called our Lord’s “Upper Room Discourse.”  These chapters take us into the intimate thoughts of our Lord right before He was arrested, tried, and crucified.
  2. Our Lord told His disciples that He would soon be leaving them, but that He would send them the Holy Spirit - “another Comforter” (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7).
  3. And that when the Comforter comes He will no longer be merely with them but would be in them (14:17).
  4. Their strength will no longer come from without, as when Jesus was their Comforter, but will come from within.  The Holy Spirit strengthens believers.
  5. When the Israelites left Egypt, they were led by the pillar of cloud.  This is a beautiful picture of the leading of the Holy Spirit.
  6. A pillar represents strength.  The Holy Spirit strengthens believers.
  7. The Greek word translated “Comforter” is Paraclete, and it means, “one called alongside to help” or “encourager” or “strengthener.”  In I John 2:1 the same Greek word is translated “advocate” and it is used to describe the Lord Jesus Christ.
  8. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is our advocate, helper, our encourager, and our strengthener.  He is the Comforter. He, being the Spirit of God, is infinite in His resources and can therefore never fail in His ministry of comfort.
  9. What is more, this ministry of comfort can never be broken for He is given to us “for ever” (John 14:16b).
  10. The Holy Spirit is also called “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17; 15:26).  As the Spirit of truth, He guides us “into all truth” (John 16:13).
  11. Here in this Gospel of John, in chapter 8 and verse 44, Jesus said that the devil “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
  12. Satan leads sinners into a pathway of lies and deceit and error.  But the Holy Spirit leads Christians into the pathway of truth and righteousness and holiness.
  13. What about when a Christian sins?  When a believer sins he departs from the truth.  In that event it is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict him of his sin and to guide him back into the truth.

  1. THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT
  2. THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
  3. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

I. THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT (JOHN 14:16).

  1. The promise is given by our Lord to His disciples (John 14:16; cf. Luke 11:13).
  2. The promise was given again by our Lord, right before He ascended into heaven (Luke 24:49-53). Since these were His very last words before His ascension, they must be very important (cf. Acts 1:4-8).
  3. As we consider the promise of the Spirit, let us remember the promise of the Holy Spirit is “power” (Acts 1:4, 8; cf. Luke 24:49).
  4. This power is for soulwinning (Luke 24:46-48; Acts 1:8).
  5. I read about an old Welsh coal miner who was saved during the great Welsh revival of 1859.  He said, “When I was a boy we dug out coal with chisels; after that we started using dynamite, and then we got a much larger quantity of coal.   Before the revival I have seen nothing but chisel work in our churches, but now God’s dynamite is at work!”
  6. The songwriter put it this way:
    Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power!
    Thy floodgates of blessing, on us throw open wide!
    Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power!
    That sinners be converted and Thy Name glorified!
  7. Let us also consider the divine expediency (John 16:7).  It was expedient for the disciples that our Lord went back to heaven, for if our Lord did not go away the Comforter would not come (16:7).
  8. It was expedient for the disciples that our Lord went back to heaven, for if our Lord had remained upon the earth, He would necessarily have been restricted by space and time as are all men.
  9. However, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of born-again believers provides a fellowship with God that is in many ways even closer than the apostles had experienced in the physical presence of Jesus.
  10. There is much confusion regarding the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.  The tongues movement, with all of its error and emotionalism, is based on a faulty foundation. 
  11. For example, they insist that speaking in tongues is the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit.  The Bible nowhere teaches that, and I will say more about it in a few minutes.

 

II. THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

  1. The things the Comforter is said to do are all somewhere or other assigned to Jesus, such as teaching the disciples (John 14:26), and being with them and in them (14:20; 15:4), so the Holy Spirit is called “another Comforter” (John 14:16).
  2. The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 15:30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.”
  3. “The love of the Spirit” (Rom. 15:30). We often marvel at the love of Christ.   Ephesians 3:19 says, “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
  4. It is marvellous indeed. But do we marvel at the love of the Spirit?
  5. Romans 5:5 says, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
  6. Some cults and other false teachers refer to the Holy Spirit as an influence or a force from God.  But this is wrong; the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person.
  7. Only a Divine Person could take the place of another Divine Person (John 14:16; 16:7).
  8. The Holy Spirit is referred to as God in Acts 5:4.
  9. To deny the deity of the Holy Spirit is just as damnable as denying the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ (Unitarianism and other cults).
  10. Let us consider the unity of the Godhead as well as the tri-unity. Those who deny the personality of the Holy Spirit also deny His deity.  Therefore, they also deny the Trinity.
  11. But notice in John 16:7 that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who sends the Comforter. And in John 14:16 it is the Father who sends Him. Then in 14:26, it is the Father who sends the Comforter in Jesus’ name.  Finally, in 15:26 it is Jesus Christ who sends the Comforter “from the Father.”
  12.   
  13. The personality of the Holy Spirit is a very important doctrine, and it is one that is denied by the cults, and misunderstood by the tongues people. 
  • The Holy Spirit is spoken of as having understanding.  First Corinthians 2:10 says, “the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (cf. I Cor. 2:10-12).
  • Secondly, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as having a will. “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will” (I Cor. 12:11).
  • Thirdly, the Holy Spirit is credited with acts and deeds; therefore, He must be a person.  Way back in Genesis 1:2 we read that the Holy Spirit took part in the creation of the universe.
  • Romans 8:26 says, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities,” and that He “maketh intercession for us.”
  • Over and over in the Book of Acts we see the Holy Spirit directing the apostles - leading them, guiding them, opening doors and closing doors (cf. 1:1, 2, 8; 5:32; 8:29, 39; 9:31; 13:1-4; 15:28; 16:6, 7; 20:23, 28; 21:10, 11).
  • Fourth, the Holy Spirit is credited with influencing and moving men to write and speak the Word of God; therefore, He must be a person.  Second Peter 1:21 says, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
  • Fifth, it is the blessed Holy Spirit that regenerated us.  In John 3:6 and 3:8, the Lord Jesus Christ referred to regeneration as being “born of the Spirit.”
  • Sixth, the Holy Spirit has emotions. The Bible says in Eph. 4:30, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit.”
  • I Thess. 5:19 says, “Quench not the Spirit.”  The Holy Spirit is quenched in many churches today by worldliness, carnality, disobedience, unconfessed sin, etc.
  • In Acts 5:9, Peter said, “Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?”
  • In Acts 7:51, Stephen said to his obstinate listeners, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
  • An influence cannot be grieved or tempted or resisted - only a person can be grieved, tempted, or resisted.  The Holy Spirit is a person - a Divine Person.

 

III. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

  1. Let us consider two aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit: in relation to the world, and in relation to the Christian.
  2. In relation to the world, the Holy Spirit’s function is to convince, convict or reprove the world.
  • “He will reprove (convict) the world of sin” (John 16:8) - “because they believe not on me” (John 16:9). Why do sinners continue in their sin and folly?  Because of unbelief.  The Holy Spirit convicts them of the sin of unbelief. We see this very vividly on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:36-41).
  • We see this convicting work again when Stephen preached (Acts 7:51-54); when Saul of Tarsus was converted (Acts 9:4, 5); when Lydia was saved (Acts 16:14); when Paul preached to Felix (Acts 24:24, 25), etc.
  1. Before concluding allow me to say a few words about the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Christian.
  2. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ through the life of the Christian (John 16:14).
  3. In John 3:3-8, our Lord told Nicodemus that we are born again (regenerated) by the Spirit of God.
  4. Spurgeon said, “When we have difficulties, we ask for the direction of the Holy Spirit. When we do not understand a portion of Holy Scripture, we ask God the Holy Spirit to illumine us. When we are depressed, the Holy Spirit comforts us. You can’t tell what the wondrous power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is; how it pulls back the hand of the saint when he would touch the forbidden thing; how it prompts him to make a covenant with his eyes; how it binds his feet, lest they should walk down a slippery path; how it restrains his heart, and keeps him from temptation.”
  5. Galatians 5:22, 23 tell us that the Holy Spirit produces fruit in the life of the believer - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
  6. Ephesians 1:13 says we have been “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
  7. I Corinthians 12:13 says, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body…” When you were born again you received the Holy Spirit.  First Corinthians 3:16 says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.”
  8. Let me stress that speaking in tongues is not the evidence of the indwelling Holy Spirit or the fullness of the Spirit.
  9. I could cite many Scriptures, but let us just consider a few:
  • Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and preached with power (Acts 4:8ff).  Tongues are not mentioned.
  • Believers were filled with the Holy Spirit “and they spake the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
  • Deacons are to be “full of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 6:3).
  • Stephen was one of these deacons (Acts 6:5).  He preached the Gospel fearlessly and was martyred (Acts 7:51-60). 
  • Paul was “filled with the Holy Ghost,” got baptized and started preaching (Acts 9:17-20).
  • Barnabas was “full of the Holy Ghost” and ministered faithfully (Acts 11:24-26).
  • Paul was “filled with the Holy Ghost” and exercised spiritual discernment (Acts 13:6-12).
  • “And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 13:52).   None of these Scriptures mentions speaking in tongues.
  1. In Ephesians 5:18 we are commanded to “be filled with the Spirit,” but this has nothing to do with tongues.
  2. C.I. Scofield preached D.L. Moody’s funeral.  This is what he said, “The secrets of D.L. Moody’s power were: First, in a definite experience of Christ’s saving grace.  He had passed out of death into life, and he knew it.  Secondly, he believed in the divine authority of the Scriptures.  The Bible was to him the voice of God, and he made it resound as such in the consciences of men.  Thirdly, he was baptized (meaning “filled”) with the Holy Spirit, and he knew it.  It was to him as definite an experience as his conversion.”

 

CONCLUSION:


  1. Years ago there was a ministerial meeting in the city of Philadelphia to decide upon the evangelist for a big citywide campaign.
  2. Different names were mentioned, and then one pastor suggested DL Moody.  Another preacher then said sarcastically, “Do you think that DL Moody has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”
  3. “No,” the pastor said, “but I believe the Holy Spirit has a monopoly of DL Moody.”


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