The Gospel of JohnThe Sending of The Holy Ghost

John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

1. Another Comforter
2. The Spirit Of Truth
3. Loving Is Keeping
4. The Three Promises: Comfort, Indwelling, Revelation

1. Another Comforter

Verse sixteen: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.”

These are the very COMFORTING words from the Son of God.

When HE said HE would “pray the Father” give “another Comforter” the implication is that HE HIMSELF [Jesus Christ] is a comforter, which thing is true.

And not only this is true, but the FATHER HIMSELF is a comforter.

Remember, my friend, what the SCRIPTURE says in Second Corinthians chapter one. “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.” [2 Corinthians 1:3]

The FATHER is a comforter, too.

The truth of the matter is this. The FATHER, SON, HOLY SPIRIT, [ONE GOD WHO is revealed in three PERSONS] comforts us [the believers] in this age of GRACE. Amen!

More than this it is the Spirit of God Who is expressly called the COMFORTER.

We see this in verse twenty-six: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.”

2. The Spirit Of Truth

Verse seventeen: “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

The COMFORTER is called the “Spirit of truth”.

 In addition to this, HE is called the HOLY GHOST is verse twenty-six.

The Holy Spirit is the ONE in this age WHO enables you to “say that Jesus is the Lord”. [1 Corinthians 12:3] “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”

Let me give you two of unique ministrations of the Holy Spirit in this age. Are you ready?

• The Holy Spirit is the ONE WHO DWELLETH in you and I in this church age. [1 Corinthains 3:16] “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

• The Holy Spirit is the ONE WHO SEALS you and I in this age of age of grace “unto the day of redemption.” [Ephesians 1:13] “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” [Ephesians 4:30] “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

Now you need to notice something here. Did you see the tense of the verbs in our text of John fourteen, verse seventeen? Let’s look at them.

While Jesus was with them [present tense] the Spirit of truth is WITH them [“for he dwelleth with you”] and then later when Jesus is gone back to Heaven the Spirit of Truth shall be [future tense] IN you [“and shall be in you.”]

I will give more on this later.

3. Loving Is Keeping

Now, let’s go to verse twenty-one: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

It always comes back to this. The proof that a person is IN Christ is if he keeps Jesus Christ’s commandments.

Can you be saved without loving HIM?

Do not get angry with me. God says it right here in this BOOK. That is what it says!

A person who keeps HIS commandments is the one who does [obeys] them. This shows that you tell what something is by watching them in action.

 It is the DOING of a person that is DOING the TELLING of what is truly in the INSIDE of a person.

In Proverbs chapter twenty, verse eleven: “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.” [Proverbs 20:11]

The connection between faith and works is this. Are you ready?

A person who has faith, that faith can be identified  by others [by its fruit] by what a person does.

[Now, I am talking about the general “bent” over the long run of his or her life.]

Turn to the book of James chapter one starting with verse twenty-two, and see this truth for yourselves.

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” [James 1:22-25]

Can I say it again? [I have said it before.] The proof is the pudding! Amen!

4. The Three Promises: Comfort, Indwelling, Revelation

Verse seventeen: “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

While Jesus Christ is with them [on this earth] the Spirit of truth DWELLS WITH THEM and when Jesus Christ goes with the FATHER, the Spirit of truth will come and DWELL IN THEM. Do you see the difference here?

Now, let’s look at verse twenty-six: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

In Acts chapter one, verses four through eight, we see the Son of God Jesus Christ, commanding his disciples to wait for the Holy Ghost WHO is the COMFORTER WHO is coming soon [“not many days hence”] as “ye have heard of me” [earlier in John 14:26].

This event was to occur as a result of the TIMING of The Father. Note the: “but wait for the promise of the Father.”

Furthermore, this one time event in verse eight would be the fulfillment of the BAPTISM promised earlier in Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16, [Mark 1:8] “I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.”

Scripture with Scripture!
 
• Do you see the future tense in John fifteen, verse twenty-six [“I will send”]: “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:” [John 15:26].
 
• Do you see the future tense of the verb [“when he” … “is come, he will”] in John chapter sixteen, verse thirteen: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” [John 16:13-14]

We will finish here with this last verse.

Turn to Acts chapter one again, read verse eight: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” [Acts 1:8]

• Acts chapter one verse eight, is when the COMFORTER came. Amen!

• Acts chapter one verse, eight is where we [as believers] received the empowerment … or enablement to worship GOD WHO is a SPIRIT. [John 4:24]

• Acts chapter one verse eight, is where we received the power … for this age we live in … the age of grace … the CHURCH AGE … to testify as the witnesses of Jesus Christ to this old world Amen!