Morning, everyone. That hymn is so precious and so powerful, it's it's just chock full of the truth of God's word, and it communicates to us the reality that God has graciously made provision for us to live in a world that is dark, and confusing, and in so many ways opposed to the things of God, and to do so as believers with confidence, with clarity, with certainty. And all of that is the blessing of God in you, the blessing of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It is absolutely true of the believer that although we do not understand all things, because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we have clarity and certainty about the broad things that are happening in life and on this planet. And we can live then with confidence. We can live. In fact, this is part of our testimony, folks. We can live as those who are not perpetually unhinged by circumstances because we have the spirit of God within us, leading us to pointing us to the truth of God, giving us understanding of what the Lord is up to in us and around us. I mentioned this this morning because we're going to look at just a few verses in John's gospel, John chapter 16. And we're continuing this look at Jesus promising to his disciples that although he is leaving them physically, the cross is just ahead. Although Jesus is going to leave them physically, he will send the comforter, the helper, the Spirit of God himself who will indwell them, who will always be with them. And one of the great ministries of God the Holy Spirit will be to guide them into truth. And that is a ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives as well. He guides us into truth day by day as we relate rightly to God. How many of you have noticed that God has not in one instant infused you with all of the wisdom all of the truth, all of the enablement that you will need for all of life's circumstances. How many of you have noticed that? That it just isn't that way. That you find that on an ongoing basis, you have need of what only God Himself can provide. He hasn't dumped it on us all at once. But He gives it to us as we can take it in, as we walk with Him, as we relate to Him. He guides us into truth. Can you imagine trying to take in all of the food that will provide you with all of the nutrition that you're going to need for the rest of your life? We can't do that. That wouldn't be possible. In fact, that wouldn't be good for us to try to do that. Spiritual truth is that way, too. Spiritual food is that way as well. God chooses to give us his truth as we relate to him. And we're going to focus this morning on how specifically does the Holy Spirit do this work of guiding us into truth. You know, I was sharing with the folks in the early service the fact that Jesus' words to his disciples are so deeply personal, and they're so clearly speaking of relationship with him, that we do well to not forget that when we begin now to focus on the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to give to us the things of God Himself in relationship, in the context of relationship. God's aim is not simply to supply us with what we need all of the time. It's bigger than that. His aim is to give us Himself. And He's done that in Christ. And when we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we have all of Him that we're ever going to get. Amen? And the experience of that, the fullness of that occurs in relationship. His sufficiency is proven and experienced in daily relationship. Why do I mention that? Because I want you to join me in asking God the Holy Spirit to examine your heart and think about your own relationship with the Lord. Are you primarily interested in what Jesus can do for you? A need that you must have met? Well, that is a good thing for sure. Don't misunderstand me. But it is also true that Christ desires for us to simply need Him, to want Him, to desire Him, to be content in Him. Are we satisfied in Him? Jesus says to His disciples in John 16, verse 12, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the father has are mine. Therefore, I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. This is interesting to me because the disciples have so much need right now. Need for understanding about why Jesus really needs to leave them. What is meant by this death that He has been talking about? How are they going to live out the life that He's calling them to live in His physical absence? And Jesus very tenderly sees that need, but He also says to them, you know, I've got a lot of things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Here is Jesus, God Himself, saying, look, I'm not just going to dump everything on you that you're ever going to need for this life that you will live out. In my name. Why could the disciples not bear? All that Jesus had to say to them. Well, certainly we understand that the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost would enable them to understand. The meaning of the cross. the power of Christ's resurrection. None of that had happened yet, so there absolutely is the sense in which they are unable to bear some of the truth that Jesus has to say to them. That's certain. But I want us to focus this morning also on their humanity. Here are future apostles, for sure, but they are also mere men. They're people. And as mere people, at this moment in their life, Here's part of their deal. Here's part of why they can't bear some of the truth that Jesus has to say to them. First of all, they're very distraught. They are absolutely despairing at the thought of Jesus leaving them physically, they don't want him to leave. Last week, we talked about how, you know, we imagine we might cling to Jesus if he were physically here and were to spend any amount of time with us at all. And then we're to say, OK, I'm going to be leaving you. Oh, how how we would cling to him or want to. These disciples are distraught. And friends, there are times when as people we are we are so distraught, we are so overwrought with circumstances that God has allowed to occur in our lives. That we are not going to be helped by simply a quick injection of truth. Can you relate to this? I think of the person who might be experiencing just acute financial press. Any of you ever had financial trouble? Seems like it happens. And if you were to have a dear brother or sister in Christ just come up to you and say, now God works all things together for good, how many of you would be blessed and encouraged by that if it were done that way? How many of you might be tempted to hurt that person? Right? I'm just saying. There is a need for comforting presence, not merely truth. The truth will be appropriated over time in cooperation with this comforting presence, and that will be a work of the Spirit. There are times, very frankly, like these apostles, when we simply lack the maturity to take in some truth. disciples had just been arguing about about which of them would get the best seats in the house when the kingdom finally arrived. Who was going to get to sit where that sort of thing. These disciples include, you know, their their ringleader, Peter, who was the one who said, you know, Lord, I can see where the rest of these guys would would abandon you, but I sure won't do that. You know, that sort of thing. Like us, they are maturing. They are not yet mature, but they are maturing. And there are times when we lack maturity to take in truth. That is a work of the Spirit. Sometimes we're simply too confused by our circumstances to take in truth. We have in front of us something that we did not plan, something that we didn't pray for. In fact, maybe we prayed against it. Maybe we invited our brothers and sisters in Christ to pray against it. And yet here it is. And we wonder what is wrong with their prayer life, right? And there's conflict in our spirit because self didn't get its way. And that's confusing to us. And we understand that this ongoing death of self is is a relational thing. It is the work of the Holy Spirit over time. God does not zap us with spiritual maturity. Have you noticed this? Instead. He indwells us. By his spirit. And as we live under the influence of the Holy Spirit. These blessed benefits that Jesus is speaking of in these few verses. Are realized by us. It's a wonderful thing. And they're realized folks relationally. Not merely positionally, not merely intellectually, and I want us to just focus this morning on three things. Three things that will help us. Understand what Jesus is saying about the working of the Holy Spirit. How does the Spirit guide us into truth? Look at verse 13. He says he the Spirit will guide you into all truth. I want you to notice something that's implied in this statement. Disciples cannot guide themselves into truth. Do you notice that if you need a guide? By implication, you are unable to go it alone. Some of us men have tried to guide ourselves on hikes or drives, this sort of thing. And you all know the feeling of having your precious wife ask you very tenderly, do you know where we're going? Yeah, sure. And oftentimes, men, we don't know where we're going. We thought we did at one time. And spiritually, the same thing happens to us. We can't guide ourselves into the truth of God. And we do so at great peril. How often we say, well, I just know God wouldn't want me to suffer like this. I just know God wouldn't want me to experience this. I just don't think God would want me to put up with that jerk, you know. We can't guide ourselves into truth. We don't have that ability apart from the Spirit of God. So the caution of Jesus' words this morning to His disciples and to us is that we ought not be those who make up our own truth. We must be led into truth. And God, the Holy Spirit, is the one who guides us into truth as we follow him. Do you notice how relational this is? A guide has to be followed, right? It's a relational thing. It's not just an informational thing. It is a relational thing. And we see in these few verses a little bit of an explanation as to how God the Holy Spirit guides us into truth. We cannot see the Holy Spirit. Jesus has already addressed this in John the third chapter when he was talking to Nicodemus with respect to being born again. He said you don't see the wind. You see the effects of the wind, but you don't see the wind literally. I cannot see the Holy Spirit. I cannot audibly hear his voice, and I know we've had interesting conversations about that lately, and we won't go there, but I think we could agree that it isn't the normative daily Christian experience to hear audibly the voice of God. How can I know then that I'm being led into God's truth and I'm not being deceived by my own version or someone else's version of the truth? Well, notice, there's a critical test here in verse 13. He, the Holy Spirit, will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will tell you things to come. The Holy Spirit's guiding will be according to the words of God the Father, according to God's Word. What He hears from the Father, He will speak to disciples. The Spirit's guiding will be according to God's Word. This same apostle John, who is led of the spirit to record these words of Jesus, wrote this in his first epistle. This is 1st John 4 6. He said, We that that is, the apostles are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. The Spirit speaks to the heart of the believer, the Word of God, the Word of God, the Father, the truth that God, the Holy Spirit conveyed to the apostles and the prophets, the human authors of Scripture, if you will. That's how we know the spirit of truth from the spirit of error. The Spirit's guiding will be according to God's word. He will not speak by his own authority, verse 13, but whatever he hears, he will speak. How can I know that I shouldn't steal from my employer? to support my family because we're really struggling. How can I know that that's not what God has for me? Because he has spoken in his word, thou shall not steal. OK, that's a that's a short jump shot, right? That's an easy one. OK. God, the Holy Spirit is going to lead us according to his word. Sometimes listen, sometimes we may not feel saved Can we just be practical for a minute? No, don't raise your hand. Because you're going to chicken out anyway. But we understand that day in and day out, we don't necessarily feel saved. And certainly there are days, or at least parts of days, when we don't act saved. Right? Let's just call it the way it is. How can I know then that that feeling is not valid? Well, the Scripture tells me that my salvation is actually kept by the power of God for me. Aren't you glad for this? That as a follower of Jesus Christ, you don't have to live by your feelings every day, hoping that each day you are going to feel that you belong to the Lord. Now, God loves us. And there's an awful lot of days when we feel we belong to the Lord. Don't misunderstand me. I'm just saying we have an enemy who wants us to believe lies. And one of the lies he wants us to believe is that when we mess up, you couldn't know the Lord and think those thoughts, do those things. No. The Spirit's guiding will be in harmony with the Word of God. Look at verse 14. Jesus says, He, the Spirit, will glorify Me. He will glorify Me. The Spirit's guiding will have the effect of magnifying Jesus Christ. Drawing attention to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is probably not necessarily present in every religious experience that a group of people have. And they leave feeling exuberant and enthused and all of that sort of thing. And they might say, well, boy, the spirit was really working there. Well, maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. An interesting question would be, was Jesus Christ glorified? Was God the Son magnified in that experience? And if the answer is yes, praise the Lord. That is a ministry of the Holy Spirit to glorify the Son, to magnify the Son. If what is glorified is people or an experience itself, It hasn't passed that test, OK? Because the Spirit will guide in such a way that Jesus Christ is glorified. If I'm being led into a decision, if I'm being led into a belief that merely glorifies Steve, that merely indulges Steve rather than exalting and pleasing my Savior, Jesus Christ. I ought to stop and pray and think some really deep thoughts, because the word is telling me this morning that the guidance of the Holy Spirit will have the effect of magnifying, glorifying Jesus Christ. Now, I mentioned a couple of things. In the early service, I directed my comments at teenagers. I'm not really sure why. I really don't just apply to teenagers. But I am going to say that everybody survived it. It's a survivable thing, all right? So here we go. There are pressure points that we sometimes have in our relationships with parents when we're maturing and kind of in that part of life where we're kind of getting ready to leave the nest, that sort of thing. And sometimes the pressure points have to do... Any of you have pressure points in relationships with parents? No. Alright, some of the older people are admitting to that. Yeah. Alright, we're praying for you for sure. Sometimes the pressure points in those growing up years have to do with expressing some of the liberties that we have in Christ. The tweeners, the gray areas. Should you dress this way or that way? Should you tattoo this or pierce that? Is this practical yet? Is this kind of entertainment okay or not? I mean, good heavens, certainly my parents understand that not every movie has to be in black and white, you know, that sort of thing. That was the good stuff before color. And as we leave home, We ought to be encouraged to know that in addition to always having our parents there, as long as they're there, we are indwelt by the Spirit of God. And we don't have to live in a state of confusion and uncertainty in the world, but we can simply ask ourselves this question. Does that decision I'm going to make have the effect of glorifying Jesus Christ? Does it exalt Christ? Does it increase my ability to bear the nature and speak the message of the Gospel? Or does it hinder that? Because we can be self-deceived. I know I've done this many times myself. I just feel like God has given me a liberty to do X. I just really have a piece about doing Y. OK, and one of the things that I need to ask myself in light of what Jesus is saying to his disciples is, does it glorify Jesus? Does it exalt Christ? The spirits guiding will have the effect of glorifying Jesus Christ. Let me just suggest something else that is implied in this passage, if not stated overtly. Look at v. 14. He will glorify Me, Jesus says, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. And then Jesus says in v. 15, all things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. Listen, the Spirit's guiding. will have the effect of drawing us into deeper fellowship with God. Will have the effect of drawing us into deeper fellowship with God. Let me just show you what I'm talking about here. You see the Trinity at work here. Jesus says in verse 14, he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. Verse 15, all things that the father has are mine. There's unity between the Father and the Son. All things that the Father has are mine. And then he says, He will take of what is mine and declare it to you. In other words, the desire is that there would be unity between the Son and the Spirit, and now the Holy Spirit and the disciple of Jesus Christ. He will take of mine and declare it to you. All of the spiritual blessings that God the Father gave to the Son that He might give them to us. Jesus says to His disciples here, that is now the work of the Holy Spirit God in you to convey those blessings to you. So we're brought into deeper and deeper fellowship with God Himself as we're following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Why do I mention this? It sounds like such an obvious thing. In fact, all three of those points seem super obvious. I'm mentioning that because this is the teaching of Jesus, first of all and foremost, but also because we tend to sometimes forget some of these things. We have a habit as sinful and rebellious people to want to decide for ourselves what truth is. In fact, if you participate in the Bible distribution this come this next weekend, one of the things you will notice. Is that an awful lot of people have just made up their own truth? And they will very sincerely say things like, well, it just seems to me. And it just makes sense to me. And I've always thought that, OK, and what Jesus is saying is to his disciples is you don't have to do that. I am sending the Spirit. He will guide you into truth. Truth is, and truth is knowable. We live in a culture that is so confused about truth, it has actually decided there is no truth. In fact, truth really is whatever you think it is. As long as you sincerely believe it, that is true. And so we need this simple reminder that when we're indwelt with the Holy Spirit, one of the blessings that God in us gives to us is this guidance into truth, okay? And we tend to forget sometimes, do we not? that the Holy Spirit doesn't simply lead us into that which we think is best for us. Have you ever stepped in that trap before? I know this is God's leading because I just feel a certain way about it. And so we blow right past that sign that says, is Christ being exalted in this? Is Christ being magnified in this? But there's another reason I mention this, and it's simply because if we're growing in our knowledge of Scripture, but we're not growing deeper in fellowship with the Lord, we're missing the point of Scripture. The Word of God is not something that we study so that we can know more and more about word meanings and history and this sort of thing, who did what, that sort of thing. The Word of God is a love letter from the heart of God to his children. And it's explained to us, it's taught to us by God the Holy Spirit. And it will have the effect of drawing us into deeper fellowship with the Lord. What a horrible thing it would be. You want to know one of the ways you can pray for your pastor? Pray that I would never stand before you as one who has only searched the scriptures to have a few things to share with you on a Sunday morning. Because in my flesh, I might be tempted to think, well. They seem to want me to say something. I think there's an expectation of this. And they kind of prefer if it came from here. And so I guess the reason God has given me His Word is so that I can just study it and listen to Him and come up with something to share with you. How many of you know that's really only part of it? That if I am spending time in the Word, if I am spending time in fellowship with my Lord, and I'm not personally growing closer to my Lord, that that's a problem. And frankly, that's a problem for any of us who teach. The goal isn't just passing along information. The goal is deeper fellowship with the Lord. The Spirit's guiding will lead us to deeper fellowship with God, not merely intellectual understanding. When Jesus says the Spirit will take of Mine and declare it to you, that is a relational statement. That is a relational statement. And we understand the Lord has so much more to say about the work of the spirit. He is the giver of joy. He's the giver of comfort. He's the giver of peace. We've just been focusing on part of this one thing this morning that he guides us into truth. I want to simply end by reminding you who Jesus is talking to. To whom? Is this blessing of the Holy Spirit conveyed? To whom is it true that the Holy Spirit guides into truth? You notice that this promise was not made to all of the people who were cheering for Jesus on Palm Sunday. Those people are not here in this passage. They're gone. A lot smaller crowd. And this promise is not being made to really religious people who knew all about the Bible, but with their living and their speaking, demonstrated that they primarily loved themselves, not God. The Pharisees, the religious leaders, aren't in this passage either. They're gone. Jesus is speaking to a small band of sinful men who had been chosen by Christ and by virtue of having been chosen in response to having been chosen, are believing that Jesus is who He says He is, and are following Him, however, imperfectly. To whom is the promise of the Spirit's guidance given? It's given to the followers of Jesus. We don't want to be confused about this. The Holy Spirit is not some mystical force that is available to all on planet Earth. like the good vibes from the universe in Star Wars or something, you know, may the force be with you, this sort of thing. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. The Holy Spirit is not the voice in your head whose tendency is to always affirm everything you think. Do you know this voice? Is it just me? Don't you also have thoughts like that? It amazes me how often I think I'm right and everybody else is wrong. There's a consistency to that. in my flesh. The Holy Spirit is not some, you know, secret handshake that just some believers kind of get drawn into the inner circle of real fellowship with God and and the rest of us are just kind of waiting for that to happen. No. Just as God the Father is personal and relational, just as God the Son was and is personal and relational, so too is the Holy Spirit personal and relational. And He ministers this miraculous guidance, folks, personally by relationship. Let me suggest to you why It may be possible that there are some here this morning who are not benefiting from this guidance of the Holy Spirit. Very frankly, he only indwells and guides those who are believers in and followers of Jesus Christ. That's very clear from this passage. Do you believe that that Jesus is God who became man and he did so that he might die, that he might and in dying on that cross, that he might absorb all of the judgment, all of the the wrath of God for your sin. And do you believe that that sin can be forgiven? And how can you know that? Because he proved that he is God by being raised from the dead. He's alive today. Friend, if you've repented of your sin and you are believing in and following Jesus, I'm not talking about perfection. I'm just talking about that miracle of the heart that takes place when you're born again. Then praise God, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the benefit of the Spirit guiding you into truth is yours. You know, it's possible that there are some here this morning who have not a clear sense of the Spirit's guiding because they're not actively following Jesus. I mention this not to be indelicate, but I think I've shared with you folks before my background as a prodigal. I'm not proud of that, but it's just part of my testimony. I know all about what it is to be a walking contradiction. I know what it is to be a conflicted, emotionally conflicted person who believes in Jesus and yet that belief is not at that moment informing my living. It's just that for me that moment was more like 10 years. And it shouldn't have surprised me back in those 10 years that I wasn't really enjoying the leading of the Holy Spirit. One thing I did notice though, I noticed that once God has you, He doesn't let go of you. And I noticed that no matter what I did to numb myself to the Spirit telling me in my conscience that I wasn't right with God, I couldn't get away from that. What a tremendous blessing that is that the Spirit guides us into truth. But you know, folks, when the faith isn't informing our living, then the depth of this blessing of the Spirit guiding us into truth isn't realized by us. We're not listening to His voice. We're not depending upon Him. We're not relying upon God for our strength, for our wisdom, for our volition in a relational way, a daily way. It has the effect of crimping our experience of the Spirit's leading. I want to end just by encouraging us in this way. God has not left us in this world to wander around in the darkness, not knowing what is true, not knowing what our purpose is, not having the resources necessary to be His ambassadors, to be His messengers. In fact, He's done just the opposite of that. By His indwelling Spirit, God Himself lives within us and leads us. Do you believe this? And He leads us according to the Word. He leads us in a way that will glorify our Savior. And He leads us into deeper and deeper fellowship with our Creator. Let's pray. Father, thank You for the truth of Your Word. Lord, we thank You that These tender words spoken to your first disciples. Also are spoken to us. But we do thank you. And we praise you. That though physically. You have ascended. That Holy Spirit, you are here with us. And Lord, I pray. That you would lead me and lead my brothers and sisters. to walk in your ways. To be in your word that we might listen to your voice. To weigh our decision making and our priorities in terms of you. Not us. And Lord, to enjoy. The sweet fellowship. That is ours. Because you live within us. And Lord, we pray this in your name. Amen.