The following sermon is by Boyd Johnson, pastor of Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. More information about Treasuring Christ Church can be found at tccathens.org. What God calls people to do, He also supplies. That's one of the lessons that I've learned most in the last few years, that what God calls you to do He also supplies. God gives His children the resources we need to be obedient to what He expects from us. And some of the sweetest promises in the Bible remind us of this. Verses that you're well acquainted with. For instance, in Philippians 4.19, Paul wrote to an impoverished church who lacked resources, who had great needs, the church of Philippi, and he said, and my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. If you don't have it, you don't need it to do what God has called you to do, to walk in the path of obedience. What God calls us to do, He supplies. In 2 Corinthians 9.8, He wrote to the worldly church, God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." You have enough. And not just enough, but you have an abundance. of spiritual resources to do what God has called you to do. What God calls his people to do, he also supplies. In Psalm 23.1, David writes, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. That is. I shall not be in need. Why? Because the Lord is my shepherd. He takes care of his own. He takes care of his people. He supplies what they need to do what the shepherd has called them to do. What God calls his people to do, he also supplies. Now in John 16, we find yet another promise from our Savior that we will have the resources we need to be obedient to what He expects of us. Another promise that we'll have what we need to be obedient to what He expects of us. So let's look in John 16, beginning in verse 12 through verse 15 for our passage this morning. Jesus says this to His 11 disciples huddled up in the upper room the night before He passed away. He says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak of His own authority. Whatever He speaks, Here's He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine. Therefore, I said, that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you." In John 16, Jesus' time with His disciples was nearing its close. In just a few moments, He would wrap up His teaching with them, and then He would pray over them, and then they would head out to the Garden of Gethsemane where He would be arrested, tried, convicted in a mockery, and then put to death. So his time with his disciples was drawing to a close. And in some ways, his disciples really weren't ready for what was to come. And Jesus knew it. He predicted that when the hour of trial would come, that they would abandon him and they would scatter. And that's exactly what happened. Jesus knew that in some ways the disciples weren't ready for what was to come. And the signs that they weren't ready were apparent that this would happen. They were already overwhelmed with sorrow, even though Jesus was still with them. And they had had a hard time understanding his teachings, even though he was clear, Jesus is the master teacher. Yet they still misunderstood Him. They needed more teaching. They needed more discipleship. But they weren't ready for it. He said to the eleven disciples in verse 12, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. He'd been with these disciples for the better part of three years. Teaching them day after day. Discipling them. And he still had more. More to teach them. Many things he says yet to tell them. But for now, he would end his teaching. And the reason why Jesus would end his teaching wasn't that he was time-constrained. To be sure, Judas was already on his way with the authorities and with the soldiers in their hunt, their manhunt for Jesus. They were on their way. But that's not why Jesus held off on teaching His disciples more. It wasn't that He felt pressed for time and had to cut short what He otherwise would have told them. He tells us why He cut short His teaching. He refused to tell them more because they could not bear it. The word bear has the idea of holding on or carrying something. It's the word used in chapter 10 verse 31 where the Jews picked up or bore stones in which to throw at Jesus. It's the same word used in chapter 19 verse 17 where Jesus had to bear his own cross. on the way to His own crucifixion. Here, in chapter 16, it literally means that they were without power to carry any more. They were without power to carry any more in their hearts and minds, anything more that Jesus could tell them. They were emotionally spent. They were spiraling into depression. Several times that night, Jesus acknowledged that their deep sorrow over his plans to go away and over the persecution that they learned would come upon them was a problem. It was an issue. Not only were they emotionally not ready for more, but they also weren't spiritually ready for more. At various times that same night, the disciples interjected Jesus' teaching with either a question or to make a comment. And each time they interject, between verses 13-16. Each time they interject, they prove that they weren't fully taking in all that Jesus told them. They proved that they weren't understanding. They proved their own immaturity. For example, in 13-36, Peter was perplexed about where Jesus was going despite Jesus having already told them. He had predicted his death long before. He had been predicting his death and his eventual going to the Father. But here Peter was still perplexed. In the very next verse, verse 37, Peter didn't understand why he couldn't follow Jesus to where He was going, but he was sure that He was ready to die for him, which was proved false mere hours later. In chapter 14, verse 8, Philip told Jesus that they would all be content if He merely showed them the Father. That's all they needed. They just need a revelation from heaven. A revelation of the Father not realizing that seeing Jesus was to see the fullest revelation of God, because He's God in the flesh. In chapter 14, verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, the other Judas, two disciples named Judas, wondered how Jesus would show Himself only to them and not to the world. That didn't fit their conception of what Christ would do. And then in chapter 16, verse 5 and 6, Jesus pointed out that their hearts had become so consumed with the coming persecution that they no longer had perspective and didn't show concern about where Jesus was going, which should have been an encouragement to them. So point after point after point on that same night in the upper room, as Jesus taught them, they proved that they weren't spiritually ready for what was to come. These interjections by the disciples show that they had difficulty understanding what Jesus taught them. They weren't spiritually mature enough to handle more. And so Jesus refrained from teaching more. They couldn't bear it. They had no power to bear it at this point. And Jesus' approach with these disciples is a good reminder for us. Discipleship is progressive. Discipleship is progressive and therefore patience is required. Growing in Christ is accomplished in steps, not in leaps. Progressing spiritual maturity is usually measured in inches, not miles. And wisdom dictates that we ought not press the spiritually immature with doctrines beyond their ability to bear. Those who can handle only milk won't be able to digest meat. I've made this error in the last few years. Advancing men and doctrines that they can't handle. And you have to be careful about that. Those who can only drink milk can't digest meat. Wisdom dictates that we not press the spiritually immature beyond their ability to bear. And here we have an instance of it. So for now, he would wait to tell them more. Nevertheless, what he had already told them was enough. What He taught them was sufficient. They needed only to walk in the light that they had, to trust and obey what they already knew. At whatever point we judge ourselves in our spiritual maturity, this at base is always what must be done. Obey what you know. Trust what you know. Obey God and what you already know. Trust in what you already understand. Be doers of the Word that you've already heard, not hearers only. That's not an argument for lack of continued study. But it's to say that at base, what's always important is to obey what you already know. Later on in the Scriptures at times, Paul and Peter say words to the effect that I write this to remind you. See, not everything has to be new. We just need to be reminded of the same truths, because what's important is that we obey what we know, trust the God that we know and how we know him. Even as we continue to study. But there was coming a time when He would reveal more to them. He wasn't done speaking to them. But He would do it through another, another helper. He promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth who would teach them further. And when the Spirit came, then they would be equipped to carry more in their hearts and minds. When the Spirit came, then they could bear the truths. that Jesus had yet to tell them. The Spirit would enable them to understand and receive the truths that they could not. He would do this in three ways. We see in this passage the three-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit to believers so that we're equipped to obey God. threefold ministry of the Holy Spirit to believers so that we're equipped to obey God. First, the Spirit guides. The Spirit would be a guide to the disciples. He says in verse 13, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. 4. He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak." In the coming 40 days or so from the vantage point of the disciples, they would witness Jesus' death, His burial, His resurrection, and then His ascension. Just imagine that. In 40 days or so, the most consequential events in all of human history would occur in a relatively short period of time. And they wouldn't be passive observers of it all. They would be active participants, right in the middle of it, ones who would be most deeply affected by all that took place. With that much of God's redemptive history occurring in such a short period of time, with disciples who are emotionally spent and spiritually immature, They would need some help making sense of the meaning of it all and all the implications. Why did Jesus have to die? Why did He rise from the dead? How did He rise from the dead? What was His purpose in returning to the Father? What should man's response to all this be? How would Christians relate to the law? What do we do about the sacrifices now? What was the church supposed to be and do? How should believers relate to one another in the world? Issue after issue. They would need help understanding. The world would be, in the next 40 days, would be turned upside down and then turned back right again. How would they understand it all? Jesus says that the Spirit would come to help them. to guide them in all these things. The Spirit would give them insight. He would guide them into all the truth when He came to indwell them so that they would understand what happened and what was next and all the implications of it. And in a similar way, the Spirit guides all believers. When the Spirit came upon the disciples, in Acts 2. We see a remarkable difference in their understanding. It's immediate. The first thing that Peter does in those early days, once the Spirit came upon him, was preach one of the most doctrinally rich sermons anybody has ever given. And you can read it in Acts 2. immediately understands the significance of Jesus's death and resurrection and ascension. And declares it to the Jews. He immediately understands what man's response is. Now granted, after the resurrection, Jesus reasoned from the scriptures and taught the disciples more. He only appeared to believers, but nevertheless, he taught them more. But even in Acts 1, they're still asking questions. Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? Lord, is it now? Are you ushering the kingdom in now? And Jesus responds, it's not for you to know. And then He ascends. And He leaves them only with this, but you will all receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That's Acts 1. That's what He says. That's the last thing He says. Then He ascends. So here's the promise. The question you're asking, is not for you to know. But the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, Acts chapter 2, not long after, then you'll be my witnesses. Well, what does a witness do? A witness testifies to what they've seen and heard and know. That's what a witness does. And that's what the disciples would do. And immediately when the Spirit comes upon them, they are informed witnesses. Immediately when the Spirit comes upon them, they are able to guide others into the truth. They understand these questions that I just listed earlier. Again, in a similar way, the Spirit guides all believers. We read in Romans 8.14, All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So that's an equation. If A is true, B is true. All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. To be led by the Spirit of God is the mark of those who are God's children and true believers. So if you're a true believer, if you are a child of God because you put your faith in Christ alone, then the Spirit leads you. All believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and He guides us in the truth. The ministry of the Spirit to guide us in the truth is called illumination. And it's basically the way it sounds. If you're going to illuminate a room, you turn on the lights. And the Spirit turns on the lights for us and illuminates God's words so that we have insight into His ways. Paul writes of this illuminating work of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 2. He says in verses 11 and 12, 1 Corinthians 2, 11 and 12, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Well, that's bad news. Unless we have the Spirit of God. Because we need to know His ways. We need to know what's next. We need to know what our response is. We need to know how to please our Lord. We need to know how to worship Him and respond to Him. No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. And then here comes good news. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the, capital S, Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. There it is. Why did the Spirit come? According to this verse, in order to give us illumination, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. If we're to understand the thoughts of God, we need help. They're too lofty for us, too high, too complex. Our own flesh rages against them. But the Spirit knows all things, and He has come to indwell us to make God's ways plain to us, so that we might understand the things freely given us by God." That's illumination. And illumination only happens to people who have the Spirit of God living inside them. That's why I read no liberal commentaries when I'm studying for a sermon. I don't care what the dead liberal Germans said. Why would I care? They weren't even saved. They didn't trust in Christ. So it doesn't matter what their insights are into this passage. They have no illumination. They have nothing to say. Oh, they can give me definitions of Greek words and things like that. But why would I listen to them? Why would you listen to an unbeliever's commentary on the Scriptures? They have no illumination. They don't get it. They can tell you facts, but they can't tell you the soul. The spirit dwells within us so that when we pick up scripture, we may be able to understand what's written. Comprehend it, comprehend it, not just in an intellectual sense, but in a way that can be lived out. And of course, the Spirit's illumination doesn't rule out study and hard thinking and conferring with others. We ought not to be arrogant enough to go to the Scripture and think that just in our own power of intellect that we'll just get it upon reading. Peter said Paul writes things hard to understand. I mean, anybody excited about that Peter said that? Thank you, Peter, because we think the same thing. And so it's good to read commentaries and study Bibles and things like that. I think of them as conversation partners. And I read a commentary, I read it as if I'm having a conversation with somebody who's probably studied the book I'm studying in greater depth. Not that I agree with everything they say, but it's a conversation. What do you think about this verse? How does this fit? Why did he use this word and not that word? What's going on here? What's the context? And so on. And you have a conversation. You have a conversation like that and you rely on other good teachers because you're humble. Because you know you don't know it all. Is the Spirit's illumination sufficient? Yes. But my flesh gets in the way. And my experiences get in the way. And what I think I know, which I really don't know, gets in the way. And so I need others to help me. But without the Spirit, those things will be in vain. Study, hard thinking, conferring with others, all that will be in vain and will never arrive at the depth of truth. It's good, the understanding that the things of God is not dependent upon intelligence or academic credentials or access to libraries but it's completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit's role of giving illumination, turning on the lights, giving us understanding, making sense of it all. Now, Jesus promised that the Spirit would guide into all the truth. You see that? All the truth. The promise isn't that the Spirit will lead us into nuanced exegetical insights and doctrinal subtleties. but that all the truth that we need to obey and trust Him will be given to us. The Spirit guides us into the complete truth that we need to obey Him. That's what He means. All of God's people want this because all who are truly God's people want to obey Him. Listen how David prayed to the Lord in Psalm 25.4. Here's a case for making your prayers based on scripture. You pray back scripture, particularly the Psalms, you'll become a better prayer. Your prayers will be deeper, more heartfelt. Your prayers will be wider. You'll pray about more things. You won't ever run out of things to say. You pray back to Scriptures. You take the Psalms and do just exactly what I do every week with the pastoral prayer. All I try to do is take whatever the Scripture reading was and just pray it back. And if you do that in your own devotional times, start with the Psalms. Start with Psalm 1 and just pray the Scriptures back. Read a verse, pray over it. It will bring up topics and things and needs in your own heart and just pray back. You'd be surprised at how long you can pray. Listen how David prayed to the Lord in Psalm 25, verse four. This is how we should pray. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation. For you, I wait all the day long. Or again, in Psalm 143, verse 10, David pleaded with God, teach me to do your will. For you are my God, let your good spirit lead me on level ground. That's how he pled with the Lord. We have the spirit of God living inside us to lead us in God's ways of obedience. So we should include that in our prayers, asking God, help me to know your ways. When I pick up the Word to study it, the first prayer I pray is always a prayer for understanding. We have the Spirit of God living inside us. We are to obey Him as He leads us in God's ways. The Lord beckoned Israel in Jeremiah 6.16. Thus says the Lord, Stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it and find rest for your souls. We're to find the ancient, well-worn path of obedience. That's the good way. That's the way that we should be seeking. Because it's on that way, the well-worn path of obedience, it's on that path that we find rest for our souls. We never need fear that the Spirit will mislead us. He is the Spirit of truth. That's what Jesus calls Him here and two other times in this discourse in the upper room. He's the Spirit of truth. He'll never guide us in error, but always in the way that is true and right and good. Jesus says that the Spirit won't speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He'll speak. That's simply a way of saying that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in complete harmony with one another. Such is the communion and communication between them. They are always in sync. The Spirit will never lead you in a way that contradicts the Father, never lead you in a way that contradicts the Son. They're always in harmony between them. The second way the Spirit ministers to believers is that He reveals. Continuing on in verse 13, Jesus says, He will declare to you the things that are to come. Declare is the word for announcement. The Spirit will come and He will announce the things that are to come. And at first glance, you might think that the things that are to come are prophecies, the truths about the future, that this is a promise that the Spirit will come and He'll give prophecies about the future, and indeed He did. The book of Revelation, for example, but also all throughout the, for example, Acts. You'll see various prophecies of the Spirit predicting the future. But that's not primarily what Jesus is referring to. Here, Jesus is referring to all future revelation that the Spirit would yet give. Those are the things that are to come. All future revelation that the Spirit would yet give. What Jesus held back from teaching His disciples that night, the Spirit would come and declare to them. They'd be given further revelation as apostles of Christ. Now remember back in chapter 14 verse 26. Jesus also said that the Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance all that Jesus had already told them. So when the Spirit came upon them, he would do two things. He would bring to remembrance all that Jesus had told them, and he would also give them new fresh revelation of things that Jesus hadn't yet told them. Things that they couldn't yet bear. All this would become the apostolic teaching of the church, the faith once delivered, and under the inspiration of the Spirit, the New Testament Scriptures would be written. Jesus here is anticipating the writing of the New Testament. A third way the Spirit ministers to believers is that He glorifies Christ. In verse 14, Jesus says, He will glorify Me. The Spirit's role when He came was to glorify Jesus. To glorify is to exalt, to bring Him honor, to lift Him up. This was the mission of the Holy Spirit, why He came. We saw earlier in chapter 15 that the Holy Spirit is a witness to Christ, and here we find that He's not only a witness to Christ, but He's a witness to Christ in order to magnify Christ. His role is not to call attention to himself, but to call attention to Christ. We as Christians. We're we're at our best. When we're like the spirit in this regard. Not calling attention to ourselves, but making much of Jesus. That's what the Spirit came to do. Make much of Jesus. And we're at our best when we do the same. Those who are filled with the Spirit, that is led by the Spirit, are led to talk of Christ. They're led to praise Christ. They are led to pray to Christ. They're led to sing to Christ. They're led to be dependent upon Christ. If the Spirit glorifies Jesus, and that's why He came, then we as people indwelt with the Spirit must do the same. And we will do the same if we're filled with the Spirit. That is, we're yielded to the Spirit, influenced by the Spirit through His Word. And how could it be otherwise? The Spirit always leads us to honor Jesus. He doesn't cause men to praise themselves. He doesn't lead us to boast about ourselves. He leads us to glorify Jesus. And no man has ever made too much of Christ. No one has ever praised him too greatly. No one ever worshiped him too highly. But the Spirit always leads in the direction of making much of Christ. It's how you know the Spirit's at work and where He's moving. Where Christ is exalted, the Spirit is moving in that direction. Where man is exalted, the Spirit is not there. Religious teaching that doesn't exalt Christ as He really is, the Son of God, very God and very man, The Messiah is not from the Spirit. The issue in all false doctrines and all false religions is false notions about Christ. You can't get Him wrong and get the rest right. If you get Jesus wrong, the rest will be wrong. Now, one of the ways the Spirit glorifies Christ is that He wrote a book about Him, as we've already seen. Christ is the center of all the Bible. We say that this Scripture is Spirit-inspired. The unsuperintended man, such that when these words were written by man, they were also written by the Spirit. And so the Old Testament anticipates Christ. The Gospels are the good news about Christ. Acts is the proclamation of Christ. The epistles are the explanation of Christ. Revelation is the glorification of Christ. It's all about Christ. The Spirit penned all the scriptures in order to lift up Christ. That's what he does. He bears witness to Christ in order to magnify Christ. And so he wrote a book. Scripture is Christ-centered because the Spirit is Christ-centered. He aims to glorify Jesus. And because the Spirit's role is to glorify Jesus, that necessarily restricts His work. Because that's His aim, it restricts His work. In verses 14 and 15, Jesus says, He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine, therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. The Spirit will take what Jesus is and give it to the eleven disciples. What is He referring to? What is it that Jesus possesses that the Spirit will give away? One clue is that the word what is singular in Greek. That's a little weird in English. We don't think about the word what being either singular or plural. But here in Greek, it's singular. The Spirit will take the thing which is Jesus' and pass it along to disciples. He says he possesses all that the Father has, but what's the thing that he has that he'll pass along? Well, it's the same thing Jesus has been passing along to the disciples all along. Jesus wants to pass along the truth about himself. That's why he had these 12 disciples and poured his life into them, to teach them the truth about himself. He's been declaring to the disciples the truth all along. He said in chapter 7, verse 16, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. Expressing agreement with the father, he said in chapter 12, verse 49, I have not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak. And so as the disciple's teacher, Jesus passed along the truth about himself that agreed with the Father. And now the Spirit will do the same. In the physical absence of Jesus, the Spirit would come and be the disciple's teacher. And he would carry on teaching the disciples in agreement with the Father and the Son the truths about Jesus. The Spirit's teaching then would center on Christ. There would be a New Testament that centered on Christ, but there would be no Third Testament, and no other revelation that centers on anyone else. That's why we know, one reason why we know, that the Book of Mormon, or the Koran, or supposed revelations given to Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, and so on, are all false revelations. And none were given by the Spirit, because none center on Christ. The Spirit would come to glorify no other. So there would be just one more testament, the New Testament, and none other. We've seen in this passage that what God calls His people to do, He also supplies. What He calls us to do, He also supplies. He has supplied us abundantly in the Spirit. In order to help us to be obedient to Him, He's given us the Spirit to guide us through illumination. He's given the Spirit to teach us according to revelation in Scripture. And He's given us the Spirit to glorify Christ who alone is worthy of our worship and to whom we owe all our worship. And in this way, you have all you need to walk in obedience to what God has called you to do and to trust Him in every trial that God is currently or will in the future bring you through. We have the greatest gift living inside us to do what we're supposed to do. God dwelling in us. And we should be thankful. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful that Your Spirit has come to dwell in us, all who have trusted in Christ. Your Spirit is a precious gift to us. It's an evidence of love that You haven't abandoned us. You haven't left us to our own resources. We would be lost. We would be without hope. We would be ill-equipped to fight against our own sin and against the world. worldly influence without Your Spirit coming to regenerate us and to make us more like Your Son through sanctification. So thank You, Spirit, for coming. And may we not quench the Spirit or grieve the Spirit by walking in a manner that wouldn't be pleasing to you. Help us to resolve to grow in obedience and trust in you by the Spirit's help. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not alter the content in any way without permission. Treasuring Christ Church exists to spread a passion for the fame of Christ's name in Athens and around the world. We invite you to visit Treasuring Christ Church online at tccathens.org. There you'll find other resources available to you and information about our upcoming gatherings.