Guiding Us into All Truth

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He stayed with His family as any baby or young child would.

From birth until His baptism by John when He was about 30.

Now we did catch a few glimpses. For instance, in the temple when He was 12 years old and He was found with the elders of Israel teaching them about His Father's truth.

But after that event, He drifted back into obscurity and continued in the trade that He was taught.

But we refer to Him as the carpenter and I think that's correct. I think He did work with wood. But I think also, I'm told that word is also good for a stonemason.

He may have done both. When the Lord finally began His public ministry, He filled that ministry with three years of intense instruction for those whom He had called to service by His side.

I even told Him one time, you didn't choose me, I chose you. And they were by His side for three years.

John would later record in his gospel that the world could not contain the books that recorded everything Jesus did and said.

And I think that is, of course, an expression. I don't know that we take that literally. The world's a pretty big place. A lot of valleys and ocean floors and everything.

But I did think about it one time. I wonder how many volumes you'd write on just creating out of nothing one atom. Just the mathematics or the physics of that.

Thousands of volumes. Well, go to the next atom. In the next atom, maybe the world wouldn't contain. Maybe they wouldn't contain all the books. But we've been studying now for a few months.

A time of the end. The end of the Lord's time on earth in His first advent. And He tells His followers, even though He's told them He's going to Jerusalem to be crucified, but He tells them, I've got a lot more to say to you.

Now this is from the Creator of the universe. John chapter 16 verse 12. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

Interesting language. You can't handle it right now. You can't bear to hear everything that I'm going to reveal to you right now. So we see the Lord has more to say, but then He adds to that this sort of curious phrase that they cannot bear right then all that He wants to tell them.

And I think part of the reason, and there may be several reasons, but part of it, them not being able to bear more information at that particular moment was due to their intense sorrow at the Lord's approaching departure.

Now, it's ironic though, and we discussed this a little bit last time, ultimately they were more concerned about their loss than they were about the loss of the Lord's life on the cross.

They were worried about their loss. And at this juncture, the disciples could not fully grasp or understand the significance or the depth of the atoning death of Christ, the resurrection, and the ultimate ascension before these things happened.

In fact, their importance would have to be revealed to them by the indwelling Holy Spirit who is yet to come, and He's going to show up in the book of Acts, but it would have to be revealed to them by the indwelling Holy Spirit who is coming to fill them and illuminate them.

Now, the disciples were selected for service by the Lord, obviously from among the sons of Israel. And as Jews, they had the Jewish concept of the Messiah.

He was viewed as a political and military ruler who would come, deliver the nation from whomever or whatever oppression they were presently experiencing.

In this period of time, the oppressors were the Romans. In times past, it was the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians.

Someone was always oppressing Israel. It's interesting, when Jesus spoke to them and they said, well, we've never been slaves to anybody. We've never been under the thumb of anybody.

They're always under the thumb of somebody. This Messianic view that the Messiah would drive out the Romans and only then be able to usher in a time of peace and prosperity was the view held by the leaders of Israel.

Their culture, and by the way, ours is no different, was very materialistic. The idea that the Messiah would come and die for the sins of both Jews and Gentiles was absolutely foreign to their thinking.

Couldn't wrap their hands around that. I think we can safely say that Judas Iscariot, unable to cope with such an idea, concluded that Jesus could not be the Messiah.

If He's not going to kick out the Romans and sit on a throne and have twelve thrones and I'll sit on the one right next to Him, that was Judas was thinking, then He can't be the Messiah and Judas not only abandoned Him but betrayed Him and turned Him over to the Romans thinking Him to be a false Messiah.

Hollywood's never been able to do very good with that. Maybe Mel Gibson. Maybe Mel Gibson. One of my favorite films is Jesus of Nazareth by Franco Zeffirelli, but they totally blew that.

That part of it. It was like Judas was shocked that they arrested Him. He thought they were going to put Him in charge. Well, that's not scriptural. As another example of this disconnect, we have the Mount of Transfiguration.

Here, you have the three leaders who have risen to the top of this band of disciples and they ascend the mountain and while they're there, they are met by Old Testament prophets ministering to the Lord Jesus.

And of course, old foot-in-mouth Peter, you know, he speaks up and he always had something to say and he wanted to build three altars or booths and said, then we can be better prepared to worship all three of you.

In essence, that's what he said. Well, you know, from the safety of 2,000 years of looking backward on that, Peter, I guess, figured it out already.

I don't have to tell him. But you can't worship those three. Because Christ is infinitely superior.

And you couldn't worship all three. He was infinitely superior to everybody in the universe. So on the way down, Jesus informed the three, don't discuss what they had seen until after I had been raised from the dead.

And this caused quite a conversation among them as they tried to figure out what does he mean being raised from the dead. Seems pretty plain to me, but I'm 2,000 years later.

The disciples, like anyone in the human family, were incapable of understanding what the implications were of Christ's death, his burial, and his resurrection.

Because he kept telling them, after three days, I'm going to rise again. Only the indwelling Spirit of God could reveal those truths to them.

And for him to come, Jesus has to go away. He's going to go away and send the Holy Spirit. Until the Spirit came, Jesus could not reveal the deep truths about his approaching death and his victory on the cross.

That it is a victory. And the Lord then gives them some words of comfort. He says, But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

Dan, I think that's a point when I was reviewing this day, I said, there's Dan's title. Guiding us into all truth. I think that's probably the title that I see there. Now the revelation we receive today is from God's Word made understandable by the Spirit.

The Spirit explains the Word to us. He guides God's children into all truth. The Spirit of God is the ultimate author of the Old and New Testament.

Since He is God, it is without error in the original autograph. He alone is qualified to reveal truth to man. I think it is a paradox today that many theologians believe in the inspiration of the Bible, but not in its inerrancy.

I think you must take one with the other. Now sometimes people get hung up, you know, on the original autograph and we don't have any of those. And you know, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the oldest manuscripts were like 900 A.D.

And that took us back to 200 B.C. The Old Testament. I think part of Isaiah. And with what they have, there was nothing different. I mean, there was what the commas out of place or anything.

It really took us back a thousand years or more. And when we speak in terms of God's inspired writings, we are of course speaking about the 66 books that make up the Holy Bible.

We're not talking about the extra-biblical writings that men try and jam into the Word of God. We're not saying that at all.

It is not the Apocrypha, and I guess maybe some of you are familiar with that, but it's not inspired. The Bible is complete, and it is the final revelation to man until we see Him as He is in glory, and nothing He will tell us in heaven will conflict with His Word here on earth.

And you can't add to it. You can't take away from it. Though many have tried. And it's important because there are a number of very flamboyant charismatic leaders claim that they have later revelation from God.

I was traveling home from Arkansas one time in my little old truck, and I heard this guy, and I kind of questioned because he said he was an apostle. I hadn't heard that.

And he said on the radio, if I say something that conflicts with the Bible, remember I have the latest revelation from God.

And I was so mad, I hit my radio and jammed my thumb, my finger rather, and it was sore, it swelled up, and I was trying to get my hands around His throat. Who's biblical? God has given us His Word to equip us for every good work that we're to do in this life.

We're to study it diligently because we do not receive revelation by osmosis. It doesn't just happen.

I always remember the famous line in that movie Gone with the Wind, Inherit the Wind, but the Scopes Monkey Trial, the old version, and they asked that guy, he said, are you a religious man?

And he said, I let my wife take care of that. I have my religion through her. Well, there's been a lot of guys like that over the decades. Bible study is to be diligent and it's hard work.

I wish I was better at it. I rely on Brother Don. This will be familiar.

1 John 2.27 As for you, the anointing which you receive from Him abides. We heard that word recently? Abides in you? A lucky time gifter.

And actually, MacArthur's doing that right now too. Six times actually. And you have no need for anyone to teach you, but His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.

And clearly, there's a biblical gift of teaching. Some would question whether I have that gift, but there is a biblical gift. It's not saying let's eliminate the need for sound Bible teachers.

That's a gift that God bestows upon His church. But with the indwelling Spirit, you walk around with the greatest teacher in the universe inside you. And He will lead you to understand what's truth and what's error.

In fact, any study of the Bible without the indwelling Spirit is fruitless. I don't know how religion professors in some of the sections, the universe of Chicago for instance, can get by day to day.

And additionally, we are never to tamper with the Word of God as a lot of cults have done. And we know that. The Jehovah Witnesses have their own mistranslation.

in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was a God. Little g. A God.

The Mormons have added immensely to the revealed Word of God. And I'm not suggesting any of you make a practice of that. But you know, the Old Testament said if a man comes to you and claims to be a prophet and what he says doesn't come true, it's not from the Lord and he's a false prophet, take him outside the city gates and stone him to death.

These guys today better be glad that standard isn't the same today as it was to stamp out that era in Israel. But the Mormons are legendary for that.

Joseph Smith wrote that men and women live on the sun and the moon are ten feet tall and dressed like Quakers. I don't think so. He also said that the Messiah would be born of the Virgin Mary in the city of Jerusalem.

Micah says he's going to be born in Bethlehem. I had a Mormon elder I brought that up one time and he said well, they're just suburbs. I said Jerusalem was the center of the universe on earth and Bethlehem was called a dunghill.

It was a little, you know, it would have been a suburb to Hogshooter. Hogshooter would have been the metropolitan part of it. We don't have to tamper with it.

Revelation chapter 22 verse 18 to 19. John, of course, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book.

Do we all understand what that means? We've got the Holy Spirit telling us. That's pretty plain. That's pretty plain. what is the goal of the Holy Spirit as he reveals truth to the children of God?

Back in John 16 verse 13 to 15. He will guide you into all truth. He's a guide. for 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, Jesus is speaking, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you all things that the Father has are mine and therefore I said that he takes of mine and will disclose it to you.

That's real interesting. We could mine that for a long time. A lot of gold nuggets in there. And by the way, that's what we're doing with the Holy Scripture.

We're picking gold nuggets. And I heard Paul Worsher say that when we get to heaven and a full revelation we'll be picking gold nuggets for eternity.

We'll end there. We'll have even more. When he was on earth, the Lord Jesus set aside his prerogities of God and was totally submissive to and obedient to the Father.

He was obedient to the Father. He did not act on his own initiative though he was quite capable of doing so. He's co-equal, co-eternal with God the Father, God the Spirit.

but instead he came to this earth to reveal the Father and to do the Father's will. And now we come to a passage that speaks of the unfathomable unity of the Trinity.

The Spirit said, I do not speak on my own initiative but I speak what I hear. Well, who is he listening to?

God the Father. God the Father. And if you're sitting there saying, I can't comprehend that fully, welcome to the family.

None of us can. But as the Trinity, the three persons are in full and precise harmony and unity with one another.

I mean, the Trinity never sat down in heaven and said, well, today we're going to talk about this or that and they got in kind of a gentleman's argument so they had to vote and it was two to three.

It was kind of like you guys doing whatever that thing. Paper and scissors or something. They never had to do that. They never had to do that. Maybe we shouldn't be doing it either. I don't know.

But as... Mike's idea. I know. I know. I didn't mean it either. We've now fixed blame. They're unified. They're harmonious.

When the Holy Spirit leads us into truth, He is doing so consistent with what the Father wants revealed to us.

The Spirit never violates the principles of the Bible. He wrote the Bible. It is God-breathed. Neither does the Spirit lead us to violate the Bible and if we are violating a command of the Bible, we are doing so apart from the will of God.

that we would be in sin. The Spirit came to the disciples and we'll do so on the day of Pentecost to disclose to them.

That's about 50 days from when we're talking. The Spirit came to the disciples to disclose to them what was to come. And that was really the entire sweep of history from Pentecost to the eternal state.

That's the writings of the New Testament ending with Revelation, the eternity of eternities. He's going to disclose it all.

God the Spirit revealed to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. And the Lord then reveals the ultimate reason for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Very important. He came to glorify Jesus. And you've got to really get a hold of that. He came to glorify Jesus.

Why is that important in our day? There are a lot of churches who focus on and seek to glorify the Spirit of God with no mention of Jesus.

I watched a program 30 years ago originating out of Virginia. And I got kind of, I don't make a diet of this, but I got a little fascinated because I soon realized they weren't talking about Jesus at all.

And I wrote it down. I had a little tablet there and it was like 78 references to the Holy Spirit and zero for Jesus. Let me tell you something, fellas.

That grieves the Holy Spirit. And it violates His Word. Some have referred to the Holy Spirit as the third member of the Trinity or even the silent member.

He's there to glorify Christ. Reveal Christ to do the will of the Father, to reveal the Father's will concerning His Son. The Spirit glorifies Jesus by disclosing truth about Him.

Jesus brought glory to the Father by disclosing truth about Him. The Spirit of God points to the Lord Jesus Christ.

and any movement, however sincere, that fails here is out of balance. We're being molded into the image of Christ.

The Spirit does this by revealing truth about Him. Where's that truth contained, guys? What would be heaven? The Word of God.

It is there we come face to face with Christ. I've often said this, and I wish I lived it better, but we can't do what the Lord would have us to do, and I'm the worst in the room, with 30 minutes in Sunday school, 45 minutes in church, another 40 minutes Sunday night, and 18 of us on Wednesday night hearing great messages.

That's not enough. Not enough time. It's the daily intake. We live this life confident that the Spirit of God will lead us into all truth concerning Jesus.

And that Jesus that I'm talking about will continue to reveal the Father to us from the pages of Scripture.

Thank you.