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John 16:12-15 THE HOLY SPIRIT THE GUIDE IN SPIRITUAL TRUTH

Introduction:
	
	In a recent text Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would
come as Comforter.  In our text last Sunday He said that the
Holy Spirit would come as Convictor.  In our text today,
Jesus says that the Holy Spirit would come as Guide.
	Without the Holy Spirit the young church would be unable
to carry out its mission program.  Without the Holy Spirit
as Comforter, the church would crumble under the heavy
burden of persecution.  Without the Holy Spirit as
Convictor, the disciples would be unable to win souls and
thus, unable to establish other churches.  Without the Holy
Spirit as spiritual the church would soon go astray morally
and doctrinally.  Whatever churches would be established by
her would be heretical churches.
	We can thank God for the sending of the Holy Spirit upon
the young church at Jerusalem.  Because of His work there
are true New Testament churches today.  Because of the Holy
Spirit.  We have a good doctrinally sound church to attend
here at Pleasant Hill today.  God knows there are all too
many churches today which have strayed from doctrinal truth,
but thank God there are still New Testament churches
carrying on the work of God in this world today.

I.  Many things which yet had to say to His disciples

	Let us now examine the text before us.  V. 12, "I have
yet many things to say unto you..."  Jesus had already
taught His disciples many things.  He had taught them all
the basic truths of God.  Yet there were many details which
He had not given.  It was as if He had given somewhat of an
outline containing all of the great spiritual truths of God,
but there were many of the details which He had not yet
given to them.
	For instance, He had not yet revealed to them the
details of how the Jewish law system of worship would be
replaced by the New Testament system of worship.  He had
given them the basic facts, but not the details.
	Likewise, He had not yet given them details about end
time events.  He had spoken about the end-time, but not in
detail.  He had spoken about the Great Tribulation, but not
in great detail.  He had spoken to them about resurrection,
but not in detail.  There were many details about the Great
Tribulation which He had not yet given.  He had spoken about
a resurrecting from the dead, but there were many details
about the rapture of the saints which He had not yet given.
He had acknowledged to them that He is the Christ, the King
which the Old Testament prophets had promised, but He had
not yet given them the details about the millennium when He
would sit upon David's throne.  He had made references to
the end of the world, but He had given no details about the
melting of the elements at the end of the world.  He had
spoken to them about a resurrection of the just and a
judgment of the unjust, but He had not given the details
revealing that there was one-thousand years between those
two judgments.  He had spoken to them about the heaven ages,
but He had not revealed to them that God would move His
throne to a new earth in the Holy City New Jerusalem and
that it would be on the new earth that God would dwell with
the redeemed forever.

II.  The reason Jesus had not already taught these things to
	His disciples

	(V. 12), "..."but ye cannot bear them now."  It was not
that Jesus thought that His disciples were not intelligent
enough to understand the details.  Rather it was that they
were not emotionally nor spiritually mature enough to accept
these things.  For one thing, His disciples were still very
much tied to the Jewish law system of worship and were not
yet ready to break from it.  They had been taught the Jewish
law all of their lives and it would take time for them to
get it firmly imbedded in their thinking that nobody can
ever get to heaven by keeping the Jewish law.  They would
have a hard time understanding that a Gentile did not have
to become a proselyte Jew in order to go to heaven.  There
were many things that the disciples were not yet ready to
receive.

III.  The means by which the disciples would be taught those
	things

	V. 13, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he will guide you  into all truth..."  The time would come
when it His disciples would be ready for the details and
when they were ready the Holy Spirit would reveal all the
details they would need.  He would reveal the details about
everything they would need to know.  Jesus said that the
Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth.  That is, He
would guide them into all spiritual truths.  He would not
necessarily provide them with all knowledge about other
things such as scientific or geological matters.
	For instance, He would guide Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John to write the four gospel accounts of His life and
ministry of Jesus.  Back in John 14:26 Jesus said, "...he
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."  It was the
Holy Spirit who would inspire these men to write these books
of the New Testament.
	The Holy Spirit would also guide Luke in writing "The
Acts of The Apostles."  The Holy Spirit would guide the
Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, to write thirteen
books of the New Testament to guide the churches in carrying
out the work of the Lord in a way that would please the
Lord.  If Paul wrote the Book of Hebrews, then he wrote
fourteen books of the New Testament.  But regardless, he
wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  It would be the
Holy Spirit who would guide Peter, James and Jude to write.
The Apostle John in addition to writing the Gospel of John,
would also write the First, Second and Third Epistles of
John plus the Book of Revelation.  HE would write by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  These books all contained
things which the disciples were not ready for during the
personal ministry of Jesus.  But at the proper time, the
Holy Spirit would guide men to write these important books
of the Bible.
	His work would be so complete that after the New
Testament would be completed, the Bible would thoroughly
furnish Christians with all the doctrines they need, all of
the outline of the past, present and future that Christians
need and all of the details that they need.  II Timothy
3:16-17 says that in the writings of the Scriptures the
people of God are thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

IV.  The authority by which the Holy Spirit would speak
	these truths to the disciples

	(V. 13), "...for he shall not speak of himself; but
whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will
show you things to come."  When Jesus said that the Holy
Spirit would not speak "of Himself."  He did not mean that
the Holy Spirit would speak "about Himself."  He did, in
fact, speak about Himself.  He inspired these very verses
that we have read today and these verses speak about the
Holy Spirit.  He inspired many others in the Bible that
speak about Him.  What Jesus meant was that the Holy Spirit
would not try to set Himself up separate and apart from God
the Father and God the Son and speak solely by His own
authority.  But rather He would speak the things that He had
heard from God the Father and God the Son and He would speak
those things by their authority.  Just as during His entire
life Jesus spoke only those things which God the Father had
given to Him to speak, even so God the Holy Spirit would
speak only that which God the Father and God the Son would
instruct Him to speak.  He would speak authoritatively about
the past, the present and the future.  Jesus said that the
Spirit would show them things to come.

V.  The Holy Spirit's desire to glorify Jesus

	V. 14, "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of
mine, and shall show it unto you."  In this verse, Jesus
states that the Holy Spirit would glorify Him.  He would
glorify Jesus.  Just as it was the sole objective of God the
Son to glorify the Father, even so it would be the sole
objective of God the Holy Spirit to glorify the Son.  Yet
the Father is glorified by the Son being glorified.
Therefore, the more the Holy Spirit glories the Son the more
He will glorify the Father.
	It should be noted that the Holy Spirit makes no effort
to glorify Himself.  His efforts are devoted to glorifying
God the Son.  Those people who spend most of their efforts
in glorifying the Holy Spirit have little understanding
about the work of the Holy Spirit.  He does not try to get
people to glorify Him.  He tries to get people to glorify
God the Father and God the Son.  When God the Father is
glorified and when God the Son is glorified, that is what
pleases the Holy Spirit.

VI.  The two different ways by which the Holy Spirit would
	show the truths of God to God's people

	V. 15, "All things that the Father hath are mine:
therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show
it unto you."  Jesus speaks here not merely as the Son of
God, the Second Person of the Trinity.  He speaks as
God-man.  He speaks as a man who is also God.  God the
Father has given all things to this man -- to this God-man,
Jesus.  The Holy Spirit would take the truths, the
teachings, the revelations, the doctrines and the plans for
the future which had been committed to the God-man, Jesus
and reveal these things to the people of God.
	The Holy Spirit would do this in two different ways.
First He would show these truths to the people of God both
by revelation.
	I have already pointed out to you in this message that
the Holy Spirit would inspire the writing of the various
books of the New Testament even as He had inspired the
writings of the Old Testament.  This is what we call
"Revelation."  Through the writing of the Holy Scriptures
the Holy Spirit provided by direct revelation a book which
we call "The Bible."  This book is given by revelation from
the Holy Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit revealed to the
writer what He should write and inspired the writer to write
exactly what He revealed to them.
	I have also called to your attention the statement made
in II Timothy 3:16-17 that this book thoroughly furnishes
the people of God with all the revelation that God's people
need.  It is all they need and all that the Holy Spirit ever
intended to give.  Since this book provides the people of
God with the only revelation which they would ever need,
then the Holy Spirit would never inspire any other man to
write any other book.  Every once in a while somebody comes
along with some other writing and claims that this updates
the writing of the Bible, but the Bible itself teaches that
the Holy Spirit would never produce an update.  Therefore we
can know to disregard all additional writings as uninsured
writings.  At least they were not inspired by the Holy
Spirit of God.  For example the Book of the Mormons, written
by Joseph Smith,  and the Koran, supposedly written by
Mohammed, were not inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
Likewise we can know that the edicts of the popes and
writings which came from church councils have no legitimate
claim to up-date the writings of the Holy Bible.
	What I am saying to you is that once the Bible was
completed is that the Holy Spirit no longer gives a direct
revelation to man.  God does not inspire men to write
anything which would replace or up-date the Bible.  The
Bible is God's written revelation to man.  Nothing else is
needed and nothing else will be given.
	Neither does God speak directly to man today as He did
to the Old Testament prophets.  We have the written
revelation from God and that is the only revelation we need.
	But the Holy Spirit does continue today to show the will
of God to man by means of illumination.  That is, the Holy
Spirit throws light on the written word of God to help man
to get the proper understanding of the written word of God.
As the people of God hear or read and study the word of God,
the Holy Spirit of God enlightens their understanding and
helps them to rightly understand what it means and how it
applies to our lives.
	This is why we are instructed in II Timothy 2:15 to
study and rightly divide the word of God.  The Holy Spirit
helps us to rightly divide or rightly interpret the word of
God.  He helps us to understand Bible truth as it is taught
in the Bible.
	The Holy Spirit never gives anybody a wrong
interpretation of the word of God.  If anybody wrongly
interprets Scripture he did not get that interpretation from
the Holy Spirit of God.  There are plenty of other spirits
which are not from God which deliberately seek to get men to
wrongly interpret Scripture.  If a born again believer will
only allow the Holy Spirit to guide him in his study and
interpretation of the Scripture, he will not go wrong.
	Let me also point this out to you, when one man
interprets a Scripture to mean one thing and someone else
interprets it to mean something else, somebody is wrong.
Maybe both are wrong.   The Holy Spirit interprets the
Scripture only one way.  He interprets it the right way.  It
is man who is inclined to interpret it the wrong way.
	When it comes to the interpreting the Scripture we
should all acknowledge that there is much about the
Scriptures which we do not yet understand.  But there are
some things about the Bible that we can and should be
dogmatic about.
	One of those things that we can be certain about is that
all men are sinners by a sinful nature inherited from Adam.
Another thing is that the only way for a lost sinner to ever
be saved is by repenting of his sin and trusting in Jesus
Christ as his Savior.
	Still another thing that we can be certain about is that
after a man has been saved by the grace of God he owes God a
debt of gratitude that should cause him to want to live for
Jesus and give Jesus his very best.

Conclusion:
	
	There may be somebody here this morning who wants to be
saved.  I rejoice in being able to tell you with absolute
certainty that if you will call upon Jesus Christ and trust
Him to save your soul that Jesus will save you.  If you
trust Him as Savior this morning He will save you this
morning.
	There may be some saved person here this morning who
wants to give your life more fully to serve the Lord.  I
rejoice in being able to tell you that if you will give your
life to Jesus to let Him have His way with your life, you
will never have reason to regret it.  The Lord will fill
your heart with joy because you surrender your will to His
will.
	Who will come this morning and let the Lord have His
way?