We spend one last day meditating on the phrase: ‘He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake’. The benefit of following the Lord’s path, of being guided by the Holy Spirit of God rather than our own self-determined ways, is that we shall be led from one good pasture to another without trouble, without failure and without frustrations. A good Shepherd always endeavors to keep his sheep on the move, thus avoiding over-use of the land and enabling them to continually enjoy wholesome, fresh forage. Philip Keller says, in commenting on this point: ‘… whenever the shepherd opens a gate into fresh pasture, the sheep are filled with excitement. As they go through the gate even the staid old ewes will often kick up their heels and leap with delight at the prospect of finding fresh feed. How they enjoy being led on a new ground.’ kicking up our heels means having a lively and enjoyable time, or doing things you enjoy. Do you experience a similar excitement as the Good Shepherd leads you day by day to wholesome, fresh food? Are you someone who wants to continually feed on just one doctrine or truth, and never go over to enjoy the other pathways and pastures which God has for you in His Word? Be assured of this –God wants us to move with Him day by day and discover fresh revelation as He opens up to us new insights and understanding of His precious Word. Every Christian can meet the day with as much joy as a sheep that is being led into fresh new pasture. Spiritually we can kick up our heels and leap with delight at the prospect of finding fresh new food. Expect God to show you some new insight day by day. Faith is expectancy –according to your expectancy be it unto you.

Now let us read John 16:1-15; I have told you all these things, so that you should not be offended (taken unawares and falter, or be caused to stumble and fall away). [I told you to keep you from being scandalized and repelled.] 2 They will put you out of (expel you from) the synagogues; but an hour is coming when whoever kills you will think and claim that he has offered service to God. 3 And they will do this because they have not known the Father or Me. 4 But I have told you these things now, so that when they occur you will remember that I told you of them. I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to Him Who sent Me, yet none of you asks Me, Where are You going? 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts [taken complete possession of them]. 7 However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. 8 And when He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment: 9 About sin, because they do not believe in Me [trust in, rely on, and adhere to Me]; 10 About righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God), because I go to My Father, and you will see Me no longer; 11 About judgment, because the ruler (evil genius, prince) of this world [Satan] is judged and condemned and sentence already is passed upon him. 12 I have still many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them or to take them upon you or to grasp them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. 14 He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. 15 Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.

We need help, the world needs a witness, so Lord Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit. Passage Summary: In His last conversation with His troubled disciples, Lord Jesus promises to send a helper, or counselor, this will be positive experience for them. This counselor will testify through them. Chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16 of John’s Gospel present the “Upper Room Discourse” which Lord Jesus gave to His disciples in His last evening on Earth. As we come now into chapter 16, the last chapter of this discourse, we find the direction changing from that of admonition (or teaching) to that of prediction or prophesying. Lord Jesus here tells His disciples WHAT WILL SOON HAPPEN. This is an important style of how the Holy Spirit handles discussions with we humans; the discussion begins with a simple talks that sounds like a teaching and all of a sudden the tone changes to one that sounds like prophecy! This makes it that whenever the Holy Spirit is talking to people in this manner, many people seem not to understand it or take it very serious. One way to break down this passage, to help us understand it better, is to do it in two parts. First, there is “What Lord Jesus Has Said,” and second, there is “What the Holy Spirit WILL Say.” [A REPEAT OF: “What Lord Jesus Has Said” to His disciples and “What the Holy Spirit Will (soon) Say” to them and to us. This is why today because many people do not understand this pattern they think there should be something new different from what Lord Jesus said and thus they ruin the whole truth turning it to counterfeit without knowing! We just have to be very careful in how we handle the Word of our Lord God Almighty in other not to render it counterfeit. I. WHAT LORD JESUS HAS SAID: “I have told you all these things, so that you should not be offended (taken unawares and falter, or be caused to stumble and fall away). [I told you to keep you from being scandalized and repelled.]” Lord Jesus has been preparing His disciples for His soon departure. He is ensuring that they will not be surprised about what is to come. He has warned them that they will be persecuted for His name’s sake, and that the world will hate them. But did they understand, No! This is just how it is with us, many a time whenever God is talking to us wanting to prepare us for the challenges coming our way in a manner of teaching and also in a pattern of prophecy we don’t pay attention and we don’t take what God says as serious as it should be until we are hit! Now He prepares them also for the fact that “they will put you out of the synagogues.” Not only does this mean that they will literally be excommunicated from the Jewish religion, but that their reputations will suffer. They will be outcasts, not allowed in the gathering of the Jewish people. While it is the Romans who so persecute the Church in later years, at first it is also the Jews that persecute the Christians. Lord Jesus warns “Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” And that is exactly what happened in the case of Saul the persecutor. He was a zealous Pharisee who thought that Lord Jesus and the disciples were enemies of God who needed to be put to death. Thus it was also Saul that was among those who approved of the death of Stephen the Martyr. (Acts 8:1) Which Saul is this? Is he the one who later became Apostle Paul? Even when you read the history of Rome, you will find out that those who Holy Spirit were using in those days were accused and they were killed thinking killing them means great service to God. This is how many of us have erred thinking we are doing it right whereas we are destroying what God wants to use to better humanity! Let us be careful. Lord Jesus tells His disciples all of these warnings in His Upper Room Discourse, and the timing is important. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.” So Lord Jesus held off from giving these warnings about His departure and the persecutions ahead until He was about to leave. And He still had more to tell them; the very New Testament soon to be written. Lord Jesus has spoken, but there is more to come. And it will come through the work of the Holy Spirit. Today the Holy Spirit have been with us since the day of Pentecost yet all the things He is teaching and prophesying to us does not make sense to many of us, we still fall victim! So today we are in transition from “What Lord Jesus Has Said” to “What the Holy Spirit Will Say and Is Saying.” II. WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL SAY: And we need to first clarify what is meant by the verb “say” when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Of course, the disciples audibly heard Lord Jesus when He taught them. And, the text actually says that the Holy Spirit “will speak.” But this is not audible speech. Rather, it is the Spirit working in the heart and mind of the disciples to give them faith and to breathe-out of them the New Testament writings; the very Words of God just as we are having them today.

The text then explains 3 works of the Holy Spirit, 3 ways the Holy Spirit speaks. These regard sin, righteousness, and judgment. “8 And when He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment: 9 About sin, because they do not believe in Me [trust in, rely on, and adhere to Me]; 10 About righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God), because I go to My Father, and you will see Me no longer; 11 About judgment, because the ruler (evil genius, prince) of this world [Satan] is judged and condemned and sentence already is passed upon him.” 1. Sin; The first of these three works of the Holy Spirit is the convicting the world of sin. This is a most necessary work. Many people believe they are “just fine.” They will say “I’m not as bad as this other guy.” They just do not know how bad they actually are. For all men are sinners, and sin is against God Himself, holy and righteous. The Holy Spirit then works in people so that they are convicted of their sin. It is a bit like this. Sometimes the light comes in through the window in a strong piercing beam. And you thought the room you were in was clean. But in this light beam you see thousands of particles of dust floating around. The work of the Spirit is like this light beam, making you aware and very conscious of the impurity in the air; the impurity in your soul. The Holy Spirit works to convict you not only of particular sins, but of your very nature as a sinful being. You could pick dust particles out of the air all day (or all year) and yet never have pure air. So is it with sin, you pick sin all day and all year and your soul is ever filled with sin! The problem is, as Lord Jesus says, “they do not believe in Me [trust in, rely on, and adhere to Me];” The heart of sin is this unbelief, this lack of trust in Lord Jesus. All sin is intertwined with unbelief. And before a person comes to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation they first must recognize their sinful status. So the Holy Spirit brings that conviction to make you be conscious of your sinful nature and always be ready to keep asking for forgiveness from our Lord God Almighty. Then, next, the Holy Spirit convicts of righteousness. 2. Righteousness; This isn’t that the Holy Spirit now has changed His mind and now wants to convince you that you are righteous and not yet. Rather, this is a conviction of the need FOR righteousness; a need for right-standing with God. You begin to long to be like Christ in character, behavior, attitude, and life style, you long to be doing things right first with yourself and with your fellow man. This follows upon the conviction of sin. First the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sinful status and then convicts you of your need for righteousness. Righteousness is not something that man by nature possesses. Man needs the righteousness of Lord Jesus Christ. It is an alien righteousness that we receive when we believe in Lord Jesus Christ. It is His righteousness credited to us not that we merited it but that it is imputed to us as we believe in Him, in His Name, in His life, in His earth ministry, in His death on the cross and buried, in His resurrection and ascension! We are not made righteous, but accounted as righteous for His names’ sake. Man needs not only to be convicted of sin, but to be convicted of the need for righteousness. If the conviction of sin be like the awareness of hunger, then the conviction of the need for righteousness is the awareness that food satiates the belly. It doesn’t do any good for the body to know that it is hungry if it isn’t also led to seek nourishment! Said another way, it is not enough for man to see his sin. He needs to see his Savior. So the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and of the need for righteousness. And He Holy Spirit convicts man in a third way as well. Not only of sin and righteousness, but of judgment. And this needs to be explained. What is it here to be convicted of judgment? 3. Judgment; This is not referring to the judgment at the end of the world. That is already covered in the conviction of sin. Rather, here Lord Jesus is speaking of something that is now in the past to us. It is a judgment on Satan, the Prince of This World. The Holy Spirit is working to convict us of the fact that Satan has been defeated. Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross has defeated Satan and he no longer has a grip over us. What this means is that in whatsoever the devil tempts with, Lord Jesus has given us victory, it is left for us to decide and uphold that victory in our life but in most cases we don’t! We are to be convicted that we are now free, by the grace of God. Satan has been judged and we shall not be condemned. Being judged means that what Satan did has been proven to be grossly wrong and he is penalized and as such, we have now the privilege to refuse his tempting knowing it will also lead us to suffer the same penalty as he earned! So these are the three ways the Holy Spirit works to convict: on sin, righteousness, and judgment. But now we have, as it were, a fourth point. The spirit will guide into all truth. 4. Guided into all truth: – Cessationism; When the text says “The Spirit leads me into all truth” this doesn’t mean you don’t have to study for a test, or that the big decisions in life regarding jobs, marriage, and spending money are made for you, No. You have to make those decisions! The truth spoken of is the revelation of God in the Scriptures. Lord Jesus has taught His disciples. But there is more that they need to know. The Holy Spirit then inspired the disciples, speaking all truth through them, which was committed into writing in the Scriptures. All of the Scriptures are true, and, in this life, all the truth that we can know is from the Scriptures. Do you now see where our problems stem from, from our lack of knowledge of truth in the Scripture. But in spite of all these are we making efforts to learn and know the truth in the Scripture? The Scriptures are complete. They provide all things necessary for God’s own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life. The confession tells us that nothing is to be added to the Bible, whether by supposed new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men. Do you hear that? The Word of God in the Scriptures is “all truth.” Of John 16:13 (“13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].”) Calvin says, “That very Spirit had led them into all truth, when they committed to writing the substance of their doctrine. Whoever imagines that anything must be added to their doctrine, as if it were imperfect and but half-finished, not only accuses the apostles of dishonesty, but blasphemes against the God’s Spirit.” To add anything to the Scriptures, whether personal opinions, traditions of men, or parts of other religions, is to claim that the Scriptures themselves are not whole and well. And thus it is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit as if you are saying that His speech is not effective or correct. But the Holy Spirit speaks. He convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He works in our hearts to cause us to believe the Word of God. Because of the Spirit, the words of Lord Jesus are not only heard audible but are believed. As Christ died for your sins, the Holy Spirit gives you faith. They have each worked in accordance with God’s plan of salvation and in their own roles, bringing Glory to God and salvation to man.

The Son Speaks, and the Spirit Speaks. Do you Listen? Of course we can believe only by the work of the Holy Spirit. But if you do not yet believe in Lord Jesus Christ, this is a call for you to hear His word. Read the Scriptures, listen with understanding His God’s word preached, and accept it as truth. Accept the fact that they [you] are a sinner. Accept the fact that you need righteousness from another, namely Lord Jesus Christ. And accept the truth that Christ has defeated and conquered Satan. Not only is the Work of the Holy Spirit necessary for salvation; it is the only way of salvation. If you do not believe, if you will not listen, then you are leaning against the very doors of hell; doors would fall through right now if it were not for the Lord Jesus holding them shut. All men are commanded to believe in Lord Jesus Christ. His Word is proclaimed. We are to listen and to believe. The Son has spoken, the Spirit speaks. Listen, all of you, listen to the Word of God. Amen.