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We continue to consider our Lord's last words to his disciples, not too long before he would be arrested, just a matter of maybe a couple hours if that, and of course the result of that arrest would be his crucifixion the next day.
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He would rise from the dead on the third day and then appears to his disciples over the course of 40 days and then ascend into heaven into that Shekinah glory cloud of God as he goes into heaven.
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And then 10 days after his ascension, the enthroned Lord Jesus as evidence and proof that he was enthroned as Lord, pours out the
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Holy Spirit upon the day of Pentecost that utterly transformed his disciples into courageous, powerful leaders of his kingdom.
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And in the two paragraphs that we address today, we consider our
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Lord's promises to his disciples respecting the gift of the Holy Spirit as well as the gift of peace that he would leave with them.
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And we also read of his words of encouragement to his disciples, even as he warned them of the difficulty that was before them.
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And so here is John 14, 25 through 31. These things
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I have spoken to you while being present with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the
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Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
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Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do
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I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
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You have heard me say to you, I'm going away and coming back to you. If you love me, you would rejoice because I said
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I'm going to the Father for my Father is greater than I.
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And now I have told you before it comes that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
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I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the
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Father and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do arise.
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Let us go from here. We'll consider these parting words of Jesus according to the two divisions of two paragraphs that we have in the
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New King James Version translation that you have in your notes. And these two paragraphs may be described in this way.
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The first paragraph, we have Jesus promised blessing to his disciples, again, promise of the
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Holy Spirit, promise of peace. And then in the second paragraph, Jesus further prepared his disciples of his or for his departure.
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Because of the limited time we have today and really because of the breadth of the passage, we'll not be able to address all of these verses this morning.
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We will attempt to cover the first paragraph of these two and then address the second next week.
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And even that last line of the first paragraph, when he said,
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I'm going to the Father for my Father is greater than I, that last clause is going to take a little bit of explanation.
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The Father is greater than I. And Lord willing, next Lord's Day, we'll open by addressing that statement of Jesus.
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What does he mean by that? The Father is greater than I. And so let's consider in some detail the first paragraph,
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Jesus promised blessing to his disciples verses 25, 26, and 27. Before Jesus spoke these words, he first intimated his soon departure, verse 25, these things
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I've spoken to you while being present with you. He was hinting that this was only temporary.
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Our Lord's reference to these things, these things I've spoken to you, concerns what he had already told them and taught them prior to this verse.
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These things would include his teaching concerning his father, his father's house, in my father's house or many abiding places, mansions, concerning himself and his divine being in the father as well as the father's presence in him.
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And these things are what he had already taught him. These things would also include his words regarding his commandments and the responsibility and significance of his disciples to order their lives in obedience to his commandments.
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And then our Lord also intimated his departure from his disciples, which would take place shortly.
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The brevity of time that Jesus would be with them is suggested by his words, while being present with you.
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This conveys the importance as well as the relevance of these words with view to his soon departure.
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And so he gives, as one wrote, a strong intimation that in a little time he should not be present with them and that whilst he was present with them, he was desirous of saying such things to them in a brief, compendious manner as they were able to bear, which might be a future use and instruction to them.
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These are important words and they are condensed as it were. There's lots of information packed into his few sentences.
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And so it's as though the Lord, although knowing that he would soon be departing from them and knowing that it was for their benefit, nevertheless, was going to miss being with them.
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As one wrote, these chapters read as though Jesus is loath to leave, drawn by tender love to linger as long as possible, pouring out his heart's thoughts during every precious minute still left.
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I don't imagine it was easy for him to leave them at this point. Jesus declared he had spoken to them thus far while he was with them.
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And what is intimated is not that Jesus would stop speaking to them. He was not going to cease speaking to them.
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And then the Holy Spirit would begin to speak to them in his place. Rather what's suggested by these words is that Jesus has been speaking to them and he will be continuing to speak to them through the agency of the
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Holy Spirit. And I think that's an important matter to emphasize.
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Jesus has thus far spoken to the disciples as one visibly in their presence. Hereafter he will speak to them in a different manner, namely by the
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Spirit. Jesus will still be communicating to them, but will do so through the
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Holy Spirit. And so he took this occasion to again speak of the
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Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And here we have the Lord giving additional information.
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He had introduced the Holy Spirit earlier in verses 16 and 17, we read and considered them earlier, but he said,
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I will pray the Father and he the Father will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.
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And we spent some time addressing those verses. But now we read additional information in verse 26 concerning the
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Holy Spirit. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
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By the way, in chapters 14, 15, and 16, there are actually five little episodes that speak of the
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Holy Spirit, and this is the second of the five that we will be considering in these few chapters.
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And so additional information is given. And what this means is that the Holy Spirit would be speaking on behalf of Christ.
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As one wrote, if he is sent in Jesus' name, that's the Holy Spirit, he is
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Jesus' emissary. Not simply a substitute. Just as Jesus came in his
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Father's name, in other words, as his Father's emissary, so the Spirit comes in Jesus' name.
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The Holy Spirit is Jesus' emissary, coming in his name, coming on his behalf.
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Another wrote, the paraclete, and of course that's an English transliteration of the
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Greek word for the paraclete, the Holy Spirit. The paraclete will be sent by the
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Father in the name of the Son. The Son was sent by the Father to declare his words, and the
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Spirit will be sent by his Father to declare the words of the Son, both to the believers and to the world.
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Now again, earlier we spoke about the Greek word translated in the New King James Version as helper, and we have that in this verse also, helper.
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This is the Greek word parakletos, and it literally means one who stands beside, para, parallel, beside, kletos, standing.
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The Holy Spirit is one who stands beside. He's called to be with us, to assist us, encourage us, to strengthen us.
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Now whereas the New King James Version translates the word as the
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Holy Spirit being our helper, the English Standard Version translates the word as our advocate.
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The King James Version translates the word as comforter, I'll send another comforter.
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The New Christian Standard Version, that's only been out a couple years, translates the word as counselor.
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There's not a great deal of agreement as to how parakletos should be translated into English.
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There's a range of meaning, and so it's difficult to translate exactly the meaning into English.
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Now, what is suggested, however, here in these verses, in verse 26, is that the word helper may fit best.
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The Holy Spirit is going to come and be your helper. How is he going to help? Well, he's going to teach you, and he's going to remind you about what the
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Lord Jesus had taught them. And so, he first declared to his disciples of the
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Holy Spirit, he will teach you all things. This is how he's going to help you. Now, the
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Lord Jesus, of course, had been their faithful teacher for three and a half years. The Holy Spirit would be another helper, another teacher to them.
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As Jesus taught his disciples, the Holy Spirit would continue to instruct his disciples. But it would seem the
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Holy Spirit would instruct them in matters much more in depth and breadth than even the Lord Jesus had taught them over the course of the previous three years.
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The Holy Spirit notches it up some, and will give them more information, additional information that they were not able to receive from the
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Lord Jesus himself. There were times when our Lord had to stop short of teaching them all that he might have even desired to impart to them.
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They simply were not able to receive it. And so, we'll read in the next chapter,
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John 16, verse 12 and 13, Jesus said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
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However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth.
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For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come.
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And so, there are some things Jesus wanted to teach his disciples, but they couldn't handle it.
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The Holy Spirit, however, would instruct them in these matters after he came. And so, the
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Holy Spirit was going to actually instruct them, teach them in matters that were even beyond what the
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Lord Jesus had instructed them. Now, there were also teachings of our
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Lord Jesus that the disciples had heard, but they did not understand the meaning of our
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Lord's teaching when he first taught them. And this was due to several reasons. First of all, they did not have the
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Holy Spirit as they would later have after he was given to them. That was a limitation.
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But also, because of their limited historical perspective and not seeing and understanding the fact and the meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his resurrection, they didn't comprehend the full meaning and implications of our
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Lord's instruction to them. And so, John had written of the ignorance of the disciples back in John chapter 2.
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Jesus answered, said to them, destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it up.
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They didn't understand what he was talking about. And the Jews said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple, will you raise it up in three days?
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But he was speaking of the temple of his body. But notice, therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had said.
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They didn't understand it when he first told them. They were limited in their capability because they didn't have the historical perspective of these later events.
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And we also read of their limited understanding before our Lord's glorification back in John chapter 12.
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There we read, the next day, a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, went out to meet him, cried out,
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Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. They were welcoming the promised son of David.
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And then Jesus, when he had found a young donkey, said on it, as it's written, fear not daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.
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But then we read this, his disciples did not understand these things at first, but when
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Jesus was glorified, that is after his resurrection and his ascension, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done these things to him.
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And so they were limited in their capability to understand everything that Jesus said and everything
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Jesus taught. And of course, this remembrance that is described here in verse 16 of chapter 12, this remembrance and understanding was due to the
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Holy Spirit working in them after our Lord poured out the Spirit upon them on the day of Pentecost.
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But you know, even after our Lord's resurrection, he met, of course, with his disciples on a number of different occasions over the course of 40 days before he ascended into heaven, as we read in Acts chapter one.
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But even after the resurrection, even when Jesus was walking with them and teaching them, they still didn't comprehend everything because the
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Holy Spirit had not been fully given to them. Now we'll talk later about the Lord Jesus breathing upon them, saying, receive the
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Holy Spirit. That's another matter that we don't even touch on here. But clearly, even in Acts one, they were still confused about the nature of the kingdom of God.
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They asked Jesus, will you at this time restore your kingdom to Israel? Clearly they didn't comprehend the full nature and meaning of the kingdom.
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However, after the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, and after the
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Holy Spirit came upon them, they were given clarity of thought regarding the ascension and enthronement of the
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Lord Jesus. And so they then understood the nature of the kingdom, and that's betrayed, of course, in Acts chapter two, when
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Peter very clearly and forthrightly declared that Jesus was the reigning son of David, as declared in the
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Old Testament. So the Holy Spirit would later give them clarity of thought regarding what
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Jesus had taught them, even though they had not understood it fully beforehand.
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But actually we know that there is a sense that really no one can see the implication and importance of our
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Lord's words, the words of the Bible, apart from the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon that word.
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And many of us have experienced this, haven't we, particularly before we were converted. We attempted to read the
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Bible. I remember doing so a couple of years before I became a Christian, started reading the book of Genesis.
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It was a closed book to me. It made absolutely no sense to me. We could not get at the meaning of it.
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But when we turned to Christ, that all changed. The Bible became a new book to us.
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It was alive and it was life -changing. Paul wrote of the blindness of Jews to see the truth of the
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Scriptures because they had refused to believe on Jesus Christ. They were incapable of understanding the
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Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament, due to their unbelief toward Jesus. He described them in 2
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Corinthians 3 as having a veil over their eyes so they could not see the glory of Christ in the
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Hebrew Scriptures. But when they believed on the Lord Jesus, it's as though that spiritual veil were taken away and all of a sudden they could understand the
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Scriptures when they began to see and look for Jesus in those Scriptures. And so we read of this in 2
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Corinthians 3, 12 and following. Paul was writing about his ministry,
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New Covenant ministry. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of that which was passing away, they couldn't see the glory of God fading from the face of Moses the longer he was away from the presence of God.
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But then Paul says, but their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the
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Old Testament. Because the veil is taken away in Christ, you cannot understand the
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Old Testament until you know Christ and read Christ in the Old Testament. That's what he's saying.
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And so even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the
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Lord, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the
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Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, he's talking about Christians now under the New Covenant, we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the
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Lord, that is the glory of the Lord Jesus, are being transformed into the same image, we're becoming
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Christ -like, from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord.
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When people become Christians, they put their faith in Jesus Christ, he opens the
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Bible to us. It becomes a whole new living book. It makes sense to us in a way we never saw it before.
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That's because the spirit is teaching us. The spirit is reminding us, instructing us, informing us in the word of God.
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And people without Christ don't have that ability. There's a sense in which the letter kills, it doesn't give life until the spirit works in that word and brings forth life in the one who reads or hears the word of God.
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There's some people that hear the word of God taught and proclaim from a pulpit, from a church for dozens of years, and it never really impacts their thinking in their lives.
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They hear it, they might understand it in a form, in a way, but it has never really been truly relevant and life -changing.
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And then all of a sudden the Lord one day turns on the lights and it becomes a whole new book, Jesus Christ, it's like you never knew him before.
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And it's transformative. And the Bible becomes something very desirable and you desire to learn and read from it because you're growing from it, you're gleaning, you're receiving life from it.
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This is the work of the Holy Spirit, enlivening the word of God and using the word of God to create and sustain life within us.
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Another road of the inability of the unbeliever to understand the true meaning and relevance of Scripture, the utterances of Jesus in the
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Gospels are sealed up, every one of them to mere intellectual inquiry.
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The words are there with a strange attractive power, unique words, and yet the very power that is to make them useful is somehow lacking or at all events unavailable.
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I don't see them here this morning, but God bless Robert and Maria Jess, I remember vividly him giving his own testimony to me, how his reading the
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Bible, it just made no sense. And then all of a day, all of a sudden, one day, in a moment, the
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Lord turned on the lights and he saw it, he understood it, and he remarked to Maria, I know it,
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I understand it, it makes sense to me, it never had before. And this was the Holy Spirit illuminating his mind to the truth of the word of God.
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And the Lord Jesus here is telling his disciples that he was going to send them the Holy Spirit, and he was going to be their teacher, and he was going to be their reminder of these things, it would be transformative.
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Now we need to understand that when the Lord spoke these words in John 14, 26, that he was specifically speaking to his apostles.
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All right, there were 11 present, Judas Iscariot, of course, had gone off and hung himself after he betrayed the
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Lord, or he soon would. But here the Lord Jesus was specifically speaking to the apostles.
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Donald Carson emphasized this point. The promise of verse 26 has in view the
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Spirit's role to the first generation of disciples. Not to all subsequent
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Christians. Now I'm going to qualify that statement in a few minutes here. But he's emphasizing the point
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Jesus was speaking specifically to the apostles when he said, I'm going to give you the
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Holy Spirit, he's going to instruct you, he's going to teach you, and he's going to remind you. John's purpose including this theme and this verse is not to explain how readers at the end of the first century might be taught by the
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Spirit, but to explain how readers at the end of the first century, how the first witnesses, the first disciples came to an accurate and full understanding of the truth of Jesus Christ.
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In other words, our New Testament, the Gospels, the Epistles, their writings of the apostles.
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And those are writings because the Holy Spirit instructed them and reminded them as to what
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Jesus taught them. And so the Spirit's ministry in this respect was not to bring qualitatively new revelation, but to complete, to fill out the revelation brought by Jesus himself.
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And yet, we would argue, we should understand that the promise of Christ of the
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Holy Spirit as another teacher extends to all of his disciples that would ever come after his pouring out of the
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Holy Spirit upon his church on the day of Pentecost. The Apostle Paul wrote of the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit who instructs everyone who would ever become a true Christian. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, now we have received not the
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Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. Why? That we might know all things.
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There you have the Holy Spirit in a teaching function. That we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
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These things we also speak, not in words which men's wisdom teaches, but which the
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Holy Spirit teaches. Paul was writing to a church way off in Greece, Corinth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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But the natural man, and in this passage, the natural man is the unconverted man, the non -Christian.
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The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him.
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Unconverted people listening to me, or reading notes that we distribute, this is nonsense to them.
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I'm the greatest fool in the world for saying these things. That's because they don't have the Spirit of God. Nor can he know them, an unbeliever cannot know these things.
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Why? Because they need to be spiritually discerned, and they're not spiritual. But he who is spiritual, and in this context, it's not talking about a super -Christian, it's talking about every
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Christian. He who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
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For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.
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That's because the Holy Spirit teaches us these things. Now, when we consider
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God's grace in illumination, that is opening our eyes to behold truth, and to behold the
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Lord Jesus, we're speaking of the Holy Spirit teaching people the truths of God's word, and particularly of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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John Flavel wrote of this in his classic book, The Fountain of Life Opened. And regarding the need we have of the
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Holy Spirit teaching us, he wrote these words. It implies the utter impotency of man to open his own heart, and thereby make the word effectual to his own conversion and salvation.
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He that at first said, let there be light, and it was so, must shine into our hearts, or they will never be savingly enlightened.
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A double misery lies upon a great part of mankind, impotency and pride.
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They have not only lost the liberty and freedom of their wills, but with it have so far lost their understanding and humility as not to own it.
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They won't admit it. But alas, man has become a most impotent creature by the fall, so far from being able to open his own heart that he cannot know the things of the
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Spirit. Cannot believe, cannot obey, cannot speak one good word, cannot think one good thought, cannot do one good act.
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Oh, what a helpless, shiftless thing is a poor sinner. Suitably to this state of impotence, conversion is in Scripture called regeneration.
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In other words, new birth. A resurrection from the dead, a creation, a new creation, a victory, which does not only imply man to be purely passive in his conversion to God, but a reticency and opposition made to that power which goes forth from God to recover him.
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Well, so the Lord Jesus set forth the Holy Spirit, he's going to be your teacher. And we need him to teach us.
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The apostles needed, you know, as it became apparent, the
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Lord wasn't coming back soon, and the apostles began to die out, and their eyewitness testimony, it became necessary to get a written record of what these guys heard and saw.
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And the Holy Spirit gave them remembrance and taught them, gave them recall of what
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Jesus said. And so we have an accurate record of what Jesus taught and said and did in the
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Gospels because of the Holy Spirit. But again, the
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Lord Jesus said not only would the Holy Spirit teach his disciples, but Jesus declared secondly that the
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Holy Spirit would bring into your remembrance all things that I said to you. And so the
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Holy Spirit is a teacher, and he's secondarily a reminder. Again, principally to the apostles that he had formerly taught.
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Again, the early churches didn't have the New Testament Scriptures, it would be decades before many of the
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New Testament letters and Gospels were written. The early churches had the Hebrew Scriptures, our
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Old Testament, that was their Bible, that's all they had, as well as the eyewitness accounts and the testimony of the apostles.
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When the apostles chose one to replace Judas Iscariot as an apostle, they could only find two who had originally been baptized,
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John the Baptist, but who had heard Jesus throughout his entire teaching ministry. And so they selected one of them.
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Actually, the Lord directed them to select one, and that's recorded in Acts chapter 1.
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And there were once again 12 apostles, and it was necessary to have 12 because there were 12 tribes of Israel over which they would become leaders, would become judges.
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And so the replacement of Judas had to have heard Jesus teach throughout his earthly ministry, but how could he or any of them possibly recall accurately and fully all that he had taught them and all that he had witnessed?
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Jesus declared to them here that he would give them another helper, the
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Holy Spirit, to bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. And yet, again, even though the
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Holy Spirit was primarily given to the apostles to enable them to recall accurately what
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Jesus had taught them, nevertheless, we need to recognize that the Holy Spirit is not only the teacher of Christians throughout this church age, but he's also, he's continued to, in his role as a reminder to Christians throughout this church age.
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When the Christian finds himself in a situation in which he can bear witness of Christ, even if it's a very difficult situation before hostile hearers, the
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Holy Spirit gives recall to his people, enabling them to respond to those present in truth and with power.
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Jesus taught in his Olivet Discourse, when they arrest you, deliver you up, do not worry beforehand or premeditate what you will speak, but whatever is given you in that hour, speak that, for it's not you who speak, the
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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings to remembrance things, and it's a common experience,
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I would suggest, among us, that when you've been put in that situation, and you maybe weren't ready for it, you didn't think about it ahead of time, it's thrust upon you, and even as you're beginning to witness, you're asking,
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Lord, give me recall, help me here, give me the words, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit enables you to recall things that you never even thought you heard before or remembered before, and you find sometimes you're quoting scripture almost verbatim that you'd never purposely memorized before.
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It's just the Holy Spirit reminding you and helping you in your witness. This is the way the
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Holy Spirit works. This is really a common experience of Christians. There's a power that comes upon his people when he blesses us in our witness.
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And so the Holy Spirit often gives recall to scripture we've previously memorized, but there are occasions when, oh, scripture comes to mind, well,
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I never memorized that, and yet it comes out of your mouth, and it comes forth, not just words, it comes out with power to such a degree you know whoever you're talking to, he knows what
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I'm saying is the truth. I know that he knows it's true, and it's convicting him in his mind and his soul about his sin and his need of salvation.
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That's the Holy Spirit reminding you, equipping you, enabling you to bear a faithful witness of Jesus Christ, and this is what the
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Lord Jesus promised. I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit, another helper. He's going to teach you, and he's going to remind you, and the whole idea is that they would be better equipped to be witnesses of Jesus Christ in a lost world.
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Now, we don't have a lot of time remaining, but we certainly want to cover this second gift that the
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Lord Jesus promised his disciples. Not only would he give them another helper, but he promised to give them peace that would sustain them and help them, and this is found in verse 27 of John 14.
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Jesus said to his apostles, peace I leave with you, peace, my peace
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I give to you, not as the world gives to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
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His disciples were about to enter a very difficult life of ministry as apostles of Jesus Christ.
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There were threats from the Jewish countrymen. There would be threats from the post by the power of Rome, and they would have to stand before them without compromise.
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They would need a courage that could not be dampened, a confidence that could not be shaken, and so the best equipping for this work would be a settled peace in their souls that could not be shaken regardless of what they encountered or experienced.
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An unsettled heart cannot bear faithful witness, but a heart that's characterized by peace, that nothing can shake or rattle, is going to be very firm and strong and faithful in witness.
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And Jesus said, peace I leave with you. There was a long -held, long -practiced greeting, a farewell among the
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Jews, shalom. They would greet people, shalom. They would say farewell to people, shalom.
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But here the Lord Jesus makes real what the Jews were really only expressing as a wish.
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They couldn't impart it, but Jesus could impart it. He could give a peace to the souls of his people.
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Here are the words of Herman Ritterbos, a Reformed guy back in the 20th century. The conclusion of the whole chapter 14 begins with the customary shalom greeting, here expressly intended as a farewell, peace
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I leave with you. Reinforced by the emphatic statement, my peace I give to you.
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The possessive pronoun my and the words I give are further explained in what follows, not as the world gives do
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I give to you. The world here presumably meaning people in general extends shalom as a wish.
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Pious or otherwise, sincerely or perhaps superficially, but always without the ability to give what is wished for the other.
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I can wish you peace, but I can't give it to you. Jesus' shalom is not a cheap wish.
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He is now at the point of going away on a journey in which he'll have to fight for that peace against the powers of darkness and violence.
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A peace that he will have to bring back from the depths of death. But he also knows where to whom he's going.
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And his shalom is therefore a benediction full of grace and divine power. And for that reason, he now repeats the word which he began.
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Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. I give you peace. Of course, when we think of the peace of God, we have to think of it in several terms.
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Objective peace. You'll have to read the notes at a later time.
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That speaks about our standing before God. Every true Christian is at peace before God.
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It's objective. It's outside of us. Everyone who has true faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation is at peace with God.
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Before you put faith in Christ, you were at war with God. And God was at war with you. But when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, God declared peace between you and him.
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You can never again go back into a state of war with God. You've been declared to be a recipient of this objective peace.
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And it's the same and true for every true Christian. We are justified by grace, by God's grace through faith.
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And therefore, we have peace with God. Romans chapter 5, verse 1.
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But aside from that objective peace, which you don't feel, it's there.
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Whether you understand it or not, or feel it or not, it's there. You're at peace with God if you're a Christian.
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There is a subjective peace, which you do feel. Which can come in and settle the heart.
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Calm your fears. And this peace is not contingent on what's happening to you in the world.
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This peace is not as the world gives. You know, the peace of the world is happiness.
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It's based on what happens to you. But the peace of God that's subjective is a peace that surpasses understanding according to the
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Apostle Paul. And again, I'm sure that many of us can testify to some time in our lives when the world was coming in upon us.
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You know, we got some news that just devastated us. And there's no way out.
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There's no resolution, there's no solution, there's no getting around it. Nevertheless, the
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Lord Jesus gave you a peace that settled your heart and soul. It wasn't contingent on what's happening to you.
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The Holy Spirit gave you this sense of peace, as the old adage goes, that could stand the crush of worlds.
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It's not as the world gives. It is a subjective peace. And then on page 9, we'll just touch on this and close.
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When we talk about this peace within this context, we have to consider it in the light of the kingdom of God.
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You can read in the Old Testament that one of the chief characteristics of the kingdom of God is this matter of peace.
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We think about Isaiah 9. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given.
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The government shall be upon his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.
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And what follows? Prince of Peace. Peace comes with the kingdom of God.
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Isaiah 52 .7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace.
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Peace comes in the kingdom of God. Isaiah 57 .19. I create the fruit of the lips.
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Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near, says the Lord. There's peace within the kingdom of God.
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And we can read other verses in the Old Testament. And then we can go into the New Testament. And how the apostles, they went about preaching the scriptures.
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Preaching peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. There you have kingdom idea and peace as well.
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Peace is characteristic of the kingdom of God. And again, this peace is obtained by Christ even as he engages and defeats the devil on the cross.
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And so even when he stated this promise. I give you peace.
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Not like the world gives. I give you peace. Let's get going now. The ruler of this world is coming but he's got no place in me.
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He's about ready to destroy and disrupt the one that can take away your peace.
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And so, the Holy Spirit is a gift of King Jesus to us.
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He teaches us. And he reminds us. And then he gives us peace within the kingdom of God.
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An objective peace, we're at peace with God. He's at war with the world. Fallen world.
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He's at peace with us because we're in his kingdom. And then there's that subjective peace that comes upon us at different times in wonderful ways.
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Sometimes when we're most distressed or concerned. He just settles our souls.
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When we know that he is controlling matters and will see us through. Because we're in this kingdom.
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A kingdom characterized by peace. Because he is the Prince of Peace. We'll close with the application of the words of J .C.
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Ryle. Where he applies the Holy Spirit as teacher and reminder.
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And how this is an important ministry that we're in need of today. Are we sensible of our ignorance?
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In other words, do you feel how ignorant you are? Do we feel that at best we know in part and see in part?
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Do we desire to understand more clearly the doctrines of the gospel? Let us pray daily for the help of the teaching spirit.
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It is his office to illuminate the soul. To open the eyes of the understanding. And to guide us into all truth.
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He can make dark places light and rough places smooth. And then secondly, do we find our memory of spiritual things defective?
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Do we complain that though we read and hear we seem to lose as fast as we gain?
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Let us pray daily for the help of the Holy Ghost. He can bring things to our remembrance.
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He can make us remember old things and new. He can keep in our minds the whole system of truth and duty.
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And make us ready for every good word and work. Amen. We need the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit. And the Lord Jesus has given him to us. Thank the
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Lord. Let's pray. Thank you Father for your word. And for the promises that the
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Lord Jesus gave to his apostles. Which extends to us too.
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We pray our God that you would be gracious to us. And may the Holy Spirit teach us.
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And as we face issues throughout this coming week. May the Holy Spirit remind us of your word.
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And principles of your word. That we can apply them our God. To the way we think.
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The way we act. The way we react. So that we might live as true citizens of the kingdom.
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In submission. And with the desire to glorify our king.