THE COMFORTER
John 14:22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
John 14:25 ¶ These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:28 ¶ Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
There can be no doubt just who this “Comforter,” is. The Lord Jesus stated, “which is the Holy Ghost.” He also instructed us that the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit, is after Christ’s own likeness. For he is “another Comforter.”
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. {Therefore the coming of the Holy Spirit is also Christ’s coming to us!} 19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
This is the age of the Holy Spirit, yet the majority of professing religionists are content to practice their traditional religious routines, unaware that they have never been associated with this Third Person of the Trinity! And some who claim to “have the Spirit” are caught up in extreme practices which they set forth as the manifestations of the Spirit. But these are nothing more than “inordinate affections” enflamed by the powers and influences of the Wicked One himself. For if it were not getting excited about being excited, a great deal of ‘church-anity’ would be abandoned. Colossians 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
So just what is the necessity of the Comforter? Let’s examine the scriptures and find out more concerning God’s glorious gift to the realm of true believers.
First there is the providing and maintaining of the ministry of the Son of God! John 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
The Son has reported to the Father that he has completed the work which he was given to do. John 17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
And now that the completed body of truth has been set forth, there needs to be no more given. But there is now the great need for the agency of the Holy Spirit, not only to spread it throughout the world in the remaining centuries, but also to make know the true spiritual meaning of that which the Lord has set forth. John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 20:30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
We can read of the need of this beginning to transpire in the last chapter of Luke’s gospel. Luke 24:25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. 45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
O! Dear Reader! How we need to cry out to God for the specific wisdom of coming beyond religious practice, and it’s intoxicating control of our senses, and come to have the scales of our spiritual eyes rolled away that we be not “Fools, and slow of heart,” locked in only to church-anity, in order that we might see Jesus!
James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; (That is, will not find fault, or reproach us.} and it shall be given him. Luke 11:10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
As a spiritual son, birthed by the Holy Spirit, have you asked for your egg today? Or do you continue to grieve the Holy Spirit by condemning His practices set forth in your inner man? When you were in that funeral service and felt nothing throughout that hireling preacher’s ‘message’ did you condemn yourself for not having tears and feeing sad like those around you? That ‘nothing’ which you were experiencing was the very peace of your Lord, given you be the Holy Spirit. For the believer’s inner peace ‘feels’ like nothing! John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Why should we have the same sloppy emotions and affections as the unregenerate world has? Why should we try to regain the inordinate affections which the Holy Spirit has made dead within us? John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. {See Colossians 3:5 listed at the beginning of this article.}
We are to weep with our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ, as all of us are enabled by the Spirit! Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb, not for the same reason that others did! How could he weep for Lazarus being dead as did all others? For He IS the resurrection! Therefore He knew that Lazarus was going to be called from the tomb and reinstated at the table of his sisters! He was weeping because no one believed on Him as the resurrection and the life! THAT was the reason for which the Holy Spirit within him caused his tears to flow! Jeremiah 13:17 But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD’S flock is carried away captive.
We must seek, in all earnestness to cultivate a sensitivity to the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. For that is the leadership the believer has to not fulfill the carnal ways of the flesh. And it is very dangerous not to learn to give heed to the Spirit’s tender voice! Isaiah 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: 21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
It is a dangerous matter not to deal properly with the Holy Spirit! Matthew 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
All outward instruction must be attended with his inner voice! Proverbs 6:20 ¶ My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. 22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
This thought brings us to the second reason for the necessity for the Comforter. And it is in answer to Judas’ question as listed in verse twenty-two of our text. He asks, since we are to preach the gospel to every creature, including those who will not believe, how shall you make yourself truly known only to us? Jesus’ answer was that it involved love in the hearts of his elect souls. You can see this in verses twenty-three and twenty-four of our same text listed above.
And a farther reason is given by the Lord in John 14:17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Consider also these verses:
1 Corinthians 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
And this is also very instructive to our spiritual man when we develop the ability to adhere to the inner voice of the Comforter! 1 John 4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
Therefore when you wonder why you have zero thoughts, not allowing you to ‘witness’ to someone to met in your daily experience, you should never condemn yourself, grieving the Holy Spirit and depressing yourself. You should just be thankful that the Comforter kept you from casting God’s precious pearls to an unworthy person! Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
Did you never wonder why our Lord was noticeably silent before the Roman ruler at his trial? It was because Pilate was not a sheep, but a spiritual sow and dog! The only thing the Holy Spirit enabled our Lord to do was to exact God’s sovereign crown rights upon him! John 19:9 And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? 11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
There are some things which the Comforter shall eventually reveal to you in His good time. But there are those secret things with shall never be revealed to any human. Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Therefore let us be ready tablets to receive His instructions written on our hearts. 2 Corinthians 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
Pastor Gene Breed
February 02, 2022
