The Holy Spirit serves as the divine teacher, guiding believers into all truth as promised by Jesus. This ministry is crucial for spiritual understanding, as the Spirit illuminates God's Word, which is itself truth. While institutions may offer instruction, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate and most effective teacher of divine truth. Believers are encouraged to recognize and rely on this teaching ministry for their spiritual education and growth.
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Beloved Radio, friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of the Savior, and welcome you to the continued study on the great doctrine of the Holy Spirit. God has been giving to us by His grace, and we humbly but earnestly pray clearly and simply some of the truths relating to the present work of the Holy Spirit during the Christian period. We have touched upon many themes, but now we would touch upon perhaps what is of most importance in relation to the Spirit of God's work in and through the life of a believer, and that is his ministry of teaching.
For he is called in the Word of God the teacher of divine truth. May I point out the words of the Lord Jesus when in John fourteen he declared in promising the Holy Spirit these particular words I read from chapter fourteen in verse sixteen and through verse seventeen I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever 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.
It is of utmost importance to recognize and to acknowledge and realize the title that the Savior gives to the Holy Spirit in the seventeenth verse of John fourteen. The Savior calls him the Spirit of Truth, indicating that the Spirit of God is the one, the blessed divine person who knows the truth of God. Now this can be corroborated by the Savior's expression later in the chapter. And we go to verse twenty-six of chapter fourteen in the Gospel of John. And here the Savior declares, 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.
May I emphasize the importance of these words, and particularly the six words where the Savior declares concerning the Spirit of God, He shall teach you all things. This is all embracing the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, his ability and power, his competency to be the teacher of divine truth. He shall teach you all things. What a scope there is in the words that we find here, bringing to the hearts of the believer one of the greatest privileges.
And may I say it lovingly. greater than ever speaking in tongues, the privilege of having the Holy Spirit teach us the Word of God and the truth of God. May I go even further in the Gospel of John? In chapter sixteen. Chapter sixteen, if you please. I would like you to listen to the words of the Lord Jesus. As in chapter sixteen, particularly does he speak of his words? in relation to the believer. We read from chapter sixteen at verse twelve, going down through verse fifteen.
The Saviour declared to his disciples, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How be it, when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of or from himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath of mine. Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.
Now may I link together with this portion we have read preceding verses from verse eight through eleven, just to state what we've already covered at the beginning of our consideration of this great theme. From verses eight through eleven we have the record concerning the Spirit's work in relation to the unsaved world. He is the great convictor to convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. that they may turn to Christ. But when one has come to Christ, from verse twelve, going down through verse fifteen, he then becomes the believer's teacher, the teacher of the saints, the great teacher within the house of God, the great teacher for the people of God.
May I again point out in the opening of verse thirteen, where we have read in this sixteenth of John, He is again called by the Savior, the Spirit of Truth. You will find Him called the Spirit of Truth in John fourteen. You will find Him called the same in John fifteen, verse twenty-six. And here again, the Spirit of Truth. One thing we can be certain about in this lovely expression, He is not the teacher of error. He is not the teacher of false doctrine. He is the teacher of the truth. Now please know what the Savior says, for we wish to emphasize greater than perhaps any other doctrine concerning His work, the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.
This teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit is most important, because if you and I, my fellow believer, are not instructed in the Word of God, we shall be apt to go astray, we shall not be fully instructed in the mind of God. We shall not have a complete knowledge of the truth of God. But let us take this principle to heart, as well as to our conscience. The Spirit of God is called the Spirit of Truth. And if you and I would know the truth, we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit to teach us. And note the Lord Jesus saying, and I want to quote these words, seven of them in verse thirteen of John sixteen.
Concerning the Spirit of Truth, When he's come, said the Lord Jesus, he will guide you into all truth. Now let me be very clear. May I be very clear to qualify that only the Spirit of God is able to guide us into all truth. That we may recognize the importance of this ministry, the ministry of his teaching. He alone can guide us into all truth. Let us not forget the source which we shall be speaking of later. From whence the truth is revealed, and it is the word of God.
For if you will read in John seventeen the words of the Lord Jesus as he prayed in verse seventeen, Father sanctify them by the truth, as he prayed for his people. And he added, Thy word is truth. And may I say, my fellow believer, You and I have a complete book of truth. We have a complete Bible. From Genesis through to the end of the book, the book of the Revelation, we have the complete Word of God, and all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect or complete, truly furnished unto all good works.
but it is the Holy Spirit who must be our teacher. And may I ask my fellow believer, is he teaching you? Is he teaching me? Said the Lord Jesus, he shall take the things that are mine, and he will show them to you. He will indeed take a mine, and he will show it to you. And may we re-emphasize the importance of the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God in teaching the believer. Now, at the risk of repetition for which I will not apologize, let me repeat once again, the ministry of teaching is perhaps the greatest need of the Spirit's ministry today and at any time among the saints of God.
Oh, my beloved, we do thank God for his convicting work. We do thank God for his regenerating work. We do thank God for effectizing, putting every believer into the body of Christ. We do thank God that the believer can also be filled with the Holy Spirit and sealed with the Holy Spirit. But my beloved, may I state, the enjoyment, the profitable enjoyment and the practical enjoyment and proof of the things of God is when the Holy Spirit is able to teach us the truth and the things of God. And this is the emphasis that the Lord Jesus places upon the person and upon the work of the Holy Spirit even before he came, telling us that he would be with you and that he shall be in you and that he would certainly bring before us what we needed to know.
In other words, and let me re-emphasize it, he is our divine teacher. with all due consideration and without any words or thought of disparagement, whatever it may be, in the way of institutions, in the way of schools, in the way of colleges, in the way of any place where the Bible supposedly is taught. May I declare whether you go to such places or not, the divine teacher of the Word of God is the Holy Spirit and His great ministry of teaching we all should realize, and not only realize, we should prove.
Many years ago as a young believer, talking to a very able and gifted servant of God of many years above my age, and expressing to him, my longings to know the Word of God, my desire to be schooled in the truth of God, The dear old servant of God put his hand upon my knee as we were sitting together. And he said, Boy, you will never have a better teacher than the Holy Spirit. I have always been grateful to God for those words of advice. And I say humbly, but I say clearly, the Holy Spirit is the divine teacher for you and for me to know the things of God.
My beloved me, I say, how are you getting along in your schooling? And I mean your spiritual schooling, your spiritual education. We shall cover in our next message further the wonderful ministry of this Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, in teaching the believer. May God help us to confess, realize, and acknowledge and prove he is the great teacher. Oh, Father, him press upon heart and conscience this great truth to all believers in the Saviour's name for his glory. Amen.