The Spirit of Truth Part 4
As we continue our study of the Holy Spirit, to make much of Him, the third Person of the Trinity, we look at more reasons of how valuable He is to us. As a believer, you could say as the fiery pillar led Israel thru the wilderness, so the Spirit of truth will lead us thru our entire journey ahead. Both the Father and the Son have sent the Spirit. (John 14:26, John 15:26) There is a perfect unity in the Godhead, perfect unity between them, perfect love coming from them. Oh, let us not forget as the saints of God our not giving the rightful glory that is indeed due to the third Person of the trinity. He is as indispensable to us as is the Father and the Son. Two wonderful examples of what the Spirit can do.
The Spirit can take an English tinker, without learning, patronage, or money, a man at one time notorious for nothing so much as blasphemy and swearing, and make that man write a religious book, which will stand unrivalled and unequalled in its way by any since the time of the Apostles. He has done so already. He did it with John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress. The Spirit can take a sailor, drenched in worldliness and sin, a profligate captain of a slave-ship, and make that man a most successful minister of the Gospel, a writer of letters, which are a storehouse of experimental religion, and of hymns which are known and sung wherever English is spoken. He has done it already, He did it with John Newton.
In John 14:16, Jesus says that He will give us another Helper. G. Campbell Morgan states," It gives us and suggests the thought of an active friendship. The Spirit will come, not to plead with God for men, that is the work of Jesus, but to plead with men for God, to intercede with men for God, to intercede with men for Christ, and to win, by His intercession, the whole territory of man's being for the dominance of the living Lord, Whom He represents." The Greek word for helper is Paraclitos, Para, means alongside, like parallel, klitos means to call somebody alongside. Called alongside for anything you need, anything you need. An intercessor, Advocate, comforter, encourager, teacher, one to warn, a wiser One, a more powerful One, a more knowledgeable One.
Commentator Alexander MacLaren states, "He is a Person, not merely a vague influence, but a Divine Person who will be by our sides on condition of our faith, love, and obedience, to be our strength in all weakness, our peace in all trouble, our wisdom in all darkness, our guide in every perplexity, our comforter and cherisher, our Righteousness when sin is strong, the Victor over our temptations, and the companion and sweetener of our solitude." Jesus said He would send "Another Helper" to us. What kind of Helper is He referring to when He said "Another Helper? Next week, Lord willing, we will see what Jesus meant by another Helper, and what the result should like in our lives with "Another Helper" being not only with us but in us.
Elder Randy Slak
08/01/2023