John Chapter 16:8-15

This is interesting. Speaking of the Holy Spirit being our teacher. Now, understand something. When I sit up here and I read from the Bible and I talk about spiritual truths, there's something very supernatural that happens. That is the Holy Spirit takes what I'm saying and begins to apply it to your life.

That is not something I am doing. That's something the Holy Spirit is doing in your life. You see, I can't sit there and with each individual and go, okay, you know, you need to do this and you need to do that.

And what that means is you can't do that anymore and you really need to start doing this. But the Holy Spirit does that. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. One of David McGee's associate pastors is D.A.

Brown, and he's here with us on the program today. Welcome. Bob, this is a powerful teaching.

I'm excited to be here. While there may be lots of confusion about the Holy Spirit, the truth remains that the Holy Spirit is there to point us to Jesus. Today, Pastor David helps explain the Holy Spirit and his role in our life as he continues it in the Gospel of John chapter 16.

Let's listen in now as David McGee teaches part two of The Helper. Turn with me to John 16. We got through about, I guess, nine verses last week.

A lot of stuff in the last week. We talked about keeping the main thing the main thing. And what I mean by that is that is talking to people who don't know Jesus, not about this sin or that sin, but about their lack of belief in Jesus. So now we're going to start with verse 10. Let's read verse 10. Actually, let's back up to verse eight.

And when he has come, speaking of the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more. Jesus is righteous. If Jesus would have never come, we could all, let's be honest, we could all feel a little bit better about ourselves just the way we are. You see, we can always find somebody to compare ourselves to, to feel a little bit better about where we are. We can always find somebody to compare ourselves to make our sins not seem so bad. If you have a problem with alcohol, you can always find somebody that drinks more. If you have a problem with drugs, you can always find somebody that does more drugs. If you have a boatload of problems, you can always look at some mass murderer and say, well, at least I'm not a Jeffrey Dahmer.

I can feel good about that. But when you compare yourself to Jesus, it's fairly convicting or convincing that we need help in it. See, understand God's glorious standard is perfection. And we all fall short of that.

All fall short except one. See, because of Jesus, His righteousness, the world stands convicted or convinced of our sin. Let's read on. Verse 11 of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

Now understand something. Satan, the enemy of our faith was judged and he was condemned. He lost the battle at the cross. Now, some of you may think, well, if he lost the battle, why are we still fighting?

Because he's a usurper, if you will. What I mean by that is he still is kind of living on the earth, but he's lost the battle. He's living on borrowed time, if you will.

He's living on borrowed time. And I think that we need to continue to do all we can to reach out to people. Now, this is interesting because I want you to understand. Some people think, well, you know, I know I'm going to stand trial at some point in my life, stand before God, explain my rights and wrongs. But understand for all of us our sin, the wrong things that we've done had have already been judged. In other words, we stand condemned already.

As I mentioned last week, the question is who will pay our sentence? Will we pay our sentence or will we allow Jesus to pay our sentence? Here's the thing, and we need to understand this because sometimes when we're talking with people and we're sharing with people, well, we share the wrong things, to be honest. See, sometimes we talk about our goodness and our righteousness. And understand, Romans 3.10 and 3.23 talk, there's none righteous, not one among men, among women. And all have fallen short of the glory of God, of His standard of perfection. You see, what happens is as we recognize that Jesus desires to forgive us, we ask Him to forgive us, then we're forgiven of our sins. But the amazing thing happens is then we begin to walk in spiritual pride sometimes, which is amazing when you consider Ephesians 2, 8, 9, tell us that it's by grace that we're saved.

It's a gift from God, not of works, not of the good things you've done, because if that were true, we would boast, we would brag about it. See, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us, well, Isaiah 64, 6 puts it like this, but we are all like an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.

We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. You see, your righteousness, my righteousness, while the world may think something of it, is not very impressive to God, because it still falls short of His glorious standard of perfection. Isaiah 53, 6, says, all we like sheep have gone astray, all of us.

Notice that word, all. We have turned everyone to His own way, and the Lord has laid on Him, speaking of Jesus, the iniquity of us all. See, every one of us has gone His own way, has turned astray from the Lord. And the reality is, many of us have turned back to the Lord, but you can't take pride in that. Now, verse 12, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Now, understand, there's a lot of things that Jesus wanted to say to them that they couldn't understand, they couldn't grasp until after the crucifixion, after the resurrection. And understand, and this is a beautiful thing about the Lord, our knowledge of God is progressive.

It's progressive. And just as He's being very patient, very kind with the disciples, He's that same way with us. Let me ask you a question. Is that the picture of God that you carry in your head and in your heart? Or perhaps, do you carry a different picture? Do you carry a picture of somebody that's impatient with you? Carry somebody, do you carry that, that He's sitting there going, God, you don't get this. Come on, when are you going to get this?

Come on, come on. That's not God. That is not God, according to the passage that we're in. Now, our knowledge of God and things are progressive. What does that mean? That means that at any point in your life, you're not going to know everything. You're not going to know everything. You may desire to know everything, but you're not built to know everything. Man has this desire to know what's in his future and what's around the corner.

If that wasn't so, all these 1-900 psychic lines wouldn't exist. But we have this tendency towards that, but our knowledge is progressive for a reason. God will tell us what we need to know when we need to know it. You see, God does know what's around the corner. God knows what's going to happen to you tomorrow, today, next week.

And even now, He's preparing you for that, which is a beautiful thing. I do something as I read the Bible and I still get questions that I'm not sure of the answer. And so I'll jot them down.

And what's interesting is invariably a week, two weeks, a month, three months, a year, two years, 10 years later, God gives me the answer to that question. I would encourage you to do that. I would encourage you to jot down that question.

Perhaps ask leaders here, send us an email, call us. But understand that at some point, God is going to give you that answer. And it may be when you get to heaven.

It may not be a moment before, but God will answer those questions. Now, verse 13. However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will tell you things to come.

This is interesting. It's speaking of the Holy Spirit being our teacher. Now, understand something. When I sit up here and I read from the Bible, and I talk about spiritual truths, there's something very supernatural that happens. That is the Holy Spirit takes what I'm saying and begins to apply it to your life.

That is not something I am doing. That's something the Holy Spirit is doing in your life. You see, I can't sit there and with each individual and go, okay, you know, you need to do this and you need to do that. And what that means is you can't do that anymore.

And you really need to start doing this. But the Holy Spirit does that. The Holy Spirit is our teacher.

And it's amazing that the Holy Spirit, you know, well, in Christianity today, we talk about the Holy Spirit and a lot of times we're talking about zany, crazy things and saying that's the Holy Spirit. When you see one of the main ministries of the Holy Spirit is convicting, we see in this chapter one of the main ministries of the Holy Spirit is teaching or revealing truth to us. It says that he will speak of Jesus. He will guide you in all truth. He will not speak on his own authority. This is interesting.

And I'll tell you why. Because sometimes I've spoken with people and they begin making comments like I was in this meeting and the Holy Spirit did this and the Holy Spirit did that and the Holy Spirit was moving this way and the Holy Spirit was moving that way. And as soon as they begin to say that, you know what I realized? Probably was not the Holy Spirit.

Why? Because the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus, always, no exceptions. So when somebody says to me, man, I was in a meeting or I was in church and I learned this about Jesus, or I was drawn to Jesus this way, or I saw people come to Jesus, well, then I know, ah, the Holy Spirit was at work.

Because the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. We're presenting God's Word to them here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the Pray for the Lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior, click on submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones.

And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from Associate Pastor DA Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for seven cities in our listening audience.

Raymond and Waynesboro, Mississippi, Branson, Chillicothe, Festus, Joplin, and Nevada, Missouri. Lord, thank you for everyone listening in these cities. Lord, we know that you're at work in their hearts because they're tuning in now. Lord, I pray that you would remind them of that, that you're at work.

You have a good plan. You're going to protect them. Lord, give them wisdom and discernment. Help them to not fear during these tumultuous times that we live in. Lord, help them to constantly be in prayer for their family, for their loved ones, and for their co-workers. And use them as divine ambassadors in the cities that they live in. And Lord, anyone who doesn't yet know you in these cities, we pray that you would encourage them to put their trust in you. Use us, Father, to be a blessing to them with your good news. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 14, speaking of the Holy Spirit, he continues, he, notice Jesus is saying he in regards to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an it. Please don't use it in regards to the Holy Spirit. It's a personal pronoun. You probably would feel a little funny if somebody used it towards you, wouldn't you?

I mean, you would like to be he or she. Let's read on. He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. What a blessing.

What a blessing. He's saying again that the Holy Spirit will declare biblical truth to us. Take Jesus' words. Now, and keep in mind, at this point, the Bible that they had was the Old Testament, was Hebrew Scriptures. Now, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, were illuminating the New Testament and were the foundation of the New Testament.

The Book of Revelation, you have over 800 Old Testament references, and you have Deuteronomy being the most quoted book in the gospels. And so, again, the Holy Spirit is going to take these words that we're reading this morning, and he's going to declare it to you. Now, that's an awesome thing because over and over again, the Holy Spirit does this. I don't know how many people here have had this experience, but you're going through something, you're struggling with something, and you're like, man, I just, I don't know what to do. And then you crack open the Bible in the morning for your devotional, and you go to read the passage, and right there is the verse that speaks right to your situation. That's not happenstance. That's not, the rabbis say, coincidence is not a kosher word. That's God speaking to you, giving you what you need when you need it.

It's a glorious thing that he cares that much about you to speak to your heart and your life situation. Jesus is saying he will glorify Jesus. The Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not glorify the Holy Spirit.

And that's an important thing because we all should have a sense of discernment, discerning what is right and wrong, what is flesh, what is spirit. And look at this and understand the Holy Spirit wants to do this. And so the first life lesson here is the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. If there is a gift of the Holy Spirit that's in operation, is it pointing to Jesus?

If it's not, it's not the Holy Spirit. It's an easy thing to see. It's an easy thing to see.

So use that litmus test when you're looking at these things. Now verse 15, all things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. Again, we have here in our laps, in these Bibles, the fulfillment of what Jesus was saying. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will take my words and will declare it to you. And so even in the reading of this, yeah, I've studied the Bible for many years and for a few years, every time before I studied the Bible, I would actually read these few verses because it reassured me that God wanted to reveal these things to me. You see, we get this twisted notion and actually it's sometimes reinforced by society, sometimes even reinforced by ministry where we say, well, you know, you can't really understand this book. So, you know, God put me here to kind of put me between you and God so I can explain these things to you. I'm sorry, that's not true when you look at the Bible.

The Bible says God wants to declare these things to you. Oh yeah, I'm a Bible teacher and I'm here this morning and I'm wanting to communicate biblical truth. But you know what I always remember? The story of Balaam. The story of Balaam when God spoke to Balaam through a donkey. And so that's kind of a humbling story that God often brings to my mind if I'd ever attempt to take any pride in what God is doing here to remember, yeah, God's speaking through me, but you know what? He'll use anybody.

He'll even use a donkey. God wants to speak to you. God wants to teach you. And how twisted we've gotten that we think we're chasing God around tugging on his coattails going, please teach me something.

Please show me something. Oh, there's chasing going on. But God's chasing you seeking to reveal things to you and how he longs to get quiet moments in your busy days where he can do just that. And if we'll sit and be still for long enough, I guarantee you he will speak. And again, what an awesome thing that our teacher is God. That's who is revealing biblical truth to us. And as you see Jesus interacting with these disciples who a lot of this stuff they didn't get it and he had to explain over and over, understand that's God's heart towards you. If you don't understand something, pray about it.

God, I don't understand this. Will you show me? Will you explain it to me? Will you show me a passage of scripture? God desires to teach you.

And it's not a pass or fail thing. He's not sitting there looking at your answers and going, uh-oh, 68, you're gonna take this all over again. He's not doing that.

If anything, he's going, yeah, you got two thirds right. 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 and 10. We hear verse 9 a lot, but a lot of people quote this verse and they stop. But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard nor entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. We use that passage and we go, oh, look at that.

That's a beautiful verse. It's talking about heaven. It means we can't begin to understand it, but wait, don't stop.

Read the next verse. But God has revealed to them to us through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, just the deep things of God. God wants to reveal these things to us. God wants to reveal these things to us.

That's his desire. And we're actually told a few verses later in 1 Corinthians 2, 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

There's so many examples of this scripture. If you've ever tried to sit and talk to somebody that wasn't following Jesus, that didn't know Jesus, and you're talking to him about scriptural, spiritual, biblical things, and many times they don't get it. You ever tried to explain to an unbeliever about tithing? They're not going to get it. When you honor God with your first fruits, somehow you're more blessed.

They're not going to get it. And see, that reminds us of the point from last week, keep the main thing the main thing. The thing that an unbeliever needs to be convinced of is none of this other stuff. It's simply this, Jesus Christ died for your sins.

So that you can be forgiven and be in right, restored relationship with him. Now understand, according to this, whenever you understand biblical truth, that's a God thing. God has shown you that. God has revealed that to you through the Holy Spirit. God showed you.

Now, let me say something that may be obvious, but let's make sure we understand this. God revealed it to you. Any spiritual truth that you have, any spiritual truth that I have at this moment in this place, God has revealed to me. What does that mean? Well, that means at some point I didn't know it. I didn't understand it, but God revealed it to me.

Well, why is that important? There's people in your life. There's people in my life. They're not getting it. They're not getting it. They're not understanding it. And I have to be honest, every now and again, I get impatient with that. And to be even more honest, the closer they are to me, the more frustrated I get that they're not getting it.

Isn't that amazing? Because at one time, I didn't understand it. God revealed it to me. But now in turn, I'm going to get frustrated with somebody else that doesn't get it, even though God is the one that revealed it to me.

And God will be the one to reveal it to others. Oh, He may use you. He may not. He may use others. He may use the Word.

He may use the internet, television, radio. Oh, I know those things have been used for all kinds of ungodly purposes, but the awesome thing is God is using those things for His purpose as well. And God will communicate to those people. And when they get it, well, it won't be you.

It'll be God. You may be the vehicle that He uses, but it's going to be God who communicates to that person. The life lesson here, God desires to teach us. God desires to teach us. God's wanting to reveal His truth, His Word to us. His Word to us. He desires to use the Bible, use the Holy Spirit, uses Bible teachers, uses people, uses situation, uses experience. He teaches us about life and death and heaven and sin and joy and love. He wants to teach us about all these things. What an awesome, awesome thing.

And again, let's understand His nature. I'm a father. I have three children. When they were first walking, yeah, I was so for them. They didn't take a couple of steps and them fall down and me go, oh, what are you doing? You're not trying. Get up from there.

I didn't, hopefully you didn't do that. No, I was like, oh, come on, let's get up. Let's try again. I'm an earthly, sinful father. If I, as an earthly father, I'm looking at my children like that, how much more God the Father is looking at you going, oh, come on, you fell, but let's get up again. Here, let me help you. Let me show you here, you know, kind of balance yourself.

Take, go one leg, go one foot at a time. That's what He wants to do in your life. And anything that you have in your mind and your heart or in your experiences that tells you something else, friend, loved one, you got to let go of that because that's not God. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be saved. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

So congratulations, friend, you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12-515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free, so folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.