Turn with me to the fourteenth chapter of
John's Gospel, and I want to draw your
attention to two verses in this portion that
we read.
The Lord Jesus is making a promise, a
promise that He's going to pray the greatest
prayer He ever uttered, because if you look
at verse twelve, He prefaces His words this
way, Verily, verily, truly, truly, there is no
doubt about it, I say unto you, He
that believeth on Me, the works that I
do, shall he do also.
Hold it.
And greater works than these shall he do.
What greater works than Christ did on earth?
Yes, greater works shall he do, because I
go unto my Father.
The ministry of Christ was limited in its
scope when He was upon earth, because He
kept to the confines of the Holy Land.
And only once, a tyrant cited, did He
go over the border to another land.
But when Pentecost came, Christ's ministry went to
the ends of the earth.
And the last words that He spoke was,
Go ye into all the world.
And the greatest works are the works that
have been done across the whole world.
But that rested on verse sixteen and verse
seventeen.
And I will pray the Father.
It's not very often that you find in
Scripture a prophecy concerning prayer.
But here we have a prophecy concerning prayer.
And that prophecy says this.
It says, I will pray the Father, and
He shall give you another Comforter.
I am your Comforter.
Today, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also of me.
But I'm going to send another Comforter who
will never, ever leave you.
He'll be with you while you live.
He'll be with you when you die.
He'll be with you for all eternity.
That He may abide with you forever.
The Lord Jesus had to leave His disciples.
They stood with their eyes toward the heaven.
But Christ had left them.
But the Holy Spirit will never leave the
church.
This is the greatest prayer that Christ ever
offered.
Even the Spirit of truth from the world
cannot receive.
Because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him.
But ye know Him, for He dwelleth with
you.
Be in you.
Shall be in you.
Old John Newton, the slaver, the blasphemer, the
drunkard, and the villain, was gloriously converted to
God.
He wrote his testimony, and that hymn we
love to sing, Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me.
And one day he was preaching, and he
said this.
There are some books I cannot read.
They are good enough and sound enough, but
what I call books of half pennies.
You have to take them and read such
a quantity of them before you get any
value.
They are half penny books, and it takes
a lot of half pennies to make a
pound.
But there are other books.
Some of them I call them silver books.
And some of them I call gold books.
But there is one book.
And that is a book of banknotes, and
every leaf is a banknote of immense.
I have two banknotes in this text today,
for what a text it is.
It would be impossible for me to expound
it today in the short time that is
mine.
But take your Bible and mark some things
that are worth marking.
First of all, mark Christ's prayer.
It is a prayer that he says he
is going to make.
He has not made it yet.
But thank God now it is in the
past tense, for he did make it.
For he made it when he went into
heaven and he prayed to the Father.
So it starts with the prophecy of Christ's
prayer.
And then it goes on to underscore the
petition of Christ's prayer.
Christ's petition.
He shall send you another Comforter.
The Comforter has come in the person of
the glorious Spirit of God.
And then look again and you will find
Christ's promise.
He may abide with you forever.
This is not a blessing that will pass
away.
This is not a second blessing that does
not bring a third or a fourth or
a fifth or a sixth or a thousandth.
A man said to me one day, have
you got the second blessing?
I said yes and I have thousands and
thousands of blessings.
For he has blessed us with two blessings.
It does not say that in the Bible.
He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
All of them.
They are all yours.
Do not look miserable.
Do not look as if the sun is
never going to shine again and it is
going to be a wet day tomorrow.
Look happy.
For the blessings are all ours in Christ.
What a blesser this Savior is.
And then look with me next and you
will see that Christ here utters a prohibition.
He says the world cannot receive the Holy
Ghost.
You will remember this but of the beautiful
and wonderful type in the Old Testament.
You had a dove.
Do you remember that Noah sent the dove
out?
But the dove did not stay on earth.
Because the earth could not receive that dove.
Because that dove was a perfect type of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And here we have the fulfillment of the
type.
What is the fulfillment of the type?
The Holy Spirit cannot be received by the
world.
There are many meeting houses open today across
the United Kingdom.
But there are many meeting houses where the
Spirit of God will be absent.
Because they are worldly meeting houses.
But the world cannot receive the Holy Ghost.
You cannot be a worldly and know the
infilling of the Spirit of God.
For when the Spirit of God comes, the
world, hallelujah, goes out.
Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world.
If you are truly born again, you will
not love the world, nor you will not
love the things that are in the world.
But then we have Christ's pledge.
And He says, the Spirit of truth is
going to come.
And He says, ye know Him.
What a pledge is that?
How did they know Him?
Because the Holy Ghost is Christ's other person.
Have you seen me?
He said, you have seen the Father.
And if you have seen me, you have
seen the Holy Ghost.
And the Holy Ghost has one job.
Not to speak of Himself, but to speak
of Jesus.
And when you are filled with the Spirit
of God, you have an inner witness in
your heart, and something happens, you see Jesus.
Do you want to get to see Jesus?
Get filled with the Holy Ghost.
He is the only one that can reveal.
And then we have Christ's power here.
And Christ says, He dwelleth with you and
shall be in you.
The blessed Holy Spirit releases on our life
the power of Christ.
Christ baptizes with the Holy Ghost and fire.
Maybe you understand now why I said I
would not have very much time to handle
this text.
For this text is a sheet of banknotes.
And they are all made in my favor.
And when I draw them, I will never
be bankrupt.
I will always be in cash.
Because these are up to deal.
Everyday promises.
Let's live in the enjoyment of.
Let's live in the power of.
Now let me come to them, if I
may.
We will not get through them all, but
we will do our best.
Christ's prayer here.
We find Him, He says, I will pray
the Father.
Here is the glorious prayer.
And the greatest prayer that Christ was going
to offer.
The whole history of the Christian church has
been successful down through the years.
Because Christ sent the Holy Spirit and the
Father answered His prayer.
Every work that has been done.
Every revival that has come about.
Every mission work that has been opened.
Every missionary that has been sent.
Every martyr that has died.
Every church that has preached the gospel.
Every evangelist who ever won souls.
Because Christ offered this prayer.
Thank God He has sent the blessed Holy
Spirit of God.
Do you feel the Spirit in your heart?
Is there a warmth in your heart as
you lift the Bible?
Is there a warmth in your soul when
you read the Holy Scriptures?
Because the Scriptures were in-breathed by the
Spirit of God.
And this book is the sword of the
Spirit.
The Spirit sword.
What a book it is.
Full of truth.
Full of righteousness.
You know there is everything in this book.
Nothing new in the world.
It is all in the book.
I had a very interesting happening this week.
I was asked to go to the eco
center.
You say, what's that?
Well, I don't know what it is.
But it's in my constituency.
And it is to do with the enterprise
of the government in making inquiries and looking
for new inventions.
And you know the farmers are troubled with
the curse of nitrates.
And of course there is a whole controversy
with Europe on that subject.
So this was an international conference.
And they invited my wife's husband of all
people to Oman.
I don't know why.
There were men there from China.
There were men there from practically all the
continents of the world.
And all the large countries of the world.
Most interesting gathering.
And as I was reading over the paper,
I discovered that the top man in this
conference had said this.
The only way to purify water and get
the curse of nitrates out of it is
to build channels beside the rivers.
And I looked at it.
I said, I wonder did that man ever
read the Bible.
Because that's what the Bible said the Egyptians
did.
You remember when the river was turned into
water, they dug channels beside the river to
get the water.
Because the water seeped through the land.
And the land had the potential of purifying
the water.
And here's a man now telling the world
this is the solution.
So when I was introduced to him, he's
a very important professor.
I am of course a possessor, which is
better than a professor.
And I had a good talk with him.
And I said, you have been in Egypt,
sir.
He says, I don't know what you mean.
Oh, I said, you must have visited Egypt.
Because you are telling us something that the
Egyptians did in their wisdom.
And I said, they did something, they dug
the channels.
He didn't know, but I informed him.
And I said, of course they were trying
to cure the blood waters of the polluted
river that God had judged.
But the answer was beside the river in
the channel that could be dug.
And he said, that's very interesting.
So when we were making our inaugural address
to that great international conference, I exclaimed this
to them all.
Man, they got their eyes open.
I said, I believe in the Bible.
And I believe it's true.
And I've got the answer in the Bible
before you boys can get it.
And I said, I got it down in
Egypt.
Man, have you ever seen their faces?
The old China man, his head nearly fell
off.
Well, he wasn't old, he was a young
China man.
I better not get into trouble with him.
And why we had a great time.
The Bible is God's book.
You'll get all the answers in this book.
This book of God.
And here we have an untiring intercession given
to us.
The Holy Spirit makes intercession for the sinless.
With groanings that cannot be offered.
The inoperable groanings of the Spirit of God
in the blood washed hearts of Christians.
It's when that happens in your life, you
become an instrument of revival.
When you go home this afternoon, after you
get your roast beef.
And I hope you don't eat it with
unbelief.
Eat it with faith, then it will do
you good.
You take the book of Romans and take
the 8th chapter.
And you'll find that the 8th chapter of
the book of Romans is the chapter of
the Holy Spirit of God.
28 times in that chapter, 26 times, you'll
find the mention of the Spirit of God.
You know what you do?
You put your pen under the 26 references.
And then go back and look at those
26 references.
And you will find 10, 12 rather, 10
wonderful things about the Spirit of God.
You'll find, first of all, the law of
the Spirit.
You'll find, secondly, the walk of the Spirit.
You'll find, thirdly, the things of the Spirit.
You'll find, fourthly, the life of the Spirit.
You'll find, fifthly, the leading of the Spirit.
You'll find, sixthly, the cry of the Spirit.
You'll find, seventhly, the witness of the Spirit.
And you'll try, eighthly, the first fruit of
the Spirit.
And then you'll find the intercession of the
Spirit.
The ninth one, then the tenth one, you'll
find the mind of the Spirit.
And there's something precious in every one of
them.
Oh, that we could learn as believers the
law of the Spirit.
Oh, that we could learn to walk in
the Spirit.
Oh, that we could study the things of
the Spirit.
Oh, that we might know the life of
the Spirit.
Oh, that we might know the leading of
the Spirit.
Oh, that we might know the cry of
the Spirit.
Oh, that we might know the witness of
the Spirit.
Oh, that we might know the first fruit
of the Spirit.
Oh, that we might know the intercession of
the Spirit.
Oh, that we might know the mind of
the Spirit.
So, my friend, we need to know the
Holy Ghost.
We need to know the Holy Ghost.
Get acquainted with the Spirit of God.
For He is, as I have already said,
the One that reveals Christ.
You'll never see Jesus except the Holy Ghost
shows you Christ.
He's the only one that can show us
Christ.
Oh, may He show us Christ in His
passion on the cross, in the loveliness of
His face, in the beauty of His eyes,
in the sweetness of His lips, and in
the glory of His person.
Oh, Samuel Rutherford, the bride eyes not her
bridegroom, but her dear bridegroom's face.
I will not gaze on glory, but on
the King of Grace.
Not at the crown He gifteth, but on
His pierced hand.
The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's
land.
Brethren and sisters in Christ, to see Jesus
is the greatest thing that we can do.
And the old Paul, the prisoner, he wrote
and said, Look unto Jesus.
Why?
Because He's the author and the finisher.
It's a great thing to be in at
the beginning.
It's a better thing to be at the
end that never ends.
He's the author and He's the finisher of
our faith.
Could I close by asking you just to
look at this second one, Christ's petition.
He shall send you another comforter.
Christ had to depart from heaven, and the
Holy Spirit couldn't come from heaven until Jesus
went in and sprinkled His blood before and
on the mercy seat.
And when His blood was sprinkled from heaven,
the blessed Father answered His Son's prayer, and
the Spirit of God came down to earth.
For a period, no, He's going to dwell
with the saints forever.
He'll never leave us.
He'll never forsake us.
He'll be with us to the end of
the journey.
Mr. Spurgeon used to say the three persons
of the Holy Trinity mutually promise on one
another's behalf There's a bond of three holy
names appended to every promise in the Bible.
It's the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost.
We have a divinely sealed promise.
And this promise here of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost
stands.
There's a hymn that says, He abides.
And praise God, He does.
He abides.
Hallelujah, He abides with me.
I'm rejoicing night and day as I walk
the pilgrim's way for the Comforter.
See to it that you take the Holy
Ghost in your heart everywhere you go.
Don't grieve Him away.
Don't quench Him.
Don't disobey Him.
He's given to those that obey Him.
Obey Him today.
Accede to every one of His commandments.
Do what He wants you to do.
Then in fellowship sweet, we will sit at
Jesus' feet.
We'll walk by His side on the way.
While we do His goodwill.
He abides with us still and with all
who will trust and obey.
I trust the Spirit of God will come
upon all our hearts and all our souls
and all our minds.
And this day will be a crossroads where
we'll leave the old dead way of Christianity.
The old dead way of just reading the
Bible quickly.
Of just rushing in to our knees and
having a few words with God and rushing
out again.
God wants our time.
He wants ourselves.
He loved us so much that He gave
us some for us.
Let us give ourselves back to Him and
know the power of the Holy Ghost in
our hearts for Jesus' sake.
Let's bow our heads.
Father, we thank Thee for the sweetness of
the divine presence.
And we thank Thee that You have spoken
to our hearts today.
Speak on to our hearts.
And use us to Your glory for Jesus'
sake.
Amen.