The Holy Spirit Our Helper — John 16

0:00 Morning, everyone. As, as I was just singing that song, I was really appreciating, the fact that the Lord will hold us fast. And parents, have you ever you ever dropped your kids? Have you ever gone to change them and hit their head on the side of the bed? I'm just grateful that the Lord is strong and and can always hold on to us.

0:28 Just singing that with my son in my arms is so precious. Let's just commit our time to the Lord. Dear Lord, we're just grateful to be here. Thank you that we could remember your son, the Lord Jesus this morning and his death on the cross and what he's done for us. And just even as we're, singing this morning that, he will hold us fast, that we're in your hand and we're secure and we're safe.

0:57 Thank you that our salvation doesn't depend on anything that we do, just all of the work of Christ. And we're just grateful for that this morning. We pray that your blessing upon this time, that we could open your word and that we could learn from it and and be edified and encouraged. We just commit this time to you in the lord Jesus name. Amen.

1:16 So, I was considering what to do for a topic this morning and I'd like to look at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And if you like to open your Bibles to four different passages, it's really three different sections. We're gonna be in John chapter fourteen and sixteen. So right kitty corner to each other. That's Galatians five as well and Romans chapter eight.

1:41 So those are the three primary passages that we're gonna be in. But you might remember I was up here about a month ago just going through some of the basics of Christianity about renewing our love for Christ. I was thinking about how might be good to remember and to really understand who the Holy Spirit is and what his role is in our life. You might have some questions in your life as you're going through life, living the Christian life. How do I live it?

2:14 How can I have help? How can I have victory over sin in my life? And certainly these are very valid questions which I think we can gain some understanding and some answers by looking at the doctrine of who the Holy Spirit is. If you take a look at John chapter 16 and verse seven, This is the Lord Jesus speaking. He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.

2:45 For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And that helper there, that's the Holy Spirit. So Jesus was talking to his disciples and he was saying that I'm gonna go away but I'm not leaving you alone. I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit to you and he's going to help you and be your helper.

3:11 And that is the overarching title that I would give this is that the Holy Spirit is our helper. He's the believer's helper. And just first of all, how is he our helper? Go to one verse in Romans eight. Actually it's two verses.

3:31 I'd like to start off with this even though it's kind of at the end of a argument in Romans because I think it shows the tenderness of who the Holy Spirit is. Romans chapter eight verses twenty six and twenty seven, it says this, likewise the spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows that what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

4:19 And so we can see from that verse that you know, there are certainly times in our life where we have struggles, where we have weaknesses, where we have trials and tribulations. And in it, it's in those times of of weaknesses that we might find ourselves crying out to the Lord. And I don't know if you have had this experience, but sometimes you pray to the Lord and you don't know what to ask for. You don't know what to say. And all you can do is say, Lord, help me.

4:50 And it's in those times that the Lord that he sent his holy spirit to be with us and that he helps us and he intercedes to the Lord God on our behalf. It says that he would intercede for the saints according to the will of God when we would not know what to pray. Recently, when my wife was in the hospital, I had one of those moments where she had come just out of surgery and I didn't get to see her in most of her recovery but I got to see some of the symptoms when you come off of the anesthesia. And certainly it was a fearful thing to see your wife not having struggling to breathe and just in that moment I didn't know what to pray. All could do was to cry out to the Lord and ask for help in that situation and He certainly did.

5:47 And I was just experiencing the Holy Spirit and how He would help us as Christians in our prayers. And so that's who the Holy Spirit is. He's the helper of the believer. The next is the Holy Spirit, He's the judge of the world. Go to John chapter 16, if you have your finger in it.

6:58 Now what does that word conviction mean? You might traditionally think of a courtroom scene where you know, maybe a criminal comes out or whatever kind of case it is and the judge would smack the gavel and say guilty on all charges. But I think what I want to gather from that, it's not that the Holy Spirit is a, it's a spirit of condemnation, but when you are in that courtroom, you picture that scene, when you hear that that phrase guilty or even innocent, you know clearly and you understand clearly what what the ruling is. And and that's what the Holy Spirit does for the unbeliever. He would help the unbeliever to be convicted of sin.

7:49 To understand their sin. You know, you might remember back to your time in your life when you're understanding your sin and how your sin separates you from a holy God. And that the only way to be freed from the penalty penalty of sin is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. And so that's one of the roles that the Holy Spirit has that he would help understand and and just give clarity to the world regarding sin and the separation that sin has between the unbeliever and the Lord God of heaven. And then I had to have a little help here on on this one but it says that he's of righteousness.

8:38 So convict the world of sin and of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more. Well, what's Christ saying here? What is the the holy spirit doing? How is he helping? Well, the believers bible commentary helped me in it.

8:56 Specifically, the Lord Jesus. You see at this time, the Pharisees and the different religious leaders, they were actually accusing Christ of being from Satan. They were actually accusing him to be false and so what he's saying here is that when he leaves and that the holy spirit, he would come, he would actually testify and and make it clear to the world that Jesus is true and that he is righteous and that he's the only way to the father. And then finally, you have the holy spirit and that he would reveal to the world regarding judgment. And we see this in in the testimony or in the in the temptation of Jesus when you you see the judgment against Satan and how does how does Jesus Christ combat that?

9:51 Well, he combats that by the power of the holy spirit using the scriptures And we see the the defeat of Satan there. And we also see the defeat of Satan when Christ went to the cross. It says that when he went to the cross that he defeated Satan and the power of death and he he did that when he died and then he rose again by the holy spirit's power. And so there there we just see the role of the holy spirit just as a judge, as someone that would bring clarity to the world regarding sin, righteousness and judgment. And I think there's a lot of different...

11:01 You don't have to convince them. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict them of their sin. All you're doing is is explaining to them from the scriptures and reasoning to with someone regarding their sin. And how do we do that? Well, we use the sword of the spirit.

11:18 That's what the word of god is. It's the sword of the spirit. We use the word of god. Ephesians six seventeen says, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god and so we use that standard and the the holy spirit uses that word when you actually would read or even quote the scriptures word for word to somebody. The spirit uses that in a person's life to convict them of sin and so it's just a great comfort on on the believer's side as well that you don't have this this great urge to convince somebody.

11:57 You certainly can give understanding but you're definitely relying on the Holy Spirit and His work in the world to convict that person of sin. There's many different ways of doing that. You might use the law, you might go through the 10 commandments, you might use the different new teaching that Christ gives in the New Testament. You know in Matthew five, six and seven where He really gets down to the heart of the different issues. But you're using the sword of the spirit and that's your tool.

12:33 And so that's just the way that I've seen the holy spirit working in the world and aiding the believer. And so moving on, we're gonna go to how the spirit is a helper but he's the teacher of the believer. He's the teacher of the believer. Go over to John 14. John 14.

12:57 And in verse 16, it says, And I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he dwells with you and will be with you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. So not only do we see in God's word the tenderness of who the Holy Spirit is, but in this passage we see the tenderness of Christ.

13:37 He was saying to his disciples, I don't wanna leave you orphans. I wanna care for you while I'm gone and so I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit to you. And specifically, he's the spirit of truth and he's gonna guide us into all truth. And so we just see the Lord's care for the believer as He would send the believer down or excuse me, the Holy Spirit down to be indwelling in the believer and to help them and to be the spirit of truth. We're going to see how He's going to guide us into truth as well.

14:15 In that same chapter, how is the Holy Spirit a teacher? Well in that same chapter verse twenty five and twenty six says, these things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the helper, the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. You might come across this question. You might ask yourself studying the New Testament and maybe a more of a academic way, but how did the apostles write down the scriptures?

14:54 How do they remember? How do they write down all of their different accounts? Now my kind of my viewpoint is a little bit skewed by watching The Chosen so I I watch you know, those different scenes where you have Matthew and I think it's in that one scene where he's up on the roof and you know, he's making his little notes and you know, maybe to remind himself of later what's going on. You know, he's a he's a tax collector but I'd like to think that maybe not all the apostles had written all the different details down. And so how would the apostles go and write scripture?

15:29 What's the way in which they did it? Well, the Lord would use their memory. The fact that He would send the Holy Spirit to them and we're gonna study certainly more on that in the book of Acts. But that He would bring remembrance to them. That He would use their memory to bring to remembrance all the different things that Christ said.

15:52 All the different experiences they had. The time that they were in the garden. I can just imagine, you know, John sitting down writing his gospel, writing the things that happened and the holy spirits aiding him and and reminding him of all the different things that he went through with the lord Jesus and even that the the lord went and suffered all those different things and so it's not necessarily some sort of mystical thing of the holy spirit being in the apostles and and writing scripture. No, he used their memory and he used their experiences so that when we read it today, we can connect with it, right? It's it's the apostle John communicating to us thousands of years later by the holy spirit making relevant, making it relevant to us today.

16:45 Second Peter chapter one and verses twenty and twenty one says, knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And so you can just see how the Holy Spirit was used or he used the apostles to write the scriptures down for us. Now, how does that happen in our lives? Well, I think you can imagine in your life, the Lord does the same thing.

17:24 I find times when I'm reading the scriptures that something pops into my head. Some verse or some phrase, some hymn and I believe that that's the holy spirit in our in our quiet times and in our conversations with other people, in our fellowship with one another. The Holy Spirit brings to mind different references and different experiences and so it says that he would bring remembrance of all the things that that he said to us. You can think even back to your own testimony. I'm sure many of us can can remember maybe in in quite vivid detail or maybe you just have a a big season in your life where you can remember your testimony and the lord allows you and and keeps you to remember your testimony as you go out in life and go through life and of that time when he spoke personally to you in your conversion.

18:22 So, we just see the the Holy Spirit's role in our life. That he'd be a helper. He'd help he would bring things to mind as we're going through our lives. But not only that, take a look at John chapter 16 and verses 13 through 15. How how else does he teach the believer?

19:10 All things that the father has are mine. Therefore, I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. You know, one of the most important things that the Holy Spirit can remind us and instruct us on is who is Jesus Christ and where does he pop up in scripture? That might be a help for some of us when you're reading scripture and you're trying to understand the passage. Well, you could ask yourself, what is this or how is this related to who Jesus is?

19:43 How does it reveal to me more about who the lord Jesus is and what he came to do? It says that the holy spirit would come and he would glorify Christ that he would take of all of what Christ says and reveal it to us. So, just some of the most important things, one of the most important things that we could understand by the spirit is who exactly is Christ and what he has done for us and what he does in our personal lives. So here we see that the Holy Spirit is our helper. He's our teacher to guide us and and help us to learn what is truth and who is the truth.

20:31 The fourth thing is that he's the indweller of the believer. Go back over with me to Romans chapter eight. The fact that a believer has the holy spirit in their life, it's almost synonymous with being a believer that you're you're a temple of the Holy Spirit. It's one of the signs of a true believer that you have the spirit working in your life. Romans eight and verse nine, right in the middle it says, now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his.

21:07 Well, that's saying if you don't have the spirit of Christ, you're not the Lord's. Well, spin the logic. If you are his, then you have the spirit of Christ. If we all we had was that verse, we could understand that when we are the Lord Jesus Christ, when we believe on him for salvation, we have the spirit. But then we also have verse 16.

21:29 It says, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And so when you and I put our faith in the Lord Jesus, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And that's one of the signs that you can see and you can tell that someone is a true believer that they have the Holy Spirit. How does that work? How does it work that you see the Holy Spirit in a person's life?

22:01 Well we have that phrase or that nice song that comes from Galatians five. So Galatians five verses twenty two and twenty three. It says that the fruit of the spirit, so when you have the spirit working in your life, the fruit of that is love, joy, peace, long suffering or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control against such there is no law. And so when you and I see someone and we see these non natural attributes, these these law, this love, this joy, and this patience exhibited by somebody, that's an evidence that we can see the Holy Spirit working in their life. And we can see that the spirit of God is indwelling them and working through them.

22:54 We're gonna see a little bit more and talk a little bit more about that sort of that dynamic of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life. So all believers, they have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And then the last thing is that the Holy Spirit is the leader of the believer. Go to John chapter three. John chapter three.

23:43 Well, this is for me the the easiest way to understand it is when Jesus Christ was having this discussion with Nicodemus. How does this work out? How do we see the holy spirit in a believer's life? Verses five through eight, Jesus answered, most assuredly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit.

24:15 Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. So Christ is just reiterating that when you're born again, you get the spirit and you're born of the spirit. And how is this? How is it to walk the Christian life and have the spirit indwell you? Well verse eight says, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes.

24:44 So is everyone who is born of the spirit. When the spirit is in your life, when the spirit is in someone else's life, there's some connection and some thing that you really can't explain. I can't explain to you the physical or or spiritual or the the connection of the spiritual and physical at that. All I can say is it's like the wind. You and I can't see the wind but we see the winds effects and it what it has on other things when we see things blowing in the wind and so it is when you and I have the spirit in our lives and and we see it evident in someone else's life.

25:24 We see the effects that the Holy Spirit has in that person's life. When we see that fruit, when we see them doing things that that are not natural to the to the human condition. It's not natural for us to want to be selfless, to want to learn patience. And so that's how we see that dynamic of the spirit of God working in our hearts. So, how do we follow?

25:50 So, it's it's the the spirit's job to lead us and he's the one that leads us and helps us. How do we follow? Go over to Galatians chapter five and in the in the beginning. It says, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. And do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

26:17 Indeed, I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. This is a non example. This is not what it means to be led by the spirit. We're not to go back to the law, to go back to following a whole bunch of rules because we know that when we saw the law and even as we read the all the history of the Old Testament that Israel couldn't keep the law.

26:53 You and I can't keep the law. We know that when we look at it, we try and follow it, we fail and so, even as we lead the Christian life, it's the same idea. We we don't go back to the law as our our daily thing to be reminded. How do we live the Christian life? Well, says later in that same chapter of Galatians five, it says in verses 16 through 18, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

27:29 Walk in the spirit. So we're gonna follow the spirit's leading and the spirit in our life. It says that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

28:21 Those things that just so come so natural to you but you have the spirit of god in your life and he uses the scriptures that you know and and that you study and bring brings remembrance of those scriptures and and you maybe have those times when when you're led to do a certain thing but the the holy spirit says to you and maybe that still small voice he says, no. The lord would not be pleased. Go and do this and said and there's some more study that can be done but there's so many more different passages and different teachings in Galatians that it talks about all of the different works of the flesh but it says, replace all of those with these things, the activities that we can be doing as a body. The the idea of praying with one another, the of serving with one another. Those are the things that the Holy Spirit of God would lead us to do to replace those different things of of the flesh and replace those with the spiritual things like serving one another and praying for one another.

29:29 And so that's how we can be helped by the Holy Spirit and that's how he would lead us. And maybe just some three applications there. How would the Holy Spirit lead us? Well these I would say come from that great, those four pillars and I'm gonna go over three of them in Acts two forty two. By prayer, we already talked about how when we pray and maybe we don't understand or we don't know what to pray for or even who to pray for, the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer.

30:04 And I think too, it's just a wonderful thing that we would get with someone else to pray with them. And the Holy Spirit would lead us to do that and help us in those times. But also reading the word to fuel that new nature, to help us in the walk of the Christian life. The fact that we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, when we read God's word and we put that into our life, the Holy Spirit brings that remembrance to us. So maybe maybe you read the scriptures on a daily basis and maybe every day it's not, you know, really it's like you have this tremendous zeal or you have this great connection with the lord Jesus.

30:48 Maybe it goes up and down but I encourage you to keep doing that because when we read the word of god and when we memorize it, he'll use that even years later and he'll bring that to mind and he'll bring the word to mind in our in our life. That's the holy spirit remembering the word that we that we read. And then the last thing was would just be to have fellowship with other believers. When we're together with other believers and talking about the word and the spirit is amongst us and we can see the spirit of God leading us. So just as we close, what or how do we see the holy spirits working in our life and who is the holy spirit?

32:00 That He's the indweller. He's in our lives. He's indwelling us. That we're a temple of the Holy Spirit. How do we see that?

32:09 Well, we see that in the evidence of the fruit of the spirit. When we see others, we see that fruit in our life. The the love and the joy and the peace and last of all, he's the leader. The spirit would lead us and we would follow him. Let's just close our time in a word of prayer.

32:28 Lord, we're grateful this morning that we can go over these these different things of who the lord is in our life, who the holy spirit is in our life, the fact that he's our helper, The fact that we when we don't know what to pray and who to pray for that he brings things to mind and he also intercedes on our behalf and there's just so many other ways that he's a helper to us. Lord, just impress these truths on our hearts and help us help us to apply it to our lives today. We just commit this time to you and pray this in the lord Jesus name. Amen.