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WEEKLY
Volume 3 Number 41
8 March 2009
Another Comforter
(Message
delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the Worship Service, 2:00 pm, Mar 8, 09)
Text:
John 14:15-26
What do you usually do
when you are going overseas and have to leave your children behind?
Surely, you will ask your parents, your siblings or your relatives to
take care of them while you are away. How about a shepherd? Can he leave
his sheep alone and just go away for a few days? If he is a true and
good shepherd, he will never do that because he knows that his sheep
need his care, guidance, and protection and that without him they would
go astray and be helpless victims of fierce animals. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, our good Divine Shepherd, never abandons His sheep as He truly
loves them, even “giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11) and
He promises, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John
10:28). Thank God and praise the Lord!
If we are God’s true
children and our Lord’s true sheep, we shall never be abandoned,
forsaken or left alone, “for he hath said, I will never leave thee,
nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5). Praise the Lord! Our Lord Jesus Christ
comforted and encouraged His disciples to trust in Him, even as in God
before His crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension because He
would never leave them alone but would send another Comforter to be with
them and in them forever, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe
in God, believe also in me…And I will pray the Father, and he shall give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever…I will not
leave you comfortless (fatherless, orphaned): I will come to you”
(John 14:1, 16, 18). Then what does another Comforter mean to you and me
and what are our proper attitudes towards Him?
Another Comforter
Some cults like the
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity nor the Divine
Personality of the Holy Spirit. They believe that the Holy Spirit is
only an impersonal power or influence, and that belief is heresy because
the Holy Scriptures testify that the Holy Spirit is God with a Divine
Personality like God the Father and God the Son.
Even though “spirit” is
neuter in Greek pneúma, which means breath, wind, spirit,
and is feminine in Hebrew, ruach, the Holy Spirit is the
“Comforter” (John 4:16), a masculine noun in Greek, paráklētos,
which
means comforter, helper, intercessor, advocate. This term has
only five occurrences in the New Testament: four times it refers to the
Holy Spirit as the Comforter (John 14:16; 26; 15:26; 16:7), and once to
Jesus Christ as “an advocate” (1 John 2:1). Moreover, the Holy Spirit is
replaced with a masculine pronoun “He” in Greek, ekeínos when
Jesus said to the disciples in John 14:26, “But the Comforter, which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he (ekeínos)
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.” And in verse 16, Jesus used the
Greek term állos, which means another of the same sort,
and not heteros, which means another of a different sort,
like “another (a different) gospel” (Gal 1:6). Then, Jesus Himself is
God with His Divine Personality and attributes, so is the Holy Spirit
with His Divine Personality and attributes. As the Lord Jesus Christ is
the Comforter, Advocate, or Intercessor, “My little children, these
things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate (paráklētos)
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1), the Holy
Spirit is another Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor or Helper with the
same ministry as Jesus did to His disciples when He was on earth. Praise
the Lord! We are not comfortless, orphaned, fatherless, neglected,
forsaken, or abandoned as we have two Comforters: one is our Saviour
Jesus Christ, who is with God the Father in Heaven, making
“intercession for us” (Rom 8:34), and the other is the Holy Spirit,
who is with us and in us for ever, also making “intercession for the
saints according to the will of God” (Rom 8:27), and even guiding
us, teaching us, empowering us, regenerating us, sanctifying us, etc. We
must trust in our Lord and give thanks and praise to Him because we are
truly safe and secure for ever in our Lord’s loving care despite the
fierce attacks from Satan and his host.
Furthermore, the Holy
Spirit possesses intelligence, emotion and will as essentials of
Personality (1 Cor 2:10-11; 12:11; Rom 8:27; Eph 4:30), and His
actions also prove that He is a Divine Person: He created and gave life
(Gen 1:2; Job 33:4), inspired the Scripture (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Peter
1:20-21), effected Mary’s virginal conception (Matt 1:18-20; Lk 1:35),
regenerates (John 3:5-6; Titus 3:5), teaches (John 14:26), testifies
(John 15:25), reproves (John 16:8), guides (John 16:13), glorifies
Christ (John 16:14), comforts (Acts 9:31), helps (Rom 8:26), searches
(1 Cor 2:10-11), sanctifies (Rom 15:16), bears witness (Rom 8:16). He
may be blasphemed (Matt 12:31), may be lied to (Acts 5:3), may be
resisted (Acts 7:51), may be grieved (Eph 4:30), and may be insulted
(Heb 10:29), and so forth. An impersonal power or influence cannot do or
be treated like such.
The Holy Spirit Is
God
The Holy Spirit is God.
When Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit, they did lie to God
(Acts 5:3-4). The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity,
mentioned together with God the Father and God the Son in the Great
Commission, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”
(Matt 28:19), in the Benediction, “The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be
with you all” (2 Cor 13:14), and in Johannine Comma, “For there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost: and these three are one” (1 John 5:7) (Sadly, many modern
English versions like NIV omit this verse, undermining the Trinity of
God). Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is eternal, “the eternal Spirit”
(Heb 9:14; John 14:16), omniscient, “the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God… the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:10-12; cf. Isa 40:13-14),
omnipresent, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit?” (Ps
139:7-13), omnipotent, “by the power of the Spirit of God” (Rom
15:13, 19; cf. Job 33:4; Ps 104:30; Luke 1:35, 37), and sovereign,
“The wind bloweth where it listeth” (John 3:8) and “But all these
worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as he will” (1 Cor 12:11). Thus, the Holy Spirit has the
same divine attributes as God does.
Moreover, the Holy
Spirit (Ps 51:11; Lk 11:13) has other Divine Names such as the
Spirit of God (Gen 1:2; 1 Cor 3:16), the Spirit of the LORD
(Judges 3:10; Isa 11:2), the Spirit of the Lord God (Isa 61:1),
the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor 3:3), the Spirit of your
Father (Matt 10:20), the Spirit of His Son (Gal 4:6), the
Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11), the Spirit of Jesus
Christ (Phil 1:19), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the
seven Spirits of God (Rev 3:1; 4:5). Thus, with such honorable
Divine Names, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven
unto men (Matt 12:31).
Concerning the Trinity,
the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son and sent
by the Father and the Son (John 14:26, 15:26). The three Persons are
equal in Being, Power and Glory, and each Person is called God (John
6:27; Heb 1:8; Acts 5:3-4). With respect to His Being or Essence, God is
One; and with respect to His Personality, God is Three.
Our Proper Attitudes
Honour and
Trust in the Holy Spirit with Our Humble Submission:
Many Charismatic leaders and members
always mention the Holy Spirit on their lips but do not truly submit
themselves to the control of the Holy Spirit. They claim that they are
“filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18) (but actually they arrogantly
desire to control and direct the Holy Sprit) by their speaking in
tongues (but not really identified foreign languages), prophesying,
seeing visions or dreams and performing miracles, but the truth is not
so. All these signs gifts have ceased since the completion of the
writing of the Holy Scriptures (1 Cor 13:8-12). The Holy Spirit is the
Divine Author of God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Spirit is the
Spirit of Truth and God’s Word is Truth (John 14:17; 17:17), so He can
never contradict God’s Word. If you and I are truly filled with or
controlled by the Holy Spirit, we shall speak, do and act according to
God’s Word. Dear friends, we should not be deceived by lying signs and
wonders in these last days as the most important matter before God is to
do His will and Word and not to seek and boast of signs and wonders. Our
Lord Jesus warns us, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out
devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will
I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity” (Matt 7:21-23).
The command,
“Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18) is in the present tense,
denoting that you and I must keep on being filled or controlled by the
Holy Spirit and by God’s Word always, not by our sinful lusts, selfish
motives, human ideas or philosophy, worldly values or mindset, and so
forth. The Holy Spirit has come to help us, guide us, teach us,
regenerate us, sanctify us, and empower us to serve God, to overcome
Satan and his temptations and to persevere until the end. Shall not you
and I wisely and wholeheartedly trust in Him and humbly submit ourselves
to Him and His control always so that we may bear His fruit (Gal
5:22-23)?
Not to Grieve the
Holy Spirit or Quench Him: There are other
two commands in the present tense, “grieve not the holy Spirit of God
, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Eph 4:30)
and “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thess 5:19). If we are true
children of God, the Holy Spirit is in us and with us for ever (John
14:16-17) and our body is His temple, “What? know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of
God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Cor 6:19). However, many a time we
have grieved the Holy Spirit when we ignore Him and God’s Word or let
the sinful nature and worldliness influence us and control us or “Let
all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, …
with all malice” control us (Eph 4:31).
Many a time we
have quenched the Holy Spirit when we ignore and disobey His still small
voice, moving us to pray, to seek God first, to read and do God’s Word
to please and glorify our God the Father, or to reach out to others with
the Gospel, etc. or reminding us of God’s Word not to do the wrong
things we are planning to do. Dear friends, we are commanded to stop
grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit as He is our seal in the day of
redemption. Without the Holy Spirit and His guidance we are not God’s
true children (Rom 8:14)!
Conclusion
Dear friends, the
Holy Spirit has come, and we do not need to go somewhere to seek Him. It
is the Holy Spirit who opens our hearts to understand the Gospel,
convicts us of our sins and God’s judgment and helps us repent and
receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. It is the Holy Spirit who
regenerates us and sanctifies us, teaches us and guides us into all
truth, reminds us of God’s Word, comforts us, and empowers us to do
God’s Word, to serve God, to overcome our sinful nature, Satan,
temptations, worldliness, etc. It is the Holy Spirit who prays for us
and helps us see God’s will and discern God’s truth from false doctrines
or false beliefs. It is the Holy Spirit who seals us as God’s true
children in the day of redemption, and so forth. Praise the Lord! Let us
stop grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit, but wisely trust in Him and
humbly submit to His control and God’s Word. Amen.
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