John 16:12-15: Word and Spirit

In John 16:12–15Jesus said I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Now what can be tempting is to take these words and immediately jump out of the Bible and apply them to us.

But while these promises have an application for us today they were first and foremost promises given to the Apostles.

They are the “you” Jesus is talking to.

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth… He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.

So to best understand this passage and how it applies to us today we first need to see how this promise was fulfilled for them.

To see how the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth, we need to first see how the Holy Spirit guided them into all truth because how the Holy Spirit guides us is in God’s which was revealed to the Apostles.

What Jesus was promising the Disciples was direct, special revelation from the Holy Spirit Himself concerning the things of Christ and His salvation.

We see this of course in their preaching and bearing witness to Christ throughout their ministry in the book of Acts, but in this promise is also a promise that the Holy Spirit would lead and direct them to record Holy Scripture.

That He would guide them in all truth and bring to remembrance everything Christ said to them so that they might give us Holy Scripture… the written Word of God and true knowledge of life, God, Christ, and Salvation (John 14:26)

So we are going to have two points today.

One that looks back to see how this promise was fulfilled for the Apostles in the writing of Scripture.

And another that looks forward to us today to see how the Holy Spirit fulfills this promise for us and guides us into all the truth by leading and guiding us to know and live out God’s Word.

Number 1… The Holy Spirit Inspired Scripture.

And Number 2… The Holy Spirit Illuminates Scripture today.

Let’s start with point Number 1…

I. The Holy Spirit Inspired Scripture

The Bible is God’s Word.

This is key and foundational for the church and the life of the Believer.

Believing that the Bible is God’s Word and keeping it as God’s Word what marks and separates the people of God from everybody else (Nehemiah 10:28; Deuteronomy 28:58).

But how do we know the Bible is God’s Word?

How did we get the Bible?

How do we know that the words that we have are the very words of God?

Because men wrote the Bible under the divine inspiration and influence of God the Holy Spirit.

In our passage Jesus said…

John 16:12–15 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

In the three years with His Disciples, Jesus was not able to tell them everything He had to say.

You cannot bear them now.

You cannot carry them… understand them.

See their full significance.

Throughout His ministry the Disciples were not able to understand the full significance of the Cross and Christ’s resurrection.

For example, in Luke 18:31 Jesus said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

But [the Disciples… the Twelve] understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

But when the Spirit of Truth comes He would give them understanding.

True Theological Knowledge of the significance of Christ and His resurrection.

God’s own Word and God’s own Truth.

For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak.

This does not mean that the Spirit is lesser than God the Father or God the Son or has some lesser authority than them.

We worship One God in Three Persons… Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all coequally, coeternally God.

Not three parts of God… One God Himself.

What this means is that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit work in complete harmony with one another.

All that the Spirit says in divine unity with the Father and Son is a true and sure word from heaven how we might be saved.

This is probably what Jesus meant when He said He will declare to you the things that are to come.

In my opinion this is probably not talking about the Holy Spirit future although the Spirit being God does know and declare the future as we see in the book of Revelation that when written was future for them.

More likely the things that are to come refers to the full significance the events that were soon to take place… Christ’s death, resurrection, and exaltation… all the things that Christ has been talking about in the Upper Room.

So the Holy Spirit would reveal to them all truth and implications of Christ… the gospel… the Kingdom… the whole Christian faith and religion.

This was Calvin’s opinion (Morris, The Gospel According to John, NICNT, 622, Footnote 32).

That basically Jesus was saying “He will declare to you the full revelation and weight and significance of my death, resurrection, exaltation, coming Kingdom, and the whole Christian way and faith.”

All things recorded for us in the New Testament.

That’s why Jesus says…

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All that God has given us and promised us in Christ… all things laid out and declared to us in the New Testament.

This is very similar to Jesus’ promise in…

John 14:26 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 that I have said to you.

These two passages taken together assures us from Christ’s own mouth that the words we have from the Apostles are the divine, inspired, holy words of God.

He will teach you all things… True Words that accurately reveal Christ and His salvation.

He will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

This is why we have a sure and true confidence that the ministry and the words we have in the Gospels are the true words of Christ.

The Holy Spirit helped them to remember everything Christ taught them over three years so that you and I could know the True Historical Jesus and His words and His message for our life and salvation.

This is why Paul is able to say in Ephesians 2:20 that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

They were the divine authority instituted by Christ and inspired by the Holy Spirit to reveal and guard the precious truths of the gospel… the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).

And we have that faith written and recorded for us in God’s Word… the Old and the New Testament.

Paul says All Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16).

It is God’s own Word.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us,…[so through the Apostles]… you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

So men wrote the Bible… but they wrote the Bible under the Divine Authority and Inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

We see this in…

2 Peter 1:19–21 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Notice what Peter says.

No prophecy of Scripture comes from someones own interpretation.

In other words its not just their own thoughts… their own interpretation of God’s Word.

It is God’s Word itself.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man clearly referring to prophecy as the Word of God recorded in Scripture.

But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible quite literally is a miraculous book.

Men did not just write what they wanted the will of Man… but accurately and perfectly wrote the will of God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

There is some mystery here as to how this happened because men wrote in their own voice in their own words… Paul sounds like Paul… Isaiah like Isaiah… John like John…

But God sovereignly and providentially ruled over the men so that what was recorded was the very Word of God down to the smallest detail and even in the word choice that was used.

Single Word

For example, Jesus makes a whole argument based on one single word of Psalm 110 in Matthew 22:44 when He said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

Where the word my in the original Hebrew, if just slightly altered would, would be “his” or “your.”

Jesus viewed every word of Scripture as significant (cf. Galatians 3:16).

Every word is God breathed and precisely the word God wanted to use.

God sovereignly determined every detail of the author’s life, thought, personality and the historical context of the book itself to perfectly communicate all that God desired to convey.

This is because they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

David said The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue (2 Samuel 23:2).

That’s a pretty good picture.

Men were like “living pens” where God was the author and the man was the scribe, but in such a way that the man kept his personality and words.

In fact, that word carried along is the same word that is used to describe a ship being carried along and driven by the wind in its sails (Acts 27:15, 17).

Even in our passage where Jesus says He will guide you into all the truth it implies that the HOly Spirit… as their guide…

Number 1. Kept them from getting lost.

And number 2: Got them to their final destination.

Meaning that what they wrote was surely true… He kept them from getting lost… and it was, down to every letter, the very Word God wanted them to convey… He got them to their final destination.

Authoritative (God’s Own Word)

All that to say, Scripture is God’s Word.

His inerrant and infallible Word.

Inerrancy and Infallibility are two key doctrines regarding the truthfulness of God’s Word.

Inerrancy

Inerrancy means that the Bible is “without error.”

That it is completely and and perfectly accurate in all that it says in all matters that it addresses (Psalm 12:6, 119:140, Proverbs 30:5, John 10:35).

In other words that the Bible is True and completely true.

Now its important to understand that inerrancy allows for ordinary human language as we use it in everyday conversation.

Its important because the Bible is not a scientific book and so sometimes people in our modern scientific age will try to attack the Bible scientifically to say its not true.

For example, James 1:11 says the sun rises.

But scientifically that’s not true.

The earth rotates around the sun and spins on an axis.

But that doesn’t mean the Bible’s not true… That’s ordinary, everyday human language.

When we say the sun rises at 6:30 that is a true and accurate statement.

So the Bible can use round numbers and estimates and still be factually true (1 Chronicles 5:21, Isaiah 37:36).

Were there 20,000 soldiers or 20,172? Both are true.

Autographs

You should also know that inerrancy only applies to Bible in its original autographs… or the letters first written by the actual apostles themselves.

As far as we know, we don’t have the original copy of the Gospel of John.

Well how do we know that the Bible we have is the Bible they wrote?

Because the thousands and thousands of manuscript copies.

We have so many manuscript copies and translations dating back close to the time of the New Testament writings that we know with more than 99% certainty what the original autograph actually said.

And the discrepancies don’t touch any matter of faith or doctrine.

The differences are saying things like “He” instead of Jesus.

OT?

And you might say what about the Old Testament?

Well Jesus and the Apostles affirmed the Old Testament as True (Luke 16:17, Acts 1:16, 2:16-17).

Plus the Jews themselves were careful to preserve the text of the Old Testament to make an exact copy of the original down to even numbering the words and letters because Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

Thomas Watson, How we may Read Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit, G3 Press 2022, Appendix A: Scriptural Catechism Adapted from Henry Clay Fish, D.D. Q14-16, page 56).

What does all that mean?

The Bible we have is the Bible God has given.

What we see in this is the power of God and wisdom of God to preserve the Scriptures in such a way that we can have a sure and true confidence that the Bible we have is the Bible given to the Old Testament Prophets and the Apostles.

The Bible is without error and wholly and perfectly true.

Infallibility

What that means is that the Bible is not only inerrant… it is also infallible.

Infallible or the Doctrine of Infallibility ultimately means that because the Bible is True it is absolutely wholly and trustworthy.

It can and never will lead us astray.

We can put all of our hope… all of our faith… all of our trust in it.

How Do We Know?

But how do we know?

What evidence do we have? How do we do we know that the Scriptures we have were, in fact, inspired… given by God?

For one… Scripture itself claims to be the Word of God speaking with the Authority of “Thus saith the LORD.”

Two… Its consistency.

The Bible was written over a period of 1500 years by at least 40 different authors and yet there are no errors or contradictions there in.

Such perfection can only come from the infinite wisdom of One Divine Author.

Third, the heavenliness of its subject matter.

The aim of Scripture is to give all glory to God and communicate all things necessary for life and salvation all with great comfort and assurance.

It is not a man exalting book it is a man debasing book saying that no man is righteous and exalting the love of God.

If it was a man-based book we would have a greater opinion of ourselves.

Fourth, its Beauty and Unity of Message.

The Bible has poetry, narrative, wisdom… teaching.

It is one of the most beautiful books ever written all pointing to and exalting Jesus Christ (John 5:39).

When you see how God has “hidden” Christ and His salvation even in the Old Testament in things like the Priesthood, sacrifices, the Temple… the Exodus and the Passover Lamb… the Bible comes alive and makes you wonder how any human author could have written this book.

Fifth… the blessed efficacy of its doctrine.

Its been proven true… if you follow the Bible you will live a blessed life.

There is a wholesomeness and blessing to its doctrine.

But Sixth… and most of all… the inward witness of the Holy Spirit Himself.

The reason we believe the Bible is the Word of God is because the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit (Romans 8:16; 1 John 2:20, 27, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12).

This is part of the Spirit guiding you in all truth.

Those who are born again know the Bible is the Holy Word of God.

66 Books?

This is also how we know how all the books of the Bible are all the ones we are supposed to have.

When Jesus said the Spirit will guide you into all truth… that obviously implies that the Spirit would lead the church to recognize and accept all the books inspired by the Holy Spirit.

As we saw all 39 books of the Old Testament were recognized and affirmed as Scripture by Christ and the Apostles.

And as for the New Testament there were essentially three requirements for the New Testament Church to recognize a book of the New Testament as Scripture.

Number 1… apostolic or prophetic authorship giving clear evidence of inspiration.

That it wasn’t just a good book written by an apostle or someone adjacent to an apostle like Mark or Luke… but something more.

In fact in 1st Corinthians Paul mentions a previous letter He wrote to the Corinthians that is not in our Bible because it was not Scripture (1 Corinthians 5:9).

Number 2… it had to be consistent and in doctrinal agreement with all other existing Scripture.

Scripture is the standard for itself.

And as God is always true and not subject to variation or change so Is His Word (Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 6:18, Titus 1:2, James 1:17).

And Number 3… Universally recognized and accepted by the Church.

So the Church did not take some books and say, “OK this is not Scripture.”

The Church recognized the 27 books of the New Testament as Scripture.

The New Testament is not authoritative because we say it is.

It is authoritative because God said it is and the Church recognized it as such under the guide and direction of the Holy Spirit.

And that’s how you got your Bible.

Just as the creme always rises to the top the Holy Spirit made the letters and the books of the New Testament obvious.

The Bible you have is the Bible God wrote.

Today?

God’s Word is inspired, inerrant, and infallible the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience (1689 1:1).

My hope in this doctrinal survey of the Word of God is to get you to treasure and be grateful for God’s Word.

Just think about the grace of God’s Word.

God is so much higher than us.

His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

We would not know God or His will for our salvation if God did not graciously choose to reveal it to us in His Word.

And in His grace, God even graciously reveals it to us in words we can understand.

Living water… Bread of life… Light of the World.

By the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, even the smallest child can understand God’s Word.

And God kept His Word and preserved His Word to give us all things necessary for life and salvation and grace to sustain us in spiritual warfare against sin, Satan, and the World (1689 1:1).

We must be a people and a church that treasures the Word of God.

God’s gracious revelation of Himself to Man.

And yet how many of us have Bible’s collecting dust on our shelf?

The Word of God is living and active (1 Thessalonians 2:13, Hebrews 4:12).

Life-giving (John 6:63, Hebrews 4:12, 1 Peter 1:23).

Cleansing (Ephesians 5:26).

Sanctifying (John 17:17-19).

Nourishing. The Bible calls itself Milk (1 Peter 2:2, 1 Corinthians 3:2), Bread (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4), Meat (1 Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:12-14), and sweet as Honey (Psalm 19:10, Psalm 119: 103).

More precious than fine Gold (Psalm 19:10).

And that’s because of the abiding blessing and benefit of the Word of God in the life of the believer today.

Because the Holy Spirit doesn’t just inspire the Word of God.

He illuminates it to guide us in all truth so that we might know and live out God’s Word.

And that’s point number 2…

II. The Holy Spirit Illuminates Scripture for Us Today

Sanctification is when more and more of your life is lived in conformity to the Word of God

Paragraph 6/ 1 Corinthians 2:14-16.

How to make the word profitable (note on profitable 2 Timothy 3:16)

Conclusion

How important is the Bible in your life?

How do you know God’s will?

man shall not live by bread alone are we starving to death?

Let’s Pray

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