Even The Spirit Of Truth

John 16:

7  Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

8  And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

9  concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;

10  concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;

11  concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

12  "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

13  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.

14  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

15  All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Holy Spirit, i.e. the Comforter/Helper, is the Spirit of Truth. He comes to lead those to whom the Lord is speaking to, i.e. His disciples, into all the Truth.

The Spirit only declares what He hears, and He only hears what Christ Himself declares. Christ, the obedient Son, declares only that which the Father gives Him to declare.
There is no chance that of any kind of discrepancy or incongruity would ever occur regarding the Gospel, given to His disciples, to be declared to others.

The most misunderstood phrase here is “the things that are to come”.

Modern Christianity erroneously takes that to mean events far into the future, i.e. the “end times”. (It is the same error they make in interpreting Rev 1:1).  A more accurate translation of the Greek would read the things that will accompany what the Spirit declares to you.

The point here is that the Spirit will lead them, (all those to whom the Lord is literally in front of, and speaking to) into ALL the Truth.

This then means it would be given to them to also have complete understanding of everything declared to them by the Spirit.

These are the “many things to say”, which they could not bear to hear just then, but would hear later. Christ speaks to His own through the Holy Spirit.

The Lord then prays regarding the things of which He had just spoken of:

John 17:

6  "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

7  Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

8  For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

9  I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

10  All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

11  And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me; that they may be one, even as we are one.

12  While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

13  But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

14  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

15  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

16  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

17  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

18  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

19  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20  "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

21  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

He does not pray for the world. He prays only for those whom the Father has given Him out of the world. And verse20 tells us that includes all those who will believe based on the God given Gospel of Jesus Christ, to be delivered through the Spirit, to His apostles there with Him that night.

All those who will and do believe through the Word of Truth which they both spoke and had written, are the church universal, throughout the age; “the called out”; all the saints past, present, and future, (which of course would include us).

We read the scriptures and hear them preached, and the same Holy Spirit is given to us, as was to them, to bring understanding to what we hear and read, so that we may preach the Word also, and so on, and so on.

ALL the saints are brought into the knowledge of ALL the Truth. This is the promise of God to His people.

Ephesians 4:

11  And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

12  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

13  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

14  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

15  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

16  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

There are many,in their endeavors to appear pious and put an end to “the debating”, who will say that since men do not, in themselves, have the capacity to understand the scriptures, we must therefore accept that all may be wrong and just learn to get along even at the expense of what is true. This ignores the promise of Christ that the knowing, and understanding of all the Truth, has been given to the saints by God. The revelation and understanding of the Word of the Lord comes through the Holy Spirit, by whom we are sealed to the day of redemption, i.e. sealed by the Spirit until the return of Christ.  (Ephesians 1;13-14 and 4:30)

So do not grieve the Holy Spirit, and place obstacles between the saints and the Lord,

through the pious blether of men (Matthew 23:13), which relies solely on us, that is, our ability to either gain an understanding, (albeit it a limited one), or our inability to achieve  any understanding at all. Such notions put man in the driver’s seat and degrade the Lord, by placing Him, and the successful outcome of His will, completely at our mercy.

God is sovereign, not man. He is well able to give both revelation, and understanding, to all whom He will. This He has done, and will continue to do without fail.

Colossians 1:9  ……….. we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding……..