THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST

In this chapter the Lord Jesus speaks of His return to the Father to prepare a place for his disciples and children. He has fulfilled His work on earth and now He can leave this earth to be taken into eternal glory, where He was before His incarnation. But this means for the disciples, that they must miss the Lord in their midst in His human nature. Because of this separation their heart is filled with grief, as they cannot miss Him. A life without Jesus is impossible for the disciples. He has been in all things their leader and comforter; with all their needs they came to Him and He helped them, encouraged them. What a blessed time it was for the disciples. Something of this is experienced by the church, when they may taste that communion with the Lord. That is more than the whole world can give; whatever their external circumstances are, they can praise the Name of the Lord. With Him they can overcome everything.

To strengthen them in these sorrowful circumstances wherein they are at this moment, that He will leave, He has promised them another Comforter, Who will abide with them forever. What His work will be, the Lord explains in this text. The Lord never promised them that no grief would come in their life, but He promised a Comforter. When we see what is going on in the world, which lies under the curse of sin, how necessary such a Comforter is, not only for the temporal things, but above all when we see our state of misery in relation with the Lord. All the earthly sorrow cannot be compared with the grief, that we miss the Lord. This is the greatest sorrow, which is the consequence of the teaching by the Holy Spirit to God’s children. How grieved a person will be, when he learns that he is a sinner, that he sees his iniquity, which makes him condemnable before the Lord. Such persons go their way weeping. They have internal and external oppressions, soon their life will be cut off and they have no hope for the future! Do we know something of such circumstances in our life, or are we still happy with the world? When we don’t know true sorrow after God and about our sins, then we miss the instructions of the Holy Ghost, which means that we are unconverted. If there will not come such a blessed change in our life, by God’s grace, then there is no hope for the future.

From the very moment that God begins in our life, we will learn something of this sorrow and are not happy anymore with the temporal things only. We learn that we are unconverted and that we miss God, Who daily loadeth us with all kind of benefits. It will be fulfilled: “My tears have been my meat by day and night.” Now you must not think that this is only in the beginning, when the Lord works in our heart, but it is also thus in our further way.

Even after there is a way of salvation opened in Christ, they know this sorrow. The lack of communion with Christ, the lack of the assurance of being in Him, can make God’s people sick of love. You can see it in the life of the disciples and the women, when the Lord was in the sepulchre; they received many blessings before, but this was insufficient for the moment. How indispensable a Comforter is in such circumstances. The promised Comforter is the Holy Spirit, eternal God with the Father and the Son. He can change the sorrow into gladness, He can fill their needs and give an inexpressible comfort. He teaches all things necessary to salvation and will bring to mind all that Christ has spoken.

Afflicted people, raise your heads: your sadness will become joy. God has always fulfilled His promises and so He has done in sending His Spirit; now water is poured on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. The Spirit has not only been given on the day of Pentecost, but He is also given to individuals. The Holy Ghost came to live in the midst of His church.

The sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father in Jesus’ Name is an affirmation of the work of the Mediator and of His intercession by the Father. He is at the right hand of God the Father, but He does not forget His children. What a comfort, when we may realize and learn this. For Him it is not: out of sight, out of heart. He has sent the Comforter.

What a beloved Comforter is the Holy Spirit; there are circumstances of the greatest misery, that no one can help, but for Him nothing is too wonderful. Better than a mother He can comfort; He binds up their wounds and pours oil in them to heal, to dry their tears, to show the necessity of the chastisement. Then we are united with the will of God, however difficult it may be for us. The Holy Spirit is also a faithful Comforter in all circumstances and He points to the fountain which opened in Christ; when we may see this, we will end in the Lord”: What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?” Then they may take up the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord and will pay the vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. This Comforter will never become tired of helping the church. Can we understand now that sigh of the church: “What Thou withholdest, withhold not Thy Holy Ghost, and take Thy Spirit not away.”

The Spirit is wise too. We can have riddles as Rebecca, but He can give the solution to our problems. His ways are higher than our ways. The end will be the glorification of the Lord and the salvation of the sinner. This Comforter will stay forever. The church can grieve the Spirit, as we can read in God’s Word, which is a terrible thing. Then He will hide Himself for some time from the church, but He will not leave His church.

What a blessing it is that this Comforter was promised and is given by the Lord. But do we know that labor of the Spirit in our life?

In general there is not so much spoken about the Holy Spirit anymore in our days. For many people it is not necessary anymore. They can help themselves. They don’t need the administration of the Spirit; but they deceive themselves for that great eternity. My readers, I hope this will not be the case with you, but that it has become your daily prayer to receive the Spirit as Comforter and Leader.

How indispensable the Spirit is to teach us, as we have become fools, since we left the Lord in Paradise. There we lost the image of God, but also our knowledge, our mind is darkened. Where can we find such a teacher, who can fulfill that task? No one has the love, the patience, the wisdom to do this among man. What is impossible for men, is possible for the Lord. There is a Teacher, Who can fulfill this: God the Holy Spirit: He shall teach you all things. By nature we are satisfied with our external knowledge, also of the Truth; it is grace when we see and feel the necessity of this Teacher in our life. From the moment that the Lord looks in mercy upon us until the end of our life, we need this Comforter and Teacher. He teaches us the Truth and then we see our sinfulness. He stops us on our ways, which lead to destruction and brings us on the ways of truth. How comprehensive is the task of the Holy Spirit to teach all things, all things about our corruption of heart, about God’s wrath and His righteousness, about our poverty and misery; also about our fall and the terrible results of it. We can try to say all things, but this is impossible as our fall is immeasurable. Who can fathom the depth of our misery? What a wonder it becomes for a sinner, who knows the greatness of his debt, for whom there does not seem to be a way out, to be instructed by the Holy Spirit about that only Name given for salvation and some things about the beloved Mediator are explained, because in Him we can find everything to salvation. At this moment the disciples did not understand much, no indeed, nothing, of His Priestly office, but they will be taught by the Spirit. In Him there is a way to return in the communion with God.

All things will be explained and applied to the disciples; and so the Lord still works in the life of His children about misery and deliverance. When we hear of the work of the Saviour, we will cry out with Peter: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It is the special work of the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ in the heart of poor sinners. When we may know Him out of the Word, it becomes our desire to be united with Him, that His merits may be applied to us.

The last part of the text seems to be strange: “and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” How is it possible that God’s children forget what the Lord said unto them? Nothing can take this out of their mind. What is the meaning of this Word? The Lord Jesus had often spoken to His disciples in those three years on earth, but then we read: they understood it not. We know that this has been especially true about His priestly office, His humiliation. They did not want Him to go in such a way of such deep humiliation.

But there will come a time for the disciples, that they will understand this mistery by the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. It will become Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day and Pentecost by experience. The Holy Spirit will teach and remind them. Many words, which they did not understand, they will see in the right meaning later. The Lord gave in His preaching great treasures to His disciples, what they will realize later on. The Spirit will lead them back and by His light they will see the fulness of Jesus’ Words. It is just the same for God’s children. When we don’t know what a diamond is, then we don’t know the value of it either. So it is with the sinner, who sees his misery, but has no knowledge of Christ’s Mediatorial work. This must be revealed unto us, which is done by the Holy Spirit. What a blessing when the Holy Spirit leads a person back to know where the Lord has spoken in our life. So often we are in doubt: was it from the Lord, or was it of myself? His promises can be so deep under the dust of doubt and unbelief. So we become an easy prey for Satan. Only by the administration of this Comforter will we understand God’s Word and see what Jesus did and spoke for our salvation. How blessed is this work of the Spirit in the heart of God’s children, because then they can believe and must believe, that the Lord has looked upon them in mercy and that He will care for them for time and eternity. Here they understand the poet: “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.”

We pray that the Lord may give such a blessing also to you, my reader. This is the special work of the Spirit whereof our text speaks, which we cannot miss to live and die happily.

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