Another "Strengthener-Wither" - Part Six

SCRIPTURE

Let's say you get into legal trouble. You go down the street and you see a sign that says: "Smith, Jones, Brown & Smith-Lawyers." You go in and you say, "Help! S.O.S." You've just called the lawyer alongside because you are in trouble. The lawyer is your paraclete. "Now," says the Lord, "I will send you another Advocate, another 'Strengthenerwither,' who comes alongside of you." Now we have two of these. The remarkable thing is that this word paraclete or comforter appears twice in the Bible. You only see it once in English though, because in 1 John 2:1 the same Greek word is translated by another phrase. "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." And if any man sin, we have an advocate"-a paraclete, a comforter-"with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." So the Scripture tells us that we have this advocate, this firm of lawyers, this partnership of magnificent attorneys, Christ and the Holy Spirit. And Christ is in charge of the branch in heaven and the Holy Spirit is in charge of the branch on earth.

These two are working for us. In fact, right this minute, both of them are praying for us. In Hebrews 7:25 it says, "Wherefore he [Christ] is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." So who is praying for us in heaven? Jesus Christ is right this minute praying for us in heaven. Now over in Romans 8:26 it says, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." So we have in Hebrews 7:25 that Jesus Christ is praying for us in heaven and we find in Romans 8:26 that the Holy Spirit is praying for us here on earth. So we have "another Comforter."

 

Now let's go back to John 14. "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not" (vv. 16-17). That means He is not a physical person. This is very important because the whole heart of the Roman Catholic error is that they say God replaced Christ on earth with the Pope. Well, what this text is teaching us is that God replaced Christ on earth with the Holy Spirit. This is why the whole Roman Catholic system is a vast blasphemy, in spite of the fact that they believe in the virgin birth, and that Jesus Christ is God, and that He died on the cross and that He rose again from the dead.

 

It's possible to believe all that and yet have a system that is based on error because they say Jesus went to heaven and Peter came to be the vicar of Christ. The word vicar means "instead of." It's from the Latin word vicarious. You have it in the phrase "vice-president." When a president dies, the vice president becomes president "instead of the man who died. But when the Roman church says that the Pope is the vicar of Christ, this is the most fantastic blasphemy that the world has ever seen, because it gives you a man who says, "I am God Almighty and when I speak, God speaks." But Jesus says, "My vicar is not a visible person. The Holy Spirit is My Vicar, whom the world cannot see."

 

Now notice that He is called "the Spirit of truth"; in fact, in Greek it's "Spirit of the truth." What is the truth? In John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." So the truth is Jesus Christ. But in John 17:17 it says, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. So "the truth" is Jesus Christ and "the truth" is the Bible. And the Holy Spirit will always work in connection with these two.

 

Then in John 16:7 we read, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient [it is advantageous] for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." The Holy Spirit is sent to us by Christ, the Truth. And the Holy Spirit therefore becomes the agent of the Truth. Jesus said in John 16:14, "He [the Holy Spirit] shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." So you see, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of "Christ, the truth."

 

He is also the Spirit of the "Bible the truth." It says in 2 Peter 1:21, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." So the Bible comes from the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes from Christ and "when he, the Spirit of truth [Christ and the Bible], is come, he will guide you into all truth [Christ and the Bible]: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come" (John 16:13). In John 14:26 the function of the Holy Spirit is clearly defined: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy [Spirit], whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things." So you see, the Holy Spirit replaces Christ as the teacher of truth.

 

Now, for the last point, let's go back to John 14:17: "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Now why can't the world receive Jesus Christ? The reason is that the world and Jesus Christ are diametrically opposed to each other. If you take a good concordance you can discover the following facts: That the word world is found in Matthew four times; in Mark three times; in Luke four times; and in John seventy-nine times! The word world is the key to the Gospel of Johnyou and the world, the believer and the unbeliever, the church and the world, the true Christian and the world. God alternates and puts them against each other and says, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, because I have elected you out of the world, therefore the world will hate you." And if the world hates God, if the world hates Christ, if the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit, then the world cannot receive us.

 

In 1 John 2:16 we read, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." Now what does this mean? This means that "Hollywood is not of the Father." This means that Madison Avenue with its advertising techniques and its hidden persuaders "is not of the Father." This means that high society "is not of the Father." This means that business which exploits and will seek anything to get a profit "is not of the Father." This means that the television industry "is not of the Father." This is the world that crucified Christ.

 

But if you look over in 1 John 5:19 we read this: "We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lieth in wickedness." A literal translation of this would read, "the whole world lieth in the wicked one." And the Greek word for lieth is the same word that is used by the Greek poet to describe a man lolling in the arms of a prostitute. So here it says, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lolls in the embrace of the devil." Now this is the reason why the world cannot receive Christ.

 

We must understand that the world cannot see Him-"it seeth him not" (John 14:17). Seeing doesn't mean seeing merely with a visible eye. It means, of course, seeing spiritually. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, it says, "The natural man [the unregenerate man] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The seeing is a spiritual discernment. This is what Jesus meant in John 3:3 when He said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

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