” It is better to take for granted that the Bible always means what it says--all the truth of nature as well as of the gospel, of science as well as of religion. Aholiab was, doubtless, a skilled mechanic before the effusion of the Spirit; but after he became the best carpenter of the nation. So with Bezaleel. I am glad to acknowledge that the great thinkers of the world have not been wholly unguided by the Holy Ghost. Great discoverers are almost invariably devout: Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato--Kepler, Newton, and Faraday.
Even nature confides her secrets to none except to men of deep piety. Tyndall and Huxley are very brilliant; but they have not yet established their right to be classed with the great. The truth which makes for our salvation is here mainly intended. Note, the Spirit guides into all truth
I. IN RESPECT OF REVELATION. This means that the Spirit will
1. Speak nothing but the truth, “for He shall not speak from Himself,” &c. This is the Saviour’s infallible proof of the trustworthiness of His own teaching, and urges the same in support of the infallibility of the Spirit’s illumination. If you hear any one speaking from himself, boasting much in his originality, you may rest assured that his discovery will turn out to be shallow and worthless. For truth is not a thing that comes from, but to, man. He never strikes it--it always strikes him. Accordingly, great discoverers never claim much credit. “I am but a child,” said Newton, “gathering pebbles on the shore of the great sea of truth.” He felt that all the credit due to him was that of seeing the pebbles--the credit of making them belonged to another. You cannot originate truth--only discover it; you cannot make it--only see it. If you make it, it is no longer truth, but a lie. Wherefore it is averred of the evil spirit that he “speaketh of his own,” and therefore of necessity “speaketh a lie.” But “whatsoever the Spirit heareth” in the exalted fellowship of the Trinity in Unity, “that speaketh He.”
2. Inspire the truth already extant in the world, and only waiting the breath of inspiration to quicken it. True “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” but “every Scripture is God-inspired.” Not only the writers, but their writings, are all alive with the breath of God. “God breathed into it the breath of life, and the Bible became a living book.” The inspired men are dead, but the inspired truths are living. They are warm now with the breath of the Eternal. One of the rare excellencies of the Bible is its warmth. Its temperature is many degrees higher than that of any other book. Whereas the same truths in other religions and philosophies sink down to freezing-point, in Christianity they invariably rise to blood-heat. Here are two bars of steel. They are precisely of the same make, shape, weight, size. But put them on the ground near a heap of rubbish, and the difference will be manifest. Whilst one lies inert, the other exerts a potent influence on the whole mass, disturbing the needles and nails and iron filings. What is the matter? One has been magnetized. And here are two truths, one in heathen philosophy, the other in the gospel. They are as similar as two truths can be. But the truth as contained in
Greek or Chinese philosophy lies barren and inoperative; but the same truth as uttered by Jesus Christ enters as a living quickening force into human life. In Christianity it has been magnetized, inspired.
3. Revealed new truths. “Eye hath not seen,” &c. The truths of nature are only His surface thoughts, and therefore within the range of created intellects. But the truths of the gospel are His “deep things,” too deep for human reason ever to fathom, but which, nevertheless, “God has shown to us by His Spirit.” In the context the “things of God” are called the things of Jesus Christ. As Columbus took possession of the continent of America in the name of Christ, so Christ took possession of the continent of truth in His own name--He has stamped on every truth His own private mark. This is the final test whether any doctrine be of the inspiration of the Spirit. Does it glorify Christ? Many teachers went out in the apostolic age claiming to be Divinely commissioned; but this was the test whereby the spirits were tried. Many novel doctrines are promulgated to-day, labelled with the names of able and scholarly men. “Do they glorify Christ?” If not, beware of them. “What do you think of ‘Ecce Homo?’” asked a lady once of Professor Duncan. “What does ‘Ecce Homo’ think of Christ?” asked the old Rabbi back. “I cannot tell; that it is which puzzles me,” answered the lady. “Well,” deliberately answered the sick professor, “if any book, after a careful perusal of it, leaves you in doubt what it thinks and what you ought to think about Christ, there is something radically wrong in it. Every sound book, doctrine, sermon, glorifies Christ.”
II. IN RESPECT OF EXPOSITION.
1. The nature of the Spirit’s influence.
(1) “Guide”; not only to show the road, but travel along it. To direct strangers in a strange country is much; to accompany them till they reach their destination is more. Thus the Holy Spirit takes us by the hand, as it were, and leads us to a reasonable apprehension of the great doctrines of salvation. This partly indicates the difference between the influence of the Spirit under the Old Testament and under the New. Then He “moved.” The prophets were borne along before the breath of the Spirit, like ships before the wind, a force outside them and behind them driving them irresistibly along. The Spirit sometimes fell suddenly upon them, and sometimes left them quite as suddenly; but in either case they were thrown half dead on the ground. But “guide” denotes steady, constant, uniform influence.
(2) And He will guide you, not to, but into. You cannot properly judge truth except from within. Go and examine a coloured window. From without it looks a mixed, unmeaning, vulgar blotch of paint. But enter the cathedral, look upon it between you and the light, and it is gloriously transfigured. Similarly the fundamental truths of the gospel, such as the atonement and justification, are “unto the Jews a stumbling-block,” &c. But study them from within, look at them between you and the light of God and the eternal judgment, and they become “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
2. The subjects of His guidance. “You,” not the apostles only. The Spirit influences the mental movements of the weakest saint. The Spirit mysteriously invigorates the mind. The “unction from the Holy One” oils the wheels marvellously. Look at Saul, the son of Kish, and Peter. This, however, does not mean the total extinction of all differences between believers in their scholastic attainments; but it does mean the abolition of all difference in their spiritual apprehension of the saving truths of the gospel. Long sight has no advantage over short sight in examining the heavens. Both can see the sun, neither can see behind and beyond. The dullest, obtusest believer sees as far as the Sun of Righteousness, and your most learned occupants of professorial chairs cannot see an inch behind and beyond.
3. The scope of the Spirit’s influence. “All,” not into some, but into all. Not at once, for guidance is a gradual process.
(1) The history of doctrine is none other than the history of the Divine guidance of the Church into the truth. He guided the Church fathers into the truth concerning the Person of Christ; the Reformers into the truth of justification; the Puritans and Methodists into the doctrine of regeneration. Well, has the Bible been exhausted? Oh no; other truths remain to reward the patient and prayerful study of generations to come. The Spirit guides as fast as the body of the Church can follow, and will not desist till every chapter of the Bible has been emptied of its contents. “God has much light to break out of the Bible yet.” There are more acorns in Bashan than oaks, and there are more seeds of truth in the words of Christ than have yet developed into doctrines. If that be the case, you ask, What shall we do with the creeds, the confessions, and standards of faith? We shall respect the old, and, if need arise, make new ones. Creeds are not intended to shut out new truths, but to shut in old. Creeds do not set limits to faith, only to unbelief. Creeds are not hindrances to progress, but to retrogression, and so lose the ground it has gained through much agony of thought and prayer. They do not tie down the mind and impede its flight upwards; they tie up the mind and stop its flight downward. What minds have soared higher than those who think it no degradation and no bondage to subscribe to the hoary creeds of Christendom? Creeds are the garners where the Church lays by its ripe truths for the support and comfort of its children in years to come. But because we store the ripe fruit, does that make us negligent of the orchard? Let the history of the Church answer.
(2) You are welcome to go out on voyages of discovery to find out new islands or continents of truth. Only remember the condition--under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. “No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation”; and a good reason why, “Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.” The Spirit, who inspired the Bible, He only can adequately interpret it. But what about the right of private judgment? I have profound respect for that when it is a holy judgment, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. But I have not confidence in it when it is a depraved judgment, under the dominion of the evil spirit. The other evening I visited the Houses of Parliament, and observed that a soft, pure light was shed down on the floor from above the ceiling. I could see the light, but not the flame. Methought the Scriptures were illuminated in the same manner, from above the ceiling; the source of the light is in God, not in man. Let us, then, seek that illumination. We study human commentaries, but let us not forget the commentary of the Holy Ghost. When the Council of Trent sat, when an embarrassing question arose, the ecclesiastics submitted the points in dispute to the final arbitrament of the pope and cardinals. In due time the answer returned, prefaced with “It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us.” This happened so frequently that it passed into a proverb that the Holy Ghost was being sent in the pope’s portmanteau. But we need not send to Rome to learn the mind of the Spirit, “for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”
(3) This is the Protestant counterpart to the Romish doctrine of the infallibility of the pope. He will guide you infallibly; but it is another question if you will follow infallibly. But wait awhile. The Bible is an infallible book; the Spirit is an infallible interpreter; and between them both men will grow infallible by and by.
III. IN RESPECT OF APPLICATION. This suggests that the Spirit
1. Whets the truth, puts edge on the ministry of the Word. “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words,” &c. “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts,” &c. Not tickled, amused, entertained, but pierced through. The sermons men like are refined, polished, full of flowers. But read Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost; it bristles like a hawthorn bush. The great need of the modern pulpit is sermons with fewer flowers and sharper pricks.
2. Imparts warmth to the ministry. “He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Warmth is an essential element in the Scriptures; it is an essential element in the ministry. The chief difference between genius and talent seems to me to consist, not in the amount of light, but in the amount of heat; not in the knowledge, but in the fire. The erudition of Ben Jonson was profounder than that of Shakespeare; the knowledge of Whewell was more extensive than that of Carlyle; the information of many a Scott was more capacious than that of Robert Burns. Where, then, was the genius? Not in the knowledge, but in the fire. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)
The Spirit of Truth
The Holy Spirit, who was given for the reproof and conviction of the world, was given also for the enlightenment and edification of the Church.
I. THE DESIGNATION OF THE HOLY GHOST. The Father is the absolute Truth, the one eternal source of all truth. The Divine Son reveals, embodies, and bears witness to the truth. But the Spirit, coming into contact with souls, brings the truth home to them with power.
II. HIS COMING. Whilst believing in the eternal existence and activity of the Third Person in the Trinity, Christians apprehend what has been called “the temporal mission of the Comforter.” As there was a time for the advent of the Son, so was there a time for the full gift of the Spirit, viz., when the full truth had been revealed in Christ. The Spirit “came” conspicuously on the Day of Pentecost to remain for ever.
III. HIS OFFICE.
1. Generally--to lead Christians, not into every kind of truth, but the truth as in Jesus. As a master leads a pupil through a picture gallery, as a tutor leads a scholar through a science or a language, so does the Spirit lead us through the realm of spiritual truth.
2. Specially--to reveal what is Christ’s to His people: “He shall take of Mine.” Not only did He inspire apostles to record the facts of Christ’s ministry, and to expound the doctrines growing out of those facts, but He enables every Christian to realize and appropriate the blessings Christ brings to man.
3. Prophetically to unfold things to come. Thus to Peter was unfolded the mystery of the inclusion of the Gentiles in the fold; to Paul the doctrine of the resurrection; to John the glories of the eternal future.
IV. HIS END AND AIM. The glory of Christ, as secured by the achievement of the purposes of our Saviour’s ministry, and as manifested by the praise and fame accruing to Him both on earth and in heaven. (Family Churchman.)
Divine guidance
I. OUR CIRCUMSTANCES AS NEEDING A GUIDE.
1. Our entire ignorance of our journey. There is not a man in the world that knows anything of the way to happiness or heaven without this Spirit.
2. Our frowardness. We are rash and heady and obstinate. We rush on heedless of consequences. We hit on some one path or other, and it is sure to be a wrong one; but onward we go. Many tell us that it leads to death, and many times we are told so, but on we go. We therefore need a guide.
3. Our pride. We are by nature full of self-consequence. We think we know the way. If any tell us of it, we soon reply, “We know these things as well as you. We have not lived so long in the world for nothing. We do not want your teaching,” &c. Such never ask for wisdom, lest they should by that request confess their ignorance. We therefore need a guide.
II. THE EXCELLENCIES OF THE GUIDE HERE PROMISED US.
1. He has perfect knowledge of the way. A blind guide will be no guide. We should discard such, should they offer to conduct. This Guide knows the way, every step of the way; knows all truth, and where truth leads.
2. He is faithful. This is essential in a guide. If we trust to a guide we give up ourselves to his care.
3. He is condescending and familiar. This in a guide will make him a pleasant companion. A guide that will describe the surrounding scenery, and lead us into a knowledge of objects as we pass, will endear him and make our journeying easy. This Spirit is a Guide that stoops to converse with us by the way. Sometimes He tells us some sweet truths, as the
Father’s everlasting love, the Saviour’s finished work. Sometimes He shows some instructive objects. “Look yonder, do you see that pillar? That is Lot’s wife: she left Sodom, and left all her furniture behind, and, against the command of God, she turned her head to look as if she hankered after that she left behind, and the Lord turned her into a pillar of salt. Look, there is Demas, who, having loved this present evil world, has left Paul and the gospel that he might embrace it. See, yonder is the place of skulls; that is Golgotha, where Christ fought with principalities and powers, and overcame, having destroyed Death.”
III. THE EXECUTION OF HIS WORK. “He shall guide you into all truth”; wherein we have three particulars to open.
1. The way in which the Spirit leads. That way is the way of truth. Respecting this way of truth there are these particulars which commend it. Gospel truth is a pleasant way to walk in (Pro_3:17). There is nothing in this way to grieve or distress: its prospects are all good; it holds up to view a God reconciled in Christ. There is no pleasure equal to that which is found in walking in this way. True it is that Christians are not always happy, but that is not from any gloominess in the path of gospel grace. They step aside or walk carelessly, and so lose their comfort. Gospel truth is also a peaceful way to walk in: “her paths are peace.” Gospel truth, again, is a straight and even way to walk in. Gospel truth is a free way to walk in. Whosoever will may walk there. Gospel truth, in which the Spirit leads, is also a near way to walk in. We often choose the nearest way. It is but a step from misery to mercy, from nature to grace, from a fallen, ruined condition to a state of acceptance with God. Gospel truth, in fine, is a permanent way to walk in. There will never be another.
2. But where does the way of truth lead? We often ask where this or that pathway leads; in what direction or to what place. This leads to three places. To the Christ of God, “the truth as it is in Jesus”; truth centres in Him. This way leads to His person, fulness, work, love, and salvation. To the throne of grace. Truth tends that way. He that follows the word will call upon God. To the heavenly glory. Truth reveals heaven with all its glory, and shows itself the way.
3. How this Spirit, as a guide, leads in the way of truth. By putting us into the way. By nature we are all out of the way. By keeping us in the way when in. We are prone to wander. Did this Guide leave us we should soon leave the way. By upholding in the way. We are in danger of falling. By bringing us to our journey’s end. “He shall abide with you for ever.” And for what but for this very purpose, “to perfect that which concerneth us?” Give up the soul to this Guide. (The Evangelist.)
The Spirit of Truth
This appellation teaches that He is the soul of truth, the life inside the truth, the sap within the gospel doctrines, keeping them fresh and green. But for the Spirit as a circulating, vitalizing sap within them, they would all shrivel up; the tree of life would wither and die, and its leaves would all drop to the ground. Examine the truths contained in other religions--how withered and dry they look. Examine the same truths in the religion of Christ--they throb with life and are clothed with verdure. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)
The Holy Spirit our Guide
People making the journey from earth to heaven need a guide. This they have in the Holy Spirit.
I. THIS PROMISE WAS MADE TO THE APOSTLES TO QUALIFY THEM FOR THEIR OFFICE. It included
1. The coming of the Spirit at a set time.
2. To guide them into all truth.
3. To show them things to come.
II. THIS PROMISE WAS FULFILLED
1. In the Pentecostal baptism.
2. In their preaching the risen Saviour.
3. In their founding the Christian Church.
4. In their writing the New Testament.
III. THIS PROMISE EXTENDS TO US.
1. In our reading the Bible.
2. In our understanding its truths.
3. In our living a life in conformity therewith.
IV. INFERENCES.
1. We have the power to accept or to reject the Holy Spirit as our Guide.
2. If we reject Him He will reprove us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
3. If we accept Him He will dwell in us that we may know the things that are freely given us of God (1Co_2:9-16). (L. O.Thompson.)
The Spirit guiding into all truth
Truth may be compared to some cave or grotto, with wondrous stalactites hanging from the roof, and others starting from the floor; a cavern glittering with spar and abounding in marvels. Before entering the cavern you inquire for a guide, who comes with his lighted flambeau. He conducts you down to a considerable depth, and you find yourself in the midst of the cave. He leads you through different chambers. Here he points you to a little stream rushing from amid the rocks, and indicates its rise and progress; there he points to some peculiar rock and tells you its name, then takes you into a large natural hall, tells you how many persons once feasted in it, and so on. Truth is a grand series of caverns, it is our glory to have so great and wise a Conductor as the Holy Spirit. Imagine that we are coming to the darkness of it. He is a light shining in the midst of us to guide us. And by the light He shows us wondrous things. He teaches us by suggestion, direction, and illumination. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The progressive revelation of truth by the Spirit
In theology, as in every other department of human knowledge, there is a law of progress. Truths which in one age are almost latent, or recognized simply and insulatedly by faith, on the authority of a positive declaration, are brought out more distinctly by subsequent ages, and ranged in their mutual connection--in their position as parts of the system of truth. Not, however, that this progress is always an advance along the line of truth in theology any more than in other sciences. Man’s path bends aside, winds, twists, seems almost to return up on itself. His orbit has its aphelia as well as its perihelia. When he has made a lodgment in a new field of knowledge, he will set about building a tower, the top of which, he fancies, shall reach to heaven; and generations, it may be, will spend their lives in working at such a tower (e.g., the schoolmen)
, until the Spirit of division and confusion comes down among the workmen. Thus, one system after another has passed away, each, however, leaving behind some contribution greater or less, to the general stock of theological truth. Meanwhile, God’s word stands fast, even as the heavens and the earth. To the words of Scripture we cannot add; nor may we take away from them. But truth is set before us livingly, by examples, by principles, in the germ, not by the enunciation of a formal dogmatic system, according to which the thoughts of men were to be classed and rubricated for ever after; nor can any human scheme or system make out a title to the possession of such an absolute conclusive ultimatum. The right theory of development by no means implies that each later age must necessarily have a fuller and deeper knowledge of Divine things than its predecessors, the very reverse having notoriously been often the case. For the world is ever wrestling to draw man away from the truth, and will often prevail, as Jacob did over the angel; and when faith is at a low ebb, when the visible and material predominate in men’s hearts and minds over the invisible, the ideal, the spiritual theology, must needs dwindle and decay. But when there is a revival of faith, if this revival coincides with, or is succeeded by a period of energetic thought, a deeper or clearer insight will be gained into certain portions of truth, especially appropriate to the circumstances and exigencies of the age, and which have not yet been set forth in their fulness--the true doctrine of the Trinity, e.g., in the fourth century, and that of justification in the sixteenth. (Archdeacon Hare.)
The Holy Ghost the Great Teacher
Here is
I. AN ATTAINMENT MENTIONED--knowledge of all truth.
1. Nature itself gives us a strong desire to know all truth. What we call curiosity is something given us of God impelling us to search into the knowledge of natural things; that curiosity, sanctified by the Spirit, is also brought to bear in matters of heavenly science. A true Christian is always searching the Scripture that he may be able to certify himself as to its main and cardinal truths.
2. A knowledge of all truth is very essential for our comfort. Many persons have been distressed half their lives from the fact that they had not clear views of truth. Many souls--e.g., under conviction--abide in sorrow because they have no one to instruct them about justification. Give me the congregation whose faces are bright with joy at the sound of the gospel, then will I believe that it is God’s own words they are receiving.
3. This knowledge will keep us out of danger. No doctrine is so calculated to preserve a man from sin as the doctrine of the grace of God. Those who call it a licentious doctrine know nothing about it. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by and by having an erroneous life. Keep the head right, and especially keep the heart right with regard to truth, and your feet will not go far astray.
4. This knowledge will make us useful. There will be no character, however perplexing may be its peculiar phase, but we shall be able to speak to it and comfort it. Almost every man whom God has blessed to the building up of the Church in prosperity, has been a man who has held firmly free grace through the finished salvation of Christ. The sturdy truth of God touches every chord in every man’s heart.
II. A DIFFICULTY SUGGESTED. We require a guide. Truth is not so easy to discover. Why this? Because of
1. The intricacy of truth itself. Those who fancy they know everything of course see no difficulties; but the most earnest student of Scripture will find things which puzzle him. Truth is a path so narrow that two can scarce walk together in it; we usually tread the narrow way in single file. If you step an inch aside you are in a dangerous error. On the one hand there is a huge precipice, and on the other a deep morass; and unless you keep to the true line, to the breadth of a hair, you will go astray. Truth is like the veins of metal in a mine, it is often of excessive thinness, and runs not in one continued layer. Lose it once, and you may dig for miles and not discover it again; the eye must watch perpetually the direction of the lode. Grains of truth are like the grains of gold in the rivers of Australia, they must be shaken by the hands of patience, and washed in the stream of honesty, or the fine gold will be mingled with sand.
2. The insidiousness of error. It easily steals upon us, and we are often like men in a fog. We think, surely this is the right path; and the voice of the evil one whispers, “That is the way, walk ye in it.” You do so, and you find that you have been walking in the paths of unrighteousness and error. The way of life is a labyrinth; the grassiest paths and the most bewitching are the farthest away from right. There is not a counterfeit coin in the world so much like a genuine one, as some errors are like the truth.
3. We are so prone to go astray. If grace did not guide a man, he would go astray, though there were hand-posts all the way to heaven.
III. A PERSON PROVIDED.
1. Infallible. If I pin my sleeve to another man’s coat, he may lead me part of the way rightly, but by and by he will go wrong himself, and I shall be led astray with him. But if I give myself to the Holy Ghost and ask His guidance, there is no fear of my wandering.
2. Ever present. When we have no commentator or minister, we have still the Holy Spirit. Whenever you cannot understand a text, pray over it, and if it does not open itself, try again. If prayer does not explain it, it is one of the things God did not intend you to know, and you may be content to be ignorant of it. There is no college for holy education like that of the blessed Spirit, for He is an ever-present tutor.
3. Guides “into” the truth. Now, man can guide us to a truth, but it is only the Holy Spirit who can “guide us into a truth.” There are many of my hearers who are brought to the truth of their depravity; but they are not brought into it, and made to feel it. Some of you are brought to know the truth that God keeps us from day to day; but you rarely get into it, so as to live in continual dependence upon God the Holy Ghost, and draw fresh supplies from Him. The thing is, to get inside it. A Christian should do with truth as a snail does with his shell, live inside it, as well as carry it on his back.
IV. A METHOD SUGGESTED. He guides us into all truth
1. By suggesting it. There are thoughts that dwell in our minds that were not born there, but which were exotics brought from heaven and put there by the Spirit. Have you not at times had unaccountably--in the middle of your business--a thought concerning God and heavenly things, and could not tell whence it came?
2. By direction, not so much putting a boat on the stream as steering it when it is there. Time after time have you commenced a meditation on a certain doctrine and, unaccountably, you were gradually led away into another, and you saw how one doctrine leaned on another, as the stones in the arch all hanging on the keystone of Jesus Christ crucified.
3. By illumination. There is nothing like reading an illuminated Bible. You may read to all eternity, and never learn anything by it, unless it is illuminated by the Spirit; and then the words shine forth like stars.
V. AN EVIDENCE. You may know the Spirit’s influence by
1. Its unity. The Spirit never says one thing at one time and another thing at another. It has been always held as a first principle that truth is one thing. But some persons say, “I find one thing in one part of the Bible, and another thing in another, and though it contradicts itself I must believe it.” All quite right, if it did contradict itself; but the fault is not in the wood but in the carpenter. Many carpenters do not understand dove-tailing; so there are many preachers who do not understand dove-tailing.
2. Its universality. The true child of God will not be led into some truth but into all truth. When first he starts he will not know half the truth, he will believe it but not understand it. Certain doctrines take years to develop themselves. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Heavenly Teacher
I. THE NAME HE BEARS “The Spirit of truth” descriptive of
1. His nature--Spirit. In this different from Christ who was God in human form.
2. His character--true. Implied in His designation--Spirit of truth.
3. His intelligence--involved in the fact that He is the possessor of truth.
4. His Divinity--if the possessor of truth He must be Divine.
II. THE SCHOLARS HE INSTRUCTS. The disciples of Christ.
1. The apostles.
2. Pastors (2Co_3:6; 2Ti_1:6; 2Ti_1:14).
3. The universal company of believers--the Spirit dwelling in them (1Co_3:16), helping their infirmities (Rom_8:26), and leading them into all the truth.
III. THE LESSONS HE IMPARTS. All the truth, not ordinary, scientific or philosophic truth, but truth
1. Heard from the Father, therefore Divine.
2. Relating to Christ, hence specifically Christian.
IV. THE AIM HE PURSUES. The glory of Christ. For this end He exhibits Christ
1. As the possessor of the truth (Joh_16:14).
2. As the substance of the truth (Joh_14:6).
3. As the end of the truth--persuading men and enabling them to rest on Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
The necessity of the Spirit’s teaching to the right understanding of the Scriptures
I. THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE--of faith, of repentance. Simon Magus believed and remained in the gall of bitterness. Paul believed and became a Christian. In both cases there was a persuasion of the truth. Simon believed when he saw miracles; Paul when Christ was revealed in him. Judas repented when he saw the evil consequences of his treachery; Peter when he saw his conduct in its true character. So there is a simple intellectual knowledge of the truth, and there is a spiritual knowledge and discernment.
II. HOW ARE THESE RELATED? How do they agree and differ? The things known and the act of knowing are the same. But the spiritual excellence of the object is not apprehended in the one case, while it is in the other. This may be illustrated by the case of the discernment of beauty. Now, with regard to the knowledge of the Scriptures, there is no reason why the unrenewed man, without any special aid of the Spirit, should not acquire that knowledge, as well as the knowledge of any similar volume under the same conditions.
1. Assiduous study.
2. In the right method and in the use of the right means.
3. Impartiality and honesty. Now, although this is possible, it is in reference to the Scriptures difficult and rare, because of the opposition of the heart to Bible doctrines, and because the judgments of men are so largely determined by their feelings. Therefore, for the attainment of this intellectual knowledge there is great need of the Spirit’s guidance to produce docility, and to prevent opposition to the truth blinding the mind.
III. FOR SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE THE CASE IS PLAIN. The Scriptures teach
1. The absolute necessity of Divine teaching. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,” &c. The Bible abounds in prayers for Divine teaching, and Paul declares all external teaching vain without it.
2. The cause of this ignorance, blindness, and inability to know the things of God arises from two sources.
(1) Our depravity. We are natural, carnal--the opposite of the Spiritual--which we cannot, therefore, discern.
(2) The god of this world blinds the eyes. He persuades men to reject the truth, raises objections, and excites the enmity of the heart.
3. It is a solemn fact, therefore, that those only who are led by the Spirit come to a knowledge of the truth. This is His great office, must be recognized and accepted. Correct speculative knowledge and spiritual knowledge experience teaches do not admit of protracted separation. Orthodoxy will not last long without piety. An unconverted ministry forsakes the truth. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
