The Teaching of the Holy Ghost

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John 14:25-26

These things have I spoken to you, being yet present with you.…

I. WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT TEACHES US. He teaches God's people —

1. All that they do.

(1) There are some things which you and I can do naturally without any teaching. Who ever taught a child to cry? But you and I could not cry of ourselves till we had received "the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."(2) Children have to be taught to speak. We, too, are taught to speak. We have none of us learned, as yet, the whole vocabulary of Canaan. "No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost?" Those first words which we ever used as Christians — "God be merciful to me a sinner," were taught us by the Holy Spirit; and that song which we shall sing before the throne will be His last lesson.

(3) God's people are taught to walk and act by Him. "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." To stray is natural; to keep the path of right is spiritual.

(4) So with the higher efforts. The preaching of the gospel, when it be done aright, is only accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. So is it with sacred song. The wings with which I mount towards the skies in sacred harmony and joy are Thy wings, O Holy Dove! The fire with which my spirit flames at times of hallowed consecration is the flame of the Spirit!

2. All they know. We may learn very much from the Word of God morally and mentally, but spiritual things are only to be spiritually discerned.

(1) He reproves us of sin. No man knows the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but by the Holy Ghost.

(2) Next the Spirit teaches us the total ruin, depravity, and helplessness of self.

(3) The character of God. God's goodness and omnipotence are clearly manifested in the works of creation; but where do I read of His grace, mercy, or justice? These are only revealed to us in this precious Book, and so that we cannot know them until the Spirit opens our eyes to perceive them.

(4) Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Ghost who manifests the Saviour to us in the glory of His person; the love of His heart, the power of His arm, the preciousness of His blood, and the prevalence of His plea.

(5) Our adoption. Indeed, all the privileges of the new covenant, beginning from regeneration, unto the abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and especially that last point, for "eye hath not seen," etc.

II. THE METHODS BY WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT TEACHES.

1. He excites interest in the mind. He shows them that these things have a personal bearing upon their soul's present and eternal welfare.

2. He gives to the man a teachable spirit. There be men who will not learn. Teach them by little and little, and they say — "Do you think I am a child?" Tell them a great deal at once, and they say — "You have not, the power to make me comprehend!" The Holy Spirit makes a man willing to learn in any shape.

3. He sets truth in a clear light. How hard it is sometimes to state a fact which you perfectly understand yourself, in such a way that another man may see it. It is like the telescope; there are many persons who, when they walk into an observatory and put their eye to the glass, expecting to see the rings of Saturn, have said, "I can see nothing at all; a piece of glass, and a grain or two of dust is all I can see!" "But," says the astronomer, "I can see Saturn in all his glory." Why cannot you? Because the focus does not suit the stranger's eye. By a little skill the focus can be altered so that the observer may be able to see what he could not see before. Now the Holy Spirit always gives the right focus to every truth. He sheds a light so strong and forcible upon the Word, that the spirit says, "Now I see it and understand it."

4. He enlightens the understanding. 'Tie marvellous, too, how the Holy Ghost does teach men who seem as if they never could learn. I know some brethren whose opinion I would not take in anything worldly on any account. But those men have a deeper, truer, and more experimental knowledge of the Word of God than many who preach it, because the Holy Spirit never tried to teach them grammar, and never meant to teach them business, but He has taught them the Word of God, and they understand it. But I have perceived, also, that when the Spirit has enlarged the understanding to receive Bible truth, that understanding becomes more capable of receiving other truth.

5. He refreshes the memory. "He shall bring all things to your remembrance."

6. He makes us feel its effect. You may try to teach a child the meaning of the term "sweetness;" but words will not avail, give him some honey and he will never forget it. So the Holy Spirit does not only tell us of Christ's love; He sheds it abroad in the heart.

III. THE CHARACTERISTICS AND NATURE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT'S TEACHING. The Holy Ghost teaches —

1. Sovereignly. He teaches whom He wills, when He wills, as He wills.

2. Effectually. He never failed to make us learn yet.

3. Infallibly. We teach you errors through want of caution, over zeal, and the weakness of our own mind.

4. Continually. Whom once He teaches, He never leaves till He has completed their education.

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