John 14:16-18
The Great Disconnect
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another Comforter, that he may
abide with you for ever;
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.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will
come to you.
In this text, Jesus was introducing His disciples to the Holy Ghost.
One of the most important and misunderstood topics in the Bible is
the Person of the Holy Spirit. I would like to speak about Him for a
few moments; and in doing so, mention what I believe to be the Great
Disconnect.
Let me say up front that the Holy Ghost is God. He is not merely an
influence; but a divine Person, coequal and co-eternal with the
Father and the Son. Believers can be robbed of a real relationship
with the Holy Spirit if they consider the Spirit to be an impersonal
influence, power, or energy.
Having said that, I will acknowledge that it seems strange to have to
introduce God the Holy Spirit to anyone so late in the Bible. After
all, we are on the last earthly day of Jesus’ ministry and
approximately 2/3’s of the way through the entire Bible—and we are
just now meeting God the Holy Spirit?
In answering that, I will simply say two things:
1. While the disciples may be just meeting the Holy Ghost here,
He has been seen all through the Old Testament.
a. The first time was in \\#Ge 1:2\\.
Ge 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters.
b. Like so many people from whom we benefit every day, we do
not have to know their names, their families, or their
life stories to be helped by them.
(1) Bank tellers, clerks, stock boys, police, fast-food
workers and so many, many more.
(2) They help us, maybe repeatedly and regularly, but we
never really meet them.
c. So it is with the Holy Ghost. We may just be meeting Him,
but He has been here all the time.
2. We did not meet God the Son until at least Matthew 1.
a. Bible students knew He was coming.
b. Astute Bible students may have even figured out WHEN He
was coming.
c. But they did not meet Him until Matt 2:1 because that is
when He was born.
The bottom line, we should let introductions confuse us. The Holy
Ghost has always been here, always been God, and always been helping
people know the Father better.
So let’s spend a few minutes together looking at who the Holy Ghost
is.
I. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us.
Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he
shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew
you things to come.
A. Notice the phrase, "He will guide you into ALL truth…"
B. I think we preachers receive too much credit.
1. Preachers do not convince people of Bible truths.
2. Preachers preach and teach the truth.
3. But if anyone gets it, it will be the Holy Spirit that
explains it to them.
C. I am about to reveal a truth from the Preachers’ Most Secret
and Hidden Code Book.
1. Here it is: Preachers are worthless unless the Holy Ghost
shows up.
a. Without the Holy Spirit, preachers are of less worth
than a trade-school instructor. (No insult to the
trade-school teacher. They are very valuable, giving
students an opportunity to find a career, which is
far more valuable than the preacher without the Holy
Spirit.)
b. Without the Holy Spirit, preachers are of less worth
than a used-car salesman. (At least with a used-car
salesman, you can get a used car.)
c. But if the Holy Ghost does not show up, all you will
get is a 45 minute message of words and phrases that
won’t help you one bit.
2. Biblical truth, life-changing truth, eternal truth—may be
dancing around you like bullets at a target range, but
you won’t understand a word of it unless the Holy Ghost
makes it understandable to you.
a. This is His job, His work, His ministry; and I think
He delights in doing it.
b. Our charismatic friends point out that we need the
Holy Ghost to speak and interpret unknown tongues,
but the truth is we also need Him to interpret the
Bible truths we hear in our native tongues even more.
c. If He is not here, the light will not come on, and we
all wasted our time.
(1) The preacher wasted his time preparing to preach.
(2) And all the people wasted their time in listening
to the preacher preach.
D. If the Holy Spirit is here and doing His work, you should be
understanding what I am saying. If He is not, you will be
looking at your watch and wondering what is for lunch.
II. After that, it is the Holy Spirit who reproves us.
A. In John 16:8, Jesus made a second work of the Holy Spirit.
John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment:
B. The Holy Spirit "reproves."
1. That word means to convict, convince, rebuke, show fault.
2. I believe there are two parts of reproving.
a. The Holy Spirit convinces.
(1) Knowing something is not the same thing as being
convinced it is true.
(2) Concerning the Corona Virus, I believe I have
heard just about everything that has been said,
but I am not convinced what is true.
(3) I know facts, but I am not convinced.
(4) There are many people today who know Bible
truths.
(a) If they know Bible truths, the Holy Spirit
had to walk by them.
(b) But many of them still need to be convinced
that what they know is really true.
(c) That would be part of the work of the
Reprover.
b. But here is where the disconnect starts. (I find this
all very perplexing.)
(1) The Holy Spirit must guide us to spiritual truth,
but not all who hear the truth will believe it.
(2) They will not all be convinced.
(3) It is obvious that the Holy Spirit did a work in
revealing the truth.
(4) The perplexity is in why did He not also convince
them it was true and should be believed.
(5) Yesterday, Brother Richard met a husband in the
backyard who was an atheist and a wife in the
front yard who attended Metropolitan Church of
God.
(a) One professed to be an adamant believer
while the other was an adamant unbeliever.
(b) Is that not perplexing to you?
(c) How can a family be half convinced of truth?
(d) Why would the Holy Spirit leave it that way?
(e) But the Great Disconnect gets worse.
c. But the Holy Spirit must also convict a person of
spiritual truth.
(1) After a truth is known and believed, the Holy
Spirit must still make us aware of our guilt in
spiritual matters.
(2) Knowing and even believing spiritual truth
without it effecting us is of no value to us at
all.
(3) In short, it is the Holy Spirit who takes the
Word of God and makes its truths hit home.
(a) In this duty the Holy Spirit is much like
the prosecuting attorney.
(b) It is upon Him to prove the case of guilt
upon the sinner.
(4) The Bible even tells us what tools He uses to
accomplish this feat.
(a) Sin - He shows us what wrong is.
(b) Righteousness - He shows us what right is.
(c) Judgment - He shows us what will happen if
we do not leave the sin and turn to
righteousness.
(5) This is the very essence of conviction.
d. The Holy Spirit guides some to the truth and even to
believe, but He does not seem to convict them of the
truth.
(1) That the Holy Spirit has done a work in them is
evident, else they could not believe the truth
and would not even know it; but why did He stop
short of bringing to conviction over the truth?
(2) This is a mystery, one that as a pastor, I deal
with regularly—although I know it is just as
true of me but I do not see it.
(a) Pastors preach truth that is accepted and
believed but there is no conviction.
(b) The Holy Spirit must be there or else there
would be no understanding and believing, but
that is where it stops.
(c) People get the truth, understand it, believe
and say "Amen!" to it, and then like a car
with no gasoline, there is no action.
(d) Most perplexing.
(e) This is the great disconnect; but let’s go
on to the third work of the Holy Ghost.
i. First, it is He who teaches us all
spiritual truth.
ii. Second, it is He who reproves us.
III. After that, it is the Holy Spirit who saves us.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God.
A. Here Jesus referred to Holy Spirit even before He formally
introduced the disciples to Him.
1. As I have already said, the Holy Spirit was seen through
out the Old Testament.
2. He came on men (and perhaps woman as well) to give them
the ability to know and to do things.
a. Even lost Pharaoh knew the only way Jacob could know
what his dreams meant was if "the Spirit of God" were
in him. \\#Ge 41:38\\
b. When the Spirit of God came upon Balaam, he knew the
mind of God \\#Num 24:2\\; otherwise, Balaam had
nothing helpful to say.
c. Samson was as weak as any other man until "the Spirit
of the Lord" came upon him. \\#Jud 13:25\\
3. In John 3:5, Jesus taught Nicodemus that no one can be born
again (saved) unless the Spirit of God does a work.
B. Over the years, many have debated what it means to be born of
water; but I have never heard a debate about what it means to
be born of the Spirit.
1. This passage does not tell us exactly what the work of the
Holy Spirit in in the new birth process.
2. I believe it would be the two works of the Spirit that we
have just mentioned: teaching and reproving.
3. But the text makes it clear that His is an essential work
in the salvation process, so much so that Jesus called
salvation, being "born of the Spirit" in \\#John 3:8\\.
C. But now the Great Disconnect gets even wider. (This I have
seen.)
1. The Holy Spirit brings truth to the unbeliever. (At
times, I have been the instrument that the Holy Spirit
used to accomplish this task.)
2. Then, the Holy Spirit turns on the understanding low beam
and the convicting high beam. (You could literally see
it happening!)
3. But then, even with conviction being present, there is no
salvation.
a. Oh, to be so close that you expect to see a person
saved but don’t.
b. How is that possible?
(1) The truth was there.
(2) Understanding and acceptance of the truth were
there.
(3) Conviction was there.
c. They filled the room. Their presence caused tears,
earnest contemplation; but then—no conclusion.
d. It is so perplexing. It is the Great Disconnect.
D. Now, let me deviate here for a minute.
1. I am attempting to point out the disconnect in the work
of the Holy Ghost.
a. Why does the Holy Spirit not finish the work He
starts?
b. It seems more than obvious that He is present.
c. A work IS started, but it is LEFT incomplete.
d. That is the disconnect.
e. I have one more disconnect to point out, but first
let me offer one reason—the only reason I can figure
as to why there the Holy Spirit disconnects before
the work is complete.
2. I think it’s possible that the Holy Spirit disconnects
because the people break the connection.
a. I do not think the Holy Spirit will carry you further
than you want to be carried.
b. This is just me guessing. I have not discussed it
with others.
c. And I am thinking that some may hear the truth, but
will never understand the truth because they don’t
want to understand the truth.
d. Then I am thinking some may understand the truth but
may never be convinced that the truth is true because
they do not want to be convinced.
e. And I am thinking that some who hear, understand, and
even believe the truth but will not be convicted by
the truth because they don’t want to be convicted.
f. And I am thinking that some who hear, understand,
believe, and even be convicted but will not be saved
because they do not want to be saved.
g. And I am thinking that is all very, very sad for the
they are disconnecting themselves from the Holy
Spirit, the only One who could bring them to
forgiveness and eternal life.
h. But all of these are the disconnects of the lost.
i. Let’s consider a fourth work of the Holy Ghost which
is for those who profess to be saved but can also seem
to result in a Great Disconnect,
IV. After that, it is the Holy Spirit who converts us.
Joh 12:40 He hath blinded their eyes, and
hardened their heart; that they should not see
with their eyes, nor understand with their
heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
A. This verse is not directly talking about the work of the Holy
Spirit, but of the Devil; yet, it is indirectly giving us
another word salvation: conversion.
1. The word means to revert, to come or go again, to turn
about.
2. In short, it means to change.
3. This is not a separate work of salvation.
4. It is the work of salvation.
B. Yet, here is the Great Disconnect.
1. So many claim Jesus as their Savior but there never seems
to be a conversion.
2. That perplexes me.
3. If the Holy Ghost is saving people, how can He not also be
changing people?
4. This conversion may or may not be seen in your life
style, but it will always been seen in your heart.
a. Religion is replaced with relationship.
b. Works are replaced with worship.
c. Profession is replaced with possession.
d. Duties are replaced with devotion.
c. Philosophies are replaced with Bible precepts.
C. So here are the four works of the Holy Ghost.
1. The Holy Ghost brings you to the truth.
2. Then, if He pleases and you allow it, the Holy Ghost uses
that truth to reprove you; which means He both convinces
you the truth is so and convicts you that you are guilty
in the matter.
3. Then, if He pleases and you allow it, the Holy Ghost
saves you. He changes your destiny from hell to heaven,
from damnation to salvation, from death to live.
4. But at the same time, if He pleases and you allow it, the
Holy Ghost converts you. He changes you, at least in
your heart so that you are a new creation in Jesus Christ.
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