The Ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-15)

That You May Believe
Dr. F. J. May and Dr. H. Lynn Stone
Section II – The Good Shepherd Feeds His Sheep (John 10-17)
Lecture 12, THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (John 16:7-15)
Scripture Text – John 16:7-15
      "Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient 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. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of
      righteousness, and of judgment. of sin, because they believe not on me. Of
      righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgment,
      because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you,
      but ye cannot bear them now. 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 show you things to come. He shall
      glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that
      the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall
      show it unto you."

A. The Holy Spirit as Our Advocate

1. The Courtroom Motif
      What John is doing here is presenting a courtroom type motif when he's talking
about the Holy Spirit who ministers to us as our advocate, our counselor, as our priest, as
our lawyer. He is the One who pleads our case for us – the one who even prays through
us, Paul says.
      Here he stands between us and accusations as our witness on our behalf bringing
us to the throne – standing in the courtroom of this world and standing along side of us
and standing up for us and working through us for the glory of God. I'm glad that He can
literally give us counsel and guidance and direction and strength and we can lean heavily
upon Him.

2. An Historical Example – Jake Roberts in Florida
      I'm reminded of this in a literal sense in a story that Brother Jake Roberts used to
tell when he talked about one of the churches in Florida where he was pastor in the old
days. He was very young in the ministry and they brought an injunction against the
church for being too noisy and a lot of other things. They brought them up before the
courts.
      On the way to meet the court that day he knelt down by an old palmetto bush and
began to pray. As he did he dropped his one dollar ninety-eight cent red-letter edition of
the Bible and it fell open to one of the pages. He prayed on and then, after awhile, he
picked it up.
      The passage just seemed to leap out at him. It said, "When they bring you up
before the magistrates and the courts think not what you shall say; but it shall be given to
you in that hour of the Holy Ghost what you shall say." He shouted around and around
that palmetto bush for a while and went shouting right on into the courtroom.
      They opened the case and the lawyer tried all kinds of "shenanigans." They asked
him such questions as, "Are you the pastor of that church where they turn the lights out
and everybody gets on the floors and roll?" He said that he didn't even know it was in the
Bible but he quoted a scripture that he had never heard and didn't know it was in the
Bible.
      He said, "The word of the Lord says answer not a fool according to his folly lest
you come a fool like him." Well by that time the Holy Spirit fell over the Church of God
people in that trial and they began to rejoice and shout. They asked him one more foolish
question and by that time the house fell down. The judge grabbed the gavel and started
beating the desk and said, "Case dismissed. Get them out of here."
      Well I want to tell you that is a literal illustration of what John is talking about.
He says, "The Holy Spirit will minister to you. He will be your counselor and when you
need to know the way to go and you need advise especially spiritually, He will be that
inner voice within you whispering in your heart. He will still the storm and He will guide
you and He will direct you and counsel you. He will be your go between, your advocate
between you and God. You will have perfect divine communion. You will be able to pray
and touch the Almighty and move into the realm of the spiritual and there receive from
God's own divine hand the strength and the guidance you need.

B. The Holy Spirit as the Judge of the World

      Then in the reading I read to you tonight, the picture changes somewhat because
the Holy Spirit is seen then in His ministry to the world. Suddenly He changes roles in
His relationship to the world. He has been the advocate, the lawyer, the counselor, the
one who stands along side to protect. Now He becomes the prosecutor – the judge of the
world in His ministry and His activity in relationship to the world.
      Jesus said, "When He is come, He will reprove the world." He will expose, He
will clarify, He will confute the world and all of its wisdom and all of its methods and all
of its plans. The Holy Spirit will work to convince and convict. He will work to uncover
and expose. He will work. He Himself will be the one who bring condemnation upon this
world.
      Our obedience to God, our fullness of the Spirit is the greatest condemnation the
world will ever see. The Holy Spirit working through us in a marvelous and glorious way
is the greatest finger of condemnation that points toward this world. I sometimes get
amused that these nitwits of people who try to explain away the Pentecostal experience.
Out on the weekend the other day I saw in a little newspaper in a little town here in
Tennessee somebody who didn't have any more sense than to try to explain away the
experience that you and I already have with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. You know
what, that is a little bit ridiculous for a man to come up and tell me that I can't get where
I've already been. Amen?
      I want to tell you now that the Holy Spirit working alive in the baptized believers
somehow sheds a blanket of condemnation towards this world. Because the world hates
God and hates the truth and hates the light. It's the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit to
somehow uncover the darkness and uncover sin and present to this world the light of
truth that shines that cannot be comprehended or apprehended, the light that cannot be
put out or pushed back but the light that stands firm penetrating through any force,
penetrating through any power of darkness, through any cloud that may roll in against our
lives or against the church. Hallelujah! I'm talking about the power of the Holy Ghost that
is at work in this world tonight, this very night.

1. The Holy Spirit Convicts the World of Sin
      First of all, He convinces the world of sin. Now He as prosecutor and judge, He
lays heavy the indictment against the world of what sin really is. He said, "Because they
believe not on me." Unbelief – refusal to walk in the light, the rejection of the Son of
God, rejection of light, refusing to believe Christ, refusing to believe the word – this is
the greatest sin that anybody can commit in the whole world.
      You read the list of apostates in the scripture – for instance, like in the book of
Jude. There are manifestations of how people grow into apostasy end turn from God all
the way from rebellious angels who left their first estate and who refuse dominion over
them by the power of God all the way down to examples in history and even in the times
in which Jude wrote. At the very fountain head and source of every outward act of
rebellion and sin, there was the deep-seated sin of unbelief in their hearts. Even the
Israelites could not enter the promise land because of unbelief.
      I want to tell you, it is the most deceitful of all sins in this world to doubt God--to
doubt His Word, to close your eyes to the truth, to close up your heart to the moving of
God's Spirit. It is the most deceitful sin that can ever get a hold of the heart of any man in
this world. Here the Holy Spirit comes and He lays the indictment at the feet and at the
hearts and the minds of the people of this world.
      Now in a world where truth is preached, in a world where light shines, in a world
where love flows from the hearts of men, in a world where transformed lives are
witnesses to the divine supernatural redeeming power of God, in a world that has a
witness through the lives of consecrated children of God, the power of condemnation
falls in the heart and in the faces of people who reject God and reject the Spirit and reject
God's word. It is the ministry and office work of the Holy Ghost to convince and convict
the world that they are sinners.

2. The Holy Spirit Convinces the World of Righteousness
      The Holy Spirit also is to convince the world of righteousness, "Because," He
said, "I go to the Father." What is He talking about? He is talking about His leaving – His
going and the way He will go, by way of the cross. The Holy Spirit is going to make
known to the world that the only way to righteousness is through Jesus and the cross. The
way to be righteous is not by that legalistic form of the Jews – "If I can just keep nine
hundred and ninety nine of the thousand laws so to speak, then I've got it made."
      That's not the way to righteousness Jesus said. The Holy Spirit is going to
convince every man who would try to dress up in his own robes of self-righteousness and
every man who thinks he's good enough within himself. It is the work and the power of
the Holy Spirit to come and just simply refute such reasoning and say, "it is not so
friend." You're condemned to die. You're lost without Christ. There is no other way.
There is no other name given among men but through Jesus Christ the Lord.
      You know sometimes we preachers get a little upset and a little weary because we
preach and we think somehow people should respond and repent. But after all, the Holy
Spirit is there and He is doing His work and He's zeroing in and you can't force Him and
you can't force people.
      That's one reason you have great difficulty in trying to get people saved on the
spot every time. Because you can't manipulate the Holy Spirit and it requires the work of
the Holy Ghost to convict a man so that he feels guilty in his own heart. You can't tell a
man and help him get saved and tell him he's lost unless the Spirit convicts him that he is
lost.
      Oh, it's easy to get some people to make decisions that don't last and to make
efforts that don't bear fruit – to make decisions and even to make testimonies that don't
last till next Sunday.
      But oh, when a man gets arrested by the Holy Ghost and He comes to him and
surrounds him with the light of truth and with the word of God and puts him under arrest
and the man falls on his face and he says, "I'm a sinner. I'm lost and there is no other way
unless God has mercy" – that kind of repentance and conversion will last and will hold on
till death itself comes.
      One of the great curses against the work of the church in these days is the lack of
real genuine, authentic conversion. If somehow the Holy Spirit could minister in a greater
way, there would be more genuine, authentic conversion repenting experiences in the
lives of people.

3. The Holy Spirit Convicts the World of Judgment
      Then He brings to light the fact and truth of judgment. Judgment is not just a day
out in the future – although it is that. There is a judgment day. But judgment is a process
that goes on in the world continually so that men who shun the truth and who turn away
from God are already under the process of being judged by the Holy Ghost.
      Jesus said, "The prince of this world is already judged." His case is come up
before the Almighty judge and he is weighed in the balances and found wanting. He is
found guilty.
      Not only that, but every man's case is constantly coming before the high court. In
that court there is no bribery of the jury because the Holy Ghost, the third person of the
Godhead himself, stands as both prosecutor and judge to point the finger of charges and
accusations and nobody can escape them.
Each person may offer excuses. He may present his arguments and complaints. He may
say what he will. But when the final verdict comes, there is no deviation, there is no
turning, and there is no hypocrisy. The light wins out. The truth shines through. The
verdict reads pure.
      The Holy Ghost is avenged and He stands as judge and prosecutor of all who
would reject Jesus Christ and all who would reject the truth and reject the light. You hear
me today! Unbelief and turning from God stands under the condemnation of the Lord
God Almighty. The process of judgment goes on and on and on. Then on a certain day it
just comes to find fulfillment.

C. The Holy Spirit as the Minister to the Church

1. The Holy Spirit Works Through Members of the Body of Christ
      Jesus said, "He will guide you into all truth and He will show you things to come
and He will glorify me." If you will analyze those three statements carefully, you will
understand fully what Jesus is saying.
      You see, what Jesus is really saying unto these disciples is: "I'm going to leave
you now, but I'm going to turn the direction of my church over to the Holy Ghost and He
is going to come to you and abide with you and be with you and from here on I am going
to direct the entire affairs of the church from where I am in the unseen through the Holy
Ghost in you."
      That's the way Jesus, the head of the church, runs the church. He runs the church
and operates and directs the church through the Spirit in you and me. He bestows upon it
gifts of all description and dimensions – ministries and callings and gifts of all kinds. He
knows every kind of need that the church has and whenever there is a need for any one of
these gifts to be manifested or any ministry to be performed, the Holy Ghost has the
power and authority and ability to just simply call on a Holy Ghost filled person and
work it through him. Hallelujah!
      Any Holy Ghost filled child of God that is dedicated to God could very well
expect God to use him at any time at any place to do anything that God has need to be
done. Hallelujah! God wants to work through you and through your life. If you will open
up your life like a running stream, He'll pour it through you, hallelujah, He will. Amen.

2. The Holy Spirit Will Guide You
      Look at these three statements, which also cover three groupings of great gifts and
ministries in the church. First of all He said, "He will guide you." That guiding of the
Holy Ghost means the leading and developing and the completing and the making perfect
of the whole body of Christ. It is to be equipped with the word and spirit and power and
faith in order to do God's work in this world.
      Here's where He as the great teacher unfolds God's will and God's word and
equips the saints for their work of ministry. Some of you could have a bright and
beautiful ministry unto God if you would pay attention to the Holy Ghost. Oh, I'm glad
for the ministry of lay ministers. Every member of the body of Christ should be involved
in this great spiritual work and I want to tell you, it is the ministry and work of the Holy
Ghost in the church.
      If the Holy Ghost has His way and He can pour out as He wills, He'll have
everybody on fire. He'll have everybody working and praying and believing. He'll have
everybody being a flame of fire and being a teacher and being a preacher and a
proclaimer of the truth, hallelujah, on some scale or another.
      If He hasn't started working like that through you, well just don't quench Him and
don't grieve Him and He will. Just invite Him and welcome Him and He'll come in and
take over and the first thing you know your heart and your mind will explode and you'll
go sailing out somehow in the atmosphere of divine faith.
      You'll be seeing visions like you've never seen before, soaring on wings of faith,
mounting up with wings as eagles, soaring above the troubles and worries. Your life will
take on a new dimension and meaning of God's Spirit and power.

3. The Holy Spirit Will Show You Things to Come
      Jesus also said, "He'll show you things to come and things about me He will bring
to you and reveal to you." He's talking now about all those beautiful gifts, revelation gifts
that come through the Holy Ghost.
      My, I want you to know Pentecostals are far away ahead of any other group in
this world because of the simple fact of that divine illuminating power of the revelation
gifts of the Holy Spirit – the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits,
and the revelation that is involved in tongues and interpretations and prophesy. All those
beautiful things, Jesus said, He'll show you, He'll reveal. "He'll bring of mine and show
it."
      Oh, I say in this day when a thousand voices are calling at us and a thousand
things are plaguing us, I say, let's tune them out. Tune in on the ministry of the Holy
Spirit and let Him show us Jesus. Let Him show us the word. Let Him reveal to us what
to say.

4. The Holy Spirit Will Glorify the Son
      Finally He said, "He will glorify me." That is to say that He will impart to the
church the means, the ability, the gifts that are required to have perfect and pure worship
to Christ in spirit and in truth. The deadest thing I've ever known is a meeting where
people don't worship God and the Spirit is not there. But the most exciting place in the
world to me is where the saints of God gather in fellowship and love, get in the spirit and
glorify Jesus Christ and worship Him. That's where miracles take place.

Section 2, The Good Shepherd Feeds His Sheep, Lecture 12