In the verse on which I have just been commenting He says nothing about
Himself, and it might easily appear to the listeners as if these two
sources of truth, His own incomplete teaching, and the full teaching of
the divine Spirit, were independent of, if not opposed to, one another.
So in the last words of our text He shows us the blending of the two
streams, the union of the two beams.
'He shall glorify Me.' Think of a _man_ saying that! The Spirit who
will come from God and 'guide men into all truth' has for His
distinctive office the glorifying of Jesus Christ. So fair is He, so
good, so radiant, that to make Him known _is_ to glorify Him. The
glorifying of Christ is the ultimate and adequate purpose of everything
that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has done, because the
glorifying of Christ is the glorifying of God, and the blessing of the
eyes that behold His glory.
'For He shall take of Mine, and show it unto you.' All which that
divine Spirit brings is Christ's. So, then, there is no new revelation,
only the interpretation of the revelation. The text is given, and its
last word was spoken, when 'the cloud received Him out of their sight,'
and henceforward all is commentary. The Spirit takes of Christ's;
applies the principles, unfolds the deep meaning of words and deeds,
and especially the meaning of the mystery of the Cradle, and the
tragedy of the Cross, and the mystery of the Ascension, as declaring
that Christ is the Son of God, the Sacrifice for the world. Christ
said, 'I am the Truth.' Therefore, when He promises, 'He will guide you
into all the truth,' we may fairly conclude that 'the truth' into which
the Spirit guides is the personal Christ. It is the whole Christ, the
whole truth, that we are to receive from that divine Teacher; growing
up day by day into the capacity to grasp Christ more firmly, to
understand Him better, and by love and trust and obedience to make Him
more entirely our own. We are like the first settlers upon some great
island-continent. There is a little fringe of population round the
coast, but away in the interior are leagues of virgin forests and
fertile plains stretching to the horizon, and snow-capped summits
piercing the clouds, on which no foot has ever trod. 'He will guide you
into all truth'; through the length and breadth of the boundless land,
the person and the work of Jesus Christ our Lord.
'All things that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said I that He
shall take of Mine and show it unto you.' What awful words! A divine,
teaching Spirit can only teach concerning God. Christ here explains the
paradox of His words preceding, in which, if He were but human, He
seems to have given that teaching Spirit an unworthy office, by
explaining that whatsoever is His is God's, and whatsoever is God's is
His.
My brother! do you believe that? Is that what you think about Jesus
Christ? He puts out here an unpresumptuous hand, and grasps all the
constellated glories of the divine Nature, and says, 'They are Mine';
and the Father looks down from heaven and says, 'Son! Thou art ever
with Me, and all that I have is Thine.' Do you answer, 'Amen! I believe
it?'
Here are three lessons from these great words which I leave with you
without attempting to unfold them. One is, Believe a great deal more
definitely in, and seek a great deal more consciously and earnestly,
and use a great deal more diligently and honestly, that divine Spirit
who is given to us all. I fear me that over very large tracts of
professing Christendom to-day men stand up with very faltering lips and
confess, 'I believe in the Holy Ghost.' Hence comes much of the
weakness of our modern Christianity, of the worldliness of professing
Christians, 'and when for the time they ought to be teachers, they have
need that one teach them again which be the first principles of the
oracles of God.' 'Quench not, grieve not, despise not the Holy Spirit.'
Another lesson is, Use the Book that He uses--else you will not grow,
and He will have no means of contact with you.
And the last is, Try the spirits. If anything calling itself Christian
teaching comes to you and does not glorify Christ, it is
self-condemned. For none can exalt Him highly enough, and no teaching
can present Him too exclusively and urgently as the sole Salvation and
Life of the whole earth, And if it be, as my text tells us, that the
great teaching Spirit is to come, who is to 'guide us into all truth,'
and therein is to glorify Christ, and to show us the things that are
His, then it is also true, 'Hereby know we the Spirit of God. Every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of
God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist.'