We're going to indwell the believer, and then we saw in chapter 15 that not only is he going
to comfort the believer, which would mean to strengthen him, exhort him, encourage him,
and just the standard definition we would think of, comfort him when he's sad or depressed
or going through a hard time, he brings comfort, but not only that, he will also testify of
Jesus Christ and bring things to our remembrance about Jesus and about the word of God.
We'll look at chapter 16 verse 7, 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, but if I depart,
I will send him unto you.
This is a pretty startling statement.
Stop and think about how cool it would be to actually be with Jesus, physically walking
with Jesus, you're walking by the Sea of Galilee, you're watching him in action as he witnesses
to people, you're listening to him preach, he's on the boat and preaching and you're
all on the shore, just wow, the ultimate preacher, the ultimate soul winner, you ask him questions
and just wisdom is rolling off his lips, you know that everything he says is right on.
I mean how great to have that resource of Jesus right there with you, physically there,
I mean what if Jesus were here right now and we could just talk to him, ask him any question,
go out soul winning as his silent partner for a while, but yet, and the Bible is always
telling us the truth my friend, the Bible's right, you know what the Bible says?
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is actually superior to having been on this earth walking
with Jesus as one of the 12 disciples.
That's a pretty startling statement but he tells them, hey, it's expedient for you that
I go away because then you get the comforter.
Now that's kind of hard to believe, isn't it?
That having the comforter is better than hanging out with Jesus, having the comforter inside
you though actually is better, let me see if I can shed a little light on this, but
first of all, even before we understand it, we should just believe it anyway because if
the Bible says it, it's true.
Jesus telling them, look, because they don't want to lose Jesus, they don't want him to
go away, they want to keep him around.
If we were there, we'd want to keep him around too but he says, no, no, no, you're going
to mourn, you're going to weep, you're going to be sad that I'm leaving but it's actually
expedient for you that I go away because if I don't go away, you don't get the comforter
but if I leave, I'm going to send him.
What is so great about the comforter that it's worth Jesus being physically absent but
I think this might help shed a little light on it.
Think about how many times the disciples are clueless in especially the Gospel of Mark's
account where you're kind of just thinking like, come on guys, don't you get it?
And he's explaining things and he's doing things and so many things are going over their
head aren't they?
And they're just not getting it and sometimes you look at it like, wow, how can you not
get this?
But that's because you've got the comforter and this is why this is such an advantage,
having the Holy Spirit inside you opens up the Scriptures unto you in a way that when
you don't have the comforter, you know, you can't see these things that you do see with
the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scripture, opens our eyes to things in the Bible, helps
us understand the Word of God, testifies of the Word of God.
Now look, obviously Old Testament saints, they had some understanding of Scripture of
course and they had enough understanding to be saved, they had enough understanding to
call upon the name of the Lord, they had enough understanding to look forward unto the Messiah
and to be saved by his future work on the cross, his death, burial and resurrection
that they saw through a glass darkly, we see face to face.
We see very clearly, much more clearly than the disciples did and much more clearly than
any other Old Testament saints did and you know what, that's a major privilege, that's
a major blessing.
So don't downplay the comforter because if you stop and think about just how cool it
would be to be physically hanging out with Jesus, the comforter's better, okay?
As hard as that is to believe.
The good thing is someday we'll have both, right?
You know, we'll be up in heaven, we'll be with Jesus and we still got the comforter
so we got both.
But think about it, if we were with Jesus and we didn't have the comforter, a lot of
stuff that he says is going to go over our heads.
So you say, oh it would be so cool to be able to ask Jesus any question except sometimes
you might not understand the answer because he's speaking in all these parables and dark
sayings and saying all these cryptic things sometimes and the disciples are scratching
their heads, we've got it all laid out more clearly in the Bible.
It's all printed and bound nicely here.
I can hold it in my hand, I can take it with me, I can search it using electronic tools
and most importantly I have the author living inside of me, I have the Holy Spirit of God
spoon feeding this to me every day making sure that I get something, making sure that
I understand something.
You know, if I read my Bible and don't get anything out of it, you know, it's like that
doesn't happen.
Think about it.
I mean if you sit down and actually read the Bible, I guess if you read the Bible and didn't
get anything out of it maybe you're zoned out, maybe you're not paying attention, maybe
your heart's kind of somewhere else but I mean if you actually approach the Bible with
a desire to learn and you pray and read your Bible, you know, I believe you're guaranteed
to get something out of it.
You know, how could you not when the Holy Spirit's there ready to tutor you in the Bible.
You know, how many times have we tried to learn a subject on our own and it just goes
over our head and you have to seek out some help, some guidance.
The Holy Spirit is that guide inside of us so not only do we have this amazing treasure
of the Word of God, I mean just having a book that contains absolute truth on the shelf
is already an amazing privilege but how much better when there's someone to explain it
to you and someone to teach and I'm not talking about me.
I'm not even talking about your parents.
I'm talking about the Holy Spirit of God and the Bible says you have no need that any man
teach you.
You have no need that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all
things and is truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in
him.
The anointing is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will teach you to where you don't even
need a man to explain it to you.
That's why I believe that in your personal Bible reading time, you should have the Bible
and nothing else.
There are people that we learn from, you know, you come to church and I preach to you and
hopefully you learn from me, you learn from other brothers and sisters in Christ and some
people like to read a lot of books about the Bible but folks, if you want to read a book
about the Bible, that is never a substitute for reading the Bible itself.
Don't just read a book about the Bible, read the Bible and here's the thing, I also would
avoid study Bibles, commentaries for your Bible time.
I'm not saying that you'd never reference something as a tool but here's the thing,
you need to have a time each day where it's just you and the Bible with no third party
and let the Holy Spirit teach you the Bible.
You don't need a man, it's like, well I can't understand the Bible unless I've got these
notes and this commentary and then either A, you're not saved or B, you're just deluded
and lacking the confidence in the Holy Spirit to teach you the Bible.
You don't need that stuff.
Take the training wheels off your Bible.
Get a Bible without training wheels that's just the text of scripture and let the Holy
Spirit have a chance to teach you without Schofield butting in, Spurgeon butting in
and interrupting you, you're trying to read the Bible.
Hey, read the Bible in peace by yourself with the Holy Spirit and say, well I don't know
if I'm qualified.
Are you saved?
You're qualified to read the Bible on your own and look, I'm not saying you're going
to understand everything.
I don't understand everything.
Somebody asked me a Bible question last week and you know what I told them?
I don't know.
This is what they asked me.
You smarty pants out there that know everything, that's an elementary question.
They asked me, in Genesis chapter 9, why is it that Canaan gets cursed instead of Ham?
Ham's the one who did it but it's like, cursed be Canaan.
And here's the thing, I've got my ideas, I've got my theories but I can't really give a
firm answer on that so I'd rather just say, I don't think that's clear.
I don't know.
The woman ought to have power on her head because of the angels.
Good luck with that verse.
There are things in the Bible that I don't understand and there are a lot of things that
I used to not understand but now I do understand.
But here's the thing, when I read the Bible, I don't worry about what I don't understand,
I just take what I do understand and I grow on that.
And here's the thing, you might come to one of my sermons and something in my sermon goes
over your head, so what?
Did you understand anything I preached?
You know, just take what I did preach that you could understand and apply that, learn
from that, grow on that.
And when you read your Bible, just find what you do understand.
Read the Bible and I guarantee you God will teach you something.
But here's the thing, you're not going to understand the mysteries of the universe overnight.
You're not going to learn the whole Bible overnight.
It's a slow process.
Line must be upon line, precept upon precept, line upon line.
You learn the Bible over a lifetime.
I study the Bible every day and I'm constantly learning new things.
I can even go to some of the most familiar books, Genesis.
I mean, how many times have I read through Genesis but yet new things are jumping out
of me.
You know, it's funny, I go to do a Christmas sermon, you know, every year you got to do
the Christmas sermon and it's like you've done so many sermons on the birth of Christ
and you start running out of ideas, you know, of how we can approach this thing of the birth
of Christ.
But I tell you what, I open up Luke 2, we've heard it a million times, open up Matthew
1, heard it a million times and it's like every year there's always something that jumps
out at me or something that I understand in a new way and you know what that is, that's
the Holy Spirit giving me something new because I'm going back and reading the Bible.
This is a book you can read over and over again and you always get something new out
of it and it's because there's a person there spoon feeding you that new thing.
It's not just that, you know, I'm just really perceptive so I just keep seeing new things
because I'm just really perceptive like, no, no, no.
It's the Holy Spirit there that says, okay, here's something new and he shows you something
new and the next time he shows you something new.
So it's guaranteed to be a worthwhile read.
You're never going to read the Bible and it'd be a waste of time like, well, that was just
a good review session but I didn't really get anything new.
You're guaranteed to get something new.
Now I remember when I was a teenager being worldly, wanting to just kind of have fun,
play video games, just waste time with my friends.
I remember preachers would always say, read the Bible until you get something out of it.
So I'd always just go straight to Proverbs because I was like, I'm going to get something
out of it real fast and then I can go back to swimming and playing outside and whatever.
So it was just like straight to Proverbs or I'd go straight to 1, 2 Timothy, Titus.
Like read the Bible until you get something out of it.
I was like, done, that's great.
That verse, you know, I'll meditate on that.
We don't want to do that, okay, we want to read a serious amount of Bible and you know
what I believe is a good amount of Bible for you to read to set this as your minimum
once a year cover to cover, okay.
That's doable, that's reasonable and I'll tell you what, if you read it less than that,
you know, you're not really going to learn the Bible as well because it's like by the
time you get back around to things, it's been years since you read the other things and
you lose context, you know.
If you read the whole Bible every year, you're kind of keeping it in context where you get
the big picture, you see the forest for the trees and obviously as a pastor or a missionary
or you know, other people that are deeper into this kind of stuff or deeper into the
work of Lord or maybe you're training for those things, you know, you're going to read
it more than that.
But I think for a godly layman, man, woman, boy, girl, you know, obviously it's not in
the Bible telling you, hey, this is how much you're supposed to read but you know what,
I would like to challenge you to make that your minimum.
I think every man, woman, boy and girl can do that because it's about 15 minutes a day.
15, maybe 20 minutes a day and anybody can carve out that time to be by themselves and
read the Bible for 15, 20 minutes a day and get through it cover to cover once a year.
Because you know, I don't want to get up and say, hey, read it until you get something
out of it because that's too, I mean, I get something out of it fast and then I'm not
reading enough.
So I want to get a lot of somethings out of it, you know, so I would just say read your
day portion, you know, get on some kind of a plan and everybody's different and some
people like to do it, just start in Genesis and end in Revelation.
That's not really my personality.
I find that I read more if I read what I feel like reading and I just have a checklist to
make sure I hit it all and before I start doing it again, I make sure that I don't just
avoid certain books or something.
So I have a checklist where I check it off but I jump around, you know, I basically just
whatever book I'm in the mood for because I find that if I'm in the mood for it then
it's a pleasure and I read more, I enjoy it, but whatever your system, maybe you do it
as a rigid schedule, maybe you read what you feel like and just kind of keep track of it
on a chart.
I like to use Excel spreadsheets to keep track of my Bob already because I'm kind of a dweeb
like that but the point is, however you do it, read a substantial amount of Bible and
I guarantee you, you're going to get a lot out of it because you've got the author sitting
next to you explaining it to you and you know what, I'd rather have that even than walking
and talking with Jesus because you know, Jesus talking to me, this is Jesus talking to me
except if I was walking and talking with Jesus, I'd be one of those disciples that people
are shaking their head about like, why doesn't Steve Anderson get it?
Just like we look at sometimes Peter or John like, come on guys, pay attention.
We would have been the same way, okay, because the comforter gives us this incredible amount
of understanding that we might take for granted, you know, I got saved when I was six years
old so I can't even really remember a time when I didn't understand the Bible because
I've always had that comforter with me back to some of my earliest memories because obviously
I don't have a lot of memories before I was six so I've understood scripture and you that
are saved, you understand scripture but some of you could probably harken back to a time
before you were saved and remember not understanding the Bible.
You know, my wife, she told me that she made some attempts to read the Bible before she
was saved and she read it, read a couple of chapters and said, you know, I don't get it.
It went over her head, she lost interest right away.
After she got saved, she opened up the book of John, John chapter one, because I told
her after she got saved, I said, hey, here's where you start, you know, book of John because
she wasn't really that familiar with the Bible and didn't really grow up being taught these
things and grew up in an unsafe home.
She started reading John chapter one and it was just like, boom, I understand it and it
was an exact chapter.
Didn't you try to read that exact chapter previously or was it something else that you
read?
She had tried that exact chapter, John chapter one, unsaved, went over her head, saved, she's
like, whoa, I get it, I see it.
So you know, she has a firsthand understanding of what I'm talking about.
The comforter versus sans comforter, you know, you're going to understand a lot more when
you're saved and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
But you know what, some of you might just be letting that go to waste because you're
not reading the Bible.
And it's like the tutor is waiting for you.
You know, the comforter is waiting for you.
He's waiting to sit there and expound it to you and you're not even calling upon him.
You're not even letting him get into action.
You're quenching him when he wants to teach you the Bible.
So I want to encourage you to read the Bible this year and take advantage of this wonderful
gift that's been given.
And if you ever, you know, take this for granted, think about how this was compared favorably
with having Jesus physically with you.
Hey, you'd rather that I go away so you can get the comforter.
It's that good to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
So let me read that.