Who’s Your Guide?
May 23 2010 John 16:5-16
How many of you have GPS systems? How many of you use them? They are amazing little inventions and they can be very useful if they are working properly. About three years ago I got one that plugged into my old handheld computer – it was one that would talk to you. It had multiple problems, not the least of which was that it wore down the battery in my suburban even though it was turned off! But the biggest complaint I had with it was that you couldn’t update the map. It didn’t know about that new road that goes from FM1417 to my neighborhood. Every time I was on that road, it would start telling me to turn around, even though I was taking the most direct route to my house! As a guide, it was not ideal.
Shortly after Bethany, my middle daughter, got her driver’s license about ten years ago, she ventured out on her own to go see some friends on the East side of Sherman. She got over there just fine, but when she left she made a wrong turn or two and before she knew it she was lost. She has her mother’s sense of direction. She didn’t have a cell phone then. There was no way she was going to have a cell phone in High School. Those of you who know her know exactly why I say that. Anyway, she was lost and this was pre-cell phone, so she was on her own. As she was telling her mother about it, Cheryl asked, “What did you do? How did you find your way home?” Bethany said, “Well I was driving around, not sure what to do, and I decided I would just follow this lady who was driving in front of me. That lady went to WalMart, and I know how to get home from WalMart.” Yeah, I know – I’ve often wondered what would have happened if that lady was driving to Dallas. That was not the best way to choose a guide, but it worked out for her that time.
A quick search of the Internet and you can find a “Guide” to just about anything –The first page of a Google search on “guide” included
- The Guide to Grammar and Writing
- The Guide to the US Government
- A Guide to Flirting
- A Guide to Quitting Smoking
While the internet is a useful tool and can provide a wealth of information and material, is that really what you want to use to guide your life? What do you use to guide you in life? A GPS? An unknown lady driving in front of you? Something you buy in a bookstore or online? Does it make any difference? Some people will say, “Let your conscience be your guide.” Maybe that’s the answer.
Stephen Wright is a guy who has a bizarre way of looking at the world and points out things you may not notice. He says things like
- “What’s the speed of dark?”
- “What’s another word for Thesauraus?”
- “If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.”
- “A clear conscience is usually a sign of a bad memory.”
That last one actually makes a good point. Let your conscience be your guide? How reliable is that? Can you trust your conscience? Not on it’s own. Conscience is that remnant of the law that was written in our hearts by God, that Law that has been blurred and obscured by sin (Romans 2:15). Your conscience finds its value only as it has been instructed by God’s Word. And that leads me to the thing I want to share with you today.
John 16:5–16 (NIV)5 “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. 16 “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
Who is your guide? You should be careful as to who or what you follow. And Jesus tells us here that He has given us exactly what we need: the Spirit of truth… will guide you into all truth. He does that through the Word. The Spirit is at work in that Word. The same Spirit who filled the disciples on that first Christian Pentecost is the one who is still at work to guide people to Christ today. That is what He is all about, leading people to Christ by working through the Word. He makes you holy by bringing you to faith in Jesus, and then the Spirit keeps right on working in your life to keep you holy – He wants to guide you every step of the way. He wants you to know what He has done for you and how He wants you to live. Jesus said, “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” Let Him be your guide.
As the Spirit works in my life, as I grow in the knowledge of God’s Word, I am not impressed by how much I know God’s Word – I don’t know it as well as I would like to. However, I am continually impressed by how well God’s Word knows ME! It speaks directly to me, convicting me of my sin and showing me God’s love in Christ. When I look to God’s Word I am reminded that I am not the person God wants me to be, and that all I deserve from God is wrath and condemnation. However, that same Word also tells me just how much God loves me, so much so that He was willing to let His one and only Son die as the payment for my sin. The Spirit guides me to know and believe that truth. My faith assures me of forgiveness. My faith assures me of salvation. And my faith makes me feel a tremendous amount of gratitude to God for all He has done. Fortunately, the Spirit also guides me in how I can express that gratitude. He shows me in the Word how God wants me to live. The Spirit is the one who is at work in the Word to reveal all of this to me.
At Baptism of Jesus, the Father said, “This is my Son whom I love – listen to Him” We do that when we listen to His Word. And the Holy Spirit is the one who guides us.
The Psalms speak of the value of the Word and how God guides us through it:
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
The one who instructs us in the Word is God Himself, God the Spirit.
Psalm 23:1–3 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Psalm 25:4–5 4 Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; 5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
God the Holy Spirit is the one who guides us into all truth. And the most important truth He shows us is the free salvation that we have through what Jesus did for us.
Going back to that Comedian I mentioned earlier, Stephen Wright, here is another of his lines: “I intend to live forever. So far, so good.” Well, he is talking about physical life, obviously. But I can say that I do intend to live forever, just not the way he meant it. I will live forever because of what God has done for me in Christ. I know this because my guide, the Spirit, has shown me this in His Word.
