In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of Jesus' departure according to God's plan. Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit as a comforter to his disciples, who will abide with them forever. The Holy Spirit will guide the disciples into all truth and enable them to speak and write by his inspiration. The speaker also highlights the significance of the disciples preaching the message of salvation to all nations, starting from Jerusalem, and the role of the Holy Spirit in bringing about redemption.

The gospel according to John, chapter sixteen, at verse seven. John, chapter sixteen, verse seven. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go... Earlier in this gospel... When we read on that occasion that the spirit was not... The Holy Spirit was not yet because that Jesus was not yet to Pentecost. Because it was then, on the occasion of Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit was given in fullness of grace and of power in that worldwide activity and presence so that he might bring to the promise that had been given to Abraham that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And also the... When Christ died upon the accursed tree, then he broke down the middle wall of partition so that there was no longer Jew nor Gentile, lame nor female, born or free, but that Christ would... And in certification of this breaking down of the middle wall and in fulfillment of the great promises that were given to all the nations of the world, was poured forth in which abundance in the whole world among all nations and kindreds and peoples and... ...or discrimination. That is the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection, that repentance beginning at Jerusalem. And this is the significance of Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit was given... ...that which was... ...the place that... ...in the redemptive plan... You know there is an economy in God's redemptive plan. There is the work of the Father, there is the work of the Son, and there is, therefore, an arrangement, an economy devised in accordance with God's infallible wisdom and grace. And it is of that particular fact the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost that Jesus is reflecting in... 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... Jesus brings the importance and the necessity of bringing about... ...by this statement... ...frequently when Jesus wanted to enforce... ...and He is enforcing this great pronouncement of His in the latter part of this verse by that introduction. And it is well or wrong to pay attention. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. What Jesus is emphasizing is... According to that plan which had been devised in the grace and wisdom, it was absolutely necessary that He Himself, that is, Jesus Himself, should go to the Father, that He should enter into the holy places not made with man, that He might there be made manifest in the presence of God for us, that He might be seated at the door, in the throne, that He should be given all authority in heaven and in earth from the throne of His glory to the end of subduing all enemies unto Himself and to the end of perfecting His body, the church, because He gave Himself for the church that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water, by the word that He might present it to Him. And in accordance with the infallible wisdom it was necessary from the throne of glory in heaven in order thereby to bring to fruition God's redemption. It was the prerogative of Christ from His exalted glory from the throne of the majesty in heaven to do two things with reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit. They are brought to our attention in this gospel. And the first thing that was His prerogative in order to the coming of the Holy Spirit was that He should pray the Father that the Father would send the Holy Spirit. It was His prerogative. It was His function. And it was necessary that He exercise that prerogative and function to the realization of this end. That He would pray the Father that the Father would send the Holy Spirit. That's what we read in the 14th chapter. I will pray the Father that He shall give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it's here. And the second aspect of Christ's prerogative and function in connection with And He has to send the Holy Spirit in the exercise of that prerogative that is His exported to the right hand of God in this expedient point. I will send Him unto you. You see the distinction? It was necessary that He should pray the Father that the Father would send and then it was necessary that He Himself into the mystery and glory of the counsel of God and it is well for us to ponder these great questions of the relationship which the presence of the Godhead sustained of one to the other in the economy of redemption and it is by His power of wisdom by His power of grace and by everlasting love that this comes. So Jesus says for these are the mysteries of God's eternal counsel. Now we have to ask this question is the Holy Spirit sent? Jesus says here for if I go on away a comforter will not come unto you. It is therefore in that particular capacity that He has been sent and that He came. In another passage as I quoted already Jesus said I will pray the Father and He will give you another comforter. Now when He says another comforter He implies that there were at least two. You cannot speak of another unless you presuppose someone else in that very same capacity. So when Jesus says another comforter He implies that He Himself had acted in that very same capacity. That He had acted in reference to His disciples in that very capacity of comforter. Otherwise the Holy Spirit would not be another comforter. Jesus therefore acted in that particular office while He was at the land. But He doesn't terminate that particular function. We read in the first epistle of John if any man sin we have a lad who came with the Father Jesus Christ and He is the propitiation for our sin. We have a lad who came with the Father and it is the very same term that is used in that instance as is used here So we are advised of this fact that Jesus is the advocate in heaven in the court of heaven on behalf of believers and that the Holy Spirit is the advocate that was sent by Jesus Himself and sent by the Father in order that He might be the advocate with the people of God. Now that variant in the translation translated here comforter and in the first epistle of John advocate draws our attention to the fact that this term comforter doesn't adequately bring out all that is involved in this particular title. And what this particular title really means is not simply comforter that's only one aspect of His activity. It means that He is the helper that He is the pleader that He is the advocate as well as the comforter. A person who is the helper and who is a pleader and who is an advocate is certainly also a comforter. But there are all these particular ideas associated with this particular expression. And what Jesus is saying is this that when the Spirit is sent forth as He would be on the day of Pentecost He would come in that particular capacity of helper, of pleader, of advocate and all these ideas are necessary in order to realize the richness of this particular title by which Jesus here describes the Holy Spirit He is the advocate and of course as the advocate He is to plead the cause and that is the very precious thought that is here in these very emphatic words of our Lord in His experience He comes in the advocate when you think of all the suits that may be conducted against when you think of all the ingenuity and the craftsmanship and how precious it is to realize that when the Holy Spirit was sent forth on the day of Pentecost He was sent forth to abide in His Church and abide in His Church and in the world to the end of the age in that particular capacity to plead on all occasions the cause of His Church Now the next subject that comes before us in this is the function that the Holy Spirit I will send the comforter unto you if I depart In this particular chapter and in the corresponding chapters in this Gospel there are particularly two features of the Holy Spirit's function that are drawn to our attention and the first is this as Jesus says when He the Spirit of truth is come He will guide you into all the truth for He shall not speak of Himself but whatsoever He shall hear there shall He speak and He will show you things to come and Jesus said in that very connection I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now and therefore our attention is drawn to this important fact that there were many things that Jesus had to reveal unto His people that He could not reveal unto them while He was present with them on the earth you see we are after all human and after all we are sinful humans and so were the disciples they were human and they were sinfully human at that they were inhibited in their understanding and in their acquisition by the creatives that belong to sinful human nature and consequently Jesus said I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them you see we have to go through a process of learning that belongs to our very human nature we cannot grasp everything at once we have to grasp it in successive stages and it was so with Jesus in relation to His disciples but He says when He the Spirit of truth is come He will guide you into all truth and Jesus now when He makes that statement is thinking particularly that they were to be the organs of revelation in speaking and in life they spoke and walked by the Holy Spirit and by the authority of Christ the Holy Spirit is said as the Spirit of the Father and as the Spirit of Christ and it is in that particular capacity as the Advocate from the Father and from the Son and they are therefore the instruments whereby that truth which Christ had to reveal unto His people now sometimes you will hear people trying to set up a contrast between Christ and the Apostle and perhaps you will find them trying to set up a contrast between the four Gospels and the other parts of the New Testament as if there is no authority attached to the words of Christ but then attaches to the words of the Apostle and very often people are liable to set up a contrast therefore between the authority of Jesus' own words as recorded in the four Gospels and the authority of the Gospels themselves and the authority of you see it is just this that obliterates in the matter of truth and authority any distinction between what Jesus Himself spoke and what was later on spoken and written by the Apostle they were given that particular place that particular authority in the institution of Christ and their words are afterwards not simply the words of Paul and Peter and John but they are the words of Christ Himself they are the revelation of Christ Himself given by the Holy Spirit and therefore they bear the infirmature of the Holy Spirit and they bear the infirmature of Christ because He's now when Jesus said on this occasion all truth He made it rather definite He said all the truth that is to say all the truth that God has been pleased to reveal unto His Church until the transformation of His redemptive purpose comes to us through the instrumentality of these Apostles of those who were imbued in this particular way and we must remember that all the truth that is necessary for us to know is provided for us in the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments and when Jesus said all the truth He meant that all the truth that was to be communicated and was to be the depository of revelation for His Church to the end of time would be communicated there is another function that He says respecting the Holy Spirit He shall glorify me for He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you all things that the call of heart were mine therefore said I that He shall take of mine the particular function and prerogative of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ and we are therefore advised of the dignity of station and honor which Christ accords to Himself a great part of this chapter is taken up you see with the promise respecting the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit of course is the one person of the Godhead equal in power and glory with God the Father and with God the Son Jesus is here speaking particularly of the activity of the Holy Spirit when He will come and this is what He says you see the dignity of station and honor that that particular that He speaks for Christ thinking of this and this work of the Holy Spirit Jesus said He shall glorify me that is to say and the Holy Spirit will be active in the world as a result of the Pentecostal outpouring which the earth shall drift against this is what will be in the focus of attention this is what will be His main function He shall glorify me it is well for us oftentimes of the ways in which supreme dignity and there are of course those there is the most excellent here is one of those how the apostle John had for that you remember when he begins his gospel he begins his gospel words in the beginning for this extraordinary pronouncement that he makes on this particular occasion that all men should honor the Son Jesus Himself claimed an honor equivalent to the honor even as they honor the Father so has He given and have given Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man so Jesus had to prepare His disciples for this extraordinary assessment of His own given in this instance that is all things were committed to Jesus by the God He Himself is the image of the invisible God He is the brightness of the Father's glory and the expression eminently manifest and Jesus said all and no one know who the Father is but the Son and He to whomsoever the Son and it is just because all things were delivered into the hand of Christ when the Holy Spirit comes it is Christ now these are all important truths all important truths with respect and in the accomplishment of God what is the significance of leading into all truth and thus glorifying Christ for us here in this particular situation in this particular well there are few lessons but it is necessary for us to keep in mind and they are lessons that bear very directly upon the function and upon the purpose of the Holy Spirit and the first lesson that I would like to bring to your attention is this that the Holy Spirit has been given you know you hear people sometimes saying that we need a new Pentecost we need a Pentecost without calling of the Holy Spirit that's a mistake in notion Pentecost is something in the past it is certainly true that we need to pray for the increased influence and the walking of the Holy Spirit in our hearts in our lives in our communities in the Church of God we certainly need to pray that the Holy Spirit would be more abundantly active in us in our families in the Church and in the nations of the world but the Holy Spirit has been given Jesus said to his disciples remember I have prayed the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever and there needs to be no repetition of Pentecost Pentecost was itself a particular event in the unfolding of God's gigantic grace and power and there's no repetition of Pentecost any more than there is a repetition of Christ's death upon the cross or his resurrection from the dead or his exaltation that is the particular significance that belongs to Pentecost that it is an event just as Christ's death is an event and as his resurrection Holy Spirit has been given and he has continued to be active in accordance with that Pentecostal event now you will say there isn't very much manifestation there isn't very much manifestation there isn't very much evidence of that Pentecost or the evidence that the Holy Spirit has and that the Holy Spirit is coming in connection with this particular subject that is very relevant to us and it is the responsibility that befalls upon us in connection with this fact of Pentecost this fact that the Holy Spirit is present in the world and in the church and permanently so we will not be able to go from his activity in the church it is something that that bears upon our responsibility and it bears upon our responsibility in numerous respects but I'll just mention one and that is that a great deal of the desolation that has overtaken the church of Christ and a great deal of the violence that has failed in the church of Christ we have failed to realize the resources that reside in the Holy Spirit we have failed to lay a fore of this of the Holy Holy Spirit and the third lesson that I want to mention in this connection, let me ask this question, is Christ to contemplate the issues of life and death of time, in his image world, in his heavenly apparition, the only thing that comes between you, is Christ so indispensable to you so preciously that you are constantly to place him between yourself and the damnation that is in you that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to those who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ friends let us bow humbly before the face of the Holy Spirit and let us implore the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ let us implore the great head of the church that we shall be imbued, that we shall be imbued with that Holy Spirit wisdom that Holy Spirit truth, so that we may be equipped that we may be furnished unto by that Holy Spirit whose prayer to lead us into all truth by his inhuman grace, and to glory by Christ the unsearchable and his unsearchable glories, so that we may be transformed that we may be