Arrogance and Ignorance • John 16:5-15

Video teaching begins 22:08

Notes

We face a lot of crises nowadays. World epidemic, economic crunch, fake news, racism, polarisation such that people cannot agree to disagree. There is conflict and tension. What would you think is the worst crisis we face?

None of these things.

The worst crisis, the one that will kill everyone, is arrogance and ignorance of God. That opens the door to every wickedness and evil. It’s hard to know which comes first. They go hand in hand.

This is how serious the crisis is. There is no earthly remedy for arrogance and ignorance. You can’t fix arrogance with education, opportunity, or money. The ignorance that comes with arrogance can’t be fixed with education, opportunity, or money, either.

The only solution to arrogance and ignorance is the truth of God, applied to the heart, with the power of God.

We are reading in John 16 from verse 5.

1. Jesus again comforts the disciples.

A. It’s the last night of His life. He’s just told the disciples that because the disciples abide in Him and bear fruit and glorify God, people will have a big problem with that. They will oppose them, excommunicate them, and even kill them.

B. And He knows, you guys are thinking, what’s going to happen to me without Jesus? They are sorrowing because life without Jesus is going to be real hard.

C. Imagine their surprise when Jesus says, it’s to your advantage that I go away. It will be a benefit to you.

1. Jesus going away means He will go to the cross and pay for all sin, for all time. He will make Himself an offering for sin.

2. He will rise from the dead He will cleanse all those who receive Him as their saviour and make them holy.

3. He will ascend into heaven, receive from the Father the Holy Spirit, and pour out the Holy Spirit on all those who receive Jesus, as God promised He would do in the last days. The Spirit wants to come into their lives because they are cleansed of their sin, they are holy.

2. When the Helper comes, He will greatly help by convincing the world that they are truly wrong to hate Jesus.

A. Remember, the Helper is the Spirit of truth. Jesus has called Him that twice already during this teaching, in 14:17, and 15:26, and again, here, in verse 13.

B. The Spirit of God, with all the power of God, will convict the world.

1. This word, “convict” means to shame, to disgrace. To cause to feel shame, a painful emotion caused by being aware of guilt. This lowers your standing in your own eyes.

2. That is, the Spirit of truth will cause the world to know the truth in the inner man, to know that they are truly wrong to hate God.

3. The Holy Spirit will show the world they are wrong in three areas.

A. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.

1. Jesus is God, who came to reveal who God is to the world. Jesus spoke like no man ever spoke, He did the things that only God could do, all miracles. And these miracles were always good: giving health, sight to the blind, feeding people, forgiving sins, saving them from death, raising them from the dead, only good, always.

2. This is according to the scriptures, where centuries before God specified what His Messiah would do. This is a paper trail that can’t be faked or falsified by deceivers. It all points to one person. The Scriptures testify that Jesus is the Holy One of God.

3. The Spirit of truth will shame people for not believing that Jesus is sent by God to be the Saviour of the world. He will make them know that they are wrong and have no excuse for rejecting Jesus, not receiving Him, not trusting in what Jesus did.

4. The excuse here is that it is not intellectual or intelligent to believe in Jesus. But that is arrogant. If you refuse to believe and trust in Jesus, you are not intellectual, you are not wise, you are not prudent, you are not discerning or perceiving more than other people. You are sinning against the knowledge of God and therefore are wilfully ignorant. You are sinning and offending God because you do not believe Him about Jesus whom He sent. You love the darkness rather than the light because you think it covers over your sin. You are wrong, and you know that you’re wrong.

B. The Holy Spirit will show the world they are wrong concerning righteousness.

1. The world says, I’m basically right, certainly 51% right. Right enough. If there’s a problem with the Big Guy upstairs we’ll sit down and I’ll set Him straight. If there is a God, har har.

2. Jesus went to the Father, again, meaning to the cross to die for the sins of the world. He was buried and was dead for three days. Then He rose from the dead. He ascended into Heaven directly. God accepted His sacrifice for all people and raised Him because He was Himself sinless.

3. Your righteousness has to be the same as Jesus or you are not acceptable to the Father. 51% okay means 49% rotten. Do you like your chicken tikka massala 49% rotten? If you have sinned one sin, you are completely unacceptable to God. And you have committed many, many, sins.

4. The Holy Spirit says you are wrong. You are not righteous in the slightest, and you know this is true in your heart.

C. The Holy Spirit will show the world they are wrong concerning judgment.

1. People do not expect there will be a judgment of their actions and thoughts. They do not expect that they will be found guilty and condemned to eternal punishment for sinning against God and hating Him who is good.

2. At the cross God also judged Satan. Satan is the author of arrogance and ignorance. He was corrupted because of his own beauty. In his arrogance he wanted to take God’s place and be God himself. That is arrogant and ignorant. There is no way anyone else can be God. The Bible calls Satan the god of this world. He runs this world, he is at work in the sons of disobedience. The whole world lies in the embrace of the evil one. He is the one who deceived man into thinking he could be his own god. Arrogance and ignorance just like Satan. This arrogance and ignorance keeps people in the dark, killing one another, lying and stealing from one another.

3. Jesus triumphed over Satan at the cross because He judged Satan. Satan caused Jesus to be crucified. The Father ruled in favor of Jesus and raised Him from the dead and gave Him the name above all names. Jesus took away all Satan’s weapons and stripped him of his authority. Satan will be locked in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. When he is released, he will be thrown into the lake of fire forever. No one gets out of there.

4. Because the ruler of this world is judged and will not escape, no one will escape judgment. If you are not following Jesus, you are following Satan. You will receive the same punishment as Satan because you are doing the same thing as Satan. You are arrogant and ignorant of God. You oppose and reject Jesus. You know Satan deserves judgment, and you know you deserve the same judgment.

D. You can see what a help the Holy Spirit is to us.

1. Because we can’t convince people that they’re wrong. It’s just our word against theirs. Who are we to get in people’s faces and say, “You’re wrong.”?

2. But God wants to do this because it’s the first step in becoming right. First you must know the truth in your heart that you are completely wrong and God is right. David said in Psalm 51:6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

3. God shames people and makes them know they are wrong because this is true. He begins to save us with truth.

4. Knowing the truth that you are really wrong is the first step in becoming a disciple, but then as a disciple we have a greater need: to know God.

A. Jesus says, I have many more things to teach you but you can’t bear them now. You can’t take it all in; you only have so much capacity. And then you can’t learn it all at once. It’s a process. You can’t grow overnight.

B. But when the Holy Spirit of truth comes He will guide you into all truth.

1. Everything that Jesus wants them to learn. That is, the apostles’ doctrine contained in the New Testament. It’s complete, they got it right the first time. There are no additions to the New Testament. There are no corrections for the New Testament. People have tried it over the centuries, but it’s always a deception and a counterfeit. Jehovah’s Witnesses have their own translation because a real Bible does not support their doctrine. Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists add to the Bible in order to support their doctrines. But the Spirit of truth got it right the first time.

2. Guide you into all truth means to make you like Jesus Christ. Everything that Jesus wants His disciples to learn and experience means becoming like Christ. We are learning a person. Our doctrine is true and should lead us to think and act true, with humility and love. If we don’t love then we are nothing.

C. Don’t you think it’s interesting that the Spirit will not speak on His own initiative? It’s because He is representing the Father.

1. He’s not making truth up, He is speaking as Jesus spoke, the words given Him from the Father.

2. Because in the King James Version it says He will not speak of Himself, some people take that to mean that the Holy Spirit will not emphasise Himself. Won’t draw attention to Himself. And then people teach we won’t emphasise the Holy Spirit, either. And they ignore Him. But notice, Jesus is giving a lot of attention to the Holy Spirit. Three chapters alone here in John. Paul teaches about the Holy Spirit in Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 2, 12, 14; 2 Corinthians 3, 4; Galatians 3, 5; 1 John 4. Chapter after chapter about the Holy Spirit in the epistles. The Holy Spirit speaks a fair amount about Himself. That’s because the Father is speaking a fair amount about the Holy Spirit. The Father wants us to know about His Holy Spirit.

D. That’s because the Father has given all things to Jesus, and Jesus wants us to know all things that He is sharing with us. The most important of those is the Holy Spirit Himself. Only through the Holy Spirit can we know the Father, and that is eternal life!

E. The Father wants us to know forgiveness, and how to forgive others, and how to love the unlovable, how to have patience when we are wronged. How not to take our own revenge but give place to the wrath of God. Vengeance is God’s! He will repay! God wants us to gently but firmly speak the truth in love. Sin is not believing in Jesus. You need perfect righteousness to stand the judgment to come. Otherwise you will suffer the punishment of Satan forever.

5. So what?

A. The problem of every single person is spiritual, not physical, economic, ethnic or otherwise. Arrogance and ignorance of God is the problem. From that comes every evil that we face right now.

B. Because the problem is spiritual, the solution is only spiritual. The truth of God applied by the Spirit of God with the power of God. Now, that’s good for us.

1. We think there’s something wrong with us. We’re not very good speakers, not very persuasive. Maybe we’re not! But evangelism does not depend upon us. It’s not about human reasoning and salesmanship. We’re not selling soap door to door trying to get people to sign on the dotted line.

2. Truth alone can reach people. The Spirit of God uses the truth and causes it to go into a heart. That is the only way to solve all the problems of the world. It is a problem of the heart. Arrogance and ignorance.

C. So we testify in the Spirit to the truth. You might feel shamed and guilty as I have been teaching this morning. That’s because you are guilty and you should feel ashamed.

D. What are you going to do with that? You only have two options.

1. You respond in arrogance and ignorance. Reject all this shame and truth in your heart and say, “I’m all right. God is wrong.”

2. You do not reject the shame and truth. You confess, “That is me. I am wrong, and God is right.” You come to God, humble yourself, and let God make you right. Jesus died for you to take away your arrogance and ignorance. Let Him do that!

E. Then be taught by the Holy Spirit. Let Him reveal to you all that Jesus is. There’s always more. You think, it’s just one book, but you know there is always more for the Spirit of truth to show you. What will hold you back is arrogance and ignorance. If you humble yourself you will be surprised how the Spirit opens up the book and teaches you all things.

F. Let’s pray for a new filling of the Holy Spirit. If you have never been filled, today is the day. Trust first in Jesus, receive Him as your Lord and Saviour. Then the Holy Spirit will come to a holy place to teach you.

Let’s pray.