Another Comforter

… ...address given by Mr. W.J. Beattie on the 8th of November 1962. His subject, Another Comforter. John 14, verse 15, If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and 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 seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, but I will come to you. Yet the little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I come in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which is here is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance. Whatsoever I have said unto you, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world giver give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If ye love me ye will rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye may believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let's go hence. I trust that we shall find some comfort, some inspiration, in the few words that we have read together. The inspiration given by that Holy One who indwells the believer. Isn't it a very wonderful thing, brethren, that there is a divine person in the world? In the first place he is here to convict the world of its guilt, by having thrust out of it its rightful king. But then he has another mission, and that is, as one who is with the Church of God at the present time, who should be, in all the gatherings of that Church, the president. It's a very sad thing when the people of God come together and that Holy One is displaced. It's a very common thing. But may we be kept from such dishonor to him as that. May there be, in all our gatherings, that respect, that reverence for, that subjection to that divine person. But in addition to that, is he not also the one who dwells in the individual believer? And I think, perhaps, that it's from that standpoint more than any other that we will consider what we have read together. We are very favored in this respect, that in the present dispensation, that Holy One is acting in a way different from that from which he acted in the Old Testament times, and different, too, from the way that he will act in the Millennium. It is, please, God, in a favor to you and me, to Christendom, if I might say, to keep him in a unique way, and for his purpose, to gather together himself, the people around the Lord, causing each individual, as far as they will let him, to be subject to that Holy One, and what is more, in a world like the present, to be loyal to him. We can know nothing of divine loyalty, or loyalty to the divine person, apart from the gracious operation of that spirit of whom we'll be reading. We cannot think that these words, from the lips of the Lord Jesus, understood very much of what he was saying to them, at least not at the time. But the day of Pentecost, and following that, then they had the light of the Spirit to help them to understand what was spoken here. But what touched them was the fact that the one that they considered the Messiah, they had no doubt about that, was about to leave them. Now, when they looked at that, listened to such words as that, along with what they had been taught in the Old Testament Scriptures, that this one was to abide forever, they couldn't make these words fit at all. They were a contradiction. So they thought to what had been given them in the Old Testament. To hear words like these, that he, who had drawn them to himself, was about to go back to heaven to the Father, just baffled them. Now, having made known that, he turns to them in that gracious way of his, and he says, when I am absent from you, think of me. If you love me, keep my commandments. Keeping his commandments, that is not our subject tonight so much what the commandments are, is the proof of our fidelity to him. I feel it is right to say that obedience to the Word is the first law of Christianity. If, and there is not, if we had a list of things that we had to do, like the Ten Commandments, in our Christian faith, I believe the first one would be obedience. To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. And when we think of those remarkable words, how searching they are to think that obedience to God is of more consequence to him than the most costly of sacrifices. And to hearken means not merely to listen, but it means to be submissive. And to be submissive is better than the fat of rams. Now when we recall that the ram was the one sacrifice of devotion, that was that for their dedication, and the fat was that which spoke of the inward energy of affection, you can see the importance that God attaches to obedience. And I'm persuaded of this, brother and sister, that where there is inattention to these things, not only is there no soul progress, but there is something of soul indifference to divine things. And very probably the lack of moral power amongst us today, the weakness in our meetings, the sadness leading into our meetings, is due to this, that there has not been attention to divine things. Now the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in the individual believer is himself fully competent to strengthen and to give fidelity to the Lord that will be pleasing and draw down from above the blessing that we seek. What then would be a cheer to these disciples would be this, that there would be another to come and take the Lord's place. And I don't know whether you've ever been impressed by the word another. What did the Lord mean to them? He'd been everything. He'd met them daily at once. What a sickness. He'd walked in their families. He was there to heal. What a perplexity. Then you get the circumstances. He was there with the wisdom to guide them. When they attacked, he protected them. There was nothing, nothing at all, but what he was there to provide for them. And a little later on from this, but an hour or so after this, when they were in the garden of Gethsemane, he turned to them and he said he'd been with them. He said, have you lacked anything? Nothing. That's what he'd been to them. And what he had meant to them, the Lord said, I'm going to send you another light to me to be to you what I've been, to be your director, to be your comfort, to be your instructor, your teacher, to be your life, to be all these things. Then why is it, brethren, why is it, and let me ask to myself, why is it I know so little about these things? And why is it I get under the weather so often? Why is it that there is so little of power, say, in my ministry? Is it not due to this, that I've overlooked the fact that there dwells in me another comforter? You have learned from this before now that the word comforter isn't the best translation. But if I was to say to you, the word is paraclete, you wouldn't be any better off, any more than I. But if I were to say to you that the word comforter here has the meaning of our English word solicitor, then perhaps that would help us to appreciate what the Lord has given in that divine person. If I've been leader of leader aid, I'm ignorant very much of the English law about many things. But if I needed legal aid, I wouldn't go to the magistrate. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't turn to a book, although I've got one in my bookcase, Advice on Legal Matters. If I needed legal aid, I'd go to a fully qualified solicitor. I might have to pay for it. I certainly would have to pay for it. But that's where I'd go. Why? Because I know that he knows. Now that's what the open spirit, the indwelling spirit is. For you and me, he's a solicitor. He knows what is required in heaven. I don't. And isn't that the reason why we're told we know not what to pay for, but there is one who knows. And that's our solicitor. Then ought I not to be very mindful that that is in me? Why can't I say to myself in the morning when I awaken, I've got a day before me, it's going to be a bit of difficulty in the office, or my kidneys are not very well, or I've got sickness in the house, or there's some other complexity. Why can't I say the Lord above cares for me and this is the one who dwells in me and knows. Brethren, brethren, why don't we? Why do we blunder about? If I don't know what to do, let me stand still. Sometimes there's been pushing me, about that exercise of proposing another company. Why don't I do this? Why don't I say that? Because I haven't got the Lord's word for it. I look as a motorist. When I see the red, I stop where I am. I don't even see the amber. We belong to the green. And I believe that in all matters, that in our lives, brethren, if we are but desirous of pleasing God, we shall find the instruction to go on, or we shall find a working standstill where we are. Now it says that he may abide with you forever. So is he still. He hasn't gone. Is he still? He abides with us forever. What is the truth? Though the world cannot receive it, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you. Now that is the special character of being amongst the saints. Dwelleth with you. That's the corporate side of it, if I may put it to you that way. And shall be in you. Now that's the personal, the individual side of it. So that whether we think that the people of God gather in together, or we think of our individual lives, the Holy Spirit is present in the assembly, in us individually, so that whatever way we need help and kindness is there for that purpose. I want to ask you to follow me for a moment or two as to how we ever got that spirit at all. Because you thousands in Rumsgate tonight who haven't got him, wasn't there a time when you listened to the gospel preaching? You heard of your condition, people of God? You own that condition? Who was it that made you to feel that? To the Spirit of God. Who was it to show to you that God had made a provision for you in your need? Who turned you, you would say, with the eyes of faith, having directed your conscience first to look into your heart and see that it was desperately wicked and deceitful above all things? Because that's where conscience begins, you know. It begins by looking down to the heart and it sees the mess there. It sees the enmity there against God. It sees that all the time you've been turning deaf ear to it, that you've been under the influence of that one who is the Spirit that rules in the children of disobedience. But when you lifted your eyes from yourself and turned them to look at that place we call Calvary, when you came to understand that the one who took that place was there to take your place in judgment. When you saw that and took it for yourself it was then that work took place which we call the new birth. And in chapter 3 from the Gospel we read together we have these words Except the man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Well that day that you were affected by the word of God and the Spirit of God affecting you by the word and you accepting that that day you entered into the kingdom of God. You have passed out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. You've come from a place of most dignity to God to a place of regard for God. And that is what is meant by having your bodies washed with pure water that you'll be taken up from a condition of hostility to God and transplanted into the kingdom of the Son of His love. And that will prove the allegiance to the Son of His love. Your bodies washed with pure water. Now we take another word from this and I like to think of that time when the Lord met that woman at a well. She was very soul sick to Him. She turned round upon Him and said I'd like to know who you are that you've got the daring to speak to me and besides you're a Jew. The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And they use a common word today and I use it respectfully. She was cheeky. Do you remember what the Lord said to her? That if she knew the gift of God and at that time He was playing on that word gift of God because water at that time and I believe is yet in that part of the country known as the gift of God. When those used to go about poking it in the days of early Christianity they called out who will buy the gift of God? And the Lord was playing on that and if thou knewest the gift of God and it is that said to thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water. Where you got that living water from? The word is deep. You have nothing to draw with. He said he didn't drink of this water she thirsted again and the solemnity of those words spiritualized for a moment and what do those words say to us? This. The man that is an athlete delights in sport finds great pleasure in it he drinks of that and I believe he enjoys it but the time comes when his limbs stiffen the age creeps on and he looks into the future and what has he got in sport then? Anything to satisfy? No, it's past. The man in business who has made a good deal of money finds pleasure in that but the time comes when money is worth living to him he can have the comforts of life but what has he got there? Comforts of mind, nothing. He thirsts. There is the man who goes in for science and he delights in it all very well for the time being but those men that have taken up that and have looked back on their lives what have many of them had to say? There'd be no satisfaction no lasting satisfaction in that they're thirsty but now the Lord turns to that woman and says the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life the water that I shall give him he shall never thirst those who ever drink of this water that I shall give shall never thirst I don't know whether he ever stopped to ask me the meaning of that I'm speaking to the people of God, am I not? It's a bad question Have you ever thought why search will never thirst again? Don't you get the answer in that very verse I think we do because they've got beside them day and night a fountain of water a fountain springing up they can't move anywhere without taking that fountain with them how can they thirst? It's there See what it says in the Holy Spirit then that we've been reading about in the 14th chapter it says to you it will be a fountain of fresh, sparkly thirst-quenching water Christian, diabeled, or you haven't you had such experience as that? Don't you know something comes to your pleasure when you're reading the scripture and when you get drawn perhaps to your bedside, to your net there and you pray what a sweetness there has been in that Don't you know? Now what the Lord meant that this time was this that I can give to you that which will stop you from wanting the things which will only lead you at the end to destruction I'm giving you that which will carry you on through life on that path that leads up and up to eternal life And brother and sister that's where we're going we're climbing day by day and restfully we should find ourselves in the glory and on the way aren't we drinking something of the pleasures that we got to have there Oh, shall we up there so great, so glorious so blessed, so wonderful as the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour We've got now granted to wait until we can get to heaven to know these things Didn't the late Bishop of Derby say this? That we won't have one thing more in heaven than we've got now You may say, well I don't swallow that We won't but I tell you what we will have we'll have the capacity there to enjoy it better And we could have an increased capacity now, brethren for the enjoyment of it if we followed out what we opened our subject with tonight If ye love me keep my commandments There's another scripture that I want to ask you to consider for this time in the 7th of John Remember that great day of the Feast of Tabernacles when thousands of men that come together from different parts of the world some of them have been making a 12-month journey by caravan They'd have to take a 12-month journey to go back This was a thing that saved a fall for years that they might be present at Jerusalem on such an occasion Now we know that from the Acts of the Apostles 2nd chapter but that it suffice for the moment that here were men who had come to be present at the Feast of Tabernacles 7 days had run the 8th day, the last day the great day of the Feast And Jesus standing in the temple looked on the rest they turned out Not to come back again many of them He looked at them He looked into their faces He read their hearts And he said Well, you've come a long way that you've got what you've been seeking He knew they had it And he said to them If any man thirst let him come up to me and drink And water I read it to you when I'm correct If any man thirst let him come up to me and drink He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his inwards shall flow rivers of living water We've been speaking of a fountain in chapter 4 but now it's rivers it's wholeness In chapter 4 it's individual enjoyment In chapter 7 it's our Christian testimony The Holy Spirit, the self-sacred spirit tend to think that this one should operate through you and me To give a few words of comfort to some lonely soul Something that comes right down to my heart Something that you've experienced yourself Did I tell you of meeting the consultant one day when I was in hospital And he said to me as I went to teach someone else to talk after an operation like my own He said to me Oh Mr Beattie He said These folks take much more notice of you than they do of me He said You've been through it and I know you've been through it And I listen to you I respect you Take notice of what you say And brother and sister When we've been in company with the Lord particularly through some domestic triumph through some meeting sorrow some business difficulty When we've been through that been in communion with him we're empowered to speak to others first through our life sorrow And we can give them a word of cheer We can help them Out of your inwards Exploring something for the comfort and the blessing of others I put it to you not in the individual way but there is a public side to it you know And I draw your attention very briefly to the public side Take Peter That day he went along John into the temple and found that the gate got beautiful The poor afflicted man who looked on them expecting some money Peter said to him Silver and gold have I not but such as I have given to thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk Where did he got that power from? Where did he got the authority from for to say that and say it in such a way that the man benefiting by it wasn't that something from the waters the river of waters flowing out Why that man had never had such a treat in his life He was so brave that he didn't just quietly get up and say thank you kind sir He said no can't and he was so exuberant that his ability to walk we are told that he leaped Have you ever given anyone the power spiritually because of what you've done and treated them with You can do it brother and sister There's one dwelling in you fully competent to do that for you Another instance We are told in the eighth chapter of the Acts of Philip The spirit said to Philip Go and join I said to this chariot Now there was a man who travelled a long way as a proselyte to Jerusalem to worship but he was going back still in the dark but he was reading the prophet Jesus and Philip said to him Do you know what you're reading I said well I cannot except someone teach me and Philip began to preach it unto Jesus They went on The man was enlightened Now can't you see that how the spirit of God because it says The spirit said to Philip Go and join I said to the chariot that the spirit of God like four rivers of living water was going to meet the thirst of that poor man there that enlightened him about this And so we might go on Now one closing word because if ever I come back again I hope you'll come to the meeting and not say that old man Jesus far too long I don't believe in it I believe it will finish in something like time Now I want you just to look at this word Jesus unto Judas said unto him If a man loved me he would keep my word not words but word Now what is keeping the Lord's word? It's this Something different from a commandment We could keep a commandment with pleasure and do all that we were asked to do that would be right and proper but to keep the Lord's word means that is to pay to do something for the Lord without a commandment Something we keep with pleasure and glorify it without saying well I've got the presence of scripture for it Some little thing we pass on to another Some little service we can do and feel that we are doing it for no other reason than this, that we just love the Lord Jesus and like to please him just like a child can do It might be Father has been very busy for several weeks and could tend to the garden and his flower beds put a lot of weeds in them And the boy says Oh, Father doesn't like to see weeds in his flower bed but he keeps himself beautifully clean and fresh The little fellow gets down on his knees pulls out the weeds clears up the mead and says to me just because he loves his Father that's all May my life brother and sister be characterized by that just because I love the Lord Jesus …