John 16:13 "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come."
Today, I feel God would have me deliver a message entitled "The Holy Spirit Leads Us To Truth." I would like for us to take a look at the work of the Holy Spirit according to the Bible. In today's text, it is written that "he will guide you into all truth." Let's zero in on the details of this statement.
In Japan, the word "truth" is somewhat ambiguous. If we think about the antonymn of this word, it might be more comprehensible for us. The opposite of the word "truth" is "false." Since we are all in this world, we can understand this quite well, especially because the world is full of falsities, falsehoods, and fakes. That is to say, this world is full of false thoughts, disinformation (i.e. deliberating disseminating misinformation), and lies.
Most Japanese people do not believe in God. And many people think evolution as a completely true and correct idea. But, atheism and evolution are completely wrong ideas. First of all, there is a God. A true God exists. Secondly, humankind is not the offspring of apes. Instead, we are the offspring of the first couple, Adam and Eve. Of course, the fact that we are the offspring of Adam and Eve is absolutely factual and true. But, when we try to share this fact with unbelievers, we Christians may sometimes hesitate to speak and may feel some shyness or even embarrassment. Sometimes we may even feel in our minds as though what we are saying just may not be true after all. So it is easy to see how and understand how this world is so full of false spirits and false ideas and how false ideas are spread in this world.
Furthermore, Satan is the father of lies. He leads the people of this world into every kind of falsehood. But, he is also trying to bring every kind of false teaching into the church. Therefore, we should consider that if we haven't enough preparation, even Christians are subject to the deceptions and lies of Satan.
If we think we are wise, we are on the road to deception by the enemy. In addition, there is a possibility that all kinds of errors, false teachings of the Bible, misunderstandings of the Lord's will may come creeping into the church.
Every one of us face the possibility of being deceived by Satan. Even the wise are not wise enough. Since that is so, how can we prepare ourselves better to face satanic attacks? Because we may make a mistake in reading the Bible, in understanding the Lord's will, or in ministry. As a result, we may make a lot of mistakes in our Christian life.
However, you have no need to worry about it. We have a "helper." This helper can guide us "into all truth." A couple of years ago, we went to Israel. At that time, one sister told me, "I have been to Israel before. But, my first time here, I had no tour guide. So, we had to travel by ourselves using maps, and riding trains and buses by ourselves, which was hard to do. We had a hard time." But, it is different on this tour of Israel. We have a tour guide for our group. So, we could get to every famous attraction even while we might be sleeping on the bus. When I woke up one time after a nice sleep on the bus, there I was with mount Sinai waiting in front of me ready for me to visit it. The next day our group went to Jerusalem and there it was again conveniently laid out for me and my group. Our guide took us where we wanted to go. With a guide, even a little child can arrive at a designated place safely. Likewise, the Holy spirit can guide us.
If we follow this guide, we will be lead to the truth. This "helper"
can teach us the correct meaning or interpretation when we are unable to
understand the Bible. He can inform us on the right teaching. And when
we can not decide the way, he can show us the right way, and give us the
truth. And whenever there is a problem and there are so many opinions that
we can not grasp the truth, he can show us what is right and what is true.
Let's do the will of Lord in this end time.
end.