Alright, I want you to take your
Bible and turn with me to the gospel of John, John chapter
16. And the title that has been assigned to me is Preaching and
Apologetics. So, I want us to look at a text
in this session, John 16, verses 8 through 11. I want to begin by just reading
this passage, and during the few moments that I have to be
with you, I want us to look carefully at this text, because it plays
a very significant role in preaching and apologetics. Of course, this
is during the upper room discourse. Our Lord will soon be arrested
and tried and crucified. These are last words He will
give to His disciples to prepare them for what lies ahead. Jesus Himself was a preacher. God had only one Son and made
Him a preacher. And Jesus came forth preaching,
repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And He called men
to be around Him, to be trained to be preachers. And in the Great
Commission, He sent them out to preach repentance to all the
nations. And the book of Acts is a book
of preaching. One out of every four verses
in the book of Acts is a sermon. or the equivalent thereof of
a witness being given to a contingency of people. The early church was
so powerfully strong among different reasons, but one of which at
the head of the list is it was a preaching church. They heralded
and trumpeted the Word of God. And so Jesus, as He prepares
His disciples to go out and preach the Word of God. He says in John
16, in verse 8, and when He comes, and He, when He comes, will convict
the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they
do not believe in Me. And concerning righteousness,
because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me. And concerning
judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. As Jesus will be sending them
out to preach after His resurrection in the Great Commission, they
will be sent out into a world that is hostile to the gospel. So hostile, in fact, in chapter
15 and verse 18, He says that the world will hate them. And
in verse 20, that the world will persecute them. And in chapter
16, in verse 2, that they will literally be thrown out of synagogues
and run out of town. And also in verse 2, that the
world will actually kill them, thinking that they are serving
God. And so, in the face of this resistance, Jesus makes this
extraordinary promise in chapter 16, verses 8 through 11. In verse
7, He says that the Holy Spirit will comfort them, but the promise
in verses 8 through 11 is that the Holy Spirit will disturb
the unbelievers. So the Spirit of God will comfort
the preachers and will convict the listeners. And as we talk
about defending the faith in this conference, we must remember
that the Holy Spirit is the greatest defender of the faith. The Holy Spirit is the greatest
apologist who presents the most convincing case to the sinner's
hearts. It's the Holy Spirit who presents
the strongest evidence. And the Holy Spirit prosecutes
the unbeliever. And so I want us to look at verses
8 through 11 and remind ourselves of what we already know, that
as we bear witness for Christ, and as we defend the faith, and
as we earnestly contend for the faith, we are totally dependent
upon the Holy Spirit to break through to those to whom we speak. And so beginning in verse 8,
he says, and he, when he comes, the he refers to the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit's already in the world. The Holy Spirit is
omnipresent. But He will come in His fullness
on the day of Pentecost to inaugurate this new age. And when He comes,
He will convict the world. Now, this word, convict, is a
very important word that we understand. It has a primary and a secondary
meaning. And the primary meaning is to
expose. The Holy Spirit will come to
expose the sin that is in the lives of unbelievers, and specifically
the sin of unbelief, of rejecting the gospel and rejecting the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this very same word was used
earlier in the gospel of John, in John chapter 3 and in verse
20, for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not
come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." That's
the very word. It's used in Ephesians 5, verse
13, that we are to expose the deeds done in darkness. And this
is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As we defend the gospel, as we
preach the gospel, it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to
bring heart conviction and to expose sin in the lives of unbelievers,
and specifically, as we will see, the sin of unbelief. The secondary meaning of this
word, convict, is to convince and to reprove the sinner of
personal guilt and shame. The Holy Spirit is like a prosecuting
attorney. who presents and presses charges
against the accused. It's the Holy Spirit who presents
evidence and calls witnesses to the stand, and it is the Holy
Spirit who brings a verdict of guilty to the sinner's heart,
convincing the unbeliever of their guilt before Almighty God
and before a holy God in heaven. And we think of Peter preaching
on the day of Pentecost. Now this Jesus whom you crucified,
God has made to be both Lord and Christ. In Acts 2 verse 37,
it says, they were pierced to the heart, katanuso. It's a word that was used of
the high priest who would take the knife and slit the throat
of the sacrificial animal in order to present the blood. under
the sacrificial system. It was used of a butcher who
would take a knife and literally thrust it into the animal to
be prepared to eat. And this is what the Holy Spirit
does. He is to bring, and He does bring,
deep, painful conviction of sins. The Holy Spirit does not tickle
ears. The Holy Spirit boxes ears. The Holy Spirit brings sin to
the surface because no one will ever be saved until they are
under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. No one giggles through
the narrow gate. Everyone who enters into the
kingdom of heaven comes as one who mourns over their sin. And so, he says in verse 8, and
he, when he comes, will convict the world, and the world here
refers to the world of unbelievers. The word for world, kosmos, is
used ten different ways in the gospel of John alone. And here
it is the world of unbelievers. He will convict the world concerning
sin and righteousness and judgment. And these are the three weighty
realities that the Holy Spirit deals with. These three are the
tip of the spear. These three are the edge of the
sword. And so it only stands to reason
that as we defend the faith and as we share the gospel, we too
must speak about sin, righteousness, and judgment, because this is
at the head of the agenda for the Holy Spirit as He presses
to the heart of the unbeliever. The Holy Spirit is pressing sin,
righteousness, and judgment. R.C. Sproul wrote a book a number
of years ago, Saved From What? Well, you need to be saved from
sin and judgment. We're not saved from loneliness. We're not saved from insecurity.
We're not saved from a bad job. We need to be saved from God.
And there is only one who can save from God, and that is God
Himself. And so, in verse 9, 10, and 11,
he deals more specifically with sin and righteousness and judgment. You'll note in verse 9, concerning
sin, and not just any sin, not just sin in a large, broad, brushstroke
way, but a specific sin. that is the point at which the
Spirit presses down upon the live nerve of the unconverted
heart. And it is the sin of unbelief. And that is why he says in verse
9, concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. You see, unbelief is, in the
final instance, the damning sin. It is the only unforgivable sin. Every other sin can be forgiven,
but unbelief will never be forgiven unless one repents and turns
to Christ. This sin of unbelief is the sin
of rejecting Christ. It is the sin of refusing the
free offer of the gospel in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This sin of unbelief is trampling
underfoot the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
sin is insulting the Spirit of grace. This sin hardens one's
heart against the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, this is why we
must preach Christ and Him crucified. This is why when we stand in
the pulpit and we open the Word of God, we must preach Christ,
the person and work of Christ. And then the Holy Spirit presses
that to the heart. and they stand at the intersection
of life, will they believe in Christ or will they continue
in unbelief? And it is the Holy Spirit then
who, as I said earlier, is like a prosecuting attorney and presses
to the heart the dire need to believe in Christ, to entrust
one's life to Christ. And so, this is why we must be
ever preaching Christ. And then in verse 10, he says, and. The word and is
very important. It's not or. as if this is a
multiple choice. And with some people, the Holy
Spirit convicts of sin, but with other people, He convicts of
righteousness, and then yet another group of people, He convicts
of judgment. No, the word, and, at the beginning
of verse 10, and at the beginning of verse 11, connects these all
together. All three of these are interwoven
and stand as one ministry of the Holy Spirit. And so, in verse
10, he convicts of righteousness, and concerning righteousness,
because I go to the Father and you see me no longer. The Spirit of God convicts of
righteousness because it is perfect righteousness that is needed
to gain acceptance with God the Father. It is perfect righteousness,
which is perfect adherence to the law of God at all points,
that is absolutely necessary to find approval and acceptance
with God in heaven. But the end of verse 10, when
he says, because I go to the Father and you see me no more,
is saying that in order to go to the Father, you must have
the righteousness that Jesus Christ alone can offer. Your righteousness will not gain
you acceptance with God in heaven. because you have sinned and you
have rejected Christ, you must have the righteousness that Christ
alone can give. And in order to be accepted with
the Father in heaven, Jesus says, I go to the Father, and you see
me no longer. You must have a perfect righteousness."
Well, there's only one place to find perfect righteousness,
and that is in the Lord Jesus, who was born of a woman under
the law, that He might fulfill all of the requirements of the
law, that He might obey the law on our behalf. We who have broken
the law day after day after day, we are unrighteous. Jesus fulfilled
the law at every point. He secured a perfect righteousness
for those who will believe in Him." Now, the very righteousness
that is imputed to us in the act of justification. And the
final act of Jesus securing righteousness is His obedience to the Father
to be lifted up upon the cross and to die in the place of guilty,
hell-bound sinners. And so, it is this righteousness
that we desperately need. But we, in our own self-righteousness,
stand naked before a holy God in heaven, and we have no covering
for our sin whatsoever. And it is the Holy Spirit's ministry
to press to the heart with deep conviction the sinner's need
for this righteousness, to expose unrighteousness and to convince
the heart of one's need of the righteousness that comes alone
through Jesus Christ. So the Spirit of God is convicting
of the sin of unbelief. He is convicting of the desperate
need of each and every one of us to have the righteousness
that only Christ can give in order to go to the Father and
to be received by the Father. And all of our righteousness,
Isaiah says, is as filthy rags in the sight of God. Second Corinthians 5 verse 21
says, him who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf
that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. And so, the great exchange of
the cross, all of my sin laid upon Christ and His perfect righteousness
laid upon me. And the Spirit, the Holy Spirit
has come to reprove and to persuade and to prosecute the hearts of
unbelievers of their desperate need of the righteousness that
comes through Jesus Christ alone. Romans 1 verse 16 and 17, "'For
I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For in it the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith, for it is written, The
righteous man shall live by faith.'" There is only one way to have
this righteousness, and it is to believe in Jesus Christ. to reject Christ is to reject
the only righteousness by which we must be clothed in order to
be presented faultless before the throne of God above. And so the Holy Spirit is majoring
on majors and pressing to the heart these absolute essential
necessities in order for one to be converted. And as these
preachers are being sent out into the world, I mean, think
about it. They began their preaching ministry
in the very city that crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. And as
they begin to preach the gospel, they must understand that the
Lord Jesus is sending the Holy Spirit who will convict the world
of sin and righteousness and judgment as they stand and preach
Christ and Him crucified. And without this ministry of
the Holy Spirit, preaching and apologetics will never be effective
and will never be successful. But there's one more in verse
11, one more aspect of this conviction of the Holy Spirit. And in verse 11 we read, and
concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been
judged. The Holy Spirit has come and
He convicts the world of judgment. Now the word judgment here refers
to the coming final judgment. that is looming on the horizon
of time, in which every unregenerate person will face the record of
their entire life, and all of their sins will be brought out
into the open. And it's the Spirit of God who
convicts the lost person, you're under judgment, you're under
the wrath of God, and you will have your day in court on the
last day. And you will stand before the
judge of heaven and earth. Revelation 20 and verse 11 says,
and I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat upon it, heaven
and earth fled away, and there was no hiding place. And the
sea gave up the dead which were in them, and the books were opened,
and the book of life was opened. And everyone whose name was not
found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire and brimstone. And it is the Spirit of God who
has come to convince men of this final judgment, this day when
they will stand before the supreme court of heaven and earth, and
stand before heaven's judge, and every sin that they have
ever committed in the history of their life will be brought
out into the open, and God will prosecute the case, and there
will be the sentence of eternal damnation. that will be declared. And this is a merciful
ministry of the Holy Spirit, to press this to the heart before
it's too late, before they stand in the judgment. without an advocate
to represent them before the high court of heaven. And in Hebrews 9, in verse 27,
the Bible says, it's appointed unto man once to die, and after
this, the judgment. Every unconverted person has
two unbreakable appointments, death and judgment. And it is
the Spirit of God who is not tickling emotions, who is not
pandering to the flesh, who is not massaging egos. It is the
Holy Spirit who has come to convict of sin and the righteousness
that is desperately needed to find acceptance with God and judgment, the final judgment. And it is so certain, this final
judgment, that he concludes verse 11 by saying, because the ruler
of this world has been judged. The word because indicates why
this judgment will surely occur, why this judgment is inescapable. Because the ruler of this world
has been judged, and this refers to Satan himself, the devil,
the evil one, the one who has been cast out of heaven already
and cast down to the earth. At the end of the age, he will
be cast into the lake of fire. and He has been judged. Now,
here is the reasoning of Christ to His preachers. If the ruler
of this world, who is the greatest sinner who has ever lived, has
been judged already in an argument from the greater to the lesser,
then how much more will God judge every lesser sinner? If He has
judged the great violator of the glory of God, Satan himself,
and He has been judged, how much more so will God judge the sinner
on the last day? And there will not be one drop
of mercy. There will not be one drop of grace. There will be
no forgiveness on the last day. It will be an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth. It will be perfect judgment and
perfect justice and equity that will be meted out on the last
day. And the Holy Spirit's ministry now, this moment, is to bring
this to bear upon the human heart that is unconverted, to bring
them to the place where they do believe in Jesus Christ, to
bring them to the place where they desire the righteousness
that can come only from Jesus Christ. And they flee to Christ
that they might escape the final judgment. Hebrews 2, verses 3
and 4 says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? And so this is what every preacher
desperately needs, is the Holy Spirit to accompany his preaching. and for the Holy Spirit of God
to bring the truth of the gospel home to hearts and to bring gospel
conviction, the conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment,
which are the three last things you'll ever see on Christian
television, which are the three last things
you'll ever hear on most Christian media ministries, but are the
three things that the Spirit of God is at work doing in this
world, in the lives of unbelievers. So, preaching and apologetics. It is the ministry of the Holy
Spirit as the greatest apologist to defend the faith in the hearts
of unbelievers, and to take our preaching and our witness and
our testimony, and for the Spirit of God to bring it to the hearts
of our listeners. I can only take the Word of God
to the ear of my listeners, and I can go no further. It is the
Spirit of God who must take it from the ear to the heart, and
pierce and penetrate the heart. and it's the Spirit of God who
takes the Word of God and plunges it into the depth of the soul
to bring about true conviction. Hebrews 4 verse 12, for the Word
of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,
and able to pierce as far as the division of soul and spirit,
both joint and marrow, and is able to judge is able to judge
the thoughts and intentions of the heart, for there is no creature
hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare
before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." So the preacher
must take the sharp two-edged sword of the Word of God, and
the Spirit of God must then pierce and penetrate to the depth of
the soul. Well, I've gone past my time.
I'm through but I'm not finished, so thank you for coming back
from dinner.