Boy, that's a truthful song to
a believer. Do I truly believe what I preach? Have you ever thought that? Have
you ever thought, do I really believe what I'm hearing? I have. Turn with me to the Gospel of
John chapter 16. John 16. I'd like to look at
verses 7 to 11. We ended in verse 7 last time.
I want to just pick up right there. John 16. Our Lord had told His disciples
in verse 5 of John 16, But now I go my way to him that
sent me. And none of you asketh me whether
goest thou. Obviously, based on our Lord's
words, they should have inquired. They should have asked of the
mistress of God. They should have asked Him, Lord,
tell us. Tell us what's going to happen. Tell us of the fullness of what
you've accomplished, what you're going to accomplish at the cross.
Questions that ought to have been asked. The Lord said in verse 6, because
I've said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Here's the reason. What he was
doing, and here again, here's the evidence of that old man. What he was doing did not totally
fill their desire. They had sorrow in their heart
for themselves. Sorrow has filled your heart. whatever it was. Scripture doesn't
reveal what it was. But they were sorrowful that
he was going. But mercy speaking says in verse
7, nevertheless, though you don't inquire as you ought, though
you're sorrowful for yourselves because of not having me here
because my kingdom was not established as you thought, as a natural
man thinks, in this earth. And I was not going to sit on
a throne in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. 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, I will send
him unto you. It's expedient. It's the best. It is absolutely essential. It's expedient. I must go to
the cross. I must be made sin for you. to deliver you from the curse
of the law, I must be made a curse. I must be your substitute. The
Father must look upon me as your redeemer. I must suffer. I must suffer
the penalty of the law. The soul that sinneth is going
to die. I must die for you that you might live. It's expedient. I must be buried. I must be raised
from the dead for your justification, because of your justification
before God. I must ascend into heaven, into
the very presence of my Father. I must be your great high priest. I must plead your cause for my
sake. It's expedient that I go away. I tell you the truth, if I don't
go away, if I don't die, if I'm not buried, if I'm not raised,
if I don't ascend into heaven, if I'm not there as your great
high priest, the comforter will not come. If I don't go, there's
no blood to sprinkle. There's no satisfaction of the
law. The law won't be honored. Justice won't be served. If I
don't die, justice won't be served. And you'll have to suffer. I
must go. But if I depart, I will send. You talk about a
declaration of His divinity. I will send the Holy Spirit. Who could send God but God? Who could speak to God on His
own merit but God? If I depart, I will send Him
unto you. If I depart as perfect humanity and stand in the presence of
Almighty God, this is a great mystery. I speak of this and
here's the Lord Jesus, the God-man, the Messiah, God-man one, speaking
as going back to God. Father, Son, and Spirit. As I've
said, I just, just trying to even explain it. I just, I don't
even want to try to explain it. I can't explain it. If I don't go away, if I don't
depart, entering into the very presence of the throne of God,
my Father, accepted of Him on your behalf, the Holy Spirit won't come. There'll
be no righteousness to impart. There'll be no acceptance of
God for you. I must go away. But if I depart,
I'll send Him unto you. And verse 8 says, and when He's
come, He will reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because
they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and you see me no more. Of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is judged. Now we've heard those scriptures
before. Now let's look at them for just a minute. the indescribable mercy and grace
of Almighty God in the salvation of His people. When He has come,
He will reprove, He's going to convince the world of sin. Now first of all, we know this,
the Spirit of God did come, because the Lord Jesus Christ ascended
into heaven. accepted on His merit and on our behalf as our
forerunner. God Almighty loved the order
of man. We know that. God so loved the
world. He loved the arrangement. And that blessed unity has always
been, before the Lord Jesus Christ actually took on flesh, there
was always, always the surety. There was always the husband
of the bride, so there had to have always been a bride. He
said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Now this is
a mystery. God Almighty was pleased to eternally
have a redeemed people of humanity with him in heaven. And to do
that, the blessed son himself ever
stood as the surety. I'll answer. And all that God
was going to ever save, he put in the charge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And in due time, the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. Here's the mystery. God was manifest
in the flesh. There's a great mystery. That
God who was in need of nothing. He's the I am, the totality. But He was pleased that man would
dwell in His presence. but not fallen man. And the Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world made of a woman, came in here
just like every person's ever been born, came through a mama,
made of a woman, made under the law, subjected himself to obey
the law. And as the representative of
his elect, He answered to the law's demand for righteousness. And God Almighty, the Father,
said concerning the scrutiny of the Lord Jesus Christ, concerning
the law, This is my beloved Son. I'm well pleased with Him. You
hear Him. And here, in every word, every
thought, every deed, His meat, His food, His life, was the will
of the Father. My need is to do the will of
Him that sent me. And he came and obeyed God and earned the
righteousness that is imputed to every believer. And he ascends back into heaven
on his own merit. And the Father says, you sit. You know, you've heard this,
no priest in the wilderness ever sat. Job never done. He sat. He sat down. Nothing else to
do. Finished. Ascended into heaven. And sent
the Holy Spirit back. And he's going to do something
for his elect. This is what he's going to do. The world of his
people. When He's come, He will reprove the world of sin. Obviously
not the whole world without distinction. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
die for all of them without distinction. He didn't pray for them without
distinction. He said, I pray for those that
you've given me. I don't pray for those. I don't
pray for the world. I pray for those you've given
me out of the world. That's what He said. But here's the Holy
Spirit. And now the Holy Spirit is in
this world right now. And He's doing this very thing
right here to everyone that the Father gave the Son. He's going
to call them out. All that the Father giveth Me
shall come to Me. Him that cometh to Me, I will know why it's cast
out. And here's what He's going to do. He's going to reprove
the world of sin. Verse 9, of sin. The Holy Spirit of God, in regenerating
grace, is going to impart a new heart when it pleases Him. When
does a sinner believe the gospel? When God gives him a new heart,
when God gives him faith. That's when he believes. And
when is that? When it pleases God. I know this. There's some sitting here that
have openly confessed the Lord Jesus Christ. There's some here
that haven't. I pray that God have mercy on all of us. But
do you know what I know? This is the only message that
God's going to bless to the salvation of His elect. I know that. So
I want to be so plain. I want you to understand exactly
what I'm saying. This is the only message that
God blesses to the salvation of His elect. This is it. The
message that totally honors the Son. The Son has finished the
work. I had a man call me yesterday.
He asked me, he said, I just want to ask you a couple of questions.
I'll just tell you about the first one. He said, do you believe
that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, that he died
universally to make atonement for everybody? And I said, absolutely
not. I said he laid down his life for the sheep. Only for
the sheep. He died for God's elect. That's
all he died for. And he agreed with me. You know?
And I told him, come. Won't you come? I hope he will.
But I can tell you this. Listen to me. The Spirit of God,
who knows God's sheep, because He's God, He's going to, when
it pleases God, under this message right here, this is the only
message, He's going to convince God's sheep of sin. He's going to convince them that
they are sinners, deserving of hell, deserving of it. Those
that were running down to the pit that the Lord says, deliver
them, I found a ransom. He's going to convince them,
those that are deserving, that God will not allow to perish.
Somebody said, I didn't deserve to die, I beg your pardon. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We were deserving
just like anybody else. But God showed mercy, didn't
allow us to die in unbelief and sin. Deserving separation from
God, He's going to convict, convince,
reprove men of sin and their inability. The Spirit of God
convinces an object of God's mercy, one of God's sheep, one
of God's elect. He's going to convince him, you
are not able. And every believer that you know,
You that are believers, know this, in yourselves you have
no ability. I'll tell you another thing,
you don't have any ability now. He said, without me you can do
nothing. You say, well I can believe. No you can't, not without
Him. No sir, without me you can do nothing. You can do nothing.
Faith cometh, cometh. If He doesn't give me faith in
the next two seconds, I'm not going to believe Him, Carl. I
mean, I'm telling you, faith is alive. I've said before, somebody
said, well, I don't know if I believed years ago. I'm just not sure
what I believe. Well, what do you believe right now? He that
cometh unto me. Do you want to come now? Well,
then come. You want to? You want to confess
Him? Confess Him. Convince the world of sin. Why? Because they don't believe. Man by nature. He'll convince
the world of sin, verse 9, because they believe not on me. Man is
not born believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Men are born unbelievers. The Spirit of God convinces them
of that. And they'll say, as Paul the Apostle says, I am what
I am by the grace of God. Secondly, here's what the Spirit
of God is doing right now in this world. Verse 10, you're
going to convince Him of righteousness because I go to my Father and
you see me no more. Only the Comforter, the Spirit
of God can convince a sinner of the righteousness that God
will accept. An unbeliever is convinced in
his foolish heart, that's what we looked at in Proverbs a while
ago, he's got that animosity against God's Word. Only a believer
believes that the only righteousness that I have that God accepts
is the righteousness imputed to me." You see, if you believe
that you did something in order to be saved, that's the righteousness
that you are robed in. And that righteousness, the scripture
says, is filthy rags. It's a righteousness, okay, but
it's just filthy rags. But the righteousness of Christ
robed, the Holy Spirit of God will convince God's elect of
righteousness because He goes to the Father. And you see me,
no more. The righteousness that He earned,
He earned by His obedience. When He said, I go to the Father,
He went to the Father by way of the cross. The righteousness of the law
is perfect obedience to God's law. The suffering of the penalty
of justice of the law. And He bore our guilt. Made that curse we spoke of a
few minutes ago. And that resurrection that he
had coming out of that grave, he died. Why? Because he was
made sin and suffered the law's penalty. Righteousness. Righteousness earned by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And now he's seated in glory. Made of God unto us to be righteousness. Somebody might claim to have
some righteousness of their works, but let me tell you where a believer's
righteousness is. A believer's righteousness is
seated in heaven. Seated in the heavenlies. Reigning
in their hearts. He is our righteousness. I talk
about that robe covering. Sometimes I only understand what
I can perceive. I always think of, and you do
too, you think of a coat, you think of something. And that's
the way it's set forth. It's a robe that covers us. But
our righteousness is a person. He that ever liveth Our righteousness
is the one that shed that blood at Calvary, His blood. And the Father says, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. So the Spirit of God comes and
He convinces the world of God's elect, of sin, of what they are,
their need of righteousness that they can't earn. There's a righteousness
that I need that I can't produce, Gene. God's going to have to
do something for me. And then lastly, of judgment. Because the prince of this world
is judged. Now, I know this. Being convinced
of judgment means, first of all, I know this. That for a believer,
there's none left. I know that the judge of this
world is going to do right. And for a believer, he is absolutely
convinced by the Spirit of God that there is therefore now no
condemnation to them which be in Christ Jesus. For those that
walk after the Spirit, not after the flesh. That's a great comfort
to me. How do you know? How do you know? I love this passage of scripture
right here. Romans... I hope this is it. I think it's Romans 8.16. Yeah. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. How do you know? How do you know? Do you have any comfort? Well,
I can tell you this. I believe that I'm a sinner.
I believe that. And I believe based on the Spirit
of God's revelation to me, Jeff, that I can't do anything but
sin. I believe that Christ Jesus came
into this world to save sinners. And being found one, myself,
by God's revelation, I believe God. I believe this, I believe
I can't earn any righteousness before God that'll stand. I know
that. I believe that He's my only righteousness,
that if I stand before God accepted, I'm accepted only in the Beloved.
And that's all the hope I got. I don't have any other hope.
And I believe, being convinced of the Spirit of God of judgment,
I believe that Almighty God, if I've got any hope, That judgment,
the judgment of God was spewed out on the Lord Jesus Christ
on my behalf. That He died with me on His heart. And I believe concerning that
judgment, that Satan, the prince of this world, has been conquered. He reigned in my heart of unbelief. And I was bound in trespasses
and sin, and everyone in here that is a believer will admit
that. I was in the darkness of unbelief. I didn't care for God. I didn't
care about His gospel. I didn't care about anything.
I show up at church every once in a while, but I'm talking about
a heart that knows Him and loves Him and wants to come to Him,
wants to serve Him, wants to honor Him. I didn't care anything
about that. It didn't mean anything to me.
And I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ spoiled principalities
and powers on my behalf and in my heart revealed to me, I've
done something for you that you couldn't believe, that you couldn't
do. Gave me a new heart to believe that. Bound Satan. Bound him. From what? Satan was bound from
stopping God from calling me out of darkness and revealing
to me, I've shown mercy to you. Only the Spirit of God does that. And last verse, John 12, 31.
And now is the judgment of this world. And now shall the prince
of this world be cast out. I wrote this down so we understand
this. Though Satan, has had dominion
over mankind through the fall in Adam. Though he boasts of
being a ruler and king. Remember when the Lord was in
the desert of his temptation and Satan says, I tell you what,
you bow down to me. Look at all these kingdoms. I'll
give you all this. All this belongs to me. He's a liar. The earth
is the Lord's. Though he boasts of being a ruling
king. His destruction and defeat for
me has been accomplished by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now how do I know that? Only by the Comforter revealing
that to me. The Lord says it's expedient,
it's expedient that I go away. If I don't go away, The Comforter
won't come. If He doesn't go away and die,
the Comforter will not come and convince me of shed blood, because
if He didn't go away, He didn't shed His blood. He must go. It's expedient. And now the Spirit
of God comes and speaks comfort to the heart of God's people,
and teaches them afresh. I need to hear this again. I
need to hear this daily. I need to be taught this again,
because I'm prone to forget. I'm prone to wander. As I've
said before, whenever somebody stands up, you know, Brother
Norm here the other day, and Lord willing, our conference
coming up, when somebody stands up to preach, I want you to tell
me one more time, tell me of my security in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what I want to hear. Tell me how he's put away. Somebody say, is that all you
want to hear? That's all I want to hear. Let me ask you this. On your
dying bed, what do you want to hear? Tell me how he put away
my guilt. Tell me how I can leave this
world secure in him. And may the Spirit of God convince
me of that for Christ's sake. Amen.