The Comforter. I tell you the truth, verse 7 of
John 16, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away, for if I'm not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you. But if I, I send him to you. And when he is come, he will
reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment.
Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness,
because they go to my father and see me no more. Of judgment,
because the prince of this world is judged. Have I entitled my
message for this morning, The Comforter's Convictions, that
convicting were a comforter of God. And it's lovely that the
Lord Jesus Christ would call him the comforter in the midst
of what he has promised to do. Heavenly Father, we do, like
David, plead with you that we do as you have said. that you
would send the blessed Holy Spirit that we would reciprocate, reproof
the comforting convictions that he brings. Bless your word, Heavenly
Father. Cause us to be the recipients
in delight of your work of grace in the hearts of your people.
For we pray in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Do I have the Holy Spirit? There are countless millions
who ask the question. It's an assumed thing that the
Holy Spirit is there freely given, but that's not exactly what the
Lord is saying here. But also, he gives us a clear
description of the work of the Holy Spirit, and it's to have
the Holy Spirit. then these things will be evident
in their life because these are the promises of God Almighty
about the coming. And the first thing we need to
do is remind ourselves again that the Lord Jesus Christ is
God Almighty but God the Spirit is God Almighty and God the Spirit
was there in eternity and God the Spirit is declared to be
the Creator. God the Spirit came in ultimate
times in remarkable ways. And but this coming that the
Lord is speaking about here is that coming on the day of Pentecost
and following and the coming that is a coming into the hearts
of all of these people until the Lord Jesus Christ. He says
it's expedient, it's necessary. That I go away, for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come. It's necessary. The Lord
Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
It's necessary that he comes. It's expedient, but it's expedient
for says. It's sent to you, particular
people. He's not just randomly left out
there to pick and choose as men would have. I remember listening
to a church service, I don't know when, but I would have heard,
and these people said to God the whole. We invite you to come
and worship with us here today. Who is God? Who's sitting throughout? It's expedient. It's expedient
for Jesus Christ to have sunk on the cursed tree. It's expedient
that he should have gone back to heaven, declared to all of
his redeemed that their sins have gone. His work is finished.
He now can be declared to all that he's God and a saviour.
It's finished. that God's children have obtained
forgiveness of sin. They are God. There is a declaration
and pardon and the high priest now sits in heaven's glory interceding
for us. And He comes, He comes again
and again to people, to Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ came, came
and performed a glorious work. But if you go back and spend
time reading John chapter 15, that He performs this glorious
work that He can abide with them forever. I'll leave you nor forsake
you. But he, I go not away that come,
but if I depart, I will send him. Don't you love the personhood
of our God? And being God, and the glorious
humanity of God the Son, and the glorious being of God the
Father, we are lost in wonder and admiration. But the comforter
is a person, which means that he, when he, The glorious person,
the blessed Holy Spirit, and he's called the Spirit of Truth,
Comforter, comes. This Comforter is the one who
has comforted his people throughout all of the Old Testament time
by bringing the glorious declaration of the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ to come. The Old Testament says he's coming,
he's coming, he's coming, he's come, he's come. The rest of
the New Testament, he's coming back, he's coming back, he's
the Comforter. We'll talk more about him but
I want to look in particular this morning at his work in particular. We are utterly dependent upon
the promises of God. I will send him unto you. I have absolutely no doubt about
the reality of his coming. There's absolutely no doubt that
there's particular people that he comes to and there's absolutely
no doubt about the success of his coming. He's coming. He's coming. Has he come? In the establishing of us. Church
that bears the name of our savior. All of the claim that he has. All of them declare. you are none of his. And so this
is a serious, serious matter. Is Christ in thee the hope of
glory? is the faith I have saving faith,
or is it the false faith of multitude? When he is come, verse 8 of our
text, when he is come, he will move the world of sin and righteousness
and judgment. When he's come, he will And if
you read the glory coming in Acts chapter 2, this work here
laid out before us in promise fulfilled just six weeks after
the promises that we read about here, we see him coming and we'll
look briefly, Lord willing, look at chapter 4 and Acts chapter
2 and following and you'll see that he will and he has come. He will reprove the world. And to deal with him, John must
understand what the world means. Nowhere in the scriptures does
it describe all of humanity together, otherwise it's a particular group
of people. The world is the world of God's
elect. He will, these particular people,
righteousness and judgment, he will come to them. It's the world
of John 3.16. It's the world that John the
Baptist declared isn't it? It takes away the sin of the
world. If he took away the sin of all of humanity, then he must
be saved. It cannot be anyway. This is
the work of God Almighty, not the work of men that we try and
fail. He cannot fail. So the world
is a particular group of people. And this word, Reprove, in verse
8, is the word that's often translated to convict, with the suggestion
of shooting the person convicted, charged, and go to court. But when the evidence is in and
the judge has determined the case, you are then convicted. So it holds within its meaning
a sense in which you are then in the hands of the court. If you've been convicted, then
you're in his hands, or his hands to be in, brothers and sisters.
He will convict. He will cause there to be a consciousness
of sin and righteousness and judgment. So there are some ways
in which translated into it. John uses it on several occasions. And of course, there are people
who, with tender consciences and in the very presence of God
Almighty, find themselves convicted. If you remember the story in
John chapter 8, when the people brought that letter to the Lord
Jesus Christ, caught in the act of adultery, there was no man
involved that we know about. There was, of course. but they
and the Lord Jesus Christ ignored them and then he wrote on the
ground and then they all left you know the story in John chapter
8 they left from the oldest to the youngest verse 9 they heard
being convicted in their own went one bum conviction according to the scriptures,
people to come to the Lord Jesus, he causes people to Jesus Christ.
The glorious thing in this text is that the convicting work of
the Holy Spirit is what draws people to the Lord Jesus Christ
in reality. The word is used in 1 Corinthians
chapter 14 of Paul's trying to cause the the Corinthian church
to organise services so that they're actually honouring to
the Lord and not to the flesh of men, which is in so many churches. But it speaks of a man, but of
all prophesy, then there one come in that believes not, or
one And he is convinced of all. He is judged of the word that
we use here. The secrets of his hushing. He's
saying to them, you preach the gospel in church. Leave the nonsense
somewhere else. Leave the fleshly activities.
You preach the gospel. That's preaching the gospel to
them. Thus the secrets of his heart are falling down on him.
Worship God. That man is convicted. Worships
only God's children. Worship God. And the report will
be, God is in you as a church of truth. So here we'll bring
the Lord Jesus Christ's promise to the Blessed Holy Spirit, this
reproving, this convincing work of his elect. of sin. He will convict the world of
sin and of righteousness and judgment and he doesn't leave
us in any doubt about what it means. Don't you love it when
the Lord does these things to us? There will be, by the work
of the Holy Spirit, there will be a conviction, there will be
a reproving, a conviction with a sense of shame of sin because
they believe on believing not. It's an active
hating of the light. As we saw earlier in John 15,
they hated me without a cause. All of the cause of all of this
hatred, this unbelief, the unbelieving ones. Hebrews 4 talks about it.
It's an evil heart of sin because they believe not me. That word on means into and
unto and towards. Wicked is the sin of unbelief. It is the very nursery of all
other sins. It's the bedrock all evil. What
was the first question that Satan brought us in the garden? Dear
God, hath God sent Yes, he has. He has, clearly. All that we see in this house,
it's Genesis in this business of unbelief. It's a sin against
light. It's a sin as good and pure and
just. Unbelief is a horrible and reproved by God of the fact
that there was a time in your life when you were That's what he's promised to
do, isn't he? He'll convince you, he'll bring you into and
cause you, as I am, ashamed of the fact that there was a time
when I just despised God. God with a passion. It's interesting,
isn't it? If you ask people to name what
sin is, they name all sorts of things which are so evident to
man, to murder and fornication and all of the laws that this
world is paraded. Unbelief's an extraordinary sin,
isn't it? See, you can't hide murder. And you can't hide so
many sins, you can't hide theft. But unbelief is a sin that can
hide in open sight. The very people that he says
are going to put them to death, believe themselves to be believers.
very zealous, it can be moral, it can be orthodox in doctrine
and practice, it can be astounded by others, and it can be applauded
in oneself. And yet, God says, their hearts
are dead beyond cure. The Pharisees and Saul of Tarsus
thought themselves true believers, until... until the Lord was pleased
with himself to them. And that's the work of the Holy
Spirit. It's exactly what happened to Saul of Tarsus on the road
to Damascus, when he met the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew who
he was, and what he was, and what his release was. Prove, proved of God, of
my unbelief. As God made a sinner, sin expressed
in unbelief. According to the Bible, what's
a sinner? Well, the sinner is the person who commits the sin
of starvation. And according to the Bible, A
sinner is a Roman 7 sinner. A sin is what you are, and therefore
sin is what you do, and sin is making you do, not sin, just
God. That's what it is to be a sinner. The convict Holy Spirit is a
work God alone can, as promised, and must do if you're going to
be saved, if you're going to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. The
gospel is essential, but the work of the Holy Spirit is just
essential. He takes things of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his glorious truths, glorious promises. Religion builds
men up that have never been brought down. His work is to bring people
down, to convict them into court, as it were, and to expose them
for what they are. Religion builds men up who have
never been brought down. Men are filled who have been
emptied. Men are given hope who have never been without hope.
Men are declared and lost. Men are healed who have never
been wounded. Men are exalted who have never
done the humbling work of God the Holy Spirit. Men who have
been given life who are the hand of the Lord, have been given
grace who have never been guilty. We sing, sing's amazing great
sound. You know, Barack Obama sang that
in a church in Southern America, just so you remember, and he
had a sing. A wretch in the congregation, the person singing it wasn't
a wretch. John Newton knew himself as the Holy Spirit had. I was
blind, but now I see. Where are the blind people? Where
are the lost people? If you can make it, it's to your
salvation. You are not saved. You're not
even made to be a sinner. If you're willing, you're not
a sinner. True saving faith is a miracle of God's dead sinner
is to newness of life. Unbelief is reviving. Chapter
two, just turn over there quickly and we'll see this promise fulfilled
in the hearts of these people. Peter, by the Holy Spirit, declares
in the Testament Scriptures the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised
Messiah, the promised King that was coming. He declares what
these people have done. He says in verse 36, "...for
the house of Israel, God hath made that same Jesus whom you
crucified." Unbelief. Now listen to the work of the
Holy Spirit described here in Acts chapter 2. If you are pricked in your heart,
you are broken hearted. Your heart doesn't work any longer.
They were pricked in their heart, Peter and the rest of the apostles.
Brethren, what shall we do? What was the first act of it?
They realized that they were sinners, they were guilty before
God, and they cried out to God. What do you do to be saved? What
shall we do? Peter said unto them, Repent,
every one of you in the night, for the remission of sins, and
you shall receive the gift of the holy, for the promise is
not. unto you, and to your children, and to all that are far off,
and listen to who they are, even as many as our God called the
elect. 3,000 were added to the church
that day. There was in Jerusalem at the time a crowd of nearly
a million people. It comes, the Holy Spirit comes
to particular people. They are pricked in their heart,
and what comes out of a heart that's convicted by the Holy
Spirit of sin? A cry to God. To God cried, again,
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Lord
approve the world of sin. And I want to be reminded that
these are the words of God that come to the ones that come to
light as our abdict work of the Holy Spirit is to reprove the
world of sin, to convict them with a sense of shame of sin. Then, verse 10, he will reprove
the world of sin and of sin because I go to my Father and ye see
me no more. One flows to the other, isn't
it? If God makes you to see that
you're a sinner, see at that very same moment that you have
absolutely no personal righteousness whatsoever. You'll have none
to establish, you'll have none whatsoever. That's what it is
to be a sinner. He'll reprove of righteousness, no personal
righteousness. convicted of sin, of unbelief,
of the sin of unbelief, you will decree that in my flesh dwells
no good. Only God. Sinners that God works
on, sinners that God gives life to, like that man that we read
about in the church in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. He will be convicted. He bows down. He worships God. And all of God's children who
have the Blessed Holy Spirit will declare again and again,
as the psalmist does in Psalm 7 verse 16, I'll speak of thy
righteousness and thine only. There is only one, and that is
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is right, God
is holy. He was acting in righteousness
when he slew his son, he was acting in righteousness when
he raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the tomb, righteous in seating
his son at his right hand in heaven. God is righteous in saving
all the son represented and died for. You won't be convicted,
you'll be convicted of the factiousness and it's him. You'll be brought as it were, convicted and held
captive to the fact that there is just one righteousness. I go to my father. I go to my father by Gethsemane. I go to my father by Golgotha. We're not ashamed of declaring
who the Lord Jesus Christ is, says Paul. I'm not ashamed of
declaring the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God under salvation to everyone that believe
first and also to the Greek, Romans 1.17, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. And don't you love what Romans
3.21 says? Righteousness of God without the law, without you
doing anything. The righteousness of God all
in the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteousness
of God without the law, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets, being witnessed in all of the whole scriptures.
Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith. of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. Necessarily when God, the blessed
comforter, comes and you're convicted of what you are, nothing but
sin, you'll have the very same type of righteousness. And he
says, I go to my father and you see me no more. True faith is
exercised in sinners. We walk by faith and not by sight.
We believe. God, we believe that he's here.
We believe when he says, I'll never ever believe you nor forsake
you. We believe when he says that
he is now seated in glory, the work the Father gave him to do.
He will reprove the world of sin because you believe not.
He will reprove the world of righteousness because I go to
the Father. How do you get into the presence of God Almighty?
You have to be as good as God. You have to be as righteous as
God is righteous. You have to be as holy as God
is holy. In the presence of God. And when
the Lord Jesus Christ went into the very presence of God, in
Him, in union with Him, went exactly the same way. He will reprove the world of
sin because you believe. He will reprove the world of
righteousness because I go to Father and you see me no more.
Verse 11, He will reprove the world of judgment because the
prince of this world is judged. He's not saying that the prince
of this world will be judged in the future, and there will
be an exposing of him in the future, but at that exposing
him in the future, the Lord Jesus Christ is here declaring that
he's already been judged. Don't you love the fact that
he was already judged? Judgment is completed. It's already
taken place. Never to be repeated. The judgment
now is the judgment of John 12, 31. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Everyone is
aware that there's a judgment coming, but that's not what's
here reproved. That's not what's here the comfort
of breathing. Not judgment coming, but judgment
having been passed when Christ died. All sins received all of
the righteous judgment of God upon every single last one of
them. And Satan comes and he accuses,
he's an accuser of the brethren, doesn't he? And what's he accuse
you of? Being a sinner. And who did the Lord Jesus Christ
come into this world to save? Sinners, sinners. His accusations have been dealt
with by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a lovely thing to think,
isn't it? At the zenith of his power, at the zenith of what
he thought was a great victory, where he had the religious world
of Jerusalem on his side and he had Judas And he had the Romans
all conspired to put the Lord Jesus Christ to shame and to
death. At the time, he thought it was
God made a public mockery of him and he was judged. Sins originator, sins instigator,
sins encourager, the great deceiver has been defeated in Christ's
crucifixion. display of his defeat. The father
of lies now lies as a defeated foe at the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ. For this purpose the Son of God
manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Destroy
them! Now, because of his glorious
resurrection, this gospel is cleared throughout this world. And where this gospel is cleared
in the power of the Holy Spirit, there is this wonderful work
that goes on. Sinners are a sacred thing. I'm just going to read you that
poem from Mr. Mr Hart, if I can remember the
name of it, the page that it's on. I might have to read it later
on. He says, the phrase is that sinners
are a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost has made them so. It's expedient, it's necessary
for the Lord Jesus Christ to go away, then the Comforter can
come in power. As we saw in Acts chapter 2,
the openly wicked men received the convicting, reproving word,
and it says they received it with gladness. and were baptised. In their baptism they are declaring
that they are sinners. They are declaring that their
sin in the Lord Jesus Christ was the just judgement of God
Almighty. They are declaring in their baptism
in his glorious resurrection and ascension to heaven. They
are the very God in him. This work is described in Revelation
3 night of love. It doesn't feel like love at
the beginning, but it is, isn't it? Verse 19 of Revelation 3,
but as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be there for and
repent. I just want to finish by asking
a question. Have you been comforter in these
comforting ways? And that's the question that
you and God alone know. The things that have been very
evident throughout these last chapters, these three chapters
where the Lord is speaking to his church and Judas has gone
out, he keeps reminding his people of the time when they'll be asking
people. Just like those people in Acts chapter 2 asked. He says
it to his apostles in Luke 11, 13. He said, if you then being
evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your heaven father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him? Ask. I'll just read these verses,
you can go and look at them later. Whatsoever you shall ask in my
name, that do that the Father may do in the Son. If you ask
anything in my name, I will do it. Let in me, and my words abide
in you. You shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you. Whatsoever you shall ask in my
Father's name, you. In that day you shall ask, you
shall ask. Hitherto you have asked nothing
in my name. Ask and you shall receive that
your joy may be full. You shall ask in my name, John
16, 26, and I'll pray. And whatsoever we ask, we receive
of him, because we keep his commandment. His commandment is to come. What
a glorious glory we have. What a glorious, glorious God. to take us out of this world
and out of its falsehoods in so many ways with a convicting
work. To take us into captive Jesus
Christ. convicted and comforted by the
Comforter. I pray the Lord might put you
to be asking people and that we all might be receiving and
none of us will leave here without pleading with God Almighty to
be gracious. Let's have a break.