let us turn to God's Word and
directing you this evening to words in John chapter 16 Gospel
according to John chapter 16 and reading verses 8 to 11 the Lord Jesus speaking to His
disciples the promise of the coming of the Comforter who is
the Holy Ghost. And He says here at verse 8,
When He has 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 ye see Me no more. Of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is Judge. In last Lord's Day morning we
were considering in particular what is said here concerning
the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the one who is the convincer
of sin. Those words that we have particularly
in verse 9, when He has come He will reprove the world of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin, says Christ,
because they believe not on me." Remember that the margin in verse
8 tells us that reproof means to convince. He is the convincer
or the convictor. And he convicts of sin because
they believe not on me. And we did make some reference
last Lord's Day morning to the historical context in which these
words were first spoken by the Lord Jesus. He is, in a sense,
making reference here to ethnic Israel. He's speaking of the
Jews. They were disbelieving. They
were those who were the rejecters of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
fact, they were the ones who cried out for his crucifixion. And interestingly, that he should
speak in such a term when he has come, he says, with regards
to the Spirit, he will reprove the world. He will reprove the world. Well,
the Jews are said to be of the world. Remember what the Lord
says previously in chapter 8, and there at verses 23 and 24. He said unto them, unto the Jews,
Ye are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world,
I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you that
ye shall die in your sins, For if ye believe not that I am He,
ye shall die in your sins. And there in verse 24, the significance
of that pronoun He, appearing in italics, indicating that it's
been introduced by the translators, literally the original says,
if ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins. The Jews denied it. They did
not believe that He was the promised Christ. They did not believe
that He was the Son of God. And He says that they are those
who are of this world. He came unto His own, we're told,
and His own received Him not. And how these Jews were so culpable
in their unbelief. There was no excuse. for their
unbelief. As the Lord says at the end of
this previous chapter, in chapter 15 and verse 22, if I had not
come and spoken unto them they had not had sin, but now they
have no cloak for their sin, they have no excuse for their
sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not
done among them the works which none other man did, they had
not had sin, but now they have both seen and hated both me and
my Father. And when the Spirit comes, He
will, He will convince them, He will reprove them of their
sin. Historically then, we have to
recognize that there is some reference here to ethnic Israel. But we went on to say that our
chief concern surely must be the experimental interpretation.
Is there not here a reference to the true Israel of God? Not
all Israel, but a lot of Israel. There is a spiritual Israel. And doesn't the Spirit come and
work in the hearts of those who are of that true Israel. What
does the Spirit do? His first work is to convince
of sin. What comfort can the Savior bring
to those who never felt their worth? The sinner is a sacred
thing. the Holy Ghost has made him so,
new life from him we must receive before for sin we rightly grieve
all that work of the Spirit of God and Christ speaks of him
as the Comforter in the previous verse, verse 7, 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. He is clearly speaking of the
Spirit of God and he refers to Him as the Comforter. Back in
chapter 14 and verse 16, 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. And so the Spirit is
that one who truly comes to those who are of the spiritual Israel,
the spiritual people of God. And what does He do? When He
first comes to such, they are by nature dead in trespasses
and sins. And He does a great work of conviction.
And He convinces them of their unbelief, of sin. of sin because
they believe not on me. As we said last time, unbelief
is the root of all sin. Unbelief is there in the Garden
of Eden. When we read of the entrance
of sin, how that Adam and Eve, instead of believing God's truth,
embraced the lie of Satan. Sooner embraced the lie than
bow to the truth of what God had said. God had said so plainly
concerning their disobedience, if they ate of that tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, in the day that they eat us thereof,
they shall surely die. And Satan says they shall not
surely die. They believe that lie. It's unbelief
that is at the root of sin. It is that sin which does so
easily beset us as the Apostle says at the beginning of Hebrews
chapter 12. And when the Spirit comes to
convince us of that, why then we feel what we are, we feel
our sinnership, we feel the impotence of what we are before God. We cannot do the thing that we
should. John Newton says, Oh, could I
but believe, then all would be easy. I would, but can not, Lord,
relieve. My help must come from Thee. The Spirit comes. And first of
all, He reproves, He convinces of sin. Of sin, because I believe
not on Thee. Job says, He shut us up, O man.
And there can be no opening. He shuts us up to what we are.
as sinners. But he who convinces of sin,
the Holy Spirit, does more than that. There is a threefold ministry
that he's spoken of here. And I want us to go on tonight
to consider the second aspect of his ministry in verse 10 of
Righteousness. Because I go to my Father and
ye see me no more. And then if the Lord will Next
week we'll look at that third aspect of judgment because the
prince of this world is judged. Tonight I want to center your
attention upon what we read here in the 10th verse of this chapter,
John chapter 16 and verse 10. When he is come he will reprove
the world of righteousness. of righteousness because I go
to my father and he see me no more. What is this righteousness?
What is this righteousness? Well it is not creature righteousness. It is God's righteousness. It is in fact the personal righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the desire of the Apostle
Paul as he writes there in Philippians chapter 3 he was soul he was
a pharisee he was the son of a pharisee he was brought up
at the feet of Gamaliel he was well learned in all the traditions
of the fathers and he says in Philippians chapter 2 that touching
the righteousness which is of the law he was blameless he really
thought that in some way he was an observer of the law outwardly
he was not a thief or an adulterer or a murderer he kept the very
letter of the Lord of Gods but he had no proper understanding
of God's law until the Spirit came to reprove him of sin and
of that sin of unbelief he was a great enemy of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a persecutor of believers. But when the Spirit came, when
he was brought to see something of the true nature of the Lord
of God, the Lord is spiritual, he says. The Lord is spiritual,
but I am carnal. I am but a natural man, sold
on the sin. And what was it that found him out? It was that 10th
commandment, Thou shalt not covet. and he was brought to say that
coveting is not something that one does with the hand. It's not an action, it's an attitude
in his own heart. Why? He was full of covetousness. He was full of all evil desire.
Concupiscence is the word that we have in the authorised version
there in Romans chapter 7. We saw then that he had no righteousness. Why we're all as an unclean thing,
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We all fade like
a leaf, our iniquities like the wind. They carry us away. You see what God's Word says
of men. And here is this man, this self-righteous Pharisee,
and he's brought to see that he is nothing before God. And
then his desire to be found in Christ. or to be found in him,
he says, not having mine own righteousness which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness
which is of God by faith. The righteousness which is of
God. That's the righteousness of God.
And it's spoken of there in Romans chapter 3. and verses 21 and
22, the righteousness of God we were considering only last
Thursday, something of that great truth that was rediscovered at
the time of the Protestant Reformation that truth that was burned into
the very soul of Martin Luther when he was so tormented by that
word in Romans chapter 1 concerning the life of the justified man,
the just shall live by faith That's a justified man, he lived
by faith. And now Luther was brought to
see that righteousness was in Christ. And that was his justification. And we were considering something
of that great doctrine only on Thursday, and referred to those
words in Romans 3, 21 and 22. where we read of the righteousness
of God. That is, that righteousness that
was wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ. God manifest in the flesh. How He was made of a woman and
made under the law. Being under that law, He obeyed
that law. He was obedient unto death. He
honoured, He magnified the Lord. That's the righteousness that
is being spoken of here. Of righteousness, says Christ,
because I go to my Father and He see me no more. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
here in the world, He was not recognised as that righteous
man. The Jews only accused Him. or how they accused him in their
words, the wicked things that they said concerning him. In
Luke chapter 7 and verse 34 they said he was a gluttonous man
and a wine-bibber. That's what they said of him.
His life was so different to that of his forerunner John the
Baptist, of whom we read there in Matthew chapter 3 and the
nature of his life. the denial that he made, and
the Lord Jesus comes, and they say of Christ, he's a glutton,
he's a drunkard. They didn't recognize him as
a righteous man. Worse than that, they said, thou
art a Samaritan, and ask the devil. Now, to accuse a Jew of
being a Samaritan, oh, that was a serious matter. We know that
the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. There was a reason,
an historic reason for that. The time when the kingdom was
divided upon the death of Solomon. Remember how the ten tribes in
the north rebelled? and Solomon's son Rehoboam is
just king of Judah and Benjamin in the south and those ten northern
tribes they choose Jeroboam the son of Nebat to be their king
and he establishes his capital at Samaria and so you have the
northern kingdom of Israel with his capital at Samaria and you
have the little southern kingdom of Judah with its capital still
at Jerusalem and then of course the ten tribes in the north they're
all scattered when the Assyrians come and overrun the country
and they're scattered, they're lost, the ten tribes. Those who
are left, they intermingle and marry and there are the Samaritans
now who are living in the north. They were a mixed people. There
was something of the blood of Israel in them, but they were
a mixed people and the Jews in the south would have no dealings
with those Samaritans to the north. And so, when they said
to Christ, Thou art a Samaritan, and that's the devil, they were
dismissing him as a most unrighteous man. But worse still, did they
not say that he exercised his ministry by the power of Beelzebub,
who is the prince of all the devils? In Matthew chapter 12,
And verse 22, following, we're told, there was brought unto
him one possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, and he healed
him insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And
all the people were amazed and said, Is not this the son of
David? But when the Pharisees heard
it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils but, by Beelzebub,
the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts,
and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself
shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan,
he is divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand?
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children
cast them out? Therefore they shall be your
judges. But If I cast out devils by the
Spirit of God, then mark what he says, if I cast out devils
by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you.
Or else, how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil
his goods? Except he first blind the strong
man, bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house.
He that is not with me is against me. And he that gathereth not
with me scattereth abroad. And in these solemn words, wherefore,
I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word
against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in the world to come they were
speaking against the Holy Ghost and that is the unforgivable
sin as they were making this accusation against the Lord Jesus
Christ for how they loved to accuse him how they spoke many
bitter words against him they did not recognize him for what
he was holy just, undefiled separate from sinners, a just man, a righteous
man. They didn't recognize that. In
fact, they not only accused him with their words, but they threatened
him in their deeds. So, there were those times when
they would have killed him, they would have stoned him. At the
end of Chapter 8 we have one such occasion, when they were
so offended at what he said. Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took
they up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by. You see the offense. He said,
Before Abraham was, I am. He declares himself to be the
Lord, to be Jehovah. the great God of Israel, the
Unchanging One. And they did not believe, they
did not believe that He was the Christ, they did not believe
that He was the Son of God. Again later, in chapter 10, we
see the same. In verse 30, I and my father
are one, he says. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, many good
works have I showed you from my Father, for which of those
works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying,
For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy. And because of thou being a man,
make us thyself God. It is this that is the offensive,
it is the truth of his diaton. They will not accept that he
is God. God manifests in the flesh. They
are full of unbelief. They reject him. In fact, this
is the charge that they bring against him before the Roman
governor. We have a law, by our law he
ought to die, they said, because he made himself the son of God.
Or they were guilty of his crucifixion. They not only spoke against him,
they not only threatened him, they demanded his death, crucify
him. crucify him how the Lord Jesus
Christ was accused hated and rejected by the world as he says
here to his disciples in chapter 15 and verse 18 if the world
hates you you know that it hated me before it hated you If ye
were of the world, the world would love his own. But because
ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I
said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If
they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they
have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. They do nothing
then but accuse you. and they want to be rid of him
but then in contrast to all of this how the father acknowledges
him and accepts him and he is now you see coming
to the end of his ministry and he is about to return unto his
father and he says that the spirit will come 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. Oh, and when he is come, why,
he will reprove the world of righteousness, because I go to
the Father, and he see me no more. He goes on to say here
in verse verse 28, I came forth from the Father and am coming
to the world again, I leave the world and go unto the Father. Why so? Because he had finished
all that work that the Father had given him to do. And now
the Father, you see, will bear his witness to him. He can say
as much to those Jews on occasions He says, back in chapter 5 and
verse 32, there is another that beareth witness of me, and I
know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Who is this? Why, he says at
verse 37, the Father himself which hath sent me hath borne
witness of me. He hath neither heard his voice
at any time, nor seen his shape. How the Father bears his witness. And we see it. If we read through
these Gospels, we see it so clearly. We read it there, in Matthew
chapter 3, as he begins his public ministry, as he comes forward
and he's baptized by John in the river Jordan. Though a voice
from heaven saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased, or the Father is pleased with him. and the Father acknowledges
him as that righteous one though the world rejects him and not
only at his baptising but then subsequently on that mount of
transfiguration when he takes with him those favoured three
when he goes with Peter and James and John and is transfigured
they see through the veil of his humiliation or they see through
is human nature something of the divine nature. They see the
glories that belong unto Him as the eternal Son of God. And then again the voice from
heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye, hear. The Father acknowledges
Him, owns Him. Repeatedly we see it in the miracle.
here in chapter 3 when Nicodemus that ruler of the Jews comes
to him what does he say? we know we know that thou art
a teacher come from God for no man can do the miracles that
thou doest except God be with him why the miracles? are the miracles not significant?
are they not the signs that the Father has given to men? pointing
to Him as that One who is the promised Messiah. He is the Christ
of God. He is the eternal Son of God. How the witness of the Father
then is so manifold as we read the Gospels and then ultimately
of course we see the Father's witness in His resurrection from
the dead. And so Peter in his preaching
there on the day of Pentecost In Acts chapter 2 and verse 22
he says, Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, He hath taken and by wicked hands hath crucified and
slain. His death is in fulfilment of
course of God's purpose. He must be obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. He must die. No man is able to
take his life from him as he says in John chapter 10. He has
authority to lay down his life. He has authority to take that
life again. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. But then these Jews, they
are so culpable in their sin. He hath taken them by wicked
hands and crucified and slain them. They disowned Him. He came
to His own. They rejected Him. They will
not have this man to rule over them. But how different the Father
constantly acknowledging and owning Him. Whom God, says Peter,
hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be holder of it. Oh, he is owed
in the resurrection from the dead. As we read it there in
Romans chapter 1 and the 4th verse, declared to be the Son
of God with power. According to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead or the father owns him a
righteous man and it is this righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ that is being spoken of the righteousness of God manifest
in the flesh of righteousness because I go to my father and
he see me no more but as it is the Lord's personal righteousness
that one who was obedient to every commandment of God the
only sinless man that has ever lived upon the face of the earth
though Adam and Eve also they were created sinless but they
sinned but he never sinned it's his personal righteousness but
more than that here we are to understand it in terms of his
mediatorial righteousness it's that that he has accomplished
for others It's that righteousness of Him who is the mediator of
the New Covenant. The righteousness of Him who
is the only Saviour of sinners. Remember what the Apostle declares
concerning His coming, when the fullness of the time was come,
God sent forth His Son made of a woman. Oh yes, He is the seed
of the woman. that was to come, a great promise
that we have back in Genesis chapter 3. He is the seed of
the woman. He has no human father. He has
a human mother, Mary. She was a virgin and she was
with child and she was with child of the Holy Ghost, a great miracle
of the virgin birth, a great mystery now of the incarnation. He is that one then who is made
of a woman. He's a real man. It's a real human nature that
is created there by the Spirit of God in the womb of Mary. But it is that nature that is
without any taint of sin. He is preserved, free from every
taint of original sin. That holy thing that shall be
born of thee, said the angel, shall be called the Son of God. Or when the fullness of the time
has come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman. But then he goes on, made under
the law. He's made under the law. In other words, he is subject
to the law of God. And he comes to stand in the
law place of his people. And he will answer for his people
in regards to that law of God which is holy and righteous and
just. It's a good law. And he will
answer in every aspect for his people with regards to all that
that law demands. I came down from heaven, he says,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent man. The Father has sent Him. The
Father has placed Him under the authority of that Holy Law. And He will obey it. As we read
there in the Epistle to the Philippians, He is obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. We read again there in that third
chapter of Matthew as he comes to be baptized. John preaching
a baptism of repentance. Here is a man who has no need
of repentance. He has never sinned. And yet
he identifies with sinful men. He submits to John's baptism.
And what does he say to John? Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. Why this submission to baptism? It's part of His obedience. His
obedience to the will of the Father who has sent Him. Thus
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Yes, He will honour
and magnify the law of God when He dies upon the cross, when
He bears the dreadful penalty of the law, Because the law says,
the soul that sinneth it shall die. The wages of sin is death. God is holy and righteous and
just. God cannot turn a blind eye to
sins. Sins must be punished. And in
order for sinners to be saved, their sins must be punished.
And what has God done? Why? He has provided a substitute
for his people. Christ has died. in their place,
in their room, in their stead, the great doctrine of substitutionary
atonement. But it is not enough. It is not
enough for the law to be honored with regards to all its penalties,
the punishment being meted out. There must be a positive righteousness
also. As we see at the end of Deuteronomy
chapter 6 there in the Lord of Moses, it shall be our righteousness
if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord
our God which he hath commanded us. There must be something more
than innocence, there must be a positive righteousness, there
must be an observing of all the commandments, there must be a
doing of all the commandments. And isn't this what we read off
here? Or the Spirit will convince you, see, of righteousness. That
is the righteousness that was wrought by the Lord Jesus, because
I go to my Father. Or the Father now will receive
him back into Heaven. Why? Because he has fulfilled
all that righteousness. He has accomplished all that
work. He has made an end of sin. He has made reconciliation for
iniquity. He has brought in everlasting
righteousness. Who is that righteous man you
say? The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He
will magnify the Lord and make it honourable. We sang just now
in that metric called Psalm 24 and he speaks of the man who
ascends into the hill of the Lord. And who is the man that
is being spoken of in Psalm 24? You shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord, for you shall stand in His holy place. He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. Which man is this? There is only
one man. It is the man Christ Jesus. that
righteous man. And here we read of him, you
see, returning to heaven. His ascension. Lift up your heads,
O ye gates, be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King
of glory shall come ye. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up
your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come ye. Who is this King
of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the
King of Glory, Siloam. It speaks to us of Christ, and
Christ having fulfilled all righteousness, of righteousness because I go
to my Father and He see me no more. And this is the righteousness
that justifies the sinner. This is that righteousness that
must be imputed, that must be reckoned to the sinner's account
if he is going to stand before God. How the Apostle speaks of
it there in Romans chapter 4. What says the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is a
reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness." Clearly it's not his faith that
is his righteousness. We're not to make faith some
sort of work. To him that worketh not, it says,
but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith, that
is the object of his faith. That is the Lord Jesus. He's
counted for righteousness, even as David also described that
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute sin. All this is that righteousness that must be reckoned to the
sinner's accounts when God comes and He's got the Holy Spirit
and convinces of sin. Now we need then a righteousness
when we find that we're nothing but sin, a sink of iniquity within. But here is a righteousness to
justify the sinner. And yet, it's that righteousness
that men are so ignorant of. Men are ignorant of it. The natural
man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness
to him. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. Men want to do something. All
men by their very nature are wedded to the idea of works,
wedded to a covenant of works. even when we see men being awakened
in the Scripture. Think of the preaching of Peter
there on the day of Pentecost. What do they say? What must we
do? What must we do to be saved?
Paul and Silas, as they preach to the Philippian jailer, says
the same, what must I do? Men think there's something to
be done. All men, you see, by nature they are proudly averse
to the very idea of salvation being the free gift of God there in Romans chapter 10 verse
3 they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God Oh, let us not despise the righteousness
of God. It's the only justifying righteousness. It's the only way whereby a man
can be saved. How the Holy Spirit must convince
us, you see, of our sin, and convince us of our impotence,
our unbelief, and constantly direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
of sin because they believe not on me, where will we obtain faith?
If we are full of nothing but unbelief, it's looking on to
Jesus. And again I remind you the strength of that verb in
Hebrews chapter 12. The strength of that verb, looking
away, literally. Taking your eye off every other
object. looking away from everything
else and looking only onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. Isn't this what we see in David? There in that Psalm that we read
in Psalm 71? What does he say? Here is David,
he's an old man There, when I'm old and grey-headed,
He says, Oh God, forsake me not. Verse 15, He says, My mouth shall
show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day. For I know not the numbers thereof.
I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention
of thy righteousness, even of thine own. Verse 24, My tongue
also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long, for they are
confounded, for they are brought into shame that seek My heart. Oh, here is David you see. All
he wants to know is that righteousness of God, that is the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the same really as we see
in the apostle Paul. The same in the New Testament
as in the Old Testament. To be found in him, says Paul,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. For the hymn says righteousness
within the root it may appear to take thy part, but let righteousness
impute it. be the breastplate of thy heart."
Nothing within us, although we want the work of God within us,
we want God to come and sanctify us, we want to be free from this
old nature that clings and cleaves to sin, we want to be those who
have that overcoming faith that our righteousness, oh we want
that righteousness of Christ, the righteousness that is outside
of ourselves, that is reckoned to our account. Think of John
Bunyan. Maybe you've read something of
his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. And
there is poor Bunyan. One day he speaks of how he goes
into the field and he's so troubled, he's so burdened, he wants a
righteousness so that he might stand before God. so that he
might come before God with his prayers. He wants a righteousness
and he looks up into the heavens and he sees it there. Where is
his righteousness? Why? His righteousness is already
in heaven. His righteousness he saw was
Christ and so he has free access. into heaven because he has that
righteousness of the one who has fulfilled all righteousness
for him and gone before him and entered into heaven and this
is what the Spirit convinces of righteousness says Christ
because I go to my father and you see me no more we might often
think wouldn't it be lovely if the Lord Jesus Christ was yet
upon the earth and we could sit at his feet or to sit with blessed
John at the dear Saviour's feet to hear his gracious ministry
those tender words that he spoke to sinners but we have something
greater than that Christ is not upon earth but he is in heaven
and He is there on behalf of all those whose faith, whose
trust is in Him. Those poor sinners who feel themselves
to be full of unbelief, why they have to be always looking to
Him who is the author and finisher of faith. Oh God grant then that
we might be those who know something of this ministry, this blessed
ministry of the Spirit Nevertheless, Christ says, 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. And all that he might come, all
when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. Well, the Lord be pleased to
bless His word to us now. Ali.