Let us turn once again to God's
Word and turning to that 16th chapter in the Gospel according
to Saint John that chapter that we read and directing your attention
this morning to the words that we find here in verses 8 through
to 11 John chapter 16 verses 8 through to 11 And when He is
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. I want us to take in particular
these words that we have in verses 8. and 9 for our text when He
is come. The reference of course is to
the Holy Spirit when He is come. He will reprove, or as the margin
says, convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment
of sin, because they believe not on Me, the Holy Spirit, spoken
of then here as that one who is the reprover or the convincer
of sin. Now, the principal title that
we see given to the Holy Spirit in this chapter and the chapters
that preceded, in chapters 14 and 15 also, the principal title
given is that of the Comforter. In 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 and so back in chapter 14 and verse 16 Christ says 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 that ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall
be in you." There then we see clearly that this other Comforter
is even the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. And the word that we
have here in our authorized version rendered as Comforter is that
word that really means one who is called to be alongside another. It's one of those compound words
that we find in the New Testament, in the original language. One called to be beside another,
and it's a word that does come into our English language. The
Greek is transliterated, and we have it in the hymn that we
often sing, number 29, Fountain of Joy, Blessed Paraclete. That's the word that is translated
as Comforter, the Paraclete. Fountain of joy, bless Paraclete,
warm our cold hearts with heavenly heat and set our souls on fire
says Joseph Hart in that hymn. As I say, Paraclete literally
means to be called to be beside another and it's the same word
interestingly that is also translated as advocate in reference to the
Lord Jesus Christ in the opening verse of the second chapter in
John's first general epistle there in 1 John 2 and verse 1
we read of that office of the Lord Jesus we have an advocate
with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous, and He is the
propitiation for our sins. He is an advocate, He is one
called to be beside another, one called to be their advocate,
to speak on behalf of another. And we see how that is very much
the ministry of the Lord Jesus, even during the days of his humiliation,
his ministry here upon the earth. We see him as an advocate, speaking
for his own disciples, defending them when others would come and
lay accusation against them. There in the opening part of
the sixth chapter of Luke's Gospel, We're told he came to pass on
the second Sabbath after the first that he went through the
cornfield and his disciples plucked the ears of corn and did eat,
rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees
said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on
the Sabbath day? And Jesus answered, The Pharisees
come and they address his disciples and accuse them of desecrating
the Sabbath day. Jesus answering them said, Have
you not read so much as this, what David did when himself was
unhungered, and they which were with him? And he went into the
house of God, and he ate the shewbread, and gave also to them
that were with him, which it is not lawful to eat, but for
the priests. and He said unto them that the
Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Christ is an Advocate.
He comes alongside and He speaks on behalf of His disciples. He is an Advocate in Heaven.
And there He appears and there He intercedes on behalf of all
His people. When we come to God by prayer
we look to Christ our Great High Priest our advocate with the
Father. But here he speaks of another
comforter. In these chapters 14 and 15 and
16 time and again he speaks of this one who will come and abide
there in that 16th verse of chapter 14, I will pray the Father, He
shall give you another, another Comforter, as Christ was an Advocate. So this one, that He may abide
with you forever, says the Lord Jesus Christ. And now He does.
Christ has gone to heaven there as an Advocate, but there is
one in His place here upon the earth, even the Holy Spirit,
And Paul, remember, speaks of that gracious ministry of the
Spirit in the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Likewise,
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, he maketh intercession for us,
says Paul, with groanings which cannot be uttered, and which
searcheth the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. Always the advocate. He is the
comforter. But says the hymn, what comfort
can a saviour bring to those who never felt their worth? The
sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. What comfort is there for those
who have no sense of their sins? And so, he's not only the comforter,
the Holy Spirit, as a wider ministry than that. He is also that one
who is the convincer or the reprover of sins. And that's what we read
of here. in the text this morning. When he has come he will reprove
and as I said the margin has the alternative reading of convince. When he has come he will convince
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin because
they believe not on me. Now as he comes as that one who
will reprove of sin, so he is also that one who comes to reveal
the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes as the Spirit of Christ,
and the Lord goes on to speak of that aspect of his ministry. Later in verse 13, albeit 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 show you things to come. He shall
glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto
you." What a remarkable ministry is this that the Spirit exercises. He is God. He is equal to the
Father, He is equal to the Son. We speak of Him as the third
person in the Holy Trinity, God, the Holy Spirit. And yet, how
His ministry is so self-effacing. He doesn't draw attention to
Himself, but He speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall not
speak of Himself, says the Savior. He shall take of mine and shall
show it unto you. He shall testify of me, says
at the end of chapter 15. That is the ministry of the Spirit
to reveal Christ. And that's how He ministers comfort
to sinners. But this morning I want to concentrate
more particularly on what we read here in these two verses,
verses 8 and 9 of the convincing work of the Holy Spirit. He convinces of sin, He convicts
of sin. And 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. Now let us
first of all consider these words in their immediate context, in
their historical setting. And here there is certainly a
reference to the way in which the Jews were to be convinced.
There is some reference here to ethnic Israel. Dr. Gill speaks of them being convinced
they were disbelieving, they were rejecting, they were crucifying
the Lord Jesus Christ and he is speaking of these Jews in
terms of the world. Not altogether strange that they
should be spoken of in this way that the Spirit will come as
that One who will reprove the world, that is the world of the
Jews they are clearly said to be those who are of the world.
If you turn back to chapter 8 and there in verses 23 and 24 the
Lord Jesus says unto the Jews, ye are from beneath I am from
above, ye are of this world the Jews are of this world I am not
of this world I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in
your sins for if you believe not that I am he ye shall die
in your sins and this was the great thing with the Jews they
rejected the Lord Jesus as that one who was the promised Messiah.
They rejected him as Immanuel, God with us. Look at the language
of the Lord Jesus as he speaks to them here in verse 24 of that
8th chapter. He says unto them, ye shall die
in your sins if ye believe not that I am he, the he in italics,
the pronoun clearly being introduced by the translators. Literally
he says, if you believe not that I am. ye shall die in your sins
and they denied his diet they did not believe that he was the
son of God and it is to these Jews that the Lord Jesus is principally
referring here in our text when we take account of the of the
context, the historical setting we know that he came unto his
own and his own received him not. He came unto the Jews and
they refused to receive Him, and they were culpable. They
were culpable in their unbelief, as those who were the rejecters
of the Lord Jesus. In chapter 15, he says at verse
22, if I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin,
but now they have no cloak, 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, because
they denied His Sonship. They were denying the Father
also. Or they were those who were guilty. This is the condemnation. The light is coming to the world.
and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil." How true this is then, in the first place we have
to see it in terms of those Jews who disbelieved, who were the
rejecters of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he says concerning the Spirit
when He is come or when He is come He will reprove this world
of the Jew of their sin, of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because
they believe not on Me." Now, the Word is fulfilled in quite
a remarkable fashion on the day of Pentecost, that day wherein
the Spirit of God did come And remember what we're told concerning
the consequence of the ministry of Peter. Here is Peter preaching
with the Holy Ghost, come down from heaven. And now he addresses
these Jews there at Jerusalem. It was Pentecost, it was the
Feast of Weeks. and there were Jews and there
were proselytes, gentile converts to Judaism and Peter speaks to
them. Verse 22, ye men of Israel, he
says, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of
God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did
buy him in the midst of you as you yourselves also know him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God ye have taken. and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain." He spells out to them quite clearly where they
were guilty in the rejection of Christ. But then he goes on,
verse 32, this Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are
witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted,
and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,
He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. It is the risen and it's the
ascended and exalted Christ who was shed abroad the Holy Spirit
on this day, just as He promised when He has come. And what is
the consequence? What he goes on there at the
end of the sermon, verse 36, Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard
this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do? There was a remarkable fulfillment
of the words that we have before us today this text it's a prophetic
word concerning the coming of the Spirit in relation to those
Jews how he would reprove them, how he would convince them of
their sin because they believe not on me and there were those
who were wonderfully converted of course there on the day of
Pentecost 3000 but not all those who were convinced by the Spirit
in the Acts of the Apostles, not all of those who were thus
wrought upon were savingly converted. There were some, although they
were convinced of their sin, yet they came short of salvation. They came short of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Solemn is it not how we read
of these various characters. We can think of such as Ananias
and Sapphira we read of them in Acts chapter 5 a certain man
named Ananias with Sapphira his wife we read sold a possession
and kept back part of the price his wife also being privy to
it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet
seeking to give the impression they were bringing the whole
aware, you see, of what we read at the end of chapter 4 concerning
the generosity of Barnabas. And then, verse 3, Peter said
to Ananias, Why hath Satan filled thine heart, to lie to the Holy
Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land, whilst
it remains? Was it not thine own? And after
it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived
this thing in thine heart, that was not lied unto men, but unto
God? And Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down, and gave up the Ghost, Great fear came on all them that
heard these things. There was some impression made
in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, but it was not that that was
truly saving, was not fruitful in their salvation. It was a
man who lied, lied to the Holy Ghost. Was it not the sin against
the Holy Spirit that that man was guilty of? And then we also
read of Simon, Simon the Sorcerer in Acts again and there in in
chapter 8 verse 13 we're told Simon himself believed also and
when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding
the miracles and signs which were done but then we're told
this concerning this Simon Verse 18, When Simon saw that through
laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he
offered them money, saying, Give me also this power that on whomsoever
I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto
him, Thy money perish with thee. because it was thought that the
gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither
part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in
the sight of God." And yet this Simon was told and made a profession
of faith and was baptized. Clearly the work was not real. He was not a genuine convert,
though there had been some conviction. He had come short, he came short
of that salvation that is in the Lord Jesus. Not all. Not
all, you see, who are convinced are then saved. Reminds us, does
it not, of those solemn words that the Apostle writes to the
Hebrews. He says there in chapter 6, it
is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted
the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if
they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing
they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him
to an open shine. How important it is that we know
that real work of the Spirit in our hearts. He is that one
who comes to convince the sinner and to convert the sinner. And
so I want us to turn from the way in which the words historically
is fulfilled on the day of Pentecost with regards to Jews and those
things that we subsequently read in the Acts of the Apostles.
I want us to turn from that to what we might say is the true
experimental significance of this passage. How it really relates
to those who are the spiritual Israel of God not ethnic Jews
but those who are the Lord's true people it has its fulfillment
even in sinners of the Gentiles does it not when he is come he
will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment
of sin because they believe not on me we know that this word
world convincing the world is to be understood in terms of
Gentiles as well as Jews. Elect Gentiles and elect Jews. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. What is that world that
God has loved? It's not just Jews, the world
of the Jews, it's Gentile sinners. And John brings that out when
he writes there in the that first general epistle in chapter 2
and verse 2 concerning Christ's work of making the great atoning
sacrifice, that work of propitiation, he says there does John concerning
Christ he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours
only, he is speaking to Jews he is the propitiation for our
sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole
world What is that world? It's Gentiles. It's Gentiles. And here we are to understand
the words of our text, not just in its historical setting with
regards to how the Jews would be convinced concerning Jesus
of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God. But principally here
we are to understand it in terms of the experience of those who
are God's true Israel, those who are spiritual Jews. And you
know God's spiritual Israel are such as are circumcised in their
heart. That is the true Israel. He is
not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that
which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit
and not in the letter whose prize is not of men but of God how
Paul is so clear on these matters how he has to deal with those
you see who saw circumcision as the be-all and end-all the
end-all of everything not so says Paul there is to be a spiritual
circumcision that's the true circumcision circumcise therefore
the foreskin of your heart says God through Moses and be no more
stiff-necked oh it is that work of the Spirit of God in the heart
that is so important and what is the evidence of it? well where
there is that that inward circumcision of the heart there is a tender
conscience there is a tender conscience there is that real
conviction of sin there's a sight, there's a sense of our real sinful
nature we see it, we see it so strikingly of course in David,
David is the man after God's own heart and we sang just now
in the Metrical Psalm 51, David's Psalm of penitence after his
awful sin he was an adulterer, he was a murderer he committed
adultery with Bathsheba he had been implicated in the murder of Uriah the Hittite, her husband
then he sees what he has done All the Spirit comes, you see,
He is circumcised in His heart, this man. And so He confesses,
against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil
in Thy sight. His sin was not so much against
Bathsheba and against Uriah, His sin was against God. All
He sees, He sees what He is. And he confesses, Behold, I was
shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold,
thou desirest truth in the inward part, and in the hidden part
thou shalt make me to know wisdom. This is the true Israel of God. He is a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not
in the letter. and here is the work of the Spirit
and here is the evidence here is the mark of the Spirit working
when he has come he will reprove the world of sin this is the
first thing unbelief and unbelief is something now that is felt of sin because they believe not
on me. Here is the sin, unbelief. Here
is that sin that is at the root, the base of every sin. Here is
that that was there as we've said so many times in the fall
of our parents Adam and Eve. Though God had created them perfect
and set them in paradise and then put them to the test. And
we have the record, the awful historic accounts in Genesis
chapter 3, the fall. The fall of our first parents. And what is the sin that they
are guilty of? It is unbelief. God had spoken so plainly concerning
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were not
to eat of it. They were not to eat of it. In
the day that thou eatest hereof, he said, thou shalt surely die.
And the devil comes, in all his subtlety, through the instrument
of the serpent, and he tempts thee. And there's a questioning
of the Word of God, and there's unbelief. There's the embracing
of the lies of the devil, there's a rejection of God's truth, and
it's unbelief. And she partakes of the forbidden
fruit, and she gives to her husband, and with open eyes he partakes
also. and they're in the sin together. Oh, it is unbelief,
the sin which doth so easily beset us, says the Apostle. There in the opening verse of
Hebrews chapter 12, in chapter 11, he's had so much to say concerning
faith. What a chapter is Hebrews 11.
He speaks to us of the faithful men and women of the Old Testament.
Not all of them. All the time is not sufficient,
Paul says, to tell of all those saints of the Old Testament.
We have some detail concerning so many of those saints and they
were men and women of faith. Faith is a subject he's dealing
with and then when we come into chapter 12 he speaks of the sin
which does so easily beset us. What is the sin? It's unbelief. The opposite of faith. And it
besets us, constantly besets us. was so full of unbelief. John Newton certainly knew that,
he felt it. He felt it. Or could I but believe,
then all would easy be, I would but cannot, Lord, relieve. My
help must come from Thee. Oh, it is a terrible thing, is
it not, when God convinces us of our sinnership, and here it
begins, you see. we see the impossibility of faith
it's an impossible thing to believe again the hymn writer says to
see sin smart but slightly to own with lip confession is easier
still but all to feel cuts deep beyond expression or we can say
the words we can say we're sinners we can acknowledge but do we
feel it? do we feel our own belief? And
those who speak, you see, of duty fights, and duty repentance,
and here is the poor sinner, and the Spirit has come into
this man's heart, and he's known something of that spiritual circumcision,
his conscience is tender, he wants to believe, he cannot believe.
And the preacher comes and says, oh, it's your duty, believe!
As if he can do it of himself. They make it a duty, they bring
him under the law, as it were. There's something to be done.
And yet God is dealing with this man. Oh, Job certainly knew it. Job says concerning the dealings
of God, He shutteth up a man. He shutteth up a man and there
can be no opening. When God shuts us up to what
we are, shuts us up to our sinnership, not just Job, Heman in Psalm
88 felt it also. I am shut up, he cries out. and
I cannot come forth. It's God. It's the Spirit of
God of sin. Because they believe not on me.
It's the work of the Spirit. It's
the work of the Spirit as He brings that sinner under the
Lord of God. Remember how Paul writes in Galatians
chapter 3, he says, before faith came Before faith came, we were
kept under the law. Shut up! To the faith which should
after would be revealed. Oh, how many today make such
an easy profession of faith. It's easy. Easy believism. It's everywhere. What do they
know about the impossibility of it? What do they know about
that work of the Spirit of God convincing of sin? And what is
the sin? Because they believe not on me. And it's unbelief, I say, friends,
that is felt. We feel it. We cannot do it. And we want to do it. We want
to believe. All our help, all our relief, surely it must come
from God. And this is the wonder, as the
Holy Spirit convinces of sin, So the same spirit also is the
one who gives saving faith, justifying faith, and he works that faith
in the heart. Look how it continues here, of
sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness. Because
I go to my Father and ye see me no more. That's the finished work of Christ.
When Christ goes to the Father why the work is finished. And here you see the poor sinner
is looking to Christ as that one who having finished the work
that the Father gave him to do. This is how Christ speaks later
in his great high priestly prayer in chapter 17, I have glorified
thee on the earth, I have finished the work that thou gavest me
to do. then he goes to the cross and he utters that cry it is
finished and he heals up the ghost oh and then he is that
one who on the third day is raised again from the dead declared
to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead then he shows himself to
his disciples for 40 days or they are the witnesses of the
truth of the resurrection and then he ascends he ascends to
heaven to the right hand of God and this is a spirit's work not
just to convince of sin of unbelief but also to convince of Christ
of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no
more." Oh, it is the Spirit. And the Spirit is that One who
gives faith, by grace are you saved through faith. And that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It's not the work
of man, it's not man's duty, it's God's gift. Why? It's God's work. It's that faith,
as we read in Colossians 2.12, that faith which is of the operation
of God. It's looking on to Jesus. That's
the one to whom we have to look, that's the one from whom we can
obtain this faith, looking on to Jesus. And you know, you know
the strength of the verb that he uses, to look. There in Hebrews
12.2, it's a strong word, it's taking the eye off every other
object. one object only, looking only onto Jesus, or looking to
Jesus alone, the author and finisher of our faith. This is the work
of the Blessed Spirit, as I said here, as He continues later in
the chapter, verse 13, "...Albeit when He, the Spirit of truth,
is come, He will guide you into all truth." Or how does He guide
into this truth? He doesn't speak of Himself.
that whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will
show you things to come he shall glorify me for he shall receive
of mine and shall show it unto you." Oh, he comes as that one
who is truly the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ Christ himself
in the course of his own ministry makes it plain that he came only
to save sinners they that are whole says Christ have no need
of the physician but they that are sick I came not to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance in that sense the sinner is a
sacred thing the Holy Ghost has made him so of sin because they
believe not on me what a blessed work it is but it's not enough
and I want to emphasize it's not enough to know that we're
sinners, to have that sense of our sinnership and our understanding
now of what it is to believe in that awful truth of the sinner's
total depravity the sinner's utter inability, the sinner's
impotence it's not enough to know all of that, we need to
know that but we must not come short of the Lord Jesus Christ
that's the vital thing, is it not? that we're looking on to
Jesus. We're looking on to Jesus, the
one who has gone to heaven. All remember the language of
the prophet in Isaiah, in chapter 45 and there at verse
8, he says, this is his prayer, drop down your heavens from above. and let the skies pour down righteousness,
let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, let righteousness
spring up together, I the Lord have created. All this is the
Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes, it's the Lord's
creation. When the heavens Pour down righteousness, this righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then at the end of that chapter
he says, Surely one shall say, In the Lord have I righteousness
and strength, even to him shall men come, and all that are incensed
against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified. and shall glory, or that we might
be those who, knowing our sinnership, see that we are justified only
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that He might be to us all our
glory." Well, the Lord willing, I want us to continue next time
by considering more particularly the content of that tenth verse.
What a ministry this is! This is the office of the Holy
Spirit that Christ is speaking of. the work that he does, the
ministry exercise as he comes into this world and the day in
which we're living is the day of the Holy Spirit or do we know
the Spirit of God? Do we know the Spirit of our
Lord Jesus Christ 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
you see me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world
is judged. The Lord grant his blessing upon
his word. Amen. We sing as our concluding hymn
this morning, hymn number 744. And the tune is St. Catherine's
744. and ninety-three. No awful sense we find of sin,
the sinful life and sinful heart, no loathing of the plague within,
until the Lord that feel imparts. But when the spirit of truth
is come, the sinner trembles at his doom.