Go with me, if you would, back
to John 16. John chapter 16, verse 1, where
our brother just read, our Lord said, these things have I spoken
unto you. These things have I spoken unto
you. He said that you should not be
offended. They shall put you out of the
synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will
think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do
unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. But
these things have I told you that when the time shall come,
you may remember that I told you of them. And these things
I said not unto you at the beginning because I was with you. But now
I go my way to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me,
whither goest thou? But because I have said these
things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. 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 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. I have yet many things to say
unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, 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. All things that the Father hath
are Mine, Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall
show it unto you. The word of God is written to
a particular group of people. It is not written to everybody. It's not written to everybody.
This is not a general word of general promises to general people
in the world. We are constantly speaking of,
and we're constantly reading about the elect. the elect, God's elect, God's
chosen people. He calls them my people. That's what he calls them, my
people. He just said right here that
those who were not his people would end up persecuting those
who were his people. So there's a clear distinction
between those two particular groups of people, a very clear
difference. He's put a very clear difference. The promises of this book are
only to His people. Salvation is only to God's chosen
people. It's only to God's chosen people. So, all right, with all that
being said. The question that every person
on this earth ought to ask is, am I one of His people? With
that being said, that's what every soul on this earth ought
to ask. Am I one of His people? Am I one of them? Am I saved? Am I saved? When the Lord starts dealing
with a person and the person gets a real first glimpse of
sovereignty. When a person truly gets a initial
glimpse of God's sovereignty, when it first starts becoming
confirmed to a person that God truly did elect a particular
people. The flesh tries as hard as it
can for as long as it can to deny that truth. When it first
comes, the flesh tries to deny it. But God will not let one
of his people kick against the pricks for very long. He just
won't allow it to happen. Once it becomes confirmed and
settled in the heart of a person that God truly did elect His
own people to save. And not only did He do all of
the choosing in this election, but He did it before the foundation
of the world. Once that really sets in, And
a person realizes that he or she has no influence in his or
her own salvation. The choice has already been made.
Redemption has already been completed. It's already finished. Once it
is finished, it sets in. This is the only thing that a
person wants to know. After that comes, after that
truly, truly sets in, this is the only thing a person wants
to know. Am I one of them? That's what I wanted to know.
Once it was confirmed to me that God chose a people, and the ball
was in his court, not mine, and I was helpless, And I was just
a guilty bystander waiting to see what would come in the end.
All I wanted to know is, am I one of them? I believe that man is
sinful, God is sovereign, God chose a people, Christ died for
the people, and God the Spirit will call all those people. Now
here's all I want to know. Am I one of them? Am I one of them? Am I one of
His people? That is a question that God's
people never get away from. Never, never. From the first
moment fear strikes till the day they leave this earth, God's
people will never get away from this question. A child of God
wants to know one thing. Do I belong to Him? Is He mine
and am I His? Am I truly one of His? The Father
chose a people. Did the Father choose me? Gabriel
David Stoniker was that name written in the Lamb's Book of
Life before the foundation of the world. Did God the Son die
for me when He prayed for them and suffered for them and hung
for them? Was He hanging there for me? Has the Spirit called me? Am
I one of His? Am I one of Him? Let's find out,
okay? Verse 1, He said, These things
have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. First,
God's people are not offended. They're not offended by what
He has to say to them. They're not offended by what
He has to say about them. They cry, truth, truth, I'm sorry,
amen. They're not offended. When He
strips them of all their righteousness and strips them of all their,
you know, so-called perfection and holiness, And when He reveals to them what
they truly are, wicked, wretched, rotten, vile, oh, you're not
what you thought you were. God's people are not offended.
They cry, Amen. Worse than I could ever even
realize. They're not offended. Those who are not God's people
are offended. Start telling them how wretched
they are, and how awful they are, and how everything they're
doing is not good enough, and how all of their self-righteousness
God thinks are filthy rags, and everything you've ever done just
needs to be thrown out and burned up. They don't care for that. They're offended by that. I don't
want to hear that. That's what makes them want to
put God's people out of the synagogues. That's what makes them at least
murder in the heart. They kill the messenger of his
word because they hate his word. They hate his word. They're offended
by it. Well, what is his word? Verse one says, these things
have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. They
shall put you out of the synagogues. Yay. The time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think he do with God's service. And these
things will they do unto you because they have not known the
father nor me. They'll do these things because
they're not my people. That's what he's saying. They
haven't known the father. They haven't known me. Verse four,
but these things have, I told you that when the time shall
come, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things
I said, not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you, but now
I go my way to him that hath sent me. And none of you asketh
me, whither goest thou? But because I've said these things
to you, sorrow filled you have filled your heart. 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." Now, chapter 15, verse
26 tells us that the Comforter is the Holy Spirit of God, God's
Holy Spirit. And in chapter 16, verse 7, our
Lord said to his people, I will send him unto you. Every person that belongs to
the Lord will receive His Spirit. Every person. And this is how
the child of God will know it. Have I received His Spirit? Have you received His Spirit? Don't you want to know the answer
to that? Have we received His Spirit? This is how the child of God
will know it. Verse eight. It says, and when
He is come, He will reprove. That means convince. Convince, not, well, I could
maybe kind of see that. I think so. I believe it is,
He will convince, He will prove to the person that He comes to, every person in the world that
He comes to, out of every nation, tribe, kindred, tongue, people.
Verse 8 says, When He is come, He will convince the world of
sin. of sin, of sin, of sin, of sin, of sin. Doesn't that sound so old fashioned
to even be talking about that? Oh, he'll make it current again. Paul said, when sin came to me,
I revived. It came alive to me. My sin came
alive to me. Oh, I saw it. I felt it. I lived it. When the Spirit of God comes
to the child of God, the first thing He convinces the child
of is sin. Not a wonderful plan for their
life. Not that God has taken the first
step and now it's okay for you to take the second. Not that you are so much stronger
than you thought you were. There's so much more in you that
you knew was there. And not only can you help God
save you, you can go help God save other people. Sin. sin, he will convince a sinner
of his own sin, her own sin. And that center will cry, Oh,
the bitterness of sin. A man used to make this statement
all the time. The way up is down. When God
comes, the first thing that a believer does is fall. A child of God,
oh, the bitterness of sin. That's the first word that comes,
sin. Sin, sin. Let me show you something
in Luke 23. Luke 23 verse 1 says, And the whole multitude of them
arose and led the Lord Jesus Christ unto Pilate. Verse 20 says, Pilate, therefore
willing to release Jesus, spake again to them, but they cried,
saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him. Verse 34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." Now turn with me to
Acts chapter 2. Verse 22, Peter standing up,
preaching, He said, 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 you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain." He was talking and preaching
to the very same people that led him to Pilate and crucified
him. Verse 36, Therefore let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Peter
said, you crucified Him. Let this be known. Let all the
house of Israel know, you crucified Him. Your sin crucified Him. It was you. It wasn't somebody
else, it was you. Thou art the man. You are the
one who led him to the cross. Your sin led him to the cross.
You are the one who crucified the Lord of heaven. You're the
very one. Verse 37, now when they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and
the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. Verse 41, then they that gladly
received his word were baptized and the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. The ones who led the Lord Jesus
Christ to Pilate, at least 3,000 of them, written right here,
were God's people. They were God's people. And when
the Lord started dealing with His people, the first thing He
convinced them of was their sin. That's the first thing, their
sin. That's what He will convince
us of. If we belong to Him, He will
convince us of our continual, miserable, wretched sin. We'll be convinced of it. Turn
with me over to Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter two, verse 14, it
says, and as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus,
sitting at the receipt of custom and said unto him, follow me.
And he arose and followed him. And it came to pass that as Jesus
sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also
together with Jesus and his disciples. And I love this line right here.
It says, for there were many, many sinners. and they followed
him. And when the scribes and Pharisees
saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples,
how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
When Jesus heard it, he said unto them, they that are whole
have no need of the physician, but they that are sick, I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He said,
well, people don't need a physician, But the sick do. And he said,
my people do not see themselves to be righteous in their own
flesh. They see themselves to be sinners. Christ came to save sinners.
And all of them cry, I'm one. Save me, I'm one. I need it. I'm a sinner in need of a savior.
All of them. Sinners, I'm still a sinner.
Still, after all these years, I'm still a sinner. Well, look
at that, I'm still a sinner. The Apostle Paul said, I'm the
chief. I'm the chief. Based on the Word of God, I believe
he was one of the elect. I really do. Go with me back
to John 16. Verse eight says, when he is
come, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness. He'll convince the world of their
own sin. And he said, the second thing
is he'll convince of righteousness, Christ's righteousness. It has to be Christ's righteousness
because all I am is sin. We talk about an unconditional
election. It had to be an unconditional
election. All I am is totally depraved. All we are is sin. All we have
is sin. You can just listen to this.
This is Isaiah 64 verse 6. We are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags, And we do all fade
as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away." He said, everything that we believe
is a good deed. Man thinks he has good deeds. Men and women think they have
good deeds. They think they're doing the
fine Christian thing. All of our good works, all of
our righteousnesses before God. Everything that we think He's
gonna like, I think God's gonna like that. I think God's gonna be happy
with that. Everything we believe He's gonna
accept, He said, it's all filthy rags. Filthy rags in His eyes. Look with me at Romans 3, verse 9, it says, Romans 3 verse 9, it says, "'What
then? Are we better than they?' in no wise. For we have before proved, both
Jews and Gentiles, that they're all under sin. As it is written,
there is none righteous, no not one. We're nothing but sin, and we
do not have one righteousness of our own. When the Spirit of
God comes to a man or a woman, who belongs to God. That's what
the Spirit will convince of. I am nothing but sin against
God. And I have nothing of my own
to commend me back to Him because He demands righteousness, perfection. And I don't have any. I don't
have anything that can commend me back to God. The only righteousness
that there is And the only righteousness that
can be commended to God is the righteousness of God Himself. His own very righteousness. The only one that there is. His own righteousness. And that
righteousness can only be found in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Only in the person. of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Go with me over to Philippians
3. Philippians 3 verse 4, Paul said,
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, If any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of
the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the
law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching
the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless. But what
things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea,
doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, the Bible. But that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." The
Spirit of God convinced Paul that every good work that he
thought he had before God, it was nothing but dung. Dung, and
it had to be thrown out. And this is what Paul said. He
wasn't offended by that. He said, I gladly throw it out. I see what God demands, I see
righteousness, I see what I am, I see what I've done, and I most
happily throw it out. I throw it all out that I might
win Christ and be found in Him. That means that I might have
Him only left in my possession. Nothing but Him. Nothing but
Christ before God and His righteousness. That's the only hope I have. Paul was convinced of that. And based on the Word of God,
I believe he was one of the elect. Go with me back to John 16. Verse 8 says, when He has come,
He will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. When the Spirit of God comes
to any person, He convinces that person of the fact that God is
holy, absolutely holy. He convinces the person that
God is a consuming fire. and he convinces that in God's
holiness, because of God's holiness, he cannot and he will not let
sin go unpunished. He'll convince, I'm sin, he demands
righteousness, and a judgment must take place. I'm convinced that He will by
no means clear the guilty. I'm guilty, He's holy, and He
must punish sin. Until the Spirit of God comes,
men and women believe one of these three things. This is the
mind and the belief of men and women. They either believe there's
not really going to be a judgment. God really wouldn't do that.
No, He's not like that. God's love and God is, you know,
kindness. They either believe there's not
really going to be a judgment, or they believe they don't have
any sin to be judged. Or they believe there is going
to be a judgment, but it's not going to be that severe. I do
have just a little bit of sin and it's, that's what they believe. That's what they believe until
the Spirit of God comes to them. But the moment the Spirit of
God comes to a sinner, this is what he says. Just look at God's
Son. You believe those things? You
believe either there's not really going to be a judgment for sin,
or it's not even that severe anyway, or you don't have any
sin to be judged? Just look at God's Son. Just
look at God's Son. If you don't believe that God
will bring down His fiery judgment on sin, look at what He did to
His own Son. He hates sin. That's a strong
word, isn't it? He hates the guilty bearer of
sin. And He will bring down the judgment
of His wrath on sin until sin is no more. One look at Christ, just one
look at Christ will cause a child of God to say, there is no doubt
in my mind, God will judge sin. Thank God, along with that revelation
from the Spirit, He brings another revelation of that judgment. A true revelation of judgment.
That revelation is this, it's over. For you, in Christ, for you, It's over. He says, if I have convinced
you that you are a head to toe, vile, wretched center, and if
I've convinced you that you have nothing in yourself that can
commend you back to God, if I've convinced you that the only righteousness
you have and the only righteousness, only righteousness you need is
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then look to Him. Look to Him. Look to the judgment
of Him. Look at the sin that He bore. It was yours. That's what He
says. It was yours. When He cried, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? He was crying that for you. instead
of you, in your place, as your substitute. That was your judgment. Every soul has one. That one
was yours. It is appointed unto man once
to die and then the judgment. That was yours. And it's over. And you can rest as a secured,
redeemed child of God in Christ. you can rest. Now, last place. Let me show you something Paul
was convinced of and all of God's people will be. Go with me to
2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 20. He's talking about Christ and
God. Christ and God. Verse 21 says,
For He hath made Him, God the Father made Christ His Son, to
be sin for us. That sin that we're so convinced
of, just so convinced of. God the Father made Christ to
be that very sin for us, our own sin. Who knew no sin, that
means he was righteous. We were sin, he was righteous. The righteous one, the one who
knew nothing but perfect righteousness. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. God the Father made Christ to
be our sin and then judged Him in our sin so that He could make
us to be Christ's righteousness and then judge us in that perfection.
When the Spirit of God comes to the child of God, He convinces
that child of his own sin. He convinces that child of the
righteousness of Christ. And he convinces that child of
the only hope of redemption, being in the judgment that Christ
endured for him. That's it. That's it. Now here's the question. Honestly,
has God convinced us of that? Can we stop right there? Can
we just leave it there? The Lord paid it all, all the
debt we owed, period. Christ has already done it and
it's over and we can rest in Him. If we can, if we can see
that, then it means God's Spirit has come to us. If He does not
come, we cannot see it. If we can, it means He has come
to us and He has convinced us of it. And that's the evidence
we're one of His. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening power. That's our prayer, isn't it?
Come reveal these things of Christ to us. Bear witness to our hearts
that we're the children of the living God. Pray he might do
that. Let's sing that song. Let's all
stand together.