There is much talk in religion
today of the Holy Spirit. Many claims being made of Holy
Spirit anointing and the work of the Holy Spirit. Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ spoke of the Holy Spirit, particularly in
the Gospel of John, chapters 14 through 16. Now, what is being
said today of the Holy Spirit greatly differs from what the
Lord says in these chapters. Now, I'm reading from the Gospel
of John chapter 16. John chapter 16. Look at verse
13 with me if you're following along. And the Lord says, When
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. Now, He's speaking to His disciples
here, and He says to them, He will guide you into all truth,
the Spirit of truth. For he shall not speak of himself,
but he will say the things that he has heard from me." Well,
the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. And the Holy
Spirit uses one means to teach, to guide into all truth, one
means. is not the workings of signs
and miracles and wonders which convinces of the truth or leads
and guides into the truth, no, but rather the preaching of God's
word. Listen as I read from 2 Thessalonians
2, verses 13 and 14. Paul says to the church there,
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. That is, a setting
apart of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and belief of the truth,
whereunto he called you by our gospel. That is, he called you,
God called you, through the agent of the Holy Spirit, through the
means of the preaching of the gospel. And the Apostle Paul
says this in several places, but Romans 1, verse 16, Paul
says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. In 1 Corinthians
1, verse 21, he said, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. And so the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of truth, is primarily at work in the preaching of the gospel,
or the truth, the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Here in John
chapter 16, Our Lord goes into detail as to what the Holy Spirit,
through the preaching of the Word, what he convinces, reproves,
rebukes, corrects and instructs and leads and guides his people
into. Three things he says that the
Holy Spirit will convince his people of. Read with me in John
16, verse 8. Our Lord says, when he is come,
that is, the Holy Spirit, he will reprove the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment. When the Holy Spirit is come,
he will reprove the world of three things. Now, stop right
there. When the Lord says he will reprove,
or that is, convince the world, He is certainly not talking about
every individual in the world. No. No more so than John 3.16
means every single individual in the world. For if God loved
every single person, then every single person would be saved.
God does not damn those whom He loves, but saves them. And this means that he has a
people out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and people out of or
in the world. Not just Jews, but a people out
of the world whom he will convince. The Holy Spirit will reprove
or convince the world, or that is, a people out of every tribe,
kindred, and nation of these three things. Number one, he
says, He will reprove the world of sin. Singular. It does not say sins, plural,
but rather sin. Singular. Or that is, the Holy
Spirit will convince, will reprove, will rebuke, will instruct his
people of their sinful nature. The first thing the Holy Spirit
does is convinces a man, a woman, a young person of what they are. A sinner full of sins. Sinful. Now, everyone will admit
to sins, plural, sins. Everyone will confess to a degree
that they have faults or have made mistakes. Most everyone
feels some measure of guilt over committing particular sins or
doing particular wrong things, but the Holy Spirit here the
Lord says, will convict of sin. Holy Spirit conviction is convincing
us of what we are, sinners through and through. The Apostle in Romans
chapter 7 describes the nature and the feelings and this conviction
which every sinner whom the Holy Spirit works upon has. And the
Apostle in Romans 7 says this of himself. And now he said this
when he was a believer, when he was converted, not before.
And he says in Romans 7, things that I would, I do not. And the
things I would not, that's what I do. In other words, he says,
the things that I would like to do, I don't seem to be able
to do them. And the things that I don't want
to do, the things I hate, That's what I seem to do, until he reaches
the point where he says in verse 24 of Romans 7, O wretched man
that I am. This is the convicting, the convincing
power of the Holy Spirit upon everyone whom he saves, whom
God has chosen to save. He convicts them of what they
are, sinners, until they reach the point with the Apostle in
saying, I am a sinner, a wretched man. I cannot seem to do anything
but sin. I cannot seem to think anything
but sin. Not like the Pharisees who think
they are above or without sin, but no, rather that they are
full of sin. As David said, my sin is ever
before me. My sin is ever before me. He said in Psalm 38, David said,
My loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and that disease is
sin. Notice the sin, or the root of
it all, which the Lord says the Holy Spirit will convict or convince
of. He says in verse 9, the Holy
Spirit will convict of sin because they believe not on me. Unbelief. Or rather, not believing,
not trusting, not looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if
God's Spirit is at work upon a human being, He will convince
them through the preaching of the gospel that they have not
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Number one, they either haven't
believed or cared about Him at all. and or they had believed
the wrong one, the wrong Jesus, another Jesus, Paul said, or
rather another gospel. And the Holy Spirit comes and
reveals the true Christ, the true gospel, the true Lord Jesus
Christ as he is, seated on a throne, high and lifted up with all things
and all persons in his sovereign controlling hands to do with
as he pleases, not a pitiful, weak and helpless figure named
Jesus, but rather an omnipotent, sovereign Lord on a throne named
the Lord Jesus Christ. Which brings us to the next thing
our Lord deals with, the next convincing power of the Holy
Spirit. He says in verse 10, the Holy
Spirit will convict of righteousness because I go to my Father and
you will see me no more, he said. Now, the Holy Spirit convinces
all whom God has chosen, all whom God saves through the preaching
of the gospel, the Holy Spirit will convince that person that
they are worthless, helpless, dead sinners and in need of a
righteousness, or that is, a perfect holiness, a perfect righteousness
in order to stand before a righteous or holy God. Romans chapter 10
goes into detail. The apostle goes into detail
in Romans chapter 10 concerning this righteousness which we must
have to stand before God. Now, most persons believe in
their minds that they need to be good in order to be saved.
Most will admit that. And so many go about trying to
be good, to do good, to quit this, to quit that, to start
living right or righteously in order for God to accept them
or approve of them. But that is not Bible righteousness. That is not the righteousness
which God will accept. God looks on the heart. God demands
absolute perfection in thought as well as deed. God demands
absolute perfection or holiness and righteousness in the motive
as well as the action. And who can have perfect motives
or perfect thoughts? Well, in Romans chapter 10, I
read, Paul says, many have a zeal of God, but it's not according
to knowledge. they are being ignorant of God's
righteousness, are going about to establish their own righteousness,
that is, their own standard which they think God will accept of
right and wrong and doing good, and have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. And he concludes by saying in
verse 4 that Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. That's why Christ
is called the Lord, our righteousness. Jesus Christ is the righteousness
of every believer. He is the only righteous standard
which God will accept. It must be perfect, as perfect
as Christ, to be accepted. And what Christ did when he came
to this earth was establish a righteousness for his people. On behalf of
his people he lived a perfect holy life as a man for men and
imputed, now this is Bible language, Romans 4 speaks much of it. He
imputed or charged this perfect life to his people, those whom
God had given him to do this for. And now God accepts them. holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in God's sight by simply believing and trusting Christ as their
righteousness. This is what the Holy Spirit
convicts and convinces of. And the last thing Christ says
is of judgment. In John 16, verse 3, the Holy
Spirit will convince or convict His people out of the world of
judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged, that
there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. that all
accusations, charges, penalties had been answered by the Lord
Jesus Christ, been paid for by Christ. All foes under his feet,
and all of his enemies his footstool, and all of his people justified
and accepted in God's sight because of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
this Holy Spirit conviction is of sin, righteousness, and judgment
and that through the preaching of the gospel. It is my prayer
that the Holy Spirit will convict or convince you of these three
things unto salvation. Amen.