Word is our comfort. Let me tell
you a story. There was a couple who lived
in, I think, Ohio. And they lost their only child. And they were, as you can imagine,
some of you know this, they were distraught. They did not know
the Lord. They were religious, but they
did not know the Lord. They didn't know the truth. And
they turned on the TV and a man named Henry Mahan was preaching.
And his subject that day was election. They heard that message on God's
sovereign election. The Lord broke their hearts over
sin. gave them comfort, hope, and
peace and assurance to look to Christ. And the Lord saved them
through that message in the time of one of their deepest troubles
and trials and suffering and affliction and sorrow, deep sorrow
over the loss of a child. And they wrote my father and
told him of that, told him what the Lord had done through his
preaching. And he said later, he said, if
I was going to try to comfort someone who'd lost their only
child, That would have been the last message I would have preached. God's Word is His power. All
Scripture is profitable. And the comfort that we get from
God's Word, no matter what comes, is that He is God. That He is
God. All things work together for
good. This message, this story, this
is what we come to. We try to faithfully deal with
the Word of God as it comes. This is how the Lord said it.
So we're not going to, we're going to stay with. And in His
providence, you see, He brings these things to our minds and
attention in His providence at the time. I hope we'll use it. I know we will. This is where
we stopped in His providence. These verses that speak of being
convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Look at this. Verse
8, our Lord said, when He has come, the Holy Spirit, comfort
Him. He said, 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. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to the cross. He's going back to the Father,
His Father. He calls Him His Father over
and over and over. It begins all the way back in
chapter 1. He's called the only begotten
of, the Father. The Father. John the Baptist
said, the Father. loveth the Son, and hath given
all things into his hand." The Father. Now there are three persons
in the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons in the
Godhead. These three. But these three
are one. This is a mystery, and this is
all we can say to try to understand. God the Father elected a people.
He chose a people known unto God are all His works from the
beginning of the world. And He chose a people. The foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are His, because He chose them. They're His elect. Now
that's a fact. And here's where comfort's going to come in. If
you know these things, if you believe these things, if you
are convinced of these things that Christ says He will convince,
you're one of His elect. There's redemption by the Son.
God chose a people, elected a people, and sent his Son, the only begotten
of the Father, into this world to redeem them by burying their
sins in his body on the tree, by living as a man for them.
And then he sends the Holy Spirit, Christ crucified, buried, rose,
ascended, seated at the right hand of God, reigning and ruling
over all things. And Christ said, look at verse
seven. He says to his disciples, it's
expedient, I tell you the truth, it's expedient, it's necessary,
it's absolutely necessary for you that I go away. If I go not
away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,
I will send him unto you, the comforter, the comforter. Now
Christ is the only God that we will see. He is God, equal with
the Father. He said, he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. No man hath seen, nor can see,
nor ever will see God the Father, or God the Holy Spirit. But Christ
is the image, the only image of God. In the beginning, God
said, let us, let us, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, make man in
our own image. Three persons, one God. And he's
the express image of the Father. Christ came, the only begotten
of the Son. And though he's the son of God,
yet he was father to these disciples. He is our father. You know, you
need a father, don't you? If you've been blessed with a
father, what a blessing it is. You need a father to speak to,
you know. You need a father to hold you, hug you. don't you? To lead you, to guide
you. You need a father. Christ was
father to these disciples. In fact, he called them, my little
children. But now he's leaving. He's leaving. And like little children, look
at verse 6. He said, I've told you these
things and sorrow hath filled your heart. No child is ready
for their father to leave. Aren't we? mine will soon be
leaving me unless I go first. But he said, I must. And they
must. Six, three score and 10, 70 years,
maybe less. Your father, less, maybe more. Four score and 10. Who knows? God knows. Christ only spent,
listen to this, he only spent three and a half years with the
disciples. Oh, it was a lifetime of wealth
and wonder and glory and amazement for his disciples. I've often
said, you've heard me say, if I could live at any point in
time, when would it be? Well, I think it would be to
be with Christ those three years, just those three years. But then
he was leaving and he wasn't with them long enough. They didn't
think. And now he's leaving and they are distraught. He's everything
to them. He's not only their father. He's
their husband. He's their provider. He's their
salvation. He's everything. He's their wisdom. He's everything to them. They're
so dependent upon him. He's leaving them. He says, but
it's necessary I go away. I must send unto you another
comforter. Christ is still in his body.
Christ is in his body. There's a man in glory, seated
at the right hand of God right now, a man in glory. We're going
to see a man, Christ Jesus, the Lord. We're going to see a man.
We're going to hug him. I don't know how all of us are
going to get to do this, but we are. I started to say, trust me. No,
don't trust me. Trust him. He said that. You're going to
see him face to face. And he's going to speak with
us and he's going to comfort us. And we're going to be so
happy, happy, happy with him, be with the Lord forever. They
said, I must go though. And now we don't see cry. None
of us see cry. We see him with the eye of faith.
We've never felt his touch, touch of his hand, never felt his embrace,
but yet we have. His word, he's spoken unto us,
his word has touched our hearts and we've felt the embrace and
we've embraced like all of the saints, convinced, seeing these
things afar off, seeing Christ by our faith, we've laid hold
of him, we embrace the truth, we love it. As Brother Maurice
used to say, we hug up. hug up to the Lord. But he said
it's necessary that I send the Holy Spirit. Why is that? Why
can't Christ just come stay with us? Because we're in the flesh,
we're one man, then it's going to be different. We're going
to be glorified body and I'm over my head, way over my head.
But then he was one man confined to a body in one place. Everybody couldn't see him. We
couldn't see him over here. The disciples, wherever he was,
we couldn't be with him. But now the Holy Spirit is everywhere. Look at this. He says in verse... Go back to chapter 14. He says in verse 16, I will pray
the Father and He will give you another comforter. Christ was
all their comfort. Everything He said was their
comfort, their peace, their joy, as it is now. All our peace,
all our comfort, all our understanding, our true joy comes from the Word
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which, by the way, I want to make sure
every one of you get a message by Brother Bruce Crabtree. I'm
going to send it to you. I've listened to it three times
now. I listened to it on the way home again. Just such a comfort
of God's word, Christ's words, what they mean to God's people.
But He said, the Comforter, verse 16, He will send you another
Comforter and He will abide with you forever. The Spirit of the
truth. The world can't receive Him.
They don't see Him. They don't know Him. But you
do. He dwelleth with you. He's going to be in you. And Paul wrote of this in Romans
8. The whole chapter of Romans 8 is about the Holy Spirit. It
begins by, there's no condemnation of them that are in Christ who
walk not after the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And
he went on to say, the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in
you, and he that hath not the Spirit hath not cried. And he goes on to say, the Spirit
is going to bear witness with your spirit, the spirit of adoption,
whereby you cry unto God, Abba, Father, and on and on it goes. But what does the Holy Spirit
do? How does he comfort us? Look at there, chapter 14, verse
26, he says, the comforter is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father
will send in my name. He shall teach you all things.
He's called the Spirit of Truth. There, back in verse 17, the
spirit of truth. And he's called the Comforter.
And what he's going to do is teach you all things. What things?
All things. What is it that comforts that?
All things. What is it? Christ is all. Read on. Verse 26. He's going
to bring all things to remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. What did he say unto us? Verse
27. Peace. Peace I leave with you. In the
world, he said, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Peace. God is angry with this world.
God's angry with the wicked every day. God hateth all workers of
iniquity, but Christ said to his disciples that believe him,
that trust him, whom the Holy Spirit takes the gospel and convinces
them of their sin and points them to cry. The Holy Spirit
comforts them by showing them that Christ, there is no condemnation
to them that cry. God is not angry with you. God
loves you in Christ, if you're in Christ. But what? No ifs, ands, and buts about
that. And it's all good. Whatever that God sends your
way, though it seems evil, there shall no evil befall you, because
all things work together for good. to them that love God,
who they called according to His purpose. Whom He called,
He justified. Whom He justified, He glorified,
put in Christ. The Comforter, go back to chapter
16. There's so much talk about the Holy Spirit today. It's all
fake. Most of it's fake and phony,
bogus. All this talk about Spirit-filled
Christians, all this gibberish and blabbering tongue talk, it's
phony. It's fake. How do you know? Because anybody
can do it. Oh, he's talking to God. That's funny. You won't find
that in the scriptures anyway. There was a man who was filled
with the devil and he was acting like these people in the Holy
Ghost Spirit-filled Pentecostal religion act today. He was acting
like a madman, like a crazy man. And when Christ came and took
hold of him, possession of him, you know what happened to him?
He clothed him, sat him down, shut his mouth, and he's in his
right mind. What's he doing? Worshipping
Jesus Christ. Sitting there with his mouth
shut, listening to the words of Jesus Christ, like you are
right now. That's a spirit-filled person.
When the Spirit of God comes, he shuts your mouth. It's the
first thing he does. Look at verse 8. When He has come, He will reprove
the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment. The world. The
world. As I said, the Lord said more
about the world than anybody. The Lord brings up the world
more than anyone. Does the Holy Spirit of God convince
every single person in the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment?
Is every single person in the world convicted of their sin
and need Christ their righteousness? Is that what he's talking about?
Every single person in the world? So many, and I don't have time
to go into this, we have, but the word world can mean many
things in the scripture and it does. But 1 John 2.15, he said,
love not the world. And yet John 3.16 says, God so
loved the world. Well, which is it? We need to
go and learn what it means. He said, love not the world,
neither the things of the world. So there's two distinct differences
between the world, things of the world and the world. When our Lord is speaking of
the world, like John 3.16, to Nicodemus, a Jew, who thought
the only people in the world, saved, were Jews. They thought
it's us, and then you've got this evil world. Well, John said
the same thing. We're of God in the whole world,
life in iniquity, in wickedness. I'm confused, preacher. Yeah,
man is confused. He's very confused. The Word
of God is not confused or confusing. Our Lord is saying that He has
a people out, go with me, Revelation 5, go over there and we'll see
this. where it says that he has a people that he has chosen.
They're in the world, they're not of the world. Our Lord said,
you know how many times he said that? Of his disciples, you're
not of the world. But God loves the world. Well,
he must not love them. Do you understand? Do you now
understand that he's not talking about every single person in
the world? What's he talking about? Revelation
5 verse 9. They sung a new song saying thou
art worthy to take the book open the seals thereof for thou was
slain and hast redeemed us. God's people, they're redeemed.
Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred,
family, every tongue language, and people, and nation. That's
the world, isn't it? That's the world. Look at chapter
7. It says the same thing, verse 9. After this, chapter 7, verse
9, I beheld and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of
all nations, kindreds, people, tongues, that's the world, isn't
it, before the throne. and before the Lamb, they were
clothed with white robes, palms in their hands, they cried with
a loud voice, what did they cry? Salvation to our God. All right, go back to our text. Our
Lord is saying, the Comforter will come, whom the Father shall
send to His elect, whom Christ came to redeem on Calvary's tree,
did not Christ say, I lay down my life for the sheep? And he
said to some others, you're not my sheep. Christ prayed in John
17, not for the world. If Christ doesn't pray for you,
you're not saved. If Christ doesn't intercede for
you, ever live to make intercession, you're not saved. You're not
one of his. But if you are, he prays for
you. He ever lives to make intercession
for you. He said, I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me. For they are thine and thine
are mine. All right, when the Comforter comes, and here's our
comfort, people. Here's our peace. When the Comforter
comes, he convinces the world, the people out of the world,
all of his people are in the world, of three things, sin,
righteousness, and judgment. Verse 9, of sin, because they
believe not on me. Read on, 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 judged him. It's all in relation
to Christ. When the Holy Spirit is sent
by God the Father through preaching of the gospel by Christ, through
the preaching of the gospel, the gospel contains these three
things always. in relation to Christ. He convinces,
he convicts of sin. What is sin? Well, it's transgression
of the law. It's all manner of evil, everything. But he says sin, doesn't he? Not sins. Sin. David said, my sin is ever
before me. We've committed many sins. Why
is that? Because of one great sin that
is in us until God does something about it. Unbelief. You know
what God holds this whole world accountable for and is going
to send many to hell because of? They don't care about God's
Son. They reject God's Son. And everything
bears witness of God's Son, the very Son that comes up every
day. That's a picture of Christ for
all the world to see. Everything. The trees, He's the
tree of life. And all in all, the water we
must have, He said, I'm the water of life. The bread we must eat,
Christ said, I'm the bread of life. He's everything. He convinces us, convicts us
that we've gone all our lives and not cared about this one
who came. Not cared, didn't care, didn't
give a thought, didn't call on him. He's clothed us, fed us. God charges all human beings
with rejection of his Son. They don't... Christ came, He
spoke many things, and in this same chapter He says, I have
many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Well, the world can't bear any
of them. They're not interested. God wrote a book. It's all about
His Son. The world says, not interested. So what does God say? I'm not
interested in you either. And when my new kingdom is made
up, you're not going to be in it. Cast them out. Are you interested? Are you? Do you care anything
about God's son? There was a time when you didn't.
There was a time when I didn't. I didn't care if he lived or
died. I heard the gospel, brother. I heard the gospel. Didn't touch
me. Didn't move me. Didn't touch
my heart. I was guilty. I didn't feel guilt, but God. sends a gospel. You know, this
is where you're really first convicted. You see God as He
is and so forth. And what God says to the whole
human race is one thing. You know that? What God says
to the whole human race is one thing. This is my beloved Son. Hear ye Him. Go to Him. Believe
Him. Bow to the Son. Kiss the Son.
Lest ye be angry. Believe on the Son. I'll accept
you. Come to me by the Son. Call on me in the Son's name.
He's your only hope. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me, Christ said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life,
but the whole human race said, we don't believe that. Don't
believe that, we believe God's this way, we believe God's that
way, we'll get to God however we feel like. No, you won't either.
God said, one way. And if you don't, you're not
gonna be in my kingdom. Do you know that Christ is the
way? Are you convicted of your unbelief
of Christ? Now you believe? The sin of righteousness,
verse 10. He'll convince, convict the Holy
Spirit. And how's this a comfort? He's
called the comforter. How can it be a comfort if you're
convicted of sin? Because everyone whom the Father
loves, He convicts them of sin. And of righteousness, verse 10,
of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no
more. Oh, I had so many scriptures
to turn to. I go to the Father. Psalm 24 says it. Who shall ascend
unto the holy hill of the Lord? Well, he says, he that hath clean
hands. Is anyone in here, can anyone
lift up, as it were, hands that have never been defiled with
sin? Is anyone, can anyone say I've never sinned? I've never
sinned against God. I'm pure. Well, who shall have
sinned? He that hath clean hand, he that
hath a pure heart. Oh, can anyone in here say that
my heart has been pure and spotless? full of nothing but praise and
honor and glory to God my Father and full of nothing but love
and every motive and everything in me has just been—there's no I read on. I'm quoting Psalm
24. He that hath clean hands, he
that hath a pure heart, he that hath never lifted up his soul
unto vanity. Who can say that you've lived
your whole life for the glory of God, that you've never gone
after any vanity, any foolishness, any flesh? You've lived a spiritual
person with the Word of God, the works of God, the will of
God on your mind, in your heart and that's what you long to do
and that's what you did. Anybody. I continue to quote. He that hath clean hands, hath
a pure heart, has never lifted up his soul under vanity or sworn
deceitfully. Who can say? that only truth
has come out of your mouth. Only words of grace, of love,
and mercy, and glory to God. No murmuring, no complaining,
no cursing, no bitterness, nothing but honor, and glory, and thanksgiving,
and good to your fellow man. Who can say that? There's only
one person ever lived who can say that, and that is Jesus Christ. That's what the scripture says.
Now, do you know this? How do we know this? The world
doesn't know this. The world doesn't care. The religious
world, Amy says, oh yeah, I'm righteous. Saul of Tarsus said that. I'm
blameless. The rich young ruler said, I've
done this all my life. How blind can you get? Blind
to the absolute holiness and purity of God, blind to his self-righteous
evil heart, blind until God. But God came one day to Saul
of Tarsus and put him in the dust. And then he became, he
said in his own words, Saul of Tarsus, who before thought he
was blameless, became the chief of sinners. Did he actually start
committing sin? No, he just found it out. Didn't want to do it. He called
on the Lord. He called on the Lord Jesus Christ. Before he hated that way. Before
he was righteous. He didn't need another righteousness. He did. He had one. Of righteousness. Because I go
to the Father, and who shall go? And Psalm 24 goes on to say,
Psalm 24 goes on to say, Open up the gates of heaven. Someone's
coming in. Open up the gates. Who? Jesus
Christ. He earned heaven as a man by
his righteousness. Pure hand, pure, clean hand,
pure heart, mind, soul, motive, words, everything. God says he's
well pleased for his righteousness. Come on in. But look behind him.
There's a whole procession of people coming in with him. clothed, covered with what? Not their own filthy rags of
righteousness. No, they threw those away like
Barnabas long ago. They're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ, imputed to them, covered them like Adam and Eve, like
that lamb slain, the skins taken and covered their nakedness and
their sin. And they're coming into glory
by virtue of His righteousness. I can't make that any plainer. You only get there one way, not
our righteousness. Titus Paul wrote, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
he has saved us by the washing of regeneration by Christ and
his blood. And thirdly, now do you understand
that? Do you know that? Says in Isaiah
45, next to the last verse, surely, surely shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness. Now this is a comfort to a sinner. Am I going to be in glory someday?
Am I going to be in heaven? Will I be with God? Do I belong to the Lord? Am I
His elect? Do you know that you need Christ
to be your righteousness? Do you rejoice? Do you not trust
your own at all? And he said of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judged. Verse 11, I close with it. The
prince of this world, the God of this world, Satan, whom God
has given some measure of authority. He doesn't have it of his own.
It's allotted to him. All authority, Romans 15 says,
is no powers, no authority, but of God. None, but of God. God's the one. And he, Romans
13, all, there's no power but of God. The powers that be are
ordained of God. Satan doesn't do it, he doesn't
have a free will. But yet somehow God has given
him some authority, some measure of power, and he's called the
God of this world. That's what Christ said, the
God of this world. Prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that worketh in the children of disobedience, even now. And
the world is in captivity to him. He's the mastermind of sin, yet God allowed
that. It wouldn't have happened if
God hadn't ordained it, right? Just know that it's so. And alright,
Satan has men and women in his captivity. And they're willing and obedient
subjects. They love to have it so. They like it. They don't
know it, but they like it. It's fine. They like sin. They
like the way it is. Now here's salvation. God sent Christ into
this world, the captain of our salvation. And he said, now you
go to the cross and you bear the sins of my people in punishment
for their sin. You live a life of perfect righteousness. Weave a robe to cover them, as
it were, with your righteousness. You go to the cross, I'm going
to make you to be sin. I'm going to lay on you the iniquity
of them all. I'm going to charge you with
all of their sin and punish you in their stead, in their room,
as their substitute. You're going to take their sin
and guilt and you're going to be punished for. And I'm going
to transfer, I'm going to give them your perfect righteousness.
And they're going to come into heaven, they're going to be brought
into heaven by virtue of what you have done for them. But their
sins have to be paid for. They deserve to go to hell. I'm
going to send you to hell for them. And Christ said, I'll do
it. He said, now the God of this world, he has to be bound. He has them in captivity. You must bind him, the evil one,
the one. You must spoil his goods. Christ
is the one that said that. When a stronger than he comes,
the Lord of glory, who said in the beginning, I beheld Satan
fall as an angel from night. I'm the one that cast him out.
A stronger than he must come and bind that strong man that
has you and that has me in his grasp. Must bind him, must crush
his head, his power, and must take you, his captive, captive. You were captive to him. walked
according to the spirit that now works in the children of
disobedient, child of wrath, even as others, but here's God's
salvation. But God sends the captain of
your salvation, Jesus Christ. And he did all this on the cross.
Crushed the serpent's head, Genesis 3.15. Crushed the serpent's head,
took his people from the serpent, And he does all this in time
through the preaching of the gospel and takes them captive
to himself. And the God of this world, he's
angry. He's an adversary. And he hates
Christ, he hates them, his people. He knows he no longer has them
in his full power. He thinks he can get them back
and has everything at his disposal to do it. And we could go on and on about
it. But Christ said, the Prince of this world is judged. Now here's your comfort. Here's
your comfort. You're going to stand in the
judgment someday with Christ. In Christ. Covered by Christ. There's going
to be a judgment before Him. All nations, the whole world
is going to stand before Him. Some are going to stand in front of
Him to be judged by their works. When the secrets of men, Paul
preached, at Antioch, I believe it was, the secrets of men shall
be judged by that man, in righteousness, perfect understanding, by that
man whom God hath ordained. But now God's people have already
been judged at Calvary, on the cross, when he was made sin,
and there's no judgment. And the prince of this world
is judged. And God's people are going to be in Him. They are
in Him. That's the best I can do with
it. And that's for the comfort. I believe that, don't you? It's
all my hope, all my salvation, all my peace. And whatever happens,
be it good or whatever I think may be evil, it's not. It's not
evil, it's good. It's for God's glory. It's for
our salvation. And Christ is the one doing it.
Alright. Oh, great.