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, 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 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 ye see me no more, of judgment, because
the Prince of this world is judge. I have many, yet many things
to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." I'm going to
continue this, some messages, and continue with the work of
the Holy Spirit. We've seen that He was God, that
He worked in the world. that he works amongst the Lord's
people. But here our Lord Jesus Christ says, I'm going away.
I'm going back to the Father which sent me. I'm going where
I came from. I'm going to go back to the glory
that I had with Him before the world was. And He said, and I
know this sorrow fills your heart. I know it does. But if I don't
go away, if I don't ascend back to my Father by way of the cross,
The scriptures won't be fulfilled, salvation won't be accomplished,
I won't be glorified, and you'll remain in a state of sin. But
he said, but I'll tell you what I'm going to do. He says, I'll
tell you what I will there in verse 7. Nevertheless, I'll tell
you the truth. This is right. This is the way
it's going to be. It's expedient for you, profitable for you that
I go away. How do you know what's profitable
for him going away from us? First of all, it was profitable
to God Himself because He satisfied God. It was profitable for me
and you when He went away. It was profitable because sin
was put away. It's profitable for us now because He sits at
the right hand of God and makes intercession for us. So it was
expedient, it was profitable for all of us that He go away.
For if I go not away, the Comforter, and the Comforter here is the
Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit, He's called that. two titles
in this particular place that he's using. I'll deal with them
next week. But the Comforter will not come unto you, but if
I depart, I will send you. And when He has come, when He
has come, and that's what I want to talk about, when He has come.
This is part of the work that He does. He reproves the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because
they believe not on Me. Of righteousness, because it
goeth to My Father. And of judgment, because the Prince of this world
is judged. Now, when He has come, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and He
came on the day of Pentecost. Remember that? We dealt with
the meaning of Pentecost last week. He came then as the promise
that Christ fulfilled in sending the Holy Spirit on. And then
when He's come, when He has come, this is what He'll do. This is
one of the things He'll do. He will reprove the world of
sin. Now, when He talks about, and then the margin says, convince.
When He talks about reproving the world, this is not a subjective
reproving or convincing. This is not something that happens
to you, though I'll deal with that in another message. But
this is not subjective. This is reproving the world.
He's not saying he reproves individuals, not saying he reproves a person,
but he reproves the world, he convinces the world. This is
not subjective, but it's objective reproving. It's a convicting,
it's a condemnation that the Holy Spirit does to the world.
And look what he says over here in John 14, 17. You know, and
here's the thing about it. The Holy Spirit, the world can't
receive him. They don't know him when he's
in the world. But yet he reproves the world wherever he's being
preached, wherever Christ is being preached, wherever the
Holy Spirit's at and he's working, he's reproving. But here in John
14, 17, the Lord Jesus says this, even the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, Because it sees him not and neither knows
him. So you see, the world can't receive him. They don't know
him. So this is not talking about people receiving him and a subjective
thing being convinced in a person's heart of their sin. But to reprove
here is to bring in guilty. Without any confession from the
guilty person, or without even feeling guilty, the guilty won't
even feel guilty. That's what it means here, that
the Holy Spirit reproves men And it brings them guilty before
God. Brings them guilty before God,
they won't confess their guilt, they don't feel their guilt,
and they won't acknowledge their guilt. And I'll show you, I'll
give you a perfect illustration of that over here in John 3.
Here's a perfect illustration of this, what I'm talking about.
Here in John 3.20. For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved, or discovered, or convinced of, exposed." Now
here's a felon, he doesn't have the light, he hates the light. Knows his deeds are evil, and
yet because he loves this darkness and he hates the light, the very
fact that the light's there condemns him and pronounces him guilty,
but he don't feel no guilt. He don't acknowledge no guilt,
but he's guilty. Here's the light. I don't want
the light. But the fact that the light's there condemns him.
The fact that the light's there finds him guilty, but he don't
feel it. He don't acknowledge it, but
when he faces God, he's going to be guilty. The light itself,
and that's what it says here when the Holy Spirit comes to
reprove. And that's why our Lord Jesus Christ says, which of you
convinces me of sin? Which of you can convince me,
reprove me, and show where I have any sin? If you can, do it. And that's what he's talking
about here, because our Lord had no guilt. Our Lord had no
sin. And if you can furnish proof
against me, bring it, is what he's saying. And let me show
you another one, an illustration of how a person is reproved and
has no effect on them. Luke 3.19. Luke 3.19. I want
to show you what I mean about that.
You know, when he reproves, a person is brought guilty. And they don't
confess their guilt, don't feel their guilt, but lest they're
still guilty. In Luke 3.19. But Herod the Tetrarch, he's
the governor, being reproved, look at that, see, being reproved
by him for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the
evils which Herod had done. Now he'd been reproved, but did
he feel guilty? Did he act guilty? Did he confess
his guilt? No. In fact, he added more to
this than to shut up John in prison. He come and told me. And he says, you know, it proved
him. But I'm not guilty. Yes, you are. I don't feel guilty.
I'm not going to acknowledge my guilt. And so that's what
it means when the Holy Spirit convinces someone. And so these
are objective condemnations, not a subjective, not felt, not
realized, their guilt or their condemnation. And that's something
that we'll deal with later. And so inward conviction here
is not the meaning of what this word reprove means here. But
how does the world, how does the Holy Spirit reprove the world
of sin? How does he reprove the world
of sin? You remember our Lord Jesus Christ said this, I came
not to send peace, but a sword. Now that's, that was not the
nature of our Lord's mission. That was not the nature, but
you know why a sword came? Do you know why that was in between
father and son, mother and daughter? And why there was a sword brought
and peace was destroyed between people? It wasn't because Christ
brought Himself a sword and said, I'm going to set you. No, no,
it was because of human nature. One would be reproved and they
would refuse to accept their guilt. They would refuse to acknowledge
their guilt and their condemnation. And so when you were saved by
the grace of God and somebody else and you talked to them,
they say, no, I don't believe that. I don't believe that at
all. And it's the very presence, you
know, and it's because of human nature is the effect of Christ
being here, the effect of the sword being here. And it's the
very presence of the Spirit on earth, though unknown to the
world, that reproves and condemns the world. Now, our Lord Jesus
Christ, he said, I'm going away. Christ himself ought to be here
right now. But you know why he's not here?
The Father sent him into the world. The Father sent him here
and he was God manifested in the flesh. There was no sin in
and of himself that would cause him to die. The only way in the
world he could die was by somebody else's sin. But I'll tell you
why he isn't here. I'll tell you why he's not in
this world. The world wouldn't have him. He came unto his own
and his own received him not. They said, we will not have this
man to reign over us. The world hated him and it cast
him out. And so when the Holy Spirit would
come, when Isagor said, I'll not leave his own orphans, he
said, I'll send the Holy Spirit, he'll comfort you, I'll not leave
you as orphans. And so he sent the Holy Spirit
to them, and the very presence of the Holy Spirit on earth reproves
or brings in guilty the world of what? Condemning Christ. Hating Christ. Putting Christ
out of this world. You know, I remember this morning
I was watching a fellow. And he says, you know, I went
when I was a boy, said I went to a Baptist church and said
they kept telling that Jesus was the only way. He said, I
just never did sound right to me. He said, I said, there's
got to be other ways. Other ways. But the Holy Spirit
condensed that, the Holy Spirit has left that. He had plenty
of light. He's had light after light after
light. A Mormon comes along, you agree
with him. A Jew comes along, you agree with him. A Baptist
comes along, he won't, you know, agree with him to a certain degree.
They got that, but then the Holy Spirit comes to reprove, to convince,
but yet they won't be guilty. You could stand and tell this
fellow, yes, Jesus Christ Himself said, I'm the way. Jesus Christ
Himself said, except you believe I'm He, you'll die in your sins.
He, no prophet ever said that. Mohammed never said that. Confucius
didn't say that. The Pope doesn't say that. No
leader ever in the history of the human race has ever said,
except you believe I'm he, you'll die in your sins. Either he was
the greatest imposter, Or else men have to acknowledge that
what he said is true. And they say, I'd rather lean
to my own understanding, take my own chances. And that's what
he says when the Holy Spirit comes. And the Holy Spirit, when
he talks about the comforter, it's the same word as a lawyer
or an advocate. And what an advocate does is
he produces a conviction by not bringing the person to realize
his crime, and to acknowledge his guilt, but to produce him
before a court his guilt. You know how many people that
go to jail that are guilty and yet don't feel their guilt? I told you the story. I think
I told you the story. Prince went on a slave ship one
time, where they had condemned men on the ship, rowing the ship. And he went down among them,
and he said, Is anybody here innocent? Not guilty of their
crime? Are you here because unjustly?
Oh, everyone, yes. He thought the prince was going
to let them all go. And one fellow didn't raise his hand. He said,
what in you? He said, because I'm guilty.
I'm here because I'm guilty. I'm here because I've committed
the crime. The prince says, you don't need to be around all these
folks that are so innocent. You need to get out of here.
You need to get out of there because he admitted to his guilt.
And I tell you, somebody owed you to find somebody guilty.
But that's a court of law. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He brings them guilty before a court of law whether they ever
realize their crime or they're guilty. And guilt and conviction
and condemnation reproved and being reproved is the consequences
of the Holy Spirit being here. Here's another illustration.
Let me show you another scriptural illustration. John chapter 9,
verse 39. You know, our Lord Jesus, He
says, you know, He came into the world not to condemn the
world. Why did He come to condemn the world? The world's condemned
already. You don't have to condemn it.
It was under condemnation. And here in John 3, 39, John
9, 39, excuse me. And this is what our Lord said,
For judgment I am come into this world. Now, this is what He means
by this. He said, I'm sitting as the judge.
I make the decision. I judge whether a man can see
or not see. Who's going to be blind and who's
going to be able to see? And he said, for judgment I am
coming to this world that they which see not might see. This is the judgment I make.
If you're blind, I'm going to give you sight. And that they
which see Say, I see, I understand, I know what I'm doing, I know
how I'm supposed to believe, I know how I'm supposed to act,
I know what it takes to get to heaven, and they say, I see,
then they're going to stay blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind
also? Our Lord said, if you were blind,
if you were blind, if you was like that fellow on that ship,
I'm guilty, if you were blind, you should have no sin. But now
you say, Oh, we see. We see the law. We see our own
righteousness. We see our works. We see our
talcum. We see our attendance on the
Sabbath. We see all of these things. And he said, because you say
we see, your sin will remain. And, oh, beloved, that's the
consequences from the result of the Holy Spirit being here.
And then back over in our text, it says, first it says, when
He has come, He will reprove the world of sin. What sin is
he talking about? Our Lord was in the world. He made the world, and the world
didn't know him. And here he says, and of sin,
what's the great sin that they're guilty of, that he convinces
me of, and reproves me of? It's unbelief. He said, I've
sinned because they believe not on me. Verse 9, sin because they believe
not on me. And let me tell you something
about unbelief. Unbelief is not an error in judgment. Unbelief
is not an error in judgment. You know, and belief is a thing
of the heart. Unbelief is a willful rejection
of truth. Unbelief. Men will believe anyone
or anything but on Christ. And whether they feel it or not,
They are guilty of not believing on Christ. Now, I'm saying this,
and this is what I say. Now, a man who's never heard
of Christ, he's not going to be judged because he didn't believe
on Christ. He's going to be judged because
of Adam's sin and all the sins he's committed and all of his
idolatry. This is talking about where the Holy Spirit is and
where he's working. And so, whether they feel it
or not, or not believe in old Christ when he was here, and
they don't believe on him now. And that's why he said if the
princes of this world had known it, they wouldn't have crucified
the Lord of Glory. If they'd have known it. So they had a
willful unbelief. A willful unbelief. And he reproves
and convinces of sin because they believe not. He don't tell
you. He's not here to convince you of the foulness of sin, the
evil of sin, the fullness of sin. No, he reproves that you
don't believe on Christ. And how many times have I preached
here, and you've seen other preachers preach, and you witness to people,
and you talk to people, and you try to tell them that Christ
is the only way, Christ is the Savior, Christ is His righteousness,
Christ in His person. Talking to a man this morning,
he was telling me about somebody who's a five-pointer, and I said,
you know, being a five-pointer is not the point. Does it preach
Christ? Doctrine separated from Christ,
the five points separated from Christ, it's just a dead bush.
But if we're totally and absolutely depraved, then Christ comes to
save sinners, and He has to give us stability. If we are so lost,
and if we're chosen, and we can't choose Him, He must choose us.
You see, we can't divorce the doctrine from Christ. And men
will not, they'll believe on a doctrine, but to believe a
person, And that's what the Holy Spirit
does, is He reproves. And then He says here, and of
righteousness, He reproves the world of righteousness. Because
I go to my Father, and you see me no more. Now what does this
mean, of righteousness? I go to my Father. The Holy Spirit
comes and reproves and convinces that Christ was not an impostor. He was not an imposter. He came
forth from the Father, that He came from the Father and He went
back to the Father. When our Lord was here in the
Holy Spirit, when He approves a man, convinces a man, He reproves
people that Christ wasn't a deceiver as the world said He was. They
said He was an imposter. They said He was a deceiver.
They said He was a blasphemer. But He wasn't a deceiver as the
world said He was. Like that fellow said this morning.
Christ is the standard by which men are judged. People say, well,
I'll be judged by what I do. No, you'll be judged by Christ. And when you face Him in His
sinlessness and His righteousness, and He's looking dead into your
eyes and dead into your heart and my heart, then we'll really
find out if we really, really, really, really, really trust
Him. and acknowledge Him to be who
He says He is. And that's what the Holy Spirit does, and He
comes and convinces people of that, whether they believe it
or not, or feel guilty because of it or not. But our Lord Jesus
Christ, He was just and holy and blameless, and He was, and
they owned, and God owned Him of that by receiving Him into
glory, and that's what the Holy Spirit does, convinces Him of
righteousness, because Christ is gold. You're without a righteousness
if you don't have Christ. Your righteousness is not good
enough. Your righteousness is not pure. You just don't have
one. And, oh, the world was unrighteous
in this one, he convinces the world. The world was unrighteous
in casting Christ out. You know, they hired men to lie
against Him. Did they not do that? They hired
false witnesses against Him. They hired somebody to sell Him
for thirty pieces of silver. And Pilate said, I don't find
any fault in him. Let him go. So it was a willful
unbelief, a willful rejection, and the world was unrighteousness
in casting him out. And by the presence of the Holy
Spirit now, he reproves men of the righteousness of Christ.
Makes them know that he is. And the world, the world is found
guilty, whether they feel it or not, for putting Christ away. Casting out of this world. They
cast him out. That's an unrighteous act. And
I was talking to somebody this week, Dale Simpson. Dale Simpson, yes. Told me what
he was going to preach and told me how he would love to hear
that. But the thing was that he was going to talk about Christ.
There hanging on the cross, those men sitting down with gambling-free garments. And there
he is hanging on the cross. And they sat down and watched
him there without any feeling at all. No guilt, no shame, no condemnation. It was just another day on the
job. Just another day on the job. They didn't feel guilty. They
didn't feel condemned. And everybody else, and I told
him, I said, do you reckon if you and I was there, that's what
we would have done? He said, oh, without a doubt, that's what
we would have done. See, I know that about myself. The Holy Spirit
taught me that. But that's the difference in
the Holy Spirit reproving the world and reproving individuals. And Christ is going to be the
standard by which all men are judged, His righteousness. And
then not only of righteousness because I go to my Father and
you see me, but of judgment. I love this right here. Of judgment
because the Prince of this world is judged. Now, what does that
mean? That means that Christ, Christ. People say, you know,
the devil made me do this, the devil made me do that, and the
devil's got this power, and the devil's got all that power. But
here our Lord Jesus Christ says, He will convince me and reprove
me of judgment because this Prince of this world is already judged.
He's judged. I judged Him at the cross. I
judged Him there. I put down His power. I broke
His chains. I broke His authority. And if
you want to follow Him, and you want to listen to Him, and you
want to look to Him, and believe Him, and stay in the world, He
says He's already been judged. He has no power over you. And
that's what He's saying. And the Holy Spirit's presence
is the evidence that the Prince of this world has been judged.
Look over here in John 12, verse 31 with me just a moment. And the world stands guilty of
refusing to believe in Christ. And his condemnation is proven
by the righteousness of Christ and by his ascending back to
the Father. John 12, 31, look what our Master
says here. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. Demons, Satan, the prince
of this world, had the world in chains and in bounds with
superstition. Christ broke that chain. Broke
that judgment. Christ judged him then and there.
There's not going to be no judgment when Christ judges him at the
end of the world. He's already been judged. He's already been
judged. And let me show you this real
quick. Colossians with me, chapter 2. About this. Christ did this. Colossians chapter 2, verse 13. Oh, sin, because they believe
not on me. Two things our Lord marveled
at, unbelief and faith. That's how awful unbelief is,
that Christ Himself marvels at it. You know, the believer's
not in unbelief anymore, but unbelief is still in the believer.
Now, wouldn't you say that? We're not unbelievers anymore,
but unbelief's still in us. You know, my new man believes
explicitly, but this flesh don't believe at all. The person I was born to be,
that I am, my flesh. So it's that new man, it's that
regenerated man, it's that new creature, that's the one that
believes. And that's what makes one of the grievous things of
our heart and our lives is that because of this fledge, we can't
believe like we'd love to believe. We'll doubt, we'll worry, we'll
fret, we'll take things in our own hands, we'll conjure up these
scenes in our mind that this is going to happen, that's going
to happen, something else is going to happen. And why do we do that? Do you think
God don't know what tomorrow holds? And that's why we do that. It's because of unbelief in ourselves.
What if this happened? What if that happened? What if
that other thing happened? What do you know? We don't live
by what else. We live by God and by faith in
Him. But it's unbelief that does those
things. And I got lots of it. If you ain't got enough of it,
I'll give you some of mine. I got plenty of it. And I'm sorry.
I'm ashamed of it. Look here in Colossians 2.13,
talking about the prince of this world church. And you being dead
in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Now watch
this, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us. They was contrary. All these
ordinances were contrary to us. We couldn't live by them. measure
up to Him. And He took it out of the way.
He took all that handwriting. He took those ordinances that
was contrary. He nailed it to His cross. And having spoiled,
having stripped of their authority and power, principalities and
powers, He made a show of them openly. Where at? In the cross.
In the cross. He defeated them. He conquered
them. In the cross. And so back over here in our
text, and I'm done. Our Lord said here, you know,
He proved the world of sin, because they don't believe 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. And
then our Lord said, I have yet many things to say unto you,
but you can't bear them now. Lots of things to say to you.
Lots of things you need to learn. Lots of things you need to understand.
But yet you can't bear them now. But now watch what happens. When
He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He'll guide you. He'll teach
you. He'll teach you and take care
of you. And that's what I'm going to
deal with next week, that right there. And you know, and another
side of this is, of this conviction is, is that there is a subjective
conviction. There is a conviction of sin.
And one old preacher used to say, you miss Holy Ghost conviction,
you'll miss Christ. You miss Christ, you'll miss
glory. And Holy Ghost conviction, being
convicted of sin, the Holy Spirit Himself convicting you, and that's
subjective. That's something He does personally.
That's something He does individually. And we will deal with that at
another time. But you know why He wasn't able to bear thanks?
The Holy Spirit ain't coming. And do you know how much they
learned later? Because of the hurricane.