Turn with me in your Bibles to
the book of Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. My text this
morning begins in verse 12. The title of the message is conviction
that drives us to Christ. Conviction. And what I'm going
to be talking to you about this morning is what we call Holy
Spirit conviction. People today have some really
strange ideas about God the Holy Spirit, third person of the Blessed
Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. People have some strange and
foreign ideas, foreign to the Bible, concerning God the Holy
Spirit, who he is, and his specific role and his specific work in
the salvation of God's people. But the Bible is clear on this
issue and these verses we're going to look at today expounds
upon that fact. People today, and I know this
from personal experience before God brought me to believe the
gospel. They gauge the operation, the
power, the presence of the Holy Spirit. I mentioned this in the
Bible study earlier, how they gauge these things of the Spirit
in different ways that are not biblical. For example, they might
gauge the presence or the power of the Spirit by the number that
the preacher preaches to. I've heard that. People would
say something like, well, This preacher can't be telling a lie
because there's so many people that believe what he says. Well,
that is totally unbiblical. You understand that? Even old Thomas Jefferson in
politics, he said the majority are rarely right. Well, it's
true in the scriptures too. Broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and many be there that find it. Narrow, straight
is the gate. Narrow is the way, and few there
be that find it. Now, I'm not saying that we should
relish in the fact that we only have a few people. I mean, I'd
love to see this building, the walls bursting out. I'd rather
see us sitting around talking about how we're going to expand.
And I want to see people come to Christ. But I'm not gonna
compromise the truth to get him there. And I've often told you,
I said, you know, when any preacher, and now this is true now, listen
to me. When any preacher ask himself
this question, what can I do to get more people in here? He's
going against the Bible. Just to ask that question, because
what can I do? To get more people in here? Well,
the first thing I'd have to do is compromise. I'd have to tell
the natural man, the unbelieving person, what they want to hear.
And that's not what they need to hear. The natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God. And that's how people,
that's how preachers get people, get church buildings filled,
you know. They got bus ministries. Put
a $20 bill under the seat or put a clown on there. Well, they
got a clown in the pulpit, why not put one on the bus? So, tell the truth. Paul wrote to the Galatians. He said, am I your enemy because
I tell you the truth? It's the greatest friend you
could ever have who will tell you the truth. Isn't that right?
And so they gauged the Holy Spirit. They gauged it by feeling, entertainment. It made us feel good. It made
chills. But that's not the way you gauge the presence and the
power of the Spirit. Well, how do you do that? Well, look at first, look at
verses 12 through 13. This is the spirit and the sword. This is the first point, the
spirit and the sword. And he says, for the word of
God, now there's your key. If you wanna know if the Holy
Spirit is present in a worship service, is the word of God being
preached? is the truth being told according
to the scriptures. That's the main thing. No matter
how you feel today or how it makes you feel. I hope it makes
you feel good because you're looking to Christ. And that's
the key for the Word of God is quick. Now the word quick there
means life. The Word of God is life. Now
I'm not going to take Three hours to go through one verse, but
I do want you to turn to John chapter 6. I'm coming back to
this verse. In John chapter 6, the word of
God, the gospel, is called the life-giving word. That is only
so as it is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Now that's why I
had Brother Robert read Romans 1 there, especially that verses
16 and 17. You remember what it said? Paul
said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, the
gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to who? To everyone
that believeth. Now, to the Jew first, the Greek
also, he says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
That tells you the content of the gospel. That term, the righteousness
of God, what does that mean? And of course we know it's talking
about salvation by the grace of God through the merits, the
power of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his blood, his death, his
cross. It's his righteousness. See,
it's not by works of righteousness which we do or try to do or intend
to do or sincerely try to do. or zealously try. It's by his
righteousness alone that a sinner can stand before God and be forgiven
of all our sins and be made righteous in God's sight. It's his righteousness
imputed. That's what Paul wrote in Romans
chapter four. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputed, charge, account righteousness without works.
And so for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith for as it is written, the justified Those who are not guilty,
those who are forgiven, those who are righteous in God's sight,
they walk by faith. They walk looking to and resting
in Christ for all salvation. That's what that means. And so,
look here at John chapter 6 and look at verse 63. The Lord speaking, he said, it
is the spirit. Now I believe that the word spirit
there should be capitalized. I believe he's talking about
the Holy Spirit there. Sometimes in the KJV, sometimes you'll
see the word spirit in small caps, in small letters rather,
and that's talking about our spirit. You know, we have been
given life from God. The spirit bears witness with
our spirit, Romans 8 says. But here's the Holy Spirit. It
is the spirit that quickeneth. It's the spirit who gives life.
Now, what life does he give? He gives the life of Christ.
Some of the old writers used to say it's the resurrection
life of Christ. Christ is the life giver because
he died, was buried, and arose the third day. You see, he didn't
stay dead. And he had life because he earned
life. He put away sin. He destroyed
sin, the guilt of sin, the condemnation. And he came out of that grave.
Why? Because he put away sin and he established righteousness,
which demands life. And so he sends the spirit forth. And he made this statement over
in John 16. He said, he told his disciples, I have to go away.
And his going away was going to the cross, going to the grave,
being risen from the dead, and going unto the Father. And he
said, if I go not away, now remember this is John 16, 7, he said,
if I don't go away, the Comforter will not come, that's the Spirit,
that's what he's talking about, who comforts the people of God
by driving them to Christ for salvation. You see, the reason
Christ said it that way is this. If he didn't go away, if he didn't
die, if he wasn't buried, if he wasn't raised again on the
third day, if he didn't ascend into the world, there'd be no
life for the spirit to give us. So he says in verse 60, it's
the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. What
we do or try to do, that's what he's talking, our works do not
give us life. You know, the popular book, How
to Be Born Again, And here's what it says, basically. You
make the choice, your own free will choice, you believe, and
then you're born again. That's the flesh. It profiteth
nothing. That's not so, folks. I don't
care who the preacher was that wrote it. I don't care how popular
he was and how highly he's regarded. That's a lie. It's the spirit
that quickened it. The flesh profiteth nothing.
Now look at verse 63. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. There's got to be the word there
and the Holy Spirit. He says in verse 64, but there
are some of you that believe not. Now not everyone that heard
even the Lord preach believed. Remember the gospel's the power
of God and salvation to everyone that believeth. How do I know
it's been made the power of God and salvation for me? Do I believe
this word, this word of life? And he says, he says, but there
are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believed not. He knew that. This
was no surprise to him. He says, and who should betray
him? Talking about Judas. In verse 65, and he said, therefore
said I unto you that no man can come to me except it were given
unto him of my father. In another place it says, no
man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw
him. And I'll raise him up a day at the last day. But look at
verse 66. He says, from that time, many of his disciples went
back and walked no more with him. In other words, many of
them who claimed to be his disciples left him. Now we know they were
never believers at all. The Bible teaches that. They
were never saved to begin with, or they would have never left
him. But look at verse 68. Then Simon Peter, answered him,
Lord, to whom shall, or verse 16, he said, then Jesus said
unto the 12, will you go away also? Will you also go away? And then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of life. Now go back to Hebrews four.
The Bible is clear that it's the Holy Spirit who takes the
sword And that sword is the word of God, the gospel, wherein the
righteousness of God, where Christ is revealed in his glorious person
and in his finished work as the one and only way of salvation
and empowers it to give life to God's people and bring them
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. Now look back
at verse 12, for the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper
than any two-edged sword, cuts both ways. piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow. In other words, it reveals everything
about us that we need to know. Do you know by nature we don't
even know ourselves? Really, we don't. By nature,
we like to lie to ourselves. Just like when my mother told
me that I was a lost person, I wanted to think otherwise.
She was right. I didn't want to think that.
Is there any verse in the Bible that says we don't know ourselves?
How about Jeremiah 17? Verse 9, I think it is. The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? It takes the Spirit of God with
the life-giving sword, the Word of God, to show me the reality
Who I am. And who am I? I'm a sinner who
deserves and has earned nothing but death and hell. I'm a sinner
who's in need. Listen, if God saves me, it is
totally 100% mercy and grace based on the righteousness of
another. That's who I am. I'm only a sinner
saved by grace. This is my story. And it took
the Word of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to show me that. That was conviction. That's conviction,
you see. Conviction of sin. Because without
Christ, without the grace of God, without His blood, without
His righteousness, where am I? I'm doomed for eternal damnation. And deservedly so. You say, well Bill, I knew you
growing up, you tried to be a good boy, you tried to please mom
and dad, you tried to be a good student. Now you're a husband,
you try to be a good husband, a good father, good friend, all
that. Here's the reality. The word
of God. It's a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. It reaches into the very thoughts
and intentions, motives. Verse 13 says, Thee there is
there any creature that is not manifest in His sight? You can't
hide it from God. You can hide it from your family,
you can hide it from the congregation, you can hide it from, you can't
hide it from God, can you? Remember what Christ said about
the law? He said, now you religious folks, you've heard it said that
to commit murder is a sin. But here's what I'm here to tell
you. This is the word of God. To even think it is a sin. A sin that deserves death. Maybe
not in human courts, but in God's court. He said, you've heard
it said by them of old that it's a sin to commit adultery. It is a sin. But I'm here to
tell you to even look upon a woman and lust after is adultery and
deserves death. Now how does that make you feel? We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Know what the Bible says? That
means we all deserve death and hell. That's what that means.
If God were to ever give me what I deserve. I'm talking about
right now, folks. If God were to ever give me what
I've earned, what would it be? Death and hell. What are you
saying, preacher? I'm saying that my salvation is all of grace
from its beginning. origination to its culmination. God saves me, God is keeping
me, God preserves me, God will bring me to glory totally by
His grace through the blood of Christ. There's not one second
in my life that I'm not in need of His righteousness charged
to me for a right standing before God. He says in verse 13, but all
things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we
have to do. You might not want anything to
do with God right now, but he's one with whom you have to do.
It's appointed unto men once to die, and after that, what?
The judgment. One of the best funeral messages
I ever heard had four points. And here they are. We all have
a life to live. Some of it's short, some of it's
long. Doesn't matter if it's Abel who was cut down in the
prime of his youth or Methuselah who died at 969 years old. We all have a life to live. How
are we going to live it? To the glory of God or to the
satisfaction of self? We all secondly have a death
to die. You're going to die. I'm going
to die. I can't remember which old preacher
it was. He said, here's how I look at it. He said, I'm a dying man
preaching to dying people. And that's it. How are we going
to die? The Bible says precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. That's his sanctified
ones. That's sinners saved by grace.
Or will we be like the Pharisees who Christ looked at and says,
you'll die in your sins. damned forever. Thirdly, we all
have a judgment to face. How are we going to face it?
How do I stand before God right now? If I stand on my own, pleading
my own works or efforts or intentions, where would I be? I would be
damned forever. But if I stand there in the person
and work of Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
that's eternal life. And then fourthly, we all have
an eternity to face. How are we gonna face it? In
glory with the Lord, singing the song of the redeemed. You
know what the song of the redeemed is? Worthy I am. No. Worthy the
Lamb. Different, isn't it? Worthy is
the lamb that was slain. That's the song of the redeemed
in eternity. Even then, we won't be able to
be proud of ourselves, will we? We'll just brag on Christ. That's
something. Well, it's all open. And what he's talking about here
is the spirit using the word The gospel as a word of conviction. Holy Spirit conviction. You know
what conviction means? It means that somehow, someway,
you have been brought to believe something so strongly that you
cannot be moved off of it. That's conviction. All right? In other words, you have a conviction
about certain things. You may have some convictions
about politics. You may have some convictions
about economics. But this conviction here has
to do with salvation, how God saves sinners. The Bible says
the Holy Spirit will convict us of three things. This is John
16, 8 through 11. You can turn there and read it
sometime. Brother Mark has several messages
on each point of that passage, real good messages too. It says
when the Spirit comes, he will convict you, number one, of sin,
That's what is that verse 9. I think I've sinned because they
believe not on me And what he's saying there is that the Holy
Spirit will convict us that without Christ Without faith in him looking
to him resting in him believing in him It's all sin in the sight
of God My religion My morality in the eyes of men, it's all
sin in the eyes of God because it falls short of the perfection
of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. And then
he says the second point, he will convict us of righteousness
because I go to the Father. Christ goes to the Father. Well,
how did he go to the Father? He went by way of the cross.
He died, he was buried, he arose again, he ascended, and how did
he, why did he, why was he raised from the cross, or from the dead,
and why did he go to the vault? Because he'd established righteousness.
In other words, the Spirit's gonna convict us that there's
only one righteousness that will enable me, a sinner, to stand
before holy God and be accepted, be blessed, and have eternal
life, and that's the righteousness of Christ. That's the righteousness
of God, revealed in the gospel. Then he says, thirdly, he'll
convict us of judgment because the prince of this world is judged.
Now, in John chapter 12, he tells us when the prince of this world,
Satan, was cast out, it was at the cross. And what is he talking
about, judgment? He'll convince God's people that
we've already been judged and exonerated from all our sins
because Christ died on that cross. You see, that's our hope. And
that's Holy Spirit conviction. Now, how do I know truly if it's
Holy Spirit conviction? Well, where do you end up? Where do you find relief? Where
do you find salvation? Where do you find peace? Look
at verses 14 through 16. Here's our ground of salvation
and acceptance with God. Seeing them, that we have a great
high priest, Here's your key. How do I know it's the Holy Spirit
convicting me rather than just natural conscience or society
or peer pressure? You know, when I was growing
up in religion, we used to have these youth revivals, and we'd
try to get as many down the aisle as we could, and you know mostly
what it was? It was peer pressure. It wasn't
conviction. It was peer pressure. Well, how
do I know this is not peer pressure for me? Or like I said, where
do you end up? Where do you finally find your
peace and your hope and your salvation? All right, verse 14,
seeing then that we have a great high priest. What was the high
priest of Israel to do? He represented the people before
God. Who is our great high priest?
He says, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God. I have no other priest but Christ. He's my representative before
God. He's the one who presents the
sacrifice at the altar. Well, what is the sacrifice?
The sacrifice of himself. He was crucified as a sacrifice
for sin. He offered himself without spot
and without blemish before God. He's the substitute. He's the
surety of sinners. He's the substitute of sinners.
He's the redeemer of his people. He's the great high priest. He's
passed into the heavens. What does that mean? That means
He was raised from the dead and He ascended to the Father. He's
the only one who by His merits entered into the presence of
God and found acceptance, the right hand of God, and sat down.
He's the only one. And if I'm going to ascend unto
the Father in the end and be accepted, it's going to be through
this great high priest. And if that's where you end up
in your faith, God-given faith, then you can know that's Holy
Spirit conviction. If you're led somewhere else
to find peace, oh, I was baptized when I was 12, is that where
you end up? Oh, I joined the church, or I've never missed
a Sunday. or I'm trying to be the best
person. Is that how you find relief?
Is that how you find comfort and peace? My friend, that's
not the Holy Spirit. He speaks of Christ. He drives
sinners to Christ. He takes the word of God, gives
life, spiritual life, convicts us of our sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment, and drives us to Christ for salvation. And
then he drives us away from self. He brings us to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works and idolatry, even the best we
can offer. We have to repent of that. Did
you know that? Somebody says, well, I was a drunk and I've
repented of that. Well, I'm glad you did. But have you repented
of your own righteousness, your own works, your own religion? He says here, seeing then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Let us continue
by God's grace to look to him, to rest in him, to plead his
case, to plead his merits, and look nowhere else. That's our
profession. One of the ways that I like to
sum up the professions of true believers
is what Paul wrote in Galatians 6.14. God forbid that I should
glory or boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our profession. Faith in Christ. Paul said it
this way. Here's another way to sum up
that profession. That I count all things but loss
For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but done, that I may win Christ, be found in Christ, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith, or the faithfulness of Christ. We look at verse 15, he says,
for we have not in high priests, which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin." You see, infirmities there describes
the weaknesses and the limitations of human existence, physical
existence, the flesh, but not the sinfulness. In his humanity,
Christ had all the weaknesses and limitations of physical existence.
He got hungry, he got tired, he sorrowed, all of those things. He felt pain. He had to do that
because he had to be God in human flesh in order to die for our
sins. And he was in all points tempted, tested, like as we are,
except for one difference, without sin. I often describe it this
way. Think about Christ on the Mount
of Temptation when Satan tempted him. He had not eaten 40 days
and 40 nights. He was hungry. That was an infirmity. That's a sinless infirmity. It's
not a sin for us to be hungry. But he was hungry, just as hungry
as you and I would be had we not eaten 40 days and 40 nights.
Satan comes along and he says, we'll make these stones to be
bread. Was Christ, he was hungry, he
wanted bread. But the difference between him
and us, if we'd been in that situation, it would certainly
at least enter our minds to compromise the glory of God in order to
relieve that hunger. But it didn't even enter his
mind to compromise the glory of his father. He simply responded,
man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded
out of the mouth of God. So he was just as hungry as we
are, tempted as we are, but he was without sin. Christ was made
sin, the Bible says, 2 Corinthians 5.20. That doesn't mean he was
made to be a sinner. It doesn't mean that he was made
in any way sinful. He was made sin strictly by the
sins of his people being imputed, charged to him. The whole time
he was on that cross as guilty and as deserving of the wrath
of his father in himself, in his mind, in his affections,
in his will, he was perfectly sinless the whole time. And yet
he died for his people. He suffered the just for the
unjust. But he says in verse 16 here,
because of all this let us therefore come boldly, confidently, freely,
unhinderedly, unto the throne of grace. There you go. That we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now most preachers
will relegate this only to prayer. And it's okay. When you come
to God in prayer, you come pleading the merits of the great high
priest. You come to the throne of grace seeking mercy in your
time of need. But this really applies to any
time we approach God, for anything. We're here to worship today.
We're approaching God. We want God to accept and receive
our worship, don't we? We want it to praise Him. Well,
how do we come? Well, Lord, aren't you glad I
showed up today? Or I've heard preachers say,
well, we're just so glad to have you. Oh, I am glad to have you
here. But you ought to be more glad to be here. Because the
word of God. These preachers say, well, God,
the only ears he has is your ears. The only mouth he has is
your mouth. The only arms, good night, what a weak God. Oh, I tell you what, we don't,
sometimes even we as believers, we don't really understand the
value of being able to come and sit under the preaching of the
life-giving word, do we? And it's not because I'm preaching.
It'd be the same when Brother Mark preaches and Brother Jim
preaches, Randy last week, Jason last week. It's not who the preacher,
it's the word of God. It's the gospel that brags on
Christ. That's what it's all about. How
in the world can I come boldly into the presence of a holy God?
Hebrews 10 tells us, through the blood of our great high priest. The Lord said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. And without faith
it's impossible to please God. What does faith do? It looks
to Christ. finds its rest, and its peace,
and its comfort, and its assurance in Christ. That's the conviction
that drives us to Christ. Now, without the Word, without
the Word, there's no Holy Spirit working. He's the Spirit of truth,
and He'll drive you to Christ every time, for every relief,
for every comfort, all right?