Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. Now,
today's message is the 13th message in a series that is intended
to accompany a new book that we at Reign of Grace Ministries,
Eager Avenue Grace Church, are offering to you free of charge.
The title of the book and the title of this series is, What
is a Christian? A Biblical Study of the One True
Faith. And throughout this series, I've
been going through various passages of scripture and dealing with
various subjects on how the Bible defines what a Christian is,
a true Christian, and what a Christian is not. Now, if you claim to
be a Christian, or if you're seeking information on Christianity,
what a Christian really is, I urge you to order the book, order
the DVD or the CD series, and use it as a tool to guide you
through the Bible in the process of what the Bible calls self-examination. Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith, the Christian faith. Now today, in this message,
this message goes along with the chapter in the book entitled,
Christians and Holy Spirit Conviction. Christians and Holy Spirit Conviction. Now, the point that I'm making
here is that all true Christians have been convicted by the Holy
Spirit. But what does that conviction
involve? Now the Holy Spirit is the third
person of the Triune Godhead, the Trinity, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It's useless for any of us to
try to explain the Trinity. That's something that our little
old finite minds cannot grasp, but we know it's true because
of the Scripture teaches it. God reveals himself in the Trinity
of his persons. It's not three gods, it's not
a three-headed God, it's not one God in three forms or three
facets. It's one God in three persons,
that's all we can say. God the Father represents the
sovereign authority of the Godhead. God the Father chose a people
before the foundation of the world and gave them to Christ,
who is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. and all
of the salvation of God's people was conditioned upon Christ as
the surety and substitute of God's elect. And it's His work
to come into this world and to unite with humanity that is a
human body and soul, the Word made flesh, God manifest in the
human body. God, the Word made flesh, His
name is Emmanuel, God with us. Christ is God and man in one
person. And in that capacity, the glorious
person of Christ, He obeyed the law perfectly as the surety and
substitute of His people and went to the cross of Calvary
as their sin-bearer to satisfy the justice of God and redeem
them from sins, thereby bringing forth an everlasting righteousness. of infinite value whereby God
is just to justify them. You see, salvation is founded
upon, centered around, and redounds to the preeminence and glory
of Christ as the Redeemer, the Lord our righteousness. We stand
before God, saved, justified, assured of salvation, secure,
based on His righteousness, the merits of His obedience unto
death, imputed, charged, accounted, to his people. And so that's
the work of the Son as the Redeemer. And then the Holy Spirit, the
third person of the Trinity, he is the great, as you might
say, applicator of that salvation. It is his office and work to
apply to each and every one of God's chosen people in each successive
generation spiritual life from Christ. And he does this in the
new birth. He brings them under the preaching
of the gospel of God's grace in Christ, imparts life, knowledge,
gives them a new heart, a new mind, a new affections, new will,
a new spirit, all of these things, and he indwells God's people.
And this new birth, in this process of the new birth, which happens
under the preaching of the gospel, the Holy Spirit brings them to
conviction. Now, we've seen throughout these
messages that the Bible teaches that a true Christian is one
who has been radically changed by the grace and power of God.
I've talked about a believer's, a Christian's objective standing
in Christ, which has nothing to do with that person's experience
or what they go through inwardly. That's all what Christ has done
for his people as the grant of salvation. But that's not all
that salvation is. Salvation also includes the work
of the Holy Spirit within His people. And it's all by grace,
sovereign, invincible grace. It's called the invincible call,
you might say. The irresistible call. And this
grace and power operates within a person by the work of the Holy
Spirit in the new birth. It involves both regeneration,
which is the impartation of spiritual life and knowledge, and also
involves conversion, imparting spiritual knowledge and desires,
bringing a person to change, and change in faith and repentance. It all falls under the heading
of true Holy Spirit conviction. Now, Christ himself said, you
must be born again, which literally means born from above, John chapter
three and verse seven, else we cannot see, know and understand
or enter into the kingdom of heaven. And as stated before,
the new birth, spiritual birth results in a sinner turning to
Christ for all salvation, and turning away from himself, turning
away from sin, turning away from idolatry, turning to faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ for all salvation and repentance of dead
works and idolatry. And the way the Holy Spirit brings
God's elect to conversion is through the power of conviction. Now the Lord taught this over
in the book of John chapter 16. beginning at verse seven. And
this is a passage of scripture that I've referred to before.
But if you want to follow along in your Bibles, look at John
chapter 16 and verse seven. And this is part of his private
instruction to his disciples. And he's talking about his death
on the cross, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension
under the Father, his complete work. to establish and perfect
and finish the law of God for righteousness to everyone who
believes. And he says in verse 7, he says
of John 16, verse 7, nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient
for you that I go away. It's necessary, he's telling
his disciples, for you that I go away, that I go to the cross,
that I die as the surety and substitute for the sins of his
people imputed, charged, accounted to him." It's necessary because
we're sinners. That's why Christ had to die.
Because the people whom he represented, for whom he stood as surety,
having their debt imputed, charged to him, for whom he substituted
himself as the Lamb of God, having all the iniquity of all His people
laid upon Him. You see, we're sinners, and God
must punish sin. God is a holy and just and righteous
God, and He cannot ignore, look over, or forgive sin apart from
justice being satisfied. And so when we talk about the
love of God in Christ, we must talk about it in the context
of righteousness, holiness, justice. Because if we don't do that,
it's an empty love. So Christ said, it's necessary
for you that I do this work, that I pay the debt of sin, that
I establish the only righteousness whereby God can be just to justify
sinners and forgive sinners and accept, receive and bless sinners. He says, for if I go not away,
the comforter will not come unto you. Now the comforter there
is God, the Holy Spirit. He says, but if I depart off,
I will send him unto you. This comforter. The comforter
here, as I said, is God the Holy Spirit who comes to do His work
of imparting spiritual life and knowledge from the Lord Jesus
Christ to each and every one of God's elect in each successive
generation. Now the Lord made it clear that
this subjective, inward, spiritual work of the Holy Spirit in giving
life, raising them from the dead, regeneration, the new birth,
is the fruit and effect of His great objective legal work for
His people. I've quoted this verse several
times, Romans 8 and verse 10, which says, if Christ be in you,
and Christ in His people, how is that possible? He's in His
people by His Spirit and by His Word and by His life. And if
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. That means
this physical body is dead because of sin. We're still sinners and
we still see the, even if we're true Christians, we still are
subject to the effects of sin, not the condemnation of sin now,
not the damnation. Because we who are true Christians
will live forever with Christ because of righteousness. And
he says the spirit is life because of righteousness. The reason
the Spirit gives life to God's people, spiritual life, is because
Christ put away their sins and established righteousness which
demands life. Romans 5, 12 says, as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
by Jesus Christ our Lord unto eternal life by righteousness.
And so in the new birth, the Holy Spirit brings God's elect
under the gospel. and makes that gospel the power
of God unto salvation. So God's elect, God's chosen
people, are then begotten, as the scripture says, of God. Over
in the book of James, chapter 1 and verse 18, it says, Of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. The Holy Spirit
is the sovereign agent. who brings His people under the
word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of
His creatures. This is how the Holy Spirit establishes
Christ within the hearts of His people. The Bible teaches that
the new birth is not by the works or the wills of men. You know,
many people today believe that, well, you make your decision
for Christ, you decide to believe on Him, you exercise faith of
your own free will, and as a result, you're born again. Oh, no, my
friend. That's humanism. That's not the
gospel. That's not grace. That's salvation conditioned
on sinners. And the Bible says if we're left
to our own wills, we will not come to Him. Over in the book
of John, chapter 1 and verse 11, It says, Christ came unto
his own, and his own received him not. Now that's man by nature. That's me by nature, left to
myself. But look at verse 12 of John
11. Or John 1, rather. John 1, 11, now verse 12. He
says, but as many as received Him, that is believed in Him,
rest in Him, to them gave He power. Now that word power there
is not ability. The word power there is the right
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.
What gives me the right to call myself a true child of God, a
true Christian, a sinner saved by grace? Justify. Well, I believe
on His name. We talked about that last time.
His name is that which identifies and distinguishes Him. But look
at verse 13 of John 1. He said, He came unto His own,
His own received Him not, but some received Him. How? How did that happen? Were they
just better than those who did not receive Him? Did they rise
above the mass of fallen, rebellious, unbelieving humanity? and make
the right decision? No. Verse 13 tells us, which
were born, that's the new birth, not of blood, that is, not of
physical heritage or pedigree, nor of the will of the flesh,
that's the works of the flesh, look at, nor of the will of man. They weren't born because they
willed to be born, They weren't born again because they made
the right decision. They were born of God, but they
were born but of God. Now the reason all this is so
important is that it goes to the heart of what a true Christian
is and is not. A true Christian is one who has
been brought by the Holy Spirit to true conviction. And if we
look back at John chapter 16, verses eight through 11, we learn
from the Bible Exactly what the Holy Spirit convicts God's people
of in three areas. And they come together. Now let's
go back and read that. John 16 and verse 7. Remember
what we're talking about. Holy Spirit conviction. Christ
told his disciples, he said, nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient, it's necessary
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." If Christ accomplishes His great work, He sends the
Holy Spirit to give life. You see, without Christ, there
is no life. Without His death, His burial,
His resurrection, there is no spiritual life, only death. Without
righteousness, there is no life. So He says, when I go and do
this great work, I'll send the Spirit. And look at verse 8 of
John 16. He says, and when He has come, He will reprove. Now what does reprove mean? It
means He will convict. He will convince. In other words,
if I've been convicted by the Holy Spirit in the work of the
new birth, in regeneration and conversion, in being born from
above and being saved, then I have been convinced of these three
things. And it says he will reprove the
world, the world of three things, of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Now the world there, so many
people when they read the Bible, they'll see the word world and
they will automatically say, well, that means everybody without
exception, but it does not. The word world in the New Testament
has so many different meanings that it can only be determined
by its context. I'll give you an example of that. People talk about John 3.16,
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting
life. The world there is not talking about every individual
without exception. It's speaking of the world of
God's chosen people. God has a people all over this
world. Jew and Gentile. And it's not
every individual. I'll prove that to you. Sometime
go to your Bibles and read 1 John 5.19 where it says, we are of
God, talking about believers, and the whole world lieth in
wickedness or literally in the wicked one. The whole world?
He obviously makes a distinction there in 1 John 5, 19 between
we who are of God and the whole world. The whole world is the
whole world of unbelievers. The whole world of the unregenerate,
you see, who die and unbelieve. So when he says he will reprove
the world, convict the world, who's he talking about? He's
talking about everybody in the world who is a participant or
who isn't one whom the Holy Spirit works in unto conviction. Now, have you been under Holy
Spirit conviction? Now, most people will say, well,
that means I feel sorry for my sins and I've made the right
decision or what. No, he says he will convict the
world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And then read
verse nine of John 16 and verse nine through 11. He says, I've
sinned because they believe not on me, Verse 10, of righteousness
because I go to my father and you see me no more. And of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged. Now let's look at
those three things of Holy Spirit conviction. If you're a true
Christian, you've been convinced by the Holy Spirit through the
preaching of the word of sin. Of sin in light of unbelief in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they believe not on me,
Christ said. A Christian is one who has been
brought by God, the Holy Spirit, to face the reality of his own
personal sin, but don't stop there, in the light of the holiness
of God and the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it that
identifies a totally depraved sinner and what he cannot do? The Bible teaches that we've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. People quote
that verse and they have no idea what it means. It means we all
come short. It means, number one, we have
no righteousness before God. We have no goodness within ourselves
as measured by God's standard of righteousness and goodness
that can only be found in Christ. Many people will read that verse
nine where it says, I've sinned because they believe not on me.
And they'll say, well, that's the sin of unbelief. Well, that's
included. You see, the sin of unbelief
is the root of all sin. Unbelief of God, unbelief of
Christ. Adam fell because he didn't believe
God. The whole human race was ruined in Adam because he didn't
believe God. But it's more than that. And
what this teaches us, what the Holy Spirit convicts us of is
this. My friend, listen to what I'm
saying. Without Christ, everything about me and everything I do
is nothing but sin. If I don't have Christ to wash
away my sins, I'm gone. Christ is the standard of goodness.
And secondly, it shows me that I cannot make myself righteous
and good by my best efforts of morality, religion, or obedience
to God's law. You see, my righteousness, forgiveness
cannot be found in myself by my will or my works. And thirdly,
it convinces me that I do not desire righteousness and goodness
God's way, which is the way of sovereign grace in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see, by nature, sinners want
these things their own way by the works of the flesh, whereby
we can boast and exalt ourselves. The second thing that the Holy
Spirit convicts us of is found in John 16, 10, of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more. A Christian
is one who has been brought by God the Holy Spirit to the Lord
Jesus Christ as the one and only way of salvation, the only way
to God, the only way of righteousness before God. The Apostle Paul
preached on Mars Hill that God commands all men everywhere to
repent. In Acts 17 31, he says, because God hath appointed a
day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men and they have raised him from the dead. That's Christ.
So the Holy Spirit convicts us, convinces us that no amount of
works we could ever attempt to perform could cleanse us from
sin and make us righteous before God. The law convicts us unto
death. It says to all who are under
law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God and therefore by deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in the sight of God. The law is the knowledge
of sin. But the gospel shows the righteousness
of God, Romans 3.21, without the law, being manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, preached unto all
and imputed to all that believe, for there is no difference for
all sin. and comes short of the glory of God. Sinners are justified
freely by the grace of God in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, which He worked in His cross work, whereby He
died, was buried, and rose the third day, and went unto the
Father as the one who accomplished redemption for His people. Romans
10, 4, Christ is the end, the fulfillment, the perfection,
the finishing of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believes. And then John 1611, the third thing, the Holy Spirit
convicts us of judgment because the prince of this world is judged.
A Christian is one who has been brought by God the Holy Spirit
to rest in the reality of judgment as he stands in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, a true Christian lives
life here on earth in the reality of final judgment. Hebrews 9.27
says, it's appointed unto men once to die, but after this,
the judgment. So a true Christian knows that in the end, we must
all stand before God and give an account. Romans 14.12, so
then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.
But here's what he's being convicted of. He knows first that if God
were to judge him at any time based on his works or his sincerity,
that if sins were ever imputed, charged, accounted to him, he
would not be able to stand the test of righteous judgment. Just
like the psalmist in Psalm 130 verse 3, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? I know right now
if God were to judge me based upon my best, I would be doomed
forever. A true Christian knows his only
hope to pass the test of God's righteous judgment is to be found
in the Lord Jesus Christ washed in His blood and having His righteousness
imputed. David said that when he described
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness
without works. When he said, blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. The true Christian's
account before God at final judgment is neither in how many sins he
has committed nor in how many good works he has performed because
no amount of good works can do away with his sin or make him
righteous before God. The true Christian's account
before God at final judgment is how he stands before God in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul wrote in Philippians
3 and verse 8, Yea, doubtless, and 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 and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Now, the reason that last conviction
is connected with the prince of this world, Satan, being cast
out and put down, is because Satan is the accuser of the brethren. So any accusation of condemnation,
now, not just sin. Somebody can look at me and say,
well, now, you claim to be a true Christian, but you're still a
sinner. Well, I am a sinner. But any accusation of condemnation
because of my sin can be turned back by the blood of Christ. I'm a sinner, but I'm one for
whom Christ died. I'm one whom God chose before
the foundation of the world, whom Christ redeemed on Calvary,
and as a result, who has been regenerated, born again, convicted
by the Holy Spirit. I can say before God and man,
because I look to Christ and I have no other righteousness
than Him, I have no other salvation than Him, I can say there is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus
who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.