Now we'll stay right there in
John chapter 16. And this morning, the title of
the message is The Miracle of Holy Spirit Conviction. The Miracle of Holy Spirit Conviction. Now, whenever people become concerned
about their salvation, and many do, and especially about assurance
of salvation. Over the years, I've talked to
so many people who claim to be saved and they say, but they
just don't have any assurance or they're looking for assurance.
How can I know I am saved? There was an elderly gentleman
who passed away up in Proctorville, Ohio that was a friend of mine. He said, well, he said, he said,
I know I'm saved. He said this to me one time.
He said, I know I'm saved because I know the way of salvation.
I'm not lost. And he said, the way of salvation
is Christ. Christ said, I'm the way I'm
the truth. I'm the life. No man cometh under
the father, but by me, but people do become concerned with that
at times. How can I know that I'm saved or how can I know I'm
a true Christian? And sad to say, there's so many
who ask that question when they really don't even know what a
true Christian is. I'm currently writing on that
subject, what is a Christian? And I always, just like on the
book, What is Salvation? A Biblical Study of God's Greatest
Gift, I wanna know from the Bible. I really, as far as, examining
myself as to whether or not I'm a true Christian, to be honest
with you, and I'm not saying this insultingly or to put you
down, but I really am not concerned with what you think in that matter
as whether I'm a true Christian or not. What I'm really concerned
with is what God thinks and what God says in His Word, because
that's the last word, isn't it? I mean, you know, you say, well,
I know this fellow's a Christian. Well, how do you know that? If
you can't base it on God's word, it's just a pipe dream, isn't
it? So that's the issue. How can I know that I'm a Christian?
And often, in consideration of so many different beliefs today,
so many that come under the umbrella of the world's view of Christianity,
the question comes, how much does a person have to know to
be saved? or to be rightly called a true
Christian? And the answer to that question
ranges everywhere from, well, you don't have to know anything.
I've had people say that. You don't have to know anything.
Well, will that hold true in Scripture? And the answer's no.
Christ said in John 17, I believe it's verse three, he said, this
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou sent. But we'll look at that in just
a moment. And then they range from, you don't have to know
anything, but just experience a great change of life and behavior. Well, I know Hindus who have
experienced great changes of life and behavior. I used to
have a friend in Louisville, Kentucky who went through that.
And then they range from, well, you have to know such and such
set of doctrines. Well, the scripture is clear
on that issue. And here's what it's clear on.
Number one, there are things we must be brought to know for
us to rightly call ourselves Christian. Now there are things,
this is the way the Bible speaks. Back a few pages in John chapter
six, the Lord himself, he says in
John 6.37, for example, He says, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, coming to Christ. We know that salvation involves
coming to Christ. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Now, Christ has never turned
away any sinner who comes to him. The problem that I believe
exists in modern day religion is that many people are coming
to a counterfeit. And we'll see that in just a
moment too. But if you come to the true Christ, Christ as he's
identified and distinguished in the scriptures, he won't turn
you away. He never has turned away any
sinner. That's a convicted sinner. That's
what we're gonna talk about, Holy Spirit conviction. He said
in verse 38 of John six, I came down from heaven, not to do my
own will, but the will of him that sent me. Now listen to this.
He says, this is the father's will, which has sent me that
of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. So he's speaking of a people
whom God had given him. And the scripture teaches that
was God's electing grace before the foundation of the world.
And he's going to bring them to himself. Well, if you look
across at verse 44 of John six, listen to this. Now he says,
no man can come to me. Now that can there means ability. No man can come to me except
the father which has sent me draw him. and I will raise him
up at the last day." So those who come to Christ are drawn
by the Father. Man doesn't have that natural
ability because he's spiritually dead, the scripture says. And
that spiritual death exists in the fact that man has no desire
to come to Christ. Now don't get me wrong, that
doesn't mean man has no natural desire to be religious. Ecclesiastes
takes care of that and other passages. Man by nature is naturally
religious in some way, form, or shape, or fashion. And he
wants salvation. There's not a human being, I
don't believe, who ever at some point in their life, now there
are many who may just put it out of their minds for years
at a time, but there's not a human being at some time in their life
has thought about the afterlife. What happens after death? Is
there life after death? Now there are those who say there's
no life after death. But that's just a denial of what
I believe is in man by nature. We all have a desire to live
forever. We don't want to live in pain
and sorrow forever. We want to live blissfully. We
want to live in happiness. But we want to live forever.
So man by nature wants salvation. The problem with man by nature
is he doesn't want salvation God's way. That's the problem. He wants it his own way. And
the first example of that you see is Adam and Eve sewing fig
leaf aprons together to cover their shame. And then the second
example you see of that is Cain and Abel. Cain came the way of
work salvation, which would exalt man. Abel came the way of God's
grace in the blood of a substitute, which pictured Christ. And that's
the difference. Man doesn't want to humble himself.
He wants a little credit. for this thing. That's why Paul
said, God forbid that I should glory, boast, save in what? The
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Man wants to boast in his church
affiliation. He wants to boast in walking
an aisle, making a decision for Christ. He wants to boast in
baptism. He wants to boast in his great
experiences. Anything but Christ alone. And
that's the problem. But so, why is it man cannot
come? It's because he will not. because
he will not come God's way. But the father draws his people.
And he says, and I'll raise him up at the last day. Now, how
does he draw his people? Look at verse 45 of John six. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. God's gonna teach them
something. He's gonna use preachers, evangelist,
and he's gonna use his word to teach. What I know about God
is found in this book. I didn't find it in a dream,
and if I did, you can just throw it out, unless it lines up with
this book now. People say, well, you know, God's
like this, or God's not like that. How do you know what they're
saying is true? You check them out with the scripture.
What does the Bible say? Thus saith the Lord. That's how
the prophets introduced their messages. Thus saith the Lord. Isaiah didn't stand in Jerusalem
and say, now this is my opinion or this is how I interpret the
scripture. No, he said, thus saith the Lord. So God's gonna
teach them. Well, how's he gonna teach them?
Well, look at verse 45. They shall be all taught of God.
Every man therefore that hath heard. Now that's the hearing
of faith. Remember Christ told the disciples,
blessed are your ears for they hear, your eyes for they see.
Every man therefore hath heard, heard what? Okay, he says, and
hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. What does that mean,
learned of the Father? Was that just some idea of God
being some universal grandpa up in the air or some genie in
a bottle that we can all tap into if we're good enough? No.
The Father reveals himself through the Son. That's an issue of God
who is both a just God and a Savior. One who can punish sin justly
according to His holy nature, but at the same time who can
be merciful and loving and gracious to His people based on what? Based upon the blood of Jesus
Christ. The way to God is through the
blood of Christ. It's the way of the cross. We
sing at him, the way of the cross leads home. Well, that's right.
The way of the cross is justice satisfied. And we talk about,
yes, God is a loving God. Yes, God is a merciful God. Yes,
God is a gracious God. But my friend, he cannot, he
cannot save you or me apart from his justice being satisfied according
to his holiness. He must be both a righteous judge
who must punish sin, as well as a loving father. Now, how
can he be both? I said it last week. The moment
somebody says, God forgives sin, or God saves sinners, you've
got a major, major problem. And that's this, that's the question
of questions. And Job asked it, and Job's friend
asked it. How can a man be just with God,
a sinner? How can God save me and still
be God, be just, and punish sin, which he must do? And the only
answer is the blood of Jesus Christ, which equals out to his
righteousness, what Paul called in Romans 117, the righteousness
of God. God charged his son with my sin,
and he charges me with his righteousness. And I didn't have any part in
producing it. And I didn't even appropriate it. I wasn't around
when it was imputed to me. God charged it to me. Well, there
are things we must be brought to know. Over in Romans 10, for
example, the Apostle Paul, and this is what brought the offense
of the cross for the early Christians from the unbelieving Jewish nation. And Paul writes in Romans 10,
verse one, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. And what Paul is actually
saying there is that Israel's lost. Now he's not talking about
every individual Israelite, but he's talking about as a conglomerate,
as a nation. They had rejected Christ. And
he says, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God. Being
zealous and sincere was not their problem. They have a zeal of
God. But look what he says in verse
two of Romans 10. Not according to what? Knowledge. They're missing some knowledge,
vital knowledge. Verse three, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own
righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. They don't know how righteous God is. They don't know how just
God is. I like people today who think
God is just some kind of a compassionate father who will just look at
you because he feels sorry for you and because he's so loving
he'll just say, well, let's just forget it. I don't hate anybody. I just love everybody and you
all made some mistakes. No, that's not the God of this
book, folks. The righteousness of God is his
justice satisfied in Christ. Verse four says, for Christ is
the end, the fulfillment, the finishing of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. What do I need to be saved? What
do I need to go to heaven? I need righteousness. I don't
have it in myself. I can't work it. The best I can
do falls short of it. Where am I gonna find it? There's
only one place, in Christ, the Lord our righteous. And you look
for it anywhere else, you're going away from God. But if you
find it in Christ and submit to him, that's the way to God. Faith is founded upon that knowledge. People say, well, I believe.
Well, what do you believe? Don't be like the woman who challenged
the preacher one day on something that he preached. And he said,
well, what do you believe about this? And she said, well, I believe
what my preacher believes. And he said, well, what does
he believe? And she said, I don't know, but whatever it is, I believe
it. That's faith in faith. That's
faith in ignorance. Paul said this in 2 Timothy 1.12,
he said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. I'm not able. You're not able. You may think
you are, but you're not. How do I know that? Somebody
said, well, you don't even know me. How do you know? I know that
because that's what God says about all of us. And he knows
you better than you know yourself. Did you know that? He knows me
better than I know myself. In our text, John 16, we learn
this, that we must know something in order to claim to be saved
now, according to the scripture, to be a true Christian, we have
to know something about these three things, verse nine, sin,
verse 10, righteousness, and verse 11, judgment. Now what
I'm going to do, beginning next week, I'm going to preach one
message on each one of those, but I'm going to give you a definition
of them this morning. But let me say this first. The
second thing we have to understand, first we know that there are
things we must know as taught of God. The second thing we know
is that the knowledge we must have in order to claim salvation,
to claim to be a Christian, does not come by the natural intellectual
abilities of man or the will of man. That is, it's not just
for smart people, and it's not for those who are just a little
less rebellious, a little more pliable than the fellow sitting
next to them who just won't decide. And it's not so complicated that
only the intellectually gifted can understand it. Christ said
in Matthew 11 and verse 25, when he was talking about salvation
knowledge, he said, he said, I thank the old father that thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them unto babes. Babes in the sense that we're
totally dependent upon our heavenly father for all things. The scripture
says in Romans nine and verse 16, it's not of him that runneth,
That's the works of man. Nor of him that willeth. That's
the will of man. But of God that showeth mercy.
You see, salvation is not conditioned on your works or your will or
my works or my will. It's conditioned on the work
of God and the will of God. So then thirdly, we know this,
this knowledge comes to God's people through the power of God
by the Holy Spirit and through the instrument of the word of
faith, the gospel in the new birth. You remember Christ told
Nicodemus in John chapter three and verse three, he said, except
you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven, the
kingdom of God rather. That word see means to understand
it, to know something about, oh, I see. I see things I didn't
see before. He said in John 1, verse 11,
Christ came unto his own and his own received him not, but
to as many as received him, to them gave he the power, the right
to become or to be called sons of God, even to them which believe
on his name, which were born not of blood, that is not of
physical heritage, nor the will of the flesh, that's
the works of the flesh, nor the will of man, but born of God.
You've got to be born again. If you're born again of the Spirit,
you know some things. They're not hard things. They're
not hard as far as intellectual perception. They're hard because
we, by nature, are against them. Paul told the Thessalonian believers,
he said, I know your election of God, I know God chose you.
Well, how do you know that, Paul? He said, because the word came
to you, the gospel came to you, not just in word, but in power. And then the fourth thing is
this, this knowledge is founded upon and centered around and
ultimately leads to the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory of
his person. Who is Jesus Christ? He is God
in human flesh. Do you know that? I know it's
so. You might say, well, can you
explain that to me, preacher? And I say, no, I can't explain
it to you, but I know it's true because God's word said it's
true. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in
the flesh. He is God in human flesh. His
name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people from
their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. Now here comes a fellow who claims
to be a Christian. He says, I'm a follower of Christ. I love Christ. I try to live
a good life, but I don't believe he's God. What does the word of God say
about that? To deny him in his deity or his humanity is to deny
him. You say, well that's awful narrow
in heart. It's just what God's word says. I don't believe that
because I'm a bigot. I believe that because I'm a
follower of Jesus Christ and that's what he said. And then the scripture teaches
that Christ came to save his people from their sins. He came
here to secure the salvation of his people by the righteousness
that he established. Those for whom he died will not
end up in hell. How do you know that? The word
of God says it. God's not out there trying to do something
if you'll just let him or trying to do something that he can't.
No. That's not what the Bible says. All of this, the application
of this knowledge is the work of God the Holy Spirit in what
we call conviction. Conviction. Now, the word conviction
itself is not in the Bible, but the truth of it is. Now, go back
to John 16. Listen to what, this is what Brother Randy read. Now,
you know, what Christ is doing, he's in the upper room with his
disciples, teaching them privately. He'd already finished his public
ministry. And he knew that his days on
earth, in his earthly ministry, were coming to a close. He knew
the time that was appointed before the foundation of the world was
come. You remember when they were talking about going to Jerusalem
and he said, it's not time yet. The time is not right. There
was a time, you know, Galatians 4.4 says, in the fullness of
the time, God sent forth his son made of a woman. See, God
has appointed all times. He didn't just wind this world
up and then just walk off and leave it and let it wind down.
No, God is working all things after the counsel of his own
will, Ephesians 111. And so Christ knew that his time
on earth was coming. He went about doing good, he
went about performing miracles, and he went about preaching the
gospel that leaves sinners with absolutely no hope of salvation,
but Christ and him crucified and risen, which is the establishment
of the righteousness of God. That's the heart of the gospel.
What is the righteousness of God? It's the merits of Christ,
obedience unto death. Having the sins of his elect,
his sheep imputed, charged to him, he died to pay that debt.
And out of that came righteousness imputed, charged to them. And
it leaves the sinner with no room to boast. And it also exposes
all false grounds of salvation. You see, the Jews, the unbelieving
Jews, they thought salvation was conditioned on three things.
Number one, you had to be a child of Abraham physically. Number
two, you had to be circumcised, the males. And number three,
you had to keep the law of Moses. And Christ came along and said,
oh no. That's a false ground of salvation. That's a false
refuge. Now, whenever, listen, every one of you out here, if
you claim to be saved, if you claim to be a Christian, you
have a refuge. Now, if I stand up here and say
something that shakes your refuge, you're either gonna get concerned
or you're gonna get angry. Am I right? That's the way it
usually works. I've been doing this for over
30 years now, and that's the way it works. You rock a man's
boat. I mean, I've had people, I had
a fellow write me an email and I wrote him back and he got so
mad he threatened to call the sheriff on me. And I said, well,
call him. I'll witness to him. He can't
do nothing. It's not against the law. You
wrote me, I said. I didn't write you. If you don't want to hear
my answer to your question, then don't ask. And I won't tell. But that's the truth. Fell out
in Tifton. He wrote back. He said, I'll call the sheriff.
Anyway, listen, if you say things from the Bible that rock their
boat, that shake their foundation, they'll either get concerned
and start seeking, which is what you should do, well, they'll
get angry. And that's why Christ, look over in John 15 and verse
18. This is how he starts this segment.
He says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before
it hated you. The world, that's the unbelieving,
unregenerate, fallen world, hated the Lord Jesus Christ. Why didn't
they hate him? It's not because he raised the
dead. It wasn't because he healed the sick. It wasn't because he
fed the 5,000. It's because he told them that they didn't know
God. They thought they did. He told
them that in all their religion, think about this statement. This
is one of the Lord's statements in a message that he preached.
He said, that which is highly esteemed among men is what? an abomination to God. Now, what's
highly esteemed among men? Religion. Morality. You say, well, how can those
things be an abomination when they do not honor and glorify
God as the God who justifies the ungodly, as the God who saves
by grace? In God's sight, they're an abomination. Well, does that mean we should
all just throw caution to the wind and be immoral? No, not
at all. That's an abomination to God
too. But whenever a sinner approaches God seeking salvation, blessing,
favor, anything good based on anything but the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's an abomination to God. That's
what Christ told him. That's why the world hated him.
They told Paul, said, Paul, you've gone crazy talking like that. Remember when he stood before
King Agrippa? Or I think it was Felix. But anyway, whoever, in
the book of Acts, he said, much learning hath made thee mad.
What you know has made you crazy. And people don't understand it.
I mean, I didn't. I can remember sitting in the
back of a church building, hearing this message, hating every word
that I heard. I can remember that. You say,
well, what happened? God did a work and it's a miracle. I'm standing up here preaching
to you right now, the very thing that I sat in the back of a church
building and despised. I told my mother that the preacher
up there, I said, mom, if he, if what he's saying is true,
we're all lost. And I hated it every minute of
it. That's what it was. Well, look at chapter 16, verse
one. He says, these things have I
spoken in you that you should not be offended. In other words,
I'm telling you beforehand what to expect when you go out and
preach the gospel. And that word offended means
stumble, like a trap. In other words, you won't be
so amazed you'll stumble at this. I'm telling you what to expect.
Verse two, they shall put you out of the synagogues. You know
what the synagogue was? That was the gathering of the
Jews to worship. They'll throw you out of their
church services. They won't listen to you. Yea, the time cometh,
now look here, that whosoever killeth you. You know, you think
about Peter and James and John sitting there hearing this. Wait
a minute, killeth me? This is serious business. He
says, they'll think they're doing the service of God. Do you remember
Saul of Tarsus? He stood and held the coats while
they stoned Stephen. Because Stephen told them the
truth. Remember, Stephen, after he went
through the whole history of Israel, and he said that whole
history leads to one person and one work, the Lord Jesus Christ
and his righteousness alone, and they rejected it, and here's
what he said, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears. That means unregenerate. That means rebellious and unregenerate. Verse three. And these things
will they do unto you because they have not known the Father
nor me." Now, these were Jewish people who claimed that God was
their Father. You remember in the book of Acts,
I think it's chapter three, Peter and John, I think, were out preaching
in Jerusalem and they had been told by the Sanhedrin not to
do that, not to preach in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. He
doesn't say what we want to hear. And then they brought him up,
they arrested him, brought him up before the high court, and
they had healed an impotent man. And here was the question that
was put to them, in what name do you do these things? Do you
remember Peter's answer? Now Peter could have said, he
could have said this, he could have said, we did it in the name
of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he would have
been correct to say that, he would have been true, he would
have been speaking the truth. But that's not what he said,
because that's not what they needed to hear. You know what
he said? We did this in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you
crucified. And it's like, wow. You know, us today, we can't
realize the feeling that must have come over the Sanhedrin
when they heard that. But it was like stabbing them
in the heart with a knife. This is what Christ is talking
about. He says, they don't know the Father. He says in verse
four, 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 as at the beginning, because I was with
you. Verse five, look at this. He says, but now I go my way
to him that sent me. Now, where was Christ going his
way? He was going to the cross to pay the sin debt of his people,
to establish that righteousness, which God justified all of his
people before. I'm going my way to him that
sent me, to the father that sent me. And he said, none of you
asketh me whether thou goest. What he's talking about there
is they weren't even, they tried to put out of their mind the
fact that he was going to be crucified, that he was going
away. They just didn't want to accept
it. But he says in verse six, but because I have said these
things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Sorrow hath
filled your heart. Now, they were sorrowful. And
that's being human, it is. But it shows that man, by nature,
will not accept the things unless God, the Holy Spirit, brings
us to accept them. And then there's a struggle within,
isn't there? It's called the warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. Now look at verse seven. He says, nevertheless,
I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. It's necessary. It could also
be it's what you need. It's needed for you or it's befitting
for you. You're a sinner. You cannot save
yourself. You don't have righteousness.
You can't work one and you don't want it God's way. So it's necessary
for you that I do the work. That's what Christ is saying,
that I do my work, that I redeem you from your sins, that I shed
that blood that God must take. Listen, the shedding of blood
was not just because God is some kind of a bloodthirsty God. The
shedding of blood is his justice, his holiness, his righteousness. That's the only way. It's necessary
for you that I die because sin demands death. It's necessary
for you that I establish righteousness because righteousness demands
life. It's necessary. He says, for
if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. Now the
Comforter there is the Holy Spirit and it refers to his work of
the new birth. In other words, if Christ didn't
die, there's no spiritual life to apply. And there's no need
for the Holy Spirit to come. Again, sin demands death. If sin is not paid for and put
away by the blood of the cross, there's nothing but death for
any of us. If righteousness is not established,
there's no life for any of us. You see, the reason the Holy
Spirit has a work to do in applying spiritual life to his people
is because Christ died, was buried, and rose again the third day. So he says, if I don't do this
work, if I don't die, if I'm not resurrected from the dead,
the comforter will not come unto you. But he says, but if I depart,
I will send him unto you. Now look at verse eight, when
he has come, he will reprove. Now that word reprove, I told
you the word conviction itself, the word convict is in the scripture,
convicted. The word conviction is not, but
this is the same thing, reprove. If you look in your concordance,
it might say convince. He will convince the world of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now the world there
is not referring to every individual without exception. It couldn't.
There are some people who believe that this is talking about the
end time when Christ comes the second time and brings his enemies. He gathers his church unto himself
unto glory. But then he brings his enemies
to their knees to submit to him. And they say, well, he's talking
about that time, because that's when the world is going to be
convinced of what they rejected. Every knee is going to bow, every
tongue is going to confess. But that's not what he's talking
about. And the reason I know that is because of verse seven.
He said, I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. That's
the advocate, that's the Holy Spirit in his work of advocacy,
his work of being a comforter to bring his people to salvation. In the end, every enemies will
bow, but there'll be no comfort there. You die in your sins. So here's
what he's gonna do. Now, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna
give you a brief definition of these three things, and then
I'm gonna come back next week and I'm gonna preach a message
on the first one, then the week after that on the second one,
on the third one. But here's what he's gonna do. And if I had to,
I told Randy one time, I said, if I had to go to a verse of
scripture, and there are several that say what a Christian must
know, this is one I would certainly consider. He's gonna convince
you of this, verse nine, of sin. Not just that I'm a sinner, not
just that I've made mistakes, not that I'm not perfect, but
of sin because they believe not on me. In other words, to be
a Christian, to claim to be, you've got to know something
about this matter of sin in light of your relationship with Jesus
Christ. Some commentators say, well, he's got to convince you
of the sin of unbelief. Well, that's included. But here's
what it means. The Holy Spirit, when he convicts
a sinner of sin, he brings that sinner to know this, and listen
to what I'm saying. Without Jesus Christ, without
being washed in his blood, without being clothed in his righteousness
imputed, All I am before God is sin, and all I do before God
is nothing but sin. That's right. Without Christ, I am nothing
in God's sight. Unless I stand before God in
Christ, evidenced by believing in Him, you're looking at nothing
but sin. And that includes even at my
best. That's right. You say, well,
I can't believe that. You haven't been convinced yet.
You haven't been convicted. You may never. I hope, I pray
for you. But that's what it says. Man at his best state is altogether
what? Vanity. That's what the Bible
says. All my religion without Christ,
without being washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
without believing in him, all my religion, all my efforts to
do good in the sight of men, all before God is nothing but
sin and deserves nothing but death. That's why David said,
Lord, if thou, Lord, marketh iniquity, who will stand? All right, the second one, verse
10. of righteousness because I go to my father and you see
me no more." We know something of the truth
and reality of righteousness if God the Holy Spirit has convicted
us. What does that mean? He says
it's righteousness Not just some sense of right and wrong, not
just morality, but righteousness, look at it, it says, because
I go to my Father and you see me no more. Now how is Christ
going to the Father? He will go to the Father as the
one who put away sin and established the only righteousness. that
enables God to be just and justified. This is Christ alone, His established
righteousness. He's my only righteousness before
God. I'm accepted before God in Him
and not by anything done by me or in me. It's all Christ. And then verse 11, of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged. Now I'm gonna say
a lot about that in the message of this, that I deal with this. But we know something about the
reality of judgment. Now he's not talking about just
the fact that there is a judgment. A lot of people believe that.
But he talks about the prince of this world, that's Satan.
And what is the power of Satan over men? Well, let me just summarize
it like this. It's his power to accuse. He's
called the accuser of the brethren. The problem is that without Christ,
without being washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness,
the accusations that Satan hurls at me stick. And then I'll be judged before
God because I'm a sinner. I have sin charged to my account.
But if I'm in Christ, guess what? Satan's accusations do not stick. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
has risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession. You see, before God, I have a
righteousness that will stand the test of final judgment. And Satan's accusations, and
your accusations, and even the accusations of my own conscience
cannot stick to me. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord charges not with sin. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord charges righteousness without worth. My only hope at judgment
is to stand before God in Christ Jesus. That's what that's talking
about. And I'll show you that from the
scripture when we go over that.