If you'll turn back with me now
to John chapter 16. I want to try to focus this morning
on verses seven through 15. And I struggle for a title. But here's what this text is
talking about. It's talking about a departure. Christ is about to depart out
of this world. So he's talking here to his disciples
about a departure, and after that departure, an arrival, the
arrival of the Holy Spirit of God. So John chapter 16 is about a
departure and an arrival. Our Lord was preparing his apostles
and his disciples for his death, his burial, and his resurrection. And he who had meant so much
to them was now talking about leaving. And they were upset, to say the
least. These men had left their living,
they'd left their families, they'd left their cities to follow him,
believing that he was the Christ. And they were upset because they
were still ignorant as to who he was. all this time that he'd spent
with them and they were still ignorant of who he was and why
he came and what he came to do. They all truly believed that
he was the Christ, the promised Messiah, but they still held
to their old traditional understandings about the Messiah. They believed
that of the house of David, The scepter shall not depart from
Judah till Shiloh come. So they believed out of the house
of David another king would arise out of Judah. And he would restore all the
sons of Jacob. He would restore Israel under
their former glory. Now that's what they believed
that Christ would do. He's going to be of the stock
of David. He's going to come out of that
family. He's going to come out of that
tribe of Judah. And he's going to be the seed of David. And
he's going to come into this world and men are going to see
him and they're going to promote him and they're going to follow
him and he's going to rise up. And at some point, he's going
to ascend and sit on the throne and he's going to defeat all
their enemies. and established them again as
they were established under David way back yonder in all their
glory. And he delivered that nation
out of bondage and established them forever. And the last thing
in the world for them to consider was this 33-year-old man. When you think about Christ walking
with his disciples, do you picture him at that age or do you picture
him being older than that? I tell you, when I was 33, I
was still a kid. And the last thing, he was in
the prime of his health and the prime of his life, and the last
thing for them to consider was for this 33-year-old man to be
taken by the Romans and crucified as a common criminal. They couldn't even fathom that.
to be made a spectacle before his enemies and be put to shame. And for the promised Messiah
to die was not in their thinking. It didn't enter into their thinking. And for this good man, he went
about doing good. There's none good but God, but
this man did good. Always, continually, never did
anything bad. And for this good man to be whipped
and spat upon and mocked as a common criminal, they just couldn't
comprehend that. And yet his death was the purpose
for his coming. That's why he came. He prayed, Father, if it be possible,
deliver me from this hour, but for this hour came I into the
world. And actually their belief is
not much different from the average religionist today. They believed
in the reformation of man. They believed that this man rising
up from David was going to sit on the throne. He was going to
teach them. He was going to help them. He was going to give them
a hand up. He was going to reestablish them. They were going to follow
him. They believed in the reformation
of man. that man was savable, that he needed help, but he had
potential. Isn't that what people say today? They just needed a little help,
a little motivation, a hand up, so to speak. They needed to be
taught, and here's a teacher. Man could he teach. Never a man
spoke like this man. He was a teacher. They needed inspiration, and
here was the greatest inspiration they'd ever seen. They needed
leadership, and oh, what a leader he was. And though they were taught concerning
the sacrifices and the atonement, yet they still could not conceive
of a substitute and representative to live and die in their room
instead. had no comprehension of that.
And so our Lord begins to prepare them for His death, burial, and
resurrection. And I believe it's the same today,
although men and women today know and believe in the death
and resurrection, yet they're still ignorant of what He accomplished
in His life and death, and what that resurrection really declared,
what it really means. So let's look at John 16 this
morning. Let me point out four or five
things concerning his death and his resurrection. The first thing
I want you to see is that salvation is in the hands of our sovereign
God. Nowhere in this chapter or the
previous chapters does it talk about what man could do for himself. He talks continually to them
about what God's going to do for them and what God sent him
here to do and so on, all through the book of John. The theme of
John is that Christ is the Son of God. That's what John, he
just keeps telling people over and over and over, he's the Son
of God. This is the Son of God. This is God come into the flesh. And all through here, he shows
us that Jesus Christ is God. And in these chapters leading
up to our text, he talks about things prepared for us in his
father's house. Who prepared them? He said, I'm
going into my father's house, and I'm going to prepare a place
for you. There are many mansions there, but I'm going to prepare
a place for you. He talks about his father's planting
of a vineyard And in that vineyard, he put a vine. And then everything
else, according to his purpose, was grafted into that vine. Nothing
gonna come to pass except it be grafted into Christ. Everything's in him, he's the
vine, we're the branches. And if we're not grafted into
him, we can't produce any fruit. We can't do anything. You see
what he's telling us? Salvation's of the Lord. That's
what he's telling them. And he's just telling them in
different means and manners, but that's what he's telling
them. Salvation is of the Lord. And the gist of the preaching
in our day is that salvation is like a house somebody started
and then run out of money, and now you need somebody to buy
it cheap and finish it. The Lord is going to help you.
I thought we were of His making. Salvation is the work of God
and the gift of God and it's not of our works lest any man
should boast. Over and over and over he tells
us it's not of our work. The fact is our Lord said no
man can come to me. Now all those given to me and
my Father are going to come to me, he said. And of those that
come to me, I'm not going to cast them out. They were given
to me by the Father. I came down not to do my will,
but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the will of Him
that sent me, that of all which He has given me, I should lose
nothing. I'm not going to cast them out. They're all going to
come to Him. They're all going to believe on Him. But our Lord said, no man can
come to me except the Father which sent me draw him. You believe that? If so, will
you believe it or not? No man can, that has to do with
ability, right? You're the teacher, that has
to do with ability. May has to do with permission,
can has to do with ability. No man can come to me, Christ
said. He can't do it. He don't have
the ability. He doesn't have the will. He's
not going to come to me except my father draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. And then especially here in our
text, he's not talking about things we must do and things
we must decide and all that kind of Tommy Rock. It's expedient
for you, he said, that I go away. You see where salvation is? It's
in his hands, it ain't in yours, it's in his. If you don't believe, nothing's
gonna change. Nothing's gonna change. But if
he don't go away, everything's gonna change. Because the Comforter
is not gonna come. You see here what he's talking
about? He's talking about salvation in the hands of a sovereign God.
That's what he's talking about. He said, it's expedient for you
that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come to you, but if I depart, I'll send him unto you. Who else
would have the authority to send the sovereign Spirit of God except
Christ, in whom it pleased God that all fullness should dwell?
Now if I go away, he said, and I send to the Father, and I take
my seat at his right hand, I'll send the Comforter, and he'll
come. Most religions today operate
on the assumption that man, that God loves all men and desires
to save all men, and therefore any man can at any time. The
salvation has already been prepared, and it's sitting there on the
shelf, and all you gotta do is grab it. Anytime you want to. Kind of like that sign I seen
in a construction elevator one time. That thing was shaky, man.
Go down that scaffold, shake it around. And there's a little
sign in there that said if the elevator crashes, if it falls,
just before it hits the bottom, jump up. That's what people tell themselves.
It's like whistling in a cemetery. They tell themselves, all I got
to do is just before I die, I'll reach out and grab that salvation.
No, it ain't there for you to grab. has to be given. No man can come to me except
my Father draw him. They operate on the assumption
that God loves everybody. He desires to save everybody.
But the truth is that the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God. The Gospel is preached. I'm preaching
this morning to believers and unbelievers. Am I not? I believe that's a
true statement I can make. I'm preaching this morning to
believers and unbelievers. And unbelievers, he says here,
the natural man, without the assistance of God, without God
helping him in some way, intervening in his life in some way, the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
He's not going to receive the revelation of Christ. He's not
going to receive a new birth. He's not going to receive anything.
He's not going to receive this book as the Word of God. Why? because it's foolishness
to him. Truth is, God doesn't love all
men, nor has he purpose to save all men. And those he's chosen
in Christ, his people, shall be made willing in the day of
his power. And they're going to be made
willing through the revelation of the truth. The gospel is going
to be preached and they're going to receive it. They're going
to say, that's it. That is what this book says. And they're going
to receive it. They're going to be made willing
in the day of his power. Paul told those Thessalonians,
he said, I know your election of God. Boy, I wish I knew mine
like he knew theirs. I know your election of God.
How you know that, Paul? My gospel came not unto you in
word only. My gospel came unto you in power
and in the Holy Ghost. And you turned from your idols.
You submitted to God's servant. You submitted to the Lord. You
submitted to his book. He told the Thessalonians, he
said, God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel. That's why you heard our gospel,
and that's why you believed it. Back in the 10th chapter, John,
the Pharisees got all angry at Christ and said, if you be the
Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you. He said,
you believe not, now listen to this, because you're not of my
sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I give unto them eternal life, and they'll
never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my Father's hand. When Christ was born into this
world, The angel told Mary the message of God and said, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. The good shepherd, Christ said,
giveth his life for the sheep. And all those blessed in time
by the accomplishment and means that God has ordained were blessed
by God from all eternity in his Son, Jesus Christ. That's what God says, and Paul
said, let God be true and never a man a liar. God told Moses, who wanted to
see God's glory, he said, I have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I have compassion on whom I will have compassion. That's
my glory. And Paul used that same scripture
written by Moses, and he says in Romans 9, 16, So then, it's
not of him that willeth, If you're willing, God gave you
that willingness. It's not of your will. It's not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. It's of God that
showeth mercy. God has sovereignly and immutably
purposed to save a people for his glory. And to this end, he
sent his son into the world to live and to die for them. and they'll never perish. Now
there's no such thing, you better get it in your head. And I'm
not asking you to take my word, I'm telling you to read this
book. There's no such thing in this book as the universal love
of God. You won't find it in the book,
it ain't in there. He loves his people. And his
love is not like our love. It's not a passion. God's love
for his people, it can't fail. Paul says, what's going to separate
you from the love of God which is in Christ? He spared not his
own son. How shall he not with him also
freely give you all these other things? He's going to give you
the means to be saved. He's going to give you the sacrifice
to be saved. He's going to give you the righteousness
required to be saved. He's going to give you the willingness
to be saved. He spared not His Son, that's
the greatest thing there is, and Heaven was the Son of God.
He didn't spare that. Now do you think He's going to
spare something else? No, sir. He's going to save everybody
He set out to save. And He sent His Son to die for
them, to live for them, to ascend for them, to rule for them, reign
for them in Heaven, to make intercession for them. And now he said, what's
gonna separate you from the love of God? Huh? Tribulation, distress,
what? What's gonna separate? Things
present, things to come? No, nothing shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Does that sound like what you're
hearing out here in the average pulpit? You won't hear it out
there. I guarantee you won't hear it out there. No such thing as universal love
of God or universal salvation of man. So this is the first thing. This
salvation is in the hands of a sovereign God. And then secondly,
He's going to convince all His elect in this world, all of them. He's going to send the Spirit
of Christ. And when He's come, Very first thing he's going to
do with his people, all his elects, he's going to convince them of
sin. Didn't say sins. It says sin. Our individual transgressions
are our sins. Sin is a nature It's what you
are. It's what you are. I know what you've been told.
You've been told since the time mama was able to pick you up.
This is my little angel. Huh? It's my good baby. But there's none good with God. We walk, the scripture said,
according to the course of this fallen, depraved world. Our walk
is according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
who now worketh in the children of disobedience. What in the world does Satan
have to do with our former walk? Well, it says that he's the father
of all those in false religion. He's the father of them. He's the one who's produced them.
He's the one, he's the original liar. And he still is. And he knows
human nature better than anybody but God. He knows, you ain't
gonna resist him. My soul, not a natural man. You're
not gonna resist him, he'll tie you up in knots. He takes us
captive, the scripture said, at his will. Tells us that antichrist religion
is after his working with all power and signs and lying wonders. And most especially, he says,
by the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that are perishing. He
deceives you into believing that something you did is a righteous
act before God and can win favor with God. Somebody reads in the
Bible about tithing, 10%, a law instituted in the Old Testament. And they set apart a certain
tribe And that tribe was to minister to them of all things of God,
and 10% was required for the support of that tribe. Tithing,
10%. And so they make $100, and this
young man, young woman, get their first job, they make $100, they
reach down there and they get 10, throw it in the offering
plate. That's a righteous act. I kept the law of God. No, you
didn't nearby keep the law of God. Everything in the law of
God requires first the motive. You have to love God with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And also your neighbor, yourself.
And all the rest of the law, he said, hangs on that. So you
can keep all the rest of it. If you broke those, you broke
the whole law. There's no unrighteous. No, not
one. We're incapable of doing anything
righteous. It's the deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that are perishing. To be convinced of sin takes
the power of the Holy Spirit. It takes the powerful working
of Him and this efficacious working of the Spirit of God, the Holy
Ghost. And no man apart from being convinced
by the Holy Spirit of God will own God's testimony concerning
his sin. He's not a murderer. I never
murdered anybody. I'm not a murderer. Oh, yes,
you are. Because murder is in your heart.
Adultery is in your heart. To look on a woman in lust after
her is to commit adultery already in your heart. We're all guilty sinners. But no man, apart from being
convinced by the Holy Spirit of God, will own God's testimony.
This is what God says. We say something different. God
said the poison of ash is under our lips. The venom of a snake,
the fangs tucked back where you can't see them, under our lips. He said the way of truth we've
not known. We are together become unprofitable. That's God's testimony. Man won't
receive that. I'm not that way. Oh yes you
are. So how does God convince? How
does God the Holy Spirit convince us of sin? Well, he tells us
here in our text by our unbelief. There's no sin greater than that.
Unbelief. Unbelief. of all the plain prophecies of
the old prophets telling us about the coming of the Messiah and
all the fulfillment of these prophecies and all the confirmation
of God concerning his son, his whole life foretold, his death
foretold, his resurrection foretold, and all of the preaching by his
apostles and their confirmation of God. God attending their preaching
and attending their persons with signs and wonders and miracles
and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His will, to confirm who they
were, all of these things. We have a book finished, the
whole canon of God. And we deny that, we deny everything
that's been done, we deny the confirmation of God, we deny
all of those things in unbelief. There is no greater evidence
of the indwelling of sin than our unbelief. There's nothing
in Christ to reject. He's altogether wonderful. He's
altogether beautiful. He's altogether wise. He is our
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Why are we rejecting
him? Because we're sinners. And we
don't know it. We don't know it. I tell you,
when he convinces you of sin, all of a sudden, you're incapable
of doing anything. You see yourselves in the hands
of a sovereign God. He could throw you away and be
just for doing it. All of a sudden, you'll find
yourself taking sides with God against yourself. He ought to
send me to hell. I pray that he don't, but he
ought to. I'm worthy. How many gospel sermons have
you children heard in your lifetime? How many? You've lost count. How many passages in the word
of God have you heard me quote? How many worship services have
you attended and yet you still sit there in unbelief? There
is no greater evidence of sin than unbelief. It doesn't cost anything to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, but we won't believe on Him. There's
nothing more glorified. This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom God has sent. But we won't believe on
Him. In Christ is everything that
the sinner needs, but we won't believe on Him. That's sin. Sin. He's not looking to get something
from you. He's the giver of life, the giver
of all things. We're in bondage to our nature,
held there by an invisible chain. We're a servant to it, a product
of it, and we'll die in it if God doesn't intervene. Paul tells
us something about the awful curse of sin over in Romans 7. He tells us in verse 18, for
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. You believe that? Huh? You don't near about believe
that. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. There's nothing there. It's a black hole. It's an empty
bucket. That's sin. He tells us in verse 21 that
he finds a fixed principle in him that when I would do good,
if I ever get the thought of doing something good, when I
would do good, evil's present with me. And the good that I would, I
do not. And the evil that I would not
do, that's what I'm going to do. He's always there, always there. Sin is always there. It always
champions my thoughts. It always takes away the good
that I hear. Everything that I hear, I go
out the door and it's gone in 30 minutes. I can't even remember
what he preached on. And so Paul comes down to the
end of the chapter and he said, oh, wretched man that I am. You ever felt that? Wretched. I ain't always done the right
thing, but I ain't wretched. You will be if the Holy Spirit
of God ever convinces you of sin. Who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? And that's what it is. to which there's just one answer.
I thank God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the second thing. That's what I've been trying
to tell you about. Will you take your place as a sinner? A sinner
by God's definition and not yours? A bankrupt, helpless, practicing
sinner. That's what we are. Well you will if God the Holy
Spirit's pleased to convince you of it. And then I'm gonna
tell you something before I get to this third point. Once he's
convinced you of sin, he'll have to convince you of righteousness.
Oh yes you will, because you're not going to see any possibility
to ever generate a righteousness. There's nothing in me, there's
none righteous. If a man's not righteous, he can't generate
a righteousness. If a man's not good, he can't
please God. The Holy Spirit of God must convince
us of righteousness. What do men call righteousness?
Their obedience to God. It's what they call righteousness.
Their attendance to His commandments. Their gifts that they give. Their
interest in others. Service to the church. Speech
or dress or habits. Their attendance to prayer, worship,
the reading of the Bible. All these things they consider
to be a righteousness. But God says this through his
prophet, you are together, all together, as an unclean thing. And all your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. The old leper, he was commanded
to take a cloth, hold it over his face. Old puss, open sores,
run in, he got this cloth over there, And when he comes up to
you, he has to say, unclean, unclean, unclean. Everybody goes
way out around him. He's not permitted to come to
the worship service. He's not permitted to take part
in anything. He's unclean. All our righteousnesses are as
an unclean thing. God demands from all men a perfect
righteousness. It must be from the heart with
right motives. It must be continual without
any breach. The scripture said, cursed is
everyone who continueth not in all things written in the book
of the law to do. Well, I did this. You did that
that one time. You did this thing that you thought
pleased God. Now, he says here, It must be
continual. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
Well, why do they call these righteousnesses? Because man
looks on the outward countenance, but God looks on the heart. That's
why. So how does the Holy Ghost convince
us of the righteousness of Christ? Well, he tells us here in John
16 of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no
more. I'm going to take what I accomplished.
I'm going to take my obedience and my death and my blood and
I'm going to sin to the Father. He's going to raise me from the
dead. He's gonna send out his angels, they're gonna take me,
and I'm gonna send in the glory victorious, and I'm gonna sit
down at his right hand, and I'm your righteousness. You believe
that? If you believe that, you're a
partaker of his righteousness. I don't have any, I can't generate
one, but he did. And he did it as my representative. And God accepted it and declared
that He accepted it and justified me in His resurrection and ascended
Him into glory. That's my righteousness. His reason for ascending unto
the Father was that we should have a righteousness acceptable
to God. And He sits at God's right hand
interceding for me And people read that word and they think
he's up there saying, now wait a minute, Father. Don't judge
him. You remember I did this? No.
It's his person. It's just his person sitting
there. He's my righteousness. And he
intercedes for me sitting there. He don't have to say a word.
That's my intercession. That's my intercession. Paul says in Romans 3.21, but
now, the righteousness of God without the law, without the
law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and prophets, even
the righteousness of God, which is by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Christ is my righteousness. And
I preach the gospel to men and nothing else, for therein, Paul
said, is the righteousness of God revealed. And then fourthly,
the Holy Ghost will convince you of judgment. But there is
one, no, you already know there is one, He's not gonna convince
you that there is one. Your conscience tells you that
there is one. Well, how's he gonna convince
us of this? Of judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. The prince of this world is no
longer sovereign over the sinner. God's elect, they're sovereign
seated at the right hand of God. And that power that Satan held
over you, that power of your unrighteousness, that power of
your being of no value to redeem yourself, that's been broken.
Been broken. And now he sits at the right
hand of God. The powerful working of the Holy
Spirit, who makes the revelation of Christ effectual in our hearts,
testifies of his victory over Satan. and how he can do nothing
to break the redemptive will of God, nothing. All his elect
have been judged in Christ and their transgressions paid in
full. There is therefore, Romans 8 verse 1, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, none whatsoever,
no judgment. We've already been judged. in
Christ. And then my fifth and final point,
I'm just going to state it and bring this thing to a close. And I've pretty much covered
it all the way through all of these different points. And that
is that salvation is in Christ. It's all together in Christ.
And from the convincing us of sin to the convincing us of judgment. All of these things we learn
through the person and work of Christ. Christ is all. He's all. I'm not trying to start a new
band out here, or a new denomination, or a new belief, or something
mysterious that nobody else has. No, sir. I'm just here trying
to point you to Christ. Believe on Him. Believe on Him,
because in Him is life. He that hath a son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God, whatever else he has, has not
life. Life's in him. Life's in him. All right, thank you.