John chapter 16. Now, tonight, we're going to
observe the Lord's table together, and I'm going to be speaking
on the subject of propitiation. That's a biblical word, propitiation. What does it mean? And this is
going to be a very foundational message. You know, the most important message I've
ever preached is this one this morning. And tonight, I'm going
to say the most important message I've ever preached is tonight.
I better feel that way about every message I preach. If I
don't have that attitude, I've got a wrong attitude. But I feel
like the message tonight is one of those foundational messages
on propitiation, and we'll observe the Lord's table together. I've
entitled this message, Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment. Verse eight, and
when he has come, God, the Holy Spirit, he shall reprove the
world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now, when a
man is convicted or convinced by God, the Holy Spirit, not
simply persuaded by a man, or taught by a man, but taught of
God, convicted by God the Holy Spirit. He's convicted of these
three things, sin, righteousness, and judgment. Now, there is a
conviction of the natural conscience that makes men feel guilty, but
it doesn't bring them to Christ. Look back in John chapter 8. This is after our Lord said,
He that's without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at
her. Remember, when the woman taken
in adultery is brought before the Lord. And we read in verse
9, And they which heard, being convicted by their own conscience,
went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the
last. Now, they had a type of conviction.
conviction of their own conscience, but it didn't bring them to Christ,
it made them leave Christ. And you know, a guilty conscience,
it's rough. It's rough. It makes you feel
bad. But you know, there's some people who almost feel like there's
something cleansing in a guilty conscience. They actually feel
better about themselves if they can just feel guilty. And they
like to even say to the preacher, boy, you stepped on my toes this
morning. Almost like there's some kind of cleansing in that.
Now that's not the conscience, the conviction that the Lord
is speaking about in this passage of scripture. This reproof or
conviction of spoken here, I believe is the conviction that one experiences
when God saves them. Let me show you that in the scripture.
Turn to first Corinthians chapter 14. Verse 24. But if all prophesy, and there
come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced,
he is convicted, that's the word, same word reproved. He is convinced
of all, he's judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart
made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship
God. Now, only a believer worships
God. There's no unbeliever that's ever worshiped the living God.
Only a true believer worships God. That's why when I say, come
hear the gospel, I don't say, come worship with us. If God
reveals himself to us, we will worship. But this is not something
like, come on, worship with us. It's like, it takes the spirit
of God to worship. There's no worship apart from
the spirit of God. And this man hearing the gospel, hearing the
prophet, he was convinced, he was convicted, he fell down and
worshiped God. Now this is the kind of conviction
that we're talking about, or what the Lord's talking about,
a conviction of the Holy Spirit when somebody is made to actually
worship. Now this is what I pray for this
morning, that the Spirit of God will come down in our midst and
convince us of these three things, of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Now look in verse seven of our
text in John chapter 16. Now the Lord is speaking to His
disciples and He's told them that He's going to lead them.
And sorrow has filled their hearts. He says in verse 6, but because
I've said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
They didn't really understand clearly what was going on. Verse
7, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you,
it's necessary for you, it's beneficial for you that I go
away. For if I go not away, will not come unto you, but if
I depart, I will send him unto you." God, the Holy Spirit. And
this was fully realized on Pentecost. Remember when Peter preached
and all those people were convicted, their hearts pricked them and
they heard the gospel. This was fully realized on the day of
Pentecost. That's what he's talking about when he says, I'll send
him unto you, verse eight. And when he is come, he will
reprove. He will convince, He will convict,
He will overwhelmingly convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. Now, He's going to come and reprove
or convict or convince the world of sin. Now, the first thing
that comes to my mind is, what's He talking about when He's talking
about the world? Well, here's the best way to answer that.
He's talking about the same world that God so loved that he gave
his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. For God sent his son not to condemn
the world. The world was condemned already,
but he sent his son that the world through him might be saved.
It's the same world of which Christ is called in first John
4, 14, the savior of the world. It's the same world that was
spoken of by John the Baptist when he talked about the Lord
Jesus Christ and he said, behold, the lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. That's the world he's speaking
of. Now, I think it's interesting to notice that not one time in
all of the word of God, when the word world is used, it's
a reference to all men without exception. but it means what
it means. Hey, he'll convince the world. The world is the world. Whoever
that world is that God so loved that he gave his only begotten
son that everybody who believes will be saved. That's the world
he's speaking of. Now, when he has come, he will convince, he
will overwhelmingly convict the world of these three things of
sin, of righteousness and judgment. Now that word Reproved means
overwhelmingly convinced. And it has the idea and carries
with it the idea of putting somebody to shame. To where they're ashamed
of themselves. And you know, God promises this
when He gives a new heart. Listen to this scripture from
Ezekiel chapter 36. Then shall you remember your
own evil ways. This is after I give you this
new heart. Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings
that were not good and you shall loathe yourselves in your own
sight. for your iniquities and your
abominations. You see, this is a promise of
the new covenant of grace. This is what's going to happen
to somebody when God reveals Himself to them. They're going
to loathe themselves because of sin. You're going to have
some understanding of righteousness and some understanding of judgment.
Now, this threefold conviction takes place when the Spirit of
God convinces us. We're overwhelmingly convinced
of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. And we're not left
to speculate as to what the savior meant by these three, these three
things, because he tells us in verses nine through 11, look
with me of sin, because they believe not on me of righteousness,
because I go to my father and you see me no more of judgment
because the Prince of this world is judged. Now, if God the Holy
Spirit comes into my heart and does a work of grace in me, here's
what he's going to convince me of. And I'm going to be overwhelmingly
convinced. This is not, I'm not going to
be tottering back and forth. I'm going to be overwhelmingly
convinced regarding these three things, sin, righteousness, and
judgment. And sin, notice what he says. Sin because they believe not
on me. Now, there are people who have
very tender consciences. And any act of disobedience,
any breaking of God's law would make them feel very guilty and
it would trouble them very much. And that's good, I suppose. I
know it's good. And I'd a whole lot rather have
somebody with a tender conscience than somebody that doesn't have
a conscience. You've been around people like that who seemingly
don't have a conscience. Nothing bothers them. They can
act in wicked ways and it just doesn't bother them. And then
you've seen people who are tender. Now, I like that, but you know,
you can have this tender conscience and not have the conviction of
the Holy Spirit. Just because you have a tender
conscience and you feel guilty when you do something wrong,
when you disobey one of God's commandments, that doesn't mean
you've ever experienced the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You can have
all that and be a stranger to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Now, when the Holy Spirit convinces you of sin, here's what you're
convinced of. Listen to me, look what it says.
Of sin because they believe not on me. When the Holy Spirit convinces
you of sin, he convinces you of this. You do not believe on
Christ. You are convinced of the fact
that you are an unbeliever. You might not have known this
before, but when God the Holy Spirit does a work of grace in
a man's heart, here's what he finds out. He finds out he is
an unbeliever. Question. Have you ever been
lost? Have you ever been an unbeliever. Now, I realize some people can
see clearly the time when they were lost and the time when the
Savior found them. They see that. There are others
who have more difficulty knowing the time. I mean, I don't know
when I was saved. I can't tell you the moment.
I can't tell you the hour. I'm not sure when it took place.
But there are those who have always been saved in their own
experiences, so they think. They've never been lost. There's
never been a time when they did not believe. Unbelief has never
been a problem with them. But when the Holy Spirit convicts
you of sin, you find out you're an unbeliever. You find out that
faith is beyond your grasp. You don't even know what faith
is. You hear the preacher talk about faith, but you don't even
have a concept of what it is, and you know that. You find out
you're an unbeliever, and faith is just beyond you. You hear
the preacher say, believe, and you say, okay, but what's that
mean? What does it mean to believe? You find out faith is beyond
your grasp. You don't even know what it is.
In other words, you find out you're a sinner. That's what
you find out when God the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin. You
find out you are a sinner. Now, what is a sinner? Well,
what's the Bible mean by the word? Now, if God the Holy Spirit
convicts you, you'll be overwhelmingly convinced of this. You find out
that you're a sinner. Now, what's a sinner? Well, it's
the fellow who commits the sin, isn't it? God doesn't send sins to hell. He sends the people who committed
the sins to hell. The sinner is the one who commits the sin.
What is a sinner? A sinner is somebody who all
they, now you listen real carefully. A sinner is somebody who all
they do is sin. That's it. in their experience,
if I breathe, it's sin because it was me doing it. That's what
happens when you find out you're a sinner. You find out that all
you do is sin. You find out you cannot not sin. You can't, I'm
going to go with this time without sin. No, you can't do that. You
find out if you're involved in the equation, it's sin. You know,
when you find out you're a sinner, you can't look down your nose
at anybody. You can't look down your nose at moral superiority
over, I don't care if it's Hitler. You can't look down on him. Not
if you believe you're a sinner. You know that you have no claims
on God. He can send you to hell and holy
and just and righteous is His name. That's what happens when
God the Holy Spirit convicts you. You find out you are a sinner
and you're made to see that unbelief is your great crime and faith
is impossible for you. You don't even know what it means.
You know, there isn't anybody, listen to me, there isn't anybody
that God's ever taught that believes in free will. Not a one of them. If you believe in free will,
God's never taught you. Because if God has taught you, you know
that in and of yourself, you're nothing but sin and that you
cannot even believe. In other words, you're taught
something about inability. Inability. You know, a man has
never believed until he's found out he can't. It's beyond his
grasp. Faith isn't something you just
decide to start doing one day. Faith is the gift of God. And
when you're convinced of sin, you're made to know that. Faith,
the simplest thing, believing the gospel is beyond something
that you can do. Now, as long as you believe in
any ability that you have, as long as you have the ability
even to believe, You've never been convicted by the Holy Spirit.
But when He convinces you of sin, He convinces you that unbelief
is your crime. Do not believe God. You know,
a lot of folks, they don't look at unbelief as a crime. They
think, well, there's worse things. I mean, adultery is worse, isn't
it? Or murdering somebody is worse. But when you find out
who God is, you see unbelief as your greatest crime, this
failure to believe God, this failure to believe the gospel.
You find out you're an unbeliever. Now, I ask again, have you ever
been lost? Have you ever been a sinner?
Have you ever found out that you can't even believe? That
you're in the hands of a sovereign God and He can do with you whatever
He's pleased to do? Have you ever been convicted
of sin? Now, if you've been convicted
of sin, you're convicted of this thing of unbelief. And only when
I'm convicted of this, am I ready to believe. That's an oxymoron, isn't it?
But it's still true. You haven't began to believe.
until you find out that you can't. I tell you what, when you find
out you can't believe, that's when you start asking for mercy. That's
when you start asking the Lord to do something for you. You
know it's out of your hands. You know it's not something you
have control over. God's got to do something for you. When
He has come, He will convince the world Sin of sin because
they believe not on me and look what he says in verse 8 and when
he's come he'll reprove the world of sin secondly and of Righteousness
and he tells us what he means by that in verse 10 of righteousness
Because I go to my father and you see me no more now When you're
convinced of sin, here's the next thing you're convinced of
you're convinced of righteousness And he tells us exactly what
he means by that. When he's talking about righteousness,
he's not talking about, well, I need to start living right.
I need to straighten up and fly right. I need to start ordering
my life right. Well, you ought to order your
life right, but that's not what he's talking about. He says of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more, you become
convinced that He is righteous. Righteousness. And the only righteousness
there is, is Him. And when He goes to the Father,
righteousness goes to the Father. That's your righteousness before
God. You become convinced of that. In Romans chapter 1, verses
16 and 17, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. For it,
the Gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. to the Jew first and also to
the Greek, for therein in the gospel is the righteousness of
God revealed." Now, when God the Holy Spirit teaches a man,
He teaches them something about righteousness. Now, would you
turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Verse 1. Paul says, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Now there's two comments I'd
like to make on that verse of scripture. First, Paul wanted these people
to be saved. He wasn't indifferent about their salvation. He said,
my heart's desire. And my prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. He didn't have some apathetic
view toward these people. But the second thing I see about
these people is they were not saved. And these people he's
talking about, they were not saved. They didn't know the living
God. They'd never believed the gospel.
They were not saved. That's clear from that, isn't
it? Look at verse two. He says, I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. He's saying, I'm not saying these
people are not religious. They're very religious. They have a zeal
for God. They even claim to worship the
God of the Bible, the God of the Old Testament Scriptures.
They have a zeal for God. They're passionate about what
they believe. They have a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. Verse 3, 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. Now let's camp there for just
a moment. It says they're ignorant of God's righteousness. They're ignorant of his essential
righteousness, his righteous, holy character. They wouldn't
believe the stuff they did if they had any understanding of
God's essential righteousness. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of thy throne, and they're ignorant of that. They're
ignorant of His law. You know, what is righteousness?
It's a perfect standing before God's law. And they're completely
ignorant of God's law, not in the sense they don't know all
the Ten Commandments. They can name them back and forth. But if you
think you can keep one commandment You demonstrate that you're completely
ignorant of God's righteousness, the righteousness of His law.
If you think you can keep a commandment, you have no idea what God's law
means. You're clueless. These people are ignorant of
God's righteous character. They're ignorant of the righteousness
in the law. They prove that by thinking they can keep it. And
you're ignorant, he says, these people are ignorant of God's
righteousness in their damnation. And this is very important. People
object to the gospel. They hear how, say, God elected
the people, but they say, well, how can that be fair for him
to choose some and pass by others? Or how can it be fair for Jesus
Christ to die only for the elect and not die for everybody? How
can that be fair? Now, when I have that kind of
objection, all I say by that is I'm ignorant of God's righteousness
and my damnation, because God would be totally fair if he saved
everybody but me. Do you believe that? If God passed
you by and let you go to hell, would there be any injustice
on his part? No. He's righteous in all that he
does. He'd be righteousness in my damnation.
But here's something else. They're ignorant of his righteousness
in salvation. You see, there is a righteousness,
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's my righteousness before
God. My personal righteousness, if I'm a believer, is the righteousness,
the law-keeping, the perfect merits of Jesus Christ charged
to my account, imputed to me by God Himself. That's my righteousness
before God. Now these people, they're zealous,
they're religious, But they're ignorant of God's righteousness. They're ignorant of His character.
They're ignorant of His law. They're ignorant of His righteousness
and their damnation. And they're ignorant of His righteousness
and their salvation. You see, if God saves me, righteous
is He. Now let's go on reading. Verse
4. For Christ is the end, the goal,
the consummation, the termination. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. You see, when you fail to submit to the
righteousness of God, you fail to submit to everything he says
regarding himself and the gospel. But when God saves you, He teaches
you that Christ Himself is the end of the law for righteousness.
You really believe that. You rejoice in that. You find
comfort in that. It's the gospel. Christ Himself
is the end of the law for righteousness. Now, verse 4, to everyone that
believeth. Now, he's going to Give more
of a description of what it is to believe. Looking in verse
five now for Moses. Describes the righteousness,
which is of the law. Talking about the 10 commandments
of moral law, the civil law, the ceremonial law. They're all
one for Moses described with the righteousness, which is of
the law, that the man, which do it, those things shall live
by them. And here's what the righteousness
of the law, the first covenant requires doing it. keeping God's law perfectly. And that's what God requires.
Doing it. It's not, it's not the man who
knows the commandments. It's the man who does the commandments
that's clean before God. That's what the law requires. Verse six, but the righteousness,
which is a faith speaketh on this wise. And first
it tells us what not to say in our heart. I think it's interesting. A lot of times the positive truth
begins with a negative. Tells us what not to believe,
what not to say in your heart. Just strike this from your vocabulary,
strike this from your thinking. He says, the righteousness of
faith, which is faith speaketh on this wise, say not in your
heart, who shall ascend into heaven, that is bring Christ
down from above or who shall descend into the deep, that is
to bring up Christ again from the dead. Now this is very simple
what this means. Don't say in your heart, what can I do to
get Christ to save me? Don't say in your heart, what
can I do to make what he did work for me? Don't say that kind
of foolishness. Don't say, what can I do to get
him to come down here and save me? That works. If there's something
you can do to get him to respond to you, to save you, that's salvation
by works. Don't say in your heart, what
can I do to make his blood work for me? That's what most people
believe. They believe Jesus Christ died for everybody. He made salvation
available for everybody, but there's something you need to
do in order to make his work apply to you. He says, quit saying
that stuff. It's wrong. It's salvation by
works. Verse eight, what does it say? But what sayeth it? The
word is nigh thee. Even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that is the word of faith, which we preach. It's right here.
It's right here. All this, this ought to make
everybody so excited. It's right here in your heart
right now. That's what he's saying. And what is it? That if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. Now it doesn't say believe you're
saved. Most folks think salvation is believing you're saved. It
doesn't have anything to do with it. It's believing He's the Savior. It's confessing the Lord Jesus. You confess that He is Lord. You know what that means? You
believe the Sovereign Christ. You believe He's in control of
everything. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who is in absolute
control. Can you confess that? Do you
believe that about Him? You believe you're in His hands. You know,
I can't stand to hear people say, won't you accept Jesus as
your personal Lord and Savior? You don't accept Him. He's Lord
whether you, doesn't matter what you believe, He's still the Lord
and accept Him. The question is not, will you
accept Him? Will He accept you? That's the question. the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we believe in our heart,
he says, that God raised him from the dead. That doesn't simply
mean you believe in the facts of the resurrection. You really
believe in your heart that when God raised him from the dead,
he did so because he was accepted what he did and he was satisfied
with what he did. He actually made payment for
sin. Everybody he died for must be saved. And God raised him
from the dead because God was satisfied with what he did. You
believe that in your heart? Look what he says next in verse
10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. There is
that righteousness he is speaking of. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. Now, what does he mean with the
heart man believeth? You know, somebody says, well,
I'm afraid I believe in my head, but I don't believe in my heart.
I realize people have that fear. And I've heard that before, too.
But what is meant by the heart in the Bible? Is it just some
kind of ooey-gooey nebulous, you can't figure? No, the heart
is the understanding. The heart is the affections.
The heart is the will. It's the whole man with the heart,
not just with the head, That's reformed theology. Not just with
the will, that's free willism. Not just with the emotions or
affections, that's charismatic stuff. False religion always
emphasizes one of those things and not the whole thing. With
the heart, that means with my mind, I understand that Jesus
Christ, His perfect obedience is the only righteousness I have.
You understand that? And not only do I understand
it, my heart, I'm glad it's that
way. I'm thankful. It makes me happy. I am happy that Jesus Christ
is my righteousness before God. I'm happy that He's my life before
God. And where's the will come in?
Well, you give me the choice. Would you rather be saved by
your righteousness or Christ's righteousness? Which one would
you choose? That's a no brainer to me. I choose being saved by
the righteousness and merits of Christ with the heart. With
the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. And you know what?
What's in your heart's gonna come out in your mouth. With
the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Verse 11, for
the scripture saith, and for the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. He won't be ashamed
of the gospel. He won't be put to shame. For there's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now, I really believe
with my heart. That's my understanding, my affections,
and my will. I believe that He is my righteousness
before God. Now go back to our text. When
you're convinced of sin, you're convinced, I'm an unbeliever.
I can't even believe. I'm a sinner is what that means.
You're convinced of your own inability, your inability to
save yourself. And only when you're convinced
of your inability to save yourself will this make any connection
with you. You're convinced of righteousness. You're convinced
that His righteousness is the only righteousness. Like David
said in Psalm 71 and 16, I've made mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only. You're convinced that his righteousness
is your righteousness before God. I look back our text in
John 16, look at this third thing. He says in verse eight, and when
he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. And he tells us what he means
by that in verse 11 of judgment, because the Prince of this world
is judged. Not he will be judged sometime
in the future. He's been judged. Now the word
judgment means a passing of a sentence in a court of law. Now in the
court of heaven, the sentence has already taken place. Judgment
has already taken place. It's already a completed act.
And it can't be altered in any way. Now, when someone is convinced
by the Holy Spirit, they believe that judgment has already taken
place on the cross. The reason they don't fear the
judgment to come is because they believe judgment has already
been on the cross of Calvary. When the Holy Spirit convinces
somebody they believe judgment took place on the cross, Satan
was defeated. You believe that? Satan was defeated. He's already been defeated. You
believe that every unbeliever was condemned and you believe
that every believer was justified. Turn with me to Romans chapter
eight for a moment. It's hard to preach the gospel
and not refer to this passage of Scripture. Verse 31, What shall we then say to these
things, if God be for us? Who can be against us? He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely, with no cause in us. Give us
all things. You see, the very justice of
God demands it. The righteousness of God demands
it. You don't have any sin if He was delivered up for you.
Verse 33, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. You know who justified me? It
wasn't me. It was God. And if God justified
me, you know what? I am justified. You know what
that means? I have no guilt. I have no guilt. I am perfect before God. If God justified me, I am justified. Let's go on reading. Verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? You know, my own conscience condemns
me. The law of God condemns me. If
you know anything about me, you can condemn me. Stay around me
for 24 hours and you'll come up with all kinds of things.
But yet what does the Bible say? There's only one answer that's
needed. It is Christ that died. I was listening to Phil preach
this week on a message and he made a statement that I love
so much. He said, Jesus is not like God. Jesus is God. It's Christ that died, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if he died for you, your sins are gone. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God to let God judge? Who is
he that can condemn it's Christ that died? Yea, rather that's
risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us. You see, a believer trusts a
finished salvation. The reason I do not fear judgment
day is the sentence has already been read. I'm not waiting to
find out what's going to happen. I'm not waiting to find out whether
or not I'll be condemned or justified. I've been justified. Therefore,
the sentence has already taken place. That's why I can look
to judgment day without fear. I trust a finished salvation. When Christ was raised from the
dead, I was justified. We trust something that someone
and something that's already been done. It's historical. It's
not something about something that will happen. It's something
that's already happened. Now, why does he emphasize the
devil here? of judgment because the prince of this world, the
devil is called the God of this world. He's got the, he's called
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works
in the children of disobedience. There's a lot of that Satan,
Lucifer. Yet he says regarding this being the devil, he says
he's already been judged. He's already been defeated. Now
why the emphasis on this? I love to think about this. When
Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, the devil thought, I've
won. And he didn't know. He didn't
know that this was nothing more than the fulfillment of the ancient
prophecy. The seed of woman shall crush
the serpent's head. He was crushed at that time. He was defeated at that time
by the mighty victor, the Lord Jesus Christ. The prince of this
world has been judged. Now there's one final thought
I want to leave you with. Talking about the coming of the Holy
Spirit. He'll come to convince the world
of sin. He'll come to convince the world of righteousness. He'll
come to convince the world of judgment. Here's the thought
I want to leave you with. What is he called in this character
in the scriptures? He's called the Comforter. The Comforter. Now, when I am
convinced of sin, this is mysterious, I'm comforted. What's comforting about that?
Do you know it's real easy to trust Jesus Christ as your righteousness
when you don't have any? It's simple. Easy. Comforting. I know not to look to myself
for a thing. I mean, well, isn't it a blessing when you know not
to look to yourself for a thing? You look holy to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's a comfort, isn't it? The comforter convinces of righteousness. It so much comforts me to know
that Jesus Christ is my righteousness before God. You want to know all about me?
I'll put everything up about me on screen so all can see it.
My innermost thoughts. Would you really? Yeah, because
Christ is my righteousness before God. That's the real me. That's
the real me. I find that comforting. And oh,
how comforting I find it. that the Prince of this world
has been judged, that all judgment has already taken place, that
there is now, right now, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And faith
in Christ is walking in the Spirit. Works is walking in the flesh. When He has come, He will convince
the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment. And it's my prayer
that He will come even now in our midst and convince everybody
in this room of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Let's pray together.