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 must
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. And when he is 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
nine, 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.
the conviction of their own conscience that it didn't bring them to
Christ, it made them lose 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 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
I come on worship with. 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, 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 at verse 7 of our text
in John chapter 16. And the Lord is speaking to his
disciples, and he's told them that he's going to leave them.
And sorrow has filled their hearts, he says in verse six, but because
I've said these things unto you, sorrow has filled your heart.
They didn't really understand clearly what was going on. Verse
seven, 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, the comforter
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 8. 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 you're talking about. We talk
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 1 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. 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 in me said 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's shame to where they're ashamed
of themselves. And you know, God promises this
when he gives a new heart. Listen to the 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 things, because he
tells us in verses 9 to 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. 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
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 who doesn't have
a conscience. You've been around people like that who seemingly
don't have a conscience. Nothing bothers them. in wicked
ways and it just doesn't bother them. And then you see 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 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, OK, 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,
convinced 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 commit
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've breathed 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, if you're involved in the equation it's sin. You
know, when you find that 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. To 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 Of sin. Of sin because they believe not
on me. And look what he says in verse
8. And when he is 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 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 every one 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. And 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 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 that
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 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. 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. Now, this is very important. People object to the
gospel. They hear how, say, God elected
a people. 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? 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
and 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. 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 in 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 four, to everyone
that believe it. Now, he's going to give more
of a description of what it is to believe. Look in verse five
now. For Moses, Describes the righteousness which is of the
law. Talking about the Ten Commandments, the moral law, the civil law,
the ceremonial law, they're all one. For Moses described it,
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them. Now, here's what the righteousness
of the law, the first covenant requires. Doing it. Keeping God's law perfectly. Now, that's what God requires.
It's not the man who knows the commandments, it's the man who
does the commandments that's claimed before God. That's what
the law requires. Verse 6, But the righteousness
which is of 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 the 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 salvation
ball 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 say 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? 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 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 it says next in verse
10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. There's that
righteousness he's speaking of. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Now, what's he mean with the
heart man believeth? 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. It affects
my mind. 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 should be 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 is going to come out of your mouth. With the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. Verse 11, for the scripture saith,
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 is 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. And 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. 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 would 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, 16, I've made mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only. You're convinced that his righteousness
is your righteousness before God. Now, 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. And 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
8 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 with a fellow priest 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's elect? God justly. Who is he
that can condemn as Christ the God? 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 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 a 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. It's 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. It is 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.