Our subject today is the spirit
of truth. I'm going to be reading from
a very familiar passage of scripture, found in John chapter 16. I'll
be speaking, the Lord willing, from the first 15 verses. I would
like very much if you'd take your Bible and follow as I read
and comment on these verses. It would be so helpful. I think
you'd get more out of the message if you do that. I urge our folks
at home, they all bring their Bibles with them and sit with
them open and I speak verse by verse, phrase by phrase. And these words in John chapter
16 are among the last words that our Lord left with his disciples
before he went to the cross and died for our sins and ascended
back to the Father. And he says here in verse 1,
John, actually chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16 are the last, the
final words of our Lord to the apostles as he instructs them
how God will use them and what to expect and what will take
place in their ministry and so forth. He instructs his disciples.
And here in verse 1, he says, these things have I spoken unto
you that you should not be discouraged and stumble. Because, verse 2,
the religious leaders will put you out of the synagogue. They
will despise your message and despise your gospel, and they'll
put you out of the synagogue. And in verse 2, he says, and
the time will come when men will have such hatred for this gospel
of grace and the gospel of a crucified, buried, risen Lord and redemption
by his blood, that these religious leaders will put you to death. They'll put believers to death
in the name of God, thinking that they'll do God a service.
They'll put the disciples, and actually all of the disciples,
except one, were put to death. They were all martyred, every
one of them except John. And the beloved John was exiled
to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote the book of Revelation. God gave him the revelation of
Jesus Christ. But all the rest of them were
put to death in the name of religion, in the name of God. And that's
what he's telling them here. They'll put you to death in the
name of God, thinking they're doing God a service. And verse
3, he says, listen, these things will they do to you because they
do not know the Father and they do not know me. Nobody persecutes
a believer who knows God. That's right. No one persecutes
a believer. in the gospel of grace who knows
God or loves God or knows Jesus Christ. But these things will
they do unto you because they do not know the Father and do
not know me. And these things have I told
you that when they come to pass you may remember that I told
you about them. Now look at verse 5. Now I go
my way to him that sent me. Our Lord's gone to the cross,
to the tomb, rise from the grave and ascend back to the Father.
I go to the cross, he says, to atone for your sins. I die that
you might have eternal life, to put away your transgressions.
I go to the grave as your scapegoat. I rise again as your justifier,
that God may be just and justify the believer. I go to heaven,
to the most holy place, the secret place of the Most High, as your
high priest. as your high priest to intercede
for you. I go to the right hand of the
Father as your mediator." There's one God and one mediator between
God and men, and that's the man, Christ Jesus. I go to Him that
sent me. I go my way to Him that sent
me. And verse 6, "'And because I
say this to you, that I go away to my Father, sorrow hath filled
your heart.' And then our Lord tells them why they shouldn't
be sorrowful that he's leaving. He gives them two reasons. He
says, I've told you I'm going back to the Father. I go my way
to the Father. And because I said this, sorrows
filled your heart. But let not your heart be troubled.
I go to prepare a place for you. Let not your heart be sorrowful.
I go to the cross, to the tomb, and to glory to prepare for you
a place, and you for the place. And when I go, I'll come again
and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may
be also." So don't sorrow. Rejoice. Rejoice. And then he gives a second reason
why they should not be sorrowful at his leaving, going back to
the Father, why they should rejoice. The second reason is in verse
7. He says, nevertheless, I tell you a truth It's expedient. It's necessary for you that I
go away. It's necessary. Because if I
don't go away, the Holy Spirit of God will not come. The Comforter
will not come. If I don't go to the cross and
go back to the Father, the Comforter will not come. Because if I do
not die, there's no gospel to reveal. You see, the Holy Spirit's
ministry is to reveal the gospel, to take the things of Christ
and show them to us. Well, if Christ doesn't die and
go back to the Father, there's no gospel to reveal. If I do
not die, there's no blood to sprinkle. There's no atonement. There's no sacrifice for sin.
The Holy Spirit has no office. He has no purpose. If I do not
die and rise again, there's no salvation to apply. There's no
forgiveness to grant. There's no eternal life to give.
The Son of God must be lifted up. He didn't die as an example. He died as a substitute. He didn't
die as a martyr. He died as a redeemer. If I do
not die, you don't need a comforter because there's no comfort to
give. So these two reasons. He said, I told you these things.
I go my way. My way is the cross and the tomb. and the throne. And I go my way
to prepare a place for you. And if I prepare a place, I'll
come again and receive you. Don't be sorry if there'll be
trouble. And the second reason is it's essential. It's necessary for me to do this.
Because if I do not die on the cross, there's no gospel. There's
no salvation. There's no eternal life. There's
no redemption. But if I go away, I'll send you another comforter,
the Holy Spirit. abide with you forever. And when
the Holy Spirit has come, now watch verse 8, and here's the
ministry of God's Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit has
come, He will convict the world, He will reprove the world of
sin. Now what's the word reprove mean? It means to convince. He'll convince
the world of sin. He'll rebuke, He'll convict He'll
convict the world of three things, of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. Now, my friend's conviction of
sin, I want to look at that for just a moment. He's going to
convince the world of sin. Conviction of sin is essential
to salvation. Before a person comes to the
Savior in faith, seeking mercy, he's got to discover that he
needs a Savior. You see what I'm saying? Before
a person comes to Christ by faith, seeking mercy, he's got to discover
he needs mercy. He needs salvation. He is a sinner.
He's got to be convinced that he's a sinner. Our Lord was eating
with some sinners and publicans and so forth, and the religious
fellows got upset about it. And they asked his disciples
in Matthew chapter 9, they said, why does your master eat with
publicans and sinners? And our Lord knew what they said.
And he replied, he says, the well do not need a doctor, but
those who are sick. And I didn't come to call the
righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance. Now you go learn what that means.
This is a faithful saying, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. And the only people who come
to him in faith and believe on him and are saved by him are
sinners. And that's the first thing they've
got to discover at their center. So the Holy Spirit convinces
men of sin. Before a person seeks the mercy
of the Lord, he's made to see his guilt, his inability. Watch the publican in the temple. He smote on his breast. He wouldn't
lift even his eyes to heaven. But he smote on his breast and
cried, Oh God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He's seeking
mercy. Why? He's a sinner. And I'll
tell you this. If a person misses this Holy
Spirit conviction of sin, he's going to miss repentance. Because
repentance is toward God because of sin. And if he misses repentance,
he's going to miss faith. And if he misses faith, he's
going to miss Christ. If he misses Christ, he's going
to miss eternal life. So the very start of this whole
procedure is to discover I'm a sinner. Christ came to save
sinners. Christ died for the ungodly.
Christ came to seek and to save the lost. And the only people
who seek a Savior are sinners. And that's what the Holy Spirit...
Christ said He'll convince the world of sin. Of sin. Convince them. Convict them.
Reprove them. Reveal it to them that they're
sinners. The Holy Spirit conviction. has to do with these three important
things. I want to look at them. He says, the Holy Spirit, when
He's come, He'll convince the world of sin, because they believe
not on Me, of righteousness, I go to my Father, of judgment,
because the prince of this world is judged. Holy Spirit conviction
is always related to Christ. He'll convince the world of sin,
because they believe not on Me. He'll convince the world of righteousness
because I go to my father. He'll convince the world of judgment
because the prince of this world came to me and found nothing
in me and he was cast out and defeated. The prince of this
world came to Adam and conquered him. He came to Job and broke
him. He came to Peter and embarrassed
him. He came to Christ and he conquered
him. He destroyed his power. He bruised
his head. George Whitefield says this.
Now, if you notice this word, sin, the Holy Spirit will convince
the world of sin. It's singular. It's not S-I-N-S. It's sin. He'll convince the
world of sin. S-I-N-S, sins, are what we do. Sins are what we do in word,
in thought, in deed. It's an action. or what we do. Sin is why we
do it. S-I-N, singular, is our nature. It's what causes us to do it.
It's because our hearts are bad. Why is the water bad? The fountain's
bad. Why are our deeds bad? Our motives
are bad. Why are our actions bad? Our
attitudes are bad. So he's gonna convince the world
of sin, nature, fall, original sin. how we're born, born with
the potential, born with the nature of sin. George Whitefield
said, when a man repents, he repents of three things. He repents
of what he is. He is a sinner by nature. A man
is not a thief because he steals. He was a thief before he ever
stole or he wouldn't have stolen. A man's not a liar because he
lies. He lies because he's a liar.
He's nature. And so when we repent before
God, we repent because of what we are. In sin, my mother conceived
me. I was shaped in iniquity. I was
brought forth speaking lies from the womb. The wicked are strained
from the womb, speaking lies. That's right. He convinces us
of what we are. And then he convinces us of sins,
what we've done. Everybody's embarrassed about
what we've said, what we've done, what we've thought, Just everything
about us. And then thirdly, he convinces
us of what we haven't done. What we are? Sinners. What we've
done? Sinned against God. What we haven't done? We haven't
loved God with all our hearts. We haven't loved our neighbors
ourselves. We haven't prayed. We haven't worshipped God like
we should. We haven't been the example we should have been.
And the whole thing is because of what? Unbelief. Christ said
he'll convince the world of sin because they believe not on me. That's the granddaddy of all
sin. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. But he that believeth not on
the Son hath made God a liar. Because he believes not the record,
the scriptures that God hath given concerning his Son. The
Holy Spirit is coming to convince this world, Christ said, of sin,
of sins, and what we haven't done. And I'll tell you, of our
so-called righteousnesses, without the blood of Christ, they're
filthy rags. The best we've ever done, Isaiah said, is filthy
rags. It takes the blood of Christ
to make them acceptable to God. And he's going to convince the
world of righteousness. Now, I want you to listen to
me here. This righteousness is true holiness. I'm not talking
about pasted on holiness and claimed holiness and boasted
holiness and holiness of piety and holiness outside. And that's
not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about true righteousness,
true holiness. Now, to illustrate this, he's
going to convince the world of righteousness because I go to
my father, Christ said. Now, to illustrate this, I'm
going to take you back to the Garden of Eden. Now, you stay
with me and listen. Adam sinned. Adam sinned and
when he sinned his eyes were open and he felt guilt and shame
and fear because he realized he's naked. Naked before God. Naked before God. That's what
he realized. So what did he do? Number two.
He got some fig leaves and sewed them together and made himself
an apron to cover his nakedness. But it didn't work. It didn't
suffice. It didn't give him any peace.
How do I know that? He ran and hid. He had on his
fig leaf apron, and he covered himself pretty well, but he heard
God coming. And if he'd have been satisfied
with those leaves, he'd have stayed where he was. But he didn't. He wasn't satisfied. It didn't
suffice. And so he ran and hid in the bushes. And then what
happened? Number three, God slew an animal. and made coats of skin to cover
the nakedness of these sinners. Do you see what the Lord is saying?
He'll convince the world of this righteousness business, this
holiness, this true holiness now, not play-like, not put on,
not talking about living above sin or doing better than the
neighbor is. That's like one worm bragging because he's not
like another worm. But listen to what our Lord is
saying here. that he'll convince the world of righteousness because
I die and go back to the Father. Now we're like Adam. We've sinned.
We find it out. We realize we've sinned. It takes
some people a long, long time to realize they're sinners. And
we've realized we're naked. We're naked before God. God's
unhappy with us and dissatisfied with us and we're just sinners. We find it out. That's what we
do first. Second thing, we try to cover
it. We try to cover our guilt. We get religion and we make a
profession of faith and we start going to church and all our works. What we're doing is sowing fig
leaves. We're getting them all fixed up so we can have some
kind of covering. We find out we're sinners, we're
naked, we've drank too much and cussed too much and did all these
things, you know, and wicked. So we're going to straighten
our lives up and get us some fig leaves and cover ourselves
with our works. But it doesn't work. It doesn't
suffice. Not an honest person. It doesn't
suffice. And he knows there's something
missing. He knows there's an emptiness in here. There's no
peace. There's no joy. There's no rest.
And he hears God. And he reads the Word. And he
runs. And he hides. Because he knows
his little profession of faith and his works and his religion
and all these things he's done all these years and professed
to change him and all that, they won't, they don't, they're not
acceptable to God. And then he discovers that God
sent a lamb, just like Adam. Adam found out he's naked and
tried to cover it, it didn't work, and then God took over.
And God slew a lamb, shed its blood, took its skin, and covered
old Adam. And God accepted him and embraced
him. And you and I found out we're sinners and our works won't
work, And then we discover God did send the lamb and he died
on the cross as our representative and he obeyed the law as our
righteousness and almighty God sent Christ to redeem us and
Justify us and now we're covered with his righteousness and we
washed in his blood Here the blood of Christ cleanses us from
all sin and Christ said I go to my father. I Go as your representative
I go as your mediator I go as your high priest and the very
fact that God accepts me on your behalf and seats me at His right
hand means God accepts you and receives you and seats you with
me. And we realize now the reality
and completeness and sufficiency not of our holiness and righteousness
but of His. You see that? The Holy Spirit
will convince us of sin, what we are, what we've done, what
we hadn't done. And then He'll convince us that
we just haven't got any holiness in ourselves, no righteousness.
And all of our attempts to cover ourselves and profess to be what
we're not inside won't work. They make you fool people, but
not God. And we know He's not happy. We're
satisfied with what we do. And He slew a lamb. And with
his righteousness he clothed us, and with his blood he purified
and cleansed us and justified us. And then he's going to convince
the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Now, this first refers to Satan. He's the prince of this world.
He's the prince. Satan is the prince of this world.
He's the prince of the power of the air. But he's defeated. He was defeated at the cross.
The prince of this world is not going to be judged. He's already
judged. That's what it says. He is judged. He is defeated. He is conquered.
His power is gone. The Lord Jesus, he met Christ,
and Christ conquered him and defeated him. Secondly, this
judgment refers to the judgment of believers. He convinces us
of judgment because the prince of this world is judged, and
our sins are put away. Our enemies conquered us. There's
therefore now no judgment to them who are in Christ. Judgment
is put away. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. And we can say with Paul in Romans
8, 33, who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. Satan has nothing to do with
God's people. He's defeated. He's cast out.
God's people belong to the shepherd, the good shepherd, the chief
shepherd. He leads them. They're his people. Nobody can
lay anything to their charge. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather that it is risen
again, who is seated at the right hand of God, whoever lives to
make intercession for us. Thirdly, judgment refers to Satan. He's defeated, cast out. It refers
to the believer. There is no judgment for the
believer. And then it refers to unbelievers. Now listen. Hebrews
9, it's appointed unto men, wants to die. And after this, the judgment. And I told you that all of this
conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit relates to Christ, to
the Lord Jesus. He'll convince them of sin because
they don't believe on me, of righteousness because I go to
my Father, and of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged.
And God is going to judge this world by that man, Christ Jesus. You see, the Father judges no
man, John 5, 22. The Father judgeth no man. He hath committed all judgment
to the Son. That's right. In Acts 17, 31,
listen, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because
he hath appointed a day in which he'll judge the world, not his
church, not his believers, not his sheep, the world. He'll judge
the world in righteousness and holiness, by Jesus Christ, by
that man, Jesus Christ, whom he hath ordained, and hath given
assurance of that fact, in that he raised him from the dead. Our Lord, now what's the minister
of the Holy Spirit? Let me read on a little further,
verse 12 and 13. And our Lord then said to his
disciples, I have many things to say to you, but you can't
bear them now. You can't bear them now. How
be it? And that's so of us. I've been
in the ministry now a long time, almost 50 years. And there's
so many, many, many, many things He hasn't taught me. I haven't
learned. I don't know. Same thing with
you. And He says that to us. I have many things to say to
you. You're not able to bear them now. God has to reveal things
to us in due time, in His time. You don't believe anything unless
you experience it. And you can't experience it unless
He Himself teaches you. That's right. So this Holy Spirit,
He's going to guide you into all truth. The Holy Spirit is
our teacher, and He uses the Word of God. That's how the Lord
teaches us. He guides us into truth in His
Word. There are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. These three are
one. And there are three that bear record on earth, the Spirit,
the Word, and the blood. And God uses the Holy Spirit
to teach us with His Word and by the cross. And then listen,
He will not speak of Himself. What He hears, that shall He
speak. The Holy Spirit is sent by God and He teaches God's children
with God's Word. God's Word. The Holy Spirit doesn't
speak of Himself. Christ used that thing, that
very word applied to Himself as the mediator. He says the
words that I speak are not my words the words of him that sent
me and when the Holy Spirit comes to teach believers He doesn't
teach them of himself. He teaches the Word of God That's
right. He and I speak of himself You're
not speak about himself either, but he won't speak of himself
what he hears That's what he speaks and he'll take the things
of God and show them to you now. What's this verse 14? The Holy
Spirit shall glorify me." The Holy Spirit never calls attention
to himself, not to his gifts. He doesn't call attention to
the preacher. He doesn't call attention to the individual believer
and his antics and emotion. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ. He teaches the truth. He's the
Spirit of truth. He teaches the Word. That's the
textbook, the Word. And he teaches the things of
Christ. He takes the things of and shows them to us. And he
says this, and he'll glorify me, for he shall receive of mine
and show it to you. That's the ministry of the Spirit
of truth. Now I have two messages on this
tape. Jesus Christ is the only King
and the one I just preached, the Spirit of truth. Send two
dollars, we'll mail you both of these messages on one tape.
Until next week, may God bless you. everyone.