If you want to follow in your
Bibles, I'll be speaking from John 16. These disciples had a most difficult
task before them. Our Lord had instructed them
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. They were to begin at Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. And they
were to go forth and proclaim the gospel of the crucified Redeemer. Now, just three years prior to
this, all these men were simple fishermen. They had little or
no education. They had little or no influence.
They had no rank or station. Just three years prior to this,
these men were pulling fish out of the Sea of Galilee. Didn't
even know the Lord. There's an interesting scripture
over in the book of Amos. You needn't turn over there.
It may take you a moment to find it, but I'll read it. Amos, if
you take your notes, it's in chapter 7, verse 14. Amos said to Amaziah, I was no
prophet. I wasn't a prophet. I wasn't a prophet's son. My
daddy wasn't a prophet. But he said, I was a herdman,
a shepherd, a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as
I followed the flock. And the Lord said to me, you
go preach to my people Israel. And such was the state of these
men. They were not men of influence
or rank or station. They weren't men brought up in
the religious world. They were fishermen. Not only
that, but these men were Jews. And they were hated and despised
by all men, by all nations. Not only that, but practically
every nation to which Christ was sending them, practically
every nation, to whom they were going to preach, the people were
totally pagan, heathen, worshipers of idols, and knew nothing of
God, had no scriptural foundation at all. Not only that, to make their task even more
difficult, what religion there existed in that day, the religion
that was somewhat akin to God, at least using the name Jehovah,
what religion there was, was nothing but ceremony, ritual,
form, and self-righteousness going under the name of Judaism.
Now they had a tough task. And yet, as I thought about that,
I thought about the task before them and the difficulty of it,
and I thought, well, there isn't a lot of difference today. There's
not a lot of difference today. Most of us recognize our inabilities. I recognize mine as much as any
man here. Our lowliness, our unworthiness
for this task, the Apostle Paul expressed it. so well when he
said, who's sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient? And not only that, but the message
which we bear, this message of grace, this mystery of redemption,
is a message that's despised on every hand. Now don't fool yourself, it is.
You can come preaching anything you want to, but don't preach
a sovereign God. You can just about preach anything
you want to, but don't preach a dead, depraved, and helpless
creature. You can preach any kind of election
you want to, except an election that glorifies God. And I'm telling
you, if you come preaching and presenting a sufficient atonement,
you're in for trouble in this generation. They want an atonement,
but not one that atones. They want a redemption, but not
one that redeems. They want to add something to
it. They want a salvation, but not one that totally saves. As
a preacher I heard in a Sovereign Grace Bible conference this week
said, Christ came and made it possible for God to save us.
Now you hold on a minute. Christ came and made our salvation
dead certain. Dead certain. Now this message
of grace, this perseverance and this effectual call, it's despised
and hated as much today as the message the apostles were delivering
in their day. And this whole world lies in
wickedness. I know men today claim to worship
according to the Bible. But most religion, and I listened
to it a lot this morning on television, I listened to three different
preachers. And I know that today's popular religion is far from
the scriptures. So really the task that face
these men is the same task that faces us today who try to preach.
Here they were, Christ told them to go and preach this gospel.
They were hated men with a hated message. He told them to go to
pagan, heathen nations, to people who were worshipers of idols.
And the foundation of the religion in the cities to which they were
sent and in which they preached, that religion was corrupted,
it was perverted, it was tradition, form, ceremony, and self-righteousness,
and we face the same task today. But not only that, secondly,
these apostles were faced with another major difficulty. They
were about to lose the bodily presence of their Lord. Our Lord
had told them that he would be leading. Now, prior to this,
when they were puzzled by the Pharisees, they just turned to
the Master. You see, when the Pharisees and
Sadducees and scribes would stump them, ask them things they couldn't
answer, demand of them things they couldn't produce, well,
they just turned to the Master, and he'd handle them. And when
they couldn't cast out demons, when demons prevail, they turned
to the Master. And when the storms arose and
the little boat began to rise and fall upon the waves, they
turned to the master. And they said, don't you care
if we perish? And then when the fish didn't bite, they turned
to the master. And he said, cast your net over
on this side. But the master said to them down
here in verse six, look at it. I said these things to you and
sorrow has filled your heart. What did he say? Verse five,
I'm going away. I'm going away. No wonder their
hearts were filled with sorrow. I'll tell you this, I know we're
not supposed to say this, but I'm still going to say it. I'd
give anything today if the Lord would appear in His bodily power
and work a miracle, wouldn't you? I got that much flesh in
me, I would. I tell you, I just, I would,
I'm preaching an invisible God. I'm preaching mysteries men don't
understand, huh? I'm preaching the gospel that
men despise. I'm calling for faith in one
they can't see. And I'll just be honest with
you. My heart says, Lord, show yourself. Unbar your arm. And that's what these men were
faced with. Our Lord told them, go into all the world and preach
the gospel. They knew what they faced. And
not only that, but he told them, after he exhorted them to go
preach, he said, I won't be here. I'm leaving. I'm going back to
the Father. Oh, they were troubled. But he
added a nevertheless. Look at verse 7. Nevertheless.
How be it? It's necessary for you that I
go away. I'll tell you the truth. It's
expedient for you that I go away. Now watch why. I've got a little
light on this. And I'll pass it on to you. It's
necessary for you that I go away. Well, we know it's necessary
for us that Christ bear our sins and pay our sin debt and atone
for our transgression. We know it's necessary for him
to go before the Father as the high priest of old went into
the holy place. Christ, not the holy place made
with hands, but into heaven itself. to appear in the presence of
God for us. We know that our high priest must be seated at
God's right hand to intercede for us. We know that. It's expedient
for us that he go away. If I go not away, he said, but
here's the fourth thing, the Comforter will not come. Now
listen to this. Jesus Christ in the flesh could
only be in one place at a time. That's right. one place at a
time. If Peter, James, and John, and
Paul, and all of them headed in different directions, Barnabas,
and John, Mark, and all the rest of them, our Lord, when the demons
attack, they turn, the Lord's not there. He was with Peter
today. John, he's not here. You're on your own. Paul preaches,
and the Lord is down there with James this Sunday. And the Sadducees
and Pharisees trap him, back him in the corner, and he turns,
and Christ's not there. Christ is with James today. Our
Lord says it's necessary for you that I go away, because when
our Lord came to the earth, and I don't understand these things,
I just know they're so, he limited himself to a human body. Now,
my friends, you must not get yourself in trouble by questioning
his deity. But at the same time, you must
not get yourself in trouble by questioning his humanity. Our
Lord is God, their God of their God. Our Lord is God from the
beginning, the same yesterday, today, and forever. For when
he came to this earth, the word was made F-L-E-S-H, flesh. Now they can argue all they want
to about the impeccability of Christ, whether he could sin
or whether he couldn't sin. I'm not in the mood to argue
about it, because I don't know, and you don't either. But I do
know this. When he hungered, he hungered.
He was a man. And when he thirsted, he thirsted. That was no mock show. And when
our Lord was tried and tempted and tested in all points, as
we are, it says all points. You say, could he have seen?
I'm not up here to argue that, but I'm telling you this, if
the temptation wasn't real, then I don't have a righteousness.
It was a frame-up. But it was real. He was a man. The love he had for his father
was perfect love. The love he had for truth was
perfect love. But our Lord was very man of
very man and very God of very God. He was bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh. When he hurt, he hurt just like
you do. When our Lord wept, he wept the same salty, broken-hearted
tears you weep. When our Lord was besieged by
the forces of evil, he was besieged on a greater scale than you'll
ever know. That's the reason that he could impute to so many
a perfect righteousness, because he was who he is, and his trial
was what it was. Man. Christ was a man, and he
limited himself to a human body. Now his knowledge, he told Nathanael,
I saw you under the fig tree before Peter ever came, but he
wasn't down there at the fig tree in the body. He knew all
things. He knew where the fish were in
the sea, and he knew where to cast the net, and he knew where
the coin was in the fish's mouth. And he knew all things that men
thought, but he was limited to a human body in a given place
at a given time. And he said, if I go not away,
the Holy Spirit won't come. And if the Holy Spirit comes,
then he's the one That's going to be your comforter and your
teacher. And the Holy Spirit can be here and with you, down
the road, out yonder, wherever, because the Holy Spirit is not
in the flesh. He's the Spirit of truth. You
see what I'm saying? Now look at verse 8. And when
he's come, I'll send him to you, and when he's come, The Holy
Spirit. He's going to reprove the world
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Now look down at
verse 12. I have many things to say to
you, and when He has come, the Holy Spirit, you can't bat him
now, but when He has come, verse 13, He'll guide you into truth. He's going to direct you and
lead you and guide you into all truth. Now watch this. He'll
not speak of Himself. Now brethren, you hear a lot
of talk about the Holy Spirit. But I'm here to tell you that
the more a man talks about the Holy Spirit, the less he knows
about the Holy Spirit. Because anyone who has the Spirit
of Truth, that Spirit in him will glorify Christ. Now that's
the truth. The Holy Spirit says he'll not
speak, Christ said the Holy Spirit will not speak of himself. He's
not going to call attention to himself, not going to call attention
to his guilt, he's not going to call attention to his presence.
Whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he'll show
you things to come," now watch it, "...and he'll glorify me."
That's his office work, that's his business, to glorify Christ.
"...and he'll receive of mine, and he'll show it to you." He'll
show you Christ in the covenant. He'll show you Christ in the
prophecies. He'll show you Christ in the
promises. He'll show you Christ in the tithes. He'll show you
Christ in the brazen serpent, and Christ in the tabernacle,
and He'll show you Christ in the cloud, and Christ in the
pillar of fire, and Christ in the rock. He'll show you Christ
in Jacob, and Christ in Joseph, and Christ in Israel, and Christ
in David, and Christ in every type of the Old Testament. And
he'll show you Christ in the flesh, and he'll show you Christ
on the cross, and he'll show you Christ in the tomb, and Christ
risen from the grave. He'll show you Christ at the
right hand of God, for all that the Holy Spirit is given and
intended to do is to lead men to look to Christ, to love Christ,
to trust Christ, to worship Christ, to exalt Christ, and to praise
Christ. That's so. And when he has come,
He'll guide you into truth. He shall not speak of himself,
not his gifts, not his presence, and not how to find him. But
whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, he'll show you
things that are to come, and he'll glorify me." Now, back
to our text. I want to look at verse 8, 9,
10, and 11. All true Holy Spirit conviction
is in relationship to Christ. Here in verse 8, And when he,
the Holy Spirit, is come, he will reprove. Now the word reprove
is used there, and other translations use three other words. They use
the word rebuke, the word convince, and the word convict. I want
to take those three words, that's going to be my outline tonight
and what I'm going to try to present in this message because
I believe it's the truth. I want to look at all three of
these words and show you how the Holy Spirit rebukes the world
in general of sin, righteousness, and judgment. How the Holy Spirit
convinces believers in particular of sin, righteousness, and of
judgment, and how the Holy Spirit convicts or brings in a sentence
of guilt in regard to this matter of sin, righteousness, and judgment
upon all men. Now, first of all, he rebukes
the world, or men in general, of sin. Christ said, watch this,
because they believe not on me. One day, George Whitefield had
preached, and a young man asked if he could have a conference
with him. And Mr. Whitefield said, well, certainly.
I'd be glad to talk with you. So they went back in a room or
study or something and the young man sat down and he took out
his handkerchief and he began to weep. And he said, Mr. Whitfield, he said, I'm a terrible
sinner. And he wept and wept and wept. And Whitfield just
sat there and listened to it. He said, Mr. Whitfield, he said,
my mouth has been a mouth of horrible blasphemy. He said,
I've just taken God's name in vain. I've used the worst kind
of language and blasphemy that your mind can imagine. I've cursed
and swore and blasphemed God on Abraham. And then he wept
some more. And Mr. Whitefield said, is that
all? Oh, he said, no, there's more. He said, Mr. Whitefield,
he said, I've been a terrible drunk. He said, I've just drunk
all types of alcohol. I've been a staggering gutter
drunk. I've just lived a horrible life in the pit of drunkenness."
He said, is that all? Oh, no. He said, Mr. Twickfield,
I've been this. He went on and named some more
sins. He just kept talking. The old
man, that's all he'd say. When he'd get through talking
about some particular type of life that he'd lived, Mr. Twickfield
says, is that all? And finally the young man in
exasperation said, Mr. Whitfield, every time I name
these sins of which I'm so convicted and troubled and over which I
weep, you say, is that all? Why? Is that not enough? Oh, he said, young man, he said,
all these things that you've confessed are bad enough. But
you haven't confessed the greatest sin of all. You haven't confessed
that sin. against which the very canons
of heaven are turned." That sin that provokes God like no other
sin. He said, what is it? He said,
unbelief. Unbelief. The Jews could not
enter into the Promised Land. Why? They built the cave? No. They murmured against God? No. They could not enter in because
of unbelief. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be found in you an evil heart of unbelief. He will rebuke this world of
sin because they believe not on faith. Turn to Hebrews chapter
1 a moment. I want you to see this now. I
tell you, preachers have been minimizing this matter of sin.
They've been so busy cataloging sin that the average person thinks
that the greatest sin on earth is to get drunk. It's pretty
bad. Or the greatest sin on earth
is adultery. It's pretty bad. Or the greatest sin on earth
is something else. But that so-called moral, good-hearted, kind man
over there, a woman, who does not believe God's Word, that's
not too bad. You think in a light thing, a
small thing, to refuse to believe the Son of God? Hebrews chapter
1 verse 1 says, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake
in times past to the fathers by the prophets hath in these
last days spoken to us by his Son. And we don't believe him. The Son has come and we don't
believe him. We've refused to hear him. Look at Hebrews 2, verse 1 again. Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed of the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we let them slip. If the word spoken by angels
were steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompensive reward, how are we going to escape who neglect
so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by our Lord? Turn to 1 John, chapter 5. 1
John 5, verse 10. Listen to this. 1 John 5, verse
10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself, and he that believeth not God
hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son. The Holy Spirit, what our Lord
is saying here, rebukes this world, men in general, everybody
here tonight who's not a believer, is under the greatest condemnation. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. He believes not the Son of God.
All right, look at the second word. He'll rebuke the world
in general of sin, then of righteousness. Now, what is righteousness? What
is holiness? I'm not talking about the essential
holiness of God. I'm not even talking about the
imputed righteousness of Christ. But what is, how does a man know
what is righteousness? How does a man know what is holiness? Well, you say his conscience
tells him. Yes, in a limited fashion, his conscience will
tell it. There's a conscience. God puts a conscience in every
person who's born into this world. We have a conscience. That conscience
depends a whole lot, I'm sure, on the way we're brought up,
and environment, and the age in which we live, and so forth.
So it's very limited. Also, men know what righteousness
is to a degree, to an extent, by the tablets of stone. tables
of stone, the Ten Commandments. Yes, the Ten Commandments can
give you some idea of what righteousness and holiness is, however limited. And then you say, well, preachers
are supposed to tell us. Well, the Pharisees and the Sadducees
back in these days interpreted, they interpreted holiness and
righteousness too. Turn to Matthew 5. But now we've
got a better definition of righteousness than our conscience can tell,
that the tables of stone can tell, or the preacher can tell.
Jesus Christ himself gave us the definition of righteousness.
All right, look at Matthew 5, verse 21. You heard it said by
them of old times. This is what your conscience
tells you, this is what the law tells you, what the prophets
tell you, and what the Pharisees tell you. Thou shalt not kill.
And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
But I say unto you, the Holy Spirit is going to rebuke this
world of righteousness because of Jesus Christ. I'm telling
you the truth. He's the issue. He's the issue. Conscience is not the issue.
Law is not the issue. Preacher is not the issue. Christ.
I say unto you, verse 22, whosoever is angry with his brother without
a cause. Look down at verse 27. You've
heard it said by them of old times, thou shalt not commit
adultery. What is righteousness in reference to adultery? I say
unto you, whosoever looketh and lusteth. Down here, if you will,
in verse 33. You've heard it said by them
of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform
unto the Lord thine oath. I say unto you, swear not at
all. Neither by heaven is God's throne, nor by the earth is his
footstool. The Holy Spirit's going to rebuke this world of
righteousness because I go to my Father. We'll come to that
in a minute, but it's because of Him. The Holy Spirit's going
to rebuke this world of sin because of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit's
going to rebuke this world of righteousness because of Jesus
Christ. And the Holy Spirit's going to rebuke this world of
judgment. Watch this. How do you know God will punish
sin? Well, the world saw it in the garden. God created man in
his own image. There he was in the garden. God
said it's good. All of this that he had made
good. He looked at the heavens, they were good. The earth, it
was good. Man, he was good, and so forth. And then sin came. God didn't patch it up. God didn't
turn it around. The Lord God's judgment and wrath
fell upon it, and he put him under a sentence of death. God
punished sin. God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and he sent a flood. We saw the world
saw judgment at the flood. The world saw judgment on the
plains of Sodom. But where is the world faced
with the reality that Almighty God will punish Satan? More than any other place. Calvary. Who's that on that cross? That's
not Adam. And that's not the crowd in Noah's
day, and that's not the fallen angels, that's the son of his
love. If God spared not his own son,
then the world has been clearly warned, God will punish sin. I say the turning point of human
history, the thing that seals everything that's said before
and after, I say that every son of Adam needs to turn his attention
to one event mainly, and that's the death of God's Son on Calvary's
cross. That's where it's all written.
That's where it's all performed. Let's turn to Acts 17.31. Let
me show you that. Acts 17.31. It's not just an
event in time. It's the event. It's not just
an occurrence. It's the occurrence. It's the
climax of everything that has been and everything that will
be on this earth. Acts 17, look at verse 31. God hath appointed a day in which
he'll judge the world in righteousness by that name, by that name, by
that name whom he hath ordained. Whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he raised him from the dead. God will judge
this world by that. You see what I'm saying? You
say, really, I've never accepted Jesus. Now let me warn you about
something. Whether you ever, what you call,
accept Jesus, you have plenty to do with Jesus Christ. This
whole world has plenty to do. He's the one with whom we have
to do. You say, well, Jesus Christ is the issue in a believer's
life. He's the issue in your life, too. Now, that's so. He said the Holy Spirit's going
to rebuke this world of sin. He's not going to run around
saying, you stole the watermelon, you went to this place, and you
did that because they believed not on me. That's the issue between
you and God. That watermelon is an insignificant,
trivial offense. That day you got drunk and staggered
down the street and cursed God is a trivial, insignificant offense. That's right. I know we make
a lot of it. I know we get the whoop-de-do's
and all this sort of thing and run rededicate because we did
this, that, and the other. That ain't the issue. That's
God's Son you nailed to that cross. And God's going to do
business with us well on the basis of what we did with His
Son. It wasn't the preacher you didn't
believe. It wasn't the sermon you didn't accept. It wasn't
the soul winner you shrugged away. You didn't believe God. He said, this is my son. Hey! You said, I won't. This is my
son. Listen to it. I won't. This is
my son. Bow down. I won't crucify him. And that's the issue. Make it
whatever you want to, do what you want to with it. I'm saying
when the Holy Spirit comes, and every God called preacher is
making it the issue. The rest of them are flirting
around with other insignificant minor details. The rest of them
are Satan's ambassadors to get your mind off the main issue.
They got you fighting abortion to keep you from thinking about
the main issue. Christ and Him crucified. They
got you all up in arms about the Communists are going to take
over, and our schools are all being run to the dogs, and they
got you trying to decide whether to dog or may dog somebody out
here, and whether Christ is going to be a millennium or no millennium.
Satan's got you blinded. He's got you hog-tied. He's got
you facing the wrong direction. He's got you doing battle over
here where the battle ain't even occurring. The issue is Calvary's
Cross. who he is, and what he did, and
why he did it, and where he is now. And that's gonna be issued
to judgment. But Lord, this, that, and the
other, the issue's Christ. I'm telling you the truth. He'll
reprove the spell of sin because they don't believe me. All right, secondly, The Holy
Spirit convinces a believer of sin in reference to Christ. In reference to Christ. I'm not
talking about just any Christ. I'm talking about the Christ.
Now I've got a preacher friend. I'm trying to debate whether
or not to even talk to him about it. But I think what's bound
him, he's bound. I know he's bound. I think what's What is keeping
him from sounding a clear note, and he's not sounding a clear
note, is he's still trying to trace his salvation back yonder
when he was in rank Arminianism. He's trying to say that he and
all that gang of rebels he led were saved when they didn't believe
God was sovereign, when they didn't believe Christ's blood
was sufficient, when they believed you could be saved today and
lost tomorrow. When all of these things, when they were in that
soul-winning, decisionism, easy-believe-ism, he's trying to say, I saved back
then, I just learned more about the truth. Let me ask you a question. Was Saul of Tarsus saved back
here before he met the Lord on the road to Damascus? Well, he
was religious. He believed in a Messiah. He
believed that Christ was coming, the Messiah was coming. He was
moral. He kept the law. He went to church
on Sunday. He paid his tithe. He fasted.
He gave alms to the poor. He did everything those folks
did. But you say he didn't believe that Christ, Jesus, is who he
is. And neither do they. And I say that to anybody here,
and I'll just tell you the honest goodness truth. Back before I
heard the gospel of God's redeeming grace, I didn't know God. And you didn't either. You knew
a God, but not the God of the Bible. You knew a Jesus, another
Jesus. You didn't know this Jesus. You
see, there's no way that he can be both sovereign and dependent.
There's no way he can be both savior and half-savior. There's
not the same Jesus now. And this is your whole problem.
This is his whole problem. But he's trying to preach something
that he's not totally convinced of yet. The Apostle Paul, who
was Saul of Tarsus, when he met the Lord, he went out declaring
a redemption by a Redeemer who redeems. He was convinced, he
knew he'd seen the Lord, he'd met the Lord. He didn't go back
there and try to prove he was alright, God just straightened
him out. That he knew God was on his way to heaven and God
just helped him a little bit, patched up his garment of self-righteousness. No sir! He had another God and
he met the living God. He had another Christ or Messiah
and he met the living Christ. He had another message and God
gave him THE message. That's right. THE message. I know that's, I
know that troubles some folks, but it's so where it troubles
you enough. It's so. Conviction is in the light of
who Christ is. And a man can't be saved if he
knows who Christ is. He's got to bow to, believe in,
worship, and trust the right Christ, Bruce. That other Jesus
can't save a flea. That's so. It's just so. But no, we want
to go back here and defend this profession that never gave us
any peace or any joy, any rest, any confidence, or any assurance.
I don't know why we want to. What difference does it make?
Paul didn't say, I know when I believe. He said, I know whom
I have believed. He didn't say, I know what I
believe. He said, I know whom I believe. And I'm saying this, that the
Holy Spirit convinces a believer of sin in reference to Christ,
because they believe not on me, not on a Jesus, on me, me, who
I am, me. A man's not gonna be saved till
he's brought by the Spirit of God into the presence of the
living, saving Lord. And if he ever comes into the
presence of the living Lord, he'll bow down, kiss the Son,
and do him reverence as long as God lets him live. He knows
he met the Lord. That's what Thomas, Christ brought
him down to his knees. He said, my Lord and my God.
Solitarsis on the road to Damascus Lord, what will you have to do? Let me show you something over
in Luke 22 I Say conviction is in the light of his countenance.
The glory of God is revealed where in the face of Jesus Christ
That's where it's revealed that's where you're gonna see it and
you'll never be the same and You see the glory of God in a
plan of salvation or a religious ceremony, but when you see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, you'll never be the same. In Luke 22, this is so sad, verse
60, and Peter said, man, I don't know what you're talking about.
They ask him if he knew the Lord, if he knew Christ. I don't know
what you're talking about immediately. While he yet spake to Cockcrew.
And the Lord turned and looked on Peter. Their eyes met. And Peter remembered the word
of the Lord. I said, before the cock crow, you'll deny me three
times. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. He looked into
the face of the master. That convicted him. That broke
him. That sent him to the place of
tears. You can look at the law and you
can look at rules and regulations and look at all these things,
but when you look into his face, that's when something happens.
That's when something happens. Alright, judgment. He convinces
a believer of judgment. Well, I said I go to my father,
he convinces the believer of righteousness. When the Holy
Spirit convinces... Watch this. Here's something
one of the old timers said. When the Holy Spirit convinces
a believer of sin, because we believe not on the
living Christ, on the reigning Christ, on the saving Christ.
We hadn't met the saving Christ. But secondly, of righteousness,
it looks like when we're convinced of our sinfulness and we have
no ability to produce a righteousness, that judgment would be next.
But thank God he puts righteousness right in the middle there. He
convinces us of righteousness, not our own. Turn to Romans chapter
three. Not our own. This is the righteous
again. It's in reference to a person.
It's the righteousness of Christ. When the Holy Spirit convinces
a man of sin in the light of Christ, in the presence and countenance
of Christ, and in relationship to Christ, he then shows him
the righteousness of Christ. In Romans 3 verse 19, let's see
what we can do with this. We know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. We're persuaded of our sin, and of our sins, and of the sinfulness
of our righteousness. We are nothing, have nothing,
know nothing. Guilty before God. Our mouths
are stopped. But verse 20 says, Therefore by the deeds of the
law, Romans 3 20, there shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. But now, the law doesn't save, it gives you knowledge
of what you need. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. Without my obedience to it. Being
witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. upon all, unto all, and
upon all that believe. There's no doubt. This righteousness
is in Christ the Lord. The hymn writer put it this way,
Jesus thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress.
Mid flaming world and these arrayed with joy, I lift up my head.
Christ is our righteousness. What a hope. And then of judgment. then of judgment, convinces the
believer of judgment. Look at verse 11, I preached
on this a few days ago, because the prince of this world is judged.
Our Lord said back here to his disciples, go back to chapter
14 a minute, verse 30. He said in verse 30 of chapter
14 of John, the prince of this world's coming. And he says he'll
find nothing in me, that is, nothing in common with him will
he find in me. Now when the prince of this world,
Satan, comes to me, he finds plenty in common with him. He
has always found plenty in common in the ordinary man, in every
creature. But when the prince of this world
came to Christ, he found nothing in common. He found no pride.
He found no envy. He found no lust. He found no
hate. He found no malice. He found
nothing. He engaged our Lord in warfare, and he lost. Our Lord put him to flight, and
our Lord took his weapons away. And now then, when the prince
of this world comes to me, David, you say, what does he find? Nothing.
That's right, nothing. That's how you know that. Turn
to Romans chapter 8. That's because of my position.
You see, I'm in Christ. So the prince of this world comes
and Paul challenges him here in verse 33 of Romans 8, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? I'm justified. In verse 34, who is he that condemneth? Christ I. You see, you've got
to learn, we've got to learn representation. This thing of
salvation, it's not just accepting some creeds, and some religious
talk and some laws and some rules and regulations to live by. It's
not even just accepting Jesus. This thing of salvation, of redemption,
involves God. It involves God's law. It involves
God's justice. It involves God's holiness. It involves God's purpose. It involves... It's a conflict
between heaven and hell, between righteousness and evil. And it's
a gift to me. You see, the Lord God set out
to save a people, and a man fell, condemned, depraved, wretched,
unable, unworthy, and so forth. Just like the angels that fell.
But God determined to have a people out of this race, out of every
tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue under heaven. And He made a covenant
with His Son to redeem those people in keeping with His holiness. in accord with his law, in his
righteousness and justice. God is justified, but he must
be just and justified. God is love, but he must be truth
and love. And he determined to redeem the
people. Satan's determined to have them. He's determined to
throw everything in the way that he can against the redemption
of God, against the glory of Christ, against the exaltation
of Christ, against the preeminence of Christ. That's the prince
of this world. So our Lord sent his son into
this world, all of the Godhead embodied in him. In Christ is
all truth. I am the truth. In Christ is
all life. I am life. In Christ is all holiness. He is holy. In Christ is all
light. In Christ is all things. Righteous,
good, holy, true, heavenly of God is in that man, Jesus Christ. In Satan is the embodiment of
evil. He's not omnipresent, he's not omnipotent, he's not omniscient,
he can't be everywhere at once. There are other demons, there
are other spirits of evil, principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness,
spiritual wickedness in high places, everywhere. But in that
man, Satan, in that Lucifer, in Satan, is the very embodiment
of darkness and death and disease and evil and lies and hate and
all things. And God said to him at the beginning
of this whole thing, I'm going to put enmity between you and
the woman's seed. And you're going to bruise his
heel. Well, he's going to crush your head, your power. Well,
they had some skirmishes. They met, met on that Mount of
Temptation. They had, Satan left him for
a season, remember? But brother, when our Lord said
that in John 14, the prince of this world's coming, that was
a showdown. That was what Genesis 3.15 was talking about and prophesying. All of these were skirmishes,
all of these were just mental fistfights, all of these compared
to that. But brother, when our Lord stood
one day in the flesh, the God-man, as our representative, as Adam
stood that day in the garden, as our representative. In Adam
we died, in Christ. And all the forces of hell declared
war on him. They came upon him with a full
assault, Satan himself, and all the forces of darkness, death,
evil, corruption, and the Heavenly Father left him alone. He had
no assistance. He had no aid. He walked the
winepress of God's wrath alone. And let me tell you, buddy, he
walked it. He took all hell to dish out.
He took all the darkness they could put upon Him. He took all
the death they could lay on Him. He took all the darts and all
the spears and all the cannons of hell. He took it all. And
He'll hang in there on that cross. He cried so everybody could hear
Him from eternity past to eternity future and the tip most top of
heaven to the bottom most pits of hell. It finished! And I was redeemed. And that's judgment. And you
can talk about all your seven judgments and 17 judgments if
you want to, but that's my judgment. And you can talk about them gathering
all, they waste your time, everybody else is talking about there's
going to be a judgment of the Jews and the nations and Americans.
You're playing games, bud. That was the judgment. And it's
over. forever believe in Christ. Now
then, if you wasn't in Him by faith, you're gonna have a judgment.
You can call it the general judgment, the judgment of the nation, call
it anything you want to, but it's gonna be a judgment. Now
I want you to be a part of that. You see what I'm talking about?
When the Holy Spirit comes, I've got the message. I ain't like
old Bishop Johnson. He said, if you don't hear me,
you ain't heard nobody. But I'm telling you this. I know what
this is saying. It's real. When, as Barnett said,
we're not playing mumble-dee-pay. This means something. If that
didn't just mean something I just told you, you got problems. Religious
problems. Because this is real. He'll convince,
he gonna rebuke the world. The Holy Spirit's going to rebuke
through his ministry. The problem is sin, because they
believe not on me. Righteousness, they won't listen
to my righteousness and judgment. But he's going to convince the
believer, convince him. He's going to rebuke the world,
but he's going to convince you. I'm convinced. I'm persuaded. He's convinced me. He's convinced
me of sin in the light of Christ. Not just the law. There's a law
conviction. It usually produces a self-righteousness. But I'm convinced of sin in the
light of Christ. Of righteousness in Christ and
of judgment because my Lord has already, Charlie, dealt with
the prince of this world. Put him out of business. Put
him out of business, as far as I'm concerned. He's put him out
of business. The prince of this world. Not
gonna be judge, buddy, he is judge. You know what it says,
Bob? That's past tense. It's all over. It's all over. And then last of all, I close
with this. The Holy Spirit's gonna convict
the world, just like at a court trial. Let's look at it a minute. You've been called to jury duty.
Judge asks you, you know anything about this case? And you say,
no sir, not a thing. You know anything about the The
defendant also don't know a thing. So you get up there on the jury,
and you sit with those other 11 people, and you look out there,
and there's old Paul on trial. He looks pretty respectable.
They've accused him of a crime. You look at him, and he kind
of winks at you, you know, smiles at you, and you say, he couldn't
hurt a flea. On and on you sit there. You're
already about made up your mind. Then the DA gets up, and he starts
telling the truth about Paul. before it's over you say, hang
it! But I want to tell you this,
we look at this world of ours, we look at the grandmas and grandpas
of which I'm one and all these other folks, you know, they're
not so, you know, I mean, they're not so bad. Let's hang on till
the, wait a minute till the evidence comes in. Let's hang on there. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world, holiness personified. God's Son came into this world.
And we shook our fist in his face. We wouldn't be satisfied
with that, but we had to spit in his face. We weren't satisfied
with that, we had to pluck out his beard. We weren't satisfied
with that, we had to take him out there and hang him between
two thieves and laugh at him while he suffered. Oh, his blood be on us, we cried,
and on our children. God said, okay, it will be. And
not only that, but we refused his righteousness. He presented
a pure and holy righteousness, and we said, drop it in the garbage
can. We'll establish our own. And
not only that, but he stood face to face with the prince of this
world. He went there in the battle.
It's like they talk about the boys came back from the war,
they'd gone and given their blood and their tears and their agony,
and this nation ignored them. Well, I'll tell you this, my
Lord came down here and went into battle, and he gave himself. And I, as folks even sitting
right here in this congregation, is it nothing to you? All ye
that pass by, is it nothing to you? Behold, is there any sorrow
like my sorrow with which God hath afflicted me? And you say,
it's nothing to me. Boy, I tell you, the Jewish got
to say one word, guilty. Guilty. Convicted. And when God Almighty rings out
those words throughout heaven's judgment hall and says, bind
him, hand him, foot him, cast him into hell, I don't believe
there's going to be one tear shed on the unbeliever's back.
I believe everyone's gonna say, amen, hallelujah, true and righteous
are his judgments. I do. When they drag that felon
off to prison who's done that awful crime, you've been convinced
he's guilty, you turn to the judge and say, hang him! Hang
him. And I believe they're in eternity
when all the evidence is brought in. our sin in reference to his
son, that the verdict of every person in the universe is going
to say, Amen. He'll convict the world. Our Father, bless this message,
the word. We believe that you've spoken
through your word. Our hearts have been gripped,
especially as we thought about our Lord in battle. the evil
and darkness and death that he battled on our behalf, and the
defeat that he brought upon the principalities and powers and
rulers of darkness for us. Oh, we kiss the sun. We bow to
Christ. We magnify his name. We say,
the heart where the old Lamb of God of all the praise and
glory forever and forever. He is our prince. He is our king. He's our champion. He's our redeemer. He's our reward. To him be the
glory both now and forever. Turn our eyes to Christ and our
hearts to Christ and our ears to his word and our lips to speak
his praise. In his name we pray. Amen.