I'm going to speak to you this
morning on the subject, What is Holy Spirit Conviction? And I want you to open your Bibles
to the book of John, chapter 16, and I'll be reading from
my text, verses 7 through 11. That's John 16, verses 7 through
11. And our subject today, and I
think most of you will be interested in this, and I trust that I'll
be an able of the Holy Spirit to help you on the subject. What
is Holy Spirit conviction? Now, let's read the text in John
16, verse 7. Nevertheless, I'll tell you the
truth. Now, this is our Lord speaking,
speaking to his disciples before Calvary, before the crucifixion,
before he died for our sins. He says, I'll tell you the truth.
It is expedient. It is necessary for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. But if I depart, I will send
him, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, unto you. And when he
is come, he will convict or convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment, of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness
because I go to my Father, and of judgment because the Prince
of this world is judged. Now, my friends, what our Lord
calls salvation, what the Master calls the new birth, eternal
life, is more than just giving mental agreement or mental assent
to religious facts. Salvation is much more than that.
And then salvation is much more than a reformation of life. The
Pharisees had this. They reformed their lives, but
they did not know God. So salvation is more than just
reforming your life, as we like to say, turning over a new leaf.
And then salvation is more than performing certain religious
duties, going through religious ceremonies and taking part in
religious ordinances, such as baptism or communion or the Lord's
table. Salvation is much more than going
to church on Sunday and taking part in religious activities.
And salvation is a lot more than affiliation with a religious
organization or a religious denomination. A man is not saved because he
is religious or because he is moral or because he's a theologian
or because he's a part of a religious organization. According to the
Master, according to our Lord Jesus Christ, salvation is a
living union with a living Lord. It is to know God. and Jesus
Christ, whom he has sent. And this is effected by the Holy
Spirit. And salvation is a new birth.
That's what Christ said, you must be born again. And Paul
said, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. And this
new birth, called regeneration, quickening and awakening, a new
creation, is effected by the Holy Spirit. We're born of the
Spirit, born of God. And then salvation is a true
knowledge of the true God. It's not just to worship a God,
or some God, or any God, or to have a God, or to be sincere
in your worship of a God. It is to know the true God. That's
what David is talking about when he said, as the deer panteth
for the water brooks, so panteth or hungereth my soul for thee,
the living God, the true God. There is but one God, and one
mediator between God and men, and that's the man in Christ
Jesus. So salvation is to have a living union. with that living
God, to know the true God. And then salvation is the life
and nature of God restored unto us. Having lost that nature in
the Garden of Eden because of sin, we have that nature restored
to us by the Spirit of God in regeneration. That's what salvation
is. Salvation is to have the life
and nature of God restored to us by the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit
work. Holy Spirit conviction. That's
what we're talking about. Holy Spirit regeneration. The
power of God's Spirit in salvation. That's our subject today. Now,
if a man misses this, if he misses Holy Spirit conviction, if he
misses the miraculous, indwelling, quickening power of the Holy
Spirit in conviction, he's going to miss repentance. Paul said
that. He said, I never would have known
sin. If the law had not said, thou shalt not covet. If the
Spirit of God had not brought the law to my understanding,
taught it to my heart, I never would have understood what sin
is. And we'll not understand what
sin is if the Holy Spirit doesn't reveal it to us. And if we don't
know what sin is, how can we repent of sin? So if a man misses
Holy Spirit conviction, he's going to miss repentance. And
our Lord said, except you repent, you'll perish. And then if a
man misses repentance, he's going to miss faith. We can never turn
to Christ unless we turn from our idols. No man can serve two
masters. You can't believe if you haven't
repented, and you can't repent if you haven't believed. Repentance
and faith go together. Where you find one, you find
the other. Someone said repentance and faith is like a sheet of
paper. It has two sides. We turn from
our idols to the living God. So if a man misses Holy Spirit
conviction, he's going to miss repentance. And if he misses
repentance, he's going to miss true faith. And if he misses
faith, he's going to miss Christ. Because the Scripture says, He
that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life. And he
that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him. Our Lord said, God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
on him might not perish, but have everlasting life. And when
he sent his disciples out to preach, he said, go into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. So if you miss faith, you'll
miss Christ. And if you miss Christ, now listen
to this, if you miss Christ, you'll miss heaven. Because heaven
is the abode of Christ. Heaven is the kingdom of Christ.
Heaven is the dwelling place of Christ, and heaven is ours
because we are in Christ. That's the reason we are heirs
of heaven and heirs of eternal life, because Jesus Christ is
our Redeemer. We're in Him, and what He has,
we have. Paul called us heirs of God and
joint heirs with Jesus Christ. So if I miss Holy Spirit conviction,
I'm going to miss repentance. I'll have nothing of which to
repent. If I miss repentance, I'm going to miss faith, because
I can't turn to Christ if I don't turn from my idols and my false
gods. And if I miss faith, I'll miss
Christ. And if I miss Christ, I'll miss heaven, because heaven
is the abode of Christ. He said to the thief, today shalt
thou be with me in paradise. Paul said to be absent from the
body is to be present with the Lord. Heaven is to be in Christ. It is to be with Christ. It is
to be a joint heir with Christ. And Paul again said, I have a
desire to depart and be with Christ. So you see the necessity
of Holy Spirit conviction? It is absolutely essential. The
Holy Spirit must perform a work for us if we are to be redeemed,
if we are to be restored, if we are to be regenerated, if
we are to be saved. We're going to have to be an
object of the Holy Spirit's powerful, miraculous work. All right, let's
look at something else now. The Holy Spirit, this Holy Spirit
conviction of sin, this Holy Spirit conviction of our inability
is not the goal. Now, don't make it the goal.
Some people do. Some people look for an experience. We're not
looking for an experience. We're looking for a relationship
with the Lord. The Holy Spirit conviction is
necessary. It's essential. But it is not
the end, it is not the goal. If I attain unto Holy Spirit
conviction, if I made an object of Holy Spirit conviction, that's
not the end. That's the means of grace. Just
like the word of God, just like the preaching of the gospel.
These are means of grace. The end or goal of all means
of grace is to bring us to Christ. That's the goal, that's the object.
To bring us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, come unto me
and I'll give you rest. There's no rest in the law. There's
no rest in Holy Spirit conviction. There's no rest in inexperience.
There's no rest in mourning apart. There's no rest in feeling my
guilt. The rest is in Christ. That's where the peace is. He
said, My peace I give unto you. So Holy Spirit conviction, while
it is vital and while it is necessary and while it is a means of grace,
it is not the end. It is not the goal. It is not
the object of God's Spirit just to make you miserable. is to
bring you to rest in Christ. He said, blessed are they that
mourn, they shall be comforted. Don't be content to mourn. Don't
be content until you're comforted. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. Don't be
content to hunger only or to thirst only. Ask God to give
you the filling, the filling of Christ. So a man, listen to
this, now four things, this is important. A man may be a chosen
vessel unto God, like Saul of Tarsus, but that man is not saved
until he comes to faith in Christ. Saul wrote, he said, we were
children of wrath, even as others. We were fulfilling the lust of
our flesh, the desires of the mind, and the lust of the eyes.
We were following the prince of the fire there, just like
everybody else. And God quickened us and awakened us and brought
us to faith in Christ. That's when we were saved. And
then a man may tremble before the holy law of God, like Israel
trembled at Sinai. But until that man is brought
to faith in Christ, to receive Christ, he's not saved. He may
be a chosen vessel. He may tremble before the law,
but we must be brought to rest in Christ, to trust in him, to
enter into him by faith. A man may hear the true prophet
of God. He may hear the true preacher
of the gospel, like the Ethiopian eunuch. who heard Philip, but
that man is not restored, he is not saved until he rests in
Christ, until he comes to saving faith. And then a man may undergo
deep personal conviction of sin, like the publican in the temple,
who cried, God be merciful to me, a sinner. But that man is
not saved until he rests in Christ. You see, election, or conviction,
or the preaching of the gospel, or an experience of mourning
over sin is not the end. Those are means of grace. Those
are means that God uses to bring us to salvation, to rest in Christ. Christ is our salvation. And
we must never stop short of a willing, loving, continuing faith in Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit is
doing in saving God's people. He's bringing us to rest in Christ.
Paul said something about that in Galatians 1.15. He said, God
who separated me from my mother's womb, But I wasn't saved from
a mother's womb, and called me by His grace. But I wasn't saved
just by the Holy Spirit's call. He was pleased to reveal His
Son in me. Oh, now that's when I came to
assurance and confidence. That's when I came to rest, is
when God revealed His Son in me, and I came to rest in Christ.
I came to trust Him. Because only Christ can justify
us before God. Only Christ can cleanse and put
away our sins and our guilt. Only Christ can free us from
the curse and penalty of the law. Only Christ can speak peace
to our troubled souls. Only Christ can make us accepted
and robust in his righteousness and seat us in victory at the
right hand of God. Only Christ. So that, I want
to lay that foundation before I get to answer, into answering
this question, what is Holy Spirit conviction? Holy Spirit conviction
is vital, essential, and necessary. But Holy Spirit conviction is
not the end. It's not the goal, it's not the object of a work
of grace. The goal and end and object of
a work of grace is to bring you and me to rest in Christ, to
trust in Christ, to believe in Christ, and to live in Christ.
All right, let's look at our text again now. In John chapter
16, verse 7, the Lord Jesus said, it is expedient. That word means
essential, necessary. It is necessary for you that
I go away. Now, in these verses and in others,
when our Lord talks about going away, he's talking about his
death. He's talking about the crucifixion.
He's talking about dying on the cross. That's what he's talking
about. He said that over here in John 14, 1 through 3. He said
to the disciples, they were troubled. He told them he was going away.
He was going to be killed. And they were troubled and filled
with sorrow. And he said, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's
house are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. I go away to prepare a place
for you." Somebody's death. That's how he prepared heaven
for us, by dying for us, by cleansing our sins, by making us sons of
God, by justifying us before the holy law and righteousness
of God. And then in John 16, verse 5,
he says, I go my way unto him that sent me. So when our Lord
talks about going away, he's talking about his death on the
cross, his burial, and his resurrection. And his going away, his death
is necessary for about four reasons. More than that, but here are
four that I'm going to give you. First of all, he goes to open
for us a way into the holiest of all, into the presence of
God. We have no way into the presence of God except through
Christ. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh to the Father but by me. That's the way to God. It's by
the way of the cross. They wrote a song about that.
The way of the cross leads home. There's no other way but this.
I'll never get sight of the gates of light if the way of the cross
I miss. So Christ has gone to make a
way for us into the holiest of all, into the presence of God.
And then he goes away to take possession of heaven. in our
stead, to enter in and possess the land for his people, preparing
a place for us. And then he goes to the Father's
right hand to intercede for us. Christ is our intercessor. He's
our advocate. He's our lawyer. He pleads our
case. He presents his wounds. He presents
his blood. He presents his obedience. He
pleads not our merit. He pleads his. He pleads not
our righteousness. He pleads his. So he goes to
intercede. And then he goes to make an effectual
atonement for us, and as one old writer said, to transact
all saving business between God and the sinner. He's gone to
transact all saving business between God and the sinner. Now
notice the next thing. He says, it's expedient for you
that I go away. If I go not away, if I die not,
the Holy Spirit will not come. the Comforter will not come.
Now, this is a fact, and if you'll think about it a moment, you'll
see how true it is. And it's very easy to understand
what I'm about to say. Christ said, if I don't die on
the cross, if I don't go away, the Holy Spirit will not come.
Now, here's the reason that he will not come. If Christ does
not die, if Christ does not honor God's law, if Christ does not
honor God's justice and satisfy it, then there's nothing for
the Holy Spirit to do if he comes. There's no work for him to perform
as far as we're concerned. He has nothing to bring. He would
have no gospel to reveal if Christ doesn't die. He would have no
blood to sprinkle if Christ does not die. He would have no salvation
to apply if Christ does not die. He would have no righteousness
to reveal if Christ does not die. He would have no comfort
to give. Why have a comforter if he can't
comfort? Well, then our comfort is that
Christ died for our sins. That's the comfort. That's the
only comfort. Christ Jesus puts away all of
our iniquities and reconciles us to God. That's our comfort.
And if he says, if I go not away, the comforter will not come.
There's no reason for him to come. He'd have nothing to do.
No blood to sprinkle, no salvation to apply, no righteousness to
reveal, no comfort to give. But when he's come, when he's
come, and he has come, he will convince the world of sin. Now what is Holy Spirit conviction? Perhaps we can best answer that
question by telling you first of all what it's not, and then
telling you what it is. Well, Holy Spirit conviction,
first of all, I know this. It is not just the troubling
of the natural conscience. That's not Holy Spirit conviction,
because every man has a conscience. Every man's conscience is troubled
to an extent, to a degree, when he does wrong. Every person's
conscience is troubled. So this special, regenerating,
awakening, quickening, Holy Spirit conviction is not just the troubling
of the natural conscience. Secondly, Holy Spirit conviction
is not just the head knowledge of the fact that sin is wrong. It's not just the head knowledge.
It's not just to be convinced that sin is wrong. I think just
about everybody knows sin is wrong. And so that's not Holy
Spirit conviction. If a man says, well, I know sin's
wrong, well, that doesn't mean that you have Holy Spirit conviction. I suspect everybody knows sin
is wrong. And then Holy Spirit conviction is not just to give
assent or mental agreement to what the Bible says about sin.
I think just about everybody would do that. I think everybody
knows it's wrong to kill, and wrong to steal, and wrong to
curse, and wrong to lie, and wrong to bear false witness,
and wrong to commit adultery, wrong to take God's name in vain.
Most people know right from wrong. So this is not Holy Spirit conviction. Just because a fellow knows he's
a sinner, just because a fellow knows what the Bible says about
sin, and just because a fellow knows right from wrong, and just
because a fellow says, well, I agree that these things ought
not to be done, that's not Holy Spirit conviction. Well, what
is it? Listen, true Holy Spirit conviction that leads to repentance,
leads to faith, and leads a sinner to rest in Christ, first of all,
it is to personally, individually, feel and experience the bitterness
and the wretchedness of my own guilt and my own sins. That's
one thing to know vinegar is sour. It's another thing to taste
it. It's another thing to taste it.
And that's the difference in real Holy Spirit conviction and
nominal law conviction. Under nominal law conviction,
we know that sin is evil. But when the Holy Spirit does
a work of grace in a man's heart, he doesn't only know that sin
is bitter, he tastes it. He feels it. He experiences it. He personally is made aware of
the bitterness and the guilt. and the exceeding sinfulness,
Paul said, of sin. It's a personal revelation, and
it comes home with real inward experience. Secondly, Holy Spirit
conviction is a real sense of the fact that my sins are against
God. Now, most everybody knows that
they've done this person wrong or that person wrong or another
person wrong, but Holy Spirit conviction reveals the fact to
me that my sins are against God. That's what David said. He said,
Lord, my sins are ever before me against thee, and thee only
have I sinned. Now a man's under Holy Spirit
conviction when he grieves over his sins, whether he's caught
or not, whether he's discovered or not, whether he's exposed
or not, he grieves over the fact that his sins are against God.
That's godless sorrow that works with repentance. And then real
Holy Spirit conviction, listen to this. is a real sense of the
justice and righteousness of God in condemning and punishing
my sins. Now let me ask you some personal
questions here, and you'll know whether or not you have been
made an object of Holy Spirit conviction. First of all, would
God be just to condemn you, judge you, and cast you out of his
presence? Would he be just? How do you
answer that, yes or no? Would God be just? Now, if you've
been made an object of Holy Spirit conviction, your answer is, yes,
he would. My sins are worthy of death.
My sins are worthy of condemnation. My sins are so real to me, and
they're so obvious to me, and they're so critically against
God, that I ought to be condemned. All right, here's the second
question. Do I deserve to be an object of God's wrath or an
object of God's mercy? Yes or no. Which? Do I deserve
to be an object of God's wrath? Do I deserve to be an object
of God's wrath or His mercy? Well, if you're an object of
Holy Spirit conviction, you'll say, I deserve God's wrath for
the wages of sin is death. And my sins ought to be punished.
My sins are worthy of eternal condemnation. That's what Job
said. He said, Lord, behold, I'm vile. I'm vile. That's what
Isaiah said. He said, woe is me. I'm a man
of unclean lips. That's what David said. Oh, God,
against thee have I sinned. That's what Peter said, Lord,
depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Now, if we confess our sins,
we'll say he's faithful and just to forgive us. But he that covereth
his sin shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. So Holy
Spirit conviction is a conviction of the real sense of God's justice
and righteousness in condemning me. And I'll tell you something
else about Holy Spirit conviction. It takes a threefold direction,
or course. First of all, if you're an object
of Holy Spirit conviction, God will show you your sinful nature.
That's right. He'll show you the nature of
sin. That's the root of sin. That's
the thing within me that produces the products of sin. And then
he'll not only convince you of the root of sin, the nature of
sin. That's what Paul was talking about in Romans 7 when he said,
I find a law present with me that when I would do good, evil
is present. When I would do good, I find a law, warring against
the law of my mind, bringing me in captivity to sin. That's
the nature of sin with which I was born. And then Holy Spirit
conviction takes this course. He convicts us of the actual
commitment of sin, or the expression of sin. That's S-I-N-S. That's
what I've said, and that's what I've done, and that's what I've
thought, and that's what I've performed, you see. That's the
expression of sin. And not only that, but Holy Spirit
conviction convinces us of the totality of sin, that even my
righteousnesses are self-erased. That even the best prayer I ever
prayed has sin in it. And the most righteous work that
I've ever performed has sin in it. And the best day of my life
has been a day of flesh and sin. And in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. But our Lord say, and he said,
when the Holy Spirit has come, he will convince men of sin and
of righteousness because I go to my father. This righteousness
is the perfect righteousness of Christ, which we don't have,
which God requires, which we must have if we're to be saved.
And he convinces us of judgment because the prince of this world
is judged. Someone said, I know the sins of pardon. And all my
sins are put away. Yet I feel in my being the motions
of sin, and yea, the presence of sin. Will Satan someday rise
up to condemn me? No, he's been judged and he's
been put away. What gives Holy Spirit conviction?