- Conviction of the Holy Spirit.
The first thing that we see Holy Spirit comes to convict us of
is convict us of sin.
The topic of the conviction of the Holy Spirit
can become very scary for some people.
Some people think that's the only thing Holy Spirit does.
But in the previous lesson we talked out the fact that Holy Spirit's gift to you
is not just tongues, conviction, but communion.
But we need to talk about the conviction of the Holy Spirit
because so many people have never experienced
the communion of the Holy Spirit
because they have a wrong idea of what the conviction of the Holy Spirit is.
Let's break it down from the beginning.
We will have three short points from this verse.
Well, it's correct.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin.
It says that He will convict the world of sin.
And then for those of us who would think, "Oh, that includes me."
Jesus corrects us right away and tells us what sin
Holy Spirit will convict us of.
It says of sin because they smoke.
Of sin because they don't read their Bible.
Of sin because they lie or steal.
That's not what the Bible says.
It says, "Of sin because they do not believe in me."
So the Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin.
So many Christians, it's been preached on their stages,
where the Holy Spirit will come and convict Christians of sin.
But that's not what the Bible says in here.
Now there are scriptures that talk about the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
And we know that He convicts Christians of sin as well
But His primary task is to convict the world of sin.
Why?
Because the world needs to know Jesus.
Now He's not convicting them of sin of their moral falling.
Because no man can reach heaven and Christ through their moral standing.
The sin that He is interested in convicting the world is
that they don't believe in Jesus.
Meaning Holy Spirit's main job is not to convict a homosexual
that he needs to be straight.
It's not to convict a thief that he needs to stop stealing.
Holy Spirit's job is not to convict an adulterer
that he needs to live a pure life.
Holy Spirit's job is to convict the world of sin that they've rejected Jesus Christ.
There will be a lot of people in hell who are straight.
There will be a lot of people in hell who never committed adultery.
There will people in hell who didn't get caught stealing.
But none of these things bring us to heaven.
Only Jesus brings us to heaven.
Holy Spirit's first job is to convict the world of sin.
Christians, brothers and sisters, relax!
Some of you are afraid of the Holy Spirit because you think He is a fault-finder.
His gift is discerning of spirits,
and you feel like He has a great gift of discerning your mistakes;
always finds fault in you.
That's a wrong teaching.
And that's not what Jesus meant in John 16.
You know what Holy Spirit convicts you of?
Let's read:
It says, "He convicts the world of sin."
and then it says, "and of righteousness and of judgment."
The Holy Spirit first convicts the world of sin.
Secondly, He convicts believers of righteousness.
Righteousness.
It says in here,
"of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see Me no more."
When Jesus finished the work on the cross,
He sat at the right hand of the Father.
And He secured our salvation.
No longer needing to come down and die each time we sin.
When priests in the Old Testament,
when they offered sacrifices,
every year they had to renew those sacrifices and postpone the sin
until Jesus, the Lamb of God would come,
and become the substance of the shadow of the Old Testament.
And once He completed that work, our righteousness became secure.
It became available.
We are no longer sinners trying to live right.
We are righteous people who fight and overcome and struggle with sin.
You may say, "Holy Spirit convicts me of being righteous?"
Yes.
When was the last time that happened?
You know, you don't need to be convicted of sin as a Christian?
Because you have a new nature that doesn't want to sin.
You have a consciousness that is being quickened by the Holy Spirit.
And consciousness is like a judge;
it doesn't make the rules, it just judges them.
It just judges based on those rules.
Consciousness will judge you.
Your heart will judge you when you do something wrong.
And so we a lot of times mistaken that for the voice of the Holy Spirit.
And we think that Holy Spirit is condemning us.
Holy Spirit's conviction is first and foremost,
convicting you of who you are in Christ.
It's convicting you of who you are, not of who you are not.
It's convicting you of what Jesus did,
not of what you did not do.
Why is that important?
Because many believers have rejected conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Mm-hmm.
Oh no, no, no. Not that they did something wrong
but that Jesus did something right.
That is His job.
That is His work.
To convict you of righteousness.
Why does He have to convict us of righteousness?
Because most of us are convinced we are not righteous.
We are sinners saved by grace.
It's in our mind.
It's in our hearts.
We don't wear breastplate of righteousness, we wear a hoodie of condemnation.
We wear a hoodie of sinful nature,
that we are sinful.
We live with that mindset.
And God sends His Spirit to renew our mind by convicting us
of what Jesus did on the cross
so that we will live out of the righteousness He has freely given us.
We don't work for righteousness.
We work out our righteousness.
And the Holy Spirit plays a powerful role in convicting
bringing us back to Christ.
I hope you are getting this one thing;
is Holy Spirit glorifies Christ.
He doesn't glorify your emotions.
He glorifies Jesus and His finished work.
He will point you back to your righteousness that is in Jesus.
And when Jesus is not glorified,
the Holy Spirit will not be enjoyed and fellowshiped with
because you will feel not good enough.
You will disqualify yourself on your own.
Because His conviction is not just to convict you of sin;
that He does for the world.
His conviction is to convict you of what Jesus did right on your behalf.
Which is to give you righteousness.
His third conviction we see here is,
The judgment that Holy Spirit convicts us is not our judgment but the devil's.
Now it's true that Christians will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ.
Not to determine our eternal life but to determine our eternal reward.
We know that people in the world will be judged at the great white throne.
But what that is talking about here today is Jesus says, " and of judgment"
and then He says, "of judgment, because the ruler of this world is being judged."
Wow!
So Holy Spirit is convicting you that Satan
has already been disarmed, defeated,
and one day he will be destroyed.
Destroyed, not in the sense that he will not exist
but destroyed in the sense that his influence,
his evil works are going to be chained,
and he will spend eternity in the lake of fire.
You may say, "Why is that important to me?"
Because everyday you are coming in contact with a broken world.
Everyday you are being tempted by this evil - evil being called Satan,
and his stooges called demons.
And the Holy Spirit wants to remind you this is not going to be for long.
He wants to remind you that when Satan reminds you of your past,
you can boldly remind him of his future.
Because whatever you got delivered from,
is not as bad as whatever Satan is going into.
The Holy Spirit wants to remind you,
unlike Satan who rebelled against God, God never gave him a second chance;
for you, God gave you a second chance, a third chance, fourth chance,
fifth, sixth, seventh, some of us are on a hundredth chance
and God keeps giving you mercies every morning.
When Satan committed sin, he never got a second chance.
And so you need to be reminded of that.
That the great enemy that you and I have is on the clock
and his time is about to be expired.
He's been defeated on the cross.
He's defeated by Jesus in the wilderness.
He's being defeated every time we cast out demons,
every time we evangelize,
every time we pray we push back to darkness.
My friend, the Holy Spirit wants to remind us
as the world is getting crazier,
as the political world is getting mad,
protests on the streets,
epidemics, earthquakes, wars, racism, hate, persecution,
all this evil is coming back to an end.
The devil is coming to an end.
Oh no, no my friend, not you.
The judgment is coming for him.
One day he will stand before God, he will be judged.
He will be bound.
He will be thrown in the lake of fire
and he will be tormented for all eternity.
While you and I will be celebrating, rejoicing,
and spending time with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Holy Spirit wants to remind you of that.
Holy Spirit wants to convict you of that when you are tempted,
when you are weary, when you are discouraged,
when it seems like evil is prevailing,
when it feels like the devil is advancing,
when it feels like the church is dying,
your ministry is shrinking,
it feels like the devil has gotten the upper hand in your purity,
in your finances and in your family,
drugs and alcohol has gotten ahead and are pushing their agenda in your family;
please be convicted of the Holy Spirit today.
There is a judgment coming and Satan knows it.
You have to live with that awareness.
Devil is on the clock.
Not only he is restrained by God on this evil world,
but he is also going to pay for everything he's done,
and he will be judged.
Conviction of the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of sin so they believe in Jesus.
It's convicting you as the believer of your righteousness,
so you can live out righteousness of Jesus.
And He is convicting you as the believer that in the middle of spiritual warfare,
temptation, your enemy has not only been defeated and disarmed,
he's going to be judged.
And God is going to judge him and sentence him to the lake of fire.
Be encouraged today.
Receive a fresh revelation of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
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