The Conviction of the Holy Spirit

I was blessed to share this message at the men’s retreat, it’s a short message and I encourage you to take notes. I have modified it some, but not a lot. Bunjee made us all use certain titles, some of which are not how we use in the words in English. My title was the Convicter - to speak on the convicting influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He made Steve use the comforter, which he stated the HS is never called. So to keep the ER ending for all the titles Steve called it, the Personer, I called mine the conviction-er.

To me, the CONVICTOR, sounds like a luchiador, lol, He loves all the orphans in the whole world. And He kind of is, because He has a lot of wrestling to do with some of you. You know who you are. And when we do give up?

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary) “It is extraordinary how things fall off from a man like autumn leaves once he comes to the place where there is no rule but that of the personal domination of the Holy Spirit.”

It is a beautiful thing for the believer, that the more we give up, the better we are.

But I digress.

To begin with, I wanted to take a moment to examine the The trinity and why we see Him as the third person of it. The father is God, the Son is God and the HS is God.

Lets look at a few qualities - I will send the references later but I do want you to write down a few things.

described with masculine pronouns in Greek (John 16:7–15).

He searches all things and knows the thoughts of God (1 Corinthians 2:10–11).

He intercedes for believers (Romans 8:26).

He can be blasphemed (Matthew 12:31).

He can be insulted (Hebrews 10:29).

He can be resisted (Acts 7:51).

He is called God (Acts 5:3–5).

And there are many more but I end with, He convicts (who?) the world (us, others) of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8).

Now, the John 16:8 fills so much out in how amazing the convicting nature of the HS is. Turn there with me. For context sake lets start at:,

John 16:5–15 “ “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, (defined) because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

Lets take a bit out of this and look at 3 things

Conviction (er) of Sin, Conviction (er) of Righteousness, Conviction (er) of Judgment.

Conviction of sin: because they do not believe in Jesus

Conviction (elenchei: expose, reprove, convict to find guilty in this context) You could read it, they prove the worlds sin. For most of us, we expect that the conviction of sin is that folks typically think, and i would say it somewhat is.

a belief in Jesus necessitates that we agree with what he says is right or wrong. So being convicted of specific sins, experiencing guilt, might be possible but even that would lead to being convicted of the…HS

This leads to what the text tells us the sin that the holy spirit convicts of is of belief in Jesus. from the NLT John 3:18–19 “ “There is no judgment against anyone who believes (trust in, rely on, lean on) in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.””

Now peter said that there was sufficient evidence for them to trust and follow, Acts 2:22 “ “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—” Those same people, he would tell to repent. Thats why we share, why we preach. That they hear the testimony.

The church, is to be an influence and convict this world of the sin and rebellion they commit against God. Notice, this is all tied into what jesus teaches, what He came to do. The signs that would follow. John 15:22 “ If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” We convict the world when we tell them what Jesus said.

When the HS came after Jesus left, He came to abide where? In us. The helper came to us (v7)

So, as you go, make disciples. That means the preaching/teaching/sharing the gospel of our savior, we are actually abiding in Him and He in us! He uses us to be a source of conviction in the world. (Matthew 28:18–20)

Now there are many who are using every and nearly all resources available to communicate this message of conviction to this lost and dying world. Pastor Bunjee puts out nearly a weekday show on various streaming medias. We should all be doing it. Not streaming necessarily, but constantly speaking His truth into the world. Whether 3 or 3,000 are affected, if even one persons chooses faith, all of heaven rejoices. (Luke 15:10)

And we see many in the world react rather badly when this happens, sometimes even violently. Social media outlets close ministry down, and people can even get violent. In just one location in Africa, nearly 17,000 Christians lost their lives because of violence in Nigeria between 2019 and 2023. John 15:18–20 NLT “ “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.”

Now, the text tells us, that this is done in the Holy Spirit through the church because He is a

Conviction (er) of Righteousness

John 16:10 “ of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;”

Righteousness: dikaiosynes: the act of doing what God requires - the world witnesses us being not perfect but blameless. Able to approach in fellowship with the living God. Hebrews 4:16 “ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” they see that mercy and grace on and in us. Because he now lives in us

What does God require of us? To tell them? How they can experience His righteousness? 1 John 3:23 “ And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”

While our world celebrates sin, the boldness of their rebellion convicts them all the more. 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 “ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” Not popular message.

that would condemn us all were we to try and live on our own righteousness. Thinking we could be saved by not doing this things. Remember the words of Jesus convicting us of murder and adultery in our hearts? Matthew 5:20 “ For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Its turning to Jesus and Him alone that saves, we need to totally lean on his righteousness. When we do that, the flip scripts, 1 Corinthians 6:11 “ And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”

We are convicted by our sin, then convicted that our “goodness” or personal righteousness is as filthy rags - Isaiah 64:6–7 “ But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. 7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.”

We are convinced that only the pure and holy righteousness of Jesus saves. And we must receive His, to experience this covering of the cross of Christ. Philippians 3:9 “ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;” So who does all that God requires? Jesus! We cannot. And the world sees us live that out.

Conviction of Judgment

John 16:11 “ of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

Judgement: kriseos: to pass judgement on, the enemy, to fulfill the prophecy given in the fall, in the judgment of satan who tempted Eve, God said, Genesis 3:15 “ And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.””

the influence of satan and his angels is real, and powerful in this world. Satan veils the gospel, snatching it up as jesus spoke of in the parable of the soils. He blinds the world 2 Corinthians 4:3–4 “ But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

His authority in this are because though he is the god of this age. (2 Corinthians 4:4) his sway over this world, is powerful (Revelation 20:7–10) and but we need not fear because our faith overcomes, 1 John 5:4 “ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

With all that, what can we do? Be the light in this world as He is the light. To teach the world to Repent. Because the enemy cannot hold it. To be the Holy Spirits hands and feet as we proclaim Jesus and Him crucified. John 12:31 “ Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” This world system is not moral, and cannot save itself. Satan only destroys, Christ alone can save. Which is why we see such a desperation in the work of Satan even today, he knows even as his power seems to grow, his time, grows shorter because,

Romans 16:20 “ And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”

And our calling gifting, conviction in making disciples is made plain in Acts 26:18 “ to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’”

So this conviction of Sin, Righteousness and judgement spans from quite literally the beginning of Creation. So that we might see the glory and power of God in our salvation and the salvation of others. This good news, so powerful that it can save us from sin, from our righteousness and from the devil. Be the body of Christ. Trust that the Holy Spirit is convicting you and them in every point needs be. Fighting every battle that needs to be fought. Speak truth persuading everyone you can, that Jesus set you free and can do the same for them.

To tell them, Acts 26:20 “ but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance. ”