We Believe in the Holy Spirit

5 “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, 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.

In verse 7 Jesus tells us that it is to our advantage that He leave, so that the Holy Spirit could come. I imagine that this was quite shocking for the disciples to hear and, I think, shocks us when we first here it. How is it possible that it is better for us? How can it possible be better if you are not physically with us?

Ken and Scott have already painted a picture of some of the benefits of the indwelling Holy Spirit, so we have seen some of the ways that it is to our advantage that Jesus sent us the Spirit. But here Jesus gives us a few more clear reasons that it is to our advantage. Look at what he says in 8-11. The Spirit is sent to convict the world. The church has been charged with the mission of advancing the kingdom to the ends of the earth,but we have no power to do that in and of ourselves. Preaching the Gospel; witnessing to our friends, family and coworkers; gathering as a church for worship and teaching would all be fruitless and void of any real power unless the Holy Spirit was here.

Jesus was very clear that the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts and brings about Salvation. He does this three ways:

He convicts of sin (v. 9)

Jesus says the Spirit convicts the world of their sin because they do not believe in Him. This word “convict” means to expose, rebuke or to find guilty. So through the preaching and teaching of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit exposes the guilt of the world before God because they are sinners who have not believed on Christ for salvation.

The Spirit shows the world their guilt. We cannot convince anyone of their sin and standing before the Lord only the Holy Spirit can.

He convicts of Righteousness (v. 10)

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just expose the guilt of the world, but He exposes the righteousness of Christ. He shows sinners that there is a righteousness standard that they cannot meet, but then shows them the availability of righteousness in Christ. Christ has risen and ascended to the Father and now His forgiveness and righteousness are available to all who will come.

He convicts of Judgement (v. 11)

So the Holy Spirit exposes the guilt of sinners, exposes the righteous standard and the righteousness of Christ, and then exposes that there is judgement. Sin has to be dealt with, it will be judged. Either our sin will be payed for for us or we will pay for it ourselves, there is no third way. The Spirit exposes this coming judgement and shows us that the ruler of this world (Satan) and all who stand with him are judged.

There was a professor of preaching at a seminary who would, at the beginning of the year, take his class of 30 or more students to a nearby graveyard. Once they got there He told them to pick a gravestone and start preaching the Gospel to that grave and once they were done, they were to find another gravestone and do the same thing. This lasted for the entire class. Once their time was up, the professor gathered them all together and asked them one question, “did anyone of those dead people come back to life because of your preaching?” And of course the answer was no. The professor looked at them and said, “Exactly. Your preaching is not what raises the dead to life, only the Holy Spirit can do that. “

This is what we believe! We are powerless to change people, to show people their sin, to convince people of the truth of the Gospel, only the Holy Spirit can do that. Our job is to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the Holy Spirit’s job is to raise the dead to life. He is the one who builds the Church!

Convicts the Church

(NKJV)

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

In the Greek this word “rebuke” is the same word used for convict. If the Lord loves you He will convict you of sin and sanctify you. This is one of the biggest things that the Holy Spirit does in our lives. He continues to convict or expose the wrongness of the sin in our lives and brings us to repentance. He who started the good work in us will see it to completion. It is the good work of the Holy Spirit to expose where we are not honoring Christ and bring us to repentance and press us forward in righteousness. This is the work of sanctification, this is how the Holy Spirit makes us more like Christ.

John 16:13–15 NKJV

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. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

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.

Jesus told us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth guides us into all truth. Verse 13 shows us that the truth is whatever Jesus has spoken and what we believe about the Word of God is that every part of it is God-breathed. So the Spirit leads us to and shows us the truth that is given to us in God’s Word. He is not in the business of giving us “new-revelation” because the Scriptures are the revelation of God, He has already spoken. And the truth that He has spoken to us is that we are sinners in need of Grace and that does

John 16:13-

We are going to talk more about repentance next week, but I think that it is important that we talk about what it means for us as believers to be convicted by the Spirit. I think a lot of times when we mess up and fall into sin, we tend to beat ourselves up. Or at least I do. If I do something I know is sinful or wrong I will dwell on it for days or even weeks. I will beat myself up over and over, I will feel guilty for a very long time. But this is not the work of the Spirit, this is the work of my lack of faith and my own sinfulness. Look at what Paul says in

(NKJV)

9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

When the Holy Spirit convicts us it is meant to lead to a Godly sorrow, a sorrow that recognizes sin for what it is. We are meant to be deeply sorrowful over our sin, but that sorrow is not meant to lead to us being crushed under the weight of guilt and shame. That sorrow is not meant to lead to us to dwell on our sin, and wallow around in shame and guilt. That sorrow is not meant to lead us to beat ourselves up, brothers and sisters Christ was beaten up for us! We are not supposed to beat ourselves up for our sin, we are supposed to repent and go to the one who was beaten up for us. We are supposed to turn away from our sin and trust in the Gospel. Instead of wallowing in our guilt and shame, we are to turn from our sin and trust that Christ took on our sin, guilt and shame and paid for it.

(NKJV)

“ 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;

The Spirit always leads us to the truth of the Gospel, which always leads us to repent and believe. So if you are here today and are beating yourself up for your sin, know that it is not the Spirit who is doing it to you, He is not in the business of crucifying you for your sin, He is in the business of leading you to trust in the one who was crucified for you.

And as He leads you to repent and trust in the Gospel, you will bear fruit.

(NKJV)

Gives the Church Conviction

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

The Spirit convicts us of our sin, leads us to repentance and produces fruit in us. The word fruit is singular in this passage for a reason. The fruit of the Spirit is unlike the gifts of the Spirit. Everyone is not gifted with all of the gifts of the Spirit, but everyone who is in Christ is given the fruit of the Spirit. All of the things listed in this verse are evidence of the Spirit in us and if we are walking in the Spirit, these things will be seen, in varying degrees in our lives. This is what it looks like to walk with the Spirit, He produces these things in everyone. So if you are deficient in one area of this list, it does not mean that the Holy Spirit just didn’t gift you with that, it means that you are not walking in the Spirit in that area of your life, and you have something that you need to work out with the Lord because if we live by the Spirit, we will walk in the Spirit.

Conclusion: All for the Glory of Christ

So to wrap up this section I want us to look at the big picture of what we just talked about. The Holy Spirit convicts the world and leads them to salvation and convicts the Church and leads us to sanctification, by leading us into truth and producing fruit in us. Why does He do this? What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit’s work?

Jesus tells us in

(NKJV)

“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

The purpose of the work of the Holy Spirit is always to Glorify Jesus. To elevate the name and the fame of the Son of God. To Magnify Jesus!

I think we can get really confused when it comes to the work of the Spirit. There are a lot of different beliefs and practices among denominations when it comes to the Holy Spirit, but the way to distinguish between a true work of the Spirit is to ask:

“Did it Glorify Jesus?” “Did it point to Him or something else?” “Did it make His Gospel and His Scriptures more clear?” “Did it end in clarity or confusion and chaos?”

The true work of the Spirit always glorifies Jesus!

So the Holy Spirit convicts the world, convicts the Church, and lastly He leads us to live with conviction. Convictions are firmly held beliefs

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