The Holy Spirit:The Gift of Conviction

There was a story about 2 ships in the Atlantic Ocean and they sent an SOS saying they did not have any drinking water. As you know the ocean is salty and gthe water cannot be drunk, but actually what the ship didn’t know was that it had sailed into the Saint lawrence seaway, and was actually in fresh water.

They could have simply let down their buckets and they could have had a drink. I wonder if you and I are that way because we think to ourselves, we are defeated, we are disappointed, we are stuck in sin and theres no way to get out.

God says to us, via the Holy Spirit of God that the provision has been made for you and for me. Put down the bucket and drink and recieve from the Lord the miracle of the Holy Spirit of God. Now if u are a believer you already know that we are indwelt with the Spirit Jesus made it very clear that the HS cannot be given to the world.

But tonight we are going to look at what the Holy Spirit does in relation to the world. I can’t help when I read the book of acts to see the power of the church the miracles of the church.

Even if we say we dont believe we can do the miracles that the apostles did because there are miracles that only the apostles could do, still the answers to prayer, the joy of the church, the power of the church. The Holy Spirit is the same today as He was back then.

He hasn’t changed at all, if only we trusted Him more, if only we dealt with all of the issues on our side of the ledger who knows what we would see if the Spirit had His way.

The passage were going to be looking at tonight is where Jesus is talking about the relationship to the Holy Spirit and the world. The Holy Spirit and the world.

John 16:5–11 HCSB

“But now I am going away to Him who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in Me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

John 16:5-

When we witness, when we share our faith we become partners with the Holy Spirit.

There was an 18 year odl who went off to camp and was saved. He came back home and said to his parents, you know what I feel so different all of my guilt is gone and I know I belong to God I have peace in my heart, did you know that if you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior you can have that too?

His parents said what are you talking about, were Christians too we go to church, you’ll get over your fanaticism soon enough. Were good people what do you have to say to us…

The kid is confused and saying this is like finding a pot of Gold and saying you can come and get this pot of Godl too and yet all that you are met with is a cold stare.

WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD DOES HIS WORK TO SHOW US OUR SIN, AND OUR NEED OF CHRIST IT IS A GREAT WORK. The Biuble says you cannot believe without the action, direction, and intervention of the Holy Spirit.

Because it aint just an intellectual issue it is a heart issue and everything inside of us says no, no, no. God has to overcome that resitence and He does it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said there are 3 things that the Spirit is going to do when He comes:

He is going to convict the world of sin

By the way the Spirit is an advocate for believers thats why the Lord uses the word counselor/comforter. But notice that for the world He is going to become the prosecuter because you cant see the beauty of Jesus unless you know of your sin.

So the Spirit is going to convict of sin.

Ask the average person what sin is and he will tell you that its something that someone else does that he doesn’t like. You know oh its the murderer or this or that.

What is sin?

Sin is living on God’s Earth without acknowledging and worshipping Him.

Sin is not loving the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul. From that one sin flows all of these others sins that Jesus said are lodged in our hearts.

Matthew 15:19 HCSB

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.

it is because we dont love God with all of our heart, and mind and soul. Then its not just any sin the biggest sin is that they believe not on me, now you say well what about those who have not heard about Christ let’s not discuss them for a minute let me just discuss you because you are hearing about Him.

The worst thing you could do is reject the gift of God that He has given to us in Jesus CHrist.

So Jesus says the Holy Spirit is going to come and He is going to convict people of sin and convince them as to why they have to believe on Jesus and why nobody else can be their Savior, and He will show them the beauty of Jesus.

Next Jesus said that the HS of God would convict of sin, but also notice one standard and that is the standard of righteousness. The Bible says there are 2 kinds of rightouesness theres the righteousness of man, and the righteousness of God and the 2 are very different.

Most people believe their goodness will get them somwhere, but just like you can add a billion oranges and never get a bananna in the very same way you can take all the righteousness that has ever been done and you will never have Gods righteousness.

When you and I are confronted with our sin, we do one of two things

we blame somebody else

Saw a story one time about how they set up a sting operation at an airport and there was a TSA agent who stole an Ipad but they had a little gadget on the ipad so that they could track it down to his home 30 miles away and they show up at his home he doesn’t have it.

But then they set off a beeper on the ipad and they said well lets ping it so this little beeper goes off so the man has to give it to them. Then his last words were, I think my wife got it from somewhere.

Wow

first you lie, then you fudge and tweek, then when you have no other option you throw your wife under the bus what a great guy you are.

Isn’t that what Adam did in the garden?

The woman who thou gavest me, it was this weak willed woman and notice that Adam said that even though there wasn’t a chance in the world that he had married the wrong one.

What God does through the HS is show people something. that in comparison to each other they might be good but in comparison to God they have not attained His absolute pure Holiness, they have missed the mark.

thats the only righteousness that God accepts, if I were to quote Jesus then I would say you have to be as perfect as God to get to Heaven but of course you do. But that perfection only comes when you trust Christ as Savior He gives you the gift of His own righteousness and qualifies you for relationship with God and acceptance from Him.

So Jesus shows them this through the ministry of the HS they begin to see that in relation to somebody else I might be pretty good but when it comes to comparing myself with God thats another story,

Like Job said before God came to Him I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes sees thee and I repent in dust and ashes..... wow

God pure holy, perfect I am indeed a sinner that needs a Savior. Then the Bible says that He will also convince of one danger

Judgement

Theres something inside of us that tells us about our accountability before God and there are atheist you know who do all they can to discount it they keep telling themselves over and over again theres no life after death until their own conscience’s are deadned.

But they allknow it and we all want it. Somebody who has done eveil to you you would want God to judge them, your not so sure that you want god to judge you however.

But the Bible says that the day is coming where God is going to judge catch this now.

, God is going to judge the secrets of men and women by Jesus Christ. No hiding, no fudging, no covering just you and God and reality. That is scary unless you know something of the righteousness of Jesus Christ covering and credited to you account.

So you stand there perfect as God because god has given you His righteousness. Jesus said that of course Satan was judged at the cross seen to be evil seen to be a failure, just like I judged him there will be those who anticipate the danger of of judgement.

I say this to you from my heart if you dont know Christ as Savior you stand in danger of judgement the Bible says the condemnation of God already rests upon you.

so Jesus said that the Spirit is gonna point this out because you and me wanna run and hide we wanna argue about it, well I was justified in my sin here and there.....

on and on

Because we are running from what we think might be true and we are afraid of what might be...

Thats why CS lewis said He was brought kicking and screaming into the Kingdom of Heaven and eve while I am speaking there are some who may be listening and theres a struggle going on and you dont wanna beleive that your not in right standing with God, you dont want to think about all the implications of that but I pray the HS of God wins that argument in your heart.

One channel

Jesus said when the Spirit has come to you, He will through you convict the world of sin and unrighteousness God uses two channels really to convert people. first of all He uses His word.

(evoloutionists/Christian)

That happens again and again because there is power in the word of God. So God uses His word but He normally brings that word through His people, the Spirit comes through you He will convict the world oif sin and righteousness and judgement.

So the next time you see something wrong in your brothers life you need to know this yes it is your responsibility to tell them. Speak the truth in love of course but it is our responsibility.

As iron sharpens Iron so does a man sharpen the countenance of his friend.

So how your witnessing going, tomorrow morning your going to be at your jobs and your going to be interacting with neighbors do they know that you are a Christ follower?

have you told them, have you even asked them,

“you know what is you opinion of Jesus” after all the Spirit has come to you, and He is going to use you to give the good news of the gospel, so that people understand unless I believe on Jesus I’ll be lost forever.

SOME IMPLICATIONS

Do you understand how exciting this is?

When you begin to witness to Christ and about Him, the HS immediately comes to your aid because we are partners together in this. You do your work in introducing them to Christ and having a conversation and then the Spirit shows up and He does His work, in fact if the Spirit does not do His work it will all fall apart.

You have to believe when you lift Jesus up immediately the Spirit is there to support you and help you. If you have never had this experience as a Christian please take me at my word it is the best thing you will ever experience in your life.

(tracts)

I am a naturally timid person when I have to get up and speak to people but there is such assurance and confidence that comes when I obey the Lord.

Getting started is hard, but when we exalt Christ the Spirit shows up and says my responsibility is to point men and women to Christ we are partners in this. Partner with the HS ask somebody tomorrow about their opinion is of JEsus.

Ask them where they are when it comes to their spiritual life

Or say to them Would you mind if I share with you something that someone shared with me once that changed my life?

Who is going to say no to that and then tell them your story. the Holy Spirit who has been given will begin to do His work.

Conviction is not the same as conversion

Many people who we talk to are going to resist the Spirit as a matter of fact the way they often resist the spirit is often times they become very angry or agitated or dismissive they cant stand what your saying.

Don’t get discouraged it is the jjob of the HS Spirit to convince them you have given them some evidence let the Hs take it from there. Because without the HS they cant see their need, they are filled with self justification they are upset, they may shake their fists at you but dont be discouraged because it is up to the spirit to do what we cant.

( this morning)

now For god to use this conviction to save somebody is a huge work, i mean if your here tonight and your a believer God really favored you witha huge miracle.

god spiritually raised you from the dead it is spoek of as being blind and now your able to see, it is like being deaf and suddennly your begin to hear.

It is by the HS that God begins to regenerate a personwhen they savingly believe on Jesus. Thats the miracle that the Hs is working towards in the lives of those who hear the gospel.

The HS can be resisted

Many people resist the HS

But the Lord overcomes....

(preach)