The Holy Spirit's work of conviction is essential for salvation, as explained through Jesus' discourse in John 16. The Spirit convicts the world of sin, specifically the sin of unbelief, highlighting that this is the primary barrier to salvation rather than individual sinful acts. Furthermore, the Spirit convicts of righteousness, emphasizing that only Christ's righteousness, not human efforts, qualifies one for heaven, and of judgment, revealing that Satan is a defeated foe whose cause is lost. Understanding conviction grounds believers doctrinally, directs their witness, and reaffirms their assurance by showing God's purposeful work in bringing them to Christ.
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speaker this week is thank you I was thinking that probably by now you all know me at least you put up with me often enough here that especially with a name like Smith that shouldn't be too hard to remember but it's great to be with you great to have the opportunity again to share the word of God and to think together about eternal truth and certainly Our studies in this series in the mornings are going to take us into some of the very precious doctrines of salvation in the Scripture. And this morning we would like to look at the doctrine of conviction.
Let's turn our Bibles to John chapter sixteen. This morning we'll just read a few verses in the opening section of this chapter. To give us the context we'll begin reading in verse one. John, verse one. These things I have spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming, and everyone who kills you think he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or me. But these things I have spoken to you that when the hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.
These things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me. And none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper who shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer behold me and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged I have more things to say to you but you cannot bear them now but when he the Spirit of Truth comes he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own initiative but whatever he hears he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come he shall glorify me for he shall take of mine and shall disclose it to you all things that the Father has are mine therefore I said that he who takes of mine he takes
of mine and will disclose it to you lend our reading there look to the Lord for a moment father help us now again as we seek to understand this very important truth from your word we pray that you will guide our thinking grant that the spirit of God himself may be able to work in our hearts for the glory of Christ we pray in the Savior's name amen I love to go to children's camps I think that the ministry of camping is a wonderful ministry but there's one part of camp life that I brace myself for mixed emotion and that is testimony time it's wonderful to hear children give their testimonies of salvation but sometimes when you listen with a doctrinal ear you hear things that disturb you a very typical child's testimony at a campfire at camp as well last year I came to camp and and I listened to the lessons and I didn't want to go to hell.
I wanted to go to heaven, and I talked to my counselor, and we got on her knees, and I got saved, and I'm sure glad I did. And they sit down. And I think of that testimony, and I say, now it's very interesting. I've just heard a testimony of salvation, and that individual didn't even mention the person of Christ. and I listen to the testimonies and I rarely hear a testimony that says anything about a sense of need or of sin or guilt or conviction. And I am not the determining factor, you know. The Bible says, nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure having the seal.
The Lord knows those who are His. And there's no way I would want to pretend to know who really is saved and who is not. But I must admit, when I hear testimonies, that say nothing about the person of Christ and nothing about the conviction of sin it does unnerve me when it comes to the Bible teaching about the matter of salvation the question of conviction of sin is a very important part of that picture and I would like for us today to look at this section in John chapter three and get a very basic very basic study and for many of you this might be boring routine here.
You've probably thought through this many, many times, but I think it is important for us when we think about the matter of salvation to be clear in our understandings of the doctrine relating to conviction. Now, the context of this passage that we're looking at here is the upper room discourse. You know that this section, John chapter thirteen through seventeen, is one of the unique features of John's gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic Gospels. John is not a synoptic. John's Gospel was written for different purposes and in a different structure than the synoptic Gospels. One of the unique features of John's Gospel is this beautiful upper room section.
The teaching of our Lord, the interaction of our Lord with his disciples in that last evening when they celebrated the last Passover and when our Lord instituted the Lord's Supper just before he went to Calvary. And in this upper room discourse, he is looking forward, looking forward. He's preparing them for what was to come, preparing them for his own arrest and betrayal and trial and crucifixion. He's preparing them for the things that he would accomplish after he ascended back to heaven in his resurrection and ascension and sent the Spirit of God. It is in this upper room discourse that we get much of the important teaching of the New Testament.
about the Holy Spirit of God. The unique factors of his coming to indwell the believers. The fact that he is called a paraclete or a comforter or a helper, one called alongside to help. The statement in the passage we've read that he will lead you into all truth, which of course appointed forward to the giving of the New Testament scriptures by inspiration. Many, many important truths about the Holy Spirit. are taught in this passage. And many of these, of course, have to do with the Spirit's work in the lives of believers. His indwelling presence, his enlightening them and giving scriptures, the great work of the Spirit of God and bringing peace to them, that he would permanently indwell them, these wonderful truths relating to the Spirit's ministry to believers, many dimensions of which were to be new and different after Pentecost.
but included in all of this teaching about the Spirit of God. Our Lord included this section in which he talks about what the Spirit of God would do in this age, the age of the church, with regard to the world. And you see that here in verse eight. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. A very important truth. And many times it's appropriate for us to to focus on the work of the Spirit of God in the lives of believers and in this glorious process of building the Church of our Lord Jesus. It's also important for us to understand what the Spirit of God is uniquely doing now in our age with regard to the world.
The doctrine of conviction. Now, this word here is translated from the Greek word elinko, which sometimes is translated to enlighten. sometimes translated to convince, sometimes it's translated to reprove, and sometimes it's translated to convict. And all of these English words bear something of the idea of this New Testament word. To convict, to convince, to enlighten, to reprove. It's a word that's used seventeen times in the New Testament in some very strategic passages. This is only one of a number of passages we might study.
but it's an important passage because it's very foundational. In this passage we learn not only what conviction really is and how important it is, but we learn some things that will help us as believers, as we shall see, to be an important part of this process of the work of the Spirit of God in convicting the world. Now, fortunately, when our Lord told his disciples that the Spirit of God in coming would convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, Fortunately, he went on to describe what he meant. I have often wondered how we would have struggled with this passage if our Lord had not taken the time here to tell us precisely what he meant when he said that the Spirit will come to convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
So let's look at his description here now of this process of conviction. Remember, this is what the Spirit of God wants to do in the world. in the hearts and minds of your neighbors and people in your community your unsaved relatives what is the Spirit of God really trying to do out there in the world well among other things first of all Jesus said he wants to convict the world of sin now notice if you look at this carefully it's not sins plural you see the Spirit of God from the very beginning of man's history always convicted men of sins You read down through the Old Testament, then you will find that many, many, many times people were made aware of their sins.
Read David, for example, great psalm of penitence, Psalm fifty-one. Against thee and thee only have I sinned, he says, confessing his sin to God. Sins of adultery, sins of murder. The Spirit of God, always through man's history, had been working to convict people of sins. But now Jesus, in pointing forward, to the coming of the spirit which we know happened at Pentecost says when he comes he will convict the world of sin singular and specifically what sin well he tells us here in verse nine concerning sin because they do not believe in me the sin of unbelief And in our age, the Spirit of God will make people guilty of and aware of their sins plural, as he always had.
But the unique feature of the work of the Spirit in this age is to highlight and to point up uniquely the sin of unbelief. It's very important for us to understand this. It's important for us to understand what sin is. because when we talk to the world around us, particularly in our society, they don't understand sin in a biblical way. And there are many times when you will have to take the occasion to help the world understand what the Bible means when it talks about sin, missing the mark, what mark? Well, the Bible says all of sin and falls short of what? What is the mark we have missed? The glory of God.
Any want of conformity, any lack of conformity to the very glory of God, whether it's in our thought life, whether it's in our words, whether it's in our action, or whether it's in our state. Regardless of what sphere of life, anything that falls short of the very glory and perfection of God is sin. Now, we know that robbing banks and committing adultery, even out in the world, many people will admit those things are sin. But there is much more in human experience that is sinful. The Proverbs tell us the plowing of the wicked is sin. come up to our state of Iowa in a few months. We'll drive out across the state and watch farmers plowing their ground.
And we drive along and I say to you here, two farmers plowing their ground. I said, what that man's doing is sin. And you look and you say, his furrows are just as straight as the one that man had plowing. He's turning the trash under a baby better than this man. How do you say his is sin? Well, you see, this man's a believer. This man's an unbeliever. What he's doing, he's not doing for the glory of God, therefore it's sin. Now, whether he's doing a good job of plowing or not is really quite beside the point. The Bible says the plowing of the wicked is sin, because he doesn't do it for the glory of God. Now, you see, our world doesn't think this way. We need a biblical understanding of sin, and particularly we need to understand that uniquely the Spirit of God wants to convict people in the world of the sin of sin.
of unbelief. You see, the Bible teaches us that when Christ died at Calvary, he solved our problem of sins. Peter says, who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree. The scriptures say he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. The world needs to know that at Calvary, through Christ, the living God solved our problem of sin. The world needs to know that it is not their sins that stand between them and heaven. It is the sin of unbelief. As our Lord put it in John three, eighteen, he who believes is not condemned, but he does not believe is condemned already because what?
He's robbed the bank? Because he's committed adultery? He is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The sin that stands between a human being and heaven is the sin of unbelief. And the world needs to know that. They need to know that. I think of a young man. I think I've used this illustration here before. Met him at camp. He came to camp, a sixteen-year-old kid. I had the older kids' counseling that week. And the first evening when I said to the guys, okay, guys, it's time for devotions. Get your Bibles. He just bristled. What is this?
Well, I found out that some Christian man had bailed him out of jail. He was a neighborhood kid who was in jail, and the Christian man had bailed him out of jail on the condition that he would come to camp. But they didn't tell him it was a Bible camp. And he was very resentful. He was angry. He had been deceived into something. And this guy was a leader. And when we were trying to go this way in the camp, Chick was leading people this way. and he was very effective and I had a miserable week of it. And then on Thursday night, he met me down in the dark when I was finishing playing taps to quiet the camp down. And he grabbed my arm in the dark and said, Mr.
Dan, I've got to get saved. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I didn't even think this kid was listening. I thought he was fighting everything. Well, we went into an empty room and got the Bible out and began to talk to him about salvation. and again and again he just didn't understand he had no biblical spiritual background and he he he couldn't understand he so I would go back to the creation of man and the fall of man and and lay the foundation and come up to Christ and the beauties of Christ his sinlessness and his sacrificial death and his bodily resurrection and the free gift of salvation and he'd scratch his head and say run that by me again So we go back to the creation in the fall and finally it became apparent that what he could not understand is how could something that somebody did two thousand years ago help him.
He was locked into that kind of mode. How in the world could it be that something that somebody did two thousand years ago? I wasn't even there. I wasn't even aligned yet. How could that help me? And so I resorted in a simple illustration. You've seen it. I said, check here you and here's your sin. Oh, he said, I know it. I know it. You don't have to tell me I know I'm a sinner. Bad, bad, bad. And I said, but Christ came, and he had no sin. He was holy and harmless and undefiled. But when he was hanging on the cross, chick, God who knew your sins put your sins on him. You know, all we like sheep have gone astray, the scripture says. We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Now God looks down from heaven, what does he say? There's the sinner, judge him. And check, Christ died for your sins. He died because of your sins. He was buried. He put him away. And he rose again in the spirit of holiness and ascended back to heaven. I can remember his eyes watching my eyes. I said, okay, now, check, where are your sins? And tears came to his eyes and he jumped to his feet. He said, they're gone, they're gone, they're gone. You see, the world needs to know that. Christ has solved the problem of sins. And what stands between the unbeliever out there in heaven is the sin of unbelief.
And they need to know that. And that's part of the convicting work of the Spirit of God. Not only that, the Lord Jesus said, when he comes, he will convict the world of righteousness. Now this is an interesting one. Notice again, he did not say unrighteousness. Again, all through history, the Spirit of God is again convicting people of unrighteousness, the things that they did that were not right. Righteousness means that which is right, that which is true, that which is according to the standard, that which measures up correctly. And unrighteousness, of course, is that which deviates from that true and straight line.
The Spirit of God has always convicted people of their unrighteousness. But now, Jesus said, when the Spirit comes, which he did at Pentecost, he will convict the world of righteousness. And fortunately, he told us what he meant. Did you see it here in verse ten concerning righteousness? Because I go to the Father and you see me no more. Wow, what does that mean? Convict the world of righteousness because I go to the Father and you see me no more. Now, first of all, remember this, that our Lord Jesus coming into this world never ceased to be what he was.
He gave up nothing when he came here. His glory was veiled to be sure. He took upon himself also humanity. but he was the holy son of God and he never ceased to be that in him was righteousness utter complete infinite and the scriptures teach us that when you come to Christ this is taught for example in first Corinthians chapter one he is made unto us believers what wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
The Bible describes salvation as, among other things, Christ being made righteousness to us. You go to a passage like Romans chapter three, where Paul says that this man has sinned and corrupted himself in sin. And what he needs is, the gift of righteousness, which is offered unto all, Paul says, the righteousness of God, but upon all them that believe. It's a beautiful statement. Even the righteousness of God, which is unto all, but upon all them that believe, for there's no difference, for all of sin comes short of the glory of God. When you study the New Testament, you become very aware of the fact that the righteousness which we need is not our kind of righteousness, it's God's kind of righteousness.
the righteousness of God. And the Bible teaches us that this is not a matter of degree, it's a matter of kind. It's not a matter of doing more and more righteous deeds, doing more and more good works. It's a different kind of righteousness that we need to get to heaven. And the Spirit of God wants to convict the world of this fact. that without the very righteousness of Christ we will never follow him into the glory of righteousness he said because I go to my father and you see me no more the kind of righteousness that qualifies a person to go to heaven is Christ's righteousness it's the righteousness of God not human righteousness and it's not a matter of degree it's a matter of kind let me illustrate that I love this illustration And I may have used it here before.
I recall a number of years ago, just near where the school was located in Oak Park, there was a department store. It's some very nice things. And I remember a neighbor who worked there telling me this story. She told me of a little girl who came in to buy a gift for her mother. And she looked around, and in the case there, she found a handkerchief. Now, at that time, they had some very, very lovely things. That was a lot of years ago, and this little girl picked out a handkerchief that cost twenty-five dollars. Well, thirty years ago that was an awful lot of money for a handkerchief. And the lady said, when the little girl picked that handkerchief out, she said, I knew I was in trouble for her to pick out that expensive handkerchief.
So she said, she pulled it out, put it up on top, the little girl touched it and appreciated it. She said, I will take that for my mother. And she opened her purse and began to lay monopoly money up on the counter. And the lady said, then I knew I was really in trouble. She said, no, I can't sell you that. Oh, I've got more, she said. I'll come more. Fifty, hundreds. And the lady said, no. She said, I can't sell you that handkerchief for that money. I'll run home and get some more. She said, no, no, you don't understand. It's not that you need more of that money. She said, the problem is you've got the wrong kind of money. I need U.S. currency. I need greenbacks.
I need dollars. The monopoly money is good in the game of monopoly, but it doesn't buy anything in this store. It's the wrong kind of money. And she said, we struggled and struggled. And finally the little girl went away crying. She said, I felt so terrible. I wanted to give her the handkerchief. So when I put that handkerchief back in the case, she said, I felt so terrible. She couldn't understand that the problem was not that she didn't have enough money. The problem was she had the wrong kind of money. She had hundreds and thousands. but it was the wrong kind. Now that's what the Spirit of God wants to convict the world of. Our righteousness, human righteousness, the things that we generate by our own efforts and our own good works, that may be important in the game of life here.
And I'm glad people aren't as wicked as they could be. And I'm glad that even unsaved people do kind things, aren't you? Paul commended that People on that, the pagans on that island for treating them with kindness. We're glad for that. But human righteousness buys nothing in heaven. It's the wrong kind of righteousness. The only kind of righteousness that gets you into heaven is the righteousness of God. The righteousness of Christ. And we don't have that inherently. And we can't generate that. We must receive it as a free gift. And when we receive Christ, He is made unto us righteousness, even the righteousness of God which is offered unto all, but upon all them that believe.
And without that, you will never follow Christ into the glory. The third point of our Lord's teaching here on the matter of the conviction work of the Spirit has to do with judgment. And he said, fortunately, what this means. He will convict the world of judgment. Not of judgment to come. I have heard this verse misquoted more times than I could count. Now, judgment to come is a valid biblical subject. In fact, you'll find at least one place in the book of the Acts when Paul preached on judgment to come and made a very important man tremble in his boots and made his knees knock. And that's an important subject. And all through the history of mankind, God had been reminding people that there's judgment that lies ahead, that we will all give an account when we stand in the presence of God.
but that's not what's in view here. The Spirit of God, uniquely in this age, wants to convict men and women of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. Prince of this world is Satan. The tense of the verb, perfect. That is, it points to action that was complete in the past and its effects remain to the present. Satan was judged completely. And he still is judged. The world needs to know that. When was Satan judged? At Calvary, Colossians chapter two.
When our Lord Jesus died and rose again, he accomplished a great victory over Satan and accomplished judgment against Satan. In fact, in Hebrews chapter two, we read that through death, he destroyed him who had the power of death. to deliver those of us who otherwise would be in bondage all of our lives with the fear of death. Satan was judged at Calvary, and that judgment still stands. Now, why God has not affected it yet is another important theological truth. The fact of the matter is the world needs to know that Satan is a condemned foe. He's judged. We're not waiting to see whether good or evil is going to win out. You know, the whole Star Wars thing is baloney. We know who's winning.
Christ is already the victor. And we're not waiting to see who's going to come out on top. Satan is judged. He's a defeated foe. And the world needs to know this. They need to know that even rats have enough sense to get off a sinking ship. That's a strong way to put it. But that's what the Spirit of God wants to convince the world of. To let them know that their cause is lost. That this world system, in all its glitz and glitter, And all of its hullabaloo and all of its sound and tapestry is already under condemnation. The jigs up, it's already over. The issue is already decided.
Christ is already victor. The prince of this world is judged. It's a hopeless cause. Christ is victor. And the Spirit of God wants to make the world aware of that. Now it's important for us to think this. Let me give you an illustration. In the War of eighteen twelve, the struggle between the US and Britain and after that conflict wore down, eventually a treaty was signed and the treaty was that Britain would withdraw her troops and the war was over and they had given up and it was all settled. But in those days they didn't have radios and all kinds of rapid means of communication.
By the time that That treaty had been signed and the war was officially over. A fleet of British ships had already set sail down the Atlantic around Florida here and up into the bay, the Gulf, and they were going to invade down in New Orleans. And Andy Jackson and his troops down there knew they were coming. They fortified, you've read the story, the Battle of New Orleans fortified the wharf down there with great bales of cotton. And the hour came closer and closer and the ships came closer and finally the moment of invasion came and the British troops came rushing through the water and Andy Jackson, his sharpshooter, just mowed them down.
In fact, historians say that the blood in the Gulf was red for miles out with blood. Many, many, many British troops died. Just a total massacre. And the tragic thing is it was so needless because the war was already over. The treaty had already been signed. They hadn't got the word. It was so needless. The whole invasion, the whole slaughter of men was so needless because the war was already over. And they died needlessly. And the world needs to know that the war is already over. The victory is already accomplished. The die is already cast.
Christ is already victor. The prince of this world is judged. and the world needs to know that they need to know that now it's important for us to understand conviction for several reasons obviously to ground ourselves doctrinally it's important for us to understand all that the Bible teaches and the doctrine of conviction is one of those teachings of the scriptures that we need to understand that God wants to enlighten our convinced or convict the heart and conscience of people out in the world, and specifically about these issues of the sin of unbelief, of their desperate need for the righteousness of Christ, and of the fact that Satan is a defeated foe.
The world needs to know this. The Spirit of God wants to convict them of this, and you and I as believers need to understand the doctrine of conviction. Another reason why it's important for us to think through this doctrine is because this will give direction to our witness for Christ. When you're speaking to others about Christ, if you know, which I hope you will as you think through this and study the doctrine, if you know what the Spirit of God wants to accomplish in their hearts, then as you present biblical truth to them, You can present the truth of God in the light of what you know the Spirit of God wants to accomplish in their hearts.
For example, in witnessing to your friends or relatives, have you ever taken occasion to remind them of the fact that Christ accomplished a great victory at Calvary and Satan is a defeated foe? And this world, in all of its tapestry, in all of its glitter, in all of its pomp and circumstance, is a lost cause. Christ is victor. It's already settled. And they need to know that. Those unsaved friends of yours know that without the very righteousness of Christ, they will never follow him into the glory. And it's not doing more good works on their own. No, no.
It's not by works of righteousness which we have done. The Bible clearly teaches that. Why? Because human righteousness buys nothing in heaven. It's like monopoly money. And admit it's good in the game of life. But they need to know that human righteousness buys nothing in heaven. Nothing. They need to know that. And if we understand the spirit of God's work and what he wants to accomplish, that really has something to do with our witness. We can, in witnessing to our friends and neighbors, give them scripture and biblical truth.
that will point up these issues that the Spirit of God needs to work with. The third thing that we'll accomplish in our lives to understand the doctrine of conviction is it will reaffirm your assurance Christians who have responded to the convicting work of the Spirit of God. You see, we live in a world that doesn't like guilt. Mm-mm. We don't like the idea of guilt. We tend to think of guilt as destructive, as harmful. And in many ways, guilt is very destructive and very harmful. Who knows how many individuals have had their personalities ravaged by guilt.
But the doctrine of conviction tells us that there is one dimension of this that is really the positive purpose of God. And if you have known the guilt of your own sin and need, if you have known the convicting work of the Spirit of God in your life, praise God. For it is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance. One of the best things God ever did for me was to show me that I was a sinner, that I needed Christ. As an eight-year-old kid, scrawny little withdrawn kid growing up on a poor Missouri farm but how guilty I was conviction I remember waking up at night literally physically trembling because I feared the Lord had come and left me behind and then I hear my dad snore and I was all at peace again because I knew dad was going to glory as long as he was there at least the rapture hadn't taken place now why would a kid fight fight fight Weeks at a time, I was a sinner.
And the Spirit of God was bearing it on my conscience and heart. And I was miserable, but I praise him for what he did. The conviction of sin is the work of God to bring us to Christ. And if you have known his conviction, bless him. Ask the deep conviction of sin. I wish I had the courage to sing that old hymn to you that told me what happened, under conviction of sin, and then came that night. Never forget that Sunday night. Don't know the exact date, but as the hymn writer put it, it was an old-fashioned preacher in an old-fashioned place.
An old-fashioned message of old-fashioned grace. But like an old-fashioned sinner, I began to pray. And the Lord heard and saved me in the old-fashioned way. I bless God for the convicting work of the Spirit of God. I'm troubled by the easy believism of our day. But even some of the great methods of salvation, like the four spiritual laws, don't start where Paul starts in Romans. The wrath of God revealed from heaven against... How do the four spiritual laws start? God loves you is a wonderful plan for your life. And that's true, folks. But there isn't much of conviction.
We don't like to talk about sin. We live in a humanistic society that rejects the idea of sin and guilt. The bottom line of our society is I just want to feel good about myself. And conviction is exactly the opposite. Because the convicting work of the Spirit of God says, No, no, that's not where it's at, folks. You're a sinner, says the Spirit of God. And in your unbelief, if you die in your unbelief, you will be forever lost. The world needs to know that. That what stands between them and heaven is the sin of unbelief.
And without the righteousness of Christ, they'll never follow him there. And the world is already a lost cause. Satan is already defeated foe. The world needs to know this. And we need to let it know. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that your work of conviction in our hearts is real and faithful. And Father, today, many of us in the quiet of this hour would reflect upon the deep plowings of the Spirit of God in our hearts that brought us to Christ. and we thank you for the faithful work of the Spirit of God in conviction and we thank you for the grace of God as the hymn writer put it was grace that caused my heart to fear and then grace my fears relieved may that be true of every one of us here today and may our witness be true that we might be the instruments of the Spirit of God in his gracious and powerful work of conviction.