The ministry of the Holy Spirit during the Christian age is crucial for believers to understand, beginning with His role as the world's great convictor. The sermon outlines seven aspects of the Spirit's work: convicting, regenerating, indwelling, sealing, baptizing, filling, teaching, and restraining. Focusing on the ministry of conviction, the sermon highlights Jesus' words in John 16:8-11, explaining that the Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The primary sin of which the Spirit convicts is unbelief in Jesus Christ, as illustrated by an object lesson where a child correctly identified unbelief as the greatest sin because it prevents forgiveness. The message concludes by urging listeners to acknowledge their unbelief and embrace faith in Christ, emphasizing that this conviction is the essential first step in understanding the Holy Spirit's work.
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Beloved radio, friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and worthy name of the Lord Jesus, giving you a hearty welcome to the study of God's precious Word and the great biblical doctrine which we are undertaking to explain the doctrine of the Holy Spirit of God. We particularly are emphasizing that the present ministry of the Holy Spirit of God during the age of the Church greatly needs to be understood properly by God's beloved people today. Now may I state that if you have never been saved, don't expect to understand the teaching of the Word of God concerning any of its truth.
For it is recorded by the same Spirit, who is the theme of our study, the natural man perceiveth not the things which be of God, Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. So that our subject should be of great importance, in particular, to those who are the people of God. Now I direct my words in love and in kindness to all believers. Do you have an intelligent, comprehensive, clear, biblical understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit?
or do you just dwell upon one phase of what he may have done and even may yet do? My beloved, we need to have a balanced, harmonized understanding of the person of the Holy Spirit as well as of all of his work. Now we come particularly in our message today and the messages that we'll follow to the ministry or the work of the Holy Spirit during our present age. We have dwelt sufficiently upon his personality, proving that he is a person from the Word of God. We have also dwelt upon the equality of the Holy Spirit in the great Godhead.
Now we would specially dwell in the days ahead upon the ministry or the work of the Holy Spirit during the Christian age. I would like to enumerate very briefly and quickly some of the subjects in this special order which we will consider concerning the work of the Holy Spirit. The first that we shall consider today will be His ministry of convicting. The next, we shall consider His ministry of regenerating. The third, we shall consider His ministry of indwelling. The fourth, we shall consider His ministry of sealing.
The fifth will be our consideration of his ministry in baptizing. And then, six, his ministry of filling. And seven, his ministry of teaching. And then, in the will of God, last of all, his ministry of restraining. In that particular order we trust by the will and the help of God, to consider... the work of the Holy Spirit during the Christian age. And let me remind you, the Christian age began on the day of Pentecost. And the Christian age, not yet finished, will be finished when our Lord descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, wherefore comfort one another with these words.
But until the Lord comes, that same blessed spirit that came at Pentecost continues upon the earth in his present word. He has never left the earth since Pentecost came. He has never changed his methods. He has never changed the character of his word. And we shall, by the grace and the help of God, consider the detailed study of his work in relation to the present age of the church. Now we begin touching upon his ministry of convicting. We desire to consider this faith as being the world's great recruver or the world's powerful convictor.
Now we read the words of the Lord Jesus. And I commend to you the reading of those words from John chapter sixteen, verses eight through eleven. Here are the Saviour's words, and he's speaking of the Holy Spirit. And when he is come, he will reprove or convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my Father, And do you see me no more? Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. Now, I want you to note very carefully the definite work of the Holy Spirit as we consider these words that our Savior has spoken of him.
That he is the world's powerful convictor. Now, beloved friend, may I state this? If you are anxious and have never known anything about the Holy Spirit in His work, this is where you'll have to begin. No man or woman, no boy or girl will ever know anything about the Holy Spirit until they have been convicted of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Let's begin at the right place when we consider the work of the Holy Spirit. For this is His ministry toward the whole world. And it is a three-fold ministry of conviction.
And my beloved, I want to state frankly, I am more concerned about people getting convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit than I am that they speak in tongues. I say that lovingly and earnestly. For I'm finding so many people that are overestimating the importance of the latter statement. speaking in tongues. My beloved, that's not the first important requirement for men and women to know. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ stating what he would do when the Spirit of God would come.
First, he will convince the world of sin. Second, he will convince them of righteousness. Third, he will convince them of judgment. Now let's consider them separately and carefully. First said the Lord Jesus, he will convince the world of sin. But though there are many sins that the world is guilty of, the Lord Jesus Christ names one specific sin. In verse nine of this chapter of sixteen in John, He will convince the world of sin because they believe not on me. Now I presume that there may be different, many different views about what would be the greatest sin.
But the Lord narrows it down to what in his sight is the greatest. And that is unbelief in him. Unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may ask, why is this the greatest sin? Let me give an illustration from my experience when I was a Sunday school superintendent and teacher. On one occasion I gave the children of the Sunday school an object lesson from a text in the book of Job. Chapter fourteen in verse seventeen. The words saying, My transgressions are sealed up in a bag. Thou sowest up mine iniquity. I used a bag to illustrate the text that I presented.
I had cards printed with the names of various sins, such as murder, hatred, lying, stealing, and so on. I spoke of those different sins, and of God's grace and of His power through the blood of Jesus to forgive and to cleanse them. Then I had one last card with the name upon it, unbelief. As I showed this last card to the children, I asked, Boys and girls, this is the greatest sin than all the rest. Can anyone tell me why it is a greater sin than the others? A ten-year-old boy raised his hand, and I said, Eddie, you tell me.
And the boy replied to my joy, Mr. Bramhall, God can forgive all those other sins, but if you never believe on Jesus, He never can forgive you. That boy was correct. My radio friend, has the Spirit of God convicted you of sin? And though you may have heard the message of God's forgiveness offered to you through Christ, you still refuse to believe it? My beloved radio listener, When God is provided a free and a perfect salvation through the blood of his atoning Son, and you still refuse to believe it, you refuse to accept it, then you should right now be convicted of committing a sin that unless you put your faith in the Savior, that sin of unbelief will take you to an eternal hell.
If God's Spirit is speaking to your soul, please pray right now the prayer of another who called on the Lord Jesus and said, Lord, I believe, help thou might unbelieve, and may the Holy Spirit do his work in some heart, even this present moment. Now let me begin at the right place. The Spirit of God, first of all, must convict a person of his and her sin, and bring before them the convicting fact. Though they are sinners, Christ has died for their sins.
And his work in the present age is to bring his convicting power, his convincing grace upon their souls and heart, to acknowledge, I have never believed on Christ. but to step out on faith and say, I do believe, I now believe that Jesus died for me, that on the cross he shed his blood from sin to set me free. My beloved, may the Holy Spirit be seen by you as the powerful convictor to trouble your soul over the solemn fact you may not yet have believed upon the Lord Jesus.
May his work be done in your heart now. You can only turn to the Savior and be reminded that his words say, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. But he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. This is the first phase, and we shall continue in it, of the ministry of the Holy Spirit convicting. Father, may the Holy Spirit do his work. Is our deep and earnest prayer for the glory of our Savior and the happiness of some soul? Amen.