SERMON MANUSCRIPT
On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus told his followers that they need not be troubled. Instead, they could be sure while confused, strong while vulnerable, and content though needy. Why? Because he promised them in John 14:16–17.
At that moment, those eleven men needed that help from that Holy Helper. And, every moment since then, for over two thousand years up to this very moment, followers of Jesus still need that help from that Holy Helper. As we sometimes sing: “Lord, I need you, O, I need you / every hour, I need you,” Spirit of truth.
Over the last couple of months, we’ve been exploring our needs and the Spirit’s help. As rebels against God, we need saving, so the Holy Spirit regenerates, makes believers new creatures, born again from above. We need security in and assurance of that salvation (because, “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it / prone to leave the God I love”), so the Spirit indwells us, seals us, and testifies to us that we belong to him. We need truth in a world of lies, so the Spirit teaches us. We need fellowship with our Saviour and with his people, so the Spirit unifies us. We need to be holy, so the Spirit sanctifies us. We need guidance and power, so the Spirit fills us, leads us, and prays for us.
The first-century disciples needed help. So do those in the twenty-first. And the Spirit of God provides it. And today we come to another great need of humanity and how it is the Holy Spirit meets that need.
And here’s the need: all people must understand that sin is a big deal. Humanity has a tendency to deny this truth, mute this truth, soften this truth, equivocate on this truth, and explain away this truth. Really, we’ll do anything so as to not affirm the truth that sin leads to death.
Genesis 2: “for in the day that you eat from [the tree] you will surely die” (v. 17). Romans 5: “through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death through sin” (v. 12). Romans 6: “For the wages of sin is death” (v. 23). James 1: “when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (v. 15). Sin is a big deal and all people need to understand and be reminded of that. So, how does the Spirit help us meet that need? This is the convincing ministry of God’s Spirit.
THE SPIRIT CONVICTS THE WORLD
Unlike the ministries we’ve studied so far, the Spirit’s convincing work is available to believer and unbeliever alike. Whereas the indwelling, sealing, teaching, sanctifying, filling, and leading ministries are reserved for those who have believed in Jesus, the convincing work is not. In fact, as we’ll see, the Spirit convicts the world. Turn to John 16.
In this section of John’s gospel, “the world” consistently refers to those apart from Christ and that which is opposed to Christ (see, for example, 14:30; 15:18–19; 16:20). With that in mind, listen to [16:5–8].
According to Jesus, when the Spirit comes—and he did in Acts 2—he’ll convict the world that hates him of three things: sin and righteousness, and judgement. Conviction isn’t the same as conversion but is a necessary step toward it as it shows people their sin and convinces them of their guilt before God. It’s tough to believe in a Saviour when you’re not convinced you need saving.
… concerning sin
The unbelieving world needs to understand their dire circumstances, so the Spirit works to show them. First, he convicts them concerning sin. [16:9] This is a specific, singular sin of which the Holy Spirit convicts the world: it’s the sin of unbelief in the Son.
That’s the sin that sends people to a Christ-less eternity and, so, that’s the sin the Spirit seeks to convince them of. He’s not working to morally reform unbelievers, to stop them from smoking, drinking, and swearing. Those are sanctification issues. There is only one condition that must be met for a person to be saved and that’s faith in the Son and the Spirit works to convict the world of that sin.
… concerning righteousness
Second, the Spirit convicts the world concerning righteousness. [16:10] Just as he convicts the world of their sin, so, I take it, he convicts the world of their righteousness, or, pseudo-righteousness.
A mark of Jesus’s earthly ministry was calling out self-righteousness. Israel loved to pray loudly, give visibly, and worship outwardly, thinking all this made them acceptable to God. But Jesus said, “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me” (Matt 15:8). Jesus tried to expose the world of all of its pathetic attempts to manufacture righteousness, to work its way to God’s favour.
He’s going to the Father, however, so it’s now the Spirit’s job. But as the Son hands the work of conviction over to the Spirit, he also shows what true righteousness looks like. Righteousness is about being acceptable before a holy God and here’s Jesus about to go to the Father, be resurrected by God and return to God. How? Because he’s totally acceptable; totally righteous.
So the Spirit, now, convicts the unbelieving world of the folly of their attempts at virtue and morality in light of the resurrected paragon of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. “You think you’re pretty good? Are you that good? No? Then you’re guilty.”
… concerning judgement
And that leads to number three: the Spirit convicts the world concerning judgement. [16:11] The world set against its Creator stands judged by its Creator in the same way that the ruler of this world was about to be judged at the cross.
Hebrews 2:14 says: “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”
The cross of Christ drew a line in the concrete and every person must decide on which side they will stand: with the crucified, risen, and righteous Victor or with the defeated and judged ruler of this world. And the Spirit goes out to convict, to show and convince the world they’ve chosen poorly and that they, like the captain of the team they now play for, stand judged.
A number of years ago there was a book making its rounds through Christian circles called Love Wins. Essentially, the author taught that, because of God’s overwhelming love for humanity, in the end, “every sinner will turn to God and realize he has already been reconciled to God, in this life or in the next. There will be no eternal conscious torment. God … does not pour out wrath … and he certainly does not punish for eternity. In the end, love wins.”
Tragically, the message taught by this author and countless like him, is the most unloving thing we could ever tell people. Thankfully and mercifully, God is far more loving than this terrible book gives him credit for. He’s loving enough to warn people who hate him.
He send his Spirit to convict the world. To show and convince rebels of their sin of unbelief in the Son, of the impotent nature of their so-called righteousness, and of the judgement under which they now sit and will remain for eternity unless they heed his warnings.
THE SPIRIT CORRECTS THE CHURCH
But what about us? As Christians, we don’t need to be convicted of those things. We have believed. We have his righteousness. We have passed out of judgment (see John 5:24; Rom 8:1).
So, it’s clear that the convincing work of the Holy Spirit isn’t the same for believers as it is for unbelievers. Turn to Hebrews 12. There we’ll find that, while he convicts the world, the Spirit correct the church.
[12:1–3] This is the Christian life: a gruelling endurance race, surrounded by previous finishers screaming “it can be done! keep going!” and with Jesus himself as our pace-car. But racing hurts! The Christian life is hard, isn’t it? And what makes it even harder than it has to be, is all the sin we carry with us. It bogs us down and it trips us up. So get rid of it all!
[12:4] They’d suffered, not to the point martyrdom, but enough. The author isn’t minimizing their hardships, rather, he’s encouraging them to see those hardships properly. [12:5–10]
For those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, we are brought into the family of God. Jesus tells us to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” There’s safety, love, comfort, and security in that relationship.
But like any loving father, our heavenly Father disciplines us when we err. A parent who never corrects or reproves their children is not a loving parent. They’re wicked and negligent. And the God of the universe is neither of those things.
Our Father wants us, his children, to run this race well, with endurance, focus, and confidence. He wants us running in such a way that we one day join the cloud of witnesses, testifying to his preserving power and grace. But to do that, we’ve got to get rid of the sin. And sometimes, God uses trials and hardship to correct us when we indulge.
If you feel burdened for sin in your life, don’t ignore it. Thank God for that uncomfortable correction and respond with repentance.
If you’re reading the Bible and it offends you, don’t explain it away. Put your ego on the altar and accept the Spirit’s rebuke. In fact, we should expect that experience when we look into the mirror of the word.
If you hear something on a Sunday morning that pierces your heart, don’t shoot the messenger. The Lord is reproving you, inviting you to lay aside the encumbrances of pride, self-service, and idolatry.
If a brother or sister calls you out for sin they see in your life, shake their hand, give them a hug, because that is God working through his people by the power of his Spirit to make you a better race-runner.
As much as we may forget it, sin is a big deal. God loves us too much to let us forget and so he sent his Spirit to remind us, rebuke us, correct us, and to lead us back in to fellowship and right worship.
Brothers and sisters, the church is not merely a group of people who are justified by grace through faith in Jesus. It’s not less than that, but it is more. This is to be a place, a people, where the pursuit of holiness is a prevailing characteristic. This is a place where the people of God, being corrected by the Spirit of God, sitting under the word of God, are being changed into the image of the Son of God.
We are not a social club though we enjoy one another. We are not charity group though we serve the needy. We do not get to decide what we are supposed to do, what we are supposed to proclaim, and how we are supposed to operate. We are servants of God, doing God’s work, God’s way, and that includes helping one another maturing in Christ, seeing and killing sin, by the power of the Spirit.
[Eph 4:17–24] Too many churches today look like the world. They talk the same, act the same, think the same, and often sin the same. They let the world tell them how to read God’s word, they question God’s leading, and scorn the Spirit’s correction. And perhaps it’s a strategy, “be like the world to win the world.” But it’s stupid. God’s people are to be peculiar, weird, and offensive in our pursuit of holiness because it makes us smell like life to those who are dying.
And, as we pursue holiness, heeding the correction of the Spirit, perhaps God will use us to bring conviction to those around us who are far from Christ. Maybe, through our witness, the Spirit will convict them of unbelief, or their pseudo-righteousness, and of divine judgment.
A powerful preacher of centuries past, Charles Spurgeon once said: “Believe me, there is no preaching in this world like the preaching of a holy life. It shames me sometimes, and weakens me in my testimony for my Master, when I stand here and [remember] that some professors of religion are a disgrace not only to their religion, but even to common morality. It makes me feel as though I must speak with bated breath and trembling knees, when I remember the damnable hypocrisy of those who thrust themselves into the church of God, and by their abominable sins bring disgrace upon the cause of God and eternal destruction upon themselves. In proportion as a church is holy, in that proportion will its testimony for Christ be powerful. Oh! were the saints immaculate, our testimony would be like fire among the stubble, like the flaming firebrand in the midst of the sheaves of corn. Were the saints of God less like the world, more disinterested, more prayerful, more godlike, the [stomps] of the armies of Zion would shake the nations, and the day of the victory of Christ would surely dawn. Freely might the church [trade] her most golden-mouthed preacher if she received in exchange [people] of apostolic life.”
That’s the church we want to be. We’re a needy people. But we’ve been give the Holy Spirit who meets those needs. He convicts the world and correct the church. Let’s heed his correction together, brothers and sisters, prioritizing our godliness over our comfort. Let’s ask God to help us do that, personally and corporately.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
