The Holy Spirit & You, Part 2 | The Invisible Battle for Your Soul

A New Beginning presents a book about the greatest evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham, written by his friend, Pastor Greg Laurie. I bring insights that maybe other books have not really touched on. I also weave in a lot of my personal experiences, one-on-one with Billy, things he said to me, and things I gleaned by watching him. So if you want to learn more about this man that changed the world, get your copy of Billy Graham, The Man I Knew.

Yours for a gift of any amount at harvest.org. The Holy Spirit of God. He says you are bad, you are sinful.

There's the answer. It's Jesus. Coming up today, Pastor Greg Laurie explains how the Holy Spirit shows sinners where they can find forgiveness. Go to Jesus and your sins will be forgiven. Go to Jesus and that righteousness will be placed in your account. Go to Jesus and your questions will be answered. He shows you the sin and then He brings you to the Savior.

That's it. The work of the Holy Spirit. In our natural bodies, there are many things inside that keep us alive, although we've never seen them.

Antibodies, clotting agents, intestinal flora, white blood cells. Now spiritually speaking, there are invisible forces at work that want to help us and save us, although other forces want to destroy us. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the work of God's Spirit acquaints us with our sin and acquaints us with our Savior.

It's important we know how to respond. You know, when I turn on the television these days, man, there's just so much bad stuff, isn't there? Just tragedy layered on tragedy. I see so much sin on display. You see selfishness. You see violence. You see murder. You hear of all these horrible things happening. And I'm just talking about the cartoons on Saturday morning.

No, seriously though. It's sort of like sin is on display every day, every night for us all to see. So what is the worst sin a person could possibly commit? Is it stealing? Is it murder? Is it adultery? Those are bad sins for sure. But let me re-ask the question, what sin offends God more than any other?

I think you might be surprised by my answer. Here in John chapter 16 we're looking together at the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of the non-believer. In our last message we focused primarily on the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of the Christian. Now we're looking at the work that He wants to do in the life of the person who is not yet a Christian.

We're in John 16 starting at verse 7. Jesus says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage 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. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they do not believe in Me. Of righteousness because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. And of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

We'll stop there. The Holy Spirit of God. Clearly the most misunderstood and misrepresented member of the Trinity. It seems whenever there is something weird going on it always gets blamed on the Holy Spirit.

Right? You flip the channels. You come to some Christian TV station.

I might put that in quotes in some cases. And you see people coming under the power of the Spirit. They are falling on the floor. They are shrieking. They are laughing uncontrollably.

They are barking like dogs. And the preacher says, This is the Holy Spirit. And they even make it sound more holy. So when you hear Holy Spirit you are like, I don't know if I want that. I want to just tell you all that crazy stuff. That is not the Holy Spirit.

That is just crazy stuff. Because the Bible tells us what the work of the Holy Spirit is. And Jesus makes an amazing statement to begin with here in John 16. He says, It is to your advantage 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. Remember in our last message on the Holy Spirit we talked about the word that the word helper comes from.

It is parakletos in Greek. One who is called alongside to help is the definition of it. It speaks of an advocate in a court of law among other things. So Jesus is actually saying, It is better for you that I go away. It is to your benefit or to your advantage that I go away. Otherwise the Holy Spirit would not come to you in this way.

Now that amazes me because it seems to me. Oh no. The best thing would be to have Jesus with us physically. I mean how amazing would that be? Imagine if Jesus was sitting in church with you. Just next to you isn't Jesus. I mean you couldn't stop looking at Him. He is God. What is God doing now? And you would find yourself just staring at Him. Wanting to hear whatever He had to say.

Anything He would do. But Jesus is saying, It is actually better for you that I go away. Because then the Holy Spirit, the parakletos, the helper, the advocate, the counselor will come to you.

Notice He says in verse 8, When He has come. Remember we pointed out that the Holy Spirit is not a force. He is a personality. Because sometimes people think He is just some power out there. Like something out of Star Wars or something.

No. The Holy Spirit has a distinct personality. Though He is likened in Scripture to fire and a dove and other things. In reality He is always referred to as a He. And that is a capital He. Because He is part of the Trinity.

So here is a quick review of what we already saw. The Holy Spirit has come to convict us of our sin. You could also just interchange the word convinced with convict. He has come to convince us of our sin. Verse 8. John 16.

When He has come. He will convict or convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. You see one's ignorance of sin, righteousness, and judgment can bring their destruction. So God has sent His Holy Spirit to make the non-believer aware of this.

Before we can appreciate the solution we have to see the real problem. So we need to be convicted by the Spirit. Because there is no conversion without conviction. Being a Christian is not just living a better life. Jesus is not just helpful. He is our only hope.

He has not come to improve our life. He comes to save our life. And so we need to realize that only the Holy Spirit can show us our real need. You know it is interesting that the word convict means to cross-examine. The Holy Spirit has come to cross-examine us with the purpose of convicting or refuting an opponent. He doesn't come to just convict the world in general. But to specifically show them they are lacking in the righteousness they need to get to heaven.

This is a very important distinction. It is not just sins in general. The Holy Spirit has come to show you the biggest sin of all. The sin of self-righteousness. And in its place God wants to give you His righteousness. I bring this up because every time you turn around people are thinking that they get to heaven by good works. You know I guess I don't expect non-believers to know much about this. But when I hear Christians or at least professed believers still subscribing to an idea like this it just seems insane to me.

But people do still think this. That well you know if you live a good life you will get to heaven. And if you live a bad life then you will go to hell.

Listen use flash. There are good people that are going to go to hell and there are bad people that are going to go to heaven. So well that makes no sense at all. Well it is biblical.

Let me explain. Being a good person will not get you to heaven. You can be a good person but if you think you are so good you don't know Jesus you can end up in hell. And you can be a bad person.

A very bad person. But if you repent of your sin even if it is on your deathbed Christ will forgive you and let you into heaven. Because heaven is not for good people. It is for forgiven people. Ok so I raised the question earlier. What is the worst sin?

So what is it? Is it adultery? Is it stealing? Is it taking the Lord's name in vain? Well a recent survey was done among British Christians. And they were asked to identify the most and least important of the Ten Commandments. I mean right away that is a bad premise.

Where I am going to rate the Ten Commandments. Houston we have a problem. Or should I say instead London we have a problem right? Ok so back to the Brits. 93 percent of them still felt thou shall not commit murder was valid. Good to know. So my next trip to England I guess I won't get killed hopefully. 93 percent still felt thou shall not steal was a valid commandment.

And then it starts to drop after that. 87 percent thought thou shall not bear false witness was still good. But only 23 percent felt thou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain was still valid today. 68 percent of British Christians. I failed to point that out.

Did I say that earlier? These are Christians in quote. They think it is ok to take the Lord's name in vain. 68 percent.

No. And then this one is the most amazing of all. Only 20 percent thought having other gods before them was wrong. In fact 68 percent thought it was just fine to have other gods before the Lord. Really.

How interesting. God doesn't see it that way. Because when He gives the Ten Commandments He doesn't start with thou shall not murder. He doesn't start with you shall not take the Lord's name in vain.

He starts by saying I am the Lord your God. Have no other gods before me. It is a big deal to God you see. And then a second commandment.

You shall have no graven images. Which is really an extension of what the first commandment says. You know where you are going to now worship something in the place of God.

Because it comes down to this. If I have another god before him it is all downhill from there. And then those other commandments will be broken as well.

Let me turn it around. If I put him first in my life the other commandments will fall into place. Jesus summed it up this way. He says if you will love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself you will fulfill the commandments.

How does that work? Well if I love God with all of my heart, soul, and mind I am not going to have another god before him. I am not going to worship a graven image. I am not going to take his name in vain. If I love my neighbor as myself I am not going to kill him. Because that is not very neighborly is it? I am not going to steal from him. I am not going to lie to her.

I am not going to covet what belongs to them. These crazy so-called Christians can't just go to the commandments and decide what is valid and what isn't valid. God's word does not change according to the mores or culture of our times.

The reality is we should be conforming culture to God rather than expecting God to conform to our culture. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Pastor Greg we are excited about your new project, the Greg Laurie podcast. How is that different than what we do every day here on A New Beginning? Well Dave when you listen to A New Beginning you are listening to my messages that I share from the pulpit. In my podcast I am not preaching, I am just talking. I am talking about life.

I am talking about culture. There is a lot of interviews with people I have gotten to know over the years like Michael Franzese and Daryl Strawberry and Alice Cooper and J. Warner Wallace and Joel Rosenberg and Levi Lusko and the list just goes on and on. Insightful conversations and just thoughts on life from a biblical perspective. So the best place to see or listen to my new podcast is go to Harvest Plus. Now that is our new app that has all kinds of resources on it.

Our radio broadcast, our TV show, the movies we produced over the years and much much more. And now we have my new long form podcast that you can watch on demand and I hope you will enjoy it. And again you will find the Greg Laurie podcast on the Harvest Plus app. Well Pastor Greg returns to his message now. It is a study called The Holy Spirit and You Part 2.

Ok so what is the worst sin that we can commit against the Lord? I am going to answer that next week. No I will answer it now. You probably already know the answer. Here it is.

You are taking notes. The worst sin and then one of the most far reaching consequences that you can commit is not believing in Jesus Christ. Say no Greg you are wrong. Murder is worse. Well no actually those are outgrowths of the sin inside of the person who does not know God. But saying no to Christ is a complete rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit.

The root of all of our problems. The worst sin you can commit is not believing and you will be judged for that. So the Holy Spirit number two now has come to bring us to Jesus. He says in verse 9, I have come to convince them of sin because they do not believe in me.

You know it is interesting. Sin. Not sins. Sometimes we I think in the church major on minors.

And by that I mean we sort of get the cart before the horse. We will kind of focus on lifestyle choices that are sinful and we will harp on those things. Here is my objective. I want to establish a dialogue with a person regardless of what sinful choice they have made. So if they are living with their boyfriend or girlfriend out of wedlock or if they are gay or if they are a liar or a thief or all of the above you know hey I want to first talk to them about their need for Jesus.

Because this is the way I see it. If they will come to Jesus everything else will get sorted out. But if I focus on those things and never get around to telling them about Jesus I can in effect drive them away. And I think a lot of times people think of the church as being against everything. And we are going to speak out on what the Bible says and say what it says on whatever topic it is we are addressing. But our message is the gospel and we want people to believe and then their lives will change as a result. So the Holy Spirit has come to show us that.

To bring us to Jesus. Verse 13. When He, the Spirit of truth, has come He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak in His own. He will speak only what He hears. And He will tell you what is to come.

He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you. See if you refuse to believe in Jesus you are effectively calling the Holy Spirit a liar. Because 1 John 5 10 says, He that believes in the name of the Son of God has this witness in himself. He that does not believe has made him a liar because he has not believed the record that God has given of his Son. That is called insulting the Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit comes and shows you you are a sinner and you need Jesus. And you say, I do not. I am a good person. I don't need Jesus. Oh so you are calling him a liar? No. You are putting words in my mouth then.

Actually I am not. Because if you are rejecting the work that the Holy Spirit has come to do to show you you are not righteous enough to get to heaven and show you that Jesus is the answer, you are effectively saying He is a liar. Number three the Holy Spirit has come to show us our need for righteousness. Look at verse 10. He says, Of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more.

Now here is the funny thing. Most people believe in heaven today 72%. But as I said earlier they think living a good life will get them there. But yet the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It says there is not good.

No not one. And the Bible also says in James 2 10 if you offend in one point of the law you are guilty of all of it. Now the Bible is not saying that there are not good people. There are good people. Let me take it a step further. I have met people who are not Christians that are good people and in some cases better people than some Christians I know.

Does that make sense? When I say good I mean they are friendly. They are trustworthy. They are considerate.

So they are good people in that regard. This is not about if you are a good guy or a good girl. This is about if you are good enough to get to heaven. And no one is that good. You say well I am pretty good actually. You are not as good as you think you are. And you are much worse than you think you are.

That's the truth. Because one sin is enough to keep you out of heaven. And trust me you have committed a lot more than one sin. And so have I. So the Holy Spirit has come to show me this about myself.

Listen to this. Even on my best day my righteousness, my goodness, the benevolent, kind, considerate things that I do are pretty much throw away. Because Isaiah 64 says my righteousness is as filthy rags. But then what about the bad days. And those are bad.

So think about all of that. Even on your best day you don't even get close. And on your bad days you are so so far away. So the Holy Spirit comes to show me that I need Jesus. He shows me I am not righteous enough.

I am not good enough. Not so I will be driven away in despair but so I will run to the cross. See that's what He does. He says you are bad. You are sinful.

There is the answer. And He lights the way. It is Jesus. Go to Jesus and your sins will be forgiven. Go to Jesus and that righteousness will be placed in your account. Go to Jesus and your questions will be answered. That is a very important distinction. He shows you the sin and then He brings you to the Savior.

That is it. The work of the Holy Spirit. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie with great insight on how the Spirit points to sin and then points to the Savior.

Such an important role. A life saving role in the lives of believers. Pastor Greg if somebody wants to respond to that leading of God, what's their next step? What I would say is He's only a prayer way. Which means if you will call upon the name of the Lord right now through prayer, He will hear your prayer and answer your prayer. Listen if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, just pray this prayer right now after me. Just pray, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and my friend. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Amen. Listen if you have just prayed along with Pastor Greg and meant those words sincerely, we want to welcome you into God's family and we want to help you get started in your new faith. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believer's Bible.

It's free of charge along with some other helpful resources. Just let us know you prayed with Pastor Greg and that you want the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime at 1-800-821-3300 or go online to Harvest.org and click the words Know God. And then let us take a moment to thank you for praying for this ministry and for supporting it through your generous donation.

It's an investment in kingdom business. Isn't that right, Pastor Greg? Yeah, it's really true, Dave, and I believe it's so important because, you know, the Gospel saves lives. It saves eternal lives because when a person believes in Jesus according to Scripture, they pass from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God. And then, of course, that changes the course of their future.

That impacts their children and their children's children. The Gospel changes everything, and thousands and thousands of people respond every single year. Thanks to the Lord. Also, thanks to you for your investment in this ministry, enabling us to reach people wherever they are. So if this is something you care about, I encourage you to make a financial investment in a new beginning in Harvest Ministries. Yeah, that's right, and we really do appreciate your support. Thanks for partnering with us today.

It can make a real difference, not just for today or this week, but for eternity. So get in touch with your support today by calling 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, Pastor Gray comes back with more insight on the way the Holy Spirit works in our lives, convicting us of our sin and pointing us to our Savior. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.