1041. The Conviction of the Holy Spirit

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University a study series entitled Breath of Life, which is a study of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Today's message will be preached by Dr. Eric Newton of the Bob Jones University Seminary. Can I ask something of you today?

Can you set aside what is filling your mind, what is really easily distracting, what may be weighing you down this morning? Can I ask that you would give the Word of God and the Holy Spirit your full attention? I'm not saying that because I'm speaking, actually. I'm saying that because of what God's Word is and because of the topic that we're going to deal with this morning. If you turn in your Bibles to John chapter 16. The topic that they've asked us to consider this morning is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The conviction of the Holy Spirit. And I've got some questions for us before we look at God's Word. How can we know that the Holy Spirit indwells us? That is central to the new covenant. That's central to our faith that God actually lives in those who believe.

But how do we know that? How can we wage war against our flesh? Do you have flesh? Have you felt that already today?

I have. How are we led by the Holy Spirit? How do we walk according to the Holy Spirit as Paul expresses it? And how does the Bible exercise authority in our lives? Like, we believe in sola scriptura, right? Like, this is our supreme authority.

This is where our fidelity is. But how does it actually exercise that authority beyond what we affirm in our creed four times a week? Well, the answer to all these questions relates to our topic this morning of spiritual conviction. I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear the word conviction. That that term is often used in a legal context, affirming someone's guilt as charged.

Perhaps in an election year like 2020, what comes to your mind is you think of people who express strong opinions about American politics. Well, today we've been asked to consider something much better than that, thankfully. It's actually the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So you've turned to John chapter 16, and we're gonna read these verses in increments. So let's just read verse seven to start with this morning.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. It's actually better for you, Christ tells his disciples, that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you.

We'll stop our reading right now at that point. What do we mean when we say the conviction of the Holy Spirit? Perhaps you've heard somebody say, I'm under conviction. What is the nature of the conviction of the Spirit, or spiritual conviction?

Well, let me ask another question. What is the Holy Spirit's job? I asked my kids this a few nights ago in expectation of chapel today, and they said, well, the Holy Spirit, his job is to comfort us, to empower us, to convict us, I think one of them said. And those are good answers, but what is the mission of the Holy Spirit? I mean, if we think of someone's purpose merely in terms of the task that they check off their list day by day, I mean, if that's how you view your life, then you might be functionally successful, but what's the mission?

What's really going on? What is the Holy Spirit all about? For example, whether a faculty staff member here at BJU fixes computers, or teaches science, or cuts the grass, or processes payroll, we're all on the same mission.

All of us ultimately have the job of contributing to a Christian higher educational institution that exists to help you develop Christ-like character. So if we think of the Holy Spirit merely as a divine person who does some things, like He helps us feel better, I mean we could all use that, I admit. He helps us feel better, or He gives us supernatural strength, and we need that as well, well then our point of reference is ourselves.

It's like talking about the solar system as if everything revolves around the earth, but it doesn't, it revolves around the sun, it's called the solar system. And the universe doesn't revolve around us, as significant as we are made in the image of God, the universe revolves around God. So we have to think of the mission of the Holy Spirit in terms of who God is. Well, notice what John 16, 13, and 14 say.

I'm going to skip over a few verses for now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, there's another designation, He's the Comforter, He's the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. Alright, that's one of His functions, He guides these disciples into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come.

Now notice the summary, well what is all of that about? Verse 14, He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. In other words, the mission of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ.

That's why He came at Pentecost to indwell God's people. It was to glorify the Son, the second person of the Trinity. So first of all, three points today, first of all, the conviction of the Spirit is Christological. It has everything to do with Jesus Christ.

Alright, so we worship the true God and He's a Trinity, He's Father, Son, and Spirit. And He's eternal, so these three persons have had this eternal relationship, this loving relationship. And the amazing thing about redemption is that they have chosen to bring us into that fellowship.

They've freely chosen to save us and to bring us into this love that they have experienced forever, because God is eternal. So the Father authors redemption, the Son accomplished redemption, the Spirit applies redemption. He applies redemption by pointing us to Jesus Christ. As one theologian put it, Christ shares Himself with the believer through the Spirit. You have a relationship with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, because that's what He does, He glorifies Christ. He applies His salvation. So here's a verse for us to consider, 1 John 1-3, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is the agent of this. So the amazing thing is not that we are the center of attention, but that actually the triune God brings us into fellowship, this perfect fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit, through the Spirit. Now you might say, okay, I believe that, but what does that have to do with conviction? I mean, conviction sounds negative, and all that you've said so far sounds positive. Alright, so what's the connection? Well, think of it like this, if the Holy Spirit's mission is to declare Christ's glory, then everything He does has something to do with that.

Alright, the person fixing the computer and the person cutting the grass and the person teaching science and the person processing payroll, okay, they're doing different things, but all that they do ultimately are contributing to the university mission. Okay, so we're in the Gospel of John, this was written by the beloved disciple, the Apostle John, and John throughout his book, over and over, he talks about truth. He starts in John 1 by saying that the Word became flesh, He dwelt among us, that we beheld His glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of what?

Full of grace and truth. The Word came to explain, to tell the truth about His Father. And at the climactic moment of Jesus' earthly life before the cross, He's on trial, you think of the pressure — you might be feeling pressure today? Okay, think of the pressure of being on trial, your life is hanging in the balance, and He's got a chance to tell Pilate what He's all about and who He is.

And what does He say? John 18, 36, to this end, for this purpose was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. This is why I came, to tell the truth about my Father and myself and about eternal life. Jesus came to tell this truth, He bore witness to it Himself and many others bore witness to it, and then He said to the disciples, it's going to be better for you actually if I leave, and then another comforter, another advocate, another counselor, another truth-bearer is going to come. And He's going to glorify me because He's going to continue my mission.

He's going to apply it. And so after His resurrection, our Lord did just that. He ascended to the right hand of the Father and He sent the Holy Spirit, this comforter. I'm going to use the word advocate, the Spirit of truth. The Spirit trades places with Jesus. So, so conviction of the Spirit points sinners to Jesus Christ. Now listen to that designation again, the Spirit of truth. It reminds us that we don't live merely in a world of therapy.

There are very good reasons to get therapy of various kinds. But the world is more than our feeling. There's something undergirding all of that. Now we may tend to think of conviction in terms of emotion.

Like I'm under conviction. I'm feeling it emotionally. And there certainly can be a sick feeling in your stomach. Many of you experience this.

You know you've done something wrong. The Spirit brings conviction and you feel it because our body and soul are integrally connected. But conviction isn't fundamentally emotional. It's not somebody just getting, getting up and, and, and arousing a lot of emotion so that people feel something and say something or act some way and then it all just kind of falls apart. Now actually spiritual conviction is based on truth. It's, it's the truth of God's word, the truth of Jesus Christ applied personally in your soul by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can't address conviction that we feel in our souls merely by trying to help ourselves feel better. We, we all want to feel better.

I get it. But, but we cannot deal with conviction in a way that, that, that just basically works through it, kind of therapies it and so we can sort of get past it because it's not about emotion. It's about truth. It's about God bringing truth to bear about His Son in your soul. Now read with me verses 8 through 11. And when He, this Comforter, this Advocate, the Spirit of Truth has come, He will reprove the world, that's our word, 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 you see me no more. Of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. Now we're not going to take time exploring all three of those aspects, but, but, but all three of these have to do with Jesus Christ.

All right, let me give you an example. It, it talks about judgment, a judgment to come. It talks about a righteousness, a righteousness that we obviously don't have. It talks about sin.

The sin fundamentally of unbelief. OK, throughout the Gospel of John you have this theme of truth and you have all of these people who are coming up and they're asking Jesus questions and they're making accusations and they're curious and they're skeptical. And actually at the end of the book, Jesus is put on formal trial. He's had all this informal trial as the book unfolds and then finally he's put on trial and, and Pilate says, OK, you know, are you really the king of the Jews? But actually even though it seems like throughout the book Jesus is the one on trial, Jesus is the one being questioned, the whole point of the book is that we are on trial. The whole point of the book is that, is that Pilate and Nicodemus and the Jews and the whole world is on trial.

Are we going to turn from our sin and believe in Jesus and have eternal life? That's what the book is about. The Spirit is, is bringing that witness to bear on us personally. He's bringing us to trial personally in our souls. Alright, so, so how does He do this? You know, this sounds kind of, kind of mystical, right?

What, what happens? Well, look at verse 13 again. How be it when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth.

OK? And, and, and He does guide believers into, into truth day by day, but the point of this actually is much more narrow. The point of this is the Spirit was going to come and He was going to guide these disciples and their associates into the truth that we're holding in our hands, the New Testament.

He's going to guide them into the truth. So our second point is that the, the conviction of the Spirit is not only Christological, it's scriptural. It has everything to do with the Bible. The Spirit bore along these people and they penned these words and, and, and now the Spirit uses these words to convincingly expose the world, to expose us as sinners, to rebuke us of our sin and to point us to Jesus Christ.

Our, our flesh hates this, right? I mean, all of those who are of the world, John says in John 3, they, they refuse, we outside of Christ refuse to come to the light because, because we're afraid our deeds are going to be exposed. The Bible brings exposure. It highlights the problem. It's like spotlights. It's like at one moment the stage is pitch black and at the next moment the lights are up.

And if you're standing on stage and you've got the first line, you've got nowhere to hide. It's all on you. The conviction of the Holy Spirit, it fundamentally concerns our belief. Nineteenth century theologian George Smeaton said, conscience may convince men of ordinary sins but never of the sin of unbelief. That's the work of the Spirit. He turns the lights on in our souls in order to persuade our wills.

And I just have to pause. I, I, much of this message is geared toward application to believers but I, I would not be doing what God has called me to do if I didn't pause and say there are some in this room undoubtedly that you never experience the conviction of the Spirit. You come, you come to chapel every day.

I don't just mean when you're having a bad day or when something really difficult back home is happening. You come to chapel every day and you go on your phone and you pay no attention. You, you don't experience the conviction of the Holy Spirit because you don't open your heart to His Word. There's no interest in His Word.

There, there's no navigation for your life. There's, there's nothing inside of you that's pressing back against your flesh. If, if you're feeling a war inside your soul between Spirit and flesh, that is a really good sign. The conviction of the Spirit is a really good thing. As the song says, I, I appeal to some of you, darkened soul, behold Christ's glory.

Blinded eyes receive your sight. Sinner, leave your seed of darkness. Rise and come to the light. But the Spirit's ministry of truth-bearing conviction does not end when we first trust Christ. The Spirit ministers personally as our counselor inside of us who believe.

Christ judged sin objectively at the cross and He was vindicated by the resurrection, the empty tomb. The Spirit then comes and, and He indwells those who believe and He, and He, He ministers conviction inside of us. He's our advocate.

That means that He defends us. He testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God. But He also instructs and rebukes and corrects and trains and equips us through scriptural words that He's breathed out.

And this word convict or reprove happens 17 times in the New Testament. And I want to draw our attention to a couple of those because they speak to how the Spirit continues this ministry of conviction. This is 2 Timothy 4, 2. Preach the word, Paul says to Timothy, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. In other words, the Spirit convicts us, His people through preaching through the ministry of the word.

It also occurs in Matthew 18, 15 in the context of going to a brother or a sister and admonishing them, bringing something to the light, exhorting personally. So we could put it this way, the Holy Spirit accomplishes His conviction for believers today through preaching and the personal ministry of the word. We tend to think of the Spirit's powerful influence in terms of big stuff that He accomplishes. Like wow, you know, somebody was enabled to do something spectacular. But actually the Spirit's ministry is so powerful but it's personal and we could say this, it's ordinary.

It's every day. It's Him speaking to you through preaching, through your reading of the word, through your fellowship with other believers. That's why Proverbs talks so much about wisdom being a response to reproof. We can't have wisdom if we don't respond to the reproof of the Spirit through His word.

Which brings us to the third point and that is that conviction is Christological and scriptural and finally personal. Professing believers can lie to the Holy Spirit, Ananias and Sapphira did. Alright, now if you're in a room and you lie to somebody, I mean you could say I lied to the carpet sort of metaphorically, alright?

But the carpet didn't have anything to do with it, okay? Or you could say well this power, this electricity that's going through the building and keeps these lights on, you know, I lied in the presence of that power but you don't lie to power, you don't lie to things, you lie to people. The Holy Spirit is a personal being.

His work can be resisted and opposed. Ephesians 4.30 says do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption. Okay, you can have an opinion about somebody way far away and we often do.

We might even say that, okay? It's through social media. You can have pity on somebody that you don't really know, but you actually don't grieve people that don't know you and love you very personally. It's not just that the Holy Spirit is personal but this truthful witness is, it's of somebody who loves us.

It's no small matter. It's also the truthful witness of a personal divine love. The Father chastens children and he sent his Spirit to dwell in us because he loves us. If you're experiencing conviction of the Spirit, that's a sign of God's love for you. But parents don't like to discipline their children, I can testify to that.

Children don't like to receive discipline, I can testify to that too. But your Father loves you, that's why He gave you the Spirit. That's why James 4.5 says that He made the Spirit to dwell in us, to jealously desire us.

To be jealous for us like a wife should be of her husband's faithful love. So what do we do? We humble ourselves. We respond to that conviction. We take the Holy Spirit's side in the courtroom. We say, guilty as charged. Please forgive me. Please change me.

I'm on your side. Finally, this truthful witness of the Holy Spirit is to specific people, it's to a specific person. It's to you, it's to me. 1 Thessalonians 5.19 tells us not to quench. Quench really has that idea of dousing, of putting the fire out. We can't do away with the Holy Spirit, but we certainly can throw cold water on what He's trying to do in our souls. And when the ministry of the Word, whether it's personally or publicly like this, when we resist that, that's what we're doing. 1 Thessalonians 4 talks about this, that we're not rejecting man's words, but if what's being preached is faithful to the text, then we're actually resisting the Holy Spirit. He's calling us to sanctification.

We're ignoring that. We're quenching the Spirit. It's possible for you and me to quench the Spirit, to grieve the Spirit.

So I come back to these questions. How would we know the Spirit indwells us? 1 of the ways we know is He's working in us to convince us of truth and to change us.

How can we wage war against our flesh? It's by responding to His work in us as He points us to Christ and away from our sin. How are we led by the Spirit? We're following Him. We're saying, I really want to do this, but Lord I've come to an understanding by Your Word that's not the right way to go.

I'm going to follow You. How does the Bible exercise authority in our lives? It's when we respond to it. And often that response, because we're sinful beings, it's humility and confession and repentance in our belief. The Spirit of truth persuades us to believe in Jesus Christ. This is His convicting ministry. Through His breathed out words, He turns on the light so that we see ourselves as God sees us. And we see God as He's revealed Himself. And He keeps on teaching and instructing and rebuking and correcting and training us and patiently drawing us along. The Spirit facilitates our fellowship with the triune God.

Some of us are miserable because we really are out of fellowship with the only one who ultimately matters. We are not responding. We aren't even giving the chance to the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. We're closing it off. We're busy. We're distracted.

There's a lot to be concerned about. We have to come to the light. Will we submit to the Spirit?

Will we walk in step with Him? Will we see that the conviction of the Holy Spirit is the best thing we have going for us? It's how He builds us up by drawing our attention away from ourself and our sin. And to Jesus Christ, the mission of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. You and I need that Christ.

Not only for initial salvation to be converted, but all the way through to eternity. Will you respond to the Spirit as He points you to Christ today? May God help us. Shall we pray? Our Father in Heaven, we thank You that You not only have not left us without truth in written form, but You have sent Your very own Spirit to come inside all of us who believe and to bring us to glory. Oh, Lord, help us to be responsive and in that to be built up and to build one another up. We pray for this in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Eric Newton of the Bob Jones University Seminary. Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue the study of the Holy Spirit here on The Daily Platform.