THE HOLY SPIRIT’S THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF MEN – Charles Spurgeon
THE HOLY SPIRIT’S THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF MEN
John 16:8-11
“And when He is come, He will reprove 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.”
Introduction
The Apostles had a stern task before them. They were to go into all nations and proclaim the gospel to every creature, beginning at Jerusalem. Remember, only two or three years before they were simple fishermen engaged upon the Galilean lake—men of little or no education, men of no rank or standing. At best they were but Jews, and that nation was despised everywhere, while these peasants were not even men of repute among their own nation. Yet these men were to turn the world upside down. They were told by their Lord that they would be brought before rulers and kings for His sake, and that they would be persecuted wherever they went. They were to proclaim the gospel in the teeth of the imperial power of Rome, the ancient wisdom of Greece, and the fierce cruelties of barbaric lands, and to set up the kingdom of peace and righteousness.
At the very time when they were about to receive their commission, they were also to lose the bodily presence of their great Leader. While He was with them, they had felt no fear. If they were puzzled at any time by the Scribes and Pharisees, they resorted to Jesus, and they were rescued from bewilderment. Never man spoke like that man. Never did such wisdom and prudence dwell in any mind as dwelt in the mind of Christ. His presence was their protection, the broad shield behind which they securely stood, whatever shafts might be shot at them by their adversaries. But now that He was to depart out of the world unto the Father, they would be deprived of their fortress and high tower. They would be as children bereft of their father or, at best, as soldiers without a general. Here was a sad case, work given, and power withdrawn, a battle beginning, and the conquering captain leaving. How happy it was for these disciples that our blessed Lord could tell them that His going away would be for their gain rather than for their loss. For when He was gone, the Spirit of God would come to be an advocate for them and with them, and by His power they would be able to silence all their enemies and achieve their mission.
The Holy Spirit was to be their Comforter, that they might not be afraid, and their Advocate, that they might not be baffled. When they spoke, there would be a power within them suggesting their words, a power with those words convincing their hearers, and a power in their hearers causing the word spoken to abide in their memories, that power would be divine, the power of the Holy Spirit, who is one God with the Father and the Son. It is one thing for men to speak, and quite another thing for God to speak through men. The work of proclaiming the gospel to the world was far too great for the twelve, but it was by no means too great for the Spirit of God. Who can limit His power? Is anything too hard for the Lord? The Holy Spirit being their helper, these feeble men were equal to the task which God had committed to their trust.
The presence of the Holy Spirit was better for them than the bodily presence of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus could only have been in one place as to His corporeal presence, but the Holy Spirit could be everywhere. The sight of Jesus would but appeal to the senses, but the power of the Holy Spirit touched the heart and worked spiritual life and saving faith. Thus, by His own withdrawal and the sending of the Spirit, our Lord furnished His servants for the conflict. We will at this time observe what the Holy Spirit did as an Advocate. The passage cannot be fully understood unless we give it three renderings. And I do not pretend that even then, we shall have pressed from this choice cluster, all the generous wine of its meaning. To my mind, it is a compendium of all the work of the Spirit of God. By our three readings, we shall see much.
I. To Reprove Men of Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment
First, the Spirit of God goes with the preaching of the gospel to reprove men of sin, and so to embarrass them in the presence of the preacher of righteousness. By this is meant, not so much to save them as to silence them. When the minister of Christ stands up to plead his Master’s cause, another advocate appears in court, whose pleadings would make it hard for men to resist the truth.
Observe how this reproof was given with regard to sin. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples spoke with many different tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Men from all countries under heaven heard themselves addressed in their native tongues. This was a great marvel, and all Jerusalem rang with it. And when Peter stood up to preach to the assembled multitude, and told the Jews that they had crucified the Holy One and the Just, the signs and wonders worked by the Spirit in the name of Jesus were a witness which they could not refute. The very fact that the Spirit of God had given to these unlettered men the gift of tongues was evidence that Jesus of Nazareth, of whom they spoke, was no impostor.
It was laid down in the old Jewish law, that if a man prophesied and his prophecies did not come to pass, he was to be condemned as a false prophet. But if that which he said came to pass, then he was a true prophet. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ had promised the outpouring of the Spirit, which had also been foretold in reference to the Messiah by the prophet Joel. When, therefore, that mark of the true Messiah was set upon Jesus of Nazareth by the coming of the Holy Spirit and the working of miracles, men were reproved for having refused to believe in Jesus.
The evidence was brought home to them that they had with wicked hands crucified the Lord of glory, and so they stood reproved. All the subsequent miracles went to prove the same thing, for when the apostles worked miracles, the world was reproved of sin because it believed not on Christ. It was not that a few disciples testified to the sin of the race, but the Holy Spirit Himself made men tremble as by His deeds of power He bore witness to the Lord Jesus, and exhibited the fact that in crucifying Jesus, the world had put to death the incarnate Son of God.
Do you not see the terrible power with which the first disciples were thus armed? It was more to them than the rod in the hand of Moses with which he smote Pharaoh with so many plagues. It needed all the willfulness of that stiff-necked generation to resist the Holy Spirit and refuse to bow before Him whom they had pierced. They were full of malice and obstinacy, but in their secret hearts they were sore put to it and felt that they were fighting against God.
Do you not see, too, dear friends, how the working of the Holy Spirit with the apostles and their immediate followers was a wonderful rebuke to the world concerning the matter of righteousness? Jesus was gone, and His divine example no longer stood out like clear light reproving their darkness, but the Holy Spirit attested that righteousness, and compelled them to feel that Jesus was the Holy One, and that His cause was righteous.
The teaching of the apostles, sealed by the Holy Spirit, made the world see what righteousness was as they had never seen it before. A fresh standard of morals was set up in the world, and it has never been taken down. It stands in its place to rebuke, if not to improve. The world was then sunk in the uttermost depths of vice, and even its good men were loathsome. But now another kind of righteousness was exhibited in the teachings of the Lord Jesus, and the Spirit came to set the seal of divine approval to it, so that if men continued in sin, it might be against light and knowledge, for they now knew what righteousness was, and could no longer be mistaken upon that point.
God was with the preachers of a new righteousness, and by many different signs and wonders He attested the cause of the gospel. Now, brethren, we also rejoice in this, seeing that the witness of the truth is for all time, and we know of a surety that the kingdom which our Lord Jesus has set up among men is divinely sanctioned as the kingdom of righteousness, which in the end shall grind to powder the powers of evil.
We are the covenanted servants of a Lord whose righteousness was declared among men by the personal witness of God the Holy Spirit. Are you not glad to be enlisted in such a service? Oh, world! Are you not embarrassed for resisting such a kingdom?
II. To Convince Men of Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment
The Holy Spirit was to go with the preaching of the word to convince men of three great prominent truths. This was to be a saving word, they are to be so convinced as to repent of sin, to accept of righteousness, and yield themselves to the judgment of the Lord. Here we see as in a map the work of the Spirit upon the hearts of those who are ordained unto eternal life. Those three effects are all necessary and each one is in the highest degree important to true conversion.
First, the Holy Spirit is come to convince men of sin. It is absolutely necessary that men should be convinced of sin. The fashionable theology is—“Convince men of the goodness of God. Show them the universal fatherhood and assure them of unlimited mercy. Win them by God’s love, but never mention His wrath against sin, or the need of atonement, or the possibility of there being a place of punishment. Do not censure poor creatures for their failings. Do not judge and condemn. Do not search the heart or lead men to be low-spirited and sorrowful. Comfort and encourage, but never accuse and threaten.”
Yes, that is the way of man, but the way of the Spirit of God is very different. He comes on purpose to convince men of sin, to make them feel that they are guilty, greatly guilty—so guilty that they are lost, and ruined, and undone. He comes to remind them not only of God’s loveliness, but of their own unloveliness, of their own enmity and hatred to this God of love, and consequently, of their terrible sin in thus ill-using one so infinitely kind. The Holy Spirit does not come to make sinners comfortable in their sins, but to cause them to grieve over their sins. He does not help them to forget their sin, or think little of it, but He comes to convince them of the horrible enormity of their iniquity.
It is no work of the Spirit to pipe to men’s dancing. He does not bring forth flute, harp, dulcimer and all kinds of music to charm the unbelieving into a good opinion of themselves, but He comes to make sin appear sin, and to let us see its fearful consequences. He comes to wound so that no human balm can heal, to kill so that no earthly power can make us live. The flowers bedeck the meadows when the grass is green, but lo, a burning wind comes from the desert and the grass withers and the flowers fall away. What is it that makes the beauty and excellence of human righteousness to wither as the green herb? Isaiah says it is “because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it.” There is a withering work of the Spirit of God which we must experience or we shall never know His quickening and restoring power.
This withering is a most necessary experience, and just now needs much to be insisted on. Today we have so many built up who were never pulled down, so many filled who were never emptied, so many exalted, who were never humbled, that I the more earnestly remind you that the Holy Spirit must convince us of sin or we cannot be saved. This work is most necessary, because without it there is no leading man to receive the gospel of the grace of God.
We cannot make headway with certain people because they profess faith very readily, but they are not convinced of anything. “Oh, yes, we are sinners, no doubt, and Christ died for sinners,” that is the free-and-easy way with which they handle heavenly mysteries, as if they were the nonsense verses of a boy’s exercise, or the stories of Mother Goose. This is all mockery and we are weary of it. But get near a real sinner, and you have found a man you can deal with. I mean the man who is a sinner and there is no mistake about it, mourns in his inmost soul that he is so. In such a man you find one who will welcome the gospel, welcome grace, and welcome a Savior. To him the news of pardon will be as cold water to a thirsty soul, and the doctrine of grace will be as honey dropping from the comb.
Conclusion
The Holy Spirit is needed to convince our unbelieving hearts that it is so. Most men dream that they must overcome sin by their own strength. Alas, the strong-armed man still keeps the house against our feebleness. You have a pretty piece of work before you if in your own strength you venture on this conflict. But if the Spirit of God will only work by the truth, you will perceive the greatness of your crime, and you will never rest until you have believed on the Lord Jesus, and found forgiveness for your high offense against the bleeding Lamb.
Charles Spurgeon