Speaker: What you were just watching there is something that they have manufactured.
They call it the glory cloud.
It amounts to a handful of gold dust or glitter that they put in
the air vents that they have timed to go off during the service.
And these glory clouds, as they manufacture them, they attribute
to the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And that's what's going on there.
They're watching these and he's saying, well, shouldn't we just get in the
corner and watch this and take pictures of this and be enthralled by this?
And as he said, you know, I, I want to be distracted by his distractions.
I think the only thing accurate that Bill Johnson said there was at the end when
he said, we don't know what we're doing,
but what do we do with the Holy Spirit?
Do, is this it, are they right?
And we're wrong or fire tunnels.
Ecstatic utterances, healings,
slaying in the spirit.
Should I be wearing a sport coat up here and have you come up here and I'm
just going to hit you with my sport coat and you're going to fall over?
What do we do with the Holy Spirit?
In fact, the question really at the heart of our text this morning is this.
Jesus is going to tell his disciples, it's better that I
go away than that I stay here.
I preached a message a little while ago called it's good that Jesus is gone.
That's what Jesus is telling us in this text.
It's good that I go away, and he says it's good that I go away because if I don't
go away, you're not gonna get the helper.
You're not gonna get the Holy Spirit.
And so that impresses upon us to understand why the Holy Spirit matters.
And what should we be expecting the Holy Spirit to be doing in our midst?
I'll admit I didn't put any gold dust in the air vents this morning.
I don't think the school would have liked it either.
What should the Holy Spirit do in our life?
That's an important question for us to ask and answer as a church.
It's also an important question for you to understand.
As an individual follower of Jesus, what difference does the
Holy Spirit make in your life?
I think, Doctrinally, theologically, conceptually, all of us in the room
could probably say, well, the Holy Spirit is important to me because of this.
The Holy Spirit does this.
He indwells, He seals, He, uh, He convicts, so forth and so on.
He illuminates.
We know maybe doctrinal categories, but what does that actually mean?
What difference does that make for you Monday through Saturday?
Why, in other words, is it true that you need the Holy Spirit
as much as you need Jesus?
Because that's the truth.
For all of us this morning.
You need the Holy Spirit, and I need the Holy Spirit, as much as we need Jesus.
Take your Bibles to John 16, if you're not already there.
I promise no more Bill Johnson this morning.
That's it.
Hopefully, Lord willing, that's as much heresy as you're gonna get this morning.
John 16.
John 16, 4 through 7.
We're picking up Again, Jesus is on the way to Gethsemane if he's
not already reached the garden.
He's with his disciples.
This whole series in John Upper Room has been called Discipled
because that's what Jesus is after.
He's preparing his disciples to know how to follow him once he's gone.
And so that's where we are as we pick up in verse 4 in our text,
really the second half of verse 4.
Let's read down through verse 7.
It says this, I did not say these things to you from the
beginning because I was with you.
In other words, what things?
Things about his departure.
Things that he's been teaching them from John 13 onward.
Jesus is saying I wasn't telling you all of this from the very beginning because
for three years I've been with you.
you.
I've been walking with you.
I've been your rabbi.
You've had me in the flesh and blood.
I'm getting ready to go away though.
So he says, I did not say these things to you from the
beginning because I was with you.
But now I am going to him who sent me and none of you asks me, where are you going?
But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
Here it is.
It is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away,
the helper will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
Alright, let's stop there for just a second.
So Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure and he's telling
them you know what, you're shocked about these things, I get it, I haven't
been talking to you about all this from the very beginning because why?
Because I've been with you.
And I've had other points and other purposes before this.
I've been preparing you, I've been teaching you, I've been talking to
you about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Think about all the parables that He taught them.
I've been doing things that you would understand that I'm different.
All the miracles that He revealed part of His glory to
them as they were going along.
Jesus has been investing in these disciples all the way up until this point,
and now He's getting ready to leave.
So He says, He says, now I'm telling these things to you because
I'm getting ready to go away.
And then he says, I'm, I'm getting ready to go away.
And he says, and yet none of you has asked me, Lord, where are you going?
And that may seem odd because if you recall back in John 14,
that question was actually asked.
Philip asked the question, well, Lord, where are you going?
You're talking about going, where are you going?
And so what does Jesus mean here when he says, none of
you asked me where am I going?
What Philip was really after was, Philip was, was really after Jesus, where are you
going because we don't want to lose you.
In other words, Jesus is indicting Philip's question or, or their
lack of interest in the glory that he was about to return to.
Jesus is saying, you're not concerned about what you should be concerned about.
What you should be concerned about is the fact that I'm going
back to be with the Father.
That my glory is going to be restored to me.
That I'm going back to sit at the right hand of the Father.
And none of you are consumed with that.
None of you are saying, what's that going to be like for you, Jesus?
What's that going to be like to be with the Father?
How should we understand that?
When, when are we going to be able to come and be with you?
And what's that going to be like for us?
What do you want us to be doing in the meantime?
Jesus instead indicts them.
He says, instead sorrow has filled your hearts.
And again, before we beat up the disciples, I think we would have
felt the same sorrow, the same grief.
What do you mean you're going away?
What do you mean you're not going to be with us?
Jesus, you're the Messiah, right?
Think about Peter, when Peter pulled Jesus aside in a different context and
rebuked him for talking about dying.
Uh, don't talk about dying anymore, Jesus.
You're supposed to be the Messiah.
I don't know if you know what that means.
Sorrow has gripped their heart.
That word sorrow is the same word that Paul uses in Romans 9 when he talks about
the sorrow and unceasing anguish that he feels for the lost Israelites when he
says, I would give up my own salvation for theirs if that were possible.
And so in other words, Jesus is softly indicting the pity party that
the disciples have been throwing.
Woe are we because Jesus is leaving us.
Instead, he said, you should be joyful over this.
You should be rejoicing over this.
He says, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away.
What a puzzling statement that is.
God in the flesh, how in the world could it be to their advantage
that God in the flesh would no longer be with them in their midst?
He answers the question.
He says, it's to your advantage that I go away.
For if I do not go away, the Helper, who we've already identified
previously in John's Gospel as the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, will not come to you.
If I don't go away, the Helper will not come to you.
We're going to see why in a moment here.
But Jesus is saying, but if I go away, then I will send him to you.
So the whole reason why it's an advantage, and that word advantage means it's better,
It accrues to your positive accounting.
It's to your benefit that I go away.
The whole reason why is everything to do with their receiving the
Holy Spirit, which comes back to our question this morning.
Why does the Holy Spirit matter?
What should we expect the Holy Spirit to do in our lives corporately
and in our lives individually?
What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit?
How do we understand this?
You know, our theological circles here, uh, Have probably swung the pendulum
away from the, the, the charismatic, the, the, and, and even beyond.
Bill, I'm not Categorizing all cares, categorizing all
charismatics as Bill Johnson.
Bill Johnson is an extremist.
Bill Johnson is a false teacher.
There are charismatic brothers and sisters in Christ, okay?
We disagree on some key things, but not the gospel.
But I think our theological circle has swung the pendulum so far this way
when it comes to the Holy Spirit that the risk we run is underestimating
how much we need and depend upon the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.
And I think we're gonna get a glimpse of that this morning when we consider what in
the world did Jesus mean that it's better that He's not here, but that He's gonna
go away so that we get the Holy Spirit.
In fact, if I can put it this way, point number one this
morning along those lines is this.
Don't underestimate what the Holy Spirit can do for you.
It's not gonna be glory clouds and fire tunnels and grave sucking and
resurrecting people from the dead.
Can I suggest it's gonna be better?
If we understand what the Holy Spirit does for us and how much we need
him on a daily basis, then we're gonna understand why Jesus said,
it's better for you that I go away.
So, we understand that there are advantages that come from
difficult situations, right?
For example, I trust if you're in a good marriage that you understand the
concept that it was better for you to leave your family to go and get married.
And maybe you loved your mom and dad, you loved your siblings,
and you had a good home, and you loved growing up in that home.
And you know what?
There was some pain, there was some sorrow, excuse me, in leaving that.
And yet you knew that it was gonna be better because you were going to cleave
to your spouse, your, your, your wife or your husband, and that that was
gonna be an even better relationship than the relationship you previously
had with your mom and dad and siblings.
It's better to leave and, and to cleave or a different way.
It, it's better for some of you to have left beautiful, sunny Southern
California and moved halfway across the country to the promised
land to plant a church with us.
Right.
And maybe some of you are still getting there, and that's okay, we'll give
you some patience on that one still.
But you left something that wasn't inherently, well, wasn't all
inherently evil and wicked over there in Southern California, right?
No, but you left, the weather there is beautiful.
We lived there for six years, it's gorgeous.
And beyond that, and more importantly, you left friendships, relationships,
you left a church family.
In California, you left a job, you left your house in California to
come here to plant this church.
In large part because at the end of the day, you made the decision, you said,
It's better, it's to my advantage that I go and do this than if I stay here.
Or maybe you might understand this one, it's, it's to your advantage, right?
That you change your diet, the things that you eat and the things that
you drink and start making healthier choices towards that end in order
to increase the longevity of your life, your life, your, your lifespan.
You still want the Twinkie.
You still want the carton of Tillamook peanut butter ice cream with the
swirls in it of actual real peanut butter that course through the carton.
But you know it's not a good thing to open that carton up and
sit on the couch with a spoon.
That's not going to increase and add yours to your life.
So you're willing to forego something that's good in order
for the thing that's better.
What Jesus is saying here is that it's better for us to have
the Spirit in us than to have Him in our presence beside us.
All of us as Christians have two primary tasks in life.
All of us as Christians, every Christian in the room, two primary tasks in life.
Number one, glorifying God.
And number two, and this is not separate from number one, but, but
number two is reaching the lost.
Glorifying God, reaching the lost.
That's our target.
That's what we're here to do.
And that's really what the Holy Spirit is here to equip us with.
And in this first point about why it's good for us and not underestimating
what it can do for us as Christians, I want us to think about how the Holy
Spirit really helps us hit that first target of glorifying God with our life.
Part of it is what I preached a few weeks ago, that we would
be a church equipping church.
that the Spirit embodies, the Spirit indwells you in order to equip you,
empower you to serve the body of Christ, for the building up of the body of Christ.
I just preached on that, and so that's not really where I want to land and
zoom in this morning, but that's a key component of the Spirit's ministry
within us, and we didn't need to, we need to not underestimate how the Spirit
equips us to serve the body, and the role that we can have in doing that.
But more than that, I want to suggest, and this is where I want to land,
There's a fundamental reality of our relationship with God that has
changed now because we have the Spirit.
It's because Jesus was going away, the disciples were now going to experience
the Spirit dwelling within them.
One well known pastor out there said it this way, the Spirit inside you
is better than the Jesus beside you.
That sounds odd, doesn't it?
The Spirit inside you is better than the Jesus beside you.
But that's what Jesus is saying to the disciples.
It's to your advantage that I'm going away.
So that you will have the Spirit.
And the Spirit is going to come and take up residence within them.
And this is why Jesus has to go away.
Because if Jesus doesn't go away, the Spirit can't be sent,
and that's what He has said.
The Spirit is only going to come to us if Jesus first goes through the cross,
goes through the crucifixion, dies on the cross for our sins so that we can
be forgiven, and rises from the dead so that we can live with Him forever.
That's the only way that we can have the Spirit.
John 7, 38 39 says it this way.
John 7, 38 39, whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his
heart will flow rivers of living water.
Now, He said this, Jesus did, about the Spirit, whom those who
believed in Him were to receive.
For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
So see, Jesus had to first go to the cross and then be raised from the dead
before we could receive the Spirit.
And that's why it's better for Him to go away so that we can receive the Spirit.
The Spirit inside you is better than the Jesus beside you.
This is where we need to wade into some Trinitarian waters for a second.
Because even though Jesus was going away, in giving the Spirit, Jesus is still
going to be present with the disciples.
And by extension, still be present with us.
John chapter 14, verse 28.
John chapter 14, verse 28 says this, You heard me say to you, I am going away.
Jesus says, I will come to you.
I'm going away, but I will come to you.
Was that he would come to them through the resurrection?
Is that true?
Yeah, in part, in the immediate, but even more so longer term.
He was going to come to the disciples through the giving of the Spirit.
That as the Spirit comes and takes residence within us, Christian, that
we experience the presence not only of the Spirit, but also of Christ.
And this is why the Apostle Paul can write in Ephesians chapter 3 what he does
when he says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every
family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his
glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit.
Notice that.
Through his spirit in your inner being so that, we have the spirit in
our inner being so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.
Amen.
So you see, having the Spirit means that we also have the presence of Christ
dwelling within us through the Spirit.
So it's through the Spirit's presence in our lives that we have
the presence of Christ as well.
And you say, well how is that, how is that possible?
And the reason it's possible is because the oneness of the, the Trinity.
One God, three persons.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
And they are united in perfect, in will, in action.
And so the Spirit is only going to act in perfect accordance with the will
of the Father and the will of the Son.
And so the Spirit's presence within us is really an extension
of the Son's presence with us.
Okay.
So what?
What difference does that make?
What is the Monday through Saturday reality of this for us?
How does this show up in our lives?
And I want to suggest that what the Spirit does in our life can be broken
down into categories like these and more.
But these are some ones that I want you to ponder about not underestimating
what the Spirit can do in your life.
And we're going to break these down more as we go along here.
But the Spirit has a bearing on your worship.
The Spirit has a bearing on your prayer life.
The Spirit has a bearing on your fellowship with other believers.
The Spirit has an impact on the confidence that you feel as a believer.
The Spirit has an impact on the affections that you experience for Christ.
The Spirit has an impact on the joy that you experience as a follower of Jesus.
The Spirit impacts your ability to persevere, to endure.
The Spirit gives you a wisdom, not of the world, but a wisdom of God.
The See, these are all ways that we experience tangibly the Spirit's
presence in our life that are better than the gold dust coming down out of
the vents, that are better than the fire tunnels, that are better than the grave
sucking, and all of the other things that have crept into and distorted the
biblical view of what the Spirit does.
See, that's what I hope us to see this morning, is to ask and answer what does
the Spirit do in my life by looking at the Word of God and seeing what the Spirit
does in our life through the Word of God.
If we didn't have the Spirit, Following Jesus would be nigh impossible.
This week we had storms, Wednesday night, and these storms blew in, and I remember
sitting at home, my kids were down at youth, and Amanda and I were sitting
at home, and I remember sitting there thinking to myself, man, if the power
goes out all of a sudden, it's pitch black outside, do I have enough battery power on
my phone to have my flashlight work there?
Do I know where a flashlight is in my house?
Do I own a flashlight in my house?
I think I do.
But do I know where it is?
What's going to happen if the power goes out?
Man, the internet's going to go down.
What's going to happen?
The street road lights are going to be out.
The stop lights are going to go out.
Nobody knows how to handle that, by the way.
I was, uh, was driving in downtown Dallas this week and there was
a flashing red light and it was like the apocalypse happened.
Let's all, okay, driving lesson, quick driving lesson right now.
A flashing red light, treat it like a stop sign, like a four way stop.
Okay, that's how you do it.
It's super easy.
It's not difficult and you don't get to go just because you need to be somewhere
faster than someone else gets to go.
You got to wait your turn.
Okay, we're all on the same page on the flashing red light.
Lights are gonna go out if you lose power, all kinds of stuff.
And it, what did it do?
It made me just appreciate the presence of electricity all that more.
Something that I just take for granted.
Something that's always there.
Or, or public restrooms at Starbucks.
They're taking those away.
Did you hear about that?
Not the toilets.
They're still gonna be there.
But 4 cup of coffee now.
Used to be you could go into Starbucks and use the bathroom.
Now they're like, nope, you need to be a customer here to
be able to use the bathroom.
But good news, they're going to write your name on the cup in Sharpie again.
So it, it, it evens out in the end.
It evens out in the end.
Things we take for granted, like the Spirit's presence in our life,
what the Spirit does for us, right?
So as we break this down, don't underestimate.
How about that, just the area here of worship?
How does the Spirit improve our worship?
Well, I think the Spirit not only improves our worship, but facilitates
our worship in the first place.
Philippians chapter 3 verse 3, for we are the circumcision who
worship by the Spirit of God.
You worship by, enabled by, through, on the, because of the Spirit of God.
The prompting, the facilitation there, the access that you have is by the Spirit.
In Romans chapter 12, Paul says this, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the
mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
to God, which is your spiritual worship.
So I'm not just talking about when you show up here and sing, I'm talking
about the life of worship that you live is a life that you live by the Spirit.
The Spirit empowers you to do that.
In other words, you are not an acceptable offering to God because
you had a good week last week.
You are not acceptable to God because you've read the Bible
every day so far this year.
You are not acceptable to God because your marriage is intact.
You are acceptable to God because the Spirit dwells within you.
And your worship is acceptable to God because you worship by the Spirit.
You worship by the Spirit, which leads to the second thing.
The Spirit gives you access to God in the first place.
It's another reason why we have to worship by the Spirit.
Paul says this in Romans chapter eight, verse 15.
He says, you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but
you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
See, without the spirit, you and I are still strangers and
aliens and exiles and foreigners.
To have the access to even come into the presence of God in worship or in prayer,
in confession, we need the spirit first.
The Spirit is what signifies that we belong to the family of God.
Without the Spirit, you don't belong to the family of God.
The Spirit of adoption.
Speaking of the family of God, the Spirit also impacts our fellowship.
Our fellowship with one another as the body of Christ, the Spirit unites us
together from all kinds of different backgrounds, all kinds of different
socioeconomic statuses, all kinds of different stories, all kinds of
different marital statuses, whether you have kids, you don't have kids,
whether you're a student, you're an adult, whoever you may be in the room,
the thing that brings us together and bonds us together is the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 12 verses 12 through 13.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the
members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.
How?
Well, he answers, for in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body.
Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.
So the spirit unites us together as the body of Christ.
Something else the spirit impacts for us is our confidence
in our standing with God.
The Spirit is given to us as a guarantee.
In fact, Paul says that multiple times.
22.
God has also put a seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Ephesians 1.
13 14.
Similarly, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with his promised Holy Spirit,
who is the guarantee of our inheritance.
And so the Spirit gives you a confidence before the Lord,
gives you a hope before the Lord.
In fact, we read it in Romans chapter 8 during our scripture reading.
It says in verse 16, the Spirit himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God.
That is the confidence that you have as a believer as a result of the
Spirit bearing witness with your own spirit as to your standing before God.
That you belong to Him as a son of God.
So the Spirit impacts our confidence, our standing before God.
The Spirit also has bearing on your sanctification, your Christ likeness.
For it is by the Spirit, according to Romans 8, 13 through 14,
it's by the Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the body.
We mortify the flesh.
In fact, John Owen, the great Puritan writer, wrote a whole entire book
based, basically, on this concept.
That it's by the Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the body.
That is, that as Christians, that is our task.
Right before this, in Romans 8, 11, he says, If the Spirit of Him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will
also give life to your mortal bodies.
To the end that you're able to put to death the deeds of the body.
So church that means that one of those spirits roles in your life
is to make sure that there is no sin that has a death grip on you.
There is no sin as a, as a believer that you cannot be free from.
There's no sin that you cannot put to death by the Spirit dwelling within you.
Sanctification, wisdom, The Spirit also helps us to grow in wisdom.
Not necessarily, again, in the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom of the Lord.
1 on this one.
1 Corinthians 2.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.
For they are foolishness to him, folly to him.
And he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
They're spiritually discerned.
See, the Spirit helps us grow in our understanding and knowledge
of the matters of God, the matters of the Gospel, who God is.
And this is why we can stretch ourselves to understand things about God that
are difficult for us to understand.
Why we can pick up a systematic theology and read about the character
of God, read about His acts, read about Him in a deeper level and grow
in our understanding of Him because the Spirit helps us to understand Him.
It's why every single year you pick up the Bible and you read through
the daily Bible reading, you're gonna learn more about God every single year,
even though the words don't change.
Because the Spirit's continually growing us and teaching us more
and more and more about God.
That's part of what He does in our life.
But fundamentally, before, first and foremost, all of these things that
I've just talked about, the Spirit, first and foremost, is present in our
lives through the act of regeneration.
In other words, causing us to be born again.
This is something that John recorded Jesus words for us back in John chapter
3 as Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus.
John chapter 3 verses 5 through 8, Jesus said this, Jesus answered,
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know
where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who's born of the Spirit.
And so the Spirit causes us to have new life.
And so what does the Spirit do?
The Spirit does all of these things in our life.
Which again, if you ask me, is far better than gold dust
coming down from the ceiling.
But it's also worth us pondering and thinking about how great Christianity is
because it's unique in the fact that no other religion will you ever find where
the, the founder, the, the figurehead, the God or the gods in the religion
have done this for their followers.
Jesus could have gone to the cross, died on the cross, risen
from the dead, and hung out on earth for the rest of eternity.
And never given us the spirit and looked at us and said, good luck following me.
That's essentially what every other world religion looks like.
The founder, the leader, the Muhammad, the prophet, Allah, Gandhi, Buddha, and
none of the pantheon of all the Hindu gods and goddesses that are out there.
All of them basically say, hey, good luck.
Here's what I, what you're supposed to do for me.
No other religion will you find God coming to take up residence in his followers.
to help them follow Him.
That's what we have in the Spirit.
That's why we can't underestimate what the Spirit can do for
us as followers of Jesus.
But not only for us, remember, the Christian has two tasks.
Glorify God and reach the lost.
And it's that reaching the lost part that he goes to next, look at verse 8.
He says, When he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and
righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me,
concerning righteousness because I go to the Father, and you will see me no
longer, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.
And so Jesus says that the Spirit is not only there to help the disciples,
but the Spirit is also going to have a role in the life of the lost.
Our second point this morning is this, don't just not, don't just underestimate
what the spirit can do in your life, but also don't underestimate what the
spirit can do in the life of the lost.
Let me say that in a way that isn't not just a total train wreck.
Point number two, don't underestimate what the spirit can do for the lost.
Tripping over my words.
This is what Jesus is saying here, and this is another massive
benefit of what we get to have by the spirit dwelling within us.
Because he empowers the words of the gospel as we preach the
gospel to the lost in our midst.
He says he's going to convict the world.
The word convict means to expose, to reprove.
He's going to convict the world concerning three things, sin,
righteousness, and judgment.
Sin is a word that means missing the mark.
And he's going to convict them concerning sin, he says, because
they do not believe in me.
The main charge against every unbeliever that's going to condemn them in
the end is a rejection of Christ, a disbelief, an unbelief in Jesus.
That is the primary charge levied against every unbeliever.
They will pay the penalty for their other sins as well, but that is the main one.
And so, Jesus is saying that the Spirit is going to convict the lost, convict
the world, about their unbelief in Him.
And cause them to feel the weight and desire then to believe in Christ.
He's going to convict them concerning sin, but also concerning righteousness.
He said, because I go to the Father and you will see me no more.
The Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus day would have said anything
other than Jesus is righteous.
In fact, they accused Jesus of being the opposite of righteous.
They accused Him of being a sinner.
They accused Him of breaking the Sabbath, of undermining the law,
undermining the law of Moses.
And so Jesus is saying, you know what, I'm going to be vindicated
because I'm going to go to the Father and you're going to understand that
the righteousness that you need is not this righteousness of morality.
It's not a righteousness of adherence to the law and obedience.
It's a righteousness of faith in Christ and an unmerited righteousness that can
be yours through that faith in Christ.
And so the Spirit is going to convict the world of the righteousness that they
truly need, which is the righteousness that's theirs in Christ, which is
going to be vindicated through his return to the right hand of the Father.
And then finally the Spirit is going to convict the world concerning judgment,
because the ruler of the world is judged.
See, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they thought they were about to judge
Jesus, but Jesus is saying, no, no, What's going to happen through you thinking
you're judging me is ultimately the ruler of the world is going to be judged.
And so the Spirit is going to convict the world regarding what side of that
judgment they want to be on in the end.
And so the Spirit is going to help us through this process.
There are times in our lives, right, where we feel helpless and hopeless, don't we?
Imagine, if you will, if there were cell phones when the Titanic went down.
And imagine having a family member on that boat.
And you get the text.
We just hit an iceberg.
The boat is going down.
There's this lady floating in the water.
She says, there's not room on the door for both her and this other guy, but there is.
Here's the picture.
I sent it to you,
but imagine being on the receiving end of a texting.
The ship's going down.
We don't know if the rescue boats are going to get there in time.
Imagine the helplessness you would have felt.
What would you do?
The only thing you can do We should pray.
Church that's where we stand when it comes to the state of the lost in our life.
We should feel that helplessness and the problem is where we get
into trouble is when we try to be the spirit in the life of the lost.
We think to them, well, you know what they need?
They just need a different approach.
They need a different tone.
They need to listen to this podcast.
They need to listen to this sermon.
They need to read this book.
And we're doing everything in our power to try to get them to be convicted
about sin, righteousness, and judgment.
And here's the thing, y'all, that's not in our power to be able to do that.
I'm not saying God doesn't use a different tone or a different podcast or
a different sermon or a different book.
I'm just telling you God uses those things.
The Spirit does that work.
So as you're thinking about this second and final point, by the
way, if you're wondering is there a third point to this sermon?
No, just two.
Amen.
Trust the Spirit to do the work of the Spirit.
It's His job to convict.
It's His job to do the heavy lifting.
And so I get the helplessness, right?
You can't get them to see the sin that they're in.
They're saying, well, that's true for you, but it's not true for me.
Or they say, you know what?
I don't really get the same urgency that you're telling me I should feel right now.
I don't really think I need the salvation that you're offering right now.
Or they're sitting there saying, you know what, I feel
like I'm a good enough person.
I get it, but I'm a good person.
There's people way worse than I am.
There's no way God's gonna send me to hell.
I'm a decent human being.
And when you've heard those things, or the person that's just like, you know
what, I just, I can't believe in God.
I can't believe in God for this reason, this reason, this reason, this reason.
And you just think to yourself, oh man, how can I get through to them?
The answer is you can't get through to them.
But the spirit can.
And so pray, pray.
And if your response is, that feels like a cop out, then I'm just gonna say you
don't understand the power of prayer.
In what you have.
In access to the throne of God, to pray that God would soften the hearts
of the unbeliever, to pray that the Spirit would do the work of the Spirit
in the lives of the lost, to pray that He would bring their conviction over
sin and righteousness and judgment, to pray that their eyes would be opened.
So I want to encourage you to pray for the lost in your life.
But don't just pray.
God, please save them.
Pray specifically for them.
God, please cause them to feel the weight of their sin.
God, please cause them to see the ugliness of their sin.
compared to the holiness that you've called them to.
Pray that they would desire righteousness instead of sin.
Pray that they would understand that they're not good enough.
Pray that God would bring them to the end of the trust in
themselves for their goodness.
Pray that they would fear the wrath of God and the judgment that awaits the
lost If they don't repent and believe in Jesus for the salvation of their sins
Pray and ask the Spirit to do the work of the Spirit Don't underestimate what the
Spirit can do in the lives of the lost and if you're sitting there going but
prayer just seems like A cop out again.
It's only because you don't understand the weapon that you have in prayer And
the power that you have access to you through praying that God would do what
God does through the Spirit So pray specifically second pray with hope Pray
with hope God delights to answer these prayers The Bible tells us God does
not delight in the death of the wicked.
The Bible tells us God does not wish that any should perish, but
all should reach eternal life.
So when you pray, God, use your spirit to bring conviction upon the lost.
You are praying a prayer that God delights to answer.
So pray with hope, just like George Mueller did.
And then pray for yourself in this process.
Pray that as you are pursuing, as you are praying, as you are pleading,
pray for patience as God works.
Pray for trust in God's timing.
Pray for peace regardless of the outcome.
Pray for a passion for the glory of God no matter what happens.
Pray.
Pray for the Spirit to do the work of the Spirit.
Feel the desperation and know that you are not powerless, though
it feels like you are powerless.
You are more powerful than you ever could be because you have access to the Spirit.
Pray.
You need the Holy Spirit as much as you need Jesus.
And it's on us to look to the Bible to say, What does the Holy Spirit do for us?
What does that mean for us?
And one of the things that the Holy Spirit does, as we've been talking
about, is the Holy Spirit is integral in us coming to faith in Christ.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul says, The word of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing.
It's folly.
It's stupidity.
to worship a Savior who died in abject humility and weakness.
And yet, if you have come to understand that that is true, that Jesus did die
on the cross for you, so that your sins can be forgiven, then that is evidence
of the work of the Spirit in your life.
We're about to remember that act as we observe communion together.
And so right now, the elements are going to be passed, and as they're passed,
there's gonna be some music playing softly in the background, but I want
you to ponder, I want you to consider, I want you to give thanks, if you are in
Christ, for the Spirit's work to cause you to come to understand these things.
And then I want you also to reflect on the greatness that we have in the
sacrifice of Christ on our behalf.
And I'll come back up and we'll take these elements together in just a moment.
Amen.