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You can turn with me in your 
Bibles to the gospel of John, John chapter 16, as we continue 
to work our way through John's gospel. Our focus this morning will be 
verses eight to 11, but I wanna read beginning in verse one to 
verse 11. So John 16, beginning in verse one, these things I 
have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. They 
will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that 
whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And 
these things they will do to you because they have not known 
the father nor me. But these things I have told 
you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told 
you of them. And these things I did not say 
to you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go 
away to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, where are 
you going? But because I have said these 
things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell 
you the truth. 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 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. Of judgment, because 
the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say 
to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit 
of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will 
not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will 
speak, and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, 
or for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. all 
things that the Father has are mine. Therefore, I said that 
he will take of mine and declare it to you. Amen. Well, let us 
pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you 
for your written word. We thank you for the ministry 
of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus speaks of in this wonderful passage 
We pray that You would send Him forth even now to guide and to 
lead and to instruct us as we consider this wonderful section 
of Your Word. Forgive us now for all of our 
sins and unrighteousness. Cleanse us in that precious blood 
of the Lamb. Cause us to receive with thanksgiving 
Your Word. May it be unto edification and 
and sanctification, and the strengthening of the saints, and for any and 
all who are here dead in their trespasses and sins, we pray 
that the Spirit would work that conviction, showing forth that 
sin, showing forth that righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus 
Christ, and highlighting the reality of a judgment to come. 
Lord God, be merciful, we pray, here and elsewhere. And wherever 
your gospel is preached, we pray that you would save. Effectually 
call out of darkness into marvelous light those dead in trespasses 
and sins. Do this for your glory, for your 
praise, and for your honor. And we ask in the name of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, as we move through 
this particular section, remember that we're in what's called the 
upper room discourse. Others call it the farewell discourse. It's the last time that Jesus 
is with his disciples prior to his death and then ascension 
on high. Not the last time he's with them, 
but for a concentrated period of instruction and teaching. 
Remember, he's preparing them. He is going to ascend on high. 
He's going to be enthroned at the right hand of the Father. 
And these men are going to go out and turn the world upside 
down for the Lord Jesus. He passes along to them that 
information that is going to be necessary and crucial. And 
one of the repeated emphases is on who God is, Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit. but also he alerts them to the 
fact the world's not going to necessarily receive their message. In 1518, he says to them that 
the world is going to hate you. He invokes that parable or that 
concept that if the world hates and opposes the master, well, 
of course, they're going to hate and oppose the servant. And then 
Jesus applies that very specifically to his contemporaries, unbelieving 
Jews. Those who had resisted and rejected 
Jesus as being the promised Messiah are those who reject God himself. Jesus makes that clear in 1521 
and then again in 1523. He carries that theme into chapter 
16, and specifically in verses 1 to 4, He indicates that there 
will be a time when the Jews will put you out of their synagogues 
and they will even kill you thinking they are doing service to God. 
Again, Jesus is not doing this simply for shock value, but he 
wants to make sure that they don't stumble. He wants to make 
sure that they themselves are prepared and that they will always 
be dependent upon the Holy Spirit for their mission in the world. 
So having then concluded that subsection, he speaks concerning 
the ministry of the Spirit. He's already told us about the 
Spirit in chapter 14, and then again in chapter 15, verses 26 
and 7, and here specifically he's going to mention the Spirit's 
conviction of the world in verses 8 to 11, and then he'll pick 
up on the Spirit's ministry to the disciples, specifically in 
verses 12 to 15. And I would suggest that verses 
8 to 11, a cursory reading, it seems pretty straightforward. 
It's one of those passages I kind of thought I knew what it meant 
until I started looking at it in more detail, and I'm really 
convinced I really didn't know what it meant, and I'm not sure 
I fully understand what it means now, but we're going to try to 
navigate verses 8 to 11. So remember last week, we saw 
the departure of Christ in verses 5 to 7. Jesus says, but now I 
go away to him who sent me. Obviously, he's referring to 
his death on the cross, his resurrection, and that is ascension to the 
right hand of the Father. He goes on to verse 7 saying, 
nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage 
that I go away. That's an interesting statement 
because these men love Jesus. They've been with Jesus for three 
years. They're devoted to him. They're his servants. He is their 
master. And he says, I'm going away. 
And not only am I going away, but it's actually to your advantage. 
That would be a bit of a surprise. How will it advantage us? How 
will it benefit us in the absence of one that we love? Well obviously 
the benefit would come through his life, his death, his resurrection. Gospel blessings are the result 
of what Christ has accomplished on behalf of his people. But 
specifically Jesus is highlighting the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 
When Jesus ascends on high, he leads captivity captive, and 
he gives gifts to men. And one of the specific gifts 
that he gives is the Holy Spirit. In fact, if you look at John 
chapter 20, as we trace through this particular theme, we see 
a wonderful link between John 20 and Acts 2. Notice in John 
20 at verse 21, So Jesus said to them again, Peace to you. 
As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said 
this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy 
Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, 
they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, 
they are retained. Not that the Spirit had never 
been present. The Spirit is present at the 
creation of the universe. The Spirit spake by the prophets. The Spirit can be grieved, and 
the prophet Isaiah, David prays in Psalm 51, take not thine Holy 
Spirit from me. but the giving of the spirit 
is consistent with the prophecy of Joel in Joel 2 that comes 
to pass on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts. So notice 
in John 20, 22, Jesus breathes on them to receive the spirit. 
Acts chapter two at verse one, when the day of Pentecost had 
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And 
suddenly there came a sound from heaven of a rushing mighty wind. the wind of God, the breath of 
God. Christ breathes forth this blessed 
spirit to come in power to empower the church for her testimony 
concerning Jesus and Him crucified and resurrected. So that's what 
Jesus means in 16.7 when He says, 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 depart, I will send 
him to you." And then he goes on now to speak concerning the 
work of the Spirit in the world. Notice in verse eight, it's a 
general statement. It's gonna be amplified in verses 
nine to 11. But in verse eight, it says, 
and when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and 
of righteousness and of judgment. As I said, this will be taken 
apart by Jesus and applied in a bit more specific ways in verses 
9 to 11. But what does that mean, to convict? 
The word simply means to bring a person to the point of recognizing 
wrongdoing, to convict them, to convince someone of something. So that's sort of the semantic 
range. I don't think that Jesus is teaching 
in verses 8 to 11 that every single person in the world is 
going to be saved. I don't think that's the emphasis. 
When the Spirit comes to convince the world of sin, because they 
don't believe in Jesus, of righteousness, because Jesus goes away to the 
Father, and of judgment, because the Lord God is gonna judge the 
ruler of this world, I don't think the object here, the meaning 
is that every single person all over the world is going to be 
saved. So I think it's a bit of a difficult sort of a statement. The Spirit has this work, and 
He's going to convince of sin and of righteousness and judgment, 
but not necessarily to the salvation of everybody who hears that. 
So what do you think, or how do we proceed? I think the emphasis 
is not on the salvation of the world, but the confirmation of 
who Jesus Christ is objectively. And I think the primary reference 
is to the apostolic preaching that we find in the book of Acts. Again, it extends beyond the 
book of Acts. It happens today when the gospel 
is preached. The Spirit works to convince 
concerning the idea of sin and of righteousness and judgment. 
It does mean personal salvation to the elect of God, but I think 
it's the confirmation of all that Jesus is, and that is confirmed 
by the Spirit himself. One man says the paraclete, or 
the helper, will confront the world with its failures and prove 
its guilt. Whether or not the world recognizes 
it, the mission of the paraclete in this cosmic trial is to convict 
the world of its guilt before God. In other words, the Spirit's 
primary emphasis on the Day of Pentecost is not to dazzle people 
with tongues. That is not the main point in 
the book of Acts, at chapter 2. It is to display that Christ, 
whom you crucified, Peter says to Jerusalem's sinners, that 
God has made this Christ, whom you crucified, both Lord and 
Christ. He's stationed at the right hand 
of the Father. So again, when the Spirit does 
what the Spirit does, according to Jesus here, it doesn't mean 
the salvation of everyone who ever hears about sin, righteousness, 
and judgment. And I think that Gil is on to 
something as well. When it says, the world, notice 
in verse 8, and when He has come, He will convict the world of 
sin. The world is oftentimes used 
in different ways. In fact, look at John chapter 
1 to see three ways that the word world is used. John chapter 
1, specifically at verse 10, he was in the world. That means 
Jesus was on planet Earth. He wasn't on Pluto even before 
it was declassified as a planet. He wasn't on Neptune. He wasn't 
on Jupiter. He wasn't on Mars. He was in 
the world. That obviously means the earth. 
But then notice, and the world was made through him. That means 
the entirety of the created order. That means Pluto. That means 
Neptune. That means Jupiter. That means 
Mars. That means all the galaxies. 
That means everything. The world was made through Him. 
But then notice, and the world did not know Him. We often use 
the word world that way. He's worldly. That means he's 
not godly. The world did not know him. He 
came to his own, his own received him not. Now go back to John 
15, specifically at verse 18, which I think is the broader 
context for what we're looking at in 16. Notice, if the world 
hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Now there's 
a sense, obviously, generally, where that's the case. Everybody 
outside of the church, everybody not the elect of God, everybody 
not believing on the gospel of Jesus Christ, is considered to 
be part of the world. But look at the particular context. Notice in verse 21. But all these 
things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they 
do not know him who sent me. Verse 23, he who hates me hates 
my father also. Notice in verse 25, but this 
happened, that the word might be fulfilled, which is written, 
note, in their law, they hated me without a cause. And then 
16.2, they'll put you out of the synagogues. 16.2, they will kill you thinking 
they offer service to God. I don't think Gil is wrong here. He says, by the world is principally 
meant the Jews, the world among whom Christ personally was, who 
knew him not, disbelieved him, rejected him as the Messiah, 
hated and persecuted him even unto death, though not to the 
exclusion of the Gentiles, the whole world that lies in wickedness, 
since both joined and were concerned in these things and reproved 
of them. So it does involve necessarily everybody outside of saving grace. But a specific referent here, 
and again, I think the application is in the apostolic ministry 
in the book of Acts. The Spirit is going to confirm 
to the world of the Jews who Jesus came to His own and His 
own received Him not, they crucified the Lord of glory, that spirit 
would convict them of sin because they did not believe in Jesus 
Christ, of righteousness because Jesus went to the Father, and 
of judgment because the ruler of this world is being judged. 
Now let's look at these particulars. Note the conviction of sin. He 
says that in verse 9, "...of sin, because they do not believe 
in me." Turn to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2. Notice the subject matter that 
the apostle Peter assumes. After the outpouring of the Spirit 
that we read there in chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, well, we only 
read verses 1 to 2, verse 4 tells us that there was tongue speaking. 
Tongue speaking broke out. Not gibberish, not mindless babble, 
but the communication of the wondrous works of God in other 
languages. So then they are basically mocked 
by the crowd and saying, oh, they're just full of new wine. 
They're drunk. So Peter gets up and he says, 
these are not drunk, as you say. It's still too early in the day. 
I don't think he meant it quite like that. He says, this is that 
which was spoken by the prophet Joel, Joel chapter two, to show 
that in this age, in the age of Messiah, the Spirit's going 
to come powerfully. It's going to come upon all flesh 
and your men servants and your maid servants are going to prophesy. 
There's going to be this absolute blessed reversal of what we see 
at the Tower of Babel. It is a glorious thing that is 
happening. So after applying Joel 2, notice 
what he does in verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these words, 
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, 
and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves 
also know. He preaches Jesus. He preaches 
Christ. Why do you think that is? Because 
that was the issue. Without the saving knowledge 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are dead. We are damned. We go 
to hell forever. Well, in this particular context, 
the world of the Jews, by and large, had resisted the very 
Messiah that was promised in their scriptures. So Peter gets 
up, filled with the spirit to interpret the phenomena, and 
he doesn't say, wow, look at all the tongues speaking. No, 
he says, you need to think about this Jesus. You need to think 
about this one who was attested by God through these signs and 
these miracles. Notice in verse 23, he makes 
sure to remind them that they crucified him. And then he highlights 
that he didn't stay in the grave, but he was raised again by God. 
He was exalted to the right hand of God. And according to 2.33, 
it is Jesus at the right hand of God that has sent this spirit 
that is now moving in our midst. And notice the blessed effect 
that it has upon these men. They're convicted, they cry out, 
men and brethren, what must we do? And Peter gives that great 
response, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the 
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. So you see, 
there is good conviction of sin in that group of the world yielding 
salvation. But it's not always the case. 
Throughout the rest of the Book of the Apostles, or actually 
the Apostles, they preach Christ. Sometimes some believe, but not 
always. But that does not mean the Spirit 
isn't doing His work. I think we fail in that way. We judge evangelism by a numbers 
game. Well, you know, 100 people came 
forward. That was a good night. You know, another night, only 
40 people came forward. Not so good. Brethren, that Christ 
is preached glorifies God. That Christ is preached glorifies 
God. What's Paul say? Paul says, he 
kind of uses an anthropomorphic way to describe this, that the 
proclamation of the gospel is like a fragrance to God Almighty. He sniffs it, as it were, as 
that gospel is preached, whether it be unto the salvation of those 
blessed to believe, or to the damnation of those who continue 
to resist and reject. God's glorified in His Son. The task of the church is not 
to make converts. The task of the church is to 
preach Christ and Him crucified as the alone remedy for sin, 
to preach His righteousness as the alone righteousness that 
will enter into the presence of God, and to highlight the 
coming judgment of God. If you were following the liturgy 
this morning, singing Psalm 11, talking about God burning up 
His enemies with coals, Boy, that's a great way to greet the 
Sunday, isn't it? And then that great God of wonders 
in the hymn before the preaching. Brethren, it's to emphasize the 
reality. If the Spirit's ministry relative 
to the world is to convict the world of sin, because they don't 
believe in Jesus, to convict the world of righteousness, because 
Jesus is now exalted to the right hand of the Father, and to convict 
the world of the judgment to come, then what ought the church 
to be doing? Aren't we to be, as Cam mentioned, 
not insisting on binary categories, opening up our arms to all the 
godlessness in this age, being woke, being social warriors or 
social justice warriors? Funny how social justice only 
ever works towards Marxism. It's never toward God and those 
things that please God. Brethren, sin, righteousness, 
and judgment are to be the things propagated by the church of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. If that's what the Spirit's mission 
is relative to this godless world, then shouldn't we follow the 
Spirit? Shouldn't we be about that, preaching about sin, about 
righteousness, and about the judgment to come? So the Spirit 
comes to confirm that Christ is in fact the one whom God had 
promised. Then the apostles come to further 
prosecute that case, and the ministry of the Spirit is to 
convince the world. Here in Acts 2, to good effect, 
many came forth, many believed, many were added to the church. 
You can see that as the chapter continues. But wherever else 
they went, it didn't always yield those same sorts of results. 
And again, the marketing mindset is, well, they weren't so successful 
in those particular cities. Do you know, brethren, that success 
is simply to preach the truth? Well, you know, I preached and 
I preached and nothing ever happened. You preached the truth. The happening 
part is God's. Right? Are we really reformed? Do we actually believe in the 
sovereignty of God? Our task is to proclaim Christ 
and Him crucified, resurrected. And if we say, well, you know, 
there's not any results. Again, brethren, I think that's 
a human way to think. I'm not going to lie to you and 
say, well, I've never thought that way before. but it's not 
the way we should be thinking. It's the declaration of the truth 
of God's holy word. That's success. Church numbers, 
church programs, church this and church that. I'm not saying 
none of that matters, but what ultimately matters is the proclamation 
of the truth. It's the apostle Paul when he 
says, for I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus 
Christ and him crucified. My preaching was not according 
to the wisdom of men, but according to the demonstration of the Spirit 
and power. That's what Christ is promising 
here vis-à-vis the sending of the Holy Spirit. Notice as well 
the conviction concerning righteousness. I get the connection between 
of sin because they do not believe in me. I understand that. He's 
going to go to the world of the Jews and say, look, you crucified 
him. He's the one that Moses and the 
prophets wrote about. He's the one you've sung of and 
prayed of in the Psalter. And you crucified the Lord of 
glory. I can see why sin and not believing in Jesus go hand 
in hand. This next clause is a little 
bit more difficult of righteousness because I go to the father and 
you see me no more. Okay, well, what does that mean? 
Again, not sure I've got it, but here's what I'm sort of thinking. 
Of righteousness because I go to the Father and you see me 
no more. So he's talking to the apostles, he's in the upper realm, 
you see me no more. Of course, they're gonna see 
him after he is raised from the dead, right? That's part of the 
old John 20 thing when the apostles appear and Thomas is absent and 
they go, hey, Thomas, you should have been with us. Little guilt 
manipulation there, huh? How would you have felt if these 
men come to you and they say, oh, man, Jesus showed up. I used 
to use the illustration of nursery. You know, mother is down there 
watching your child. Happens to be that way. And you 
go downstairs, pick up Junior, and say, you should have been 
in that service, man. The pastor was just blessed, and the word 
was great. Not at this church, of course, but it was just fantastic. We have seen the Lord and you're 
there probably hopefully with all the patience and grace you 
can muster. And I was watching your child. That's why I didn't 
see the Lord. Imagine that. The apostles are 
the ones to whom he speaks at this point, at this time. They're 
going to see him again. I think when he says, but I go 
to my father, he's talking about the ascension. He's talking about 
the exaltation to the right hand of the father. Again, Simon Peter 
makes much of that from 230 to 236 in Acts 2. He speaks about David prophesying 
that Christ would sit upon David's throne at the resurrection of 
Christ. So they would see him thus, but 
Jesus goes to his father. So how does righteousness and 
ascension connect? Again, the world of the Spirit 
convinces the world of righteousness because I go to my Father. There's 
two texts that at least suggest themselves to me that I think 
Jesus might be alluding to. In terms of his righteousness, 
his personal righteousness, which they disregarded. The Jews thought 
he was a malefactor. The Jews thought he was a winebibber. 
The Jews thought he was a glutton, Matthew chapter 11. The Jews 
rejected him and resisted him. They castigated him. They thought 
he was a fraud. They thought he was a fake. They 
picked up stones on several occasions to throw at him because he, being 
a man, made himself equal with God. So it's his personal righteousness, 
but I think he's talking about, again, could be wrong, his imputed 
righteousness. The Spirit is going to convince 
the world of sin because they do not believe in me. But He's 
also going to convince them of righteousness because I go to 
my Father. What does that mean? It means 
that our righteousness is never good enough because it's mingled 
with sin. It means that it can't be a little 
bit of our righteousness and a little bit of Jesus' righteousness 
to sort of get us there. It's gotta be Christ's righteousness 
alone. And I think it's connected to 
the exaltation vis-a-vis Romans 1, 4, and Romans 4, 25. Romans 1 talks about the resurrection 
of Christ where he's declared to be the son of God with power. Not that he becomes the son of 
God with power at the resurrection, but he's declared to be thus. 
In other words, at the resurrection, all the promises of God are demonstrated, 
yea and amen, in him. He goes to the cross, he goes 
into that tomb. If he were a fraud, if he were 
a fake, he wouldn't come out of the tomb. But he comes out 
of the tomb, that vindicates or demonstrates or validates 
or highlights or confirms that he is who Moses and the prophets 
and the psalmist prophesied concerning. And then Romans 4.25, he was 
delivered up because of our offenses and was raised for what? Our justification. So the Spirit 
comes to convince the world of sin. Why? Because they do not 
believe in me. He comes also to convince the 
world of righteousness. Why? Because I go to my Father. In other words, that was the 
big, it-is-finished declaration. And from here on out, not that 
it was different before, but from here on out, the only righteousness 
that avails with God Most High is the righteousness of Jesus 
Christ the Lord. So the Spirit convinces of sin. 
He convinces of the remedy for sin, namely the righteousness 
of Jesus, but then notice he brings that to bear on judgment. He convinces the world of judgment 
as well. Why? Because the ruler of this 
world is judged. What does that mean? Means at 
the death of Christ, the death blow is rendered to the devil 
himself. You've got that in Colossians 
1. You've got that in Colossians 2. You've got that in Hebrews 
2. You've got that in 1 John. We're not waiting for the devil 
to be crushed. We're living in the wake of the 
devil's having been crushed. Yes, he roams about like a roaring 
lion. Yes, he seeks whom he may devour. 
But he doesn't have the power to keep the gospel from going 
to all nations. The binding of the devil in Revelation 
20, whatever your particular eschatological bent is, it is 
very conspicuous that the binding of the devil is so that the nations 
should be deceived no more. At that first coming of Jesus, 
Jesus crushes the head of the serpent. Genesis 3.15 is realized 
at the cross and in the resurrection of our Lord. The ruler of this 
world is judged. Jesus announces that, Jesus fulfills 
that, and now the Spirit comes to convince the world of sin, 
of the remedy for sin and of the impending judgment for those 
who do not go to Christ for that remedy. I think that's what he's 
saying. I think that's the emphasis. 
Not on the salvation of everyone in the world that will hear these 
things. Certainly the salvation of those 
in the world that God has picked out of the world to believe the 
gospel and to be saved. But the ministry of the Spirit 
turns on this particular hinge. It is to make much of Jesus Christ. That's what these disciples need 
to know before Jesus ascends on high and sits enthroned at 
the right hand of the Father. I am going to give you the Spirit 
of truth. I am going to help you navigate 
in this present evil age. I am going to be there with you 
via the Spirit when you go into the synagogues." And again, the 
apostolic ministry of the apostle Paul, where did he go when he 
would go to a city? He'd go to the synagogues. And 
do you think when he's in the synagogues, he says, you know, 
fellow Jews, we've got a lot in common. We believe that Yahweh 
created the earth. We believe that Yahweh spoke 
through Moses. We believe that Yahweh spoke 
through the prophets. We sing the same Psalms. We pray 
the same Psalms. We recite. Is that what they 
did? No. You know what Paul did when 
he went to the Jewish synagogue? He reasoned from the scriptures 
that Jesus is the Christ. He doesn't say, let's just agree 
with the 80% that we agree upon. No, he takes the message that 
they desperately needed to hear. Why? Because they were in sin 
for having rejected the Savior. They needed the righteousness 
of Jesus imputed to them and received by faith alone. And 
they needed to be reminded there's a judgment to come. And if you 
don't come to this Savior, if you don't believe on this one, 
if you don't receive him by God's grace, you are going to suffer 
the same fate as your father, the devil. Language of Jesus, 
John 8, 44, you are of your father, the devil. Solidarity with the 
devil brings judgment along with the devil. So you see, the ministry 
of the Spirit isn't first and foremost in the churches so that 
we can all babble in tongues. That's not what's going on. What 
is the ministry of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, throughout 
the book of Acts, and in subsequent church history, and should continue 
unabated now, is the proclamation of sin, of righteousness, and 
of the judgment to come. Christ prepares the disciples 
with that that they need when they go into these other places. So that's what I think is happening 
there in this sort of enigmatic statement of sin, because they 
do not believe in me, of righteousness, because I go to my father and 
you see me no more, of judgment, because the ruler of this world 
is judged. Now, of course, he's gonna speak 
concerning the disciples, particularly in the Spirit's ministry to them, 
in terms of guiding them, in terms of teaching and helping 
and assisting them, because that's not going to be an easy task, 
right? When Jesus says that the Spirit 
is going to convince the world of these things, the Spirit doesn't 
show up at the synagogue in Lystra. The Spirit, I mean, get my meaning 
here, the Spirit is present with the apostle who has to go into 
enemy territory and say, look, it's gonna be open with you guys. 
Jesus is the man that is spoken of in Genesis 3. Jesus is the 
anti-type of Genesis 22. He is the Lord, the one that 
the Lord has provided. He is the prophet of Deuteronomy 
18. He is Isaiah's suffering servant of Isaiah 53. He is the 
one that comes from the ancient of days, according to Micah 5.2. 
He is the Lord, our righteousness, according to Jeremiah 23. For 
Paul or a Peter to stand in enemy territory and declare those things 
which are most offensive to the hearers, Again, brethren, it's 
easier to preach. If I was dropped into a Jewish 
synagogue this morning, I'd like to think I'd have the same earnestness 
in preaching this text, but it is easier to preach to people 
that already believe, or at least aren't openly hostile to it. 
These guys did that. So when Jesus says the Spirit 
is gonna do this, he means through you guys, okay? I'm not leaving you as orphans, 
John 14. I'm not leaving you devoid of 
the helper. I'm not leaving you to fare on 
your own in a hostile, antagonistic, godless world that's going to 
put you out of their synagogues and is going to kill you and 
think that they're doing service to God. Jesus promises that which 
is most helpful. This is why he can say in verse 
7, it's to your advantage that I go away. I've got to say, brethren, 
if I was there and I heard that, my jaw would have dropped. How 
could it be to your advantage? That's like the father of five 
kids and a wife saying, you know what? It's to your advantage 
that I'm leaving you now. Huh? What is that possible? How could it be advantageous 
for me, for us, for you to leave us? That's kind of akin to what 
it was here. But when he comes on the heels 
of that and says, I'm giving you the spirit of truth, he's 
going to guide you and lead you. He's going to enable and empower 
you. So that when you go into those enemy territories, when 
you are in and amongst the world, those who crucified the Lord 
of glory. The Spirit is going to be there. The Spirit is going 
to be testifying. The Spirit is going to convince 
them of sin, of righteousness and of the judgment to come. 
Brethren, I think that Jesus is speaking specifically to these 
men in their needs and by extension to the church. And that brings 
me to a couple of thoughts and then we'll close. First, with 
reference to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Let us never 
forget, that's one of the emphases throughout this section. It's 
on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As Augustine says, 
we have frequently said, however, that the operations of the Trinity 
are inseparable, but the persons needed to be set forth one by 
one, that not only without separating them, but also without confounding 
them together, we may have a right understanding both of their unity 
and Trinity. That is perceptive. Why is Jesus 
teaching the way that Jesus is with reference to the doctrine 
of God? So that we will see the trinity of persons, that we will 
see the unity of the divine essence, that we'll appreciate statements 
like John 1.1, John 1.14, John 1.18, that we'll appreciate statements 
like John 15, 26, and 27. that will get it, perhaps not 
to the level of an Augustine, perhaps not to the level of an 
Aquinas, or a Van Maastricht, or a Turretin, but will understand 
there is but one only, the living and true God, who exists eternally 
as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three persons, equal in 
power and glory, of the same substance or essence, Again, 
we may not be able to fully explain that to the Jehovah's Witness 
on Yale Road, but brethren, we see it all over Scripture. One 
living and true God who exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
Not by way of gradation, big G God, little g God, littler 
g God. That's tritheism, and that's 
heresy. We have no subordination in God. There's no subordination on the 
part of the Son to the Father in the relations of the Trinity. That is simply a category that 
doesn't exist with reference to relations in the Trinity. 
We need to get this. We need to understand it insofar 
as we can. And if we ask the question, well, 
why? Well, in John 17, when Jesus comes to pray in this upper room 
discourse, he says that they may know thee the only true God 
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And that is the description 
of what is eternal life. Do you realize that so much of 
what we spend our efforts on in this present age doesn't matter 
at all? It just doesn't. all the sourdough 
you can bake, all the engines you can fix, all the scores you 
can rattle off, all of the statistics. I'm not saying don't do that. 
Bake more sourdough. Fix more engines. Great. Brethren, 
this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true 
God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. If that's what eternal 
life is in the age to come, you'd like to think it has a bit of 
an impact in this present age on us, such that, yeah, We should 
look at John 13 to 16 and think about our triune God and see 
the relations that are established there, or revealed to us rather, 
there, and stand in awe and worship and glorify. So the Holy Spirit 
is the disciples' advantage. The Holy Spirit is the disciples' 
power and the disciples' protection. See, when Paul goes into these 
various synagogues, remember when Peter preaches on the day 
of Pentecost, where is he? He's in Jerusalem with the mob 
that just a little while ago shouted, away with him, away 
with him, crucify him, that actually crucified him. Again, brethren, 
I don't know that feeling, not that I'm into feelings, but going 
into that openly hostile territory and say, therefore, let it be 
known to you that this Jesus, whom you crucify, God has made 
both Lord and Christ. We looked at Stephen a few weeks 
ago. Think about Stephen. He's filled with the Holy Spirit. 
He gazes up into heaven, and there he sees the glory of God 
and Jesus standing at his right hand. That in and of itself is 
great, the vision that he has to encourage, to strengthen, 
to build and stabilize him in the midst of the brutal death 
that he's about to undergo. But he actually tells them what 
he's seeing. These men are going to stone 
Stephen to death for being pro-Jesus. And Stephen says, I see Jesus 
standing at the right hand of the Father. I would imagine that 
when those men went to pick up stones, they didn't do it haphazardly. They didn't do it kind of into 
it a little bit. They hated him. They despised 
him. They wanted to dispatch him as 
soon as they possibly could. That takes guts, brethren. It 
takes guts to stand up in the midst of hostility and proclaim 
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So the Spirit is their advantage. 
The Spirit is their power. The Spirit is their protection. 
As well, if the ministry of the Holy Spirit is revealed to us 
in this way, then the ministry of the church ought to be carefully 
patterned after that. Brethren, we preach the whole 
counsel of God, and in preaching the whole counsel of God, we 
will speak of sin, we will speak of righteousness, we will speak 
of judgment to come. There's an intriguing situation 
where Paul stands before Felix. And in Acts 24, 24 and 25, it 
says, after some days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, 
who was Jewish, Felix was a nasty piece of work. He's just a wretch. That's not nice. He was. It's 
like Nero. These were not, you know, friendly, 
happy dudes that just wanted to govern for the beneficence 
of all that were under their charge. Felix is a wretch. So what's Paul gonna do when 
he stands before a Felix who's a wretch? Felix came with his 
wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and heard him 
concerning the faith in Christ. Right? The faith in Christ. So 
whatever Paul says next has to be the faith in Christ. I mean, for whatever Felix was, 
and for whatever Drusilla was, they were still the lawful authority. And if they say, tell us about 
the faith in Christ, you tell them about the faith in Christ. 
Because you're Paul, you want to do that anyway. Thanks for 
just cutting to the chase. But because you're a Roman citizen 
and you have a degree of consistency with reference to that, you do 
what you're told. Now, as he reasoned about righteousness, 
which Felix had none, I've got to suppose that the righteousness 
that Paul is reasoning about is the righteousness that comes 
to guilty sinners like Felix through faith in Jesus. As well, 
self-control. Again, notoriously wretched guy. Sexual sin. So what does Paul 
say? You've got a problem with self-control, 
don't you, Felix? What's he doing? He's doing what 
the Spirit was intended to do, convince the world of sin, of 
righteousness, and, this is continuing in Acts 24, the judgment to come. Felix was afraid and answered. There's no indication that Felix 
got saved. No indication that Felix got 
saved, but that he was afraid underscores that the Spirit did 
his work. He convinced the world, in this 
case, Felix, of sin, of righteousness, and of the judgment to come. 
So Felix engages in what I've always called damning procrastination. He says, go away for now. When 
I have a convenient time, I will call for you. If you have come 
here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus, I don't 
have a crystal ball, you know, list of names that gets emailed 
to me. You see the news sometimes, you hear all these same reports 
coming on. You gotta think memos are sent out and they're all 
saying the same thing. We don't have that in church. There's 
no Holy Spirit generated memo. You know, there's gonna be a 
fourth row, whatever row, I don't want you to start thinking he's 
looking at me here. Fourth row, whatever, you know, I don't know. But this much I do know. All 
of us have sinned against God. I think it's pretty much the 
case when you come into a church, we try to clean up well. We shave. We put on decent clothes. We 
do the things that are expected in civil society. It's hard to 
know where we've come from. If you'd have gone back a few 
years for some of us, the last place you would have thought 
we'd be is here. We've all sinned against God, every single one 
of us. We have transgressed his law. 
How do you know your sin and misery? The catechism asks, the 
law of God tells me so. I'm supposed to have no other 
gods before God or besides God, and yet that's all I do. I'm 
not supposed to blaspheme, but that's all I do. I'm not supposed 
to be a Sabbath breaker, but that's all I do. I'm not supposed 
to be insubordinate to governing authorities. That's what I still 
do. We're not supposed to murder, 
commit adultery, theft, lies, covetousness. We broke the law. One of the ministries of the 
Spirit is to convince of sin, to highlight the sin of sins 
is to reject or resist the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteousness 
of Jesus Christ is glorious. You might hear some of this and 
say, what does all this mean? It's simple. Jesus comes to do 
or came to do what we can't do. We're supposed to be righteous. 
We're supposed to be obedient. We're supposed to keep the law. 
We're supposed to do that which is pleasing to God, but we don't 
do that. So in Jesus' 33 years of life 
on this earth, he never sinned. He always obeyed. He kept the 
law perfectly, every jot and every tittle, not just as an 
example for us, but actually for us. It's not just a look 
at Jesus and see how he lived and go thou and do likewise. 
No, it's look at Jesus in faith. When you look at Jesus in faith, 
you not only get his righteousness, it's imputed to you, it's given 
to you, it's constituted yours, but you're forgiven of all your 
sins. This is why we call it gospel. 
It's good news. It's not good advice. Try harder, 
be better. That's a butchering, killing 
message. But looking unto the Lord Jesus 
Christ, that's life-giving. That is blessed. So sin, you're 
sinful. Righteousness, it's to be had 
through the exalted Savior. and the reality that there is 
a judgment to come. We will all stand before the 
judgment throne of Jesus Christ to give an account of deeds done 
in the body, whether good or ill. Matthew 25, Acts 17, 2 Corinthians 
5, the great white throne in Revelation 20. That much you 
can be sure of. The apostle says it in Hebrews 
9. We know it's appointed unto men to die, and then comes the 
judgment. This age-old sort of a statement, 
two things are inevitable in life, death and taxes. You cannot 
pay your taxes. That's not advice, by the way. 
That's not counsel. That's not exhortation. But you 
cannot pay your taxes if you're content to live a life in jail. 
But you can't evade judgment. You will die, and you will stand 
before the Lord God Almighty. The only way to stand before 
Him is to be cleansed in His precious blood and clothed in 
His glorious righteousness. That, by faith. Look to Him, receive Him, and 
rest upon Him for salvation. Well, let us pray. Our God and 
our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the 
Spirit's ministry with reference to the world to convince them 
of sin and of righteousness and judgment. We thank You for our 
Lord Jesus Christ and for the salvation that You have freely 
given to us, and we trust Your more than able, powerful to the 
uttermost to save all those who draw nigh to you through the 
Lord Jesus Christ. So do this for your glory, for 
your honor, and for the benefit of sinners here and wherever 
your gospel is preached. And we pray this through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen.