The Spirit Who Warns Us

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One night this week, I was trying to help Charla get supper on the table, and I was telling her a story about my day, and just sort of mid-sentence where I was, she started hollering up the stairs to Charlie to start cleaning up his toys and get ready for dinner. So when she was finished, I went on telling the story, and then she tells Alexa to make an announcement for the two big kids to wash up and get ready for dinner. So I go on with telling my story, and the kids come down and start asking her, what did you say?

I told you to do this. And then they start asking her questions. And when they get done, I go on telling my story.

That happens a few more times. We sit down at the table. I’m still trying to tell my story.

We stop for prayer. I’ll give you that one. We start eating, and I’m mid-sentence again, and somebody says, Mama, I blah, blah, blah, and they go on, and can’t you hear your daddy’s talking?

You’re interrupting. And then they start discussing back and forth about what interrupting means, and this happens several more times, and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any of those TV shows or those movies where somebody dies, and they don’t realize it, until a few days later, they’re like, nobody can hear me. And I finally asked out loud, have I actually died, and no one’s just bothered to tell me yet?

Well, what does that mean? It means I’m getting ignored like I’m not even here. And you know, that’s not an isolated incident.

That happens pretty frequently. I get it. There are four, soon to be five later this week, children in my house.

There’s going to be a lot of interruptions. But I’ve kind of had a complex about this for years. This didn’t just start when I had children.

I remember way back to my high school youth group days, I’d be sitting there with a big group of friends and I’d be talking to somebody. Next thing I know, somebody walks in the room and mid-sentence, it’s like I wasn’t even talking. And it happens to me today.

It happens at home. It happens here sometimes. It happens everywhere I am.

And it’s kind of given me a complex where I think I must be the least interesting man in the world. You’ve seen those commercials for the beer where the guy, he’s the most interesting man in the world. I think I’m the anti-him sometimes.

I must be the least interesting person in the world because I get, I’m so easily ignored. But before you think I’m having a pity party, as I’ve watched this happen, I notice it happens to other people too. It’s not just me being ignored.

As a society, we do this to each other. And I’m sure that some of you feel ignored at times. Hopefully I don’t do it to you because it happens to me so much I try to be sensitive about it and not do it.

Or if there is an interruption, come right back to you because sometimes you can’t avoid the interruptions. But I think we all feel that way at times, that we all get interrupted and ignored and it’s like, have I just died because nobody seems to acknowledge the fact that I’m speaking? Have you ever felt that way?

Anybody else? Okay. I wonder sometimes if the Holy Spirit feels that way.

And I don’t mean that in any kind of blasphemous way. But the Bible makes clear by things like talking about the grieving of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit does have emotions, is a personal being, is the Holy Spirit of God, but is not just like an act of force. There are some religions that treat the Holy Spirit almost like radio waves.

He’s something that the Father sends out with no will or emotions of His own. That’s not the image that the Bible gives. The Holy Spirit is a personal being, and I wonder if the Holy Spirit ever gets annoyed at being ignored, because we do tend to ignore the Holy Spirit.

Growing up, I remember knowing that the Holy Spirit was the third person of the Trinity because I would hear that mentioned, but I don’t recall ever hearing a lot of teaching. There may here and there, but I don’t recall a lot of teaching about the Holy Spirit, which is kind of crazy when you think about the way he’s portrayed in Scripture and the influence that he is supposed to have on our lives. Jesus, as a matter of fact, told his followers, I’m going away, and when I go away, I’m sending another person, another person of God, to minister in my stead.

So to see the Holy Spirit come as that comforter in the physical absence of Jesus, and then for us, and I think sometimes we’re especially guilty of this as Baptists because we don’t want to be associated with sometimes the groups of people that take the Holy Spirit a little too far because we don’t want to be associated with some excesses on one side. We may go to the other extreme and kind of ignore the Holy Spirit. To look at the Holy Spirit as the person of the Godhead that Jesus sent and said he’s going to minister in my place while I’m physically absent, and then to ignore him is crazy.

And so I want to spend the month of August on Sunday mornings talking to you about some of the role that the Holy Spirit is supposed to play in our lives. Some of the things that he does, some of the ways that he’s active in our world today, some of the things that we should be aware of and on the lookout for. Now, I’m not talking about anything crazy.

At VBS, I said that somebody was talking about one of the kids being wild. I said he’s no wilder than my son who’s down here rolling around in the floor like it’s TBN. I’m not talking about that sort of thing, but I’m talking about being aware of the Holy Spirit’s work and being sensitive to His work, understanding that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and was sent here to minister to us.

We cannot afford to ignore the Holy Spirit. Jesus took some time to talk to His followers about the Holy Spirit and about His coming and about His importance. And this morning, that’s where we’re going to start off, is in John chapter 15, the end of John chapter 15, the beginning of John chapter 16, as one of the instances where Jesus talked at the end of His ministry about the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And if you’ll turn there with me, we’ll read this together. John chapter 15, it’ll be on the screen if you don’t have your Bible, if you have your phone and you have our bulletin handy, there’s a link right in there where you can get that as well. And if you’ll stand with me as we read from God’s Word, if you’re able to stand without too much difficulty.

We’re 15 and verse 26, and then we’re going to go through verse 11 of chapter 16. Starting in verse 26, it says, but when the helper comes, this is the Holy Spirit, but when the helper comes whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

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 the 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.

I’m going to pause there for just a second. He’s warning them about some of the things that are going to come in his absence. He’s warning them that things are going to get difficult.

And part of the reason that they’re going to get difficult is because the world hates Jesus Christ, and now that they don’t have Jesus Christ physically present for them to oppose anymore, they’re going to take it out on his followers. He says, I’m going away, and these things are going to happen to you. You’re going to get kicked out of the synagogue, and you’re probably going to wonder why, if I’m doing what he wants me to, why, if I’m doing what he wants me to, am I being punished in this way?

He said, it’s even going to be to the point where people are going to kill you, and they’re going to think that they are serving God and doing God a favor by opposing you. But in telling them these things, he’s trying to prepare them and explain to them why they should not worry. We’re going to pick back up in verse 5.

He says, 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. They were sad that he was going away.

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 the world is judged. And we’re going to stop right there this morning.

You may be seated. He warns them that he’s going away, and as sad as they are by that, that it’s actually a positive thing for them, because if he does not go away, then the Holy Spirit will not come, and they’re going to benefit greatly from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, I know we would love to have Jesus physically present among us.

We would love to see him, and we would love to walk with him. But as Jesus came to be fully God in human flesh, in that human body, He was able to be one place at a time. Now after the resurrection, He was able to show up in locked rooms. He was able to go through walls apparently, but He was still in one place at a time as far as we know.

Whereas the Holy Spirit, as we’re going to talk about next week, I think, the Holy Spirit is able to be with each of us at all times. The Holy Spirit is able to live inside me and inside you if you’ve trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior. He’s not only able to do that, but He does it.

He lives inside each of us. And so we have this personal connection to God with us at all times. We have the very Holy Spirit of God living in us, taking up residence and with us at all times.

And Jesus said, unless I go away, that’s not going to come to you. So He was telling them that it was going to be a good thing that the Holy Spirit was going to come. But He also said that when the Holy Spirit came, he was going to bring a message.

He was going to bring a message of conviction to the world. And now when we talk about conviction, conviction is a word that I heard a lot growing up because I would ask my mother, why does so-and-so act this way? One of my friends would be acting ugly or something.

And I would say, why is this happening? Why does so-and-so act this way? And more often than not, my mother’s answer was conviction.

They’re under conviction. I don’t know if that was true in every case. I wouldn’t tell my mama that.

I don’t know if that was true in every case, but I think it was true in a lot of cases because the conviction of the Holy Spirit does tend to get under our skin and it will either drive us toward God or away from God. But the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I’ve concluded over years of watching this, it just won’t allow you to stand still. But I heard a lot about conviction growing up.

And as we use that word, we use it in a couple of different ways that I’ve put on screen for you to help you understand. Because we talk about the Holy Spirit convicting believers, and we talk about the Holy Spirit convicting those who have not believed yet, and it doesn’t mean exactly the same thing in the way that we use the word. So when we talk about conviction, when we’re talking about believers, it’s more of a sense of discipline.

It’s a matter of I step out of line and the Holy Spirit gives me that nudging, or sometimes that shove of saying, hey, wake up, you’re on the wrong track, you’re doing the wrong thing, you need to come back. The Holy Spirit is there reminding us of our walk with Christ. Shortly after we left off at the end of this passage, Jesus talks about how the Holy Spirit would teach them and would guide them, would bring to mind the things that He had said. Now that’s for believers, that’s that sort of conviction that we talk about with believers, that discipline of saying, hey, you’re on the wrong track, come back here.

With those who have not yet trusted Christ, conviction is a little bit different. is a little bit more like a warning, where he is convicting non-believers to expose their need for Christ and the consequences of continuing to reject him. Now, as we talk about conviction in this passage, where he says, I’m coming to convict the world, it’s that second form of conviction that we’re primarily concerned with.

In the coming weeks, we’ll talk a little bit more about his interactions with believers. But here he’s talking about the world at large, and we know that because he says he’s going to convict them because they do not believe in him. So one of the first things Jesus told his followers about the Holy Spirit, one of the first things that we understand of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is that he will come to convict the world of unbelief.

He will come to warn. And it’s a good thing that the Holy Spirit does come to warn because each of us who’ve ever trusted Christ as our Savior, each of us who’ve ever been born again, each of us who this morning we know that our eternity is secure in Jesus Christ because of that faith, because of that conversion, every single one of us have come to Christ as a result of the Holy Spirit giving us that warning. We may not have understood what was going on in the process.

We may not have understood it was the Holy Spirit at the time, but we have the Holy Spirit to thank for that. When I was five years old and there was so much I did not understand, there’s still so much I don’t understand. I don’t mean to sound like I’ve got it all figured out.

But when I was five years old, there was so much I didn’t understand other than the fact that I wanted to be with God and I wanted to be with Jesus in heaven. And I was scared to death because I knew I had done wrong and I would be separated from Him in hell. The fact that I woke up to that realization one day, sitting in children’s church some 30 years ago, was because the Holy Spirit was there with a warning that got through.

He was the one letting me know you’re going to be separated from God for eternity. And as I said, there was so much I didn’t understand, but I understood enough to know that I needed Jesus because the Holy Spirit was there telling me. Maybe you came to Christ, if you’re a believer this morning, maybe you came to Christ at an older age and maybe He got a little more forceful with you.

Maybe He brought you to a more stark realization. Maybe He pointed some things out to you specifically. But the Holy Spirit is there with warnings thank God that He is, because it’s that warning of the Holy Spirit that makes us recognize our need for Christ. And Jesus said that He was going to come with those warnings.

And so in particular this morning, if you’ve never trusted in Jesus as your Savior, He said that the Holy Spirit was going to come with a warning for the world, and He was going to teach three important truths that we’re going to talk about this morning. Three things that the Holy Spirit is going to tell the world. And we see this in verse 8, when He’s come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

So the first thing that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was going to warn the world about was that it is dangerous to persist in rejecting Jesus. Jesus said in verse 9 that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin because they do not believe in me. His message there is a warning to the world that apart from Jesus Christ, we remain in our sins separated from God and destined for hell.

It’s just the default state because we are sinners. And he’s warning us of that reality, of the dangers of remaining in our sins and remaining separate from Christ, that there will eventually be a consequence for that. Now, I’ve seen a snarky picture on the internet.

I’ve seen lots of snarky pictures on the internet, but one in particular applies to this morning, it talks about, it’s sort of a conversation between Jesus and a person where Jesus says, I’ve come to save you. And the man says, from what? And he says, from what I’m going to do to you if you don’t believe in me.

And the point is to poke fun at what we believe about Jesus saving us, that he’s going to destroy us because of unbelief. Listen, there’s some truth in that. There is punishment if we remain in unbelief.

But look at what Jesus said in John chapter 3, you may be familiar with this passage where Jesus talks to Nicodemus. He said, he who believes in him, in Jesus, is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

Jesus taught that we are under condemnation already because of our sin, because we have offended a holy God through our disobedience, through our rejection of Him, through our rebellion of Him, and that we simply remain under condemnation because of our unbelief. But the world was under condemnation before Jesus ever showed up at Bethlehem. The world was already under condemnation because of its sin.

The world has been under condemnation since the days of Adam and Eve, when mankind first shook its fist at God and said, no, we’re going to do it our way. Jesus is not coming to save us from what He’s going to do to us if we don’t believe in Him. He came to save us from the consequences of what we had done.

And the Holy Spirit is convicting of sin because we remain in unbelief. Because the only way out of those consequences, as we’ll talk about a little bit more today, the only way out of those consequences is to believe and to accept the offer of salvation that He’s given us. To trust Jesus and what He says when He said that He was giving His life a ransom for many.

To trust Jesus when He said He came to seek and to save that which was lost. See, we’re under condemnation already. And the only way out of that condemnation is to believe. So the Holy Spirit has come with a warning about the dangers of remaining in that unbelief.

Mankind has embraced evil. And I know that sounds harsh to say. You might look at your life and say, but I’m a pretty good person.

Yeah, I know, me too, from a human standpoint. I mean, I’d like to think so. I’m usually a nice person unless we’re in traffic, all right?

I pay my taxes. I pay my bills. I mow my lawn.

I don’t beat my wife or my children. I don’t drink or smoke. I don’t do any of the things that we look at and say, oh, he’s a bad person.

You know, I don’t, I live a pretty boring life. Maybe I am the least interesting man in the world. I don’t know.

But from a human standpoint, I’ve lived a pretty good life. but even at five years old, I realized I disobeyed God. So to say that the world, to say that mankind has embraced evil, nobody’s accusing you of being as bad as you could possibly be.

All right? The Bible’s not calling you Hitler or Stalin or Charles Manson or anything like that. It’s simply the fact that when given the choice, the very first thing mankind did was disobey God.

And we’ve been doing it ever since. Each of us has. And because of that, we’re under condemnation.

God has made a way of escape through Jesus Christ if we’ll simply believe in Him and receive the salvation He offers. That many, for whatever reason, do not believe. In many cases, because they don’t want to believe.

Or they say, I’ll put off belief until later. Maybe deep down in their heart they know it’s true, but there’s something they don’t want to give up. There’s something they think they’re going to have to do and they don’t want to do it.

And so they say, I’ll put it off until later. But the Holy Spirit warns, convicts of sin because we don’t believe in Him. He warns of the judgment that’s coming.

He warns of the danger that we’re in if we persist in rejecting Jesus. And the second thing that he’s come to warn us about is that only Jesus can make us righteous in God’s sight. This is what Jesus is talking about when he says in verse 10 that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more.

Now when you read that, you might think, what does him ascending to heaven have to do with righteousness? What is his point here? Well, it starts out with the realization that we are not righteous because we’re sinners.

To be righteous means to be right with God. To be a sinner means to not be right with God. The law of non-contradiction, which is a basic bedrock principle of logic and philosophy.

Everything that we know and understand about the whole world around us falls apart if we reject this idea of the law of non-contradiction, says two opposite statements cannot be true at the same time, in the same way. So I cannot simultaneously be alive and not alive, right? That makes no sense.

I cannot simultaneously be righteous and not righteous. I cannot be a sinner and be righteous before God. It starts with that realization that we’re sinners in God’s sight.

Jesus alone is righteous because Jesus, being God in human flesh, God who became a man, came and never sinned. And he’s demonstrated his righteousness repeatedly. Now this is where we get to the idea of him going to the Father and being seen no more.

Jesus did not just demonstrate his righteousness through a good life here on earth, by living a sinless life here on earth. Because the skeptic in their day could have said, well, how do we know he never sinned? Now folks, I believe what God’s Word says, that he never sinned.

I’m just saying you put on the hat of the skeptic back then, somebody that they’re speaking to could say, how do we know he never sinned? Maybe he just never got caught. Listen, there were hundreds of eyewitnesses around Jerusalem who saw him die and then saw him no longer dead.

They saw that he was killed and then they saw that he was risen again from the dead. And then not only that, but there were hundreds of eyewitnesses who at the same time saw him carried alive into heaven. So what Jesus is pointing to here, as he’s nearing his crucifixion, anybody can get killed.

But Jesus is making the case that because he is not just going to die, but he’s going to rise again and then rise again, that it’s going to be proof positive in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses that he is righteous and acceptable in the sight of God. For the Father to receive Him in a way like that is demonstration before their very eyes that He is righteous. And so every aspect of Jesus’ time on earth, from the virgin birth to His ascension, it was one big demonstration of His righteousness, including the fact that He’s no longer present.

Including the fact that just shortly after this, they would be able to say, He’s not here, He’s risen. And then He’s not here, He’s risen. It was all proof that He’s not just some guy.

It was all proof that He’s the only one worthy to sit at the right hand of the Father, which is where He is today. And none of us could be received into the Father’s presence like that. I’m not worthy of it.

You’re not worthy of it. The best people we know are not worthy of it because we’re all sinners. And the comparison between us and the one who’s so worthy that He was able to be received up and seated at the right hand of the Father just shows how far we’ve fallen short.

But it also shows that He has the righteousness we need. If anybody has the righteousness to spare to fill up our accounts and make us righteous, it’s Jesus Christ. And so the second thing that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come to warn us of was the fact that only Jesus can make us righteous in the sight of God. Only Jesus has the righteousness to spare where you and I fall far short of His standard.

And the third thing He’s come to warn us of is that there’s no escape from the judgment except through Jesus. This is what Jesus was talking about when he said in verse 11, he will convict the world of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Now, many times people have used this passage in evangelistic messages to warn people, see, he’s saying you’re going to be judged.

That’s true. That’s not exactly what he’s saying here. There’s a little bit more to what he’s saying here.

This is not Jesus talking about the end of the world, although Satan will meet the culmination of his judgment then as well. He’ll be cast into the lake of fire. But notice he says of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

He’s not talking about Satan as the ruler of this world being judged someday, some far off day. Satan has already been judged. Satan’s days are already numbered.

Even in Jesus’ day, 2,000 years ago, he was saying Satan has been judged. And from that, we can conclude that judgment is not just a possibility. It’s not just something that might happen.

It’s not just a likely event. It is a matter of certainty. As far as God and His law are concerned, it has already been done.

The verdict has already been announced. Unrighteousness has already been judged. Now, the sentence will be carried out at a later date.

Satan will one day be sentenced to the lake of fire for all of eternity. The sentence will be carried out at a later date, but the trial has already been held and the verdict has already been announced. Now, if Satan has been judged, if arguably the most powerful force of evil in the entire universe has already been judged by God and that judgment has been announced, what makes us think that we’ll escape?

See, Satan’s already been judged and all who have joined him in his disobedience against God are under judgment even now. That’s the condemnation that Jesus is talking about. Again, the sentence will be carried out later, but the verdict has already been announced.

So don’t think he’s talking about some end times judgment. Now, I want to be very clear. The Bible does teach that mankind will stand before God, that God will sit in judgment.

But Jesus here is talking about the certainty of judgment. God already knows what the verdict’s going to be. This is where you have to understand that for God, a thousand years is like a day, and a day is like a thousand years.

I believe God sees all of eternity like it’s a snap of the fingers or a blink of an eye. No, it’s not just something that might happen. It’s certain.

The judgment of God on all who follow Satan and his works are certain, and the only way of escape is through Jesus Christ. You see, in warning and convicting the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, the Holy Spirit is active among us even today in warning us, warning the entire world to flee to Jesus Christ as our only escape from the judgment that we’re under or from the consequences that are certain if we reject that offer of escape. The Holy Spirit is active. Now, we may not see the tongues of fire coming down and hear the mighty rushing wind.

We may not see the healings. And I’ve been doing a lot of study about some of these gifts that took place in the New Testament days. We may not see those miraculous signs, and we may conclude from that, oh, God’s Holy Spirit’s just not as active as He used to be.

Or where is God’s Holy Spirit? Let me tell you, every time one of us responds to the call of the gospel, every time one of us understands that we are sinners, bound for hell, separated from God, and we trust Christ instead. Every time one of us falls to our knees and throws ourselves on the mercy of God and Jesus Christ, it is evidence that the Holy Spirit is still alive and well and active among us.

And this morning, if you are in Jesus Christ, if you’ve trusted Him as your Savior, you have the Holy Spirit to thank for that, whether you knew that’s what was happening at the time or not. And if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit brings us warning, not because I said so. That’s what Jesus said, that the Holy Spirit was going to bring that warning.

And as we’re talking about this, if you, I don’t want to say feel, but there aren’t great words for it. But if you sense, He’s talking about me. If you know within you that we’re talking about you, because you recognize that you’ve sinned, And you can almost feel God calling you and saying, hey, that’s you, you’ve sinned.

Only Jesus can make you right with me. You need to be right with me and all the goodness you can do. It’s not going to cut it.

Only Jesus has the righteousness. Hey, they’re warning you there’s a way of escape. And only one, and you better take it.

If you’re hearing any of that, if you’re sensing any of that this morning, don’t ignore it. Please, I beg you, don’t ignore it. I’m not trying to pack an altar here.

I’m not trying to scare anybody. What I’m telling you is what Jesus said the Holy Spirit was going to come and tell us. The warning the Holy Spirit was going to bring.

And if you’re listening to what Jesus said this morning and thinking it applies to you, it’s because the Holy Spirit is the one warning you. And I beg you, don’t ignore it. This morning, you can trust Christ. You can heed the voice of the Holy Spirit.

You can trust Christ, and you can be saved this morning. If you simply acknowledge to God that you’ve sinned and you know it, you know He’s right and you’re wrong, and you know that that sin is judged and you’re facing condemnation and that the only way out is that Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died on the cross for you to pay for your sins in full and rose again to prove it. And knowing that He offers salvation not because of any good you can do, anything you can earn or deserve, but simply because Jesus Christ paid for it all.

And this morning, if you’ll acknowledge that you’ve sinned, believe that Jesus died to pay for your sins in full and rose again to prove it, And th