John 16:4b-15
4b I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION ®. NIV®. COPYRIGHT © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by
Biblica, Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Discussion Questions:
- Why is it that our hearts are often filled with grief when we think about the difficulties of discipleship and the brokenness of the world? How does the Spirit transform our perspective?
- Jesus says it is good for him to leave so that we might receive the Holy Spirit. How does this teaching change the way that you view the cultural moment that we’re living through? Why might it be wrong to rush through this season?
- The Holy Spirit has a ministry of conviction. He proves the world to be in the wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment. We, however, are really creative when it comes to justifying ourselves. How have you seen that tension play out in your life (your desire to justify and the Holy Spirit’s ability to convict)?
- How does he prove us wrong about sin?
- How does the Holy Spirit convict us regarding righteousness? What is the righteousness that we require?
- What is the Holy Spirit’s message regarding judgment?
- What does it mean that the Holy Spirit has a ministry of application? Why is that important for us?
10/29/2023
Transcript
MINISTRIES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
*This transcript is generated from the sermon audio. This document has not been edited for spelling, grammar, or exactness.
If you are able to track down a Bible, why don’t you get with me in John, chapter 16? John, chapter 16. In the Bibles that we have in the book racks here, john, chapter 16 is on page 928 and 929. And you can probably hear in my voice I have I’ve had a cold this week, and so I’m a little stuffy. But we’ll pray that the Lord carries me through this today. This is John, chapter 16. I’m going to read verses four through 15. Then we’ll pray and get to work. This is John, chapter 16, starting halfway through verse four, reads like this.
I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to Him who sent me. None of you asks me, Where are you going? Rather, you’re filled with grief because I’ve said these things. But very truly I tell you it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment about sin because people do not believe in me. About righteousness because I am going to the Father where you can see me no longer, and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me, because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.
The word of the Lord. Let’s pray. Lord, we ask right now that you, by Your Spirit, through your Word, would speak to us. We pray that you would guide us into all truth. So, Lord, we pray over our time together this morning and our time in Your Word. And we’re asking for you to minister to us, help us to be Your people. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Well, here in our passage, we find the Holy Spirit and His ministries. And I want to show you three different headings. Here we have the arrival of the Spirit in verses four to seven. Jesus is teaching on that. Then we have the Holy Spirit’s ministry of conviction. And then finally, we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit to make application. So the Holy Spirit’s ministry of Application. So the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit’s ministry of conviction and the Holy Spirit’s ministry of application. Let’s get to work.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Verses four to seven, the Arrival of the Advocate. Jesus is teaching his disciples here, and he’s telling them about his departure. And this is something he’s been doing throughout this entire series that we’ve been walking through together. It’s called the Farewell Discourse. It’s the final lessons that the Lord is giving to his followers. He’s preparing them for his departure through what’s going to come very soon after these teachings. He’s going to go to the cross. He’s going to suffer and die sacrificially. So he’s preparing them. And what he says here is, I’m going to leave, but I’m going to send the Advocate or the Holy Spirit, and that’s actually to your advantage. So I’m going to leave, and then you’re going to receive the Holy Spirit, and it’s actually going to be very, very exciting for you. So look at verse four. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to Him who sent me. Jesus is very self aware of what’s coming down the pipe. He’s aware of the hour that has come, that he’s going to be handed over and arrested and executed, that he’s going to rise from the dead, and he’s going to ascend to the Father. So he says, I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going. I’m going to do all those things that I just said. I’m going to Him who sent me. And he’s aware of that. So he’s saying to his disciples, I didn’t teach you everything. I didn’t tell you everything. In fact, even this most recent lesson, I haven’t told you until right now. And what is it? He says, I didn’t tell you this. What did he tell them? You just glance back at the beginning of verse four. You’ll see it. He has been preparing them. I’ve told you this so that when their time comes, you will remember I warned you about them. There’s difficult coming. To follow the Lord in the days ahead will be incredibly difficult. He says, you will experience persecution for my sake if you’re going to follow me. People are going to mistreat you. They’re going to misunderstand you. They’re actually going to persecute you, and some of you will die. And actually, people will think that they’re serving God by killing you. And he says, I’ve not been telling you this. Part of the reason why is, you’ll see, is you’re not ready for it. You don’t understand these things. You’re not comprehending the things of God. So I didn’t bother to tell you all the details until recently because you wouldn’t have understood them anyways. You’re too dense to get this lesson. And I’ve been babysitting you. I’ve been with you. So I’m able to kind of help you through all of this. But now I’m departing and I’ll send the Holy Spirit and all these things will come into clear focus. So he’s preparing us for his departure, and he says, none of you are asking the right question. None of you asks me, Where are you going? So he’s saying, I’m about to leave to him who sent me, and you’re not even asking the right kind of questions, like, Where are you going? Which is interesting, because if you’ve been with us for weeks now, you understand that actually, back in Chapter 13, they asked that exact question, where are you going? Because he told them, the hour has come. I’m going to leave, and where I’m going, you cannot come. And they said, Wait, hold on. Where are you going exactly? And they were asking, what’s the address and what’s your itinerary? And we want to be there. We don’t want to lose you. But here he says, none of you asks me Where are you going? My question is, what’s the difference between ‘where are you going?’ and ‘where are you going?’ Because they’re the same. But apparently what Jesus is saying is the way that they’re asking the question reveals that they’re very spiritually, short-sighted and only self-interested. When they ask the question back in Chapter 13, they’re saying, we want to be wherever you are. We want to keep you nearby. You’re a very useful individual. You’re very fun to be around. We don’t want to lose you. So tell us where you’re going. Here Jesus is saying, you’re not asking it like this. Where are you going? Meaning, what are you up to? What are you doing? Why are you having to depart? And what is that accomplishing? In other words, there’s a way to question God that reveals self-interest. I just want to know how this affects me. I just want to know what direct effect this is going to have on me versus “God, what are you doing in this world? Help me to realize your hand at work in this very confusing world.” Those are two different questions. One is, I just want to know the information for my own sake. And one is, God, you are doing something that I might not totally understand. Where are you going? What is your departure accomplishing? So, in other words, the Lord is revealing here their lack of ability to observe the grand purposes of God. And by not asking this question, they’re actually becoming riddled with anxiety and trouble. Look at verse six. Rather, you are filled with grief because I’ve said these things, instead of asking God what he’s doing, they’re filled with anxiety. They’re looking at the call of discipleship and the difficulty of it and the persecution that’s to come, and they’re being filled with all this grief and what Jesus is trying to help us to do in the sending of His Spirit [is to] open of our eyes to the grand purposes of God. What Jesus is trying to accomplish is he’s trying to help us come to a place where we have peace with God. And instead of being filled with grief, we’re filled with, as he describes throughout these final lessons, we’re filled with joy. We’re filled with an unexplainable joy, even when the world looks like it’s gone mad. We trust in the purposes of God. He’s saying, you’re not even asking the right questions. Now, what they were doing there at that supper party is the same thing that we still do today. We fail to ask God the big question of what he’s up to and we look at the details of the world around us and then we’re filled with grief because we don’t see things going the way that we anticipate they should go. And we get filled with grief because the Lord is showing us. It will be hard, it will be difficult. We need to learn to ask that big question, “God, what are you doing? And how can I better see Your hand at work in this world?” So Jesus says to them, very truly, I tell you, it is for Your good that I’m going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So what the Lord is saying is you guys are spiritually short sighted and only self interested. But here’s something that’s going to happen very soon, and it’ll be good. I will leave, but I will send the Holy Spirit. And then it’s game on. He’s basically saying, when I depart and I send the Spirit, it will be to your advantage. It will be good that I am going away. It will be a good thing for you because the Spirit will be able to do things that are exceptional. And he does that. He departs through the cross and his ascension, and he sends the Holy Spirit in the first century. And we now live in a very privileged church age where the Spirit of God has been poured out in fullness and God is at work in the world through the Spirit of God. Now, this is interesting because if you look at the world right now, any of us can come to the conclusion [that] it’s a mess. There’s a lot going on right now and it’s broken and people are hurting and people are hurting one another. And there are all kinds of [broken] things in the world. And the conclusion that a lot of us have as believers is saying, “Come, Lord Jesus, fix it.” We pray, “Maranatha, come.” If Jesus would return, he would make all things right. He would make all things new. And we pray like that. And that’s a prayer that I often do pray. But this week I realized sometimes that is the inappropriate prayer, because God has sent His Spirit and His Spirit is at work right now, and it is good that Jesus has departed from us and sent His Spirit. This is crazy, but God is at work right now through his people, by His Spirit, God is doing stuff in the world. And to try to short circuit that and say we just want to jump beyond this to when the Lord returns, it’s actually dismissive of the Spirit’s work. The Lord can do something by His Spirit through his people that’s exceptional. This is a moment for us to recognize Jesus has departed, he has sent His Spirit. His Spirit is powerful and active, and obviously God has purposes for this moment that we might not even understand. And for us to try to leapfrog over this moment could be a mistake. Jesus is saying this is the age of the Spirit of God, and there are some incredible things that can happen as a result. So we need to trust in the work of God and in his timing.
THE SPIRIT’S MINISTRY OF CONVICTION
The second thing that we find then is the ministry that the Holy Spirit has. And there’s two different aspects to it. One is conviction and the other is application. The Spirit’s ministry of conviction comes in verses eight to twelve. Eight to eleven. I’m sorry, eight to eleven. Here’s what it is. Look at verse eight. When he comes, when the Spirit comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong. This is interesting. Here’s what the Spirit is going to do. The Spirit’s going to come and the Spirit is going to prove the world to be inaccurate about their convictions, about the things that they believe about the world. The word prove, it can be translated, expose, or convince. Or here in the NIV we have prove. Basically what it means is what the Spirit is going to do is the Spirit is like a prosecutor that arrives on the scene and puts together an argument that is compelling and persuasive, irrefutable even. The Spirit comes and proves the world to be in the wrong about these different things: sin, righteousness and judgment. The Spirit comes and is able to compellingly show the world its brokenness and its need for a savior. Now, this is an important thing because we don’t normally like to be proved wrong. In fact, social scientists will point this out. We don’t even need social scientists. If you ever do any sitting with a couple in conflict, you will recognize, wow, nobody ever admits they’re wrong. What we tend to do, social scientists put it like this they say human beings have this infinite capacity for making excuses. And it’s fascinating because people are able to very creatively come up with reasons for how they behave that in any other situation they would not tolerate. But because it’s them, they can come up with an excuse. You guys remember C. S. Lewis? He wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. He also wrote a book called Mere Christianity. It was some radio talks that were later published. But in there he describes how normally we have moral expectations for people of how they should behave—what’s right and wrong. What’s interesting is if you look at how people deal with their own stuff and a lot of times we will happily bend the rules for us, for myself. But I expect other people to behave how they should. And he makes that case. And it’s a beautiful essay that you should read. I have seen this in pastoral ministry. It is shocking, really, to see the things that people can do and how they can justify that behavior. But there’s always a reason. There’s always a reason that says, I did this and I did something that in any other situation I would never approve of. But here’s why I had to. Here’s what was going on with me. And so what does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit comes in and prosecutes us and is able to say, this is not okay. You might have come up with excuses, but those aren’t going to work with me. You might have reasons why you think you can behave this way, but the Holy Spirit is able to prove the world to be in the wrong. And we need that because a lot of times we are so self-deceived we don’t even know we’re wrong. The Holy Spirit is able to do that. By the way, the Holy Spirit does this in a particular way, though the Spirit has come, he does not do this universally or generally. He tends to do it in the ministry of the Gospel with particular individuals. And this is where people come under conviction of sin. They hear the news of the Gospel, they feel the effects of the work of the Spirit, and they feel convicted by sin. Let’s look at these three different areas of conviction sin, righteousness and judgment.
Conviction about Sin
Verse eight when he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin. The world has their excuses. We individually have our excuses. We do not consider ourselves to be in the wrong because we’re really, really good at justifying our own behavior. The Holy Spirit comes in and convicts us of sin. Verse nine tells us the reasoning about sin because people do not believe in me. That’s interesting. The arguments here are all interesting, but he says, the Holy Spirit convicts us about sin because people do not believe in me. This is fascinating because a lot of times when we think about sin, we think there are rules, that God gives us a list of things we should and shouldn’t do, and then to sin would be to break those rules. And that’s partly true, but that’s not the whole story. If you carefully read the Bible, you find out that all sin is actually an expression of unbelief. It is not believing what God has said. So God is saying something and we come up with a different plan because we don’t actually believe in God and therefore we do break rules and do different things. So, for instance, you could do very, very evil things. You, you could do harm within your marriage relationship because you are thinking, I don’t believe that God can make me happy in the marriage that he gave me. That’s unbelief and it’s manifesting in behaviors that are sinful. But the sin is the unbelief. In other words, there’s always a sin behind the sin. There’s always some expression of unbelief that is causing us to behave in a way that is out of step with reality. It’s not believing in God. It’s not believing in the promises of God or the commands of God or what God has done. It’s in the Old Testament. It’s called sin of a high hand. It’s looking at what God has done and saying, I don’t give a rip, I’m going to do it my own way. I don’t believe you to be true. I don’t believe you to be good. I don’t believe you to be trustworthy. And therefore we sin against God and our unbelief. And Jesus is saying, the Holy Spirit is going to come and he’s going to prove the world to be in the wrong in regard to sin. In regard to sin, because people do not believe in me. Though Jesus has come and he has shown the glory of God and his earthly ministry and what he’s done, people look at him and they say, no, that’s not it. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will bring conviction about that.
Conviction about Righteousness
Secondly, he’ll bring conviction about righteousness. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about righteousness. Righteousness is that state of being right with God. It’s the condition of being right with God. Now, the world thinks that to be righteous is to just do good things. I remember at Rock Valley College, I took a course on world religions, and one of the assignments was to interview people from different religions. And so I got to go to a mosque and I got to go to different places of worship. And I had these interviews set up and I would ask the same questions. And one of the questions went something like this. I mean, it was 20 some odd years ago at this point, but I asked a question like this how would you know if you’re right with your god? How would you know that you are in the right with your god? And the answer that was often given was something like this people would come to the conclusion that they were right with their god if they were taking the playbook of whatever their religion is and they were following it. If I were doing enough good things according to the religious prescriptions, then I know that I’m right with my god. The popular level answer to it is, if I’m a good person, that’s the most consistent answer. If you were to go ask people on the street, how could you be right with God? Most people would intuitively answer, if I’m a good person if I follow the rules that I think God would want me to do. Here’s what the Holy Spirit comes in and does. He goes, that won’t do it. If you try to be a good person, that will not make you righteous. Your righteousness will be insufficient. It will be inadequate. The Holy Spirit comes in and proves people to be in the wrong because look at verse ten. This is wild … “about righteousness because I am going to the Father where you can see me no longer.” Again, the arguments here are hard to even wrap your head around. What is Jesus saying? Why is he saying, the Holy Spirit’s going to come and prove that human righteousness is insufficient? And here’s why. He says, because I’m going to be at the Father’s right hand. Well, what does that have to do with righteousness? Your departure and my righteousness? How do these relate? And the commentators are kind of all over the map on this one. But let me just share with you a couple different ideas. When Jesus taught his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, he said to his disciples this just radical thing. He said to them, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. To that we should say, what hope do we have? Because Pharisees and teachers of the law, that’s their passion project. That’s what they’ve organized their lives around, obeying the commandments of God. They wake up thinking about it, they go to bed thinking about it. They fill their day trying to perform the commands of God. And so when Jesus says, hey, listen, unless your righteousness is better than theirs, you’re not entering the kingdom of heaven. And you go, okay, I’m just an ordinary dude. I got other things to do. How could I ever outperform them? He goes, yeah, that’s the point, right? The Bible tells us the righteousness that we need is a righteousness that only God can give. It’s the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Let me show it to you briefly in Romans, and I’ll just read these to you. We won’t have them up on the screen, but it reads like this romans, chapter three, verses 21. And following, it says, “Now, apart from the law, righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify.” This is what the Bible’s about. There’s a righteousness that is being made known. The whole Bible has been pointing in this direction. And this is what it says, romans three, verse 22. “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There’s no difference between Jew and Gentile.” –Between people who have the Bible and try to obey it, and those who don’t have the Bible and don’t even give a rip. He’s saying there’s no difference because the righteousness is the righteousness that is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And all are justified freely by grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” The Holy Spirit will come and it will show us. Try as hard as you might to perform a righteousness that could earn you heaven. It won’t work. But there is a righteousness seated at the right hand of God right now that’ll work just fine. Put your faith in Jesus Christ, because he is the only righteousness that could give us the hope of entering eternal life with Him. Peter, who was at that dinner party, he put it like this one. Peter 318. Jesus Christ died the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God. The righteousness that we need is the righteousness that Jesus Christ alone can give us.
Conviction about Judgement
Thirdly, when he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about judgment. He will convict us about judgment. And here’s what the world is saying don’t bother with that concept. That’s never going to happen. One of my favorite books is called The Pilgrim’s Progress, written by John Bunyan a long, long time ago. It’s an allegory of the Christian experience. And at the beginning of the book, Christian reads a book and he comes under conviction. And what he finds is that the town that he lives in, called the City of Destruction, is going to experience judgment. And because he recognizes that, he begins to freak out. He’s like, we have to leave. We have to leave this City of Destruction because judgment is coming. So he tells his family, Guys, we got to leave. We live in the City of Destruction and judgment is coming. And what do they say? You’re being fanatical, dude. You’re out of your mind. Go take a rest. You’re not feeling well. Calm yourself down. We’ll talk after you’ve rested a little bit. But here’s what Christian was realizing. The judgment is true. The world is dismissive about it, but the judgment is true. The Holy Spirit will come and reveal that we are in the wrong about judgment because we live our lives thinking nothing like that could ever happen. Nothing like that will ever happen. Let’s just carry on. Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Let’s just enjoy ourselves with this life that we have. The Holy Spirit comes and brings conviction about judgment. Verse eleven. Because the prince of this world now stands condemned, the way of living flippantly and living in allegiance to the enemy, Satan. He’s saying the Holy Spirit will bring conviction that that is not the way to live, because Satan himself now stands condemned. So the Holy Spirit has this ministry of conviction. He’s able to reveal in us our need, our sinfulness, our lack of a righteousness that could earn us heaven, and the threat of the judgment and wrath of God to come. He reveals our need for a savior and third. And finally, he has a ministry of application because he’s able to show us what we need. God has given us in Christ.
THE SPIRIT’S MINISTRY OF APPLICATION
The Spirit has a ministry of application, verses twelve to 15. I remember learning this at Moody Bible Institute. It’s a little simplistic, but it’s still helpful. It has been said like this the Father has planned salvation, the Son has accomplished salvation through his life, death on the cross, his resurrection. He accomplished salvation, and the Spirit applies salvation. The Father planned it, the Son accomplished it, the Spirit applies it. That’s a helpful way to think about that. And that’s what we find here in verses twelve to 15. The Spirit has come to take what Jesus has done for us and to make it real. He has come to take this abstract concept and to bring it home to our hearts so that we come to understand it in a saving way. He has the ability to take these concepts that are foreign to us and then bring them home to our hearts. He’s able to internalize the truth. Look at verse twelve. Jesus again saying to his disciples, he says, I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear, because without the Spirit, we have incredible limitations on what we can apprehend about God. And he says, I have so many things I’d love to tell you. You’re just spiritually inept. You don’t have a capacity for this. Kind of like an old cell phone that’s full and you’re like, this thing is garbage. I can’t take photos, I can’t do video, I can’t download new applications, because it doesn’t have the capacity for it. That’s kind of what Jesus is saying to us. Apart from the work of the Spirit, we’re not going to get it just right over our heads. He goes, I have a lot that I could say to you, more than you can now bear, but you don’t have the ability to apprehend what I’m talking about. But when the Spirit comes, game on. Look at verse 13. When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. The application that the Spirit is able to do is he takes us by the hand and he walks us into all truth, which is something that we desperately need, because there are a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge, right? They read the Bible, they learn things about the Bible. In fact, I can think of famous ministries where people who have all kinds of understanding about the Bible. But then you look at the fruit of that ministry and you go, something is missing here. And the reason why something is missing is because knowledge is not enough. Information is not enough. What we need is the applicational ministry of the Holy Spirit to take the truth of what God has said and to grab our hand and say, I’m walking you into this one. You don’t just need this one in your cranium. You don’t just need this one filling your head with all kinds of ideas. You actually need to walk in the way of Jesus Christ. And only the Spirit has the ability to do this, to take us and guide us into all the truth. The Spirit has come, and he’s able to take these abstract things that we talk about at church, and he’s able to bring them home to where we begin to see this. Truth is not just an idea, but it’s how we live. We live in this realm now of truth by the work of the Holy Spirit. So what is the Holy Spirit applying exactly? Well, in verses 13 to 15, he tells us he is applying the words and the works of Jesus Christ to the glory of the Father. Jesus, says the Spirit, he will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. His ministry is very much wed to the word of the Lord. He will speak only what he hears. He will tell you what is yet to come. He is going to highlight the ministry of Jesus. Look at verse 14. He will glorify me. The Holy Spirit comes and glorifies the Son, because it is from the Son that he will receive what he will make known to you. He takes the truth of the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he takes it to you and he personally applies it to you. He shows you this is what you need. This is why you’ve been convicted of sin, righteousness and judgment. It’s because Jesus is the answer that you need. The work that he performed for you is what you need. And the Holy Spirit brings that one home. And all that belongs to the Father is mine. The Lord says, that is why I said, the Spirit will receive from Me what he has made known to you. The Holy Spirit is applying the work that the Father planned and that the Son accomplished. He is applying it personally to our hearts.
So, as we’ve seen here this morning, we live in a very privileged age, the Church age, the age of the Holy Spirit of God being poured out on his people. It is to our advantage that Jesus is not here, because he sent the Spirit to be not just beside us, but in us. And now we can take the assignments that God gives us, and we can do that empowered by the Spirit Himself. The spirit comes and he brings conviction. He’s able to reveal our own inadequacies, the sin of the world, the righteousness that cannot earn our way into heaven, and the judgment to come. He exposes all of that and proves it to be the case. And then he takes the reality of what Jesus has accomplished and he applies it and he shows us this is the way of saving faith. Let’s believe in the work of the Spirit.
Let’s pray. Lord, we’re asking right now that by Your Spirit you would continue to do this ministry that we’ve been looking at, that you would convict and convince us of our need for a Savior, not only those who’ve never trusted in Him, but those who are trusting in Him. Would you reveal new pockets of unbelief in us that we can bring honestly before the throne of Your grace to receive mercy and forgiveness? Lord, we’re grateful for Your righteousness, the righteousness that is by faith from first to last. We thank you for what you accomplished in Your perfect life and your sacrificial death so that we could be forgiven and brought to God the Lord. I pray as a church that we would do a good job of recognizing the ministry of the Holy Spirit and his work in and through us. We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.