The Conviction of the Holy Spirit, pt. 4
 
Understanding God’s Plan Through the Ages

Part 4, The Conviction of the Holy Spirit

By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© March 10, 2013
www.pastorkennedy.com

In our series on the Holy Spirit we need to keep a clear understanding on God’s overarching goals for this world and for you and me.  To review this we need to remind ourselves of the answers to these four basic questions about life:

•	Why did God Create the World?

•	Why did God allow you and me to be born?

•	What does God have in store for us in the future?

•	Why then, did God give us the Holy Spirit?

God did not create anyone or anything to be junk.  In the beginning everything was created good – very good (Gen. 1).  God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  

Each person has been created with the capability to have an intense, personal and dynamic relationship with God, our Creator.  

Our potential relationship with God is incredibly individual and practical, but it can have only one of two outcomes:

1.	 Either we yield ourselves to Glorify our Creator God and choose to submit to the Authority of His Kingdom, 

2.	 Or, we become consumed with our own selfish ends, rejecting our Creator’s profound Sacrificial Provision for our eternal life and His Lordship over us, only to instead proudly establish ourselves as the ultimate ruler on the throne of our own life. 

If we do the second, we will reap the wages of its horrible outcome – suffering devastating punishment and eternal personal loss. 

We can sometimes talk ourselves out of the realization of the validity of eternal life – telling ourselves that we simply “die like a dog” when we die and that there is no afterlife.

If we make ourselves solely in control of our own destiny without the complication of eternal reward or loss, we will live and die with only the success or remorse we create for ourselves in this life – then we can more easily appease our nervous conscience of the haphazard and potentially disastrous outcome of making ourselves the supreme potentate of our own destiny!

•	Why did God Create the World?

God created the world so He could build an Eternal Kingdom drawing out from every nation, tribe, people and language (Rev. 7:9), from the beginning of the creation of the world - to the end of the world’s kingdoms, those who love Him, choose to follow Him, and faithfully serve Him.  He knows us, He chose us, He infill’s us, He prepares us, He empowers us, and He loves us!

1 Peter 2:9–10  
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 

Titus 2:11–14 
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 

•	Why did God allow you and me to be born?

You and I were born and gifted by God to fulfill His purposes and to do His will in this world and in His Eternal Kingdom to come.  (It isn’t over when we die!)  

God’s desire is that we love Him, worship Him, serve Him and glorify Him with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind (Matt. 22:37-38).  God wants us to share the reality of our relationship with Him with those who do not know God so they too will be born again into such a Spiritual relationship with God, through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:19-20).  We are to be salt and light to those in this world as a witness to the Glory, Kingdom and Salvation of God, through Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:13-16).

•	What does God have in store for us in the future?

 God has an Eternity waiting for all of us.  
 God has His Kingdom as a Place for us to serve Him continually.  
 God has an Eternal Home, which He is preparing for us (John 14:1-6).  
 God has prepared a Place without sin, anxiety, pain, suffering, death and all that goes along with sin and death (Rev. 21:4).  
 God has a fantastic unlimited personalized spiritual body for our spirit to inhabit forever (2 Cor. 5:1-8; 1 Cor. 15; Rom. 8:18-25).  
 God has a place where we can be fully complete in Him – not with just a “down payment” of His Presence, as we have on this earth (2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5; 1 Cor. 6:19), but in eternity we will have the complete Fullness of His Presence within us (1 John 3:2).
 Etc.!

•	Why then, did God give us His Holy Spirit?

Today we will be primarily looking at one aspect of the Presence of the Holy Spirit in the world today:  the conviction of sin, without which mankind will not know the guilt of his or her sin leading them to the need of a Savior and Redeemer. 

Mankind’s Disobedience to God
In order to comprehend the scope and magnitude of the issues facing the human race, we must address the problem of mankind’s disobedience to God.  We are not perfect – we are far from it.  We live in a world ravaged by war, jealousy, self-aggrandizing power, murder, horrendous abuse, blatant injustice, a scourge of poverty, gross immorality, famine, deception, unbelief, fear, and death.  

How can even one of us begin to think that as sinful people we could live forever with a Holy God?  What part does the Holy Spirit play in lifting us out of this pit of sin’s despair?

Sin:  We were not created as Robots
God has not made us as robots to mindlessly love and serve Him without question.  He has given us a free will – to choose good or evil, right or wrong, good or bad.  

Sin has horribly corrupted the world, but the degree of the presence of sin itself in each life has also radically verified the reality of each person’s lifestyle...and clearly reveals the depth or shallowness of each individual’s honesty toward God. 

Our participation in what we know is displeasing to God reveals who we really are! 

If we choose to keep living a life of secret sin on the inside, while still wanting to look pristine on the outside, this is totally obvious to God and will become obvious to others.  Who we really are is revealed in time…even if we try kidding ourselves into believing that we are “basically good” and our sin is only a “little white sin”.  The existence of sin gives everyone a choice about his or her relationship with God and what we are going to do about the things He has told us not to do.  

The Holy Spirit gives God’s Children the power to live as we should:  to die to our sinful flesh and to live unto God, but the Holy Spirit begins by letting us know when we are doing things that will destroy our relationship with God and eventually destroy us!  “The wages of sin is death…”  (Romans 6:23).  

This warning from the Holy Spirit is often felt in what we call guilt.

The Holy Spirit Convicts the world of Sin, Righteousness, Judgment and Declares to Us, “Things to Come”

Guilt comes from our inability to obey God’s Law.  

The Ten Commandments were given to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 20:3-17).  

1.	 You shall have no other gods before me.

2.	 You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything to worship, from anything in heaven, on earth, in the water or under the earth.

3.	 You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain.

4.	 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  

As Christians who worship on Sunday - celebrating Christ’s Resurrection, we may have a slight wince at a Commandment requiring a Saturday Sabbath.  Let’s take a moment to look at the Biblical spiritual dimensions of this Commandment.

One day’s rest each week is extremely important to the health of our body, but the intent of this Law goes far deeper than physical rest – its true objective is the profound spiritual “rest” of Salvation for the soul through Christ, without works!  The full chapters of Hebrews 3 & 4 explain this in greater detail, below are two summary verses.

Entering into God’s Spiritual Rest!

Hebrews 4:9–10
9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 

In the Old Testament the punishment for working on the Sabbath was death (Ex. 31:12-17; Num. 15:32-36).   So it is in God’s definition of Spiritual Rest.  Those who “work” to gain their right to earn the Spiritual Rest of Eternal Life with a Holy God, will meet with the same end as exampled under the Old Testament Mosaic Law.  The wages of sin is death, and the outcome of working for one’s own salvation is death.  We cannot be reconciled to Almighty God through our good works – that is given as a free gift through faith alone in the finished Redemptive Work of Christ.  We rest, by faith, in His Work and thereby “enter into God’s rest” (Eph. 2:8-9).  The Just shall live by faith – not the legalistic performance of works (Romans 4).

As Christians, our meeting together to worship is on the first day of the week, to commemorate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), and the beginning of a New Covenant for His Church (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8:8, 13; 9:15-28; 12:24).  The first day of the week – Sunday, is recorded as the time many from the early Church gathered together for worship (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2).

Salvation in Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of escaping God’s wrath and entering into God’s Eternal Rest! (John 3:3; 16-18; 35-36 - etc., etc.)


5.	 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long.

6.	 You shall not murder.

7.	 You shall not commit adultery.

8.	 You shall not steal.

9.	 You shall not bear false witness (tell lies) about someone else.

10.  You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or anything your neighbor has.

Through these Commandments we know what is acceptable to God and what is not!  The Holy Spirit convicts us when we break any of these Universal Laws.

The Holy Spirit’s Conviction

John 16:8, 13
8 And when he comes, he (the Holy Spirit) will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 

The Holy Spirit convicts us of:
•	Sin – that which separates us from God
•	Righteousness – that which is right, good and Godly
•	Judgment – that which everyone will face before God, which should cause healthy introspection and correction in our lives
And, The Holy Spirit also declares to us that which informs us and can convict us about…
•	Things that are to come 

Three Potential Outcomes of Conviction and Guilt by the Holy Spirit

Conviction and Guilt has the potential of at least three outcomes:

1.	 Redemptive Guilt and sorrow.  To have genuine sorrow for our sins, leading to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21; Heb. 6:1), and an evident change in our life, through the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 3:7–9 
7 He (John the Baptist) said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 

2 Corinthians 7:10
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

2.	 Hypocritical Guilt and sorrow.   When one wants to look repentant on the outside but will not find the power to change.  They continue to live in their sin and cover up.  These most often act very surprised if they are called out for what they know they are continuing to do!  They have even deceived themselves. 

Galatians 6:7–8  
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 

Hebrews 12:15–17 
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. 

What will it take for some hardened ones to repent?  If someone goes to them from the dead will they repent?
Jesus’ Parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus
Luke 16:19–31 
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’
The Plea of the Rich Man for his five Brothers
 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ” 

Jesus made it clear.  Repentance does not normally happen because of some spectacular event – it happens because a change of the heart and will, through hearing and receiving what has already been given in the Word of God through the convicting Power of the Holy Spirit.

3.	 Guilt and hardness leading to a continued brazen defiance against God.

If we continue to resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit we become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13), further grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30).  If we continue to defy God and the warnings of His Holy Spirit, God will give us over to ever-deepening depravity, with accompanying acute deception in our own mind, making us more and more certain of our world-correct but God-defying position.

Romans 1:16–32 
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith 
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” 
God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness 
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. 

What are the Three Potential Outcomes of Conviction and Guilt 
by the Holy Spirit?

1.	 Redemptive Guilt and sorrow.  Genuine sorrow for our sins, leading to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

2.	 Hypocritical Guilt and sorrow.  When one wants to look repentant on the outside but will not find the power to change.  They continue to live in their sin and cover up. 

3.	 Guilt and hardness leading to a continued brazen defiance against God.

One of the most fatal things we live with is…Tomorrow.

Tomorrow!

By Dan B. Kennedy
© 2012b

One of the most fatal things we live with is…Tomorrow.

Tomorrow often takes away our motivation to get necessary things accomplished when we actually have the time today.

Tomorrow can threaten us and make us worry and be anxious about what we haven’t gotten done, or things we might not accomplish!

Tomorrow tends to assume the posture that things will either get exponentially better or horribly worse.

Tomorrow spends our future assets and energy without ever having them firmly in our hand.

Tomorrow eats away at the honesty and beauty of our best relationship with God, by falsely promising that we don’t have to care what God thinks about the way we are living our life – this moment.

Tomorrow can keep us from making a deeper commitment to God, because we can always do that “sometime in the future”.

Tomorrow holds out for a more convenient time to build a better relationship with our family, our spouse, our children or friends, tempting us to put off pursuing those crucial relationships, 
when tender, moldable and permanent bonds can still be genuinely and positively built - before they become inflexible and set in stone in detrimental ways that can seldom again ever be rectified.

Tomorrow makes us look like saints in all the good things “we are going to do” for our family, friends, church, God, and others.

Tomorrow can, as we dreamingly peer into a mirror, make us unconsciously overlook the daily cleaning up of the ugly smudges (that everyone else sees be-speckling our faces) - if, while we are preening, we only pridefully daydream about the brightness of our future...or try to convincingly tell ourselves over and over, 
“I will be a successful person...”,
“I will be a successful person...”, 
without seriously bothering to notice the reality of the ugly smudges obviously dirtying our lives right now.

Tomorrow always softens the potent imminency of Divine Judgment and Reward that each person surely must face, making death seem so far away, when in actuality the very next moment could initiate our final Day of Reckoning before Almighty God.

Tomorrow yawns and irritatedly mumbles, “What-e-ver”, when reminded about the painful hurts that need 
the immediate attention of forgiveness.

Tomorrow pulls up the covers more tightly, 
over the head of the soul distressed by sin, 
and tells it to “sleep just a little longer”: 
“You’ve got lots of time – you’re not ‘ready’ 
to make your soul right with God
…not yet!”

Tomorrow whines at the inconvenience and annoyance of the 
shrill piercing and clanging of the urgent alarm 
of conviction by the Spirit of God and the guilt of conscience, 
when the fires of sin and procrastination
are burning down yet another “supporting wall” 
in the fragile structure of our immortal soul.

<<<  >>>

“Today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts…”
Hebrews 3:7-19


Today, some of us are being convicted by God’s Holy Spirit regarding those things we know we should not be doing.  Things we know are breaking God’s Laws; things that God has been quietly speaking to us for some time.  Have we been getting use to shutting out the Voice of His Holy Spirit and drowning out the guilt in our conscience?

If you keep doing what you have been doing, you will destroy yourself.

We need to repent before God.  Today.

o	Repentance is admitting our guilt before God – telling Him that we are sorry for our sin. We may have been denying our guilt for a long time.  Now is the time to admit it.

o	Repentance is turning from our sin – dying to it.  Ephesians 4:22 tells us to “put off our old self with all of its evil deeds”.

o	We must yield our life to God’s Spirit to empower us to die to our sinful desires and to live unto God.

Romans 8:13 
13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 

Repentance doesn’t require you to be in any particular place or do any particular thing.  Repentance is a matter of the heart.  Repentance is a choice.

A Repentant Heart says

“God I have sinned in Your sight, be merciful to me as a sinner and save me through the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in my life!

“Today, I renounce the hidden things of darkness, by the Power of the Blood of Jesus and I choose to die to myself and live unto God, by the Power of the Holy Spirit!”

Act upon your choice to be repentant:  
•	If you need to throw something away, throw it away.
•	If you need to apologize for wronging someone, apologize.
•	If you need to avoid watching certain movies, reading certain types of books or viewing material on the Internet, you need to die to those things.
•	If you need to confess a wrong, return or pay for something you have stolen, apologize for something you have done, or take care of something that needs to be made right; do it.

Start with confessing it all to God, then ask Him how He wants you to take care of the things that you have failed to do in this world.  His Holy Spirit will guide you.

If you fail again, go back to God and confess again.  Trust His Holy Spirit and the power of His Word to give you victory over your failures.

Make a commitment with God in your mind and heart. 

“Father in heaven, I am choosing to serve You!  
I confess my sin to you __________________________ (tell Him everything).
I ask that your Holy Spirit give me the power to die to myself in these areas of failure.  For Jesus’ sake, Amen.”

If you want someone to pray with you, ask God who to speak with.  
He knows.

Remember what God’s Word says…

“For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; 
but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, 
you will live!”

Romans 8:13


“My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth 
and someone should bring him back, remember this: 
Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way 
will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”

James 5:19–20

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