THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Holy Spirit to work through? Are you an unobstructed channel? How many there are in our homes, in our congrega tions, and in our classes, that the Holy Spirit is trying to get at, and He is trying to 'get at them by the use of our lips, but we will not place them at His disposal, or if we do surrender them to Him, our own lives are not surrendered fully to Him and so He cannot work through us. We need to realize that the Holy Spirit works through us and then we need to realize our utter dependence upon Him, and put our selves in such relation to Him that He can work through us. But the Spirit not only shows the world its error about sin, He also shows the world its error about right eousness (v. 10). He says to the world by the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, that Jesus is “the Righteous One,” and the only righteousness possible to us is in Him (cf. Phil. 3:9, R. V.). There are just two things that a man needs to see in order to be saved—first, himself, that he is a sinner; second, Jesus, His righteousness, and the righteousness of God provided for us in Him. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to show both of these things to men. He also shows the world its error about judgment, i.e., that there is to be a judg ment for it, inasmuch as the prince of this world, i.e., the Devil, is judged already. We live in a day in which the world par ticularly needs to be convinced of judg ment. The doctrine of judgment is largely dropped out .of, not only the preaching, but of the common thought of our day. Many do not believe the stern things that are so plainly taught in the Scriptures concerning the penalty for sin, and thousands who think they do believe them do not more than half believe them, and most of those who do believe them heartily are silent about them. But when the Spirit of God comes to a man, all his difficulties about the sternest things that are said in the Bible about the eternal consequences of sin, present no difficulties. Receiving the Holy Ghost would do more to bring men to true and biblical conceptions of future
He, when He is come), He (omit, He) will reprove (convict) the world of (in respect of) sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. (:) Of (of) sin, because they believe not on me. (;) Of (of) right eousness, because I go to my (the) Father, and ye see (behold) me no more. (;) Of (of) judgment, because the prince of this world is (hath been) judged." The first work of the Holy Spirit is to “convict the world in respect of sin,” i.e., to show the world its error about sin; to show the world that t h e g rea t , d e c is iv e , d a m n in g SIN IS NOT TO BELIEVE ON JESUS, TH E SON of G od (cf. Acts 2:36, 37; John 3:18, 19), and to do it in such a way as to show them that they are guilty of this sin, and thus produce in them a deep sense of personal sinfulness. It is not our work to convince the world of sin. It is well that it is not, if we tried to do it, we should fail. “The human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer, 17:9), but there is nothing in which the deceitfulness of the human heart is so clearly seen as in the opinion that each of us forms of himself. We are all sharpsight^d to see the faults of others, but very blind to see our own, and it is not within the power of' any of us to convince another of his sin. But while we cannot do it, there is One who can do it if we look to Him, that One is the Holy Spirit. One of the greatest mistakes that we make in our preaching and personal work is that we undertake to do what the Holy Spirit alone can do, to convict men of sin. But while He does it, and He alone does it, He does it through us. This comes out very clearly in the , passage before us, for Jesus had said in v. 7 that He would send the Comforter "unto you,” i.e., unto believers, and having come to them, we are told here, He would con vict the world of sin., i.e., through them. As far as the Scriptures reveal, the Holy Spirit has no channel through which He can get at the world except through those who are already saved. If we only bore this in mind would we not all be more care ful to be unobstructed channels for the
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