John 16:8

CONVICTION OF SIN

‘When He is come, He will reprove (convict) the world of sin.’

John 16:8

I. There is nothing in the world more difficult than to convict any soul of sin, or to be convicted of sin ourselves; and that for four reasons.

(a) Because of the deep-seated self-complacency which blinds every soul.

(b) Because our tendency is to imagine that we are going to be judged by the standard of our set.

(c) Because we are apt to be blinded by the good opinions that people have of us.

(d) Because we think we are people with exceptional difficulties.

II. Now we come to what the Holy Spirit does.—He cuts right away from us all these four things on which we stand, and He tears away all these four veils which blind our eyes.

(a) He first of all tears away the veil of self-complacency. He convicts of sin because He convicts of judgment. Do you realise that you and I have to stand, one by one, before the judgment-seat of God? That we have to give an account of ourselves before God? That every day that is passing is bringing us nearer to that judgment, and that, as a matter of fact, God is judging us every day we live? You do not imagine, do you, that death is going to change you? Five minutes after death we are just the same as five minutes before. Exactly. The real terror of death is that it changes absolutely nothing. And you go to your own place—the place you have prepared for yourself. And that is the first thing the Holy Spirit has to bring home to us. The awfulness of it, and the utter folly of waiting on year after year as if some day was going to come when everything would be changed, when we should have plenty of time to repent and get ready for heaven. God save you from that miserable delusion!

(b) Then the second work that the Holy Spirit does in convicting the world of sin is to press home the standard by which we shall be judged. Not the standard of your set; not the standard of what they think in the club, or in the office, or in the warehouse. God shall judge the world by the standard of that Man Whom He has ordained, and that Man Whom He has ordained is Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the standard. The generations come and go, but the standard is the same. How do we meet that standard?

(c) And then, again, the Holy Spirit has to break through our reliance upon the good opinion of our friends. I do want the Holy Spirit to make every one of us realise that it is not what our friends think of us that matters in the least, but what do I think of God and what does God think of me as He watches me all my time on earth? That is the only question of priceless importance.

(d) And then, fourthly, are we exceptional? Is human conceit right in persuading us that we are exceptional people, to be exceptionally judged? The Holy Spirit has to bring home, if we imagine that, the unpleasant but very wholesome truth that we are all very ordinary men and women, and no temptation has overtaken us but that which is common to man. Do you imagine, when you have that struggle with your thoughts, that you are the only one that has ever had to face such a difficulty? Do you imagine, you who are coming through the difficulties and perplexities of doubt, that you are the only one who has ever had to fight them? There is no temptation that has overtaken you but that which is common to man, and before the Holy Spirit can build up strength in you and give you the power which He wants to give you, and is ready to give you, to make you a strong, self-controlled, and holy man, He has to make you realise first that you have broken His laws.

—Bishop A. F. Winnington-Ingram.

Illustrations

(1) ‘I remember so well (says the Bishop of London) when I was speaking about the Good Shepherd and the lost sheep to a man once in a slum where I was visiting him; he said quite cheerfully, “Oh, yes, sir; I quite understand all about that. The more a man sins the better God likes him.” What he had carried away from Mission sermons which he had heard was this: that God liked forgiving—to put it into his mode of expression—a good big sinner. And the Church had begun the wrong side of the Gospel with him. What he wanted was to have preached to him judgment to come first; for he had no idea that he was a sinner. He did not realise that he was trampling under foot the blood of the Most High and putting Him to an open shame. He was judging himself by the standard of his set.’

(2) ‘A man once said, “Oh, there is plenty of time; I have only got to say, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me,’ before I die, and it will be all right.” Shortly afterwards he was thrown from his horse, and as his friends gathered round him, he looked round and said, “Can you do nothing for me?” He saw in their blank faces that his case was hopeless. He looked round again, and, with a fearful oath, he died. That comes of waiting for the time when we are going to have plenty of time to repent.’