Empowering Presence – The Holy Spirit Convicts John 16:7 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 go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Let’s look at what Jesus said a little bit more carefully. First, he convicts. Verse 8… And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. Part of the ministry and the function of the Holy Spirit is to convict. In other words, he gets up in our face and he exposes every one of our excuses, all of our façades, any tears down everything that we been hiding behind to justify how we live. But conviction also works in a positive way. He’s going to get up in your grill and is also going to expose who Jesus is. But conviction works a third way; he exposes the total defeat of Satan and all of his ways. Notice in this Scripture that he convicts first of all of sin. John 16:8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. He convicts us of the sin of unbelief. The sin that Jesus Christ has come and we just don’t want to believe it. We just don’t need Jesus in our life. We want to be our own God. We want to make our own decisions. All this Bible stuff is an intrusion on what I want to do. I want to make up the rules. I want to sit on the throne of my life. I don’t want to believe this stuff. It’s inconvenient. The conviction of the Holy Spirit brings about a profound dissatisfaction with who I am and I disgusted over my choices and broken over who I am and what I’ve become. When the Holy Spirit brings conviction I will hate sin and I will want to be free of the stain of it. But your helper, the Holy Spirit doesn’t leave you in a state of sin exposure where we just feel guilty and helpless. He convicts of a second thing. He will expose you to Jesus and getting right with Jesus. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged…14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. The Holy Spirit is going to point you to Jesus. He’s going to make things right. The Holy Spirit loves to talk about Jesus. The Holy Spirit will just keep talking to you about what Jesus has done for you and will just keep declaring to you something that we call a great salvation. The Holy Spirit will bring you to trust the work of Jesus on the cross. Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—….4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus… And there’s one last area of conviction… John 16:7 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 go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The Holy Spirit is going to convict you and convince you and expose you to the fact that Satan is judged. That he is beaten. He is broken. He is defeated. He is no match for Jesus. He can’t take away what Jesus has given you. That we now live from victory not for victory. 1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The Holy Spirit wants to convince you of this fact; that he who is within you is greater than he that is in the world. Some of you are not convinced of this. Some of you have taken the bait that Satan has out organized God, he has outsmarted God, he has seized control from God, he is out working God, he’s almost as strong as God, that he has better people than God and that some of these people are in high places and God just can’t get his people in those places anymore. But the Holy Spirit wants to convince you of is this; Satan doesn’t get the last word. He doesn’t get free reign. He is the losing team. And he never gets the final say.