Convicted

Convicted

John 16:5-11

Good Morning everyone, Glad that you have joined us. Please turn to John chapter 16:5-11.

We have been in a study on Wednesday morning about the wonderful saving power of God to rescue us from eternal separation from Him because of sin.

Our fallen nature does not make us good people who did bad, it makes us sinners who do bad things because we are sinners.

Each one of us will stand before the Lord one day and account for our lives.

We only have two responses when He asks about our lives. We either accepted what Jesus has done for us as our savior or we reject what Jesus has done and He is not Lord and savior in our lives and we stand alone in our sin without a redeemer.

On Wednesday, I used the word rescue a lot.

Jesus has rescued us and done what we could not do for ourselves.

He has redeemed and rescued the world but the whole world has not accepted what He has done for us and those that have not accepted Him as Lord but rejected Him could have been rescued but chose for themselves not too.

I don’t know if you have ever thought of Jesus as one who has rescued you?

One who has chosen you and I and did for us what we could not do for ourselves. It is not by works, we cannot earn our salvation. It is strictly by accepting and believing that we need a savior and Jesus is the savior of our lives.

Luke 19:10- “For the Son of Man is come to seek and save the lost (some verses say to seek and save what has been lost)

Most think of being lost as something that you cannot find- being lost spiritually is the word Ap-pol-lo-los… it conveys the idea of something ruined, wasted, trashed, devastated and destroyed. It is the same word used to describe Satan demented nature.

To be saved means one who has been rescued… and lost means something that is ruined and devastated.

Jesus has rescued us from the destruction of sin that has ruined and wasted our lives and Jesus has come to rescue us and restore us back to the right relationship we were to have with Jesus.

John records the works of the Holy Spirit in our lives to direct us into right living and right relationship with Him.

John 16:5-11 Read from the Bible

Jesus had to go so the Holy Spirit could come for us

The Holy Spirit will convict of us of our sins- to draw us to a closer relationship with Jesus and the Bible tells us in John 10:10 that Satan’s goal is he comes to condemn us- “The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Satan is a destroyer and Jesus is a rescuer of our condemned souls.

(8) “And when he is come. He will reprove the world of sin.”

For those of you who know Jesus as Lord…Do you remember the first time that the Holy Spirit of God convicted you of being a sinner? You may not know the exact date, but do you remember the time? I was 14 years old watching Billy Graham on television. I went from laughing at the preacher to crying out to God in a matter of about 5 minutes.

It was a time I will never forget.

Some say that I was too young and that I did not know what I was doing.

I knew what I was doing, it took me another 10-12 years before I completely surrendered to Him but I knew that sin was real and that I needed a savior.

I was not raised in a Christian family but one that was taught moral righteousness and doing kind things but nothing about a personal relationship with Jesus.

I was thankful that Jesus reached out to me and that I responded when He reached out after many times of Him trying.

The reproving words back to verse 8 is that I understood that I was a sinner and Jesus was a savior and that I needed Him to open my spiritually closed eyes because I was lost and I could not find Him. He was not lost…I was!

The word reprove is the Greek word that means to expose or to convict, such as to convict someone of a criminal crime or sin.

A word from court that means during which a person was examined and cross-examined by an attorney. He/She was found guilty of the accusations brought against him/her. The court convicted him of the crime and issued a corresponding judgment. It was conviction that led to condemnation.

Jesus Convicts us of our sins so that we can draw closer to Jesus so that our sins will not condemn us. Because of Jesus we can be forgiven of our sins. Without Jesus our sins would have brought the condemnation and guilt of our sins.