John 161(8)-11

 The world is not exactly beating on our door for the good news of the gospel . We should not be surprised! The Bible tells us men are dead in their trespasses and sins, and they are blind to spiritual truths  They are enemies of our Lord and His people. While we are called to be witnesses , such testimony would be useless apart from divine intervention in the affairs of men. This is what is promised by our Lord in verses 7-11.
  It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the       Counsellor will not come to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they do not believe me, of righteousness because I go to my Father, and you see me no more of judgment because the prince of this world stands condemned
The departure of the Lord Jesus should not be a cause of grief, but a source of great blessing and encouragement. If our Lord did not ‘go away’ it would have been impossible for the Holy Spirit to come. When Jesus departed, He sent the Holy Spirit to minister in His stead (verse 7), and this would result in even greater miracles (in quantity) than those of our Lord (John 14:12).

The ministry of the Holy Spirit, with respect to the unbelieving world, is to confirm the witness of the believer. The matter of witnessing is a co-operative venture, involving men and the Holy Spirit. When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth, who goes out  from the Father, He will testify about me.  You must also testify, for you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27).
Our responsibility is mission. It is to live lives that are as Paul puts it to the Phillipians 'living epistles' ;it is at the right moment to speak out. But our lives, our words would be in vain but for the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, and the conviction he alone can bring and which nothing we do can. And without Holy Spirit conviction there can be bo true Christian conversion. .

Someone can be aware of the issues of the gospel and have a consciousness of personal sin and still not be saved. Man’s fallen will must also be changed in order to enable him to respond to the God toward which he is actively hostile More than this, man is dead in his trespasses and sins and he must be given life if he is to respond to the call of the gospel . It is God's sheer grace. There was that occasion when the disciples asked Jesus how anyone could be saved and we recall Jesus' reply With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible

In this way we can see that the work of the Holy Spirit has a universal scope, while at the same time all men are not saved by His ministry of conviction. Once the convicting work of the Spirit has taken place, man cannot plead an ignorance of the issues or of his need of salvation. Fundamentally, the reason for man’s unbelief is not ignorance but arrogance. He does not believe, not for intellectual reasons, but for moral reasons he will not believe. Man does not believe because he will not believe. From a human standpoint, man cannot be saved because he will not be saved.
So we see that the outcome of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to unsaved men is at least two-fold. They are intellectually cornered and morally conscience-stricken. But they are not necessarily converted. The verdict demanded by the Holy Spirit is that men are sinners and that the gospel is the only way of salvation.
The case pressed upon unbelieving mankind is primarily threefold: “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8).

The first issue is that of a man’s personal sin. Although many lines of evidence could easily be brought against him, there is one primary issue and that is unbelief. Men may differ as to whether or not a certain action is a sin, but no one can excuse wilful unbelief in the person of Jesus Christ. Perhaps, my friend, you have chosen to believe that God would judge men on the curve, and you have hoped to be in the winning half. First and foremost,  God is concerned with one thing: what have you done with His Son? He was sent to reveal the truth of God . Have you believed in Him? He was sent to bear the sins of the world and to provide the righteousness you need for eternal life (2 Corinthians 5:21). Have you trusted in Him? You may make all kinds of professions, but it is the Spirit of God Who searches your heart and either convicts of sin and unbelief or of faith and being a child of God.

The second issue pressed by God’s Spirit is that of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The unbelievers of Jesus’ day believed that He was a sinner  and that they were righteous. The Holy Spirit works to reverse this decision. The main line of evidence is that of the empty tomb. of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you see me no more (John 16:10).
Three days after the crucifixion of our Lord He began to appear to His disciples, who were chosen to be witnesses of His resurrection . Our Lord’s post-resurrection appearances proved that death could not hold Him in its power. Then the apostles saw Him no more, for He had ascended to the Father. His ascension (evidenced by the fact that His disciples saw Him no more) proved that the Lord Jesus was righteous and acceptable to the Father to Whom He returned; this was the kernel of Peter's Pentecost sermon. The empty grave enabled the Christian church to be born with great power in the very city where Jesus had been executed and buried.

The third issue which the Holy Spirit brings before men is that of future judgment. If all men are sinners, rightly condemned before God, and they have rejected Jesus Christ, God’s only provision for salvation, then the only fate which awaits them is certain judgment. Certainty of man’s judgment is established on the fact that the prince of sinners, Satan himself, has already been judged on the cross of Calvary ( If God has dealt decisively with His chief opponent, surely He will eventually judge all those who have chosen to follow him in rejecting Jesus Christ.
While Christians do live in a hostile world where men not only reject the Saviour, but also those who trust in Him, God has not left us to our own devices. Our witness is effective in the salvation of men’s souls because of the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to the essential truth of the gospel, sin, righteousness and judgment.

From this it follows that (as I've already suggested), while it is our obligation to present the claims of Christ to unbelievers , it is not our job to convince men, nor to convert them. Ultimately, ‘Salvation is of the Lord’ . We often make enemies by attempting to convince men through persuasive techniques or argumentative force. People are not argued into the Kingdom of God. Witnessing is our task; winning souls is not. Often times we may feel that our witness has fallen upon deaf ears. But long after we have left, the Spirit can press home the truths of the gospel.

Our responsibility is by faithful lives, by faithful witness to bear witness to Christ crucified and risen. We are to do so in the power of the Holy Spirit, who stands alongside us, and it is to him we leave the outcome.
 
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