Today, we continue in our new series on “The Essentials.” Right after learning about the depravity of man and the Sovereignty of God, now we turn our attention to an understanding of Holy Spirit conviction. We will answer these questions: First, what is Holy Spirit conviction? Second, what is the effect of Holy Spirit conviction on the unsaved person? Third, is Holy Spirit conviction necessary for salvation? These "Essentials" teachings are critical to your navigating the dangerous times we live in. Darkness and gross darkness abound, and we must always be ready to give an answer to those lost souls God providentially brings into our lives needing to hear the truth.
Introduction
God’s Word teaches that there can be no salvation apart from Holy Spirit conviction. We face very troubling times with a worldly church relying on natural methods in an effort to preach the gospel. Gross darkness is upon the people (Isaiah 60: 2), and it is all because the church has rejected the Holy Spirit as the world has rejected Christ.
Now much that is palmed off on us today as the work of the Holy Spirit is nothing but the work of Satan. If you speak against it, you will hear cries of “You have committed the unpardonable sin by blaspheming the Holy Spirit!” Listen to me, you don’t commit the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit by exposing the work of Satan.
The church has rejected the Holy Spirit; therefore, the church is left with only natural light to guide her. As a result, the church is married to the world, and she has had to bring in all worldly methods and plans to carry on her religious program. True gospel ministers must speak the truth and call the church back to the “old paths” that produced real converts and revivals. Converts today know nothing about repentance and do not know Christ as a living reality to their hearts. The average preacher today knows nothing about Holy Spirit conviction. The church has become a social community association designed to make people feel good, have friends and lots of good times and fellowship. Run from a church that does not know about Holy Spirit conviction. You will know they don’t know the truth because you will not hear it spoken about from the pulpit.
All have to be convicted by the Holy Spirit and brought to Christ as guilty sinners before they can ever come to know Christ as their Savior and as their Lord (Romans 3: 19). When they do, they will leave all the world behind them. I want people to come to Christ and be saved. Don’t you? Let’s study the truth about this essential subject.
Section 1: What is Holy Spirit Conviction?
We read in Genesis 1: 2: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” In the first creation we find the earth that was without form and void. It was empty and darkness was upon the whole earth. Then, the Spirit of God moved upon, or brooded over, the face of this dark, empty earth. In the 3rd verse we read, “Let there be light: and there was light.” This was the beginning of the restoration of the earth. It was the work of the Holy Spirit who took the Word of God and brought order out of chaos and life out of death in the first creation.
In II Corinthians 4, we read the following: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God,who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
This is a vivid picture of a lost sinner. When Adam fell, the light went out of his heart. Man is a threefold being: body, soul, and spirit. In his body he is world-conscious; in his soul, or mind, he is self-conscious; in his spirit he is dead. Romans 3 says in part: “There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Every unsaved person is an atheist at heart). There is none that understandeth.” Again the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2: 1: the sinner is “dead in trespasses and sins.” The sinner’s understanding is darkened (Ephesians 2:1). He has a mind that is blinded (2 Corinthians 4: 4).
There is chaos and darkness in the heart and mind of the lost. He is lost, empty and void of life. It is only the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who brooded over the first creation, that broods over the second creation and says, “Let there be light.” Thank God that one day the Holy Spirit brooded over my heart and said, “Barry, let there be light in your heart, soul and spirit.” What did He mean? “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4: 6) Just as the Holy Spirit one day brooded over this empty world covered with darkness, and out of the heavens came the command, “Let there be light: and there was light,” so the Holy Spirit broods over the heart of the sinner, and God gives the command, “Let there be light,” and there is light! Has the light of God ever shined on your heart? Have you received the light of the gospel?
It is the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of man, or some celebrity, or worldly worship music, to get you in a spiritual mood. The sinner is dead and without a supernatural act to bring him to life, he will stay in the darkness and go to hell. But when the Holy Spirit broods over that soul and that spirit, and takes the Word of God, not some joke or illustration or movie theme, and opens the heart of that sinner, and lets the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shine in, that sinner begins to feel for the first time in his life what he is by nature.
In summary, Holy Spirit conviction includes the following:
Showing the lost soul his or her true depravity and spiritual deadness. That he is a lost sinner without hope. That he is headed to hell.
Showing the lost soul the gospel of Christ (this is why true gospel preaching is necessary. God has ordained the method of preaching as the means to reach the sinner's mind and the Holy Spirit will apply the truth to the heart).
Bringing the repenting soul to the foot of the cross to see that Christ’s blood has been shed for him.
The average preaching today does not produce conviction, because the Word of God is not preached under the power of the Holy Spirit. The average church member is brought in as a member of the church through a decision for Christ, and not by and through Holy Spirit conviction; therefore, he is not saved.
Section 2: What is the effect of Holy Spirit conviction on the unsaved person?
When the Word of God is preached to the sinner under the power of God’s Holy Spirit, the following will occur:
According to Acts 2: 6, he is “confounded,” which means he is confused. If I am being accused of confusing sinners by making the way too narrow, that is not me, it is the Holy Spirit. This is the first stage of Holy Spirit conviction: being confused. No wonder three thousand souls were converted on the Day of Pentecost. They came to know Christ as Lord and Savior. They were first convicted, convinced by the Holy Spirit, that they were lost sinners, lost and ruined, with no way out. According to Acts 2: 37, “They were pricked in their heart.” The word “pricked” means they were goaded with a keen slender knife that cut its way into the very spirit until the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shined in and laid bare their hearts and they cried, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” They were cut to pieces by the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Then Peter said, “Repent…in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. You don’t hear this much today. When is the last time you heard a sinner in your church cry out, “Preacher, I’m lost; brethren, what must I do?” I’ll answer the question, you don’t in most churches because the pastors aren’t saved, the church board isn;t saved, and most of the members aren’t saved. My expression is that they are on a little yellow school bus headed to hell while they are playing games, having fellowship dinners, and anything else to avoid the truth of the gospel.
According to Acts 2: 7, he is “amazed,” that is, deeply stirred; the fear of God falls upon him until he is separated from everything else and is transported into a new world of thinking, one he has never known before; and the world in which he once lived, calls him crazy. That’s right, to the world the sinner under conviction is crazy. They can’t understand what he is going through.
Acts 2: 12 says: “And they were in doubt,” which means they were perplexed and in a state of fear, and did not know how to get out. They were stripped naked before God; all excuses washed away, they begin to see themselves as guilty sinners, and they were perplexed because they could find no way out of their embarrassment before God. Holy Spirit conviction will confuse you, it embarrasses you, you don’t know what to do with it. A sinner under conviction who can’t throw it off will get to Christ. My friend, please don’t try to throw off conviction; if you succeed, it means hell for you.
Section 3: Is Holy Spirit conviction necessary for salvation?
The short answer is yes!!! Let us now look at how the Word of God becomes effective in the salvation of a lost soul.
Ephesians 6: 17 reads: “And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The Holy Spirit cannot do one thing in the heart of a sinner apart from the Word, and the Word of God is powerless apart from the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God into the heart of the sinner, the sinner who is naturally asleep in sin is awakened by the Word of God. The sinner is bold and daring, and will not consider his sin, but when the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God home to the heart, He brings him to the bar of justice; He convicts him and shows him his condemnation, and the sinner feels and realizes and acknowledges his guilt and condemnation.
The Word of God in the hands of the Holy Spirit discovers or reveals sin to the sinner. The Word goes into him and through him and opens up his very heart. The Holy Spirit tells him what none other in the world could ever tell him of himself–and He does this privately–only God and his own conscience know what is taking place in the sinner’s heart. The Holy Spirit knows the hearts of men; the Holy Spirit searches the hearts of men, and He knows how to take the Word of God home to the heart that He wants to open with power and much assurance. Praise God, He is Sovereign!
When the Holy Spirit directs the arrow of God’s Word into the heart of a sinner and lays bare the heinous nature of sin, He pulls off the paint and the varnish from man’s heart and reveals it is its loathsome nature and its vile corruption. The Holy Spirit exposes the sinner’s heart to the sinner and shows him his guilt. He opens the eyes of the sinner to see his guilt. The Holy Spirit turns him “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.”
When the Holy Spirit takes the Word to the sinner’s heart, it causes him to cry out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The Holy Spirit causes him to perceive himself bound over to death as a guilty sinner; this fills him with fear and terror, anxiety and remorse, and sets him to mourning after Christ for salvation. Yes, the Word of God is the means which God has chosen for bringing sinners to Christ.
Going further, the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God as the means of driving the sinner out of himself to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. He causes the sinner to sit and listen, for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17) The Law brings us to Christ (Galatians 3: 24), goes before and condemns the sinner under the power of the Holy Spirit and causes him to discover that he is a lost sinner, and he is made to cry out, “I’m lost! I’m lost! God have mercy upon me–I’m lost.”
So consider the following and how they compare with true Holy Spirit conviction:
Repeat after me this “Sinner’s Prayer;”
Just believe in Jesus;
Make a profession of faith;
Get baptized;
Join the church;
Give Jesus a try, what do you have to lose?
Jesus votes for you, the devil votes against you, you cast the deciding vote.
You need to pray through your effort until you can know you are saved.
Vacation Bible School conversions to make “mommy and daddy happy.”
It should be abundantly clear that without Holy Spirit conviction, a sinner will never get saved!
Conclusion
Unless the Holy Spirit strips you and lets you see your nakedness before God, you will never cry for the righteousness of Christ. You will never cry for the righteousness of Christ! May there be such a cry in that heart of yours that you will not let go until you rest in Christ. As the old preacher said, “Come clear, come clean.” Friend, have you come? Do you know the power of the Holy Spirit's conviction? If not, go to the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer and ask Him to send the Holy Spirit to convict your sinful heart that you might receive a Godly new heart. That will be a cause for rejoicing!
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