The Holy Spirit Convincing Men of Sin
Esterday afternoon we studied together about
the ave Spirit as a Person, the Holy Spirit
Himsel oday we begin a study of the work
of the “Holy Spirit, and we shall begin our study of His work just where He begins His work in most of us, Will you please turn in your Bibles to John, the sixteenth chapter, the seventh to the eleventh verses:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for
you that I go away: for if I go not away, omforter,|, will not come unto you; but if I go, L.will.send.Him.unto.y ou.| And He, when He is come, will convict the world
in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because. I.go.to.the Father, and ye behold Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged.”
In these verses we are told that, [t is the work of the
Holy Spirit to “Convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
I. THe Hoty Spirit ConvicrINc THE WorLD oF SIN First of all, [¢ is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin. That is to say, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to show men their error concerning sin in such a way as to produce a deep sense of personal sinfulness. This is where the work of salvation begins in most men, they are brought to realize that they are sinners and that, therefore, they need a Saviour, and then they are ready without much urging to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour, when He is presented to them as just the all-sufficient Saviour they so sorely need.
One of the great needs of the present day is conviction of sin. The average man has no realization of the awfulness of sin, nor of the fact that he himself is a great sinner before God. If men and women can be brought to a realization of what great sinners they are before God, ‘most of their doctrinal. difficulties about the ‘Christ.and about the doctrine of the aton ement,, through
y he.shed blood, of ,Jesus,.Christ,,.will take care of them- ‘selves; for ae but a Divine
their si wi ongings.ef th coe own ia feace: 8 ‘This i is one of the 5 lacks in much of our so-called
“revival work” today, the lack of a deep sense of sin on the part of those who come, or profess to come, to Jesus Christ.
Now it is the work of the Holy Spirit to thus convict men of sin, to bring them to a realization of their sinfulness, and of their lost condition, and of their great guilt before God. Neither you nor I can convince any man of sin. As we shall see later, the Holy Spirit uses us to do the work, that is, He does the work through us, but we of ourselves cannot do it. He must do it. The human heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9), and there is nothing in which the deceitfulness of the human heart comes out more clearly than in the blindness of every one of us to our own sinfulness.
We are very sharp-sighted as regards the sins and shortcomings of others, but very blind to our own. And the oe is so blind to its sinfulness that noonebutthe
oly Spirit can ever convince the world of sin, that is, can ever bring men to see how sinful they are are. No matter how great our natural powers of reasoning and persuasion may be, we cannot produce real conviction of sin by all our arguments and all our pathetic stories. We can get men to cry by telling pathetic stories (and by singing songs about “Tell Mother I’ll Be There”), but mere shedding of tears over pathetic stories and touching songs is not conviction of sin,
ONLY. BE PRODUCED. BY. THE yy THE Holy SPIRIT.
Here is where many of us make our greatest mistake both in our preaching and in our personal work; we try to convince men of sin, we try to do the Holy Spirit’s work, we try to do what He alone can do, and of course we fail.
I had a very striking illustration of this some years ago in our own church in Chicago. One night one of our very best workers came to me in the after-meeting and said, “I have a man over here, an engineer on the Panhandle .Railroad. I want you to talk with him. I have been talking with him for two straight hours and have made no impression upon him. Won’t you come and speak with him?” JI went over and she introduced me to the man, and I sat down beside him and began to use the Word of God to produce conviction of sin, but all the time looking to the Holy Spirit to carry His own Word home. I had not talked with him ten minutes when the man was under deep conviction of sin and down on his knees crying to God for mercy. While I had talked with him this lady who had been talking with him for two hours had listened. As a rule that is a very unwise thing to do, for one worker to listen while another talks with an inquirer; for men will not open their hearts, nor will they get the real help they need while a third party is listening. But this woman had a purpose in e in doing it, and it was all right in this instance. When the man had gone out the worker turned to me and said, “Mr. Torrey, that is very strange.” I said, “What is strange?” She replied, “Do you know that you used exactly the same passages of Scripture in dealing with that man that I used, and I talked with him two hours and made no impression, and you talked with him not more than ten minutes and he was under conviction of sin and crying to God for mercy?”
Now, really, there was no mystery about it, nothing strange about it. What was the explanation? I believe it was this, that that worker for once had made a mistake that she seldom made, that of trying to do the Holy Spirit’s work, trying to convince of sin the man with whom she was dealing. And when she came to me and said, “I have talked with this man two hours and made no impression upon him,” the thought came to me at once, “If Miss W., one of my best workers, has talked with this man for two hours and made no impression, what is the use of m tryin to. “talk Ik with him”; a
and in a sense of utter helplessness I hadcastmyselfy.
Oh, let us never forget that it is impossible for us to convince any man or woman of sin, and in all our preaching and in all c our personal work let:
also be sure that are in such relations to ead that the oly Spirit can do Hi work th rough us.
But while we cannot convince men of sin, while it is utterly impossible for us to do it, thank God, the Holy poe can do it. And, if we would Put ourselves at the
and if we would fe toe se Oe eae)
of sin through us, and if we would be more careful to be. i relations od that the Holy Spirit can work
us, we would see far more conviction of sin
‘than we do.
When I was pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, we had a committee of the church, composed of something like twenty-five members, consisting of the elders and deacons and other officers of the church, who met together for supper every Friday night, and after supper went over the roll of the church, keeping a constant watch-care of the members of the church, and discussed the various business matters of the Church. At one of these Friday night meetings, after we had been discussing various important matters, one of our elders said, “Brethren, I am not at all satisfied with the way things are going in our church, We are having many professed conversions, and we are having many accessions to the Church, but I do not see the conviction of sin that I would like to
see, and I propose that, instead of discussing business matters any further tonight, we spend the time in.prayer,and
that we meet on other nights also, to cry to God we send His Holy..Spirit among us in convicting power.” The whole committee saw the wisdom of the suggestion, and it was immediately adopted; and the remainder of that meeting was spent in prayer, and for a number of nights we met together for prayer, to pray definitely for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in the work of the church. Not long after that, one Sunday night, when I arose to preach I looked around to my left and saw sitting in the front seat underneath the gallery, right beside one of my deacons, a large, well-dressed man, rather over-dressed, with a great big diamond shining from his shirt front. Something about the man’s appearance led me to say to myself, “I believe that man is a sporting man.” It turned out later that he was. His mother kept a sporting-house in Omaha and he himself was in Chicago at that time, gambling. I said to myself as I saw him sitting there beside the deacon, “Deacon Young has been fishing to-day.” — It is a great thing to. have deacons in your church and then as I preached I would ‘look radeal at that man. His eyes were riveted upon me, he was evidently deeply interested. When I went down-stairs to. the after-meeting, I noticed that Deacon Young had brought him down to the after-meeting, and when I went into an inner room for a little closer dealing with individuals, I saw that Deacon Young brought him in there. We were a long time dealing with souls that night, and about eleven o’clock I had just finished dealing with the last one I expected to speak to, when Deacon Young came over to me and said, “I’ve got a man over here I want you to talk with.” JI went over; it was this big sporting man. He was greatly agitated, ‘“Oh,” he groaned as Deacon Young introduced me to him, “I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I feel awful.”
Then he went on to tell me this story. He said, “My mother keeps a sporting-house in Omaha, and I am here gambling in Chicago, This is the first time that I was ever in a Protestant service in my life. I started out this afternoon to go down to Cottage Grove Avenue to meet some friends down there, and to spend the afternoon gambling. But I was passing by Washington Square over yonder and some of the young men of your church were holding a meeting in the open air. Among them I saw a man named Forbes whom I had known in a life of sin, and I said to myself, ‘I wonder what Forbes is doing in a meeting like this,’ and I stopped to listen to what he might have to say. I was not much impressed and started down the street to go to Cottage Grove Avenue. I had gone about two blocks when some mysterious power took hold of me and brought me back to that meeting. When the meeting was over this gentleman (pointing to Deacon Young) got hold of me and took me to your Yoke Fellows’ meeting for supper, and to the meeting that followed the supper, and then took me to the meeting up-stairs, and then brought me down here.” And then he uttered a groan, “Oh, I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I never felt like this before. I feel awful,” and he trembled like a leaf and groaned. I said, “I’ll tell you what’s the matter with you. The Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin.” And that powerful man, shaking and trembling with deep emotion, that man who had never been in a Protestant service before in all his life, got down on his knees and cried to God for mercy, and went out with the joyous realization that his sins were all forgiven..
Oh, that is what we want to see in our meetings. That is what we can see if we we only realize our own utter inability to convince men en of sin, and believe in ‘in the: power of (aa do it, and look to Him to do it, and
depend aupon Tim to do it, and count upon Him to do it, and be sure that we ourselves are in such r¢ relations to to “God us,
Let me give you another illustration of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Another Sunday night, when I arose to preach in the Moody Church, as I looked up into the gallery to my left, I saw, almost directly over where the other man had sat, another very loudly-dressed man. He, too, had a great diamond shining from his shirt front, and I said to myself, “Ah, there is another sporting man.” It turned out that he was a travelling man, but he was also a sporting man. As I preached, he listened with the closest attention and kept moving farther and farther to the front edge of his seat, his eyes fastened on me. In the midst of my sermon, with no intention whatever of drawing the net at that time, but merely to drive a point home, I said, “Who will take Jesus Christ right now?” The words had scarcely left my lips when he sprang to his feet and his voice rang out through the church like a pistol shot, “I will.” I stopped preaching right then and there — I was not there to save sermons, but to save souls — and I gave the invitation to all who would accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour right then and there to rise to their feet, and all over the house men and women and young people sprang to their feet.
I remember one man especially, an old colonel from New York City, belonging to one of the richest families in New York City, but whose family had sent him out to Chicago to drink himself to death, and that was exactly what he was doing in one of the Chicago hotels. He was present at our service that night, a man over seventy years of age. He was one of the first men on his feet, with the tears running down his rugged cheeks, and he too accepted Christ that night.
Shimon and wane wes bas SNe ee tod of sin men and women who have wandered far from God,
such as I have just described; He has power to produce the deepest conviction of sin in the hearts of people of culture and refinement, “eit and women living uprigh pright lives, men and women of most attractive and winsome personality.
I was sitting one day in my office in the Bible Institute in Chicago, waiting for the dinner-bell to ring, when there came a rap at my door. “Come in,” I said, and there entered an old Scotch gentleman of the finest type. He was a man over eighty years of age. I showed him to a chair and almost immediately he burst into tears. Then he said to me: “You do not know me but I know you. I come constantly to hear you preach, and I have come around today to ask you if you think there is any hope for a sinner who has sinned so greatly, and continued so long in sin, as I have.” Seldom have I seen a man under deeper conviction of sin than this elderly gentlemati who had always lived an upright life; but who had néver accepted Christ. I took my Bible and showed him, on the one hand, what the Bible had to say about him and his exceeding sinfulness, and what it had to say, on the other side, about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came down into this world to save him, and upon Whom all his sins had been laid, and in Whose atoning death he might then and there find pardon, and Who had risen again and was now a living Saviour “able to save to the uttermost” anyone who came to God through Him. And this fine old Scotch gentleman knelt with me in prayer and accepted the Lord Jesus as his own Saviour and went out of my office rejoicing in the knowledge that his sins were all forgiven,
Some years ago I was attending a Bible Conference in
Atlanta in the Baptist Tabernacle. At the close of one of my addresses, a prominent Baptist preacher, a scholarly man, asked for a private interview with me. This minister was a graduate of a leading Southern university. After graduating from the university he had taken a course at the Louisville Theological Seminary, and after that had gone to Chicago University for post-graduate study and had made so fine a record there that he had been sent to Germany to represent the University there. He was now pastor of a leading Baptist church in Georgia. He said to me: “I have a difficult problem on hand and I wish your advice. I am the pastor of a church in a university town. My congregation is largely made up of university professors and their families and university students. They are charming people. Some of them put me to shame by the beauty of their lives.” “Now,” he continued, “if I had a congregation such as they have in the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago of down-and-outs and bums and men like that, it would be easy to convict them of sin (that is where he was mistaken), but my problem is how to convict of sin people of the beautiful character and conduct that constitute my audiences.” “You cannot do it,” I replied, “but the Holy Spirit can.”
Oh, is not that what we need to see in our meetings here? Is that not what we need to see in our regular services in our churches? Is that not what we most need to see over all our land today in all our efforts to lead men to a better life, — deep conviction of sin wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost? Well, He can do it; He alone can do it. He can do it just as well today as He evercould; and He will if we only look to Him to do it. If was He that did it on the Day of Pentecost, when three thousand men and women were pricked in their heart and cried aloud to the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” If Peter had preached that same sermon the day before Pentecost, the day before the Holy Spirit came, there would have been no such results; but now he and the hundred twenty “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2: :4), and he anensey and the others did
y “will 5 its a
will you notice just what sin it is of which the Holy Spirit convicts men. Let me read it to you again. “And He, when He is
of drunkenness, not the sin of stealing not the sin of
adultery, not the sin of murder, nor of any other i immor-
ality or crime, but. just .the..sin..of, not.
three thousand on the Day of Pentecost. The Apostle Peter had just said in Acts 2:36, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
Christ hen we read in the thirty-seventh verse, “Now when they heard this (that is, had heard that the One whom they had rejected was both Lord and Christ), they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, What shall we do?” Yes, this is the sin of which the Holy Spirit convinces men and women today, the sin, the awful sin, of
Pes wa a in.
( Christ tr “not the sin 7
on of God, not believin on a J eSUS Crises erates an This was the sin of which 1 the Holy Spirit convicted the rejecting Him, of not believing in Him, Whom God hath made our Divine “Lord and Christ.”
Now that is the very sin of which it is most difficult to convince men. ‘The average unbeliever does not look upon his unbelief in Jesus Christ as sin at all. Oftentimes he is proud of his unbelief, instead of being ashamed of it; and he looks upon it as a mark of intellectual superiority. He struts around and says, “Oh, I am an agnostic,” or, “Oh, I am a Unitarian,” or, “Oh, I am a sceptic,” or, “Oh, I am an infidel.” Oftentimes they are all the more proud of it because it is about the only mark of intellectual superiority that they possess.
( If it is not quite as bad as that, and people are not proud of their unbelief, at the very worst they regard it as a mere misfortune and they will say, “Oh, I can’t believe. I do wish I could believe, but I can’t. Won’t you please pity me because I can’t believe?” But when the Spirit of God comes to a man, he does not look upon unbelief in Jesus Christ as a mark of intellectual superiority, neither does he look upon it as a mere misfortune: he sees clearly that it is the worst, the most decisive, the most daring, and the most damning of all sins, and while he may bitterly regret his dishonesty or his impurity, or whatever other sins of which he may have been guilty, he sees and feels that the most awful of his sins is the sin of rejecting the glorious Son of God. He sees that no
sin he can possibly commit against a fellow man can match in enormity the sin of rejecting Him Whom ioe.
has clearly shown, by raising Him from the dead, to be His own ‘eternal Son; and Him “Who gave up heaven and all its glory to come down to earth with all its shame to bear our sins in His own body on the cross. But you and I cannot make men see that; but the Holy Ghost’can, and this is the sin of which the Holy Spirit convicts men, the
sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ.
II. Tue Horny Sprrert Convictinc THE WorLp oF
RIGHTEOUSNESS But the Holy Spirit not only convicts men of sin, He also “Convicts the world... of righteousness;” not of
our righteousness, for we have none, but of Jesus Christ’
which God has zien to the = in Jesus Christ. There are two things, and two things only, that anyone needs to see in order to be saved: First, he needs to see
One of the most pit to he revivals in the ese the of the Church, one in which the work of the Holy Spirit was most clearly and wonderfully manifested, was the Ulster Revival in the North of Ireland in the years 1859 and 1860. Rev. William Gibson, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, in the year 1860, has written a very full history of that revival, and in it he relates many instances of conversion. They were all typical: men and women were brought under overwhelming conviction of sin; sometimes this conviction of sin lasted for days (that, of course, was unnecessary if Christ had been properly presented at once); then after days of deep and awful conviction the light would break in upon men and they would get a wonderful view of Jesus Christ and just believe on Him, and enter into a clear experience of forgiveness of sin.
-and of wonderful joy in the Lord. It was simply the Spirit convincing men of sin, and also convincing jthem of righteousness. ee “Some years ago I was at the meeting of the Men’s Brotherhoods of the United Presbyterian Church of America, held at Pittsburgh. I spoke upon the subject of prayer, and in my adcress used as an illustration the Ulster Revival. A gentleman, a member of the church where the meetings were held, had sent his limousine to my hotel to take me to the meeting, but he had not come himself; but«just sent his chauffeur. When I went out of the meeting that afternoon to hurry to another meeting, the gentleman himself was at the door and said, “I am going to ride back with you.” We had scarcely gotten into the automobile when he turned to me and said, “I was converted in that Ulster Revival of which you were speaking. I was a mere lad. I was out in the field and I was ridiculing the revival, and suddenly I was struck to the ground and fairly wallowed in the furrow, over- - whelmed with the sense of my sinfulness. And then, as I eae there in the furrow, as given nderfu of Jesus Christ.dying for my sins, and I believed on
GS SADE
im and was saved before IJ arose out of the furrow.” Oh, that is what we need here in these meetings, men and women brought under overwhelming conviction of sin by the fae mae: then t Holy Spirit revealing
cae SSIs inh A
fri ighteousness o of chris t and the righteousness whee God SRA AAD Ba NEN ROIE AS as rovided f for ‘for us i 2suS irist.. ee ee
The story is “is told of a ‘faithful ce minister who was travelling through Scotland and stopped one night at an inn. The innkeeper came to him and asked him if he would conduct family worship. He replied that he would if the innkeeper on his part would bring to the worshig -all the guests in the house, and all the servants. This the innkeeper agreed to do. When they were gathered in the big room for the service the minister turned to the innkeeper and said, “Are all the servants here?” “Yes,” replied the innkeeper. “All?” persisted the minister. “Well, not all. All but one. There is one girl who works down in the kitchen washing the pots and kettles, who is so dirty that she is not fit to come to the meeting.” The minister replied, ‘ We will not go on with the service until she comes,” and he insisted and the innkeeper went for this servant and brought her in. This faithful man of God became greatly interested in this poor, neglected creature; and when the others were passing out of the room he asked her if she would not stay for a few minutes. And when everyone had gone he said to her, “I want to teach you a prayer for you to offer: ‘ Lord, show me myself.’ Will you offer it every day?” She replied that she would. The next day the minister left, but a short time afterward came back again and asked the innkeeper about this girl, The innkeeper replied, “She is spoiled, she is no good at all. She is weeping all the time, weeping day and night, and can hardly attend to her work.” The minister asked to see her again, and when she came in the minister said, “Now I want to teach you another prayer. ‘Lord, show me thyself.’ Now pray that prayer every day.”
The minister left and a few years afterward was preaching one Lord’s Day morning in a church in Glasgow. At the close of the service a neat, trim looking young woman came up to him and said, “Do you recognize me?” He replied, “No, I do not.” She said, “Do you. recall holding a service in an inn and speaking to one of the servants afterward, and teaching her to pray the prayer, ‘Lord, show me myself,’ and afterward teaching her the other prayer, ‘ Lord, show me Thyself’?” “Oh, yes,” he said, “I remember that.” “Well,” she said, “I am that girl, And when you taught me that first prayer and went away, and I asked God to show me myself, He gave me such a view of my vileness and my sin that I was overwhelmed with grief and could scarcely sleep at night or work by day for thinking of my sins. Then,” she said, ‘‘ when you came back and taught me the second prayer, ‘Lord, show me Thyself,’ God gave me such a view of Himself, of His love and. of, Jesus Christ. dyi on the. cross for me, ae that all the burden. of my. sinrolle way a and am became a happy Ct Christian. 3 Yes, those are he two. thins s es that each one of us needs to see — our own in, and ita is the work ‘of the Hol y Spirit to show us that, Coll ‘the rig righteousness of. Christ and the. righteousness that!)
iawn
x0d has provided, for you and 1 me in Jesus Christ, and it s the work of the Holy. Spirit to to show. us. that. also, ee
SRL ELEE RS) SGN rire RO SL MGM CRE IN
III. Tue Hoty Spirrr Convincinc THE WorLpD oF
JUDGMENT
But there is still a third thing of which the H Holy S’ pirit
convicts men, and that is of judgment, attested by the judgment of the prince of this world, the Devil. ‘There
has perhaps never been a day in the whole history of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth when the world needed more to be convinced of “judgment,” than today. The average man has but little faith that there is to be a future judgment. Indeed, a large number of our church members, and even of our preachers, have lost all realization of future judgment and of a future awful hell. A great many of our churches, and not a few of our superficially orthodox preachers, have really given up all belief in such a hell as Jesus Christ and the Bible taught, and even those preachers who do still believe in it theoretically seldom, if ever, preach it.
When the question was being discussed of inviting me to the city of D — — , the Y. M. C. A. Secretary of that city said, “We do not want Dr. Torrey to hold evangelistic services in D, for he will preach hell, and we do not wish to have hell preached here in D.” Now he had sized me up exactly right. I certainly would preach
hell, for Jesus Christ preached it, and God, in our day
aswell as in all other days, greatly blesses the preaching of His truth. It is only fair to say that when I actually
did go to that city, that same secretary was about the most faithful supporter that I had in the city. But his remark at that time shows the attitude that many take today on this subject. Many think that while the doctrine
of eternal punishment is true, that it at it ought not to not to be taught because it is not what men like to hear today; ju today; just
as though what men liked to hear is what they ought to hear. Very frequently the truth that menleast like to
hear is the truth that they most need to hear,
When I was holding meetings in the city of Philadelphia, in the North Armory, I preached two sermons on hell. A few nights afterward, as I was going out of the armory to get into the carriage to take me to my home about three miles away, I saw a Presbyterian minister who had a church near my home going out of the armory, and I invited him to get into the carriage with my daughter and myself and we would take him home. After we had ridden some distance, this minister turned to me and said, “Dr. Torrey, one of my elders asked me a question the other day. He asked me if I believed in hell the way you preached it. I replied, ‘Have you any reason for suspecting that I don’t?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘I have no reason for suspecting that you don’t, but do you?’ Then I replied, ‘Yes, I do. I believe every word that Dr. Torrey preached on the subject.’ Then my elder said, ‘Then why don’t you preach it?’” Yes, why don’t we preach it? We certainly need to preach it. ‘The pend needs to hear it, and God blesses the preaching of Pa op wooed when the Spirit of God cot comes to men they believe “judgment.” I doubt if any minister ever had more difficulties with the doctrine of future punishment as taught in the Bible than I did. I would come up to this doctrine time and time again, and would back off every time I came up to it. In my early ministry I succeeded in convincing myself that the Bible did not teach everlasting punishment, that while it taught that there would be a hell, and an awful hell, and a hell that might last through centuries or even thousands of years, that at last “somehow, somewhere, somewhen,” all men, and even the Devil himself, would be brought to repentance and hell would therefore cease to be. So I believed and so I taught. But the time came when I could no longer reconcile the teachings of the Bible with this position, and so I gave it up, and theoretically I believed in an everlasting hell; but even after that, every time I came up to the doctrine, as I say, I would back off, it seemed as if I could not possibly have it that way. But one night, after I had gone to Chicago Tr was lai might know the Hol
thorough-going. way. than I é: ‘And that night God heard my prayer, and stich a fi ling with the Holy Spirit, such a being taken possession of by the Holy Spirit, as I had never known before, came to me, and with that new infilling of the Holy Spirit there came such a revelation of the infinite majesty and glory of Jesus Christ, the wordrous Son of God, and such a revelation of the awfulness of the sin of rejecting such a glorious Saviour as that, that I saw at once that if men would not accept this glorious Saviour, then all the most terrible statements to be found in the Word of God as to the future eternal destiny of those who would not accept Jesus Christ, were demanded by the very necessities of the case, and from that day to this I have never had the slightest difficulty with the doctrine of future punishment taught in ‘oid
Bible. The. Holy...Spirit..Himself.,.had., convinced..me,, * God oa that He may you also.
IV. Tue Hoty Spirrr Convinces THE WorLD ONLY THrouGH BELIEVERS IN JESUS CHRIST To sum it all up then; it is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. It is not our work, but His. But sans notice very carefully that, w erey THE
BRAT
THROUGH SUS Cee ae ‘ thought comes out in the seventh and eighth verses: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you (that is, to believers), And He, when He is come (that is, come unto you, come unto believers), wil! convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment,” that is to say, the Holy Spirit comes to the believer, and through the believer to whom He: comes convinces the unsaved. As far as we are told in it he Bible, the Holy Spirit has no way of getting at the: ‘unsaved except through the channel of those who arg... already saved; He comes to the believer and through the believer convinces the unsaved of sin. What a solemn thought that is. If we realized that the Holy Spirit could: only reach the unbeliever through us, us who are already saved, would we not be more careful to present to the Holy Spirit an unchoked channel for the Holy Spirit to work through?
Every conversion recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was through human instrumentality, not one single conversion is recorded there that was not by human instrumentality. Take, for example, the conversion of Cornelius. If there was ever a miraculous conversion it was that! Why, we are told in the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles that an angel appeared to Cornelius and spoke to him, but the angel did not tell Cornelius what to do to be saved. On the contrary, the angel said to him, “Send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy “house. shall. be. saved” (Acts Wd3; 14). In other words, ‘not even an angel could show him the way of life, it must be a saved fellow-man, anda Spirit-filled fellow-man,, who did it) ea
Take the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. If ever there was a miraculous conversion it was certainly that, when the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Himself appeared to him, e actually saw Jesus in the glory, but the Lord Jesus did not tell him what to do to be saved. Paul cried, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10). And the Lord said unto him, “Arise and go into Damascus, thee.of all things which are sai The Lord did not te im
[2s do to be paved ‘a certain” man “named Ananias” had to be oe upon the scene, and Ananias told him what to do, saying, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, call in on the name of ear
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THROUGH US WHO ARE ALREADY SAVED, This is exceedingly solemn. Oh, if we only realized it, would we not be more careful to present to the Holy Spirit an unobstructed channel for Him to work through! Do you take that in? Does it mean you?
You wives who have unconverted husbands. You are Praying for their conversion, you are praying that ‘Gody wil o convict them of sin and show »OL,.Chri; ‘ist; but the Holy Spirit can get at. them only Mieughice some saved person, and most likely only through you, for you are the nearest to them. And many and many a man is lost because his wife is such an obstructed channel that the Holy Spirit cannot work through her, and so her husband is lost forever.
One time when Mr. Moody was holding meetings in Philadelphia a lady came to him and asked him to pray for her husband. He replied, “No, Pll not pray for your husband.” ‘“What!” she exclaimed, “not pray for my husband? Do you not pray for the unsaved?” “Yes, I do, but I will not pray for your husband.” “Why not?” she asked. “Because,” Mr. Moody replied, “I believe you yourself are the greatest obstacle there is in the way of the conversion of your husband.” The woman was greatly provoked and went to her husband after she got home and said, “Mr. Moody insulted me this afternoon.” “What,” replied her husband, “Mr. Moody insulted you? I thought Mr. Moody was a gentleman, I
did not suppose he would insult any lady.” “Yes,”
she replied, “Mr. Moody insulted me this afternoon.”
, “What did Mr. Moody say to you?” her husband asked. he “He said I was the greatest obstacle there was in the is. way of your conversion.” “Well, ain’t you?” said her vn a “husband, And some of you wives here today who are Ny trying to get people to pray for the conversion of your lwe husband, you who are deeply concerned for the converil ia oft of your husband, you yourself are the greatest obq Ne oe acle there is in the way of the conversion of your husr ‘band. The Holy Spirit has no way of getting at your pve fh
»/.. husband except through you, and unless you get thor-
ra oughly right with God yourself and become an ‘unob-| tructed channel through which the ‘Holy Spirit can ‘work, is husband will be lost forever. uv” When I was holding meetings in Omaha, the pastor of ane the leading Methodist Church in the city became deeply; concerned about the salvation of one of the most prominent members of his congregation, a leading business man, and he called upon him at his store. The gentleman invited Dr. S up to his private office, and Dr. S commenced to talk to him about his soul. The man listened and then said, “Dr. S — — , what do you want me to be like? Do you want me to be like my wife, she is a member of your church? Do you want me to be like her? I have seen her greatly excited over a whist drive. I have never seen her nearly so excited over a prayer-meeting in all her life as I have seen her over a whist drive. Do you want me to be like her?” But then again there are many of us who will not even offer ourselves at all to the Holy Spirit as an instrument for Him to work through. Oh, how many there are here in this audience today whose lips the Holy Spirit is trying to get the use of, but you will not give Him the use of your lips. He is trying to reach someone through you, but you will not allow Him to.
I once read of a young lady who died in New York City. A Presbyterian minister was invited to conduct the funeral services; he was not her own pastor; I do not know why her own pastor was not invited. This minister who was to conduct the services went first to her own pastor and asked him, “Was Mary a Christian?” Her pastor replied, “I do not know. Three weeks ago IJ had a very solemn impression that I ought to speak to Mary about her soul, but I put it off. I said, ‘ Mary is in my congregation every Sunday and I can speak to her when I will, and I put it off and now Mary is dead and I do not know whether Mary was a Christian or not.” He next went to her Sunday School teacher and asked her Sunday School teacher, ‘“‘ Was Mary a Christian?” The Sunday School teacher replied, “I do not know. Two weeks ago I had a profound impression that I ought to speak to Mary about her soul, but I put it off. I said, ‘Mary is in my class every Sunday and I can speak to her when I will,’ and I put it off. And now Mary is dead and I don’t know whether Mary was a Christian or not.” He next went to her own mother and said to her, “Was Mary a Christian?” “I do not know. A week ago I had a deep impression that I ought to speak to Mary about her soul, but I put it off. I said, ‘ Here is Mary in the house with me all the time. I meet her three times a day at the table. I can speak to her when I will,’ and I put it off, and now Mary is dead and I do not know whether Mary was a Christian or not.” Three pairs of lips that the Holy Spirit was trying to get the use of, the three pairs of lips that one would naturally think would be most easily at His disposal, her minister’s, her Sunday School teacher’s and her mother’s, and not one of the three would let the Holy Spirit have the use of their lips, and so Mary died unsaved. When I got back from going around the world and spent a month with my church in Chicago, I related this incident one Sunday morning. There was in my audience a young woman who had a class of girls from about fourteen years of age up. What I said made a deep impression upon her, and when she went before her class that Sunday afternoon she spoke to every member of her class about accepting Christ. Among those who did accept Christ was a girl fourteen years of age, if I remember correctly, apparently perfectly well and strong. Before the next Sunday came round that girl’s body was lying out in the cemetery. Oh, how fortunate that that young woman that morning gave her lips to Jesus Christ to use. Have you given yours? And are you listening for the Holy Spirit to show you to whom to go? And are you depending upon the Holy Spirit to work through you? And are you an unobstructed channel?
Let me beseech you, every one of you that professes to be a Christian, to put your lips today at the Holy Spirit’s disposal for ‘wie throtgt von fo-convich whom-
soever “He. will of sin,, and. of righteousness, and.of
. ve thoroughly put out of. your, d ife ‘everything that would, hinder the Holy Spirit work- ling through, you, and. that. you.arean unobstructed
channel for the Holy Spirit to work through; and b be listening listening sharply, for the Holy Spirit’s direcon whom to speak.
When Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings in Brighton, England, in the great Dome, one afternoon one of our workers went away from the afternoon meeting and went imo a restaurant for tea before coming back to the night meeting. While he was sitting at the table he had a deep impression that he ought to speak to the waiter about his soul, but he put it off. It seemed to him as if it would be a strange thing to speak to a man who was waiting upon him about accepting Christ. He finished his meal and went outside, but his impression that he should have spoken to that waiter was so deep that he waited outside for the waiter to come out, intending to talk to him then. When he had waited there for some time, the proprietor of the restaurant came out and began to put up the shutters, and asked him what he was waiting for. He replied, “I am waiting to speak to that man that waited upon me at the table.” The proprietor said, “You will never speak to that man again. Immediately after serving you he went up to his room and blew his brains out.” Oh, men and women, we live in a solemn world, and we need to be very careful how we walk. We
need to be re: be goad for.God, to use us any moment, and to. i 3 5 OLY SPIRIT ALONE CON-. ’
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VINCES MEN OF SIN, AND “OF “RIGHTEOUSNESS, “AND ‘OF
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