Pentecost 9 When God Gets Personal

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 9 When God Gets Personal (continued)

Second, Jesus. He tells us in John 16 what the Holy Spirit will do, “8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”

Now is when Jesus really gets personal. He knows exactly what the heart needs to be set right. Jeremiah tells us “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer.17:9).” It needs correction, rehabilitation and motivation. Here Jesus gives us four remedial steps to put our hearts back on track with God and then be filled with inspired confidence to reach those who don’t know Him.

First, conviction of guilt. Whether we like to face it or not we are all born guilty, born separated from God with a need to be right, a need that can never be satisfied without God. Guilt is realizing we are not right in our heart. Self-deceit is our methodology apart from God. The devil manipulates guilt by getting us to act impetuously apart from God.
When we received Jesus we became aware what the ache in the heart was all about. The emptiness and wandering were always accompanied by the need to get life right. Remorse, regret, resentment, shifting blame and jealousy fed the pangs of guilt. Did you ever have the sense that no matter what you did you never got it right? Guilt is real and has to be dealt with. The task of the Holy Spirit is to make us aware that we are guilty at the very core of our heart and we need forgiveness to correct it.
Second, belief in Jesus. Jesus is the only One who can remove that guilt. His death on the Cross for our sin was the perfect right neutralizing and removing our guilt for inability to get anything right. He alone is the right One who can bring right back to us through faith. “Salvation [being right before God] is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12)." The Holy Spirit convicts us when we do not put Jesus first.
Third, righteousness. Jesus reclaimed what Abraham was blessed for and that was faith as righteousness. Faith righteousness as opposed to legalistic righteousness was proven by Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection. His way to and on the Cross was by faith in His Father. What He enabled through His sacrifice on the Cross was for each of us to take up the cross of faith. The Holy Spirit convicts us when we compromise with the world and its standards instead of trusting Jesus in every circumstance.
Fourth, judgment. The real problem of sin and evil is the devil. Jesus exposed the devil and drove him out of his hiding place. He was named the enemy of God and every person. He has been revealed as the father of lies, the deceiver of the faithful, the evil one, the tempter and the source of evil. The devil has been judged. The Holy Spirit convicts us to be aware of the devil’s work around us and not to compromise with his strategies since he has already been condemned.

The Holy Spirit does us a service convicting us when we sense we are moving out of God’s atmosphere because the only other atmosphere is the devil’s. The Spirit of love won’t let that happen. It is our hearts that are at stake and God cares too much about each one of us to let us slide into oblivion. This is why I said in the beginning the Holy Spirit is the ministry of Jesus to our hearts on a deep personal level. And the Lord Jesus really knows how to get personal. One more thing, guilt without God is destructive. Convicted of guilt by God means He is working His perfection in our hearts bringing us closer to Him.

Next---The Holy Spirit gives us our identity...stay tuned.