And when He (the Spirit) is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. (John 16: 8-11).
Let’s take a look at the threefold work of the Holy Spirit. His work is to convince or fully persuade the world of its condition of sin first of all, then after we are convinced of sin and confess it, He will convince us that the righteousness of Christ is now ours, having believed onto Him. He will then begin His work of convincing us that the prince of this world, the Devil, has been judged and rendered harmless and his works destroyed. By going back to the Father, Jesus imparts to us His righteousness in exchange for our sin. The glory of this is amazing, hallelujah. Instead of judging or condemning us for our sin of unbelief, He judges the Devil and condemns sin in the flesh and lets us go free.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. (Rom. 8:3)
In this message I will concentrate on the sin of unbelief. The definition of sin which Jesus presents is what we need to understand and believe. Here are the important words from the verse again: “Of sin, because they believe not on me”. According to this there is only one sin that a person can commit. It is the sin of unbelief in Jesus. You will say “what about all the other sins in the Bible, like adultery, murder, theft and lying etc.. are they not sins also?” All of these and more besides are what the Bible calls the works of the flesh and they all come from the same tree which of course is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They are like the fruit of that tree and they will continue to manifest as long as the tree remains standing. Unbelief in Christ is the root of all these works. It is simply a case that as we continue to trust in ourselves and live apart from Christ we inevitably bring forth our own works good or evil which will not stand before God. So we see that Unbelief in Christ is the root from which all evil springs.
Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And even now the axe lies at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. (Heb.3:8-10)
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. (Matt. 7:18)
You may not be depending on Abraham as your father but it is certain that you will have a righteousness of your own to depend upon. Our Heavenly Father deals with the root of our beings so it is good if we deal with the root also. Let us stop dealing with specific failures and individual sins in our lives. That is like cutting the bad branches off a tree. All of this is like
treating the symptoms of a disease which afflicts us. A new tree is what is needed even if we do not perceive this at first. All of our sins no matter how evil are no problem to God. Although they cost our Heavenly Father the life of His only son it is something He was pleased to do. He did not
do it with regret or begrudgingly. Jesus also offered Himself willingly and without complaint. Our sins are not the problem because they have all been freely forgiven. The real issue is a heart of unbelief.
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. (Heb. 3:12)
An evil heart of unbelief is the real issue with God and this is the root at which His axe is laid. This might sound crazy to you but under grace the Spirit of God is not dealing with your acts of disobedience at all He is always calling us into the faith of Christ and imparting it to us through His word. Lets take a look at this. We set out to live as we think a Christian should live but we keep on missing the mark and our conscience condemns us. We confess our sin or sins and and receive forgiveness and off we go again but the story does not change. We continue to fall short of what we believe we should be. This can be a very distressing situation for many many believers with very little hope in sight. Asking God for forgiveness over and over again we find that God is faithful to forgive but our words are beginning to sound hollow to ourselves and we question our sincerity and honesty.
This can be a very critical time in our lives. We can be on the verge of a breakthrough in revelation or on the verge of falling away and going back to the world in despair, believing that we will never overcome. A hunger and thirst for righteousness is essential at this point. Regrettably many fail to break through at this point but they do not fall away from attending church and the various meetings associated with church. In their hearts they have given up the fight of faith and settled for less than the high calling of God by making terms of peace with their enemy.
Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. (Luke 14:31-32)
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matt.5:6)
It is at this point that an evil heart of unbelief can begin to threaten us severely but it is also at this point that we are ready to see something glorious in the grace of God. Like we said earlier in this message, our sins or acts of disobedience are not a problem with God. It is us believing that our sins are a problem which is the real problem and the real sin. Of course we have sinned and perhaps even grievously so, but the greater sin and indeed the only true sin is that we place our sins between ourselves and God. When we do this we refuse to believe that God has put away our sin and sins forever when Jesus became sin on the cross. This is unbelief whether it be in ignorance or rebellion.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Cor. 5:1)
In unbelief we judge ourselves as unworthy before God even though he has made us worthy. Being ignorant of the true nature of God’s gift of righteousness we establish our own righteousness by exalting our own judgment of ourselves above what the word of God says about us. In truth, God is our creator and we are His creatures and we have no right to place our sin between ourselves and Him. It is a rejection of His word in unbelief. Let us say it again, our sins no longer separate us from our heavenly father. He is in fellowship with us even while we are being overcome by our besetting sins. If He broke fellowship with us how could He ever restore us back to faith. Let us remember whenever we return to God from a place of sin it is He who has restored us for we could never restore ourselves.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. (Col. 2:6)
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called. (1 Tim. 6:12)
Let us also remember that when we received Christ we were in our sins. He visited us while we were in our sinful condition and in doing this He showed He was not holding our sins against us. The apostle Paul tells us to continue with Christ in the same way. This is where our fight of faith begins. The accuser of the brethren will use our feeling of self condemnation and guilt to convince us that God is condemning us and has separated Himself from us. By faith in the word of God we must believe and confess that in spite of our guilt and self condemnation our sin is not a barrier between us and God. The spirit of Christ will bear witness as we believe the word and the revelation and breakthrough will come if we will continue to fight the good fight of faith. AMEN.
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. (Rom. 14:23)
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.(John 3:18)
In this verse we can see once again that we are not condemned for all the evil things we have done. They are not our real problem. They appear to be our problem and the deceitful heart of the dedicated christian will continue to wrestle with this issue until the light dawns and the daystar rises within their hearts. (1 Peter) All of our sins have been forgiven, past present and future so they have were placed upon Jesus and were taken away. If we do not believe this then we are not believing in Christ and it is this unbelief which is our only true sin. If we look a little deeper into this we can say that we are really not responsible for all the wrong things (sins) which we committed. This is why God does not condemn us for them. There cannot be condemnation where there was no responsibility (ability to respond). This might sound like the craziest thing you ever heard and you might condemn it as false teaching so I will show it to you clearly.
God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Tim. 2:24-26)
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. (John 8:34)
The new testament is very clear, in particular (Rom. 6:16-17) and elsewhere that we in our natural condition are slaves to sin. We do not see ourselves as slaves but rather as people who have free choice. But our slavery is to selfishness and living for self. This means that no matter what we do we end up serving ourselves. Our very best efforts all end up short of the mark. A slave must do what his master tells him so as long as he remains in captivity to self he cannot be held responsible for his actions no matter how evil they become. If however someone offers him a key to unlock his captivity and he refuses to take it he will be without excuse. He may have his reasons to stay in captivity, after all there is a lot of pleasure in living for self and one might not want to surrender it easily. On the other hand if the pain of self indulgence in all its forms becomes too intense one might be very ready to give it up and take liberty by accepting the key. The person who is in captivity thinks that he is making the choices in his life but he is not. Someone else is living through him and is deceiving him into thinking it is himself. You will see this in the following verses.
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. (Rom. 7:14-17) For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practise. But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. (Rom. 7:18-20)
Consider the words “sold under sin” in the very first verse. This is the terminology of someone who is sold as a slave. There are a lot of things he would love to do but he ends up doing the things he hates. The things his master of sin tells him to do. The master in these verses is called “sin” and Paul discovered by revelation from Christ that he lives within every one who has chosen to follow his own way in life.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:6)
There it is in one verse. Our sin is simply going our own way and living for ourselves. Sin took us captive by deceiving us into thinking that we could live for ourselves and not for the purpose which God intended. Our Heavenly Father placed all of that iniquity on His son and took it away so we could now come out of the prison of living for self by believing unto Christ. Living for self can seem innocent enough at the beginning but It is only as we go on we will notice that we do things we hate doing. For example: we end up telling lies to others and getting into arguments and into situations we did not choose and many other things. The things we do might change as we get older but we will still see bad fruit. It like Jesus said. A bad tree produces bad fruit.
In Christ, the father has already forgiven us for all our iniquity but if we refuse to use the key of trusting in Christ we will ultimately be condemned. The condemnation will not be for the bad deeds we did but for not believing unto Jesus. The following few verses make this very clear.
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. (John 15:22)
“If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (John 9:41)
And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved. But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God. (John 3:19-21)
If you have not come to Christ yet then these verses will tell you why. Is because you hate the light that He brings and you want to continue to live for yourself in your evil deeds which is darkness. As we have mentioned before, your evil deeds are not a problem to God. They have already been taken care of in Christ and His cross. Your real issue is a heart of unbelief. You keep putting your sins between yourself and God and convince yourself that it is God who is putting your sins between you and He. He will never place anything between Himself and you. His arms are open wide and you can come with absolute confidence even while you are in your sins. As a matter of fact especially when you are in your sins. It is only your unbelief that is between God and you and it is you that keeps it there.
When He (the spirit) is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me. (John 16: 8-9)
It is only our unwillingness to believe this that can stop us, and this is what we call unbelief which is the only true sin. But let us go just a little further. If unbelief is sin and Jesus became sin on the cross then even our unbelief has been done away with. This means we are entirely without excuse in holding onto it. We have absolutely no right to stay in this unbelief. No right whatsoever. It also means that the power of unbelief is completely broken and need not trouble us ever again. Indeed the truth makes us free.
Now that you have understood this message and seen the glory of what God has done in His son you will either have to give up completely and surrender to Christ or go into a deeper darkness by hardening your heart.
To-day if ye shall hear His voice, Harden not your hearts. (Heb. 3:14) He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son. (1 John 5:10)
If you have not realised it until now let me tell you that this is nothing but the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is determined to save you He just needs your permission. He will not undermine your personal autonomy. He is not a liar. When He says there is nothing between He and you you can believe it.
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them that are bidden, Behold, I have made ready my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriage feast. (Matt. 22:2-4). AMEN.
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