A Sermon: “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”—ST. John xvi. 8. By the Rev. Alexander Macrae, Kames, Tighnabruaich

THESE are words addressed by Christ to His disciples shortly before His passion. They have as yet little understanding of the eternal verities about which He had spoken to them. They are sad and downcast. They are sorrowful and miserable, for they do not conceive how it can be to their advantage to lose the bodily presence of Christ. He, however, assures them that He will not leave them comfortless. He promises to send them the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, who shall lead them into all truth, and bring to their remembrance whatsoever He said unto them. He promises to give them His spiritual presence, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” In the midst of the many trials and sufferings that they will be called upon to endure for Christ’s sake, they shall be upheld by the strong consolations of the Holy Ghost. He tells them that they shall be put out of the synagogues, and men shall be so much under the influence of the prince of darkness as to think that in killing them they shall be doing God service. But they shall not be forsaken, they shall not be left disconsolate. He shall send the Comforter to them, whose prerogative it is to minister heavenly comfort and consolation to those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He will not only comfort the people of God, but He will also “reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

I.—Christ speaks of a certain Person, “He.” We shall for a little enquire who this Person is.

God the Father, to whom the plan of redemption is ascribed, is represented as bestowing upon His people two gifts of infinite value and preciousness. He hath, in an everlasting covenant, bestowed the gift of his only begotten Son to accomplish, in the fulness of time, redemption for the objects of His love. He is the unspeakable gift of the Father. In Him truth met with mercy; righteousness and peace have kissed mutually. Without His obedience unto death, vicarious sufferings, and triumph over death and the grave, all hope of salvation would for ever be cut off. But it is equally true that we cannot be saved without the effectual and saving application to our souls of the redemption procured by Him in the obedience and sufferings of His life and death. We regret that the absolute necessity of the application of redemption is, to an alarming extent, overlooked nowadays. We may speak about the love of the Father in giving the Son, we may dwell upon the exhibition Christ has given of His love in obeying, suffering, and dying the accursed death of the cross; but what shall redemption accomplished avail us, if it be not savingly applied to us by the Holy Ghost? The coming of the Holy Ghost to take of Christ’s, and shew it unto us, is absolutely necessary for our salvation. In the plan of redemption, the Father is represented as bestowing the gift of the Spirit upon His people to quicken and sanctify them, so that He is no less the gift of the Father than the Son is, who died for them and rose again. As entrusted with the work of applying redemption, He is spoken of in the words of our text, “When He is come.”

There are not a few who have had the unsanctified boldness to deny the personality of the Holy Spirit. Many have regarded Him as a mere influence or energy without a distinct personal subsistence. But if this passage lays emphasis on, or gives prominence to one doctrine more than another, it is the doctrine of His distinct personality. The whole Word of God represents Him as having a distinct and necessary subsistence in the undivided and indivisible essence of the Godhead. In the Godhead there is a unity of essence; but in that unity there is a distinction of Persons. The Holy Spirit is distinguished from the other Persons by personal properties that are peculiar to Him. He proceedeth from the Father and the Son; but with them He is equal in all essential perfections. He is thus a divine Person. He is an object of worship, praise, and adoration, so that to Him all divine perfections are ascribed.

1. He is omnipresent, “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? . . . If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” All in heaven, in hell, and on earth are at once within His omnipresence. His gracious presence is a different thing. Without this presence the Lord’s people feel that they are utterly powerless and hopeless. After it they vehemently long; for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Moses earnestly prayed for it, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” In secret, at the family altar, in the public ordinances of His appointment, in contending earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, and in the performance of all their duties, they need His gracious presence. By it they are comforted and strengthened, so that “they will not be afraid though ten thousands of people should set themselves against them round about.” Without it they are in darkness, in distress, discouraged, and haunted with many fears, “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.”

2. He is omniscient. “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” His absolute knowledge of the secret counsels of eternity Christ shows in the words, “He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.” He reveals the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world, and which none of the princes of this world knew, so that “the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” An infinite mind only can comprehend the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God as unfolded in redemption as well as in the works of creation and providence.

The riches of God’s grace in Christ Jesus are a shoreless ocean. There is a height, a depth, a length, and breadth that no finite mind can ever comprehend. It is in the measure in which the Spirit, who searches the deep things of God, reveals them to His people that they can be understood. And as “the things of God” infinitely transcend reason, the natural man cannot receive them. He regards them as foolishness; and because they are spiritually discerned, he cannot know them. “The world by wisdom knew not God.” This is enough to show how utterly unwarrantable and unscriptural the position of those is, who hold that man has yet a knowledge of God and of duty. It is by the inward illumination of the Spirit only that any can have, in the smallest degree a saving knowledge of “the things of God.”

1. He is the Spirit of truth. The whole Word of God is given by inspiration of Him. “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” By a supernatural influence of the Spirit on their minds they were rendered fit organs for infallibly communicating the mind and will of God. Their thoughts and words were subject to His divine influence. Yet, they acted intelligently and spontaneously; for in delivering this “sure word of prophecy,” their self-consciousness was not suppressed neither were their faculties suspended. They spake as the Spirit gave them utterance. They were influenced and infallibly guided by Him, so that His inspiration equally extends to every word in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; for no part of Scripture can be more inspired than another. The Church of Christ in this age is specially called upon to emphasise this fundamental doctrine of truth. Many of the Churches have already abandoned it, and the result is that they are like a ship in mid ocean without compass or rudder, tossed about with every wind that blows. A vain and silly pride influences the mind of not a few that finds expression in destructive criticism of the Word of God. We live in a time that calls for steadfast and unflinching adherence to this fundamental article of our faith. The inspired word is the medium by which the Spirit ministers comfort to His people. “This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me,” so that as He is the Spirit of truth, He is also the Comforter.

2. He is here represented as coming. It does not mean that the Spirit was not given till the exaltation of Christ. He was the exclusive author of regeneration under the old as He is under this present dispensation. All the saints, who lived under the dispensation that has passed away, were His temples. Many of them had Him as the Spirit of inspiration; but they all had Him as the Spirit of grace and supplications. So David prayed, “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” The eleven disciples were subjects of His saving and gracious operations. He dwelt in them from the moment in which they were called effectually. What then can the meaning of the words be, “And when he is come?”
   (1) The ministration under which the Church had hitherto been was the ministration of condemnation and death. These words have respect to the ministration of the Spirit which was to excel the former ministration in glory. On the exaltation of Christ, the Spirit was to descend in larger and richer measure than He ever descended before. The disciples themselves were commanded to tarry at Jerusalem till they should be endued with power from on high. They needed Him not only to create them anew in Christ Jesus, but also to fit and qualify them for unfolding the mysteries of the kingdom of God. On the day of Pentecost the words of our text were partly fulfilled when He descended in an extraordinary and visible manner.
   (2) As the ministrations of the Spirit will continue to the end of time, these words shall not be completely fulfilled until the last of the lost sheep is brought within the fold. They are fulfilled in some in every generation. But have they been fulfilled in us? In other words, has He come to convince us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment? This leads us to consider the functions discharged by Him.

II. The functions discharged by Him, as here represented, are threefold, “He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” The original words signify, “Will convince the world;” and for this rendering we have a preference.

1. He will convince the world of sin. All in a state of sin and wrath are here named “the world.” “The whole world lieth in sin and wickedness.” They are the abject vassals of Satan, “the god of this world.” Of their sins they all shall most assuredly be convinced—some in time and others in eternity. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” The arrows of a harrowing conviction shall eternally stick fast in the consciences of lost men and angels, so that “the smoke of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever.” But the convictions of sin to which our attention is here directed are such as evidence the beginning of a work of grace in the soul. The Holy Spirit, in His saving operations, convinces the sinner of three particular sins.
   (1) He convinces him of actual sin. This is sin in thought, in word, and in deed. All sin is a transgression of the law of God, so that it is by the law there can be knowledge of sin. There is thus a certain relation in which the law and sin stand to each other; for “sin is not imputed when there is no law.” The law is the instrument by which the Spirit produces true conviction. It enters into the heart and conscience armed with a terrible denunciation of wrath against the sinner. It is in its light that he now beholds the innumerable number of his transgressions. His iniquities are gone over his head, and the favourable opinion he before entertained of his condition immediately dies. “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” He now feels that he has to do with a law that is infinitely pure, holy, and spiritual. He realises that it binds him to obey its precepts and to endure its penalty. Responsibility for all his actions is brought home upon him, and he sees that his inability to meet the law’s requirements does not extenuate his guilt but only aggravates it. The law has as much right as ever to demand a perfect obedience. It will not relax one iota of its demands. He feels that it sits in judgment not only upon his outward actions, but upon his inward thoughts. It “pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.” His heart indeed fails him as his iniquities take such hold upon him that he cannot look up, and beholds the face of an angry God in the mirror of the infinite holiness of His law, while His incensed justice demands the sentence of death pronounced upon him to be immediately carried out. He shews him all things that ever he did.
   (2) He convinces him of original sin. He has already met with streams of sins in number numberless. Alongside of them he is by degrees led on, until he ultimately reaches the fountainhead itself. That fountainhead is original sin. Now he beholds his connection with the first Adam, and learns by painful experience how he became involved in the guilt of his first transgression. “By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.” He is thus convinced that any want of conformity to the law is sin. Shapen as he was in iniquity, and conceived in guiltiness and sin without a hair’s breadth of conformity to the law of God, what could he say, though he should, on drawing the very first breath of life, be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone? He would for ever have to acknowledge the justice of God; for in His sight shall no man, destitute of perfect moral rectitude, be justified. Apart altogether from actual sins, His people feel that original sin is sufficient ground for eternal condemnation.
   (3) He convinces of the sin of unbelief. Christ mentions particularly this sin, “Of sin, because they believe not on me.” If he that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses, how utterly impossible it is for him to escape the vengeance of everlasting punishment, who, through unbelief, treads under foot the Son of God, counts the blood of the everlasting covenant an unholy thing, and does despite unto the Spirit of grace? It is a most God dishonouring sin; yea, it makes Him a liar. It will have none of the gracious invitations of the Gospel. The sinner disdainfully rejects the proposals of peace and of reconciliation God makes to him on the ground of the rich provision made, in sovereign grace, in Christ Jesus. Unbelief is his crowning sin. Wisdom cries without and she utters her voice in the streets; but against her charming notes he stops his ear like the adder. Salvation stands at his very door; but the iron bar of unbelief firmly fastened in it refuses it admission. Many are thus lost, and they shall lie for ever under a severer condemnation than the heathen themselves. The deadly nature of the sin of unbelief might well be described in the language of the women of old, “Saul had slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands.” If the sinner felt the condemnation of the law to have been awful, he now feels the condemnation of rejecting Christ in the free offer of the gospel to be unspeakably more so. “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And it is by processes such as these he comes to know that saving faith is the gift of God.

2. He will convince of righteousness.
   (1) He convinces the sinner not only of the righteousness of the action of God the Father, as the supreme Judge, in passing sentence of death, but also in executing that sentence upon him at once. He deserves to endure for ever the strokes of vindictive justice. He does not experience this till after he is convinced of sin, so that prior to conviction of righteousness there must necessarily be conviction of sin. He is arraigned before the bar of his own conscience; and, in acknowledgment of the righteousness of this procedure, he is compelled to subscribe his amen. For his sins committed against a Being of infinite goodness and mercy, of absolute purity and unspotted holiness, he deserves to be eternally cast away from His presence and from the glory of His power. His mouth is stopped; for he is found guilty before God. He is thus convinced of the righteousness of God in immediately inflicting upon him the whole penalty attached to disobedience.
   (2) He convinces him of the insufficiency of his own righteousness. He is actively employed in going about to establish a righteousness of his own with a view to merit salvation at the hand of God from it. Still clinging to his legal righteousness he cherishes the delusive hope that, by his so-called good works, he can himself make up the breach effected between him and God. How many there are who stumble on this rock and fall into eternal perdition! But as a deeper sense of the inflexibility and the requirements of the law of God is given him, his delusive hope gradually fades away, and ultimately he is convinced that the best of his actions would suffice to condemn him for ever. They all bear the stamp of imperfection. The law is perfect and will accept of no imperfection. It is exacting and stringent in its demands; and his righteousness it condemns as imperfect and polluted. It is as a filthy rag. That in which he formerly confided leaves him now exposed to the condemnation and curse of the law, so that he may as well hope to cross the Atlantic on a mere blade of grass as to think that he can be saved on the ground of his personal or inherent righteousness. It is insufficient, and, therefore, “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.”
   (3) When his whole hope of salvation by the works of the law is completely cut off, another door of hope is opened up by a revelation made to him of the all-sufficiency and all-suitability of the righteousness of Christ. It is not the righteousness of His claims as the Messiah merely, or His righteousness as man that he is now convinced of, but of His righteousness as the God-man. It is within view of the awful and solemn realities of the cross that he beholds it. The law arrests the Surety. He obeys its precepts and endures its penalty. He magnifies it and makes it honourable by meeting the utmost extent of its requirements. The furbished sword of vindictive justice is unsheathed. It smites the Shepherd, and in His blood it is infinitely and eternally satisfied. Here Christ makes an end of sin, finishes transgression, makes reconciliation for iniquities, and brings in an all-suitable righteousness. But it is one thing to behold its all-suitability; it is another thing to have it made over to one’s self. How can the sinner receive it? How can it become his own? His hand is withered and he cannot lay hold of it. Here he lies like the impotent man who said, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool.” He felt the strength of unbelief in him from which he could not deliver himself. He felt his absolute need of saving faith which he himself could not work in him. But what he needed he received, as Christ said to him, “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.” So it is here. The sinner is utterly helpless, and yet for his helplessness he is himself responsible. It is as he lies in this state of extreme helplessness that, by an act of divine power exercised towards him, the withered hand is stretched forth, and instantly he is enabled to hold Christ, in his salvation and righteousness, in the embrace of faith. If ever there was an act of grace and power exercised by God, he felt it to have been peculiarly exercised here. He is now thoroughly convinced that salvation is the gift of God as well as the faith wrought by the Holy Ghost in His people through the instrumentality of His inspired word. Saving faith then is the hand by which he receives the righteousness of Christ imputed to him in justification. The Father, the law, justice, and the sinner’s own conscience are infinitely satisfied with it; and, therefore, Christ says, “I go to my Father, and ye see me no more,” i.e., in a state of humiliation.
   (4) But here he receives another view of the righteousness of God. Can the sentence of condemnation passed upon him be recalled without dishonour to any of the divine perfections? It can; and here God the Father acts in infinite righteousness. In the Gospel he beholds the righteousness of God in acquitting the guilty sinner, his acquittal is effected in strictest justice; for there can be no injustice with God. Without a sufficient satisfaction to justice, without an atonement of infinite value, He could acquit none. But in Christ, “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” He is the end of the law for righteousness. Therefore, on the ground of the imputed righteousness of Christ, the Father, in the exercise of His judicial functions, wondrously exhibits the glory of His righteousness in pronouncing the condemned sinner justified, and when He justifies, who can any more condemn him? He frequently condemns himself; but he shall never again, if once justified, come under the condemnation of the law. His salvation is thus secured by the conjoint action of the three Persons to whom the glory of it shall be ascribed for ever and ever.

3. He will convince of judgment. Here an all-important case in law is to be disposed of. Judgment is to be pronounced upon it. The presiding Judge is God the Father. The question of who now is the sinner’s rightful lord is to be settled, for “other lords besides Thee have had dominion over us.” The prince of this world claims him as his lawful captive. He advances the plea that he voluntarily surrendered himself to him and that in justice he was handed over to him. Christ, on the other hand, claims him as his peculiar and lawful possession. He advances the plea that He engaged for him in an everlasting covenant, obeyed the law, satisfied justice, died and rose for him, and, moreover, in death bruised the head of the serpent, so that on lines of strictest justice He lawfully despoiled him of his prey. “Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross.” Law and justice—the one fulfilled and the other satisfied—adduce their testimony in favour of the claims advanced by Christ. The case goes against the prince of this world; for the prey is in infinite righteousness taken from the mighty. Judgment is pronounced against the mighty, so that now Christ brings forth judgment into victory. The enemy is cast out and adjudged to everlasting punishment in unquenchable fire. He was judged in the counsels of eternity when he had as yet no being but in the purpose of God. He was judged in every step Christ took in His obedience and sufferings unto death. In death He perfected judgment by the overthrow of Satan, according to the announcement He Himself made, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” When Christ sprinkled the mercy seat with His own blood, Satan was judged in the court of heaven; and when the Holy Spirit sprinkles the blood of Christ upon the heart and conscience of His people, he is judged in the court of their conscience. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Christ thus proclaims liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, so that those whom He makes free are free indeed.

In conclusion, consider the absolute necessity of knowing experimentally the functions discharged by the Holy Ghost in His regenerating influences. He convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Beware of imbibing the loose, superficial, and unscriptural views of the new birth that are so prevalent in this ungodly generation. Seek to know the saving operations of the Spirit by experience, and be not satisfied with an outward appearance of godliness while you may be ignorant of its power in your heart. Happy eternally shall he be who receives an experimental knowledge of the Spirit’s gracious operations in convincing of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Notwithstanding all the fears with which he may now be frequently overwhelmed, he shall yet be publicly adjudged to everlasting blessedness. But inconceivably miserable shall he be for ever and ever who passes from time to eternity in ignorance of the regenerating influences of the Holy Ghost; for, in the presence of men and angels, he shall be sentenced to everlasting punishment. The worm of a gnawing conscience shall never die, neither shall the fire be ever quenched.