A few weeks ago we finished up on Psalm 23 asking: how can the children of God be identified. We saw how we are marked with the Holy Spirit.
We looked at John 16 and how the Holy Spirit provides:
- Conviction of sin
- Convincing of the cross
- Comforting by the victory of Christ
- Confirming the sovereignty of Christ
In this mini series, we’ll look at each of these points as they relate to the fundamental Christian experience. What do each of these points mean?
Our passages: Psalm 51, John 16:5-11. Preacher: Ian Bayne (16th July 2020).
Convicted of Sin
Conviction from sin needs to be genuine. How do we discern whether our conviction is genuine?
It’s more than just feeling guilty about something, or a little melancholy. It’s not a chemical imbalance. It is worth remembering that we live in a fallen world and sometimes we might be feeling guilty through no fault of our own due to clinical depression etc. Some people have a personality which makes them more susceptible to feeling convicted. Even the weather sometimes affects the way we feel.
But true conviction falls outside of this. We need to think biblically about what it means to be truly convicted.
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
John 16:8 ESV
Truely convicted of sin
Most people don’t believe in Jesus therefore they will be convicted. A true consequence of sin is about being confronted with by God’s word.
Psalm 51 is special because it confronts us with God’s word as Christians – no matter how outwardly godly we may look. It’s special because of the context: written shortly after King David’s affair with Bathsheba.
In 2 Samuel 11 we read that David was on the rooftop looking down on Bathsheba with the lust of the eyes, flesh and the boastful pride of life. He found out she was the wife of Uzaiah the Hittite. She became pregnant and this was an embarrassment for David, so he brought Uzaiah back so he could become the legitimate father for the child.
We could speculate that his relationship wasn’t great given that Uzaiah slept in the servants quarters, but it’s not stated in the passage. David tried to ply him with wine, but that didn’t work, so he sent him back to the front line with express orders for the troops to withdraw and allow Uzaiah to be killed. Uzaiah was killed; notice along with a lot of other troops – this is an example of sin affecting others.
The Lord told Nathan the prophet what was going on, and he confronted David with the Word of God in 2 Samuel 12. David was convicted of his sin and Psalm 51 records this genuine conviction of sin.
Spiritual pain
True conviction of sin is from being exposed to and convicted by God’s word. It’s the spiritual equivalent of pain and leads us to look for a remedy.
So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
Galatians 3:24 ESV
The law is there so we can recognise the problem and seek a solution. Ignore the pain and explain it away to your detriment: redefining it can never explain it.
However, true conviction goes deeper than dealing with the individual sins.
Owning our sinfulness
The big emphasis in evangelical circles recently had been: believe in Jesus and you will be saved. But the Gospel is much bigger than this: it’s about the glory of God.
True conviction is to understand that if we were put into hell for an eternity God would be justified.
We like to think that Christianity is all about me, but the point of God sending Jesus to die for us was to glorify him. Yet, it’s not about what God can do for us, but how we can glorify Him.
Eli has two sons who were disobedient.
Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD. [21] Indeed the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD.
1 Samuel 2:12,21 ESV
The word of the Lord came to Samuel, about the time Israel took the ark to war without God’s blessing.
A messenger came back (1 Sam 4:12-20) bringing three messages:
- the Israelites were defeated
- his sons were killed
- the ark had been captured
On the mention of the ark Eli died. Raging against sin is not the same as owning my own sinfulness.
Rejoicing in our conviction
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Psalm 51:3 ESV
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Psalm 51:5 ESV
It begins us on the path of true conviction for life.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 ESV
Even though being convicted of sin is painful, please embrace it. True conviction is not a result of darkness but of light being shone into our lives.
Rejoice in it even though it’s painful: It teaches us that we’re His children.
Resources
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