Peculiar Misunderstandings Chapter 4

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Peculiar Misunderstandings
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

Copyright - Lester Hutson - 1989
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.

Message #4

MISUNDERSTANDING HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION

Text * Acts 7:51

Repeatedly the scriptures mention God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of all God is, it seems that His role as Holy Spirit is misunderstood the most. There is not only great debate over what the Holy Spirit does; there is also great debate over what He does not do. People have many feelings they do not understand. Strange activities happen in church, and seemingly unexplainable events occur during the course of daily living. The tendency of many is to assume these feelings and activities to be the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Thus, the Holy Spirit gets credit for much He does not do.

Our only authoritative source on the activities of the Holy Spirit is the Bible. Here alone we are told much of what He does and does not do. We know the Holy Spirit never acts contrary to what the Word of God says of Him. Thus, if we would know whether any feeling or act we encounter is of the Holy Spirit, we must analyze that feeling or act in light of the Word of God. If the feeling or act is contrary to what the scriptures say the Holy Spirit does or does not do, then we know the feeling or act is not the doing of the Holy Spirit of God.

According to II Timothy 3:16, God is the author of all scripture; and the scriptures say, "Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar," Romans 3:4. Thus, our beliefs about the Holy Spirit (or any other matters) must not be based upon what we feel or upon what men claim He does or has done even in their lives. Unless our beliefs about the Holy Spirit are in harmony with what the Word says about Him, our beliefs are off base; and that is true of every man's claims about the Holy Spirit.

If you do not embrace most, if not all, the popular opinions about the Holy Spirit's activity, especially the opinions of many zealous people who think of themselvs as fundamentalists, you will be viewed by many as peculiar. Some will accuse you of denying the Holy Spirit. This is especially true in light of how the Holy Spirit convicts lost sinners, as well as wayward believers.

I. A VERY POPULAR CONCEPT IS THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT MOVES INTO THE HEARTS OF SINNERS AND CREATES DEEP FEELINGS OF GUlLT, CONTRITION, AND URGES TO GET RIGHT WITH GOD:

A. Most people have felt these feelings at one time or another, and most assumed them to be the special presence of and working of the Holy Spirit within them:

1. For many, the mental picture is that of the Holy Spirit in a ghost form penetrating the body into the heart where He puts pressure on sinners to turn from sin to righteousness. It's as though He enters into a mental conversation with the sinner, reasoning with him and pleading with him to turn.

2. Some even mentally picture the Holy Spirit as quite selective in who He enters to convict. They think He enters only select ones while completely passing others by with no effort to reach them. Even of those whom they see the Spirit selecting for conviction, they observe Him to apparently convict some more so than others.

3. A church service provides the best illustration of this mental concept. Those who subscribe to this concept have a mental picture of the sinner. The word of God has entered his heart through preaching or teaching. In their mental picture, they see the Holy Spirit having also come to the heart where He has been denied entry. There He stands wooing, pleading, and trying to break the stubborn will of the sinner. To many, this is the mental picture of Holy Spirit conviction. (Some even view Him in there doing that convicting work, even where the Word has not been preached; and at other occasions than a church service.)

B. The Holy Spirit of God does convict sinners, but an enunciation of how He goes about it seems very strange and peculiar to some very sincere and godly people:

1. The Holy Spirit is very vitally interested in sinners, and the conviction they feel is the result of His efforts to reach them. But, this Holy Spirit conviction is not generated by the Spirit according to the procedure envisioned by many.

2. Instead of the Holy Spirit working on the sinner apart from, ahead of, or in addition to the Word of God, He works to convict the sinner through the Word of God. The Word of God is His product. He is the divine inspirer of it according to II Peter 1:21. Hebrews 4:12 says this Word is alive and powerful. Whenever this Word of eternal truth is introduced into the heart of any person, it has a cutting, convicting effect. This is the Holy Spirit's way of convicting sinners.

3. Envision a church service where the Word of God is being preached. The living Word of the Spirit of God enters in through the spiritual ears into the heart where it begins to convict the sinner. The Word is no respector of persons, and it enters each sinner in direct porportion to his individual mindset of receptiveness or resistance. Because the Word is the living Word of the Holy Spirit of God, it convicts; and that conviction is Holy Spirit conviction. This is how the Holy Spirit convicts sinners.

4. Yet, such a concept of Holy Spirit conviction seems peculiar to many who have envisioned it a different way. When we do not imply here that the Holy Spirit is, in some way separate from the Word, working a different way, conviction in the hearts of sinners; some think we do not believe in the Holy Spirit. Others think we do not believe He convicts sinners.

II. ALTHOUGH, SUCH A CONCEPT OF HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION AS I'VE ENUNCIATED SHOULD NOT SEEM PECULIAR AT ALL IN VIEW OF ITS BEING THE BIBLE CONCEPT OF HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION:

A. The Bible says the person of the Holy Spirit does not enter alien sinners:

1. John 14:17 speaks of "The Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." When Romans 8:9 says, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His," the point is made that no lost person has the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit of God somehow personally entered into the heart of a lost sinner, he would violate His own Word about not entering the unsaved.

2. It is the saved person, and only the saved person who has the Spirit Of God in him. In the same breath where Jesus said the world can not receive the Spirit, He also said to His disciples, "But ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you," John 14:17. Paul wrote to believers in I Corinthians 3:16, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" He reaffirmed the same truth in I Corinthians 6:19. And of we who are saved, II Timothy 1:14 speaks of "The Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us."

B. Now, if the person of the Holy Spirit enters a person only at the point of salvation, then how does He go about making contact with and convicting the lost?

1. The first thing He did was produce a book called the Bible, and this book is full of convicting power. In specific reference to this Word, II Peter 1:21 says, "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Jesus told His apostles that the Holy Spirit would be given them as a comforter; and in that role, He would impart the divine truths of God to them in John 16:14-15. That is exactly what happened; and all these revealed truths, taken together, constituted what we call the Bible, or the Word of Truth, which Ephesians 6:17 calls "The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."

2. John 16:9-11 speak of three great truths of which all lost people need to be aware. These truths are "sin", "righteousness", and "judgment". All the sinner will ever know about sin, righteousness, or judgment, he will learn only from the Holy Spirit's Word of Truth. But, in the Word of Truth, the Spirit of God pleads with men to turn from sin unto the righteousness of God that they might avoid the judgment of God.

3. Whenever any sinner hears these truths, the conviction he experiences is the direct result of the Holy Spirit's efforts to reach him. Not through some mystical wooing from a position in the sinner just outside the heart's door; but through His divinely inspired Word, the Holy Spirit reaches right into the sinner's heart to convict him of sin, righteousness, and judgment. This conviction by the Spirit of God through His Word of eternal truth is powerful. Hebrews 4:12 says it, "For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Sometimes it breaks stony hearts into humble repentance, Jeremiah 23:29. The conviction sometimes results in anger and rebellion as in Acts 7:54. But, whatever the reaction, the Word of the Spirit of God is convicting.

4. Yes, the Holy Spirit of God convicts sinners; but He does it according to a precise and definite design; not by random chance or mystical feeling.

C. The scriptures are very careful to illustrate this truth in Acts 7:

1. The preacher Stephen, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:8-15), preached a tremendous sermon, Acts 7:2-53. What he spoke was the Word of the Spirit of God.

2. His hearers rejected his words, and the words of other Spirit-inspired men who had spoken unto them; and when they did, Stephen accused them of rejecting the Holy Spirit. In Acts 7:51 he said, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." How did the Holy Spirit convict these sinners? He had His preacher preach the Word of Truth which He (the Spirit) had inspired. That Word convicted them, but they rejected it. In so doing, they rejected the Holy Spirit. He did not enter their hearts apart from His Word and begin to tug at their hearts and woo them. No, He convicted them right through His revealed Word being introduced to their hearts.

3. That's how the Holy Spirit has always convicted sinners. As Stephen was inspired of God to say to his audience in Acts 7:51, "As your fathers did, so do ye." All through the Old Testament God spoke to the people through His prophets. He would reveal His truth to the prophets as in Numbers 3:1 and Ezekiel 5:13. The prophets in turn told the people. For example Numbers 5:4 says, "As the Lord spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel. "The Holy Spirit did not directly appear to the masses with His truths. Instead, He singled out one here and there to whom He revealed His truth. That person told the people the truth. This is how the Holy Spirit reached the people. He did not appear to sinners one on one in a mystical moving; He appeared and convicted sinners through the Word He revealed to His preselected holy prophets.

4. The biblical concept of Holy Spirit conviction never has been, nor is it now, His unilateral work in the heart of sinners apart from His revealed Word. Yes, He convicts sinners. He brings fear, contrition, guilt, anger, brokenness, and many other strong feelings. But, He does not do so separate or apart from His Word. His method of convicting sinners will always be according to the pattern set forth in His holy scriptures.

5. I must say a word to sinners at this point. Don't keep putting off salvation while you wait for the Holy Spirit to overpower you. Some preacher or other Christian may have led you to believe that the Holy Spirit will someday settle in on you, and break your will in a great moment beyond your control.

That just isn't going to happen; and if you wait for it, you'll die lost. No doubt, the Holy Spirit has already been convicting you. You've heard His Word; and as you have, your heart has trembled, and you've felt Him drawing you to Himself. Mister, lady, that is Holy Spirit conviction. You're not going to get something bigger, better, and more powerful than that. Jesus said in John 6:63, "the Word that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." And He concluded the 20th chapter of John by saying, "These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name," verse 31.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"