10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484

What We Believe and Why
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

Copyright - Lester Hutson - 1986
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.

CHAPTER EIGHT

HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTS THE LOST

JOHN 16:8-11

We believe the Holy Spirit of God convicts the lost of sin, righteousness, and judgment; but we do not believe He does it in some mysterious, unexplainable way. We do not believe that the Holy Spirit, on some sort of "ene-mene-mine-mo" basis flys around looking for someone to "woo" to salvation. We believe the Holy Spirit convicts lost men according to a very definite plan which is set forth in the Bible. In short, we believe the Holy Spirit convicts the lost through the Word of God.

I. We reject the idea that the Holy Spirit enters into the heart of a sinner ahead of, apart from, or in addition to God's Word and begins to "tug" at the heart and appeals to that person to be saved:

A. We believe that the Holy Spirit only enters into born again persons:

1. To the believers at Corinth, Paul wrote, "Know ye ,not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?", I Cor. 3:16.

2. Again the truth that the Holy Spirit enters and lives in the saved is set forth in I Cor. 6:19, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God. . ?"

3. Listen to II Cor. 6:16 on the subject, ". . ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them. . . "

4. The promise of the indwelling Spirit was not made to any other than the saved (John 14:16); and only these, but all of these, can speak of "the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us," II Tim. 1:14.

B. The Bible shows that the Holy Spirit does not enter into lost men, all of whom are guilty of rejecting the Son of God and trodding under foot His blood:

1. Jesus Christ stated it in plain terms, "Even thespirit of truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shau be in you, John 14:17.

2. Rom. 8:4, 14, further shows the Spirit's personal dealings and leadership to be with the saved; and not the lost.

II. We believe the Holy Spirit reaches the lost through His Word:

A. The Holy Spirit is the producer of the Word of God

1. Speaking primarily of the Old Testament, Peter said, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God s ake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, II Pet. 1: 21.

2. Jesus then showed that the New Testament writers would do so under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (John 16:13). Listen to how Jesus put it in John 16:15, while speaking of the Holy Spirit, He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto vou.

3. Thus, Paul the Apostle spends much time showing the Scriptures to be the work of the Holy Spirit. Especially consider I Cor. 2:9-13, 16.

4. Consider the chapters in the first of this book on divine inspiration.

5. It is in view of the fact that the Bible is the work of the Holy Spirit of God that it is called the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God;" Eph. 6:17.

B. All of the mighty doctrines of this great work of the Holy Spirit are summarized in three great themes:

1. The three themes as set forth by Jesus in John 16 are SIN (vs. 9), RIGHTEOUSNESS (vs. 10), and JUDGMENT (vs. 11).

2. The Spirit's book (the Bible) speaks on these subjects warning the sinner, explaining his conc ition, pleading with him to turn to the righteousn @ss of Jesus; and the truth is that the Spirit's work te Is the sinner all he needs to know.

3. But, all he will ever know about sin, righteousness, and judgment; he will learn only from the Holy Spirit's Word:

a. The pagan religions and heathens of this world have amply demonstrated that the truth on these subjects can not be arrived at by logic, natural reasoning, following the conscience, or yielding to inner feelings.
b. The Bible says the truth on these subjects can only be arrived at through a revelation of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 2:14), which is exactly what we have in the Bible: God's Holy Word.

C. Thus, any time a sinner hears the Word of God, he is being reproved or convicted by the Holy Spirit of either sin, righteousness or judgment:

1. Holy Spirit conviction, then, is not a strange mysterious "wooing" in the heart, apart from the Word of God.

2. When a person who is lost will open his ears (not just natural ears, but ears of his heart), and hear the truth of the Holy Spirit that he is a damnable sinner before Almighty God, without righteousness or hope of saving himself, and on his way to the torments of eternal hell, what these truths do to the heart is Holy Spirit conviction:

a. Some upon hearing these truths become angry, Acts 7:54, some are cut to the heart, Acts 5:33, some tremble, Acts 24:25. There are numerous ways a man may react to these truths and numerous feelings of a mixed variety may well up within his heart. But, it all comes under the heading of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit of God through the Word of God.

b. And, it should be noted that reaction to the Spirits conviction through His Word may not be immediate upon hearing:

(1) Since the Word is like a natural seed (Mat. 13:19), it may lie dormant in a man's heart for a long time, before it germinates.
(2) But, all the time it is there, it has a weight of conviction upon the person. Many times, some later working of providence or a later exposure to more of the Word of God, will cause that long dormant seed to spring up with momentous impact upon a man's heart.

c. The truth is that there is no more convicting a power, than the voice of the Holy Spirit of God speaking through His Word. Heb. 4:12 says of it, "For the Word of God is q uick, 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."

III. We believe this is and always has been God's method of convicting the lost:

A. If John 16:8-11 was the only light God's Word gave on the subject, then there might be some questions over just "how" the Holy Spirit would go about reproving the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment

B. But, if the foregoing information is not sufficient to prove how the Holy Spirit goes about His work of convicting the lost, the Word of God adds a very clear cut proof of how He does it in Acts 7:

1. In this passage, Stephen under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God (Acts 6:8-15), preached a tremendous sermon. Acts 7:2-53.

2. When his hearer rejected the words of the Spirit, which he and other inspired men had preached unto them, he accused them of resisting the Holy Ghost, Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears , ye do always resist the Holy Ghost," (Acts 7:51). It, wasn 't that the Holy Ghost had entered into each of these hearers and started whispering something in their inner ears of the soul. No, the fact was that they had heard God's Holy Spirit speak through this man, and that constituted Holy Spirit conviction. And, when they resisted it, they were said to be resisting the Holy Ghost.

3. To make doubly clear that nobody gets a wrong impression of how the Holy Spirit convicts the lost, God through Stephen adds the last phrase of Acts 7:51, "as your fathers did, so do ye:

a. Just how did the ancient forefathers of these Jews resist the Spirit?

b. He (the Holy Spirit) appeared and spoke to the people through their prophets and holy leaders, (II Pet. 1:21):

(1) The Lord spoke to Moses (Num. 3: 1, 9:1), and in turn Moses told the people so that Num. 5:4 says, "as the Lord spake unto Moses, so did the children of Israel."
(2) Over and over the Old Testament records how the Spirit of God spoke to certain men, and they in turn spoke to the people. Isa. 8:5, Jer. 30:4, Ezek. 5:13, etc.

c. Very often the people refused to hear and heed (Ezek. 33:32), even imprisoning and killing the prophets, Mat. 23:37.

d. But, the prophets knew that when the people resisted the words which they Spoke, they were not merely resisting the prophets; instead they were resisting the Holy Spirit of God Himself, Judges 3:4.

e. Note well that the Spiritdidnot appear to the people of old, except through the Word. This was His means of convicting them. And, Stephen says, that's how it's done now, too.

C. So, in Old Testament days, the Spirit convicted through His Word; He did the same in early Bible days; and we believe that He stil I does it today. Whereas it was then spoken, now the Bible is complete; and it is written; yet in either form, it is still His Word.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"