George Whitefield
Sermon 40
The Holy Spirit Convincing the World of Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment
John 16:8, "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment."
These words contain part of a gracious promise, which the blessed
Jesus was pleased to make to his weeping and sorrowful disciples. The time
was now drawing near, in which the Son of man was first to be lifted up on
the cross, and afterwards to heaven. Kind, wondrous kind! Had this merciful
High-priest been to his disciples, during the time of his tabernacling
amongst them. He had compassion on their infirmities, answered for them
when assaulted by their enemies, and set them right when out of the way,
either in principle or practice. He neither called nor used them as
servants, but as friends; and he revealed his secrets to them from time to
time. He opened their understandings, that they might understand the
scriptures; explained to them the hidden mysteries of the kingdom of God,
when he spoke to others in parables: nay, he became the servant of them
all, and even condescended to wash their feet. The thoughts of parting with
so dear and loving a Master as this, especially for a long season, must
needs affect them much. When on a certain occasion he intended to be absent
from them only for a night, we are told, he was obliged to constrain them
to leave him; no wonder then, that when he now informed them he must
entirely go away, and that the Pharisees in his absence should put them out
of their synagogues, and excommunicate them; yea, that the time should
come, that whosoever killed them, would think they did God service (a
prophecy, one would imagine, in an especial manner designed for the
suffering ministers of this generation); no wonder, I say, considering all
this, that we are told, ver. 6. Sorrow had filled their hearts: "Because I
have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts." The
expression is very emphatical; their hearts were so full of concern, that
they were ready to burst. In order, therefore, to reconcile them to this
mournful dispensation, our dear and compassionate Redeemer shows them the
necessity he lay under to leave them; "Nevertheless I tell you the truth;
it is expedient for you that I go away:" As though he had said, Think not,
my dear disciples, that I leave you out of anger: no, it is for your sakes,
for your profit, that I go away: for if I go not away, if I die not upon
the cross for your sins, and rise again for your justification, and ascend
into heaven to make intercession, and plead my merits before my Father's
throne; the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, will not, cannot come unto you; but
if I depart, I will send him unto you. And that they might know what he was
to do, "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment."
The person referred to in the words of the text, is plainly the
Comforter, the Holy Ghost; and the promise was first made to our Lord's
apostles. But though it was primarily made to them, and was literally and
remarkably fulfilled at the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came down
as a mighty rushing wind, and also when three thousand were pricked to the
heart by Peter's preaching; yet, as the Apostles were the representatives
of the whole body of believers, we must infer, that this promise must be
looked upon as spoken to us, and to our children, and to as many as the
Lord our God shall call.
My design from these words, is to show the manner in which the Holy
Ghost generally works upon the hearts of those, who, through grace, are
made vessels of mercy, and translated from the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of God's dear Son.
I say, GENERALLY: For, as God is a sovereign agent, his sacred Spirit
bloweth not only on whom, but when and how it listeth. Therefore, far be it
from me to confine the Almighty to one way of acting, or say, that all
undergo an equal degree of conviction: no, there is a holy variety in God's
methods of calling home his elect. But this we may affirm assuredly, that,
wherever there is a work of true conviction and conversion wrought upon a
sinner's heart, the Holy Ghost, whether by a greater or less degree of
inward soul-trouble, does that which our Lord Jesus told the disciples, in
the words of the text, that he should do when he came.
If any of you ridicule inward-religion, or think there is no such
thing as our feeling or receiving the Holy Ghost, I fear my preaching will
be quite foolishness to you, and that you will understand me no more than
if I spoke to you in an unknown tongue. But as the promise in the text, is
made to the world, and as I know it will be fulfilling till time shall be
no more, I shall proceed to explain the general way whereby the Holy Ghost
works upon every converted sinner's heart; and I hope that the Lord, even
whilst I am speaking, will be pleased to fulfill it in many of your hearts.
"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, or righteousness,
and of judgment."
The word, which we translate reprove, ought to be rendered convince;
and in the original it implies a conviction by way of argumentation, and
coming with a power upon the mind equal to a demonstration. A great many
scoffers of these last days, will ask such as they term pretenders to the
Spirit, how they feel the Spirit, and how they know the Spirit? They might
as well ask, how they know, and how they feel the sun when it shines upon
the body? For with equal power and demonstration does the Spirit of God
work upon and convince the soul. And,
FIRST, It convinces of sin; and generally of some enormous sin, the
worst perhaps the convicted person ever was guilt of. Thus, when our Lord
was conversing with the woman of Samaria, he convinced her first of her
adultery: "Woman, go call thy husband. The woman answered, and said, I have
no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast, is not thy
husband: in this saidst thou truly." With this there went such a powerful
conviction of all her other actual sins, that soon after, "she left her
water-pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, and
see a man that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"
Thus our Lord also dealt with the persecutor Saul: he convinced him first
of the horrid sin of persecution; "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
Such a sense of all his other sins, probably at the same time revived in
his mind, that immediately he died; that is, died to all his false
confidences, and was thrown into such an agony of soul, that he continued
three days, and neither did eat nor drink. This is the method the Spirit of
God generally takes in dealing with sinners; he first convinces them of
some heinous actual sin, and at the same time brings all their other sins
into remembrance, and as it were sets them in battle-array before them:
"When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin.
And was it ever thus with you, my dear hearers? (For I must question
you as I go along, because I intend, by the Divine help, to preach not only
to your heads, but your hearts). Did the Spirit of God ever bring all your
sins thus to remembrance, and make you cry out to God, "Thou writest bitter
things against me?" Did your actual sins ever appear before you, as though
drawn in a map? If not, you have great reason (unless you were sanctified
from the womb) to suspect that you are not convicted, much more not
converted, and that the promise of the text was never yet fulfilled in your
hearts.
Farther: When the Comforter comes into a sinner's heart, though it
generally convinces the sinner of his actual sin first, yet it leads him to
see and bewail his original sin, the fountain from which all these polluted
streams do flow.
Though every thing in the earth, air, and water; every thing both
without and within, concur to prove the truth of that assertion in the
scripture, "in Adam we all have died;" yet most are so hardened through the
deceitfulness ...
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